My name is Casey. I’m from Memphis, Tennessee and am an alumnus of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Vanderbilt University Law School. I live in Washington, DC.
What follows: most recently, commentary on events in Moldova/eastern Europe/the post-Soviet sphere, some mediocre photography, and the life adjustments a Southerner/Returned Peace Corps Volunteer must make upon moving to DC; before that, postcards and dispatches from my life and travels as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Moldova, where I taught English from June 2009 until September 2010.
For a brief intro to everything I’ve written about Moldova (since the archives of the site are basically unnavigable), I’ve made a list of some of the more popular pieces I’ve written:
Recurring features
Trips
- Transylvania: part I; part II; part III; part IV; part V; part VI; part VII; part VIII; part IX
- Serbia and Bosnia
Most popular dispatches, in rough chronological order
- Sic Semper Porkus
- On Frumosity
- Tales from the Moldovan Sticks
- In Which Three Gringos Do the Moldovan Squat
- Where the East Ends and the West Begins
- On the Creepiness of Russian Facebook
- On Dating in Moldova
- Moldova’s Bright Future
- Homecoming
- Reverse Culture Shock Rears Its Hipster Head
- In Which I Discover the Wrong Kind of Attention From the Opposite Sex
If it’s photos you want, you can click visit my Flickr (the link is also up top) or here. You can also click on the Random button at the top to get a random post.
You can also follow me Twitter (@onebloceast), where I’ll mostly post articles/essays I read that I find interesting.
ABOUT MOLDOVA
Moldova is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania at the point where the northeast Balkan peninsula meets the end of the central Eurasian steppe.The Roman Emperor Trajan conquered the area in the early second century AD, and he left behind some of his legionnaires to set up a colonial government. Romanians (and Moldovans) claim to be descended from these Romans, since they (the Romanians and Moldovans) look vaguely Mediterranean and speak a Romance language. Perhaps this is only odd or noticeable because they are surrounded by Slavs and Tartars; whether this story of Romanian origins is true is debatable.
What is now Moldova was part of a small principality known as Moldavia in the Middle Ages. This principality enjoyed its heyday during the late 15th century while under the leadership of Stefan cel Mare, who managed to preserve Moldavia’s independence in the face of an onslaught of Hungarians and Ottomans. Those heady days were short-lived, though, because following Stefan’s death in 1504, the region came under Ottoman control. The Turks would eventually cede Moldavia’s eastern half — known as Bessarabia — to the Russians in 1812. (Bessarabia’s boundaries, the Dniester and the Prut rivers, are nearly identical to modern Moldova’s.) The Russians more or less kept control of Bessarabia until 1918, when all of greater Moldavia was united with Romania. Stalin seized Bessarabia in 1940, then lost it when the Nazis and Romanians invaded a year later, then took the area back again in 1944, incorporating it into the USSR as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Republic of Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union on August 27, 1991. Modern Moldova covers an area roughly the size of Maryland, and its population now numbers about 4 million. Moldova’s economy is primarily based on agriculture, especially viticulture and sunflowers. The official language is Moldovan, which is either a dialect of or identical to Romanian, depending on the political orientation of whomever you ask. Everyone in Moldova speaks Russian, and depending on where you go in Moldova you may come across people who know no Romanian at all.
Modern Moldova confronts a number of difficult issues. From the U.S. State Department’s 2009 Human Rights Report on Moldova:
Moldova is a republic with a form of parliamentary democracy. The country has an estimated total population of 3.95 million, including 532,000 in the secessionist-controlled region of Transnistria. An estimated 900,000 citizens, including approximately 250,000 Transnistrians, lived outside the country. The constitution provides for a multiparty democracy with legislative and executive branches, as well as an independent judiciary and a clear separation of powers between them; however, under the previous government led by the Party of Communists (PCRM), which was in power until September 25, the three branches of government were heavily influenced by the president. On April 5, the country held parliamentary elections that failed to fully comply with international standards. In that election the ruling PCRM increased its previous majority in parliament. Following that parliament’s failure to elect a president, as prescribed by law, new parliamentary elections took place on July 29, and the four opposition parties won enough seats to establish a governing coalition, known as the Alliance for European Integration, which entered office on September 25. International observers noted some of the same problems in the July elections as in April but also reported improvement in the electoral process. On September 11, parliament appointed Mihai Ghimpu interim president. Civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.
Security forces committed killings and engaged in widespread beatings and unlawful detentions during and after the April 7-8 election-related protests. Security forces beat persons in custody and while apprehending them, and they held some persons in incommunicado detention. Prison conditions remained harsh. Under the previous government, security forces occasionally harassed and intimidated the political opposition and media. There were reports of police corruption, arbitrary detention by police, and occasional illegal searches. The government attempted to influence the media and intimidate journalists, maintained some restrictions on freedom of assembly, and refused official registration to some religious groups. Judicial corruption was a problem. Persistent societal violence and discrimination against women and children, trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation and men for labor, discrimination against Roma, difficulties registering minority religious groups, limits on workers’ rights, and child labor were also reported.
Following the April 5 parliamentary election and announcement that the PCRM had increased its majority, a group of between 10,000 and 15,000 persons gathered in Chisinau on April 7 to protest the election results. Protesters initially demonstrated peacefully, and police largely stood by and did not intervene. During the course of the day, a small group of demonstrators began to throw rocks at the police. Violence intensified as protestors set fire to the parliament building and severely damaged the presidential building. Several protesters and approximately 200 police officers were injured. After midnight, as police used force in an attempt to disperse the remaining demonstrators; human rights groups alleged that security forces killed as many as three persons. That night and during the days that followed, police arrested more than 300 demonstrators; many reported being beaten and abused while being taken into custody and while in detention. During the days that followed, security forces conducted a campaign of harassment and intimidation against members of the political opposition, journalists, and others assumed to be opponents of the PCRM government. Plainclothes police abducted and detained persons suspected of involvement in the protests. Security forces beat journalists and destroyed cameras; plainclothes police abducted and detained the editor of an independent newspaper. Police visited high schools and universities, seeking the identities of protesters and threatening students with expulsion if they participated in protests. Following the disturbances on the night of April 7-8, crowds declined rapidly, and demonstrations ceased within a few days. The arbitrary arrests also ceased.
In 1990 separatists supported by Soviet military forces declared a “Transdniester Moldovan Republic” (Transnistria) in the area along the eastern border with Ukraine. The central government had very limited authority in the region, and Transnistrian authorities governed through parallel administrative structures. The most commonly spoken language in the region was Russian, although many Transnistrians spoke Romanian and Ukrainian as their mother tongue. A 1992 ceasefire agreement established a tripartite peacekeeping force composed of Moldovan, Russian, and Transnistrian units. Transnistrian residents were prevented from voting in both rounds of Moldova’s parliamentary elections in April and July. Transnistrian authorities held “legislative” elections in 2005 and “presidential” elections in 2006. Transnistrian elections were neither recognized nor monitored by international organizations.
In Transnistria authorities restricted the ability of residents to freely change their government and interfered with the ability of Moldovan citizens living in Transnistria to vote in Moldovan elections. Transnistrian residents were expected to vote in the 2005 and 2006 Transnistrian elections, but some individuals were unable to freely run as candidates, while authorities prevented the media from reporting freely on candidates or issues. Torture and arbitrary arrest and detention continued to be reported, and prison conditions remained harsh. Transnistrian authorities continued to harass independent media and opposition lawmakers; restrict freedom of association, movement, and religion; and discriminate against Romanian speakers. Trafficking in persons was a problem.
This report highlights two of the major human rights issues in Moldova today: trafficking in women for sexual exploitation and the abuses perpetrated by secessionist Transnistrian authorities.
Should you care to learn more about the history of the Balkans or what life in eastern Europe and the post-Soviet world is like, feel free to contact me. You can reach me at:
Or, even better: you can simply click ‘Ask’ at the top of the page to send me a question.
If you like my blog, please hit the ‘follow’ button at the top right-hand corner of the page, and then recommend my blog for the Tumblr Directory.
Finally, I’m supposed to tell you that the views expressed on this website are entirely my own, and do not represent those of the Peace Corps or the United States government. You’ve been told.
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