2006 Photo Contest, Daily Life, 2nd prize
Photographer

Tamas Dezso

Geo Hungary

25 September, 2005

Boys kick-boxing on the main street of a village where rich gypsies build grand houses. The houses are simply a display of their wealth, often left standing empty. Dictatorship and nationalism isolated Romania from Western Europe for decades. The country missed the first round of European Union expansion into Eastern Europe in 2004, as it had failed to implement sufficient democratic and market reforms. The European Commission later noted an improvement but wanted to see tighter controls on standards of food hygiene and a rooting out of corruption. Romania faced natural disasters as well as economic hardship, as it was struck by avian flu and by floods that affected some two-thirds of the country.

About the photographer

Tamas Dezso

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