Balkanization refers to the Eurasian barbarian tribes flooding into the Balkan Peninsula and settling in the Byzantine Empire between the sixth and tenth centuries C.E.. Since then, no land has had so many endemic wars over the shifting borders, fratricidal murders, unimaginable tortures, ethnic and personal rivalries, revenge, greed, corruption and intrigue, loyalty and betrayal, and treason among the nation’s leaders.
Ion Grumeza was born in Romania and lived there for 28 years. During that time, he wrote some 200 short stories, mostly humorous, to record what life was like under the leadership of a tyrannical Communist regime.
Grumeza’s satire reflects the grim reality of life in Romania at the time. The people confronted increasing political terror, lack of freedom of speech, and they stood in lines for hours in front of empty food stores, as they faced shortages of vital necessities. Grumeza experienced hardship firsthand, which gave him the unique insights needed to write these stories often with the officially banned humor.
Effectology® is a philosophical concept conceived by Ion Grumeza. Many philosophers have come close to Effectology’s precepts, but none have gone beyond causation and reaction or counter-reaction, all created by chaotic events. The word effectology cannot be found in any dictionary. Grumeza coined it as a result of his research into pragmatic accidents and their effects. As a philosophy, it examines the dynamics and lasting impacts of accidents that can happen in a fraction of a second and their effects that may change lives and circumstances.
Laugh Your Troubles Away Through Bulă’s Story, which helped the Romanian people survive communism under dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. They found temporary escape from the hardships of the brutal regime through laughter. Their jokester-in-chief was (and still is) the infamous, imaginary character Bulă. Conveniently, he could critique the government and yet never be arrested by the Secret Service, because he is an imaginary character. Moreover, this charming, free-spirited wanderer with his unique combination of wisdom, one-liners, has wry observations, such as “How am I doing financially? I have enough money to last me till the end of my life-provided I die by 11:00 PM today.”
Jesus lived and ministered during the reign of the first five Roman emperors. Rome erased ethnic borders by dominating three continents and all nations around the Mediterranean Sea. The famous Roman highways connected all parts of the imperialist empire. They allowed Jesus and Paul to travel freely and safely using mostly the universal Vulgar Latin to preach to the Gentiles, making the success of Christianity possible.
To help the reader envision the growth of Jesus’ faith movement, I designed maps that show the route of each evangelical journey. I kept the ancient names of important places, using a few modern names for better orientation.
In The Boy and the Partisan, a thirteen year old city-boy named Bobby is spending his summer vacation with his grandparents in one of the small medieval villages in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, where life has not changed in centuries. Anemic looking, dressed in city clothes and allergic to everything, he tries to ignore the lack of electricity and running water and struggles with the daily chores of feeding the horse, chickens, and cow, and bringing fresh water home from the distant well. Fueled by vampire literature and with Dracula’s castle only miles away, he strings together cloves of garlic to wear around his neck as protection.
Overnight, the Communist government Securitate troops take over the village and make Bobby’s grandparents’ house their headquarters. The soldiers begin combing the surrounding forested mountains searching for partisans. The partisans are “freedom fighters” who want to keep Communists out of the mountains, so hoped-for American paratroopers can safely land there and help free Romania from its Russian occupiers. For days the sound of gunfire and grenade explosions echoes through the mountains.
Ion Grumeza tells the little known ancient history of immensely rich lands that later became known as Transylvania and Romania. Today the history of this pivotal land and its people is only found in passing references in a handful of world history books.
Ptolemy clearly marked Dacia on his world map in the Second Century A.D., but ancient and modern historians mistook the Dacians for Thracians, Sarmatians, Scythians, and even Slavs. Grumeza corrects and revives the history of this mysterious Transylvanian land of the wolf-people who defied the Roman Empire for two centuries.
This international best seller tells the story of the 14-year-old star of the 1976 Olympics, who captured the imagination of the world by her perfect scores at Montreal, where she smashed the previous records set by another favorite, Olga Korbut. Illustrated with dozens of photographs, including many taken in Romania, as well as drawings based upon action motion pictures of Nadia in competition.
Ion Grumeza uses the pre-World War II period to show how Hitler manipulated nationalism and prosperity to convince millions to accept his ideology. They openly admired the German military machine and economic prosperity in the midst of the global depression, and succumbed to his demands. For six years Hitler created his war machine and intentionally paraded it in front of the astonished military attaches in order to intimidate his future enemies. Grumeza describes how the German soldiers were trained for war and then crossed foreign borders unstopped while the rest of the world hoped for peace. Not only was there no effort to stop what was developing, but many countries helped Hitler’s machine.
This is the true story of a bantam boxer called Joe Grimm, his chaperoning older brother, and the time in which they lived. It is the 1920s, and boxing is the king of sports, with fighting clubs in nearly every city in America. Joe weighs 118 pounds and is flat-footed; nevertheless, he wins against boxers who are heavier than he is, he wins when he is booked as a last-minute replacement, and he wins against contenders who are headed to championship bouts. He is so gallant in the ring that the press calls him “Gentleman Joe.” Between 1921 and 1928, he wins 61 out of 70 fightsh, with 24 knockouts in a row! He is never knocked out. But his awesome winning streak is interrupted when he and his brother are urgently called home by their immigrant parents. He leaves behind the arenas, with their cheering crowds and works as a butcher in his grocery shop bought with ring money for his family. Now the character traits that made him a boxing wonder make him a success in business.
