Right in front of the Michael the Brave statue in the University Square, Bucharest, there has been planted overnight a monstrous steel pillar with an indicator showing the way to take to reach the locality of Urziceni. I have got nothing against this nice town in the fields, but drivers could learn about it by other means and from an indicator placed not that close to the statue. Given this, maybe we shall soon get to see the saint patron of Bucharest, Dimitrie cel Nou, replaced by some new symbol, God knows what frog, homeless, stray dog or squirrel. The steel pillar I am telling you about can only show authorities' disrespect for all of Romania's symbols. It comes from ignorance and scorn: Who the hell is this bearded guy?! To make monuments and symbols fetishes is stupid, it would be pointless to hit our foreheads against statues in the University Square every day. But nowhere in Europe have I seen huge traffic indicators placed just 1 meter away from historical monuments. The squares that house such statues are usually public spaces people use for meetings with people. As for the ignorance of and the cold shoulder for symbols, it is to be noticed that even today there still are some administrative institution employees, somehow cultivated. But the ongoing reform of education is compromising any chance for the future. I was laughing a few days ago when watching a culture contest show by Jay Leno. To the ordinary Americans, J.F. Kennedy is famous for his "marriage to Marilyn Monroe" and such examples are countless. And contests of this kind will be very easy to arrange in Romania in 10 years' time. The syllabus they use in Romanian schools right now is actually for brainwashing. No more writers such as George Calinescu, Ion Creanga, I.L. Caragiale, Marin Preda, George Bacovia, Nichita Stanescu, George Cosbuc, Tudor Arghezi, Mihail Sadoveanu, Octavian Goga, Marin Sorescu, Camil Petrescu, Gellu Naum, Ion Barbu or Mateiu Caragiale. That's all right, a high school student would say, there are left enough writers, anyway. The fact that Jonathan Scheele has made it to the syllabus for the Romanian literature oral examination students have to pass in order to graduate high school is part of the absolute nonsense of the Romanian kind. Still the reform is merrily going on: a 30% cut on the contents of the syllabus for students in the 5th-8th grades. But the reformers are slighly dissatisfied, for they asked for a 70% cut, hopeful that in the end it could be 40%. But this 30% cut has got a huge destructive potential anyway. Students will no longer study "caligraphic handwriting", for instance. It's pointless to remind about the case of Japan, which turned handwriting into art. We should feel satisfied for no one will no longer be able to handwrite over 10 years. Well, it would be no big loss in the era of printers. It is just that caligraphic exercise and the developing of a certain sense of beauty have got more educative effects. To cut on the things students learn about in order to give them a better life is a noble aim in itself, but to sacrifice essential matters is as harmful as possible. But students can hop with joy: they will get rid of things like figures of speech, demography, national feeling, independence, manufacture, cave art, sanctuary and many other boring things. In the end the reformers will get what they want: a flock of people who drop one brick after the other. And such failed products to be introduced as the perfect products of Romanian education will be recruited to become public servants of high quality: some who would not plant an indicator to shade the statue of Michael the Great, but just pull it out to build a successful mall. It is only then that we shall indeed make a people of stupid murderers.

George DAMIAN