Let the slaughter begin

The XXI century, 9.30 AM, one of Bucharest's neighbourhoods drowned in never ending hills of snow. Cars with scared drivers desperately watching through the windscreen, hoping to make through the big crossroad where a well dressed police man stands...doing nothing. I carefully step on the paths made through the snow by morning walkers. At the end of the final cross stray dogs can be heard barking. I can see one of them sacredly watching towards the loud hounds form across the street, and I thinking that the poor dog is an unwanted intruder. But I am so wrong. As a put the final step on what used to be a clearly marketed white cross, I see a confused pig. A large red skinned pig, waving his large years, seeking for the right direction. His formerly pink skin is carved by small cuts, making it look bloody red. His back legs have been tight together, to make sure he has no way to escape. Behind him, two man guiding his direction with a stick...

This officially opened the pig slaughtering season for me. Every year, my grandparents raise two pigs for Christmas. They've been going through this ritual since they were born. While most traditions were lost, this one is still vivid at the country side. This is also something I attend every year, until my grandparents will no longer be able to raise the pigs. Even if pork meat does not represent a necessity anymore, like it used to in the old days, this habit cannot be taken from them. It's cruel, but it's a tradition and an unwritten law of the people. Considering that other cultures still murder or torture people to satisfy traditions, or apply the rule of death to punish the ones that do wrong in their community in the XXI century, the pig slaughtering doesn't sound so cruel. It is though something that will disappear...

Traditions make culture, culture makes us different and unique...

The magic three

I am talking about the three magic letters P M S. These three letters have the ability to completely transform a person's thoughts and body for a couple of days. The letters are a syndrome, a disease without treatment that can only be accepted by society. It manifests in women of course, as if it wan't enough. It's like for Eve's sin we have to pay with tremendous pains, monthly issues that disturb routine and all in all become routine and psychic mood shifts. I was reading that while women react with tears and sadness to depressions, men become aggressive. Imagine what a household would look when SHE and HE have PMS at the same time. While a month ago I spent my last PMS day vomiting on the street because of headache, this month I spent it making thoughts. Selfish thoughts, complemented by a similar behaviour .. I cursed a few people from my past in this period..a thing I might regret once I get good old me back. Someone just as PMS-ish as I am, told me that we even suffer a few physical changes and it's not really in our minds that "...we are the ugliest..." but it actually happens.

Strange, strange creatures...we live through a multitude of shifts...when is it exactly that we are as we are.?!..and say what we really mean to say?!

The fall...

After 20 years of living in the chimera of freedom, Romania had to choose her president. While other East European countries have been celebrating 20 years after the fall of the iron curtain with parades, concerts and speeches about their bravery to turn their face towards the West, Romania crawls in sorrow. The elections torn country in two apparently equal sides. For 1 month everybody turned political. People arguing, commenting and broken friendships, confusion and lies. When everything seemed to be over, it's actually getting worse and just like this time 20 years ago, political fights and changes are happening before our eyes. While at that time we were awarded with jeans and other products from the West, now it will be decided under whose Government we will start paying for our huge IMF debt. All the other problems became invisible...sour sour faces.