The Ideology of the Romanian Green Ecologist Party?!

The Green Ecologist Party of Romania has two platforms: one asking for complete deregulation and withdrawal of the state from all aspects of economic life. And another one which asks for more regulation of financial markets and governmental intervention to tackle inequality and the activity of corporations. Which is it then? Obviously none, it’s just fun to have a party and why not have it as a green party? Seems pretty neutral and cool and fashionable, even though the guys who run it are neither neutral nor cool nor fashionable.

Upselling in London (Or Palate di Merda)

by Claudia (venting her frustrations)

As many other students in London, I work part-time in a restaurant. Yesterday, I attended a compulsory training on „upselling”, which means, basically, to keep suggesting to customers that they need and want to buy more things — even though they are full or drunk, they could still get more. The whole thing lasted for 2 and a half hours, but it was, from my perspective (not that of the trainer, I am sure) deliriously funny.

 

The New Persepolis

I have seen this in the news yesterday. Two Iranian exiles asked for the permission to use the characters and drawing style of Persepolis from its author, in order to depict the pro-Moussavi demonstrations taking place this month after the elections in Teheran. They want to use the popularity of Persepolis to gather more worldwide sympathy for the anti-Ahmadinejad opposition. 

It is worth noting that the creator of Persepolis, M. Satrapi, gave her approval for this, but she was not involved in conceiving the new cartoons. I was very curious because I really liked Persepolis. 

I was also disappointed, because it is a pretty skematic good vs. evil depiction of what happened around the elections, and makes the people who support Ahmadinejad into an indetermined mass of individuals who don’t think. Things are bound to be more complicated than that, and it’s a pity that it feels that this cartoon could have been drawn by anyone in the West who, say, wants to see Ahmadinejad go down. I doubt it will gather more worldwide support than that of the people who already sympathize with Moussavi. 

Here is the link, it is still an interesting read:
http://www.spreadpersepolis.com/ 

In any case, the problem with its simplicity is not that it criticizes the oppression and the police violence against the demonstrators–that should be criticized. It’s more that, being created by Iranians and not by Europeans or Americans (even if exiles), I would have liked to see the faces of those people who support Ahmadinejad; it’s, regardless of the election results being accurate or not, half of the country. And I would have liked to see a hint of who Moussavi is, apart of this image of apostle of freedom emerging over the last month. In any case, it is good to see the old faces from Persepolis again, though I wonder what those characters would really think and comment in this situation…Maybe they would be on the same side, but with more clever argumentation.