I’ve never done this before, but fellow Frog Ponders, I am writing this diary to ask for your help.
Note: If this diary is deemed inappopriate, I will delete it immediately
Let me go ahead and introduce myself, although I know many of you already know me.
I’ve been using the internet, in one form or another, since 1993 when I helped a friend log onto a Sun SPARC station at his university. I participated in IRC chats, usenet discussions and other forms of internet communication that existed at that time.
Sometime in mid-2003, I was reading the website for the comic strip This Modern World which I had been reading in (dead tree) newspapers for years. One day I saw a link to a new political website, DailyKos, now the number one Democratic blog on the internet.
It wasn’t long before I was hooked. It was a vibrant, active site that combined not only intelligent, insightful discussion on politics but also linked to news stories that I wouldn’t find anywhere else. I know many of you are (or were) regular readers of the site, so I don’t need to describe it further 😉
Sometime around October 2003, DailyKos added a new feature to the site, called “Diaries”. While everyone understands them and uses them today with ease, at the time I was utterly confused. Diaries? Was I supposed to write about what I had for breakfast, my thoughts on the neighbor’s cat?
But Diaries were a chance for the ordinary user to participate in the site, writing their own articles that mirrored what was on the front page. As hard as it is to believe now, at the time users were encouraged to write Diaries (as many as you liked) on just about any topic. I hesitated for a long time before even attempting to write my own Diary.
It was fairly easy to just submit a comment or two to an ongoing discussion, but a Diary was an article with your own name right at the top. It was a way of saying, “hey this is an article me and only me wrote”. It seemed… almost audacious to attempt such a thing on a website with so many educated, informed people, who were already writing top-notch stories with an expertise I couldn’t hope to match.
In November 2003, the Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested. On an Open Thread discussing the issue, I had posted some links to news stories covering the incident. Someone asked me if I wouldn’t go ahead and write an entire Diary on it, so we could get a focused discussion going. I screwed up my nerves, assembled my articles, provided the links and pressed “Preview”. When I thought I had all my ducks in a row, I hit “submit”.
I don’t remember how many comments that Diary generated, but it couldn’t have been more than 10. In those days, anything over 20 comments was considered a major coup. Incidentally, that’s when the “tip jar” concept was invented, so the Diarist would know that his/her work was appreciated, even if the Diary didn’t garner a lot of responses.
But what I do remember is how thrilling and exciting it was to get my name up there “in lights”. It felt good to do a service to the community. In all honesty, I felt honored that Kos had given his readers the “keys to the kingdom”, to let the ordinary user go ahead and contribute to the site.
In late November 2003, the “Rose Revolution” began in the Republic of Georgia. It was something not getting a lot of coverage in the western press, and so I began my first series. I scoured the internet for stories in English from Georgian, Russian and other less well-known sources. I have no idea exactly how far my contribution went, but if my Diaries on the Rose Revolution helped inform a single person about what was to become the first of the “color revolutions” in the former Soviet states, then I consider my work very worthwhile.
The above is my absolute favorite picture from that revolution. It really touched my heart, because I’ve lived and traveled to countries which haven’t known freedom. The Rose Revolution wasn’t perfect or idyllic, and did not bring paradise to the people of Georgia, but it was a major step forward for the people of the world. It was a step in the right direction, something that all lovers of democracy and freedom and human rights should be celebrating, no matter where it occurs in the world.
Although I’ve never had the fortune to travel to the Republic of Georgia, I want to tell you the story of a man I met here in Romania. He is the grandfather of a very good friend of mine and his name is Nicolae Hasmeganu. He is currently 93 years old, and while he shows the signs of his age, his mind is as sharp and clear as it ever was.
In March of last year, two American friends of mine came to visit and we went to see this gentleman. My friend B— sat on the sofa with him and put his arm around grandpa Hasmeganu while I took a photograph. Grandpa began to cry, which worried my friend, and I began to translate what Grandpa was saying. He told my friend that one of the happiest moments of his life would be when he had that photograph in his hands, and took it back to the little village where he grew up.
Born in the year 1911, Grandpa Hasmeganu grew up under the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. In 1920, the country became independent and had its own king, and for a few years Grandpa Hasmeganu worked as a janitor in the king’s palace. In 1940, the king abdicated and the country was invaded and occupied by the Nazis. The Nazis propped up the fascist regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu. Grandpa was forcibly drafted into the Romanian army where he was sent to the horror of the Battle of Stalingrad for almost 2 years. Deciding the only way to save his life was to go AWOL, he ran away from the battle and walked all the way back to Romania, during the middle of some of the most intense fighting of World War 2.
The Soviet Union took control over Romania in 1944, installing their own puppet leaders of the Communist Party. In 1965, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu came to power. During this time, Grandpa Hasmeganu did his best to raise his 3 daughters and 2 sons.
Throughout his entire life, whether under the rule of kings, fascists or Communist dictators, Grandpa Hasmeganu never gave up hope. He told his family, his friends and anyone who would listen, that one day the Americans would come. One day the country would be free, and democratic, and then the Americans, who to him represented those noble ideals, would be coming to his little country of Romania.
That is what Grandpa Hasmeganu told me that day in 2005, which I translated for my friends. It was the vindication of a man who had suffered so much, who had waited so diligently and so patiently, for his family and his fellow countrymen to be able to live in a free, democratic country. He wanted to display that photograph in his home village to show everyone that he hadn’t been crazy all those years, that finally, against all odds, the Americans had indeed come. And so had freedom and liberty.
I told you his story and I told you the story about why I blogged the Rose Revolution in Georgia because they are the tangible evidence of what motivates me to write. Some people are excellent analyzers of domestic American political stories, others write about the mendacity of the current administration. All these are fine and noble topics, and I leave them in the capable hands of those who write so well about them.
But for me, it’s the story of what happens around the world that is dearest to my heart. Martin Luther King once said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. I believe in that with all my heart, I really do. And there are so many stories of hope, of people working towards liberty, democracy and freedom around the world that all need to be told.
Unfortunately, there are other stories where people’s human rights are abused, where freedoms are trampled and injustice perpetrated. I am always saddened to acknowledge that much of this occurs as a direct or indirect result of the American government’s influence, particularly of the current administration. But as the government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, ultimately it is the people’s responsibility to make their government beholden to their wishes.
But before that can happen, we need to know what is going on. We can’t do anything if we’re not aware of what is occurring.
I began my blog Flogging the Simian on December 2003, as an outgrowth of those Diaries I was writing on Daily Kos. I soon realized that it was a fulfilment of my life’s dream to write full time, and that blogging was the medium that would give me a chance to do so. I knew that, in whatever small way, I needed to help raise awareness on all those important stories taking place around the world. Because once people know what’s happening they can do something.
I quit my day job in June 2004 to blog full time on these issues. A couple of months later I moved to Romania, where I continue to live to this day. It’s what I do full-time. It’s my “job”, and I spend about 10 hours a day at the keyboard, researching and writing.
At the beginning of this article, I told you I needed your help. I have been blogging full-time for a year and a half now, but I remain completely dependent on reader donations to survive. Those of you who are regular readers of FTS have seen me ask for donations there, but this is the first time I have done so here.
It’s been a very expensive month here in Romania, for a number of reasons including an unseasonably cold period with temperatures in the minus double digits. That’s driven up the natural gas bill, which was slightly affected by the dispute between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month.
I am writing this Diary to ask you to contribute to help me keep blogging, to help me meet my monthly expenses. I’ve never made any kind of profit by writing, I only ask for donations just to pay my bills and allow me to blog full-time.
How much do I need? Well about 250 dollars. That’s it. It might not sound like much, but here in Romania that money goes a long way. I’ve had some success in reader donations this month, but as I said earlier, it’s been a particularly expensive month and I am still short for making my rent payment on February 1.
If you would like to donate, please click here or else visit my blog itself.
I know you’ve read many of my stories here on this website, and occasionally the admins have done the honor of promoting them to the front page. If you like what I write, if it informs you or encourages you, then please help me out. Even a dollar would be great as I really am desperate.
There are those who have insinuated that I solicit donations for a number of nefarious purposes, including to defraud 9/11 widows and other ridiculous allegations like buying a Mercedes. I don’t own a car of any make or model. I don’t even own a bicycle. I live in Romania and I walk almost everywhere I go. I live a simple, frugal life because writing is my passion, not my ticket to riches.
I thank you for your time. Again, if this diary is considered inappropriate, I will delete it immediately.
Thank you all for your emails, comments and support over the years.
Respectfully yours,
-Soj
Peace
