Allan, Are you back from Romania? I saw the piece MD forwarded about your trip. Have you written up more about your experiences? Steve, Yes, I'm home from my two-weeks in Romania. While I was there I wrote up several short descriptions of my encounters, usually accompanied by a photo, sent from my iPhone to my brother, as I doubted anyone else would be interested. Look below for an example. On being in a home movie Just as I was snapping this photo of a landmark Church in the central square of Timisoara, I noticed that I was being videotaped by a local citizen in his lates, a grinning energetic fellow.
Nothing I could do but smile, as he strode over and extended his hand for a friendly chat. Yes, he lives here and grew up here, and speaks English rather well; he remembers Ceausescu with distaste, and in fact participated in the Revolution, he told me, which began here very near this Square.
Allan, What are the tents on the lawn in the picture? Steve Steve, Those tents you see in my photograph belonged to protesters who have been mounting a sustained campaign to try and stop a toxic gold-mining project at a rural town named Rosia Montana i. Their protests have been going on for several weeks, in cities all over Romania, and in many world capitals e. In Bucharest protesters were blocking traffic at several major intersections, and I could hear them simultaneously from my hotel room window and from the TV's newscast.
It's the largest known gold deposit in Europe. But at this point the only way to extract the remaining gold particles is through a chemical leeching process using cyanide, which protesters say will create a lasting environmental hazard and will destroy sites of archeological significance.
Four mountains would get leveled to create a gigantic open pit to be filled with cyanide. All the residents will have to give up their homes and move. The pool of cyanide will be vast enough to be visible with the naked eye from space. The slogan you see on the banner these protesters are carrying in the photograph below means, in Romanian, "Rosia Montana without cyanide!
