A piece of invective published last year in the second issue of Jug magazine On the face of a ten-story 1980s block inspired by the architecture of Pyongyang, abseilers risk their lives to raise a giant poster of Marilyn Monroe sipping the metal lip of a Coke bottle, or Alicia Keys perfecting her skin with […]
How kids from Romania were sexually abused by the Italian elite at Rome’s Termini station Text by Michael Bird, Cecilia Ferrara and Vlad Odobescu, published here in The Black Sea Illustrations by Sorina Vazelina Over 100,000 passengers pass through Rome’s Termini station every day. Its 33 platforms host high-speed trains that span Europe and […]
With the help of a priest, we search for a new class of east European addicts who steal for heroin in Madrid’s Cañada Real by Michael Bird, Vlad Odobescu and Feliciano Tisera. Illustrations by Sorina Vazelina. Published in The Black Sea Madrid’s underground station of Embajadores is a crowded junction with a fountain gushing from […]
We shadow Romanian outreach worker Carmen Farauanu as she helps the international streetwalkers of Naples Text by Michael Bird, Vlad Odobescu and Cecilia Ferrara. Illustration by Sorina Vazelina Published here on The Black Sea Near the Garibaldi station in Naples, on the Via Galileo Ferraris, is a church with a cross illuminated in bright […]
Women trafficked from Romania to Spain for sex reveal the path from tragedy to recovery. Published here on The Black Sea Text by Feliciano Tisera, Vlad Odobescu and Michael Bird Illustrations by Sorina Vazelina “When they start to rape you, you stay quiet, as you don’t want to be killed. You stay completely paralyzed by fear, […]
A comment piece published in Scena9 During the negotiation process for Romania’s accession to the European Union in the early 2000s the question echoing through European capitals was: is Romania ready to join the EU? It was this word, repeated, again and again: ready. This was a subjective and emotive issue – there […]
A posting from The Black Sea, available here They are against the EU, the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe and open borders. They don’t like to be called extremists. They want to be called radicals. They can command up to a third of the votes in their countries. Last weekend they came to one of the […]
A controversial supplier of electricty from the frozen conflict zone of Transnistria to Moldova has an ownership structure linked to companies involved in a “billion dollar theft” from Moldova’s banking system in 2014 A preliminary investigative report into Moldova’s energy troubles published in The Black Sea and across dozens of the largest news sites in Moldova […]
Up to 100 recovering drug users have died in Crimea since Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsular and banned their medication A feature published in The Black Sea, The Influence (USA) and Matters of Substance (NZ) magazines Surrounded by seaside resorts, Crimea has been both a magnet for holidaymakers and drug users (picture copyright: Petrut Calinescu) “I had to abandon home, […]
A comment piece in Romanian on Contributors.ro A petty argument in the British conservative party between supporters and enemies of the European Union has forced the UK into a disaster. If the country leaves the 28-member bloc, financial ruin will spread across the continent, far right groups will seize control and the peacetime success of 70 […]
Michael Bird Writer & Journalist 