Székelyek

It is always hard to explain for me that I am from Romania but I am a Hungarian. People from Asia just can’t get it how am I a Hungarian when I am from Romania. So as I already said, I use the phrase: I am from Transilvania and I am a Szekely. Maybe this makes my colleagues at work to cut out pictures with me and put them on their desk and cubicles :):):)

Anyway, just to recap of where I am from and what are my origins :) Here is a short history of the szekely population (from the net):

The Székely ('sék-ei' in pronunciation) or Szeklers, (Hungarian: Székely, Romanian: Secui, German: Szekler, Latin: Sicul), are a Hungarian ethnic group mostly living in the counties of Harghita, Covasna and Mureş in Romania. Most of the world's Székely population live in Romania and they are tightly concentrated in an area informally known as Székelyföld (Szekler Land).

The Székely were considered the finest warriors of medieval Transylvania. The Székely are of uncertain origins, subject to much debate among themselves and among scholars. A widespread theory asserts that they descend from the warrior tribe lands, on which the Magyars soon settled, along frontier mountains to defend against invasions from Tatars and other menacing people from the east. Székely people adhere proudly to their Hungarian identity.
Theories have been advanced suggesting Avar (most of the recent theories), Gepid, Scythian (Scoloti), or Hunnish ancestry, and some have dated their presence in the Eastern Carpathians as early as the fifth century. Personally I like the Hunnish part, as I am having the name Attila (the HUN).

Many scholars believe in a two-fold Hungarian migration of Transylvania and the Pannonian Plain, one prior to the main Magyar conquest of the Pannonian Plain in 896. According to this theory, the Székely are a Hungarian group that settled in Transylvania during this first migration. But this sounds fairly good for me :):):)

The Sun and Moon are the symbols of Székelys, as can also be seen in the coat of arms of Transylvania.

They have largely succeeded in preserving their traditions to an extent unusual even in Central and Eastern Europe. The most comprehensive description of the Székely Land and traditions was written between 1859-1868 by Balázs Orbán in his masterpiece, Description of Székely land.

Finally that’s me in Székely popular costume :):):)

The funny part with all this szekely thing is that if I look at the traits of the Szekelys az a nation, I posess a lot of elements from those. Just reading the books with Szekely characters (sorry, most of these books are in hungarian), or just reading all the jokes with the Szekelys.

Here are two jokes I like:

Three Szekelys are on the Hargita mountains, against them 3 millions of Chinese wanting to invade Szekelyland. The leader is shaking his head and saying:
- Ajaj, we are in big big trouble?
- Why? You are not afraid my friend, right? Sais one of his fellow szekelys.
- I am not afraid at all - replies the szekely - but God knows where we can burry so many Chinese.

And the second joke (for those who know that I am not that talkative):

Two szekely meet in the forest:
- God bless you!
- God bless you!
They sit down near an old tree. After a half an hour it starts raining.
- It started to rain.
- Yup…
After half an hour the forest guardian passes by with his rain jacket on and he is stunned:
- What are you doing here guys in the pouring rain?
- We are just having a long discussion!

And if I am at the entertainment part, here is my favourite song these days (not related to szekelys at all):

Clean Singapore

I have never seen something like this in my life. Whenever it rains, these guys take this special machine to dry the area in front of the office. It is just funny… There are 30 degrees Celsius outside and anyway the whole area would be dry in max half an hour…. It seems that cheap labor can make people to think of crazy things…

Another shocking thing in Singapore is that they wash the pavements quite regularly with high pressure water and the bigger shopping malls would wash the pavement in front of the mall with some special liquid. Well, it rains quite a lot in Singapore as it is a tropical island, so I have no clue why is there a need for washing the pavement. It is true that there is no dust on the street… but still, there is too much of wasting energy and precious water…. Singapore is clean and looks like a clinic or hospital and I really like that. However I wonder whether they will be able to maintain this huge work force cleaning the whole city when the wages will rise even more here… Because by default people tend to litter here as well (sometimes as much as back home) and now it is clean mainly because of the huge cleaning bonanza that is happening here 24/7. Or they think that there always be foreign workers from the 1 billion poor people of Asia that will do it for few bucks, even if the anti-littering education campaigns fail?

Impossible is nothing if you just do it!!!

I run yesterday 10 km. I never thought that I could do it, because I have never tried it. But one of my diving colleagues had a meeting planned with me to catch up on how things are going. However she said that she needs to run, because next week she runs the marathon. So I said that I can run with her and we can just go for a drink after. But when I found out that she was running 10 km, I got a little bit shocked. I said to myself that at least I will test my limits and my fitness.

And I did it, without dying in the meantime or at the end. So I am in good shape, haha :):) Today I just feel so good, so light and free of all the negative energy that gets accumulated during the day to day life. Maybe next year I will run the marathon myself, I have one year to prepare. :):):) Now I said to myself that I need to try the next level as well. She is running 18 km next week, so I might just try that as well. If I can run 20 km, then it means that I can run from my home town to my grandparent’s place, which is half marathon. :):):):) Isn’t that cool? Impossible is nothing if you just do it!!!

Taxes, Violin, a hot Baby and fighter planes

With shaking hands I pushed the button which transfers lots of money to the Singaporean government. Yeah it’s tax paying time, but at least you can do it online. I was assessing whether I got good service from the Singaporean government for that amount of money, whether it worth the money or not. Can’t decide… At least BJs should be legal for that amount, haha :):):)… However here is a funny quote from my tax slip: “You have to pay this amount whether or not you have any objection” …. Sounds like a letter from the tax office huh? I can write in 30 days if I have any objections and consider that it is not good value for money what the government provides? (or if I want to challenge their way of calculations rather, haha) :):):). But still have to pay without comments.

Singaporean taxation is fairly good (low rates) and I think that it is not so complex compared to other countries (tax systems are always complex I guess), however one never likes to pay taxes. So I just try to get rid of this frustration… ignore it if it is a lot of nonsense I am writing in this post. At least I know where my money goes; here is another quote from my tax slip: “Thank you for your contribution towards nation building!” . At least it gives you a good feeling that you serve a grand purpose. I wish I could opt for a charity though…

My good friend, Imran, gave me his violin for a while, so I started to play the violin again. I haven’t played for a long time (like 7 years +), so it sounds a bit rusty, however I was so happy that I could still remember some of the folk songs I used to play. It will take a while till I will be able to play the Romanian Rhapsody as a serenade, but by the end of the year I should at least know all the folk songs we used to play in the folk band when I was younger. My fingers are not that fast now (on the violin!), still looking for the right position for the different notes, but yeah… it takes time… lots of time and commitment. Hope my energy will last and will be able to play some nice songs next year (Is there a tax deduction for those playing on violin in Singapore? Just wondering:):) ). Girls, be aware, I might play a serenade under your window :):):)

I think I fell in love with a baby… It was quite a while ago when I felt that I am falling in love and I need to have THE baby. But it is happening again… and can’t get it out of my head… It’s always in my mind now. I was not looking for it, just happened accidentally… on the internet for that matter… Since then I have seen it in action several times… And it’s a real baby: the Dopod 838 Pro. I need to have it!

One of my ex colleague in high school (yeah Szilard, I am talking about you) would enjoy living in Singapore because he would be able to see all those warplanes flying around each day. He was crazy for these planes (not sure if he still is) and knew the names of all combat planes and helicopters that ever existed on the planet. It’s a big contrast in Singapore that everything is nicely arranged and the city looks perfect, but sometimes it feels like a war zone with those fight planes and all the army ads and “Stay vigilant/Counter terrorism” educational ads. It is a bit weird to think that my dollars and cents will land in the pocket of the ad agency that makes those ads for example… Now that I pay taxes, I really feel that I want to have a word in where that money goes. Is this nation building? You pay taxes and you feel you want to contribute also to how the money is spent? I assume that if a government (in general, not referring to Singapore) would be able to tax all its people, and the tax bill would come just as the electricity bill (and not deduction from the salary, more as a cost of government service), then people would be more engaged in community life (to decide how they want the money to be spent, etc) and also they would hold the government more accountable. I think it is more the way you could package this tax that people pay. Of course accountability would generally not be the interests of the governments… I assume that’s why this approach is not really implemented in the world and this “I want good service for my taxes” mentality is not so strong in so many countries.

I finish here, before I start writing my first book about taxation.

Bloggers :)

Thanks Rajiv :)

Drugs, Army and Nice people in Singapore

I have been the witness of an event together with Albert and Irina and they have both wrote about it (here and here). They were quite pissed with this issue (please read their blogs). Yeah, the conclusion is that people are afraid of dealing with the government on drug issues; they would rather find ways not to deal with the authorities on this issue. However I think that generally the helpfulness of people does not necessarily depend on their nationality, but of their education back home (and sometimes religion).

I think overall Singaporeans are as helpful people as any other nation, except cab drivers (cab drivers are a different part of mankind). Two short stories that happened to me on the next days after the mentioned event, just to show that there are nice people as well in Singapore :) And to mention the positive things as well, not just the sad ones.

Story one: I was practicing my swing on the driving range and there was a guy who just started to give me some really good advice and after that we started a nice conversation and he started to teach me on how to improve my golf swing.

Story two: I was rushing to work in the morning and was trying to catch a cab. After standing at the side of the road for 10 minutes I could not catch any cab. One guy who was waiting for a taxi as well called a cab on the phone and when the cab arrived he saw me waiting there and asked me where I go. It turned out that my office is close to his, so he just took me with the cab to my office.

About drugs in Singapore: it is funny that now they “chop your head” for drug trafficking. In the early years of Singapore, just after Raffles established the first settlement here and the port, the only income the Singaporean administrative office had was the tax on opium and prostitution. So basically the early development of Singapore was based on these, because all other trade was free and there was no taxation except for opium and sexual services (check the History of Singapore made by Discovery Channel).

Now that I am writing about Singapore, here is one funnier thing. The guys who finish the army (which is 2 years) have each year a fitness test and a week or two of special training if they are fit. If you happen to eat too much chocolate, you drink too much coke (or eat too much rice lah) and you fail this yearly compulsory fitness test, then you will be sent to a special camp to train and get fit for army again. If you are fit, then you just go to this yearly normal training. It is an interesting way to make sure that you have a fit army all the time if needed .

(Songs of the day: "Bond - Victory" and "Electrico - Runaway")

Chasing Cars

Sometimes I just fell in love with a song and listen to it at least 100 times in a row. Sometimes that song can express my mood so well, that I just need to listen to it again and again. And there is this song from Snow Patrol called “Chasing cars”. It is the tenth times I listen to it…. I look at the ships … I look at the planes that will land soon and the ones that are taking off from the airport (yeah, the advantage of having an office with sea view on the 20th floor) and I look at the blue sky and the white clouds… and I just enjoy the song … and feels like flying myself…. And there is that feeling in me… the feeling of this song… It’s good. If I can feel like this, then I am still alive…. I am still human…. It’s still me…. I feel like I am loosing something, I know that I am loosing something (from my life, from inside me). But now I am sure that it is not this. Not this feeling… It’s good :)

Interesting photographs

I have found a cool website with pictures about the state of the world organized in different categories. I really liked these images:

http://www.stateoftheworld.reuters.com

Proud to buy Romanian antivirus software :)

My antivirus for my laptop has expired and needed to buy a new one. After reading few reviews we found out that the best reviews are for Bitdefender which is actually a software made by a Romanian company. It is almost the cheapest on the market and all big magazines and customer reviews placed it ahead of the big brands.

So here I am owning a Bitdefender license :):):) And I am also damn proud that I could contribute this time to the Romanian economy rather then to the US or other country's economy!

I had some other antiviruses installed before and also tried the new Microsoft antivirus, however when I installed Bitdefender, immediately found few viruses the others missed. It is cool cause it has also spam filter (still have to check how efficient this is) and antyspyware and all kind of funky stuff.

Happy so far and highly recommend it :)

An Inconvenient truth

I consider myself fairly environmental conscious and I try to be environmental friendly: I recycle, I don’t use aircon even if I live near the equatorial, I use public transportation, take my bag pack when going for shopping, etc). I travel a lot with planes though… And heard quite a lot about global warming before, however I just realized that I am totally uninformed about what the consequences really are and how bad the situation is.

I went to see Al Gore’s documentary yesterday about global warming, An inconvenient truth, and I got completely shocked. It is just awakening and an eye opening. It is fantastically well made. He is a fantastic presenter and his facts are just shocking. You can read what the critics say if you click here.

The problem with the global warming is that we can’t see an immediate consequence of it now in our life (unless you have a hurricane taking your house) and we remain passive. However the problem is real and more serious then I thought. We are in fairly big shit …. I will definitely be even more conscious about my behavior as a consumer and also as global citizen.

This movie is a must see and I think that’s should be the first step for everybody, to watch this movie. Here is the trailer:

And now there is one thing left: ACT!

Oh my God, Christmas is here!

I went today to eat my favorite “beef goulash” soup at raffles city mall (it’s like red bull for me this soup) and got completely shocked by what I found in front of the mall. A huge Christmas tree decorated and the whole street was already in red and green. Oh my god…. The tree is huge (like 10-20 m high) and it is fairly ugly (some purple flowers on it if you can imagine)…. I tried to see where it is the top of the tree but the sun made me blind. I was sweating in the 30+ degrees outside after a 500 m walk and just felt that it is completely stupid to have a Christmas tree in 30+ degrees. It just does not fit lah….

I just feel like being in summer holiday, not at all being close to Christmas. And even if for the next two months I will see Christmas trees everywhere, it won’t make me feel like getting into the Christmas spirit without snow and with 30+ degrees outside. The huge Christmas shopping bonanza won’t excite me either. Yeah, at least we will have a lot of Christmas parties :) Yupee :):) Maybe I will visit a cold country this time, to see some snow and enjoy the hot wine with friends near the fire in a mountain house…. Hmmmm…. That would be lovely….

(By the way, this is my 100th post on this blog :) ; what an opportunity to celebrate, haha.)

Mini skirts in Korea!!! Yupeee!

I just heard hilarious news on the radio this morning while I was trying to open my eyes, wake up and go to work. South Korea is going to change the indecency law that bans mini skirts in the country. Now I really feel that I can put Korea on my list of possible travel destination; I will see those hot Korean girls in mini skirts there :). I am sure this will boost tourism in the next couple of years among the male population.

But I am sure that this will definitely contribute to the end of the nuke issue in North Korea as well. All the army people will want to go to south to see all those hotties in mini skirts. What an incentive, there will be soon a coup in North by the hungry army people; they will demand free border crossing and later full unified “mini skirt Korea”. A Nobel peace prize should be given to the guy who wrote the motion for the change of law.

I also tried to imagine the dispute in the parliament, how this discussion would go :) Some ideas? Write it in the comments section :)

Back in the sunny Singapore

After two weeks of staying in Europe, it was quite interesting to get back to Singapore. Did not realize that my holiday is over till I got to the boarding gate in Istanbul and heard some Singlish. It was a feeling in me that no, I should not go yet, that I need to stay a bit more in Romania. I think this feeling is quite natural though after not being home for one year and two months. It was bad to hear singligh at that point and I did not find it funny at all then...

My second wake up moment was in the taxi from the airport to home on the highway. I just asked myself the question, what the hell am I doing here and why am I in a cab in Singapore and why not in Europe or anywhere else in the world. Of course tried to convince myself with some logical answers, but I had that weird feeling that I need to be back in Europe, close to the family and friends. I felt like this only once in Singapore, and that was last Christmas, my first one away from home.

So I said it is better to apply the same principle in getting away from it as last year: go to Insomnia. Anyway I had some problems sleeping due to the time difference, so I went with Mr. Simsensohn on Wednesday night to get rid of the “emotional baggage” I brought from home.

And I did… with style…. We started with couple of drinks, (they have free flow of drinks for 18 bucks till 11) and then we just got in the mood of dancing and partying with a really cool band. And we continued till morning with the drinking and dancing and all the things the place is known for. Still managed to get home and wake up in my bad, but of course did not manage to get in time to the office…. However, I managed to get “free” of the feeling of missing home and wanting to go back. Now I can enjoy Singapore again and feel great about being here. Good to be back and enjoy the sun (and not only) :):):)