National Press review, 7 April

‘If you touch the little boy, he will get infected. Even his clothes do him harm.’ This is how the Gândul begins the story of a one year and a half boy who has been ‘forgotten’ in one of the hospitals closed down last week.

‘A hospital is not a grocery store where you take the stock, and than close the shutters. People’s lives depend on it’, the manager of the hospital in Tutova, Vaslui county, Delia Asultanei, said after finding out that starting 1 April the institution would be turned into an old age home.

Until now, 20 children suffering from terrible diseases, who need special care, but also over 120 adults have been hospitalized in the aforementioned institution.

In the last few days, ten children have been sent home or to the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection, and will be placed in the care of family physicians who, most certainly, are not trained to treat the diseases that these children are suffering from.

Three children were moved yesterday, and other seven are still waiting in Tutova to be transferred to another hospital.

The State Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Professor Geza Molnar, stated yesterday that all the patients from the hospitals that were closed down last week would be transferred to other health care units.

The Evenimentul Zilei wanted to see ‘how much does the independency of a disabled person cost’, and learned that ‘a power scooter costs over 10 500 lei, and a last generation hand more than 15 000 euros’.

The state covers only a small part of these costs, and never on time.

The foundations that provide for these persons used to receive foreign aid, especially from USA and Canada, but after Romania joined the European Union, the aid stopped coming.

‘Cheap imports and expensive exports’, the Adevărul writes.

The daily learned from the official statistics that Romania imports wheat, corn, sunflower and even live animals at prices that are between 15 percent and 40 percent higher than the ones Romania charges when exporting. This difference is given by the quality difference between goods.

‘Funeriu promises to pay debts bit by bit’. According to the Adevărul, the Minister of Education stated in an interview that all teachers would receive the money they won in court between 2012 and 2015.

Optimistic as he is, Minister Funeriu hopes that by the end of this year, the Education staff will recover the 25 percent cuts that were made last year.

According to the daily Puterea, ‘The Government has to pay teachers 4 billion lei’, namely, the money that teachers are entitled to according to the law.

Trade unions have already warned the Government that they plan to ask another 2 billion damages if they insist on paying debts to teachers in tranches.

The România Liberă calculated and tells readers ‘How much should teachers earn after all the decisions taken by the Government’.

The income of the staff in the pre-universitary education system starts from the minimum wage and rises up to 2 000 lei for teachers who have been working in the education system for over 30 years.

A junior primary school teacher earns less than 800 lei per month, a junior teacher with higher studies barely earns 1 100 lei, and a first grade teacher with a twenty-year experience almost 1 500 lei. From these sums the State takes pension and health taxes, and adds, depending on the case, different increments.

The Jurnalul Naţional writes that the Minister of Education is ‘the new Government globetrotter’.

Daniel Funeriu has 91 trips to different countries in Asia, America, Africa and Australia scheduled for this year alone.

If the Minister ‘limited’ himself to visiting only one city in the countries on the other continents, usually the capital city, in Europe he plans to visit three, four and even five cities in each country.

According to the same daily, which counted the summed up the request made by the Minister, Funeriu saved 200 000 euros for plane tickets alone.

The Gândul informs readers how much the bank interests will increase, and that loans in lei will go down by at least 3 percent whereas those in euros will go up by 5-10 percent by the end of the year.

Still, few people are interested in applying for loans. Only 7 percent are taking into account this possibility since many of them have already taken out loans.

The prices for real estate, which started decreasing in 2009, will continue to go down this year also, according to the same newspaper.

Translated by: Raluca Mizdrea

MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University