Final letter to self

Dear Mihai,

You’ve finished your first year at Cov Uni, hopefully. I am a bit disappointed in you because you managed to fail two of your coursework. I know you had some problems this year but you should’ve been a professional journalist, forget them and concentrate on your work. I guess it won’t happen again  this year, or better say, it better not happen. Anyway, you sent your resit exams and I am confident that you will pass.

The summer is almost over and you’ll start the second year! What did you do this summer? Oh, yes, you got your DJ job back at Radio Prahova. Heh, you worked this summer but it was a productive one. More experience, you had fun with your colleagues there and the money isn’t bad either. It’s still recession, you know. And I almost forgot that you had lots of fun with your friends. Great job, mate!

Well, have fun this year and hope to hearing from you soon!

PS: Don’t forget to write your summer articles!!!

The 3 little things

In choosing your career, there must be some factors that helps you decide easier. In my case, I chose journalism and media due to more that 3 little things, but I shall limit myself. Two of them are very personal to me and the last one is a general case which I bet many journalists are inspired.

The first one, as I mentioned in previous blog posts, is the fact that since 2008-2009 I’ve worked at a local radio station, called Radio Prahova. This was my first professional encounter with journalism which absolutely blew my mind. When you enter a professionalstudio with trained people, you immediately get caught up in the “web” that is the media and if you really enjoy it, you work VERY hard to be a part of it. Being constantly very well informed with the national and international news, you have an advantage over the rest of the people, more things to talk about and become very sociable. You learn to handle problems very well under pressure, you become more confident and, of course, more satisfied with your life.  However, the thing I love when I work here is that the whole team there form a very unite family, in which every person form a wheel and “carry” the whole station.

The second thing that made me decide to pursue journalism is the fact that my mother’s uncle was a journalist too. He was against the communist regime that ruled the country in that period, and used to write underground anti-communist and anti-Ceausescu articles.However, the was betrayed by his fellow writers and imprisoned for some time for being a “country traitor”. He got off jail in 1974, but due to harsh conditions and torture that he suffered there, he died 8 months later. He is one of my role models and just by following his courage and ambition, I could be a great journalist like him.

The third factor, as I said is more general, but probably the most important: INFORMATION. In my opinion, the worlds best currency is definitely not money, but information. A well informed man is a prepared, powerful and confident man. However,information can be powerful as well as dangerous. I want to be a journalist, to use the influence of information to change the world in a better place, at least on a small scale at first. I know this is a cliché, but just because it is what every journalist should do. A well used information can stop world leaders to make the wrong decision and to open the audience’s eyes and see the world as it is. Maybe this way people will stop being indifferent and rise against the wrong.

Chris Nathaniel, the football “dealer” – Coventry Conversations

The dream of all football fans is to meet their favorite players, but how would it be if you actually managed them?

Chris Nathaniel is the CEO of NVA Entertainment group, which is one of the best companies working in the sports and entertainment industry. He is currently working with football superstars such as Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Obafemi Martins, Ryan Babel, Robinho and so on, and is one of the most influential and powerful black person in Britain.

The Coventry Conversation in which he spoke, was held on the 12th of February and the interview was carried by professor John Mair. The conversations starts by talking about his most important clients, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry. He talks about the recent scandals the two ere involved, especially John Terry which is in a constant war with the press. This advantaged Ferdinand as he was then the captain of the English team. He disagrees with all mean press articles about his players and thinks that “He should be for what he does on the football field, because this is what he gets paid for”. Another scandal in which he was directly involved was with the Newcastle Striker, Obafemi Martins. The player hadn’t paid his fees in over 6 months and owed Nathaniel over £300.000. However, Chris lost the court case, due to some contract misunderstandings. Asked of what is the best way to deal with a press scandal, he said that “I would always believe that honesty is the best policy, in that way you could hold your head up high.”

He emphasized that he is not a star or football agent, that his company is different: “I chose not to register as an agent because I want to do lots of different things.” This means it doesn’t limit at just transfers and arranging gigs and press conferences, he tries to be in touch with his clients and offer them a wider range of choices.

On the matter of discrimination in the world of football, mostly the fact that there are very few black managers and no woman manager in England, he thinks that it is just a matter of who is better, who is more professional and skillful : ““You want someone who is going to win things for you”.

His company doesn’t deal just with football players. They manage stars such as Katie Prive, the girl group Mis-teeq, Usain Bolt and many others. This means that his company is one of the best, in terms of managing people in entertainment and sports.

At the end of the conversation he encourages all children to follow their dream, to focus on what they really want and work hard for it. This is the way of the success!

The Vicar of Baghdad – Coventry Conversation

This is not actually a Coventry Conversation, it is part of the opening ceremony for the Conference of European University Chaplains held at our beloved Coventry University on the 23rd of June. In the Holy Trinity Church, Reverend Canon Andrew White, the “Vicar of Baghdad”, held a speech in front of a solemn audience.

Being in the city of “Peace and Reconciliation”, the reverend could not speak of anything else but this subject. He characterizes Coventry as “the real city of reconciliation. At its very heart there is the message of enemy becoming friends, that is indeed hat the city stands for; it’s an issue that’s not only take seriously by the council, the University, but by the Cathedral.” And even though he likes very much Coventry ( he was even a bishop here), Reverend White puts emphasis on the issue of peace, reconciliation and social justice in Baghdad. He speaks of 4 R’s that we should keep in mind when speaking of reconciliation.

The most important one is Relationship, which he declares that “unless we establish relationships, we cannot begin the work of reconciliation”. The vicar considers this is the key in making peace, and as en example he says that: “People often ask me how do we work with Muslims like you do? And I answer: EAT with them.” He is responsible not only for the Church in Baghdad, which is the biggest in Iraq, but even for reconciliation with the Iraqi government and sometimes with the American one. The biggest challenge was to bring peace between the Shia and the Sunni Muslims, through religion, which took almost 2 years and it is not even fully done. The main job in reconciliation is to establish relationships between the two parts. Even though it may seem a joke, the reverend declares that not the muslims are the biggest problems for him in Iraq, it’s the Christians, especially the bishops.

Even though reconciliation between people of different faiths may seem hard, the vicar declares “We all love God!”, which brings us together as brothers. “Peace is love, even love your enemy” says reverend White, which was shot at, bombed, kidnapped various times, tortured and still has only love for the Muslims in Iraq.

It is about taking risks for reconciliation. Risk is the second R necessary for reconciliation, and without it we cannot live in peace. Vicar  White declares that we cannot live a peaceful life unless we take this risks.

The third R is Relief. Which is the issue of giving back to the others who do not have much. The church in Baghdad, has over 4000 people in its membership and the revered gives food for the people, as well as medical care. The church clinic is actually open freely for anyone, not only Christian.

The fourth R is Reconciliation itself, but without the first 3 we cannot even see reconciliation.

Coventry Conversation – Dr. Mike Short

The conversation series “Healthy debates at Coventry”, on the 15th of July, has managed to bring Dr Mike Short, the Vice-president of Telefonica Europe O2. He was invited to talk about the importance of using the mobile technology within the NHS. As he said, he approached this conversation from the point of view of a “computer scientist more than a doctor”.

On his agenda there are 5 main subjects of discussions, which are  the International reach of ICT background, the connectivity for health, the human factors, social care and wellness and of course Health 2.0.

If referring to the ICT background, Dr Short showed a chart where he stated that 67% of the global population own a mobile phone, while 25.9% are using the Internet. This clearly shows a significant growth in the last 10 years of technology users around the globe. This means we are all connected together, through different social networks, and will adopt new habits and new services will flourish in the near future. Dr Short emphasizes the fact that all this innovative mobile technology could be used in healthcare as well. As an example, which I made me attentive, is that he deaf people can use an iPhone, because all the speech can be transformed into text. And there were other examples with extraordinary results.

Some of his ideas include a digital switchover strategy for health such as access, messaging, email, location, data access and sharing and data security. In his opinion, this kind of innovation will bring efficiency and will reduce the risk of medical data loss. Another idea is the connectivity between different life monitoring devices with our everyday PC’s, laptops, smartphones etc. It will keep data more precise and will monitor your health constantly. This will mean internet based medical records, which means that diseases could be detected must faster and will help doctors to diagnose easier. Many devices will be on market soon that can help us do this and he encourages this kind of techniques.

As for Health 2.0 business models, Dr Short presented some slide with these principles, such as: the guilty, the workforce, the supermarket, the wisdom of (sick) crowds, the Gullible (alternative healthcare), the drug dealers (pharmacies) and the third world.

Dr Smart stated his conclusions as here: “The only constant is change”

“Human factors are key, but so is evidence. Wireless measurement and Internet will both have a growing role”

“With an ageing society we will need new model for social care”

“Health 2.0 is an international and collaborative health service.”

Extracurricular Activities and their influence to my journalistic discipline

In order to be a good journalist, I think that you must fill your time with any interesting activity you can find and satisfy all your curiosities by pursuing what you desire the most. This will keep me alert all the time and will eventually make me react and think faster and will keep me calm under pressure, which I think that are the qualities that every journalist should have. Therefore I always enjoy doing extracurricular activities, mostly the ones I really like and cherish.

Zapodia Pro-Nature Organisation

When I was 15, I joined a environmental organisation, called Zapodia, founded by some friends of mine back home in Ploiesti, Romania. At first it was a modest gathering between friends, with big plans and initiatives, especially because Ploiesti is a highly polluted industrial city with 3 large oil refineries. But in just a year’s time, it had over 50 members, it got sponsorship deals from different companies and from the city mayor, then started actually doing the actions we planned. Since then, we had over 40 cleaning actions in our county and over 30 in others, was declared one of the best environmental organisation on local grounds and has over 100 members. Even though I am currently mostly living in Britain, I spend all my vacations back home and I help them as much as I can, and even contributed from 1500 miles away with ideas, suggestions and campaign work.

While helping and campaigning the association, I realized how indifference the people have when talking about conserving the environment that we all try to live in and the insensibility of the CEO’s of large polluting companies. I learned to treasure even the little things and to take side of the righteous. When campaigning with Zapodia, I realized what precious power journalism has to offer, when by the help of the local press we managed to convinced people to start recycling, protect the environment and respect the nature, from children to even large companies. I learned that thorough perseverance and following the right path, you can even change the world through journalism, in a good way, of course. Also, here I started to write and post my first journalistic articles, which helped me later.

Radio Prahova

Radio Prahova is a local radio station from back home, which is considered to be the best local station in Romania.  In 2008 I entered their campaign of training young DJs. Through hard work I managed to be the one, out of 10 contestants, to work full time there. I’ve worked here since the spring of 2009 and since I got into the UK, I work there only in vacations, even where the time is short. I’ve put this as an extracurricular activity, even though I got paid for it, because I never considered it as a job, more as an educational place which I go with enthusiasm.

Here is where I actually realized and learned what professional journalism is, and was even trained every day by experienced news reporters, radio DJs and news editors. They instantly “injected” me with my passion for journalism which was fed by my natural curiosity and ambition. I gained VALUABLE experience here, and due to this radio station I chose my future career, as a journalist.

Coventry Salsa Club

I’ve joined the Coventry Salsa, Latin Foundry, club at the beginning of my first academic year, in the pursuit of learning some new dance moves and, why not, to meet women. Well now, the question is, how can a salsa club influence my journalistic career in any way. Well, most of the lesson where held in the SQ club, where you could enjoy a nice beverage afterwards. And as all of the members were exhausted at the end of the lesson, we all started talking to each other, even though we were all from different backgrounds and different ages. When I got in Coventry, I had minor socializing problems, which I managed to get rid off at this club, and even improved my English and my verbal skills. Also, every person knows a bit of information that most of all are willing to pass on an can prove to be an important news. By being now friends with my salsa partners, I managed to get some information that helped my write some pretty good articles.

The Usual Suspects – Critical Film Review

“The Usual Suspects” is a 1995 film, directed by Bryan Singer (Public Access, Valkyrie), which stars some great actors such as Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Torro, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak and so on. I chose to make a review for  this 15 year old film because I think, due to the story and ending, it is one of the best films ever made.

The screening starts with the scene of a burning boat in the San Pedro pier, in which the police finds 27 bodies and 91 million dollars worth of heroin. The only survivors and witnesses are a severely burned Hungarian terrorist (Morgan Hunter) and a crippled ex-convict, Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey). Even though the terrorist is hospitalized he still he testifies that Keyser Soze, a Turkish terrorist, is responsible for the incident at the pier. The rest of the testimony comes from Verbal, who starts his story 6 weeks before the present, when he and other 4 con-men were rounded up for questioning and a line up. Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Torro), Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak) and, of course, Verbal Kint were the usual suspects. From now on, the storyline revolves around them and Keyser Soze.

Being imprisoned in the same cell, McManus convinces the to  put up a new robbery plan which they manage to fulfill, together with another one which was a complete failure because it was a bogus target. They find out that the man who gave them the fake robbery was Kobayashi (Pete Postelthwaite) which later they find out that it is Soze’s lawyer and right hand. Being scared by the powerful mafia leader, they accept the mission Kobayashi offers them with the reward of 91 million dollars. Fenster is killed by Soze because he tried to run away. Meanwhile, in the present, the police are trying to find out who is really behind the boat explosion.

Verbal continues his story, in which the 4 remaining go on their mission at the boat in San Pedro. They all get killed, in different circumstances, except for Verbal. As his story is finished, the US customs officer lets him go, and as Verbal exits the police station, they realize that Verbal Kint was actually Keyser Soze, which excapes from them. The director lets the public to decide which parts of the story are true.

Using the retrospective techniques, the flashbacks, Bryan Singer manages to create 3 major scenes: the boat scene, Verbal’s past story scene and the present scene with the police investigations and with the interrogation. By doing this, he creates a unique dynamical storyline, which very few films have, making this a constant thriller. This techniques were used in the action films from the 40’s, which transformed even mediocre scripts into brilliant thrillers. The most important, exciting and the key to the success of this film is the ending, in which the police, together with the audience, realizes that Verbal was actually Keyser Soze and his story was the most deceptive testimony ever said. This shocks the viewers and leaves them with a great feeling that it was worth watching this great film.

Edge of Darkness – Critical Film Review

“Edge of Darkness” is an adaptation from the British TV series of the same name, directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro) and starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstonem and Danny Huston. This is was a surprise for me, as Gibson postponed his directing career and started acting again, the job that made him famous.

The screening presents the story of a Boston homicide detective, Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson), which has his only daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic) for a visit. During this visit, she gets shot at the door of his own home by a masked man. At first, Craven thought he was the intended target. If this was the plot, the story would have a classic thriller walk-through, policeman relative getting shot for intimidation, then the struggle to find and bring down the criminal. The same impression gave me the beginning of this film, but I then remembered who is the director and armed myself with patience and curiosity.

After starting his investigations, he finds out that Emma had a pistol in her night stand and begins to think that she was actually the intended target. He finds out some leads and he becomes more and more certain that the killer shot the right target. He pursues the information with all costs and finds out that her daughter led a secret life, as a activist agent, trying to uncover that Northmoor, the company she worked for, was secretly producing nuclear weapons. He immediately discovers that the CEO of the corporation, Jack Bennnett (Danny Huston), ordered Emma’s assassination.Meanwhile, a Government agent, Darius Jedburgh, is sent to kill Craven before he finds out even more, but they get along and Jedburgh decides to let him continue the investigation. This is a vital part, as the agent breaks a direct order and even establishes a friendship relation with Craven; the director managing to capture a audience’s attention with this move.

After further investigations, the detective manages to find out the exact plans of the company and that many knew about them, the fact that he and his daughter were poisoned with Thallium and what his daughter was planning to do at the company. During all this information gathering, the action is very alert keeping the viewers in a constant thrill. This is what a most enjoyed at this film, the fact that it is an actual professional thriller.
After being certain who the criminals are and finding out that he has few weeks to live, he decides to go at Bennett’s house and kills the mercenary that murdered Emma. Eventually, after giving Bennett the same milk poisoned with Thallium, Craven shoots him in the throat. While he lies dying in hospital, he gives a journalist a DVD with all the Northmoor plans. On the second plan, Jedburgh, who is also suffering from a terminal illness, meets with the senator behind the whole corporation plan and kills him for hat he had done.

Even though I was expecting a average thriller, after viewing the film for 15 minutes, Martin Campbell, with his great skills and talent, managed to create a professional story, perfect for the talent and reputation of the actors. It kept me in a increasing suspense, which made this film a great one. However, there were a few parts that could’ve been more dynamic and less dramatic, but it seems the emphasis was put on the drama and mystery. Mel Gibson, as usual, managed to use his talent fully, even though it passed some time since he last acted, but you could read the drama and grief in every facial expression. His theatrical skills were very useful here, as he is definitely the perfect actor for this part.

It perfectly merges the classic mystery/murder films with the modern touches of the present. Great film !

Shinjuku Incident – Critical Film Review

This is a film that I enjoyed watching, even if I prefer large cinemas, but the former film theater, the Ellen Terry building, has a unique atmosphere.

First of all, the “clown prince of Kung-Fu”, Jackie Chan, has a totally different approach on this film,  his role being very dramatic, even though we are used to him being hilarious, especially in the fight scenes. We can almost feel that for him, the subject of the screening has a personal meaning.

The “Shinjuku Incident” follows the story of a tractor repairman, Tietou (Jackie Chan), from a small village in China, nicknamed Steelhead, who is missing his girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Jinglei Xu), and worries after she emigrates in Japan and goes missing. He then decides to illegally emigrate in Japan as well and search for Xiu. This is the classic case of the female presence (spouse, girlfriend, daughter) that flees away and never sends any news of her whereabouts, and the male hero that goes to find and save her. This is a particular case though, as he is not trained for any kind of combat or has any special qualities, just ambition and perseverance.

The plot thickens after he loses all his Chinese documents and money while running from a police raid. However, he founds a large group of illegal Chinese immigrants which helps him to find a place to stay and a job in Shinjuku. At a raid organised by the Japanese police, he saves Inspector Kitano (Naoto Takenaka) from drowning in the sewers. Later on, the plot thickens, even more, after an accidental conflict, his cousin Jie (Daniel Wu) messes with a Taiwanese gang leader and gets mutilated. Steelhead manages to revenge his cousin and in this process he saves the life of the Yakuza boss Toshinari Eguchi (Masaya Kato). We can observe that the calm, scared and honest Tietou becomes saturated with anger and slowly transforms into the leader of the underprivileged Chinese immigrant mob. Jackie Chan manages in a very professional way to emphasize this aspect, the pain and anger being very visible in his character’s eyes. The simple farm boy, now becomes the hero we all expected from the beginning.

After saving the Yakuza leader from certain death, Toshinari wishes to repay Steelhead and brings him to his home. This is probably the climax of the story, because Tietou finds out that Xiu Xiu is now Toshinari’s wife and has a child with him. Hoping he can still have Xiu and for the fate of his fellow immigrants, he accepts Euguci’s dirty jobs, in exchange he becomes the leader of the quarter in Shinjuku dominated by the Taiwanese gang. However, being a honest leader, he cannot resist in a world based only on illegal actions> He becomes more and more unpopular with his people, which finally betrays him and starts a bloody gang war which doesn’t have a happy ending. Many Chinese die in this battle, even Toshinari; Tietou manages to escape the war field but then he bleeds to death and drowns in the sewers he previously saved the inspector. However, on his last breath he gives Kitano the flash drive that contained vital information about the Yakuza.

It is remarkable that the main character remained the same until the end, following his main goal, to reunite with his love, but then got caught up in his other purpose, to help the Chinese people in Shinjuku, which brought him to death. Even though it may seem a story about a man’s struggle to find his lost girlfriend, this is actually the secondary story. The main subject is the life of the Chinese immigrants before the economic boom in China, and their everyday struggle to survive. The director Tung-Shing “Derek” Yee, managed with skilled professionalism to merge these two subjects together to create a very interesting and exciting gangster/drama/thriller film. It can be compared with the american mafia films and still have a good review. However, some of the scenes were too brutal and bloody, making this impossible to be viewed by children and young teenagers, even though it can be very educational.

Referring to Jackie Chan, all can I say is great job! One of his best films, and he managed to play very professional his theatrical parts. I never would’ve thought that the “Drunk Master” can play such a drama. Bravo!

Cabinet of Curiosities part II

The following pictures will show why and how I chose journalism as a future career and endless passion.

Music was probably the most important factor in deciding my career and it all started with one singer, one band and one song: Michael Jackson, The Prodigy and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. Of course it’s a mix of 3 opposing genres in my opinion, but this developed my curiosity in listening to all kinds of music.

Of course, when I was a child, the easiest and fastest way to listening to music was the radio. I instantly had an attraction towards radio stations and my only Christmas gift when I was 8 was a radio-cassette player.

When you are listening to radio, apart from the music, you also hear the news, whether you like it or not. At first I was changing the stations looking for more music, but then I was captivated by the international and national affairs, and being a bit rebellious for my age, I started discussing these matters with my parents. I always thought that every conflict can be resolved through diplomacy. ALWAYS!

Over the years, I got more interested in history, foreign languages, writing and speaking in public, and of course music. When I was 18, I was given th opportunity to become a young DJ at the local radio station (the best in Romania) and to write at its newspaper, with the proper training, of course. From 10 candidates, only 3 were to be chosen, one to be a full-time DJ and the other two for weekends. After 6 months of hard working, I was the lucky one to be the full-time employee. “Damn, who would’ve thought?’

There is one person who taught me everything about radio, how to be a DJ, how to write news, how to act as a journalist, what to do, what not to do and it is, in my opinion, the best journalist, advertiser and colleague I ever had. Thank you Mircea Nicoara !