**Roxana's notes:** I was asked to translate this shocking, heartbreaking letter from Romanian into English. Many of the things in it (like hunger, theft, or stupefying rules) speak for themselves. Others, alas, don't. So I find myself offering a short introduction to who these people are and what context they live in.MISA -- the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute -- started out in 1990, in Romania, as a 'yoga school'. In the over 20 years since then, it grew to have thousands or tens of thousands of yogis attending their weekly courses and it spread to many other countries, like the US, the UK, Spain, Argentina, France, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Denmark, Italy, Australia and others. In some places it thrives, in others it merely gets by.

The yogis who wrote this letter are from Romanian ashrams, but MISA also has ashrams in other countries.While supposedly the organization itself has 20-odd members, the rest being volunteer instructors and yogis merely attending classes, the real structure of the school has Gregorian Bivolaru on top as the spiritual master and a number of VIPs, mostly yoga instructors, deciding things on a lower scale.

Bivolaru was involved in a number of trials in Romania, with some of the charges against him being human trafficking and sexual acts with underage girls and he currently has an international arrest warrant on his name for the latter charge. He ran way from Romania after his legal issues started in 2004 and obtained political asylum in Sweden in 2005. However, after that date many female yoga practitioners were invited to visit him for sexual purposes and discovered him to be located in Paris.Female students who were to his liking would receive free vacations in Costinești (a Romanian seaside resort where the international MISA yoga camp is held on a yearly basis), lasting from two weeks to a month, all expenses paid. They would also receive gifts of books, CDs, perfumes or other such. Those who were invited to Paris might also have their trip there paid and would stay for free, receiving gifts of money, perfumes, chocolate and so on.MISA has also been involved in media scandals for getting women involved in sex biz (pole dancing in foreign countries, erotic chat, erotic massage parlors, 'erotic' films).

[Note: This is a translation of an article I originally wrote in Romanian, but which I realized I wanted in English as well. And translators translate, even if they hate translating themselves.]

De atâta amar de vreme feministele ne-au obișnuit cu criticile lor împotriva pornografiei, împotriva reclamelor în care se speculează atractivitatea corpului feminin și împotriva altor zone în care femeia e privită mai degrabă sub formă de corp decât sub formă de ființă. Răspunsul lor: „Nu mă obiectifica!”

Do you know those books which you can supposedly brag about reading? You know, like „Pride and Prejudice”, „The Satanic Verses” or „The Iliad”? Of course you do. You run into them a lot – and there’s others which are less known, but just as impressive to mention.

Title: Incubus

Author: Amanda Meuwissen

Rating: 4/5

Is this book for me? Probably. Wait, no! Do gay people bother you? Then no, it’s not. But otherwise, yes. A cool, adventurous novel of the supernatural and romantic sort, complete with a Seer, fairies and magic.

Swear words do this amazing thing in language, that no other category of words does quite as well, or with as much versatility. I’m not referring to insults here (although that’s supposedly their main function), but to the fact that they intensify the meaning.

(rezumat la articol, pentru cine mă înjură că a intrat aici să afle un răspuns scurt: merge aflat cu WinDirStat)

Bănuiesc că nu-s singura persoană de pe lumea asta care e curioasă ce comentează unii-alții pe diverse bloguri. Poate e o comunitate care se adună în jurul unui subiect, poate că articolele sunt așa de interesante că vrei să vezi ce păreri mai are lumea în general – sau poate ai dat peste un blog așa de ascuns și neștiut că ești curios dacă e cineva care comentează vreodată pe acolo.

Folosesc Yahoo! pentru poștă aproximativ din preistorie. Mai am ceva mailuri salvate din 2003 pe una din adrese. Messengerul e ok, emoticoanele sunt perfecte (cele de la Google cred că au fost făcute de programatori plictisiți de viață care-și exersau talentele artistice). Totul ok. Tehnic vorbind am și adresă de gmail, dar îmi displace prea tare serviciul lor de e-mail ca s-o folosesc pentru orice în afară de discutat cu unii care sunt mai mult pe acolo.

Circulă pe net o piesă nouă de la Taxi, „Subtitrarea la români”. Care e foarte mișto.