My apologies for the relatively light posting of late. The truth is that I have been busy – not so much with official work but I’ve been “in the streets” a lot. Some of it was disguised as hanging out in the bar with friends but underneath it all was my attempt to search for a fulcrum.
I’ve been talking to young adults, older adults, university students, former members of the PCR (Communist party), various politicians (none of them currently holding an office) and even foreigners who have lived here for a long time. From all of these various people has come one single unifying theme – Romania has a multitude of serious problems and that apathy is a universal trait (and almost nothing can be done about it, except perhaps lots of waiting).
I don’t think there’s much disagreement here but it leads me to my next question – what can be done? I don’t mean what can be done about problem X (say, like having a plagiarist liar as Prime Minister) but about the underlying cause itself, i.e. the apathy? What exactly will it take to knock Romanians from their slumber and get motivated to do something?
That’s a question I don’t have the answer for quite yet but I think I am getting closer. I realize that I was getting a little too ambitious a couple of weeks ago when I thought that dispelling that apathy was only a matter of concentrated effort. I realize now that Romanians (from all walks of life) are not under- or misinformed. In general, they know what’s going on. They know what the problems are. And yet no matter what their age, gender, material status (rich or poor), career or religion, they are all united in the fact that they aren’t willing to do anything to change the situation except A) leave the country or B) complain bitterly/largely ignore what’s going on.
That’s really the only two choices being made by millions of my neighbors every day – either GTFO and go somewhere “better” or else mostly ignore the situation while occasionally bitching about it.
I remember the sunny (and fairly warm) day that the MRU government was toppled by the USL, and talking to a well-informed friend about it just moments after it was announced in the news. And yet if you were walking around the city like we were, you would have had no idea that anything had happened at all. The same people were idling in the squares on benches, the same people were sipping coffees on the sidewalk cafes, and not a damn thing changed. Nothing visible happened the day Basescu was suspended either.
There were 10,000 more people in the streets for music and film festivals this summer than there ever were for any kind of social unrest or protest. So I don’t think the widespread apathy is in question. Certainly everyone I’ve been talking to has regular internet access and knows quite well what’s going on, so we can’t pin this on ignorance or being unaware. So what exactly is driving this apathy?
I think a far more useful question is why were people protesting at all in December 1989. I can understand some passionate rebelliousness from young, unmarried men but why were 70-year-old people staring down armed soldiers? Why were old people in wheelchairs out in the streets bearing protest signs?
And why was there so little violence? I have to ask if Captain Dando had been off duty on that fateful day, if another man in his position would’ve ordered the troops to open fire. As tragic as it was to lose those lives, why were so few people killed nationwide by the Communist government? Why didn’t Ceausescu order more firing on demonstrators, especially in Bucharest as it became obvious to everyone that the rebellion was spreading?
Even more odd is the lack of violence in return by the protesters themselves. There was almost no looting or vandalism against state buildings or properties. There were hardly any windows broken, for goodness’ sakes. I watched a lot of videos from those days and what you see (especially in Cluj) is people just tootling their car horns and shouting in the streets but not doing much else. I saw a few portraits of Ceausescu being burned but why no attacks against soldiers? Why were the protestors themselves asking for there to be no reprisals against the troops the day after dozens of innocent people had been gunned down?
And why exactly was anyone protesting Communist rule in the first place? Jobs were guaranteed, social order had been maintained, food might’ve been rationed but it was available (especially in the late 80s). People got guaranteed vacations and parades and free schooling. Certainly there was some intellectual repression but most Romanians today don’t even express themselves. Only a tiny handful of dissidents were ever arrested or mistreated for political reasons. The vast, vast majority of the population was allowed to go about their business with only a handful of activities off-limits. Heck, even the Orthodox Church was not repressed much at all.
So what was worth being in that square and getting shot?
If you’re from the West you automatically want to shout, “For freedom and democracy!” but that’s utter crap. Barely half of the Romanian population votes in any given election so it surely isn’t about democracy. As for freedom, unless you’re talking about freedom to watch porn and steal movies off of the internet, nobody much cares about that here either. The Securitate has long since been disbanded and yet Romanians remain some of the most conformist people I’ve ever met, almost never doing anything to earn the open disapproval of their neighbors and family.
Again, I don’t quite have the answers quite yet that I’m looking for. In case you’re reading this and getting fired up about writing me about the 10,000 explanations for why Romanians are so apathetic, the long years of domination, slavery, etc, please don’t. I’ve heard every excuse you can come up with and plenty more and while those are all interesting and useful, I’m trying to break new ground here. I’m trying to figure out what exactly will galvanize people to start caring about their country and do something instead of either fleeing or idling the rest of their lives in cynical indifference.
I think it should be evident, based on my previous writings, why I care so much about this. My own personal existence here is beyond comfortable but I am filled with an inescapable sense of horror as I watch so many of my neighbors suffer completely needlessly. I don’t even let my cats toy with the grasshoppers they catch in the garden so it’s utterly beyond my ability to understand why Romanians, who get so flipping outraged if an Olympic judge rules against “them” would let such a rich and bountiful country be totally destroyed.
Romania could be one of the richest countries in Europe. I don’t mean “rich” just in the way I care about, rich in traditions, lifestyle and food quality but rich as in cash money rich. With so many tourist opportunities, with so many mineral resources (uranium, copper, aluminum, gold, etc), with so much petroleum, with such perfect opportunities for renewable energy (esp. wind), with such abundance of fertile land and forests, wetlands and beaches, the only reason Romania is poor is because nobody here gives a shit.
I mean really that’s it. If you swapped out every Romanian for an Israeli, a German, an American or a Japanese person, this country would be enormously wealthy in 10 years. Corruption, deforestation, pollution, low wages, failure to collect taxes, crippling and unnecessary public debt, thievery, embezzlement, inefficiency, cheating and wastage on every level is the direct result of this complete and total apathy. If people here cared then untold riches (of every kind) would be at their disposal.
I, for one, remain optimistic, not optimistic that millions of people will listen to me and suddenly wake up from this sleep of death but optimistic that the human spirit is stronger than any history or cultural traditions and that if the candle of hope can be lit then the future can be quite wonderful indeed. But lighting it is the challenge at hand, eh?
You can blow out a candle
But you can’t blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher.-Peter Gabriel
All Things Romania 
Your Highness!
Will you please get off that high horse of yours?
Your story was all nice and dandy until you started describing the ex-commie pre-89 Romania like a nice place, with some restrictions, but nice nontheless.
With all due respect to your self-proclamed position as King of Romania, you’re so full of crap I can smell you through my internet connection :)
How the hell can you say something like this, when you never ever had to wonder about what you’re going to eat next day? And I am not talking about having money to buy stuff, but about having money and nothing to buy with it. Can you understand that? Obviously not.
It is useless to recount all the nice things of the pre-89 Romania. For someone who did not live it, it is beyond reality, beyond explanation. But you do need a wake-up call. Your made-in-USA sense of superiority and morality does not mean shit here. No matter what you think of yourself, what you think of us as a nation as a collection of different ethnic groups, you’ll never be able to think like us. So don’t judge us.
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I have two possible explanations for Romania’s relative underachievement (but having been throughout the third world, I can honestly say Romania an its society has A LOT more in common with the most developed nations, such as the US, Western Europe, Northeast Asia than with the rest of the world). The first explanation is that one of the first steps Communism took in all societies was to destroy the elites. The educated classes, the aristocratic classes, and the wealthy classes. This allowed the human excrement to flourish and to impose its values on society – perhaps this was an unintended consequence, but it is clearly visible in many ex-Communist countries. The moral compass and all that… The second reason is average IQ – which places Romania towards the lower end of Europe (but higher than all Balkan nations, including Greece). Thus, Romania is not the violent clusterfuck that is ex-Yugoslavia, nor is it imploding like Greece, but it is unlikely it will reach the economic potential of Western Europe unless major demographic and/or nutritional changes occur. Anyway, regardless if its lower IQ status in Europe, it still does very well compared to the rest of the world (a majority of which would be considered literally close to retardation by Western medical standards), so the situation is not that bad. The economy is so-so for Western standards, but at least Romania should be proud it compares itself the West, meaning it belongs in the same general grouping.
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You’re right. It was said that the communist regime elaborated and implemented a well-planned strategy, firstly by imprisoning/”re-educating” the elites and secondly by nationalizing every kind of property an individual could own. Their aim was to create a new man with a complete new mentality, able to work like hell (stahanovism and all that) to build and maintain something that didn’t belong to him. A man ready to work himself to death only for the glory of his Vaterland (and the Party’s, of course), regardless of the fact that his increased productivity wasn’t going to be rewarded and he wasn’t going to have a better life due to his hard work. He wasn’t going to own a house or at least a larger space to live in, a rod of ground and people used to save pretty much a lifetime to buy a car. How did they think they were going to achieve their goal and create their “Ubermensch” is beyond my ability to understand.
As for the IQ matter…I really don’t know. In my opinion, it’s like Romanians don’t want to know or to think of some things rather than not having enough brains. As for the nutrition thing, ugh, you’re kind of right. Without feeding it enough quality protein, the damn brain refuses to work and I can testify it.
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Like your attitude…but REALLY ; DON T USE FUCKING MASONIC PYRAMIDS AS GUIDELINES OR TRIGGER TRICKS ON US.
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The only viable solution is to awaken the cynical, self-victimizing Romanians from their deadly slumber. There are some great people out there who simply don’t give a fuck, and that’s ruining everything we’re fighting for.
The Romanian political scene isn’t going to change in one night of violent revolution (we all know how well that usually goes). Educating the people is where it’s at. Where do you think shallow, underachieving bastards like Ponta and Antonescu come from? Fixing the source of the problem will be troublesome, but not impossible. Slow and steady wins the race.
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Sam, you are wrong about one thing, it is not true that nobody cares. I’ve told you this before (and it fact it is quite obvious) if nobody would have cared then Romania would not have existed.
On the other hand you are right, we are much less inclined to get socially involved than other nations. We could debate for hours why is this but basically it is a survival strategy of our people. If it is a correct one… who knows!
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Your opinion does make sense, I think. A wounded people who throughout all its history was always forced back to its knees whenever it tried to stand up cannot have another type of social behaviour. It’s so sad to think that Stephen the Great himself, “athleta Christi”, after inflicting upon the Ottomans one of their most devastating defeats and receiving from his Western “allies” loads of nice words but entirely too little help, counseled his heir to conclude a “honourable” peace with the Turks rather than keep fighting for preserving the country’s independence. It could be argued that things are far from being like they were 500 years ago but are they? Really, are they?
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No, things will never really change. Life is a continous battle, both for individuals and for nations. Methods change, alliances change, but the battle remains.
I am not sad or anything like that about it; it is just a fact of life.
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Oh, and I’m not saying we were forced to knee, it was our choice to do so because we thought it is the best strategy. Is that true? Depends on the perspective. I’ll give you an example.
Serbs – as a nation – never made any compromise. They have fought the Turks, the Austrians, the Germans, the Americans (lately) etc. The result? Their country is now the size of two Romanian counties, some of them have been forced to become Muslims (there is no “Bosnian” people, they are just Serbs who became Muslims during the Turkish occupation) and they are trying to rebuild their country after NATO has blasted it to pieces. But they are a proud nation. That cannot be denied.
So was their strategy better? Well, depends on your perspective.
My perspective? I agree with Sun Tzu who said “In any battle the only thing which cannot be forgiven is to lose”.
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Thank you for your insights. Personally I’m sad because it isn’t like we really want to stay on our knees, in my opinion, and I think again about the fifteenth century. We all know what kind of strategy was employed by Stephen the Great or Vlad the Impaler in their struggles against the Turks. Burn to the ground any settlement, poison the wells, destroy anything you can’t carry as you flee into the mountains. I always wondered how would have reacted the rich towns of Italy or of Flanders if someone had proposed to them such war strategy. You could say that those poor people owned fairly nothing but they must have had at least a hovel, some crops, a cow or a sheep. They sacrificed them at their prince’s command and not only that, but they also came to his camp and formed „Oastea cea Mare”. They didn’t say to him: „Look, pal. You know damn well that this is a lost battle and the best we can do is to cut down our losses.So you may order as much as you want to destroy our property and hightail into the mountains, we aren’t going to listen to you.” Boyars did that but not the people. There have been times when we fought for our freedom, completely willingly, in my opinion and this is why I cannot believe that we knowingly chose to remain on our knees.
As for you example, you know, I think that different people are really made of different stuff. Japan would be the best example I can give but closer to us, it seems to be a real difference (if not a competition) between the Latin and the Germanic race. Belgium is my favorite example and, as much as I want to see a strong and united Belgium, it looks like an impossible feat. Two people (Flemings and Walloons) who never fought against each other, always packed together since the sixteenth century in what was first Spanish Netherlands, then Austrian Netherlands, then the United Kingdom of Netherlands until Belgium gained its independence, are unable to coexist at least as a federal state. Why? Their territory was always Western Europe’s favorite battleground, the duke of Alba became famous due to his activity in the Low Countries, revolutionary France chose to practice on them the meaning of „liberté, egalité, fraternité” by fitting Grote Markt in Bruxelles with a shiny new guillotine and I heard Belgian historians thanking God for being under Austrian occupation during Robespierre’s Terror. They have been given enough grief by all their neighbors and yet they cannot stick together.
As for us…if you noticed, Sam said „If you swapped out every Romanian for an Israeli, a German, an American or a Japanese person, this country would be enormously wealthy in 10 years.” What if we swap out every Romanian for an Italian, a Spaniard or a Portuguese? Well, what then? “wolfish grin” I can only conclude that we do want to stand up for our own but we need both teaching and experience. And quality leadership wouldn’t be amiss. Sorry for bothering you with my ramblings but today I feel like the world went topsy turvy and if an certain esteemed Court tells me the sky is green, I shan’t have any other choice but to believe it.
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Ai dreptate, n-am stat intotdeauna in genunchi. Si nici nu sustin ca trebuie s-o facem. Spuneam numai ca uneori facem asta ca o alegere si e la aprecierea fiecaruia daca e bine sau rau. In ceea ce ma priveste – ca individ – ingenuncherea nu este acceptabila, dar asta e alegerea mea si sunt dispus sa ii suport consecintele, bune sau rele.
In ceea ce-i priveste pe vestici stiu ca Sam e agasat ori de cate ori se aduce vorba de istorie, dar asta nu e decat autosuficienta tipic americana, nimic altceva. Istoria unei natiuni modeleaza respectiva natiune dupa cum evenimentele din viata unui om modeleaza acel om. Ignorarea istoriei nu te va duce decat la concluzii gresite.
Vesticii au tot felul de teorii si principii pe care le clameaza, dar realitatea este ca rareori au fost pusi in fata acelorasi dificultati ca cei din est. Iar in rarele momente cand au fost pusi au reactionat la fel de bine sau de rau ca noi.
Ca sa nu mergem prea departe in istorie, in al doilea razboi mondial americanilor le intrase intr-atat groaza in oase ca vor fi cuceriti de japonezi incat si-au inchis in lagare proprii cetateni de origine japoneza. Sigur, spre sfarsitul razboiului le-au dat drumul, au zis ca a fost o greseala, dar faptul ramane. Prin anii ’50 erau terifiati de rusi asa ca au devenit paranoici si au bagat la inchisoare tot felul de oameni pe care ii banuiau ca ar avea vederi de stanga (l-au expulzat pe Charlie Chaplin!!) desi – legalmente vorbind – ai dreptul sa ai vederi de stanga. Dupa o vreme si-au cerut iarasi scuze.
Ce incerc sa spun e ca daca ai umple Romania cu nemti, americani etc. ACUM probabil ca tara ar deveni bogata precum zice Sam intrucat oamenii astia au alta mentalitate, dar asta se datoreaza nu vreunei calitati personale innascute, ci faptului ca au avut mai mult noroc in istorie.
Daca ai fi umplut Romania cu nemti si alte cele acum 1700 ani si ar fi trebuit sa treaca prin tot ce am trecut noi… nu stiu, zau.
Asta nu e o scuza, doar o constatare. Trebuie sa facem lucrurile mai bine? Bineinteles. Doar ca ranile se vindeca incet, iar mentalitatile se formeaza foarte incet. In multe generatii.
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Sunt complet de acord cu tine. Iar cat priveste ingenunchiatul, cred ca in anumite cazuri este justificat sau poate chiar intelept s-o faci dar in anumite imprejurari chiar trebuie pus piciorul in prag. Problema cea mare consta in determinarea momentului oportun in vederea obtinerii unor rezultate care sa merite riscul. Pentru ca, dupa cum stim cu totii, nici o revolta de genul asta nu ramane vreodata nepedepsita. Mie mi se pare ca un astfel de moment a sosit dar…vom vedea.
Ca sa spun adevarul, mie personal “teoriile” si “principiile” vesticilor incep sa-mi para o gluma din ce in ce mai proasta. Nu ca as fi avut cine stie ce asteptari. Nu dupa ce vad Franta revolutionara, care tocmai varsase sangele “tiranilor” care se nimerisera sa ocupe tronul Frantei la momentul acela, ocupand Elvetia si Tarile de Jos, fara indoiala sa le invete un pic de “democratie”.Nu dupa ce-l aud pe marele erou al Revolutiei Danton tinand un discurs de care Stalin ar fi fost mandru, ceva in legatura cu “frontierele naturale”. Iar, venind mai incoace in istorie, reactia vesticilor la blitzkrieg-ul lui Hitler , cel putin in prima faza, a fost destul de jenanta si daca Hitler nu facea aceeasi greseala ca si Napoleon incercand sa cucereasca URSS folosind aceeasi tactica ca si in Vest, chiar nu-mi imaginez cum s-ar fi sfarsit Al Doilea Razboi Mondial.
Americanii, ce sa zic, in ceva mai mult de 200 de ani de istorie au deja la activ momente ca Wounded Knee, Razboiul de Secesiune, comisia McCarthy si altele. Iar cu greselile…armele chimice din Iraq si altele, nimeni nu poate nega ca in cazul in care greselile ar fi fost comise de o alta tara decat Unchiul Sam, consecintele ar fi fost drastice. In schimb, they did it because they could. Take it or leave it.
Ai mare dreptate, mentalitatile se schimba incet si dureros. Dar tot ce mi-as dori acum este sa vad infiripandu-se macar un strop de reconciliere si solidaritate intre romani. As it happens, this is also the greatest wish of a certain blue-shirted citizen, confined for the moment to a small shack. “face palm”
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“Biko” might be the best song to use in this fight.
You could try contacting Nicusor Dan in Bucharest. He’s one of the three major candidates of the June elections, and he’s basically doing the same thing you are: combating apathy and promoting “civism adevarat”.
He didn’t get elected, but 10% of Bucharest voted for a truly independent candidate with a shoestring budget. That’s another kind of victory.
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I second the idea of contacting Nicusor Dan — perhaps you followed his campaign? From what I understand he had/has a pretty good team, mostly made up of volunteers. I also know quite a few people who would have voted for him if they lived in Bucharest. It’s true that it was mostly the “hip,” faceboook-using, young professional crowd but still, it’s a start.
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I was a latecomer to his campaign, back in June, but I marched with the few hundred volunteers to promote him, on one of the official Nicusor Dan Marches. The man is a hero.
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Hi Sam, I’ll be in Cluj tomorrow. Is it possible to meet you? I’m from Bucharest and I share the same oppinions with you. Best regards, Florin Geanta 0724500832
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“In case you’re reading this and getting fired up about writing me about the 10,000 explanations for why Romanians are so apathetic, the long years of domination, slavery, etc, please don’t.”
Try to understand that those 10,000 explanations are something more than excuses, they are facts. Facts that left their unmistakable print upon our souls. The Romanian psyche is scarred beyond belief and this fact cannot be ignored. You cannot pretend to tell us: “All right, people. There is now no more Securitate, the communist regime has fallen and Ceausescu was executed. Now, stand up and soar into the sky!” We can’t do it, not now. Try to free a bird kept all its life in a cage and see if it can fly as its wings had never been used before. We need time and care to heal but nobody seems to be inclined to grant them to us, especially the politicians, locals or foreigners.
“And why exactly was anyone protesting Communist rule in the first place? …food might’ve been rationed but it was available..” I was a mere child back then but I shall remember all my life what was the meaning of searching for food in the late 80s. I could never believe my parents when they were telling me that “once” one could actually walk into a store and find more than empty shelves (filled at best with ominously tasteless Vietnamese shrimps and mustard jars). And that was happening in the final period of the communist regime. In the beginning, during the late 40s, 50s and 60s, the prisons were practically crowded with the best of our people who lived and died there in worse ways that we can imagine. I know you don’t want to hear anything of this but, for the people who died there literally waiting for the Americans to come and save them, I had to tell you.
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Sam, it’s the same argument from an earlier post of yours, about the gipsies. You noticed their different way of living and wondered why would the romanians want/force them to live by romanian rules. Fair point. You come from a different culture, with a different set of rules and assumptions and you tell us we’re doing it all wrong. Why is your way better than ours? Seems to me you decided your values are better than ours and you decided to find a way to change us to match you idea of how we should be. How are you different from all those missionaries whose attitude you dislike? You can’t make the choices for other people. Don’t pity us.
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I’m confused. I think it’s a different argument than the one regarding the gipsies. As far as I can tell, the gipsies themselves don’t want to change. They never complain about their “gipsiness”, how bad their society is, and how much they’d like to live in a more civilized place. They are not even ashamed of being a gipsy.
Romanians on the other hand …..
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I think it’s useful to notice that even our national anthem refers to this state of apathy:
“Desteapta-te Romane din somnul cel de moarte”.
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