A New Initiative for the 2020 U.S. Census: An Interview with John Florescu, TV Producer, Businessman and Journalist
John Maurice Florescu was born on April 14, 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Radu Florescu (1925–2014) was a Romanian academic who held the position of Emeritus Professor of History at Boston College, authored a series of bestselling books on Vlad “Dracula” Ţepeş, served as an adviser to former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Edward “Ted” Kennedy (D-MA, 1932–2009) on Balkan and Eastern European affairs, and also served as the press liaison for the White House during the state visit of President Richard Nixon in 1969 in Romania.
John Florescu is a graduate from Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts (B.A., magna cum laude, History, 1976). He also studied at a catholic school in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Oxford University in Oxford, United Kingdom (politics, philosophy and economics, matriculated in 1974).
Florescu worked for the David Paradine Television Inc. in Los Angeles, California (President and CEO, 1987–2006) and launched new media companies (Centrade, 1997, in Houston, Texas; Bates Agency, 1997, in Bucharest, Romania; Cable Direct, 1999; Chainsaw Europe Studios, 2005, in Bucharest, Romania; Kubis Interactive, 2008). He produced TV shows for the A&E Network, BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBS, Discovery-Times, Disney, HBO, The History Channel, and PBS.
Florescu’s political and historical documentaries have been broadcasted internationally (US, UK and Europe) and featured in film festivals in Europe (“The King Who Tricked Hitler,” Time Warner Channel, 2016; the series “Trump versus Clinton: What It Means to Europe,” Time Warner Channel, 2016; “Trump: What He Means to Europe,” Time Warner, 2017). His productions include programs with six presidents of the United States, two former British prime ministers and former leaders of the Soviet Union.
During the period of October 3 and 4, 2019, John Florescu attended the annual ALIANŢA/The Alliance Gala, in Washington, DC, at the Conrad Hotel and the Romanian Embassy, respectively.
On October 4, 2019, the Alianţa organization announced the launching of a new initiative, The 2020 U.S. Census Campaign, in order to encourage Romanian-Americans to mark themselves down as of Romanian-origin during the census. Estimates of Romanian-Americans in the United States vary from 800,000 to 1.5 million. https://alianta.org/
With that occasion, Mr. Florescu granted me an exclusive interview.
1. Mr. John Florescu, a social media campaign has been recently launched, in order to encourage Romanian-Americans to note their heritage on their 2020 U.S. Census forms. Can you elaborate a little on the technicalities that the voters should know, in order to successfully achieve this project?
Well, the primary obligation of the voters is, actually, to check the Census Form on Question #9 and ask them to say “what country are they from.” So, all they have to do is write “Romania.” It’s important because it helps accelerate the wait, the interest in Romanian issues or Romanian-American issues, and it gives importance because it is rooted in numbers. And politicians are very aware of numbers.
2. Thank you so much. As a leader of the Romanian-American community, how can you help change the U.S. visa rules and regulations and maximize the count of Romanian-Americans in the U.S. Census?
Well, I think, at some point, we are going to have to say “why Romania matters?” and try to give a sense of unity to the Romanian community. Because, when the lobbying campaign goes forward, whether it’s in the House, whether it’s in the Senate… I worked as an aide for a former senator, I know when you can talk about specifics, you know, the number of people that are in your community. That’s what they think about, they think about their congressional communities or their states. So that’s why it matters.
3. Thank you so much. The last question, Mr. Florescu: what challenges will you foresee during this process?
Certainly, we will be able to produce everything. I think we will be able to convince a number of the celebrities that we’ve talked about it [Harvey Keitel, Winona Ryder and others]. I think the main thing is to be sure that we have sufficient funds to take that to the social media campaign and get it widely and deeply into where the Romanians are. So, being able to carefully target that community, using social media and let them become a frample and take it to a wider community, would be the key thing.
4. Thank you so much, Mr. Florescu.
You are welcome. Thanks very much.
(October 15, 2019)
NOTE — Versions of the article were published in:
AMERICAN THINKER (El Cerrito/San Francisco, California) [+ comments]
***
and
CARIBBEAN NEWS GLOBAL (Brooklyn/New York City, New York) [+ views, comments]
***
and
CARIBBEAN NEWS NOW! (Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas) [ comments]
***
and
CONSERVATIVE READ (Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona) [ comments]
***
and
INTELLECTUAL CONSERVATIVE (Phoenix, Arizona) [ comments]
and
MARIANAS VARIETY (Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands) [ comments]
and
MEDIUM (San Francisco, California) [100+ views; comments; 100+ likes]
and
SAIPAN TRIBUNE (Garapan/Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands) [ comments]
***
and featured in:
320ro.com (Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom) [ comments]
***
and
ACCENT (Toronto, Canada) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
ACTIVE BOARD
***
and
AFRO-CONSCIOUS MEDIA (Canada; Long Beach, California) [ comments]
***
and
ALTERNATIVA/THE ALTERNATIVE (Toronto, Canada) (_________ 2018) [in Romanian] [NOTE = scroll down on the journal’s home page to get the article and then press OPEN on the article]
***
and
ARMONIA/THE HARMONY (Hickory/Charlotte, North Carolina) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and also
ARMONIA MAGAZINE/THE HARMONY MAGAZINE (Hickory/Charlotte, North Carolina) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
BLUNT FORCE TRUTH (Detroit, Michigan) [ comments]
***
and
BURNING PLATFORM [ comments]
***
and
CARIBBEAN POST (Santiago, Dominican Republic) [ comments]
***
and
CLICK ROMANIA (London, United Kingdom) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
CURENTUL/THE CURRENT (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
CURENTUL INTERNAŢIONAL/THE INTERNATIONAL CURRENT (Sterling Heights/Detroit, Michigan) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
FIWEH (Okinawa, Japan) [ comments]
***
and
FREE REPUBLIC (Fresno, California) [ comments]
***
and
GÂNDACUL DE COLORADO/THE COLORADO BEETLE (Estes Park/Denver, Colorado) [in Romanian] [ + views; comments]
***
and
GOP BRIEFING ROOM [ + views; comments]
***
and
INVESTORS HUB (London, United Kingdom) [ comments]
***
and
JURNAL DE CHIŞINĂU/CHIŞINĂU JOURNAL (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
LUCIANNE.COM (Cliffside Park, New Jersey) [ + comments]
***
and
LUMEA ROMÂNEASCĂ/THE ROMANIAN WORLD (Grand Rapids, Michigan) [in Romanian]
***
and
MENAFN (Amman, Jordan)
***
and
MERIDIANUL ROMÂNESC/THE ROMANIAN MERIDIAN (Santa Clarita/Los Angeles, California) [in Romanian]
***
and
MEXICAN OCCUPATION
***
and
MIORIŢA USA (Sacramento, California) [in Romanian]
***
and also
MIORIŢA USA (Sacramento, California), printed edition [in Romanian]
***
and
MOLDOVA9/NEW MOLDOVA (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
MOLDOVA ŞTIRI/MOLDOVA NEWS (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian] (300+ views; comments]
***
and
MORNING IN ARIZONA [ comments]
***
and
NAŢIUNEA/THE NATION (Bucharest, Romania) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
NEW YORK MAGAZIN/NEW YORK MAGAZINE (New York City, New York) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
OBSERVATORUL/THE OBSERVER (Toronto, Canada) [in Romanian]
***
and
OCCIDENTUL ROMÂNESC/ROMANIAN WEST (Madrid, Spain)
***
and
OFICIAL/OFFICIAL (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
PARADIGMS AND DEMOGRAPHICS (Cleveland, Ohio) [ comments]
***
and
PROTECTORS OF LIBERTY (Mount Pleasant, Michigan) [ comments]
***
and
QOSHE (Netherlands & Turkey)
***
and
QWIKET (Kingston, New York) [ comments]
***
and
ROMANIA JOURNAL (Bucharest, Romania) [ + views; comments]
***
and
ROMANIAN TIMES (Portland, Oregon) [in Romanian]
and also
ROMANIAN TIMES (Portland, Oregon) (print edition, pp. and ) [in Romanian]
***
and
SAVE AMERICA FOUNDATION (Clearwater, Florida)
***
and
TAPATALK (Santa Monica/Los Angeles, California) [ comments]
***
and
TIMP ROMÂNESC/ROMANIAN TIME (Bucharest, Romania) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
TRIBUNA/THE TRIBUNE (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [ comments]
***
and also
TRIBUNA/THE TRIBUNE (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
TRIBUNA ROMÂNEASCĂ/ROMANIAN TRIBUNE (Chicago, Illinois) [in Romanian] [ comments]
***
and
TRULY TIMES [ + views, comments]
***
and
TRUMP’S MINUTEMEN (Fort Worth, Texas)
***
and
UNIMEDIA (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian] [ + views, comments]
***
and
US POLITICS 10z [ comments]
***
and
ZIARUL DE GARDĂ/THE GUARD NEWSPAPER (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova) [in Romanian]
***
and referenced in:
CENTRUL DE PRESĂ — PRESSPEDIA/THE PRESS CENTER — PRESSPEDIA (Bucharest, Romania) [in Romanian] [+ views]
***
and
CURENTUL INTERNAŢIONAL/INTERNATIONAL CURRENT — FACEBOOK (Sterling Heights/Detroit, Michigan) [in Romanian]
***
and
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY (Cincinnati, Ohio)
***
and
LIBERAL FORUM
***
and
MUCK RACK (New York, New York)
***
and
OBAMA LIES
***
and
PRESS RUSH (Turku, Finland)
***
and
THY BLACK MAN [ comments]
***
and
ZENITH NEWS (Duluth, Minnesota)
***
NUMBER OF PUBLICATIONS = 3
*****
