"For four and a half decades of communist dictatorship, Romanians got used slowly, but inevitably, to being victimized, taunted, and tormented. And, like a drug, they became addicted to abuse." [...] "inter-ethnic tensions, kept under artificial control by the communist regime for years, exploded resulting in an outpouring of pent-up ethnic hatred. In Southern Romania, ethnic Roma clashed with Romanians on various occasions. In parallel, a national angry reaction to everything perceived as a symbol of the forcefully-imposed values was directed against patriotism, voluntary work, social involvement, and care for fellow humans and for community. The results of that national anger are still visible today." [...] "Unable to devise and apply any other leadership practices than the ones that they had learned as apprentices and servants of their former masters, Romania’s “new” political class installed a postcolonial system, thus continuing the practices of the ancien régime." [...] "when Romania, [...] joined the European Union. The dialog within the civil society was replaced by legislation directives from Brussels, freedoms barely understood had to be given up and with them the chance to develop a way to think critically about individual rights, multinational corporations and overbearing state systems. Romanians joined the EU full of hope and good intentions, determined to heal themselves from decades of oppression, meet the expectations of their rich partners and change themselves in a competitive, prosperous European nation. Unfortunately, they found themselves in a federative system that was not really federal, in a legislative system where the laws were adopted not with their needs in mind, but which they were obligated to follow nonetheless despite the fact that they did not have the same rights and benefits like the citizens of the countries that are the de facto leaders of the Union." [...] "Forgetting opens the door to history repeating itself."
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 07:48:53 +0000