What the newspapers say: 19 April 2011

All newspapers read on Tuesday about the Labour minister Ioan Botis who admitted his wife is a counselor to a company that received 500,000 euro of governmental and EU funds. Romania is implementing a system to signal the kidnapping of minors. More and more Romanians want Philippino babysitters. Romanian magistrates, detached to Paris to cease felonies committed by Romanians. An American of Romanian origin initiated an exhibition with the traditional objects of her family. Last but not least, Romanian artists are considered for Guggenheim.

Gandul reads about Labour minister Ioan Botis’s wife, who is a counselor at the association Parteneriat Euroactiv Bistrita that received 500,000 euro worth of governmental and EU funds and has its headquarters at the house of the minister in Bistrita. What is more, the EU funds were approved by an authority under the rule of the ministry lead by Botis.

The project was submitted and approved in less than a month while Botis was minister and the representative of the association is the former chief of Parliamentary cabinet of Botis. The minister said he has no direct connection with the association but he admitted that he created the association in 2005 or 2006 and that it has its headquarters, free of charge in his house. He said that he considers whether this is the case for him to resign or not.

Evenimentul Zilei reads about the new system that will be implemented in Romania that will signal kidnapping of minors cases in three hours. The information will appear on the internet immediately, in train stations or in busses. The system, AMBER, that functions in different countries enables a greater mobilization from both the authorities and the population to find the missing minor.

News televisions, written press, travelers in trains or busses will receive instantly the kidnapping message and can help police officers. For the system, initiators received a 240,000 euro financing from the European Commission. The novelty is that the system has partnerships with various media partners which makes the information propel faster and easier across the country.

Gandul reads that over 2200 foreigners obtained last year work permits in Romania for positions like babysitters (86 in 2010) professional football player (145). Last year more and more public persons in Romania announced that they hired a Philippino babysitter.

Compared to 2009, the number of authorizations for babysitters tripled from 61 to 186. Moreover, in 2010 there were 167 work permits for immigrants from Philippines.

Evenimentul Zilei reports that Romanian magistrates were detached to Paris to cease felonies committed by Romanians. Authorities considered that this measure will consolidate the activity of police officers sent last year by Bucharest authorities to counter felonies. After a meeting of French Interior minister Claude Gueant with his Romanian counterpart, the two parties decided to take more actions to counter felonies committed by Romanians.

11 police officers will leave for France on May 2nd together with Romanian magistrates, to enforce the first measure. Moreover, the two ministers announced the decision to reactivate the aid program for those who return to Romania.

Elsewhere in the news, tens of thousands of Americans admired at San Diego the traditional objects of a family of peasants from Romania, Romania libera reads. The exhibition was based on the donations of Lucia Ionescu Kanchenian, a former Romanian researcher who left Romania 50 years ago.

The exhibition was one of the main tourist attractions in South of California. However, there are also stories behind each object in the exhibition, written by Lucia Ionescu Kanchenian, the main donor of the traditional objects. Therefore, the museum also exhibits the history of her family.

The exhibition’s curator, Joyce Corbett says that the scope of the exhibition is to increase awareness of the public to the folkloric arts which are more and more disappearing.

Romanian Ioana Grevers, board member of one of the biggest museums of the world, Peggy Guggenheim in Venice, promotes Romanian contemporary artists, Romania libera reads. Born in Romania and raised in Germany, Grevers’ name was closely linked to the museum in Venice. A recent project proposed by Grevers is to present the Romanian art to the West. In an interview for the newspaper, she underlines that the Romanian art is very valuable but is not known to the West.