On Friday, on St. Michael and Gabriel Day, Bașcalia, the home village of Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev, and other Moldovan villages, celebrated the hram.
It is a tradition that Bașcalia inhabitants have observed since their ancestors. This year, however, the hram was postponed for one day because Tarlev could not come to the hram on Friday. On Saturday, the Prime Minister was expected to participate in the sanctification of a spring at the village outskirts, which had been arranged and built, according to the commemorative plate, on his initiative.
Sanctification without Tarlev
The village people told us that the spring sanctification was planned for 10 a.m. Tens of people had gathered at that hour. Although it was foggy and windy, the prime ministers fellow-villagers were curious to see him. We were being told that Vasile Tarlev should be there any time to open the ceremony dedicated to the villages hram. The villagers confirmed that the hram was postponed by one day because the prime minister could not come on Friday. They could not recall such cases occur in the past. Usually, the manifestations were being carried out on the hram day. It is OK, we will celebrate two days, the villagers told us. There was a church service on the St. Michael and Gabriel Day, but another service was conducted on Saturday, especially for the prime minister.
Tarlevs home-folks happened to be understanding and tolerant. They did not get angry that the hram was postponed because of him, nor that awaited him for several hours in the wind. Those we spoke with said only good things both about the village mayor, Petru Tarlev, and about his brother, the Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev.
Prime Ministers suite
It is true that most of those we talked with happened to be Tarlevs as well, but they said they were not relatives of the prime minister. In Bașcalia, half of the village bear the last name Tarlev.
After about two hours, Vasile Tarlev sent a message that he would be late, and the mayor decided to begin the spring sanctification ceremony without the honored guest.
Among those in front of the village hall we noticed Gheorghe Duca, the Minister of Ecology and Territorial Arrangement, and a few other ministry and State Chancery officers. They had probably been sent by the prime minister on a mission, so that the governmental suite looked more sound, because they had come on two governmental cars, one of them with the matriculation number RM G 018. At 10 a.m., the prime ministers cameraman and two counselors arrived.
Road police rally
We found out from the villagers as well as from our own sources that the water of the spring sanctified on Saturday comes from a pipe from a well that is one kilometer away. The prime ministers initiative to bring closer the water, which in the south of the country has the price of gold, would deserve to be praised if that contribution had been done on his own money. As we managed to find out, all that was done on the states money and responsible for the springs arrangement and construction was the Ministry of Ecology and Territorial Arrangement, which found the necessary funds for the necessary works. In some time, the law-enforcement bodies will look for the missing funds and probably a scapegoat will be found. As it happened in the case of Becciev, ex-director of SA Apă-Canal Chișinău, accused, inter alia, of fraudulent use in October 2001, of financial, material resources and those of the enterprises staff on the construction of a gas pipe in Bașcalia, Basarabeasca. Did the director of Apă-Canal Chișinău participate in the gasification of the prime ministers village on his own initiative?
After waiting for a few hours, we could not resist any longer waiting for Vasile Tarlev and started out back for Chișinău. On the way, near the village Fundul Galbenei in Hâncești district, where the road takes a serpent like shape, we were almost thrown out of the driveway by cars with flashers that were taking Vasile Tarlev as lightening to his home village where the villagers had been waiting for him for three hours to begin the hram celebration. The road police car was driving with over 100 km per hour right in the middle of the road thus unbalancing the driving of the cars on the median strip. It was foggy and the road was damp, so it was the case to drive at a lower speed.
The prime minister arrived at the postponed hram at about 3 p.m. and only participated in the concert held at the Culture Hall where Chisinau notorious artists sang songs.