Tags: Moldova, Christmas, tree, Chisinau, random
Date: 14 December 2007 20:31:00
I've been very entertained this week by reading the Moldovan newspapers online, where there is the most ridiculous spat going on in Chisinau, the capital. As far as I can tell, the crux of the matter is that the police are responsible to both the municipal authorities and to the national authorities, so when those two august bodies don't agree there is the potential for ridiculous spats.
If I'm understanding correctly, the situation is basically as follows. The other day the mayor arranged for a big Christmas tree to be placed in the centre of the main square, in front of the Government building. However, suspecting that the tree might (in a beautiful Romanian euphemism) "make feet", he arranged for some members of his Liberal Party's youth wing to hang around the square during the evening and into the night after the tree was placed in its allotted spot. However, after not very long the police came along, said "'ello' ello' ello what's going on 'ere then?" (or words to that effect) to these young people, confiscated their phones and cameras, and marched them round the city centre for a couple of hours. They then took them back to the square, where the phones and cameras were returned to them (and, quelle surprise, all pictures that they'd taken had been erased) and they discovered that the tree had been moved to a less prominent bit of the square. The bit that really made me laugh was when one of the young people told journalists that the place where the tree had originally been placed "was cleaner than a pharmacy" - all trace of earth, decorations, greenery, had been totally removed. Apparently the police, in this case, seem to prefer the orders of the government, who will be putting up a tree on 25th December.
It is the most ridiculous thing - but totally unsurprising. Along with the various machinations of who may or may not represent them in next year's Eurovision Song Contest (another Big Topic in the press), you'd think everything else in Moldova was rosy. If only.