NTB Conferences

Video-streaming About Sever Voinescu Sever Voinescu was born in 1969 in Ploiesti. In 1992 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Bucharest University. The same year, he became a trainee attorney at the Bar of his hometown, and since 1994 he has become a full-time lawyer at the Bucharest Bar. Between 1994 and 1996, he was assistant professor at the Law Department of the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. Between 1998 and 2000, he was Secretary General to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From March 2000 to December 2003, he was General Consul of Romania in Chicago. From 2004 to 2008, he was Coordinator of the Foreign Policy Programme at the Institute for Public Policy. Between 2008 and 2012, he was deputy in the Romanian Parliament and for the duration of this mandate, he led the Parliament Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Since January 1st, 2016, he is editor-in-chief of the Cultural Weekly Newspaper Dilemma, and, since the same year, he makes the weekly show "Europa Christiana" on the television channel Trinitas. Since 1993, he has published over 3,000 articles, commentaries and essays in cultural publications or in daily newspapers such as the Old Dilemma / Dilemma, 22, Cultural Observatory, Cotidianul, Evenimentul Zilei, as well as specialized journals in the fields of law, philosophy and political sciences . He has lectured on various subjects specific to international relations in public or private institutions or universities in the United States, Great Britain, Belgium, France and Romania. He contributed to the content of several volumes, wrote prefaces, and enjoyed the few occasions when he was invited to speak at the opening of exhibitions. He especially boasts a book dedicated to opera, entitled Canta che ti passa - talks with Virginia Zeani. Currently, he is working on completing a doctoral thesis in law, about property. He has no Facebook page and is therefore happier than others. "Contrary to the general belief that it is impossible to find a place and a precise time for her birth, I believe that Europe, the one we know, was born on a certain day and in a particular place when a man of the great faith pursued a dream and met other people willing to listen to new things. Almost 2000 years later, someone else had an extraordinary insight into how Europe's history is flowing. Putting the two moments side by side, we will get something like a mysterious code whereby we shall explore our present, the everyday. And we'll try to guess our past and discover the future. I said well...". Sever Voinescu   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

Difuzare online On Sunday, December 2nd, 2018, from 11.00 a.m., in the NTB Painting Hall, Ana Blandiana shall hold the conference entitled The Centennial, an Exercise of Exorcism. About the Conference We are the descendants of everything that happened in this last century, starting with the miraculous effort which gave meaning to the previous millennia. We are the descendants of Romanians who accomplished Great Romania and we are the descendants of Romanians who imprisoned and buried these in the Sighet Cemetery of the Poor. The Centennial is not a celebration, it is the occasion forcing us and giving us the chance to opt for whom we want to pursue, to whom we want to further resemble, which are the role models we wish to follow. But this implies first of all the knowledge of the content of the 100 years and accepting the history they comprise. Ana Blandiana About Ana Blandiana Originating from Timişoara, Ana Blandiana was born in 1942. Her name at birth was Otilia Valeria Coman, and after the marriage to writer Romulus Rusan it became Otilia Valeria Rusan. The close ones call her Doina, but the "nickname" which brought her fame is the pseudonym Ana Blandiana. (The poet composed it by taking over the melodic name of the village - Blandiana, from Alba County – where her mother was born and deriving a first name from it as well.) After attending the courses of the Faculty of Philology of the Cluj University (1962-1967), Ana Blandiana settles down in Bucharest, where she works as an editor at the Student Life and Amphitheatre (1968-1974), librarian at the "N. Grigorescu" Institute of Bucharest (1975-1977), editor at the Writers’ Guild (1977-1979). Before even being a student, she celebrates her debut with the poem Originality in the Tribune magazine of Cluj (1959). From 1960-1963, she is forbidden to publish, due to political reasons. Starting with 1964, her signature may be encountered again in the literary press, especially in The Contemporary, where she is entrusted with a weekly column of notations (Antijournal). Still in 1964, she publishes her first book of verse, First Person Plural, drawing the attention of the literary critics. Thus, when she settles in Bucharest, she is no longer a stranger. In 1969, she receives moreover the Poetry Prize of the Writers’ Guild (the first from a long list of prizes: the Poetry Prize of the Romanian Academy, 1970, Bucharest, the Prose Award of the Writers’ Guild of Bucharest, the International Herder Prize, Vienna, 1982, the "Opera omnia" Prize, 1994, the National Poetry Prize, 1997, the Poetry Prize of the Writers’ Guild, 2000 etc.). The poetry books published every two-three years (which are translated abroad), the countless literary criticism articles dedicated to her, the publishing activity (her column Atlas from Literary Romania becomes a weekly event), the journeys abroad (starting with the 6-month scholarship to the USA in 1973-1974), the certainty with which she makes her prose debut (The Four Seasons, 1977) confer to Ana Blandiana an unusual prestige. Disobedient as a responsible character, not as a recalcitrant one, Ana Blandiana reads at her encounters with the audience at the height of Ceauşescu’s dictatorship poems-manifestos thrilling the audience: "It shall come,/ It cannot be otherwise,/ It shall come/ That day/ Adjourned for centuries,/ It shall come/ It draws near,/ It can also be heard/ Its pulse beating/ Between the horizons,/ It shall come,/ It can be felt in the air,/ it can no longer be late,/ Do not doubt, it shall come/ That day/ Blinding as a sword/ Vibrating in the light." (Dies ille, dies irae). In 1985, a series of her poems charged with political dynamite, published in the Amphitheatre magazine, alarms the authorities. And in 1988, after she publishes the verse volume Occurrences on My Street, with numerous sarcastic references to the regime, she is forbidden, as a punishment, to publish in Romania. The wave of the revolution from December 1989 brings her to the heterogeneous leading team of the country, the National Council of the National Salvation Front. Earlier than other intellectuals, Ana Blandiana leaves the group. She sets up and leads the Civic Alliance Foundation, to which a great part of the Romanian civil society adheres, creates in Sighet, with superhuman efforts and sacrifices, joined by her husband, Romulus Rusan, the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance, and leads the Romanian PEN Club. She plays a key role in imposing politician Emil Constantinescu as Romanian President in the time frame 1996-2000, but she does not refrain from criticising his lack of firmness in promoting democratic values. Biography by Alex Ștefănescu   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu  

Video-streaming On Sunday, November 18th, 2018, 11.00 a.m., in the NTB Small Hall, Prof. Dr. Dumitru Bortun shall hold a conference on Romania - an enigma, a miracle and a paradox. Tasks for the next generation! About the Conference After 1989, a single generalized consensus emerged in Romania that can be considered a public interest: Romania's integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures. In 2018, precisely in the year of the Centenary, some political figures began to express their dissatisfaction with the insistence whereby the European Union is asking us to observe the standards that we are committed to observing. But integration into the European Union is only a means; the goal is to complete Romania's modernization process - a process that began in the nineteenth century. We have no place in the European Union with horse-drawing peasants, growing their geese on the roadside, with employees skipping work and stealing from factories, physicians and teachers accepting bribe, pupils and students copying at the exams, with ungrammatical and irresponsible journalists, with corrupt policemen and magistrates, civil servants opaque to citizens' needs, apolitical citizens, civic conscience, and cynical, amoral and stateless politicians. Under the current circumstances, joining the European Union has proved to be a boomerang: in the post-accession period, we witnessed tensions, contradictions and conflicts - in short, a conflictual integration that could generate an anti-Western reaction, rejection of the values ​​of the European Union and integration into the European Union. Romania is not just "an enigma and a miracle", as George Bratianu wrote. I dare say that it is also a great paradox. Before leaving Romania, the former head of the European Union Delegation in Bucharest, Jonathan Scheele, made a statement as a sentence: "Romania is a country that the more you know, the least you understand it." Regarding lucidity, Romania appears to be a country full of unsurpassable contradictions, moral dilemmas, ideological conflicts, fractures between large groups of society. At first sight, their causes are economic; in my view, they are cultural, they are based on the ideals, values ​​and norms that govern our life. To understand the concept of modernity, the first step is to identify the "values ​​of modernity" that I shall present for the clarity of exposure, in contrast to pre-modern values. Romania's cultural resetting is one of the tasks of the next generation. As Karl Popper said, each generation can give meaning to history by formulating its own purposes. The choice of goals can not be dictated neither by nature nor by an alleged "sense of history"; it can be done by ourselves as responsible beings. In this sense, I shall make some suggestions for the next generation of Romanian citizens. Univ. Prof. PhD. Dumitru Bortun, National School of Political and Administrative Studies About Univ. Prof. Dumitru Bortun Dumitru Borţun holds a PhD of philosophy and is a professor at the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations of the National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest - SNSPA, where he teaches the courses "Public Speech Analysis", "Semiotics. Theories of Language ", "Ethics in Communication" and "Corporate Social Responsibility". At the SNSPA Faculty of Management, he teaches the course "Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility". In 2009, the National Alliance of Student Organizations in Romania - ANSOC awarded him the title of Bologna Professor, granted to teachers who "are appreciated by the students, add value to education in Romania and are role models for students". In 2015, he was awarded the "Personality of the Year 2015" by Legal Point Magazine for "promoting moral values ​​in communication techniques," and in 2017 the Excellence Diploma for "Integrity, Good Governance and Social Responsibility" awarded by Eurolink - the European House. He has published over 130 studies, essays, articles and interviews in collective volumes, specialized publications, and culture magazines. He is the author of several university courses and the books Epistemic Fundamentals of Communication (Ars Docendi, 2002), Public Relations and the New Society (Triton 2005, 2012), Corporate Social Responsibility: from Public Relations to  Sustainable Development, coordinator (Triton , 2012), Epistemic Fundamentals of Communication - Second Edition, Revised and Added (Tritonic, 2013), The Black Tide: Romanian Language Under Siege. Errors of Wording in Romanian Media (Tritonic, 2015), Misprints, Meanings & co. The interdisciplinarity of communication, semiotics and multimodality, ed. (Springer International Publishing AG, 2018). He is a member of the editorial board of several specialized publications, as well as in the scientific committee of international conferences. Since 2016, he is the chairman of the Organizing Committee of the International Conference on Semiosis in Communication, organized once every two years by SNSPA, in collaboration with the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS). He is a founding member of the Romanian Association of Public Relations - ARRP (since 1995). The General Assembly of March 2nd, 2005 elected him ARRP President, position he held until May 2008. He is currently the President of the ARRP Jury of Honour.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

On Sunday, 4th November, from 11.00 a.m., the NTB Small Hall shall host theconference Homer’s Inner Eye. How Do the Blind Write, Read and Composeheld by Radu Sergiu Ruba. About the ConferenceHomer was an author with a concrete historical life. He truly lived somewhere and sang throughout the metropolitan and colonial Hellas. He was not a myth during lifetime, but he became a myth. The proof of his real existence is situated in one of the two sagas which are attributed to him. The conference thus starts with this revelation.Afterwards, transition is made to Homer’s visual memory, to the quasi-mimetic take-over of the ambient concreteness in his verses and his imaginary. Hence, the blind with a visual memory and the ones without such a memory. The relation between writing and language. The shaping function of language, language as an attribute of God, not the image however.The human civilization is unconceivable without a writing code. The mimetic or symbolic codes – pictograms, ideograms, hieroglyphs. The literal codes. The Braille code and the proof that the human being, in his/her depth, holds communicational codifying functions independent from the sight. The Homer constellation, the anthology of blind writers of Romania and the synthesis of the human voice. The electronic voice of the computer, the first human dimension synthesized so far.The man educated and shaped as a superior being only through language and writing systems. The three great figures which have marked and built the specificity of the life of the blind worldwide: Homer, Louis Braille and Ray Kurzweil. Radu Sergiu Ruba About Radu Sergiu Ruba He was born on October 14 th , 1954 in Ardud, Satu Mare County. He started his education in the neighbouring village Răteşti, pursuing it until the baccalaureate at the Institute for the Blind in Cluj, interval during which, around the age of 11, he completely lost his eyesight which had never been perfect. He followed an education of foreign languages, French and English, at the Bucharest University. He worked as a French teacher in the pre-university system, as a lecturer within the programme Cambridge Standard English al British Council of the capital, as an inspector in the Ministry of Education, responsible for the education of pupils and students with sight deficiencies. In this capacity, he founded four dedicated schools, two high-schools and two balneo-physiotherapy post-secondary schools which are still functioning nowadays. He was also an advisor to the ministry of work on issues of disability, contributing to the adoption of administrative measures and legal acts. He belonged for 25 years to the management of the Blind Association of Romania, its president for nine years and also to the management of the relevant European Union. From the responsibility functions of the national organization, he succeeded in opening, together with the manager of the Metropolitan Library of Bucharest, Florin Rotaru, a branch for the blind which functioned as an audio book production centre, he equipped his organization with a Braille electronic printing shop, capable of printing countrywide, he determined the digitalization of all audio books from theassociation’s library, he contributed to the improvement or sight rescue of dozens of patients within a great ophthalmology project and, by raising around 800 thousand euros, he launched the building of a rehabilitation centre for the people who lose their eyesight as adults. Since 1992, he produces a weekly show, on the Radio România Actualităţi station. He is also the author of shows broadcast by Radio Free Europe and Radio Europa FM. He made his editorial debut in 1983, at Cartea Românească, with a volume of verse followed by further five.R. S. Ruba also achieved selections of his materials of press, essays, articles, interviews, grouped in three volumes, including, the one with historiographic character, A Thousand Years in a Hundred and One Enigmas, written together with his spouse, Nicoleta. As a supreme literary duty towards the existential experience community he belongs to, he compiled two editions of the Homer Constellation, an Anthology of the Blind Writers of Romania, with a first appearance in 1996, and the second, much revised and enriched, in 2017.Arriving late to the prose, but dealing with it especially lately, he published the volume of stories The Smuggling of Memory and the novels The Demon of Confession in 2004, re-edited in 2009 and A Summer Which Does Not Set, in 2014.This book, autobiographical to a great extent, has been awarded several distinctions, including the Ion Creangă award of the Romanian Academy in 2016. The novel was translated into English and Italian, whereas a translation into Hungarian is underway. R. S. Ruba represented Romania this year, both with prose and with poetry, at the European Literature Night Festival of Lisbon.The author also received further literary and cultural distinctions, in general: the award of the French Foreign Affairs’ Ministry at the World Short Story Festival, the Frontiera Poesis award, the award of the Gheorghe Ursu Foundation, the award of the Bucharest Writers’ Guild, of the Convorbiri Literare magazine and of the Jewish Braille Institute of America. He was awarded by the President of Romania the Cultural Merit Order to the rank of Knight in the year 2008. Radu Sergiu Ruba’s poems, short stories and essays have been translated into French, English, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese. In his turn, the writer translated into French authors such as Michel Tournier, Gilles Lipovetsky, Olivier Rolin, Nicolas Ancion and Corinne Desarzens.   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

On Sunday, October 21st 2018, from 11.00 a.m., in the NTB Small Hall, shall hold the conference Why parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova at the beginning of next year are important for Romania?   About the Conference 27 years after its independence, the Republic of Moldova is, probably, at the lowest point of its existence. At least one third of the population has lost its faith that it can build a worthy future at home and has left the country, whereas the people left behind are overwhelmed by a feeling of profound despair. The corruption and bad governance are the main causes of the delicate situation to which the Republic Moldova has arrived. In order to distract attention from the committed abuses, the political parties have intensely exploited the splits from society, the latter being deeply divided between the ones who are ready to give up democracy, associating it with governments which have caused corruption, poverty and misery, hoping that the Eastern, authoritarian model might deliver them from misery and the ones wanting to live in a free country, according to the Western model. The weakening of the state institutions through their capturing by the oligarchic government, the undermining of the democratic process, including through the cancellation of the local elections from Kishinev and the modification of the electoral system in the favour of the socialist party and to the detriment of the pro-European opposition parties, the lack of any popular support for the ruling party, but which wants to keep power at any cost represent major hazards for ensuring free and correct elections and, respectively, for their result. The maintenance of power by the Plahotniuc-Dodonregime in the existing form or under any other form shall bring about change, at least medium-term, of the structure of voters in favour of the ones voting for parties close to the Kremlin regime. The demographic situation, the massive migration of the pro-European segment and the scepticism of the government to create conditions for the diaspora’s participation in the vote shall deprive the Republic of Moldova of the critical mass of pro-democracy voters. It suits the current government to keep the Republic of Moldova in a grey area, where the regime representatives dictate the rules of the game, extract economic annuities from illegal business, without being held accountable, remain in power through less democratic methods. The recent initiatives of the Parliament of Kishinev support the suspicions that the government has undertaken the creation of an off-shore area on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Likewise, the increasingly frequent discussions about Russia’s plans for the federalization of the Republic of Moldova are worrying, which does not mean anything else but the „Transnistrialisation“ of the country, which shall bring Russia to the border with Romania. What can Romania do for the Republic of Moldova not to lose the last fight for democracy? We shall look for answers together.   About Maia Sandu Economist, more recently politician. In the time frame 2012-2015, she was Minister of Education of the Republic of Moldova. She launched several reforms in the field of education and took corruption fighting measures (according to the estimates of Transparency International, the total value of the bribe paid in education during the first two years of her mandate was reduced by 50%).The activity at the ministry brought her political capital. After the discovery of the one billion theft, which irremediably compromised the political class of Kishinev, in May 2016, she created together with other colleagues a new party - the Party Action and Solidarity. In the fall of the same year, she ran in the presidential elections, where she accumulated 47.9% of the votes. She further builds a different kind of party. After the faculty, she worked at the Ministry of Economy since its first years of existence. She closely followed the elaboration of transition reforms and she experienced, alongside the majority of citizens of the Republic of Moldova, the failure of these reforms. She was employed afterwards at the Representation of the World Bank in Kishinev, where she continued working on the reform programmes in various areas. In 2009 -2010, she followed a master’s programme in public administration at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, and in the next two years she worked as an advisor of one of the executive managers of the World Bank in Washington DC. Translated by Simona Nichiteanu 

  On Sunday, 10 April 2016, as of 11.00 a.m., in the Black Box Hall of NTB, Dr. Dana Safta shall hold the conference on the topic Subjective Fragments on Medicine and Art. Major Encounters with Prominent Personalities from the History of Medicine and Romanian Theatre. About the Conference The medical director of the Elias Hospital, Dr. Dana Safta is reputed for her professionalism, being a physician in the ENT specialty for over 35 years. With a long inland experience, with traineeships abroad, Dr. Safta has met major names which have made history in Romanian medicine. At the same time, Dana Safta is also a great theatre lover, an ardent spectator, a friend of actors, knowing most of them firstly by means of the doctor-patient relationship. Within the framework of the NTB conference, Dr. Dana Safta shall speak about the connections between medicine and art, the two domains being exclusively dedicated to people, physical and spiritual health. About Dr. Dana Safta           Doctor in Medical Sciences, senior ENT physician Education:     General Medicine Faculty „Carol Davilla”, Bucharest (1973 – 1979); Master’s degree / postgraduate studies: IFACF - ORL „Prof. Dr. Dorin Hociotǎ” Bucharest (1982 - 1985) – Residency in the ENT specialty; PhD: UMF „Carol Davilla” (1998 - 2008), Bucharest- The Importance of Paraglottic Space in Laryngeal Cancer Experience: At the Elias University Emergency Hospital: Medical Director (since 2010); Deputy Director-General (2001-2006); Quality Management Director (2007-2010); Head of ENT department (since 2011). Courses / Trainings / Certificates: Course in Nose-Pharynx-Larynx Fibroscopy - Geneva, 1994; Course in larynx endoscopy - Pampano Hospital, Florida,1996; Course in larynx endoscopy surgery - Düsseldorf, Germany, 2002; ENT Laser course –Berlin University Hospital, 1999; Clinical Internship: ENT Laser – Dep. H.M.O. Berliner Krankenhaus, 2000; Hospital Management Course - UMF „Carol Davila” Bucharest, 2001-2002; Course and internship: Endoscopic Nose-Sinus surgery techniques, Graz 2003; Courses within the E.U.F.O.S campus - Rhodes, Greece, 2004; Ear Prosthesis course - Copenhagen, 2004; Courses and participation within I.F.O.S. - Rome, 2005; Vertigo course - Maastricht, 2005; Courses within the E.U.F.O.S. Campus – Vienna, 2007; Vertigo course - Marseilles, 2007; Hospital Management Course at SNSPMS - Bucharest 2006; Modern ENT Workshop, Miami 1995. Professional and Scientific ENT Activity: - Specialised emergency surgery. - Participation with case studies, investigation methods, as well as therapeutic methodologies in the periodical scientific meetings of the specialty (U.S.S.M.). - Teaching activity with the general medicine students in the period of secondment as a medical specialist in Bucharest. - Member of the editorial committee of the Medic.ro magazine since 2013, published by Versa Puls Media - Member of the editorial committee of the ORL.ro magazine since 2013, published by Versa Puls Media - Member of the editorial committee of the Farmacist.ro magazine since 2013, published by Versa Puls Media - Participations in national and international congresses Awards: Sanitary Merit Knight, 2004 Publishing: Author and co-author of 33 specialised works. Co-author of two medical books: ENT Manifestations during Pregnancy, Authors: Loredana Mitran, Mihai Mitran, Daniela Safta Versa Puls Media Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012; Guidance for the Practical Examination in the ENT Specialty and Cervix-Facial Surgery, under the editorial board of Romeo Călărașu, Tiberiu Dimitriu, Daniela Safta; co-author –chapter: The Cervical Lymph Node Extirpation; MSC Media, Bucharest, 2013   Translated by Simona Nichiteanu

Video-streaming On Sunday, 22nd of February 2015, at 11:00 a.m., at Sala Atelier of The National Theatre, Cristian Pîrvulescu will deliver a conference on the topic Politics - Does It Still Have a Meaning?. Ticket price: 16 lei. About the conference In a time when the daily political scandal seems to have irreversibly compromised politics does this still have a meaning? Can justice be a substitute of politics in a time when the rule of law has become a daily leit-motif? What is left of the separation of powers in the State and how can the rule of law function today? It is not quite clear who and when first used the expression "Fiat justitia, pereat mundus", but the idea that justice should prevail over ethics, mores, feelings and especially politics is well-known since ancient times. Hence the question: how can the act of justice be ethically justified and what is its role in society? Should justice be independent? This philosophical dilemma is expressed by the conflict between the utilitarian vision (justice should provide maximum of utility, namely, to maximize hapiness and to minimize suffering, in the way John Stuart Mill understood this) and the absolute vision -as we could call it - (justice should be eternal, universal, immutable, implacable, impersonal etc.) Consequently, what type of ethics is procedural justice - the one that in common parlance we call justice - subject to? To the utilitarian one, namely to the idea that justice is a function of the State and it has a practical utility, or to the one against or non-utilitarian, namely to the idea that justice is the embodiment of supreme Justice. But who can decide what and how is supreme Justice? Returning on the banks of the Dâmboviţa river to the Romanian society, we might say, paraphrasing Caragiale: "Let there be justice, but let us know it, too." "We ", that is they, the politicians obsessed with polls, who are in a permanent election campaign, living in a permanent today. Let there be justice? Of course! To achieve what? About Cristian Pîrvulescu Cristian Pîrvulescu is a politologist, a political commentator and an activist for democracy and human rights. As a professor at the Faculty of Political Science of the National School of Political Science and Public Administration, where he has been working since 1992, he teaches Political Science (Fundamental Concepts in Political Science, Political Institutions, Comparative Politics). Since 2005 he is the Dean of the faculty. He actively takes part in civic and political debates in mass-media and he also publishes political commentaries in the written media. He is the honorary president of the Pro Democracy Association whose president he was from 1999 to 2013. Since 2007 he is a member of the European Economic and Social Committee .                                                         Translated by Toma (Grama) Aureliana MTTLC, University of Bucharest

Video-streamig The National Theatre I.L.Caragiale has the pleasure to invite you to discover Adina Nanu’s spectacular collection of costumes and hats in the lobby of the Atelier Hall for two weeks (between 8th – 22nd of February). Adina Nanu is a critic and art historian, the author of the only book about Romania’s costumes history. The exhibition opens on the occasion of the conference held by Adina Nanu at the Atelier Hall from 11:00 a.m. on February 8th. Adina Nanu’s collection comprises some hundreds of costumes which belonged to her family or donor friends, ranging from casual dresses to evening ones, from hats, men’s costumes, accesories, decorative objects or furniture articles from ladies’ boudoir from La Belle Epoque, from the inter-war period to present costumes. Both the conference and the exhibition are a plea for style and beauty and promote the aesthetic refinement, the fashion and ellegance of times gone by. Stressing the importance of hats in ladies’ apparel, Adina Nanu will show that a hat isn’t a simple accesory, but it is also a definite indicator for the bearer’s social, psychological and cultural profile. The conference and the exhibition addresses not only those interested in the costume  history, but also art directors, fashion designers and all art lovers. We hope that after attending the conference and the exhibition the NTB audience will cry out:”Chapeau – bas!”   About Adina Nanu Critic and art historian. Between 1945-1950 she attended the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest and the Faculty of Letters simultaneously. Between 1947-1950 she attended the Medicine School to bone at anatomy. In 1977 she got her Ph. D in History of Arts with a thesis on 19th century costumes in Bucharest. Assigned as an assistant to the National Arts Museum in Bucharest, she worked at the World and Romanian Art Galleries. Since 1950 she has been asked to work at the Arts History Department within the Institute of Fine Arts where she has remained until retirement, first as Assistant, then as Lecturer since 1954 and as Reader since 1968. As her colleagues, Eugen Schileru and Ion Frunzetti, she retired having this degree in 1987, since the Professor degree was awarded by the Ministry of Education only to those politically priviledged during the years before 1989. She taught World Art History classes, special classes of History of Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Arts and the first classes of History and Theory of the Costume in Romania at the Scenography section and then at the Fashion Design section whose foundation she took part in. Consequently, she published the first history of world costumes in Romanian, Art, Style, Costume in 1976. Since 1994 she has been teaching Visual Education and Styles in Costumes and Decoration classes at UNATC Bucharest, for the Staging Department during the first years, then for the newly founded Scenography section, but also for the Choreography section.  For the UNATC students she published Arts on humans (2001) and Can you see?Communication through Imaging (2002), she rewrote and augmented Art, Style, Costume ( second edition,2008). Since 1975 she has been an INSEA member - International Society for Education through Art (UNESCO) and after 1990 founder and president of its branch in Romania. She has been a member of the Union of Artists in Romania since its foundation in 1950. She exhibited drawings and sculptures in five UAP collective exhibitions and in a personal exhibition at Galateea Gallery in 2008. Books published (selection): Gh. Tattarescu – The Painter (1955), Albrecht Dürer (1957), Theodor Pallady (1963), About Sculpture in Brief (1966), Octav Angheluţă – The Painter (1967), Sabin Popp – The painter (1968), Antonello da Messina (1969), A. Bourdelle – The Carver (1971), Lucas Cranach the Old (1972), On Dürer’s footsteps (1976), Art, Style, Costume (1976, the English version in 1981), Donatello- The Carver (1980), I. Gr. Popovici – The Carver (1984), Ion Lucian Murnu (in collaboration with Doina Mândru – 1986), Men and Fashion (2009). Awards: The „Loyal Service” Order – commander, Union of Artists (2000), Honour Diploma by the Staging and Production University (2002), Professor Honoris Causa by the National University of Arts (2008). „The collection formed itself as a consequence of my interest and respect for the object made with talent and skillfulness which I found in my house and kept them, I didn’t throw them away, as young people do nowadays. At first I played together with my parents, then with my children, using grandparents’ hats and clothes, then I used them as didactic material for the Arts History and Costume Art classes that I held. Relatives and friends also found in their wardrobes hats and dresses which were out of fashion, tailcoats and tuxedos which were useless, but they were filling the space and they gave them to us. I only bought the manikins and a few disparate pieces, links which were missing in the chain of some demonstrations. Even nowadays, my friends’ friends come to complete the exhibition with precious memories. I only like studying each hat or collarette to discover its origin, style and fashion it belonged to and to find its place in the exhibition so as to match the general geometry of the room, which has to recompose the atmosphere and perfume of every age. Among other things, I placed perfume bottles here and there, ranging from XIX th century pachouli to Coco Chanel’s Chanel no.5 and following. Due to these continuous changes, none of the fifteen exhibitions I have organized so far was similar to the others, starting with the first one from the Collection Museum in 1997, to the following ones from the National Arts Museum, History Museum, from Cotroceni Palace, Peles or the Costumes Museum in Venice”.   Translation made by Niculae Cristine MTTLC, University of Bucharest

Video-streaming The first conference of 2015 will open its doors on Sunday, January 25th, at 11:00 am, in The Black Box Hall, and will be held by Mr. Emil Hurezeanu. The theme of the conference is "Europe, between growth and terminal crisis". Ticket price - 16 lei. About the conference "Europe is at the center of unusual crises: a war in the East, between Ukraine and Russia triggered by the desire for rapprochement of Ukraine with Europe and by Russia's desire of separation from Europe. It puts into question the ability of the West to overcome the global economic and social crises, its political and moral inability to manage democracy in the age of dying capitalism. We are witnessing the commotion caused by the terrorist attacks in the capital of France, against a background of escalating phenomena of anti-Semitism, Islam phobia and xenophobia in the founding countries of the Enlightenment and of the Euro-Atlantic civilization. We can no longer speak about Christianity or about Islam, but about the anger of the religions' sunset. We are witnessing a wider crisis of globalization, which homogenizes without connecting, but by separating and exacerbating identities. A crisis of religion, of collective and inclusive ideologies, defied by the excesses of confused, autistic and aggressive individualism. Europe's crises are installed between center and periphery too, at the level of EU member states as well as between the hard core of developed Europe in relation to the peripheral countries of the continent. Are these signs and signals of a temporary syndrome, in the logic of a problematic increase, or of a terminal one, in the logic of the Western irreversible decrease?" (Emil Hurezeanu)   About Emil Hurezeanu Born in 1955 in Sibiu. One of the best-known journalists and political analysts of the moment. Between 1975 and 1979 he attends the School of Law in Cluj- Napoca. Starting with 1976 he is an editor of the "Equinox" (Echinox) Magazine and beginning with 1978 he becomes an editorial secretary, publishing poetry and literary criticism. After graduating in 1979, he gathers his poems in Lecţia de anatomie (The Anatomy Lesson) volume that was awarded the Debut Prize of the Writers Union a year later. In 1981, Ana Blandiana, as a Herder Prize winner, offers her grant to the Equinox editorial staff and Emil Hurezeanu, who will leave for Vienna in 1982, is nominated for it. After completing the two exchange semesters of the Herder Grant, he reaches Munich where he works as an  editor for Radio Free Europe from 1983 to 1995. In October 1983 he gets political asylum in Germany. In the same period he starts writing political articles and producing the Romanian News section. He also works as an expert consultant for various radio and television channels in Europe. In 1985 he gets a scholarship for the Charlottesville University of Virginia, USA, where he studies political science. Back in Germany, he continues his studies at various American universities from Europe until  he gets his Master's Degree in International and Strategic Political Relations, in Boston. In 1990 he returns to Romania, still working for Radio Free Europe (RFE). In 1995, the radio station is relocated in Prague and Emil Hurezeanu is a director there, for a short period of time. In the same year, he goes to Cologne to work as head of the Romanian section of Deutsche Welle, where he writes political leading articles. He stays there until 2002, when he returns to Romania for good. For five seasons, he is the broadcast producer of the show România mea (My Romania) on Antena 1. The show was awarded the APTR 2003 Prize, the talk-show section. Since 2005 he produces the Cap şi pajură(Heads and tails) reality TV show, together with Cristian Tudor Popescu. He continues his career in radio with The Interviews of  Europa FM, produced at the  broadcast station of the same name. In March 2003 he becomes personal advisor in policy analysis on issues of external affairs to Adrian Năstase, who was prime-minister at the time. He resigns from this position six months later. He published two volumes of political essays in Romania, Între câine şi lup (Between Dog and Wolf) - 1996 and Cutia Neagră (The Black Box) -1997, the latter receiving The Journalism Award of the Writers Union of Romania.   Translated by: Aureliana Grama MTTLC, University of Bucharest

I am honoured by Mr. Caramitru's invitation to return to the National Theatre stage on 23th of November, 2014 to give a talk in front of an audience on a new topic: “Turkey and the happy consumer.” About the conference The Happy Turkey is Nassim Nicholas Taleb's illustration, an American-Lebanese author, who recounted it in one of his books in 2010, namely Black Swan (Curtea Veche Publishing House, 2010). So long as the turkey is fed corn, it is happy and lords it in the homeowner's courtyard. Only that, on Thanksgiving Day, americans unfortunately have the bad tradition to eat turkey. Our happy turkey does not know what awaits it and for this reason, it sees no impediment to his happiness. After all, countless days, regularly, it is fed corn. However, there is no doubt that the unfortunate turkey will be served on Thanksgiving Day. The illustration serves in case of the consumer who borrows to spend. He, too, is happy while spending, even though, as in case of the turkey, he moves “freely” in the indebtedness courtyard to the lender. So long until the liabilities can no longer be covered. Then, as in case of the turkey, consumer's fate is doomed. “The happines” of spending is replaced by the unsettling feeling of over-indebtedness that in the end will throw the consumer in the street along with his family. The early stoics and Christians set as their ground rule the release from debt. He, who has no debt is happy (felix qui nihil debet). This was what the stoics as Seneca claimed. You must be born anew – The Gospel according to John reads. In today's world, though, it is impossible not to have any debt and upsetting as well. It is possible, though, in the XXI century a partial release from debt to get a new opportunity – a fresh new start, like americans have called it. It is compulsory that the right of man to live and his dignity be observed. For example, the family dwelling it is thought of by ECHR and CJEU as quasi-impregnable, just as a castle. On the whole, this is the topic of discussion at the Conference that is slated to take place on the 23th of November, 2014, at 11 a.m. at the National Theatre in Bucharest, says the college professor Gheorghe Piperea, charter member and associate of SCA Piperea and Associates. About Gheorghe Piperea Gheorghe Piperea is the charter member of SCA “Piperea & Associates”. The charter member professional expertise of SCA “Piperea & Associates” lies in his strong theoretical schooling. He has a PhD in law from both the University of Bucharest and the University of Sorbonne I – Pantheon in Paris, his doctoral thesis was “European community acquis in the field of trading companies and capital market” which was graded with the highest mark by both universities. Gheorghe Piperea is a professor of law at the University of Bucharest Law School, a scientific doctoral dissertations coordinator in the law field and author or co-author of some of the capital books in the legislative and judiciary romanian doctrine, publishing a few courses, commentaries, monographies and professional contributions to media outlets columns in the fields such as trading companies, capital market, insolvency, conveyors rights, code of civil procedure, featuring as well as a pundit and expositor on the pages of various current media outlets. Gheorghe Piperea has markedly contributed pro bono to the development and improvement of the legislative romanian system by drawing up a slew of legislative acts in the business fields such as: trading companies, sole proprietorship, unfair terms of contract between retailers and dealers, admission in composition with creditors, insolvency, civil bankruptcy, the implementation of insolvency professional occupation and arbitration. Having a professional experience spanning over twenty years in the legal field, Gheorghe Piperea is both a trailblazer and an exponent of trends in the legislative practice and statute law, respectively, the innovations and solutions that have been thought of and translated into practice together with his team from Piperea and Associates being a drive for the development of the business law field in Romania in the last ten years. Gheorghe Piperea and his team are the trailblazers of collectiv lawsuits concept, namely, class action in Romania and at the same time the ones who have given effect to it with outstanding results in the fields of jurisprudence, standard contracts or that of legislative implementation. Pursuant to collective lawsuits due to VAT levied on copyright incomes, to those related to military officers and airmen retirement pensions, to those related to allowances given to expectant mothers or for childcare, and especially, pursuant to the collective lawsuits of the allied consumers against the professionals who misused their economic power, case laws have emerged from these lawsuits, laws and governmental legislative acts have been amended and standard contracts used by professionals have undergone sweeping amendations as well. In the fields such as fixed radars, car registration fee, road tax and illegal tow-aways, the regulations and usual practices have undergone sweeping amendations pursuant to the lawsuits won by Piperea and Associates team, who have made public the outcomes of them, pro bono, so that other legal practitioners can draw or capitalize on them. All these trends and innovations have been backed up for ten years, from 2004 all-through 2014, by Business Law Conferenes organized by Piperea and Associates in colaboration with Bucharest Law School, drawing on an idea and with the hands-on approach of the charter member of Piperea and Associates, Gheorghe Piperea. These conferences have become over time an annual vantage point in the business law practice, having all the prerequisites of establishing as regular. Besides Gheorghe Piperea's hands-on approach to many practical activities and numerous academic projects, he has laid the foundations of Parakletos Association, one for consumer protection with a view to becoming a national centre for counselling, a collective lawsuit laboratory for consumers and at the same time a source of regulations and above-board practices that have been commended to the professionals who might be tempted to misuse their economic power. Parakletos Association has also in sight nationwide projects for pupils and students civic education and entends to expand its activity towards the governmental establishments. Publications: I am the author of the monography “Trading companies, capital market. Community aquis” and one of the first romanian professionals specialized in capital market legislation and co-author of the fully commented book about the Law no. 31/1990 regarding trading companies, published in five editions (2001, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2014) at the CH Beck Publishing House under the name “Law of Companies. Comment on articles”. In the same field of trading companies, I have published also “Liabilities and accountability of the trading companies administrators”. In the insolvency field, I published the treatise “Insolvency: law, regulations, reality”, in 2008, and “Law of admission in composition with creditors”, in 2010, both published at the Wolters Kluwer publishing house. For the treaties “Insolvency: law, regulations, reality” I have been awarded “Octavian Capatana” prize by the Romanian Attorneys Union. Besides the “Introduction to the law of professional contracts”, published in 2011 at the CH Beck Publishin House, the latest reference books are “The New Civil Code. Comment on articles”, which I co-authored and also “The New Code of Civil Procedure. Notes. Correlations. Explanations”, which author coordinator I am, published at the CH Beck Publishing House. I am, as well, the author of the courses “Commercial law”, volume I and II, “Conveyance law” and “Commercial law. Enterprise.” A selection of different important contributions to media outlets: - Bankruptcy in the international private law, Commercial Law Magazine no. 1/1996 and no. 5/1996 - How to implement the judicial reorganization procedure and dissolution to some special situations, Commercial Law Magazine no. 7-8/1996 - About the amendations to bankruptcy law, Commercial Law Magazine no. 9/2000 - Explanations and criticism to the new bankruptcy legislation, Romanian Pandecte no. 5/2002 - Rebuilding the relations between the syndic judge and the insolvency attorney practitioner, Phoenix Magazine, published by UNPIR, February 2005 - Admission in composition with creditors, a solution to prevent insolvency, Phoenix Magazine, published by UNPIR, February 2005 - Cross-border insolvency, Romanian Law Business Magazine no. 5/2006 - How to prevent insolvency procedures and extrajudicial treatment of the financial depressions, Romanian Private Law Magazine no. 3/2007 - Insolvency procedure as a civil lawsuit (third part), Romanian Private Law Magazine no. 4/2007 - Insolvency procedure as a civil lawsuit (fourth part), Romanian Private Law Magazine no. 5/2007 - Insolvency procedure as a civil lawsuit (fifth part), Romanian Private Law Magazine no. 6/2007 - Private enterprises over-indebtedness and bankruptcy, Supplement no. 1/2007 of the Romanian Pandacte, November 2007 Methods and procedures to prevent insolvency, Supplement II/2008 of the Business Law Magazine - Regarding the safety provided by court to small private enterprises that are on the brink of insolvency, the Judicial Courier no. 2/2009 - Private individuals insolvency. A long-expected regulation, the Fiscal Courier, no.12/2009 - Lessons to be learned from insolvency – General Motors and Chrysler, the Romanian Business Law Magazine, no. 4/2009 - Enterprises safeguard procedures that are in financial embarrassment, the Romanian Business Law Magazine, no. 1/2010   Translated by Coșoianu MirceaMTTLC, University of Bucharest