“Right now we have about 1000 lei ($400) a month for ourselves and four children,” Sorinela Croitoru said softly. “But what will we do for Easter? By then the jobs will be gone, the money will be gone. We are desperate.”

The villagers are in this terrible situation “because of the Hungarians and our Romanian leaders,” Mrs. Botariu said angrily. “They took everything away from us. They took away our hope.”

Soros, Korodi and Romanian senator Peter Eckstein-Kovacs (co-author of the no-cyanide bill) are all Hungarian by ethnicity and apparently by allegiance. A busload of anti-project Hungarian activists told villagers last summer that they view this Romanian section of Transylvania as part of Hungary.

Those attitudes appear to be driving much of their opposition: if they cannot rule it their way, if Gabriel went to Romanian leaders for permits, if the mining revenues flow to Bucharest instead of to Budapest (or George Soros), they would rather see the region broken and destitute, than let the project proceed.

No matter how they spin it, the opposition is clearly not motivated by concerns about ethics, the environment or people.

Others blame themselves, for not battling furiously enough against these unscrupulous, well-funded eco-imperialists. “We didn’t fight hard enough to keep this project here,” suggested Dr. Andrei Jurca, the village’s dentist (and physician). He feels it is intolerable for Rosia Montana to remain “under the thumb” of a minister who is becoming “an environmental dictator.” When the government held public debates in Bucharest to discuss the project, he noted, the villagers “were not even allowed to speak.”

The local people – the true stakeholders, the ones who need jobs and will be most affected by any decisions – were not allowed to speak. That is incredible, outrageous, at odds with the most fundamental tenets of democracy, ethics, environmental justice, transparency and accountability.

“This project is the area’s only chance for development,” Ilie Botariu emphasized. “The Alburnus Maior people helped us with a big nothing. They didn’t offer jobs and didn’t provide any benefits. And when they are done protesting against this investment, they will pack their bags and leave, to fight another project. That is all they do.”

Added Sebastian Hanesh: “We cannot wish them anything but the holiday ‘happiness’ they have given us. Today we are miners. Tomorrow we will be mushroom pickers, because of Alburnus and Soros. The members of parliament should resign, because they do not represent us and don’t fight for our rights.”

It’s time for the European Union, United Nations, national parliaments, US Congress, state legislatures and courts to rein in these irresponsible excesses – to insure that these currently unaccountable nonprofit multinational activist corporations are held to the same standards of honesty, decency, transparency and accountability that they demand of for-profit corporations.

It’s time that true civil rights groups and social responsibility advocates insist they do so.