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Geopolitics
Romania

Romanian Telenovela: Was Ex Prime Minister’s Suicide Attempt A Ruse To Avoid Prison?

GeopoliticsSourcesWORLDCRUNCHRomaniaCountries

Worldcrunch

ADEVARUL, ANTENA 3, ZIARE.COM (Romania)

BUCHAREST - Former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase remains in a hospital room in the Romanian capital. His aides say the 62-year-old is recovering – gradually -- from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the neck in a June 20 suicide attempt gone awry after having been sentenced to prison on corruption charges. On Sunday night, his son went on national television to read what was meant to be a farewell note from the man who led Romania from 2000 to 2004.

But a growing number of people in Romania are questioning whether there was even a suicide attempt, and want to know more about Nastase's actual condition. Prosecutors who convicted him on charges of illegally financing a presidential bid want the white-haired pol taken to prison, where he would be Romania's most senior official to serve time in prison since the 1989 fall of communism.

According to Bucharest daily Adevarul, respected former Justice Minister Monica Macovei said that Nastase had been convicted by the courts, and authorities should carry out the sentence.

Meanwhile a group of young people have organized protests in front of Nastase's house, wearing fancy scarves around their necks in an apparent mocking of the ex PM did the same when he was taken to Floreasca hospital in stifling heat.

The drama took a new twist on Sunday when his son Andrei read a letter on a leading Romanian TV channel, Antena 3, in which the ex PM wrote that he wanted his son "to be happy, to have a beautiful family and never to get into politics," according to the website Ziare.com." Nastase's son then publicly asked that his father's sentence be commuted, which can only happen with a decree by Traian Basescu, the current Romania President and declared enemy of Nastase.

Nastase had appealed a March 30 court ruling that sentenced him to jail for illegally raising funds for a failed presidential campaign, but the Supreme Court upheld the sentence.

Nastase was well known for his high-roller habits, with a taste for large game hunting and multiple properties in Romania and abroad. During his tenure, he was an ardent ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, notably during the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

Nastase and Bush in the White House

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Society
Parenting

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Kelly Sikkema
SocietyEL ESPECTADORSourcesfeatured-postColombiaCountries
Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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