Cornel Nistorescu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since March 2007.

Cornel Nistorescu is a journalist in Romania. For several years he has been the chief editor of Evenimentul Zilei, a daily newspaper. The front page of every issue has an editorial called Comentariul zilei (Comment of the day, a paraphrase of the name of the paper, Event of the day), which was signed much of the time by Cornel Nistorescu.

He started writing in 1974, after graduating the Faculty of Philosophy in Cluj-Napoca. It should be taken into account that the structure of the philosophy studies during communism was centered on marxism as a peak of the human thinking, and everything else was supposedly judged through the point of view of marxism. During communism years, he writes for Viata Studenteasca, Amfiteatru, Scinteia tineretului, the latter being the daily of the communist youth. In the last 4 years of communism, he writes for Flacara, and he is allowed to leave the country for professional reasons, a rather rare circumstance.

Immediately after the fall of communism, he advices Ion Cristoiu, his leader at Scinteia tineretului, and they start one of the first private weekly journals, Expres, and then one of the first new private dailies, Evenimentul zilei. After Ion Cristoiu leaves, he became one of the major shareholders in Expres, a media trust that also operated Radio Total. Through another company, he owns 3% of Europa FM.

His started a company, Expresiv SA, which was focused on advertising, and was later sold to Sorin Ovidiu Vantu and / or Liviu Luca. Another advertising company on which he holds shares is TBWA Bucuresti, which in turn owns Optimum Media Direction, Mediwise, and Tequila Romania.

Among these editorials the most famous of them is An Ode to America. The title An Ode to America may not tell much nowadays, but a few years ago, right after 911 it became the symbol for solidarity and humanity. An Ode to America is the title of a column which appeared in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, written by Cornel Nistorescu (chief editor at the time). The column was printed in the issue from the 24th of September 2001, thirteen days after the terrorist attacks from New York. The story of the story, if we may say so, is quite impressive. Nistorescu said at the moment he had the idea of writing the editorial after watching on TV for several times, on several channels the benefit concert given by many American movie stars and singers among which Clint Eastwood, Willy Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stallone, James Wood and many others, whom as Nisorescu says no other event could have had them gathered in one place at the same time.

The editorial that you may read yourself is an honest and respectful opinion about the solidarity and patriotism of the American melting pot. Romanians could also sense some kind of regret, since us, the Romanian people, do not have these attributes. Patriotism may very easily turn into nationalism or chauvinism. There are plenty of examples in this way in Romania. But somehow according to Nistorescu’s writing American people succeeded showing their patriotism in a very moderate and heart warming manner. This isn’t all about An Ode to America. This column is special because after being published in both Romanian and English versions in the printed and on line edition of Evenimentul Zilei, it went international. After a couple of weeks it became public that this editorial has been read, by order, to the American soldiers at the morning summon. One thing lead to another and Associated Press bought the article written by Cornel Nistorescu and published it all over the North American continent (New York times, International Herald Tribune and so on). An Ode to America became the symbol of compassion and understanding. It came as a sign that eastern Europeans who, even if they are far away from the plot/scene, sense the great loss. Along other Romanians like Nadia Comaneci, Hagi or Ilie Nastate, Cornel Nistorescu has now his own time of fame (more than 15 minutes). He somehow contributed to the improvement of Romania’s image and also thickened a bit the contour of our country on the world map.

Also Nistorescu’s An Ode to America confirms in some matters the theory of the global village. The Romanian editor himself refers to this event as an extraordinary communication phenomenon. The internet and as a matter of fact all modern means of communication create the illusion of the global village. You know what is happening to your neighbor from the end of the street, you feel sorry for his loss and you mourn along him. At the time when all this was happening (September 2001), Romania made everything possible so that the East European country would join NATO. Also by then, as the columnist himself says, no American started blaming the White House or the US Government for the attacks. Since then things have radically changed. Romania joined NATO, now struggling for the EU; the US attacked not only Afghanistan as a revenge, but also Iraq a couple of years ago. Osama bin Laden the one who is believed to be behind the terror from 911 is still free.

Over all An Ode to America became a symbol. A symbol for solidarity, a symbol for the benefits of global communication (along with the technical means) and last, but not least this column became symbol of both Romania and the United States. Americans for what they have and Romanians for what they whish they had. In the end Cornel Nistorescu is truly right "Only freedom can work such miracles!"