Page 50 - Monocle Quarterly Journal Vol 3 Issue 2 Spring

MONOCLE QUARTERLY JOURNAL | DEEP LEARNING
2.6 ROMANIAN ORPHANS AND THE POWER OF NEGLECT
On 25 December 1989, Romanian president Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena were not enjoying a hearty meal or exchanging gifts by the twinkle of lights on a Christmas tree. Instead, despite their best attempts to flee in their private helicopter, they were cornered by the military of their own country and hurried into a small room in the capital city, Bucharest, to stand trial before a ten-man panel of military judges. The couple were charged with genocide, subversion of state power, destruction of public property, undermining the national economy, and trying to flee the country using funds of over $1 billion deposited in foreign banks. The trial was little more than a show, since just over an hour later, their hands were bound behind their backs and they were led into the barracks square of the army base where they had been tried and found guilty. Ceauşescu was singing the socialist anthem “The Internationale”, whilst his wife swore hysterically at the crowd gathered in the square. Moments later, they were executed by a firing squad of elite paratroopers, who had pledged their allegiance to the president only a week earlier.
that Romanians were so oppressed by their leadership that they did not even know their own rights. The protest quickly turned into an anti-communist riot, releasing the anger that had been suppressed for years by the totalitarian rule of the Ceauşescus, and the army descended on the town in tanks, shooting wildly to subdue the crowds. The Romanian press did not report on the number of deaths at the time and foreign journalists were not permitted to enter the country until 22 December 1989. The death toll therefore remains
One of the most horrific elements of Ceauşescu’s repressive regime emerged from a 1966
decree that banned contraception and made abortion illegal...
somewhat of a mystery, with some sources estimating that about 100 people were killed, whilst others report that more than 400 people were fatally shot. Nonetheless, the confrontation left the country shaken and when the president addressed a large gathering in Bucharest on 21 December, condemning the riots, he was met with an unusually daring audience, who booed and began to chant, “Timişoara”. It was the beginning of the end for a dictator who had paralysed Romanians since the 1960s through mass surveillance, severe human rights abuses, and economic mismanagement. And one who has also, inadvertently, played a role in driving key insights in neuroscientific research into human intelligence.
One of the most horrific elements of Ceauşescu’s repressive regime emerged from a 1966 decree that banned contraception and made abortion illegal in
The Revolutions of 1989 had begun in March that year, with anti-communist and anti-Soviet Union uprisings ensuing across Central and Eastern Europe, dismantling communist regimes in Poland, Hungary and East Germany. Just a month before the Ceauşescus’ murder the Berlin Wall had fallen, and it seemed as though Romania would be one of the last hold-outs against the tide of revolution. However, everything changed on 16 December, when a group of people gathered in the town of Timişoara to oppose the Romanian government’s attempt to evict a Hungarian Reform Church pastor called László Tõkés. Tõkés had been accused of inciting ethnic hatred during a television interview by claiming
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