La Multi Ani, Radu Lupu!

Radu Lupu at 70, this is a moment of immense joy for all those who love music. Praise should go to this extraordinary pianist and to his fabulous professors: at the Bucharest Conservatory (1959-1961), Florica Musicescu (who also taught Dinu Lipatti), and Cella Delavrancea (who also taught Dan Grigore). At the age of 16, in 1961, he was awarded a scholarship to the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, where he studied with Galina Eguiazarova (a pupil of Alexander Goldenweiser), Heinrich Neuhaus (who also taught Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels), and Stanislav Neuhaus, graduating in 1969, at age 24. La Multi Ani, Radu Lupu!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwBtv63Kqa4

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/gallery/2015/nov/30/radu-lupu-birthday/

Arta versus dictatura: Maria Iudina interpreteaza Concertul 23 de Mozart

Stalin admired her. She hated him. Born Jewish, Maria Yudina became a deeply religious Christian Orthodox. Philosophically, I would compare her to Simone Weil, Edith Stein, and N. Steinhardt. As a pianist, she belongs to a class of geniuses that includes Clara Haskil, Dinu Lipatti, Edwin Fischer, Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Claudio Arrau, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli…

 

 

 

Un apel catre premierul Dacian Ciolos, vicepremierul Costin Borc, ministrul apararii Mihnea Motoc si ministrul culturii Vlad Alexandrescu

Va rog din suflet sa actionati pentru atribuirea numelui Monicai Lovinescu Bulevardului Primaverii din Bucuresti. Ar fi o mare reparatie istorica si morala. Nu fac decat sa reiau o propunere facuta impreuna cu H.-R. Patapievici acum cativa ani. Primarul Oprescu a ignorat-o.

Va multumesc,

…

Vladimir Tismaneanu

19 noiembrie 2015, de ziua de nastere a Monicai Lovinescu

UE, teroristii si tragedia refugiatilor

The vital sense of reality: “If we really want to stop these attacks, it is those evil plans and planners we have to focus on. These plans the more elaborate and lethal they are the less easy to hatch from faraway. Even if one such plan is drawn up in Syria, it is very unlikely that its protagonists will trek the refugee path exposing themselves to checkpoints, fingerprinting, dangers and delays all refugees must endure.

Refugees are low risk population. As a group, they have… neither the motivation nor the means to do harm to random people in Europe, and thus advance the cause of people who they fled from. As individuals, a few could be evil. This is generally true for dentists, blondes, sociologists and birdwatchers too. But this does not mean the EU should let in everyone. There should be a mechanism of screening people who claim refugee status, preferably in the refugee camps outside the EU, at airports and seaports and on outer borders of the EU. For this the EU must get its act together.” (Akos Rona-Tas, sociology professor, UC San Diego)

Lecturi pentru vremuri intunecate

What books do we read in these dark times? I re-read Sigmund Neumann’s classic “Permanent Revolutiion: Totalitarianism in the Age of International Civil War,” second edition, with a new preface by Hans Kohn (New York, Prager, 1965). The concept of a global civil war, introduced by Neumann in 1942, remains disturbingly accurate. As the late Indiana University professor Matei Calinescu showed in a great book, re-reading is always instructive, inspiring and enriching.

The conclu…sion is partucularly timely: “This fight against moral anarchy, however, should never obsuce the basis of human existence: individual responsibility. It is an inalienable right. Dictators attack it. They must be defied. No compromise is possible because this personal responsibility is the fountain of life. Nobody shall take it away from us, for on this responsibility rest the pride and dignity of man.”

Un superb rondel de Leonid Dimov

LEONID DIMOV

Rondelul semnului ceresc

Mi-ai îndreptat şuviţa de pe frunte
Şi gulerul cămăşii, auster,
Eram elev intr-un liceu de frunte
Iar tu croitoreasă în cartier.

Venisem să te duc la noi, la munte,
Unde domnea un împărat de fier
Mi-ai îndreptat şuviţa de pe frunte
Şi gulerul cămăşii, auster.

Ţi-am spus să-ţi pui ilicul prins în funte
Pantofii galbeni, mantia de jder…
Când am trecut apoi de burg, de punte,
Iar semnul l-am văzut pe cer,
Mi-ai îndreptat şuviţa de pe frunte.

 

HRP despre AG

Primesc de la H.-R. Patapievici acest mesaj. Il public aici cu acordul sau: “Orice est- si central-european trebuie sa stie ca dreptul intre popoarele lumii noastre ex-comuniste, Andre Glucksmann, a fost ingropat la Pere Lachaise ieri… A fost unul dintre foarte putinii occidentali care a acceptat si imbratisat memoria noastra. Sa-i fim recunoscatori ptr asta si sa nu-l uitam niciodata. Dumnezeu sa-l odihneasca!”

Sartre, Aron, Glucksmann: Un Bateau pour le Vietnam

In memory of philosopher Andre Glucksmann. A famous 20th century moment, I showed the picture to my students in the “Marxism and Post-Marxism” class, I lectured on Glucksmann’s own “God that failed” experience: Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Glucksmann and Raymond Aron attend a government conference at the Palais de l’Elysee. The philosophers were members of the Un Bateau pour le Vietnam (A Boat for Vietnam) committee which provided assistance for Vietnamese refugees. Paris, France June 26, 1979

 

Sindromul Bucuresti si problema Raului

Cred ca fortele politice din Romania, inclusiv presedinete Klaus Iohannis, sunt depasite de situatie. Reactioneaza cand panicat, cand indolent, mereu haotic. Tragedia de la Clubul Colectiv nu a fost una naturala, pecum o viitura ori un cutremur, ci are cauze precise ce tin de cinism, iresponsabilitate, coruptie endemica, clientelism, nerusinare etc Toate aceste se strang laolalta in sindromul Bucuresti ca unul al Raului politic.

Cea mai grava patologie a asa-zisei elite politice din Romania este indiferenta morala. Cabotinajul cel mai dezolant face ravagii. Poltroneria fara margini este sanctificata. Putin le pasa marilor profitori ai unei tranzitii care a ruinat atatea destine, de valori, idealuri, angajamente etice. Ei nu fac distinctia dintre Bine si Rau, actioneaza de fapt ca niste automate crapuloase in perpetua cautare de inavutire. Ati citit la cat se situeaza averea lui Viorel Hrebenciuc? Sa nu-mi spuna cineva ca s-a nascut prin munca onorabila! Dan Tapalaga a numit, pe buna dreptate, puciul avortat din vara anului 2012 o revolutie a borfasilor. Iata ca a sosit momentul unei revolutii impotriva borfasilor favorizati de un sistem care nu s-a deticalosit decat superficial.

Frustrarea, disperarea, exasperarea sint premisele a ceea ce politologul Ken Jowitt numeste miscari ale furiei (movements of rage), combinatii trans-ideologice de revolta si revolutie. Minciunile debitate fara a clipi din ochi sunt proba unui cinism de-a dreptul maladiv. Ele pot fi detonatorul unor explozii stradale paroxistice. In asemenea clipe, strada actioneaza spontan, nu se lasa infranata si “indrumata”. La Budapesta, in toamna anului 2006, zeci de mii de oameni au protestat impotriva declaratiilor impertinente ale unui premier care admitea, cu zambetul pe buze, ca a mintit. Guvernantii de la Bucuresti ar face bine sa inteleaga ca ora tragerii la raspundere nu mai poate fi amanata. Este scris de-acum pe zid: Mane, tekel, fares.

PS Am folosit prima data conceptul de sindrom Bucuresti la inceputul anilor 90, intr-un articol scris impreuna cu Dorin Tudoran si aparut in “Journal of Democracy”

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jod/summary/v004/4.1tismaneanu.html

Gheorghiu-Dej: Micul Stalin de la Bucuresti

Romania’s Stalinist tyrant, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (born November 8, 1901-died March 19, 1965). As ruthless as Matyas Rakosi, as fanatic as Ulbricht, but more perfidious. Not a Comintern hand, he was the true proletarian Stalin really trusted. And he remained loyal to Stalin even after Nikita Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech” in February 1956. Thus national Stalinism was born: preserving Stalinist institutions and methods, defying Soviet domination, especially when the USSR moved towards reforms. Nicolae Ceausescu was the ultimate, most arduous national Stalinist.