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Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, Professor Constantin Rosca – recognized as the living expression of the acknowledgment of the fact that the secret of education consists in respecting the one who receives the education – adds at the beginning of October another feather in his wing of time, reconfirming that age is just a state of mind.

It is worth remembering that Professor Constantin ROŞCA – Executive Director of the Association of Faculties of Economics in Romania (AFER), and President of the Romanian Scientific Society of Management (SSMAR) – allowed everyone to freely express themselves (in response to each one’s rights) but in order (as respect of everyone’s rights ), always knewing what he wants, and constantly advocating for a strategic approach that would guarantee the ensuring of the balance based on fundamental values and principles, encouraging a constant dialogue between all actors involved and a climate based on trust and respect, in an environment favoring collective mutual commitment and mutual respect between all actors of the higher education community and between them and external partners.

Marcel Proust attracted our attention that: “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Professor John L. Stanton is that kind of person, constantly advocating for virtues-led management, and promoting the universal values. Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, Professor John L. Stanton is a well-known food marketing practitioner. He is founding editor and Editor-in-Chief of the „Journal of Food Products Marketing”, Editor-in-Chief of the “Journal of International Food and Agribusiness”, and an editorial advisor of the British Food Journal. He was the Chair of the Department of Food Marketing (the first endowed chair in food marketing in the USA), Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia. Dr. Stanton held positions in different companies’ boards, and was expert and expert witness to many food and beverage companies, being regularly quoted in the news media including CNN, the Today Show and NBC Nightly News, and also in Forbes, Fortune, Advertising Age, Brand Week, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many others. He also hosted an episode of the History Channel’s Modern Marvels entitled, “The History of the Supermarket.” Dr. Stanton was also among the first to author articles on health and nutrition advertising claims with articles in the Journal of Advertising Research as early as 1987.

Professor John L. Stanton has been a special invitee of the Romanian American University (RAU) in May 2011.  Professor Stanton, an excellent communicator, delivered a „Strategic Marketing” course, relevant and appealing to the RAU students, proving advance knowledge about the topic. On May 11, 2011, Professor Ovidiu Folcuț, Rector of the Romanian American University (RAU) has awarded Professor John L. Stanton the Diploma of „Special Academic Merit”.

“Our world has entered a new temporality”

Vasile Stănescu, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy

 In June 2009, we had the chance to remind (on the Web page of the Romanian Distribution Committee) a few significant aspects about Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, who left us this meaningful message: “We must come to realize that an important prerequisite for a better life is a substantial amount of time spent in an intelligent manner”. To the “hourglass flowing relentlessly”, to the attempt of living “beautifully and usefully” – as well as to the fact that “we became mentally dependent on the market model, applying its laws on the human and social relations as well” – referred, among others, on 15 April 2015 (at the Scientists’ House of the Romanian Academy) the venerable Professor Vasile Stănescu, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy. It is worth to mention that the Romanian Distribution Committee awarded the Diploma of Honorary Member to the venerable Professor Vasile Stănescu, for his tireless work to constantly promote a platform for an academic and civic dialog structured for a common understanding walking on the path towards freedom, reconfirming his indubitable conviction that the therapist is within us, in our world’s capacity to find again its sense, capacity to create and build, to love and dream.

The venerable Professor Vasile Stănescu, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy, confessed to the distinguished audience that: “Life is… a continuous oscillation between arrival and departure, between light and shadow … Years go by, memories stay in the dusty album we browse in the moments of escape from an unfriendly present…” In His opinion, life is measured in deeds, no matter who you are taken for, but how you are in reality, what you leave behind as spiritual or material value, trying to live beautifully and usefully, to be happy, to suffer and forgive, but also to dream, to dialogue with the stars and cry, entering into resonance with the history, the world, the universe or an idea.

His Excellency also confessed that: “I never had time for conflicts, avoiding visceral adversities, preferring those of opinion, dialogue. I acquired the reflection according to which knowing to listen is important… when you speak you must have something to tell… I want to hear the silence of things (Emil Cioran) and the music of spheres (Pitagora), because when you stop believing, in fact, you stop existing, you stop living history.”

Arrived at the end of a rich life experience – but rejoicing that he still has programs and is dominated by curiosity, wonder and doubt –  Professor Vasile Stănescu, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy, has no time to get bored, watching the show of life (and continuing effort to understand the Self), learning about findings that do not give him peace and that he shares, “stating them only as themes of meditation and reflection”: “we are the expression of our thoughts, as well as the perception we have of the world and of our own construction; Our world has entered a new temporality …; multiple levels of reality we live in …; we are projected by events… waking up captives, in a continuous tension…; Today’s world does not yet exercise common destiny of  human beings wherever they are, of solidarity and empathy …; Contemporary science is moving in a greater extent, to a new approach to knowledge … to a new methodology; Progress got so far… How could poets sing the cyborg – human being? What will replace retrieving Self, charm of reading, meditation, melancholia, dreaming? …; in these times of wanderings, crushed by the huge civilization machine, the emphasis is on the utility values of civilization at the expense of cultural and moral values, as well as patterns. Human beings are dehumanized, there are major imbalances … The competition took a dramatic end, the fight being carried out between values and interests; … Coupling intelligence and good taste, its feelings…with the general laws of the market… laws that induce exacerbated selfishness, not only in action but also in thought, individual and collective mind  is saddening for the human being; we easily say goodbye to the past, replacing admiration and respect with the show, with rhetoric and self-sufficiency, if not ironic or higher depreciation … We live in an ambivalence incapable of solving the idea of continuity…; Endangered is the factor of cohesion and mobilization of society: patriotism, national interests; the fragility and vulnerability of our planet’s projection are in an ambivalence that give us cold chills: stability vs. instability, peace – war, creation – destruction, progress – catastrophe, moral – immoral, empathy – indifference, order – chaos, socialization – exacerbated individualism, freedom – dictatorship.”

Finally, Pofessor Vasile Stănescu thanked the Romanian Academy, participating personalities, colleagues and friends who have turned the anniversary into a “spiritual celebration, of superior excitement, in  idea and spirit, in feelings and empathy” also confessing  boundless gratitude to the distinguished Lady Yvonne Stănescu: “Finally, in fact firstly, I would like to thank my wife who  has accompanied me on my trajectory for  62 years, with her unfailing love, generosity, selflessness and understanding, I owe her respect, appreciation and all my gratitude. It represents for me a victory of the human spirit, deep soul, and unlimited availability.”

Professor Vasile Stănescu, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy, has also confessed that: “The legacy that I try to leave, as I took it from my good parents – a hot tear in their memory – is in the spirit of family, love, warmth, light, beauty and joy of emotions, in the roots, alkane myths and old traditions in which I was born and which have accompanied my childhood and adolescence, the nest where I learned about moderation, devotion, decency and rigors of labor, moral, educational and religious virtues, idyllic, mythological image, archetype. All this invaluable spiritual wealth – which is family – is the certainty, the duration, the way to breathe together, the meaning of life.” And as promised on another occasion Professor Vasile Stănescu recalled that: “… I understand to leave active life only with the abolition of taxes. ”

Former meritorious student and today renowned Professor Petru FILIP provides us with a new book with a stimulating, meaningful title: “România. Experienţa aderării” (Romania. The adherence experience), ECONOMICA Publishing House Bucharest. Professor Petru FILIP is Member of the Board of prestigious professional and scientific associations such as SSMAR and CRD, being also a Member of the Editorial Board of the “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine” and of the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal.

This challenging issue of adherence to the European Union (EU), is seen by the Author as a metric of being conscientious in supporting the rules of the adherence process while proving accuracy in following the time schedule, and endeavoring to implement the assigned pillars on the road to EU membership by implementing EU rules and regulations in all areas. The Author is looking at what the EU Treaty say about the adherence to EU, investigating in order to improve adherence management, measuring the adherence level, considering different views on providing adequate inputs and taking proactive role in the organization of the adherence process by building synergies based on competencies, and this way making possible the sharing of a remarkable experience.

Honored by the valuable Author autograph given by Professor Petru FILIP on this challenging book, allow us to remember the letter no. D/001049/6.11.02 of the distinguished Professor Mario Monti, the outstanding European Commissioner at that time (an essential moment of our EU adherence process), who congratulated us for our commitment to building an effective competition policy as shown on the website of the Romanian Competition Council.

Theodor PURCAREA, Road Map, The Store of the Future, World Premiere, May 4, 2015, at SHOP 2015, Expo Milano 2015

Two recent news have portrayed indirectly an interesting arch over time formed by a painting – the “Carousel of the Distribution” by Jean WEGNEZ (painting displayed for the first time at the end of 2004 in the Conference Room of the famous “Palais d’Egmont”, Brussels) – and a “Road Map of the Store of the Future” by Theodor PURCAREA (road map presented as a world premiere on May 4, 2015 at the opening of the “SHOP 2015” Conference, at Expo Milano 2015, see photo above).

On May 5, 2015, within the generous framework offered by “Forum Art Business”, the European Retail Academy – ERA (thanks to ERA President Prof. Dr. Bernd HALLIER, who is also publisher of “Culture and History of Commerce” and “Collectors and Sponsors of Commerce”) – was pleased to announce (see photo below) the opening of a painting exhibition (that is to take place soon, from May 17 to May 31, 2015) by the distinguished Belge Jean WEGNEZ at Cercle Artistique de Spa (“the water city”).

It is worth to remember that a visit to a painting exhibition of Jean WEGNEZ represents a true invitation to venture into the world of dreams, by meeting the magic of colors well-orchestrated and adding a symbolic level of meaning reflecting both peace and dynamism, Jean WEGNEZ being well-known for capturing the desire of engaging on the way to the unreal, thanks to his originality of thought, which allows to develop a unique vision in an unexpected way.

You can see below the painter’s brother, Léon F. WEGNEZ (Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, A.I.D.A. Brussels), and Florian POPA (Vice-President of the Commission of Public Health of the Romanian Senate, and President of SANABUNA International Congress) in front of the painting representing the “Carousel of the Distribution” (both being Honorary Members of the Romanian Distribution Committee).

The painter’s brother, Léon F. WEGNEZ, was recently quoted by Theodor PURCAREA at the opening of the “SHOP 2015” Conference, Expo Milano 2015 (see photo below).

Theodor PURCAREA, “Distribution, the challenge of the super agility”, Presentation at SHOP 2015, Expo Milano 2015

Professor Léon F. WEGNEZ was quoted recently by Theodor PURCAREA at SHOP 2015, Expo Milano 2015

News from Forum Art Business, ERA

Some paintings of Jean WEGNEZ

Léon F. WEGNEZ and Florian POPA in front of the painting “Carousel of the Distribution” by Jean WEGNEZ