*** Monday, 16 June 2003 ***
In a number of countries there is a greater or lesser tendency to make private problems public problems with a net loss to society. The theory seems to be:

-Only by making someone else worse off, can you be better off
-Being better off consists in making someone else worse off
-Cheat before someone else does
-Progress is taking advantage of your position.

Such thinking presents short-term advantages with big long-term liabilities.

*** Tuesday, 17 June 2002 ***
Up at 6 and in the office by 7.
Yesterday they installed an air conditioner in my bedroom so I slept in cool comfort all night.

*** Saturday, 21 June 2002 ***
Paul Baran was still busy moving and dealing with finding the basement of his new house in an inch of water but not to busy to call me and tell me where to find a fee-based swimming pool. It was the Bleu Ciel (which logically should be the "Ciel Bleu" but logic barely has a toe-hold in this country).

It is about a quarter of a city block in size with a nice pool, a grassy area beside it and a concession area and a bar. At 250,000 lei it is expensive for locals so only the well-heeled show up. Bring your own towel. Not as beautiful as the beach at Mamaia (which means something like "grannie") but relatively convenient. It is located in the north end of the Floreasca district at the intersection of stradas Verdi, Bizet, Bach and Rachmaninov.

*** Sunday, 22 June 2003 ***
News item: "The Government decided to allow the Bashov based societies Roman and Tractorul new loans to cover their electrical energy and natural gas costs for January-June 2003, despite the huge debts the two already hold to the state. Only last week PM Nastase announced that State will not continue to support enterprises with budget money."

*** Monday, 23 June 2003 ***
I didn't eat much yesterday so this AM I am starving.

*** Tuesday, 24 Jun 2003 ***
My stomach felt ever so slightly upset after lunch yesterday and this AM it felt more so. I had a crackers with water and that seemed to help so I decided to have lunch at Quattro Staggione of pepperoni pizza. The waiter seemed amused when I ordered a Margarita pizza and handed him my packet of pepperoni.

*** Friday, 27 June 2003 ***
News item: "Romanians believe to be led by a political-economic elite rotten with corruption, but still expect the state to solve their future problems – reveals a Gallup poll for the Public Opinion Barometer of the Open Society Foundation. Corruption is believed to be the third biggest problem of our country together with poverty and unemployment.

"80% of the Romanians believe corruption has caught on all levels of power. 41% of the Romanians believe that corruption has increased during Nastase’s term. Moreover, 61% do not think that fight against corruption stands any chance to succeed.

"The institutions most trusted by Romanians are the Church (88%) and the Army (65%). Among ones trusted less are Justice (24%), Parliament (19%) and Political Partied (12%).
"Parliamentarians are viewed as being more corrupt than the ministers. (!!!)"

After work I went to CA for two beers and read.

A detail from a downtown building.

Afterwards, around 8:30 I thought I would check out the club/restaurant at the Circul Militar National. It is catty corner from my building and has a big outdoor area and I wanted to see if it would be nice to have a beer or dinner there.

As I crossed Victorie I noticed a young guy who was lounging near the cab spots. He seemed familiar in some way. He caught my eye and kept it and I understood the meaning.

I went up the stairs to the patio and looked around. It was big but every table was taken so I turned around and left.

On my way back to the corner the guy spoke to me. "Do you remember me?" he said. His voice was familiar and I realized he was the pimp who had called out to me in the winter when I had taken a cab home. I said, "You called out to me when I got out of a cab, there," pointing to the corner. "Yes," he said, "would you like something now, anything?""No," I said. "Perhaps something later, I can provide for your every need," and he put the emphasis on the word "every". "Let me give you my visit card," he said, and considering that I wouldn't contract any diseases from taking it, I took it. His card reports that he is "Julian" and his business is "Escort Service" which is described as "non stop". Apparently "Julian" has been running a "service" from that corner all the time I have been here but since it is my least visited corner, I didn't know about it.