June 2003

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Moldovan Local Elections
It’s 8am on Election Day, Sunday May 25th, and the polling station in Sagaidac is buzzing with activity. Most of the electors are heavily-built women in late middle age, dressed in an apparent uniform of floral print dress, headscarf and pinafore. It’s clear that many of them don’t have much of an idea what to do with their ballot papers. They huddle in small groups, cram into polling booths two or three at a time, and ask anyone who’s young and official looking for advice. Sometimes this happens to be a polling board worker, and sometimes it’s a party representative. You can imagine what advice they get from the latter.
I’m in Sagaidac as an observer with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). This is the second of 15 polling stations that John, my partner for the day, and I will visit between the sealing of the ballot boxes at 7am and the start of the count 14 hours later. One of our duties is to talk to the local observers, from parties and from the Moldovan election-observing organisation, LADOM. (Though LADOM claim to have sent over 2,000 observers, in our 15 villages we encountered only one). We ask our first party representative, an irate-looking woman, whether she has noticed any electoral irregularities. More >>>

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Days of Slavic Culture
For the 14th time in Moldova, Days of Slavic Culture were celebrated in the largest towns across the Republic.
“Days of Slavic Culture were observed even in Tsarist Russia,” explained Slavic Culture and Writing Fund chairman Igor Vasiliev. “After the Revolution of 1917 it was easy to forget about them because of the difficult times: war, intervention, famine, and collapse. The celebration was revived only 70 years later.” First it returned to Murmansk, then to Novgorod, Kiev, and Minsk. In Moldova the beginning of this renaissance was initiated by the Fund of Slavic Writing in the year 1990. Since then it has been celebrated every year in many towns. More >>>

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“New Europe Should Provide A Chance To Everyone”
Mr. Sandor Robel, Ambassador of Hungary to Moldova, kindly agreed to answer several questions put to him by Welcome magazine

Welcome: Hungary is regarded as a country whose nation practically reinvented itself after decades of continuous social change and political instability. In what ways can this be a true statement? What mental stages did the people have to go through during that time?

Answer: I wouldn’t say Hungary has gone through long periods of instability. Hungary is a small country that has no means to influence her environment on a large scale. Our people had to learn the ways to accommodate itself and create conditions to further develop the economy and social standards. We have always tried to widen our horizon and to use good opportunities as soon as they had emerged. In a period instead of instability there was too much stability and we, like many other countries of this part of the world, had no chance but accept a reality that was not chosen by us. More >>>

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A Life of Change
The dramatic changes of the early nineties were like a blow on the head for many people. More than a decade afterwards, we look back and analyze the results of a tremendous social upheaval. How have families recuperated? Have individuals been able to use their former achievements for their benefit?
Some have not been able to turn the page and start from scratch. Yet the number of people that have succeeded in the struggle to move on is definitely encouraging. The most daring of them have not only adjusted to change but have gone much further, to make change a part of their everyday lives. More >>>

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