“My friend, don’t be like this, stop being so grumpy and negative, you talk and behave like my grand father. You will see, I will have the money”. “Who told you I am not that old? Maybe I just have a good doctor for plastic surgeries” I replied. “He would have started with your stomach, so this is not the case, you celebrated your birthday few days ago”. “Yes and especially because now I have the years of Jesus and Alexander the Great, I try to be sure that I will be here celebrating the next birthday again and I will not die so young… it is a critical age, you know”. A discussion [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]I came for 4 days and today I celebrate 5 years in Romania!
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jan 21, 2009 @ 1:17 PM
Today is a very special day for me. It was Wednesday too, when I landed in the airport of Bucharest, exactly 5 years ago! It was snowing, really too much for a Greek. I did not know anyone at all in Romania; I had with me just two contact persons. One driver (working for a friend) picked me up and one banker (who became my friend after). I was really surprised to find out that even during a snow storm, all the major streets were open and clean. I arrived at Sofitel (back then it had the price of 80 euro per night) and started the “Romanian chapter” of my life. Honestly, if someone would tell [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]European Union predicted the worst
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jan 20, 2009 @ 1:18 PM
Now the ball is on Romania’s side… Yesterday almost all the countries of European Union had their share of bad news. The European Commission released its prediction for the economic figures of all the countries and, like many others too, Romania’s figures have been revised in a very negative way, reaching a scenario that no one could expect even just few months ago. Starting with the budget deficit of 2008, which closed to almost 5%, instead of the expected 1.5%, and the demolition of the State’s income (down 11% in December), the latest reality we live proved to us that things will be [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]Answering your questions…
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jan 19, 2009 @ 1:21 PM
While I am still trying to get used to my new apartment (moved there 2 days ago, you will have the full story of my search for apartments to rent in the next days), I receive calls that really worry me… Big businessmen worried or desperate, normal people in trouble, while some lovely ones still say that everything is fine… Out of tens of questions you sent me lately, here are some answers to them (more to come soon, don’t complain… I have to work, to make a living too!): Vasile M. says: Why do you keep talking about a crisis? I was in Predeal for the holidays and on New Year’s even there [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]“Darling, you got to let me know… Should I stay or should I go?”
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jan 19, 2009 @ 1:19 PM
One of the few things I enjoy in Cannes is definitely the morning walking on Croisette Boulevard, usually heading to the Palais de Expositions, where all expositions are held. That morning of December, 45 days ago, my last day there for 2008, I was walking and thinking too. I didn’t follow the normal route, from my apartment down to the boulevard and then right to the Palais. I decided to go left, with direction to the famous Martinez hotel (but almost everything there is famous, so no big deal…). Most of the shops were closed; no one at Cannes is out for shopping at 08.30… The air was not [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]Naive, but attentive… The change starts to be visible…
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jan 15, 2009 @ 1:23 PM
The wish to my friend… – 15th of January today, a good friend of mine celebrates his 45th birthday. Taking advantage of the world economic crisis, it was a good opportunity for me to wish to him, except the typical wishes, to get in closer contact with the reality and the majority of the society. He started laughing, asking me why I think this. But it was simple, as I explained to him: He spent the last years of his life (or maybe all, who knows?) spoiling himself to the limits, spending money like crazy for all his habits. Now the crisis helps him, like many of us, to reconsider all we did in [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]Back to the future….My 9 targets for 2009
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jan 14, 2009 @ 1:24 PM
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had fun all this period. I wish you Health, Happiness, Power and Luck. Don’t tell me you don’t need it, as I used to say in the past. A crazy Greek politician said something very correct about it: “The passengers of Titanic were healthy, but they didn’t have luck”. Since I posted my last thoughts here, many things have changed. The future we described in 2008 becomes a reality now, Leu is around 4.27 now and is heading to what I had told you on October 15th (http://http://www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro/english/?p=152) and everyone is trying to understand [...]
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Few days ago, on Tuesday, I had presented to you an interview of Mr Gavin Ryan, an expert in Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds. As far as I understood from your feedback, this subject was really interesting for you, as the official information about this segment is really limited. This is why I decided to address to Mr Ryan again, summing some of your questions and adding some new ones. This domain is really interesting and I think that it worths to know ... 
1 year writing this blog – more than 50.000 readers so far, THANK YOU ALL!
Having a background of 15 years in the media business, with several thousands of articles in my newspaper in Greece and elsewhere, it was normal to miss writing when I came here. I had so many thoughts that I wanted to express, so many stories to share, so many opinions to state (the virus of a habit leaves us only after we die and journalism is one of viruses…). As my brothers tell me, it can be also be the fact that we kept as company a very low profile in Romania and I needed to express more loudly my approach to the market. Who knows? Maybe I am simply just another crazy guy who likes writing. I [...]
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