asking the right questions
Brasov, Romania
You’ve got to know what questions to ask.
On both Saturday and Sunday I asked different people how Romania has changed over the past hundred years. You could ask that question in New Zealand and likely receive a response about the introduction of automobiles and electricity, and the disappearance of outhouses and suburban vegetable gardens.
Here people threw their hands up and claimed, “That’s much too long!” (never mind that they have a much much much longer history than kiwi-land!)
In each instance, they then turned to talking about post-89.
When I pressed for a longer timeframe (what about the fifty years before that?), it turned out that fifty was an inconvenient number. Time had to be counted in terms of pre-communism versus during-communism. It occurred to me that life is very politically driven here. I had expected answers to do with the availability of commodities, but I was fed worldview. What sort of apples or apartment you can buy pales in significance when freedom is at stake.
One younger lady commented that it was easier during communism as *everyone* could get an apartment, whereas now it is virtually impossible for the likes of her. Those not even a decade older than her felt differently – instead of being just eight years old at the time of the revolution (89), they were double that, and while they are also unable to buy an apartment, they would choose freedom any day.
An even older man, one who has seen pre-communism, communism and post-revolution commented wryly, “During communism we were not allowed to talk, now we are allowed, but we don’t.” He also observed, “During communism we were not allowed to think. Now we have to learn to think again, individually and as a nation.” I would have loved to ask more questions on this – did you actually stop thinking? how did you raise your children? did you view people with suspicion? do you today?
But the conversation moved on to other matters. Patriotism, as I recall. Are Romanians patriotic? Apparently one in ten is leaving the country, so this made the answerer think NO. But we see far more Romanian flags flying here than we would see kiwi ones in New Zealand. There are hints of patriotism that are completely missing in New Zealand. I wonder if this is because we have more-or-less had our country given to us. We have not been overrun by marauding hordes, we have not had kings fighting over us, dividing up our land, we have not lived under and fought to get out of the control of a dictator. (And perhaps that explains, if simplistically, why the Maori have a stronger sense of identity – they may well feel overrun and subjected to live under a different value system.)
In such a politically-driven country you’d expect to see crowds thronging to the voting booths. Yes? No. Yesterday was presidential election day. Twenty years ago about 95% of the population cast their vote. But twenty years on, not enough has changed, corruption is still rife (no-one seems to know where the bulk of the EU money disappears to, and neither do they expect to be able to find out), and politicians are not to be trusted. Just a quarter of the population turns out to have their say. The vote is close – 31.17% to 32.42%. It will go to a second round, but the average man on the street feels unaffected by the result.
As for *who* they wanted to win, this was a taboo topic!
Tags: 2008/09, history, justice, postcard: Romania, tradition
rayres
SO interesting.
What is Patriotism? What is Freedom?
In the UK patriotism seems to be expressed by a jingoistic press against immigration and cars carry a St George’s Cross flag whilst England is still in the World Cup (soccer) or is the Rugby or Cricket champion. There is anti-European support for UKIP, right-wing Tories and, unfortunately, the semi-fascist BNP. People (used to until the exchange rate fell!) move to other countries to enjoy better weather and cheap booze but refuse to learn the language and watch English language satellite TV. Are they patriotic?
And in the UK it seems to me that OUR freedom is being eroded daily. We have more and more surveillance cameras in our towns and cities, despite which many town centres become no-go areas after 10 pm. We cannot speak without hoping we are not offending some minority group or other. We feel disillusioned with ALL politicians from Parish Councillors to MPs. They are all in it to fill their boots! And there’s nothing we can do about it.
And they call me a grumpy old man! Still I suppose that’s something I’m allowed to be!