Personally, I blame the European Union. I understand why they did what they did and I know that their intention was to try and encourage “Little Brother” by inviting him into their club so that he could grow up and be as brave and strong as all the Big Boys and Girls at the table. I get that. But it was a very bad mistake nonetheless.
I appreciate it quite a lot when I see parks, streets and transportation lines upgraded, renovated and fixed with EU money. I appreciate more than you will ever know when I see my hard-working Romanian friends get grants from the EU to help them open their own businesses, or the chance to study at another university, or to get valuable experience volunteering with organizations operated by the EU. I’ve even had fun after midnight playing on the children’s playground equipment that the EU has so kindly provided.
But there’s one thing the EU forgot – and that’s teaching Romanians what democracy actually means. Actually, I don’t expect they know much about it. The British just spent 14 billion on their stupid Games while at the same time forking over hundreds of millions to upkeep an old bag with her sour lemon face living a life of luxury in her multiple palaces while doing nothing except providing “moral support” to a nation still illegally occupying one third of the island next door.
I don’t expect Romanians to learn from Italy, who have had over 60 different governments since the war, governments that actively collaborated with terrorists to bring death and destruction on their own people. I don’t expect Romanians to learn about democracy from Germany, not the Stalinist enclave of former East Germany nor the so-called “free” half of West Germany, literally run by a cadre of high-ranking former Nazis, including the Chancellor (Prime Minister) himself.
I don’t expect Romanians to learn democracy from the Norwegians, who now believe in their arrogance that their petroleum wealth will keep people from forgetting their fascist past, which occasionally still comes to the surface. I don’t expect Romanians to learn it from old King Juan Carlos of Spain, who gets his ass kissed at home as the defender of democracy after letting a bloodthirsty dictator die peacefully in his sleep after 40 years of terror.
Nor do I expect Romanians to learn democracy from Greece or Portugal, each run by a cadre of military generals, nor France, now on its fifth attempt at democracy. I don’t expect Romanians to learn democracy from the Americans either, who squashed their one true experiment in democracy (1776) with the odious form of government they enacted after the war (1789). No, quite frankly, I don’t blame Romanians for not understanding democracy.
After all, the original form (from the Greek meaning “rule of the people”) was a glorified lottery in which only a few rich men got rotating assignments. All the children, the poor, the women and all the slaves didn’t get shit. Only the rich property owners got to strut around and have their say, which isn’t a whole lot different than what we’ve got here in Romania, except that it’s a tiny bit less sexist these days.
Let me ask you, if you enrolled in a four-year university program of studies but never went to class, never once showed up to listen to the various professors, never engaged in classroom discussions, not just for the first semester or second semester but for years and years, and then finally, on the very last day of school in your very last year, you entered the building for the first time and took a single final exam, would that count as “attending university”?
If you somehow passed that final exam, perhaps because it was a single question on a single sheet of paper, saying something like, “Do you like Coca-Cola, yes or no?” with either answer counting as a passing grade, and the university awarded you a diploma for that, would you really consider yourself as having earned a degree? Would you consider yourself worthy of being deemed a scholar and that future employers should reward you for your efforts in improving your life?
Folks, showing up to vote once every four years does not make Romania a democracy. It doesn’t make you some kind of morally superior member of society. The next person who wants to crow about how their voting yesterday is some kind of ennobling act can shove their buletin de vot up their ass. If you went and voted yesterday, that’s your right to do so. But showing up one day every few years to do less work than a fucking movie critic does not make Romania a democracy nor you a contributor to the betterment of your country.
Democracy, quite frankly, is hard work. I look at these clodhoppers in Teleorman, Olt or Mehedinti, all of them showing up in record numbers to vote (presumably) thumbs down on Basescu when they couldn’t be bothered to show up just last month to vote for local elections, you know, the mayors, city councils and county prefects who actually affect their day-to-day lives, and I don’t call that much of a democracy.
Democracy means knowing who your mayor is, who your vice mayors (if any) are, and what they vote on. Do you know what rules or regulations your city council has passed this entire year? Do you have any idea how they voted or what they didn’t vote on?
Democracy means knowing who your member of parliament in Bucharest is, who your senator is, and paying attention to what they do. Showing up yesterday to vote on a referendum set into motion by a secret vote with balls in an urn is not fucking democracy.
Democracy is watching these bastards like a hawk, knowing when they’re busy sleeping through Senate votes, not cheering them on as they steal power just because a certain former sea captain made you feel stupid like the illiterate pig farmer that you are. Democracy means knowing who your representative is in the European parliament in Brussels. And above all else, calling and writing these snakes and holding them accountable to you, the person they brag about representing. If you haven’t contacted them and expressed your opinion, guess what? They’re not representing you. And that’s no democracy at all.
So go ahead and pat yourself on the back that you’re still to this day being represented by a Prime Minister that the entire world knows is a thief and a fraud. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back for being allied with people who spit on and insult Ioana Basescu, who never held a political office in her life. Go ahead and give yourself a big thumbs up for having wasted a colossal 155 million lei for absolutely nothing, not one drop of medicine, not one ban going to your grandmother, not one single pencil in a single fucking school. Go ahead and toot your own horn and then meanwhile get back to the fields and start loading up your rusty shitwagons with watermelons because I’m hungry.
Democracy is hard work. We are beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish members of all parties. But they’re not going to change or do one single thing different until democracy is an every day thing, when it is up to you every single day to watch these vipers and every single thing that they do, when it is up to you to write them, call them, protest in the street, sign petitions and stand outside their palaces and let them know you mean business.
Showing up at the beach with your beer belly hanging over your shorts once every few years is not enough. Leaving a few angry comments on a blog is not enough. And crying in your tuica about what the mean old Hungarians are (or are not) doing is not enough.
Turn off the TV. Close down your torrent software. Wipe the sunflower seeds off your chin and get to work. Otherwise you’ll get nothing more than what they decide to give to you. And friends, let me tell you, it won’t be much at all.
All Things Romania 
Sam, Sam, Sam…
Unfortunately you completely ruined a really good post by making that utterly ridiculous (and untrue) comment about Northern Ireland. Never a good idea when you have someone from Northern Ireland commenting on your blog.
If you’d like to learn the *facts* about the situation, please let me know. In the meantime, stick to commenting on countries which you actually have a clue about.
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“countries which you actually have a clue about”
Such as Romania? LOL People actually believed he might have some clues about Romania!
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not to mention Norway.. you don\’t have to be Norwegian to see how retarded Sam\’s comments were
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120724/20363519819/one-year-after-breivik-massacre-norway-continues-to-fight-terrorism-with-democracy-openness-love.shtml
the fact that fascist outbursts are allowed to exist is part of the price paid for the bright and shiny Western culture you take turns loving and hating
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To Rocky’s Dad.
Democracy does not exist, it is used as an excuse by a very few who are elected by a minority on behalf of the majority to represent us.
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Mihaela, please don’t put words in my mouth, OK? And it’s really not my fault that you don’t see the sad irony of the situation…
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Rocky’s Dad, your attitude is quite similar to the USL’s propaganda: pointing the finger at the “dictator’s camarilla.” It’s really not my fault that you don’t see the coincidence.
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Yep. You exposed me. Bummer!
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“We find ourselves back where we started”? No, I think we’re even worse than when this whole madness has started. Dimitar Bechev (head of the Sofia office for the European Council on Foreign Relations) is right when he says (please read the article in today’s Spiegel) that “Romania is divided into two political tribes. It isn’t a principled political disagreement, it is a dirty war. And it has become very personal.”
“In the medium term, basescu is likely gone. A lot of people who trusted him once have abandoned him. basescu won the battle, but he hasn’t won the war.”
However, even if basescu hasn’t won this war, it is not him who is the loser. And even if PoAntonescu have not won this war, it is not them who are the losers.
The problem is that the losers in this war are all the average Romanians, no matter how each of us answers the question ‘what is D’…
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Right Rocky’s Dad. That article in the Spiegel is a pretty pertinent analysis and indeed – the situation IS even worse than before the circus. I just didn’t want to say it and add more gloom to the pot I guess….
It’s always the ‘average’ people who lose in EVERY war. This one is sadly no different…
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Oof. Glad you got that off your chest, Sam. And you’re right to be angry. Right to be indignant. 155 million lei to find ourselves back where we started is obscene… and yes, if a bit of that had gone to schools, granny’s purse or anywhere else with a decent goal, it’d feel just a bit better – like something good had come out of it. But nothing has. There’s no winner. Just losers wherever you look.
John, I agree with you. Having a view from a non-Romanian living in Romania who LOVES the country as much as he does is valuable beyond words. Of course, if one doesn’t like what he says, there’s always the choice of not reading. I personally have been looking forward to his slant on yesterday’s utter fiasco and wasn’t disappointed.
One point I would like to make, though, is this: how can one understand the D word if one has never lived anything but a ‘pseudo-D’? The pseudo-D is simply an illusion of what one thinks D is. But actually isn’t.
Every country has its own experiences of D and I’m sure that if one asked the question ‘what is D’; to twenty people each from different countries, you’d get a completely different answer from each. What point am I trying to make here? Actually, God knows!! It started out as an vaguely intelligent comment and then petered out. I’m so tired of it, so disappointed, so angry (like you and for the same reasons) that I can’t even make sense anymore….
yesterday was NOT only about NU and DA. Or neither. It was about what happens next in the long term and I know full well from reading comments, articles, watching the various channels available online that few saw further then the next second. I don’t think people consider the gravity of Romania’s situation today both in terms of economy nor as a member of the EU. How often have I heard “we don’t need the EU. They can screw themselves”. Such ignorance. Such ‘fudulie’….
Well, only time will tell… the damage is done. Now what?
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Angela,
“Democracy, quite frankly, is hard work. I look at these clodhoppers in Teleorman, Olt or Mehedinti, all of them showing up in record numbers to vote (presumably) thumbs down on Basescu when they couldn’t be bothered to show up just last month to vote for local elections, you know, the mayors, city councils and county prefects who actually affect their day-to-day lives, and I don’t call that much of a democracy.”
You are missing the point he was making. Democracy only works when you actively participate in it. Voting “every 4 years” is not the level of participation you need to succeed.
All politicians should be treated as thieves, because most of them are, until they prove otherwise. They are all out for themselves and use carrots on a stick to entice you to think they will make a difference. Peoples votes are bought… where do you think that money comes from?
The best part of all is that Sam can offer you a different perspective, based on experience, which opens up debate ( good ) and allows disagreements ( also good ) and encourages all people to act! ( good! )
Please look at the message and forget, its not ” poor Romania, stop picking on us”… its a person who lives in YOUR country, who WANTS things to be better for you there because he knows it can be. Re-read his text without your “Romanian” glasses on and look at what is being said.
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Dear Sam,
since Romania is such a big pain in your redneck-mooshine-drinking-slave-owning-america ass why is it that you’re still around?!
Is it that you’re too lame to get paid for honest work in your own country? Or are you some sadist freak who simply enjoys seeing others being bich-slapped by the very ones who should protect them?
Who are you to teach me what democracy is?! Who are you to teach me anything for that matter?
Like you Americans are better than us?! REALLY?!
Remember WWII?! When was that, was that centuries or thousands of years ago?! oh, no… wait, that was in the ’40s, some 70 years ago. Remember how the “brave” Americans came to “liberate” Europe from fascism? Well guess what…you didn’t do your job sight, we ended up with 50 years of communism.
Oh and wait, wasn’t that about the same time when you freaking high horse riding assholes were keeping slaves, treating the African people worse than your cattle?! Making them work the land you sole from the local peoples whom you then butchered?! I’m so glad for affirmative action, now YOU have to kiss up to them, not that that makes any justice right now.
And you dare even pronounce the D word?!
Get back down from your high horse!!
And don’t even dare mention your economy, China owns your ass! (another very “democratic” country…but I guess when it comes to money it doesn’t matter anymore, does it?)
What I can’t get is what’s your stake in this? What do you care who our president is or even our PM, you don’t even get a vote in this!
So let me just vote for my own conscience the way I see fit, having lived the past 30 years in this hole of a country, having especially the experience of the last 8 years when every promise was not only forgotten, but more so overturned and done exactly backwards, treating me, voter, tax-paying citizen, honest worker and employer, simply for a moron.
Long story short: you have no right whatsoever to talk to me, or any other Romanian in this tone and so condescendingly.
If you hate the place and the people so much, please feel free to evacuate the premises, I for one do not wish you welcome.
Sincerely,
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ignorance is a bitch, get your facts straight and try to understand this text beyond your myopic eyesight
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Look lady, the man said he “doesn’t expect Romanians to learn democracy from the Americans either, who squashed their one true experiment in democracy (1776) with the odious form of government they enacted after the war (1789).”
Are you blind or are you forgetting this on purpose?
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Stai linistita. Dupa ce Basescu se va duce la racoare sigur isi inchide closetul asta.
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you gave me some material to discuss with friends. I had difficulties motivating them to be more involved politically, without the standard ‘They’re all the same’ answer. Now I know now to poke them. Thanks.
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“Go ahead and pat yourself on the back for being allied with people who spit on and insult Ioana Basescu, who never held a political office in her life.”
Sam, just in case you didn’t know (yeah, right!), that was not the reason for her being spit on and insulted.
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“…a colossal 155 million lei…”
“Colossal”, you say? What’s so colossal about it? That’s about 40 times the apartment purchased by Ioana basescu (since you mentioned her) from her salary as a junior notary (how do you translate “notar stagiar”?) Oh, and I’m sure every junior notary in Romania makes almost 1 million Euros in his/her first year of practice… :)))
And now you know…
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Then live happily with a PM who covers his plagiarism with made-up commissions and destroys an entire educational system. Ioana Basescu’s house and Vila Dante are more important for Romanians than any democratic institution. Suddenly, Voiculescu & Co are the saviors of the country!
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Rocky’s Dad am I to think that Americans should be booing and spitting on Bush’s daughter because daddy was once a powerful man and used that power to hurt a lot of people? Maybe you want to live in a society like that, where wrong doings propagate down the genealogical line but most of us don’t. People there didn’t spit on her because she made 1 million euros as a notar stagiar. People boo-ed her because she was Basescu’s daughter and you know that very well, but pretend not to understand the underlying problem. To be completely fair I do blame Basescu for nepotism with respect to both his daughters. But attacking them for their fathers political options is completely unacceptable.
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You’re right, Alexandru. Thanks for making things clear.
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I’ve stopped working for a few minutes to read this post :)
It wasn’t a waste of time, I understand the feelings here..
Well, back to work now. Maybe one day….
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