I was reading these days various articles about Dinu Patriciu – the wealthiest Romanian citizen alive and the 426th richest man in the world! Although I am writing this entry in English, I don’t plan to develop on the profile of this extremely interesting man too much for my non-Romanian readers. You can read more about him here and here. Suffice it to say he is a very controversial guy… doing business in oil and gas (he is the owner of Rompetrol – a European leader in oil and gas), doing business with state-owned companies much to his personal advantage, being tainted with politics and all sorts of fraud/ corruption allegations (he even spent a couple of days in custody, if I remember correctly), and so on. I don’t plan to comment on any of these issues. I just want to point out two aspects: Continue reading ‘Dinu Patriciu Invests in Education’
Tag Archive for 'education'
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPxYO24gSs4[/video]
“So the Jews were this whole people who were living in Germany. But in Germany there was this really bad ruler, like Bush today. His name was Hitler and he was killing Jews” “How was he killing them?” “Hmm… Putting them in something like a big room. And them poisoning them with gas. And like… he killed 6 million Jews. But there were still some left, and they wanted a country of their own, so they like moved to Israel… I mean, a looong time before Jews were also there. And when they came to this land, the land was already filled with Arabs. So then they started killing Arabs. And Arabs left and then Arabs started bombing Jews”. Continue reading ‘Is tolerance utopian?’
I fail to understand how some people are still claiming that schooling in Romania is going fine. A couple of weeks ago, President Basescu warned that we are discriminating against ourselves with taxpayers’ money because there is no quality education in Romania, hence entire generations of graduates will suffer during their integration on the European labour market. You can read all about his intervention here.
The academia and the Minister of Education (who, highly committed to his mission, decided to renounce his position in favour of running for local elections in Iasi, the largest Romanian city in the South East region) were appalled when the president acknowledged that Romanian universities are nothing but print houses for diplomas; that there is no Romanian university in Top 500 World Universities; and that the whole educational system has been deteriorating since 1990 onwards. Further details here. Continue reading ‘Education = Crisis’
I am writing this post from the Graduate School of Governance of Maastricht University. I have discovered yet another country, and another institutions respectively, for which education matters. The University of Maastricht takes its role seriously. They are supporting the event that I am here for – that is the European Model United Nations. They are financing some brilliant studying facilities and their student body is composed out of international students. At least 2/3 of them.
At the opening session of EuroMUN, I listened to a speech delivered by the rector of the university. He spoke about the new role universities have in our world. That of delivering something more than knowledge. Of delivering education for sustainability. Of teaching attitudes and lifestyles. Once again, I realized the tremendous challenge that lies ahead Romania’s educational system. I suppose sooner or later Romanian universities will realize that more than one third of the best prospective students that are now in their last years of high-school will choose a university abroad rather than a Romanian one.
Going back the EuroMUN, the main reason why I was invited here was to talk about two lessons I’ve learned in the last couple of years:
1. How to set up an institutionalized framework for youth participation in decision-making through the “UN Youth Delegate” program (more details here)
2. The role of youth in civil society (Romania: A Case Study)
With respect to the latter, “Voice of a Generation” has genuinely taught me a lot… I will blog about lessons learned as soon as I wrap things up here in Maastricht.
I guess I should finish this entry in a less formal manner, by telling you that last night we enjoyed Maastricht night life (which, it turns out, is cheaper and more vivid than in other parts of the Netherlands), Maastricht itself (“the real heart of Europe”), and of course a re-encounter with friends from Europe. Later on today we will hold a workshop on how to set up a UN youth delegates program, and then enjoy a raggae night with Amnesty International. 
Podulet peste raul Maas