Roşia Montană

Tomorrow morning I’m leaving home again. This time I’ll be going to a place known as Roşia Montană, a rather ancient settlement (Latin: Alburnus Maior), a quiet town that is soon going to be depopulated entirely, due to the fact that a mining corporation paid the right people, and it’s now allowed to destroy the environment wantonly. For three years now a festival (Fan Fest) has been held each year in support of all those who oppose the obliteration of the Roşia Montană.

I filled in an application form to volunteer for a month ago or so. I was rather surprised when I got an acceptance e-mail, and even now I’m rather enthusiastic about going there. Of course, I’m not that ken on working, and the following days will resemble a boot camp, yet I’ll meet new people, I’ll listen to some good concerts and I’ll get informed better about the actions of Greenpeace and other environmental organizations in my country. After reading John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up I’ve became very interested about the problems of our environment. My own town has been severely affected by gold and lead mining. At the outskirts of my town many children are born with severe malformations due to high amounts of lead in their blood. I would not like for another town to suffer the same fate.

I know that my individual actions will not do much. Sticking a few posters in my town will not fight a huge corporation that has millions of dollars to throw around. Yet I desire to more intimately acquainted with volunteering for a good cause (and I wish to see the concerts). I am somewhat doubtful about the efficiency of Greenpeace (their methods strike me as thoroughly ineffective), and the Roşia Montană is a battle they already lost. Next year Gabriel Resources Limited (the big bad wolf) will start mining for gold – the government gave its approval. The war between young idealism and corporatism has been won by corporatism. It’s sad, but idealists will find another battle to fight. Sadly, in Romania, there is such a disregard for environmentalism, one can do nothing but quixotically fight the windmills.

The war so far was quite fierce. There were many posters that accused the exploitation of Roşia Montană, there were two editions of Fan Fest so far, many flyers were handed, many walls had the famous graffiti with a bleeding mountain (seen in the picture above) that said “Salvaţi Roşia Montană” – Save Roşia Montană. Gabriel fought back and released a very heartwarming commercial in which they showed how much they’re going to help Romanian industry and help the poor people around Roşia Montană with their mining activities, forgetting each time to pronounce the bad word – cyanide, tons of it that are used in the process of extracting gold. Also Gabriel Resources Limited opened this site on the net, in which they explain how much good they’ll do for our crippled economy. I’m surprised nobody had the common sense to hack it so far.

Well, I’m eagerly waiting to see what waits for me at Roşia Montană. No, I will not chain myself to factory doors or trees, and neither will I let myself be tread upon by brutish Gabriel thugs. Instead I’ll help cleaning up the place, help tourists with directions, hand some flyers, help put up the stage, and other such activities.

My impressions in a week or so – I don’t know how long I’ll stay there. Until then – See you!