moldovanmonitor

September 2004 Click here for previous months & more photos

I can remember crossing the "frontier" into Transdnestr nearly ten years for a day trip. Rather like the assortment of mafiosi, unreconstructed communists and army officers that run the place, I was pretending that I was leaving Moldova for a while, and I found myself being welcomed with a large sign announcing BINE ATI VENIT ( the Moldovan (Romanian) for welcome), but sarcastically written in Cyrillic (Russian) script. Imagine if you will, being forced to write your native English using the Greek or Cyrillic alphabet in an effort to marginalise you from your own culture and sense of nationhood.
This was, effectively, what happened in the days of the Soviet Union, and what continues to happen, in microcosm in Transdnestr. OK, it's not the killing fields or the Gulag, but the effect on community relations can be fraught- this BBC article reports on the new term starting in Moldovan- language schools in the breakaway region.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, there is no solution to the Transdnestr problem on the horizon: President Voronin, according to Interfax, is trying to get further international involvement to resolve the issue. Whether or not joining the EU, a stated aim (even if is is at the moment a pipe-dream) of Voronin would help is a moot point. At least Poland is allegedly trying to help.

I just about managed to stay awake dring the speech President Voronin gave to a very empty-looking United Nations General Assembly. He's no great orator: perhaps he should have tried banging his shoe on the lectern.

Finally, click here for some interesting and more recent (2000-02) photos of Moldova from a Mr David Martin. A triumph of content over style.

Mike's Monthly Moldovan Monitor

Map of Moldova, courtesy of
the Library of Congress

Useful Moldovan Links

Photos from my 6 months in Moldova 1994-95. Click to enlarge!

A winter scene in Chisinau..

A house in Soroca, Northern Moldova (not typical of the others, sadly!)

The not atypical street in Chisinau where I lived for three months

Lenin still has an influence in Tiraspol, capital of breakaway Transnistria

Wales score against Moldova, but were eventually rolled over 3-2

It has to be said that Moldova is one of the more obscure independent states to have emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union, having had previous existences as a province of Romania, Russia and the Soviet Union. Perhaps it was this very obscurity that led me to spend six months there as an unqualified voluntary English Teacher in 1994-95. Click here for more information & photos from then.

The idea of this page, however is to present a monthly digest of what's been happening in Moldova. You never know, I might get around to updating it... text in underlined red is a link to the news story concerned.

BASA News Agency in Moldova (official, in English)

Moldova Government (Romanian & Russian only)_

BBC profile of Moldova (national anthem included!)

The CIA'S factbook entry on Moldova

Here's what the Foreign Office says

Moldova for Travellers

Moldova-the Undiscovered Country by Andrew Wilson thoughts from a 2001 visit

A REAL Moldovan's website

Lonely Planet: Moldova

Moldova Azi -(Moldova Today)