Angelique Kidjo is one of my favorite African singer along with Salif Keita and Cesaria Evora. Of those who are no longer among us, I also love Miriam Makeba, Lucky Dube and Brenda Fassie. Last night, Angelique Kidjo had a concert in Chicago and I obviously went to the performance. The ticket was 30 dollars [...]

New scam email got into my inbox today.  And it’s pretty disgusting. However, one can only wonder how people fall for this in the first place. One day I’ll tell you the story about the first scam email I ever received way back when I was a 15 year old student in Galati, Romania. And [...]

On February 10th Victor Ponta, a young member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies was elected President of the Romanian Social Democrat Party (SDP) during an extraordinary party congress that took place in Bucharest. He narrowly defeated Mircea Geoana, the candidate who lost elections against Traian Basescu in the recent presidential elections that took place [...]

This is what I consider a food-for-thought essay. It’s a little long (3.5 pages single-spaced) but I think it’s worth reading it.
“New Situations Demand New Magic…”[1]
In Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande, E.E.  Evans Pritchard analyzes a society which is broadly characterized by unchanging traditions. However, various events that are out of the immediate [...]

Who’s your hero? A Swedish company created one of the most popular viral short clips in history. It’s a customizable one, that is you can choose who will have the honor to be represented in it. I chose one of the obvious characters and the result is here. Just click here, watch it and then [...]

Hi guys
In the last week or so I have been going through my interview notes from my Africa travels, spanning over the last five years of my life – the best five years I would say. I was also going through my old diary – yeah, at one point I had a diary, now the [...]

One month after the most contested elections in Romania’s post-communist history ended with the incumbent president winning a second term, Romanian mass-media has been invaded by serious witchcraft accusations with profound implications for those involved and with far-reaching consequences. Many of us interested in witchcraft already know that it is not important if these accusations [...]

So, I’m going back to my country. That’s not necessarily a reason to blog about unless you are extremely narcissistic. I’m not there now so I will tell you exactly why I’m going to Romania. Let me tell you from the beginning that I booked my flight today and I’m leaving tomorrow, coming back in [...]

From anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff comes a new and intriguing analysis of the role ethnicity could and should play in today’s world. Given that contemporary nation-states are forced to acknowledge the existence and the implications of social and ethnic heterogeneity like never before, it appears that a new opportunity for ethnic groups in search [...]

My native country of Romania is going through the most dramatic moments of political turmoil in its post-communistic era. This has affected both Romania’s image abroad, Romanians’ image of Romania and any combination of thereof. Like many other Romanians living abroad, my level of discontent has gone up proportionally with the tactical and political errors [...]