Romania, things you do not see in the big news outlets

March 11, 2022March 11, 2022 / Andrada Costoiu / 3 Comments

The war in Ukraine has shattered the world, as it should have happened with the wars in Syria, with the ones in parts of Africa and in many other places of the world where populations have been or are still being displaced or killed for political reasons. We didn’t see this kind of international response in those other cases, but this is another conversation that the world should have, because as people we should all be treated the same, regardless of race, religion, gender and of the other kinds of social markers.

It is the war in Ukraine I would like to talk about today. In the past week I have been in touch with people from my birth country, some of which are in powerful political positions. Besides getting official information, I also get to see the inside of how Romania is responding to the crisis in Ukraine.

I’d like to bring up a story, from the town where I was born, Targu Jiu, which has about 80,000 inhabitants. Not a big place, not a lot of people, not extremely rich, still…. people are pulling together to help the best they can their displaced Ukrainian neighbors.

Dana Constantinescu, the Director of Inspectorate of Education of Gorj Country, has mobilized the schools within the county’s jurisdiction and organized centers where people can donate household items, food and everything they can spare to help the refugees of Ukraine.

Photo: Dana Constantinescu, Director of Inspectorate of Education of Gorj country

This is what it looked like yesterday……..

Amazing, isn’t it? And this is just one county…

The Romanian government has launched a platform to coordinate the help for Ukraine Impreuna Ajutam mai Mult. They did this in record time. This is a platform where volunteers and organizations can mobilize and coordinate help for refugees, and it is also a place where refugees can find official information about how to get medical services, find jobs and obtain asylum in Romania (this is for long term- because immediate help is provided at the borders).

Romania is also sending medication, hospital beds and medical equipment into Ukraine.

Photo: Romanian Government/Facebook

According to UN, as of March 9^th here is how refugee are distributed across Eastern Europe:

Poland has taken in 1,412,502 refugees
Hungary 214,160
Slovakia 165,199
Russia 97,098
Romania 84,671
Moldova 82,762
Belarus 765

Other 255,000 people have gone to other European countries, the UN says.

For more information about Ukraine’s refugees check the UN website by clicking here: UN/Ukraine refugee situation.

All wars are destructive. ALL! I am not sure where and how this is going to end, but seeing people pulling together for the ones in need is a ray of sunshine in a gloomy world.

Born blind

June 17, 2020November 30, 2020 / Andrada Costoiu / Leave a comment

by Andrada Costoiu

Ink has dried on papers,
Where pen has pressed hearts, of black and white,
Of yellow and all other human colors….
So many books have been written,
To highlight the difference of no difference……

“Billy, can we sit here,” asked a boy his play buddy.
“Yes Andrew, lets’!”
“Do you hear the birds singing?” he asked his friend,
“Yes, they sound nice,” answered Andrew.
“They have pretty feathers too, white and brown, just like the two of you,”
Said a man sitting on the bench next to theirs,
The boys smiled, and sword fought with their white canes.

The man watched their joyful child play for a while,
“I hope that other eyes would never break your play,”
The old man said to himself.
He left, sad, dragging with him the burden of seeing colors,
And all the meanings attached to them.

You cannot feel something,
Until someone teaches you to feel something.
And sometimes, you cannot think something,
Until someone teaches you to think something.

Colors….

Red symbolizes excitement, passion and love in Western cultures
It also symbolized communism and revolution in countries like Russia.
Yellow, In Germany it represents envy,
In Egypt it means happiness and fortune.
Purple means wealth around the world.
But in Brazil and Thailand purple is the color of mourning.

Billy and Andrew have not learned about black and white,
Born blind,
They would have others to teach them……
And the others must never break their play.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2020- . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content

Whoever carries a light

March 28, 2020November 30, 2020 / Andrada Costoiu / 7 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

Photo:K Whiteford has released this “Patient In Hospital Room”

The entryway is cozy,
I feel the warmth underfoot and
Soft lighting engulfs me.
Home,
I’m home.

“You’re late again!” my lover said to me.
I blink,
Life is tumultuous sometimes,
The pain of the world is real and there is no sugar coating,
I’m late, yes.

Maybe I was in a dream
Or in some kind of apocalyptic hallucination,
I spent my day between doctors and people
Carrying trays, moving equipment.

A red haired, freckled and washed out man,
Grabbed my hand when I was moving between beds,
“I wish you hurry up,
The dark night of the soul is blowing over us”, he said.

I did hurry up,
So did everyone around me.
Whoever carried a light
Was quickly walking in the darkness,
To rescue the ones who were stuck there,
And we were brining light,
One flicker at the time.

This for all the exhausted doctors, nurses and medical personnel out there. They are brining light to the ones who suffer now, one flicker at a time….

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019- . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

2020 Pandemic

March 25, 2020November 30, 2020 / Andrada Costoiu / 7 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: Gerd Altmann, “Covid-19”

In the morning I read the news, it is one of my routines. I want to see what has happened in the world while I was asleep. When the pandemic began, I started studying the statistics in search for patterns and explanations. I gained a lot of insight, at a cost.
Today I found myself sinking in my chair, crying. When the statistics came in I felt as someone punched me straight into the heart, if there is such a thing…
I was crying because Italy’s numbers went up again. For couple of days they went slightly lower. New daily deaths were around 600/day (which is a lot!) and I thought that they have reached the peak and that they were going down. I was cheering in my heart for them to be better and for their numbers to get lower and lower!!

I think Dr. Strange has skewed the reality. I feel as I live in a bad dream and I am waiting to wake up. I wonder how everybody feels?

I know that above all, hope must prevail. I know that this will be over, but I want the loss of life to stop. I don’t want old people to die alone and be buried without the attendance of their families. I don’t want people to die.

Human kind has been through bad situations. Many of them have happened before we were born, but many happened during our lives. To mention few of the latest: the Syrian war, the genocide in Kosovo and there are many others that I will just leave aside.
What have we done to stop them? Why is there always an international struggle for power, when we all are humans living on this planet. Why do we spend resources on warfare instead of spending them on development, cures, better lives for people and eventually, making our way in this vast universe because this planet might not be enough?

This virus doesn’t recognize borders. Maybe this pandemic was a wake up call. A call for people to become better, a call for nation states to become better. I hope we will learn. I hope we will become more compassionate, more loving, more supportive, because these qualities and more are in each and every one of us.
On this little planet called Earth our story, as humankind, should be a story of survival. A story of love, because it makes us all feel good. A story of compassion and support because we all need each other.

Here is to all of you, to all the doctors and nurses, to people working in all domains, to our elders, to our young people. Keep pouring whatever you have good in your cup in the cups of others, become their miracle.

We will get through this together.

Humanity

March 23, 2020November 30, 2020 / Andrada Costoiu / 5 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: Vera Kratochvil, “Blue Morpho Butterfly”

The elephant and his baby
Have passed by,
Fresh, casual, cute.
Among trees, flowers and clouds,
She watched as the world was retaking its natural forms.

She was vulnerable and so was her world.

The plague has killed the ghost of separation,
The cages have fallen
Even as more cages were being built,
They were all connected into the web of life.

The impulse and the fate
Turned her into a bee,
She wanted to make sure that flowers kept going
And that so was the food for everyone around her.

She realized that others were doing the same,
The lions, the horses and all others,
Were doing their job,
Protecting, pulling, healing.

Imperfect as they are,
They’re all in this together.
Things will get better
And when they do
They will each recount their stories of survival
Gathered by the fire.

I wrote this thinking about all people in the world, in a world where you could be anything,who are you in this vast universe? Leave a comment with a word that would best describe you. Love and peace to you all.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Take me home

March 9, 2020November 30, 2020 / Andrada Costoiu / 19 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: “Helping Hands”, Irene Marie Dorey

Today I sat next to an old man on a bench,
He was amusingly bedraggled,
As an anthropologist forever looking
For foreign species on Earth.

His eyebrows were huge,
Eerily covering his beady blue eyes,
I think his mind didn’t wander as much as mine,
Because when he saw me he starred!

He thought that I am some observant time-traveller from another place
And he felt obliged to educate me into the matters of his world.
He asked if I ever had muesli with sheep’s-milk yogurt,
And what do I think about the muscular men,
Which were running by our bench in the park.

I didn’t want to skew his beliefs and his image of me
So I told him that Earth is a funny place,
I didn’t try the muesli,
But I did shaved my legs
And I did have a beach-blanket boozy night with a statuesque male.

He smiled and asked if my world is furnished with mirrors,
I told him that yes,
And that they reflect who you really are inside.
He said: ”good, then make sure to laugh and smile every moment.”

I smiled and took a deep breath,
And that’s when I saw his Alzheimer “take me home” bracelet.
One life lesson says:
“Don’t always take yourself so seriously”
I’m glad I didn’t.
All that really matters in the end is to love and to be loved,
Somewhere, somebody was waiting for him……
And I will take him home.

I think that there are so many souls out there that cry for help and we just pass by. In a world full of distractions it is easy to do that. But maybe if we listen more, see more, that would save someone.