Romania in quest of a new identity

                                                     by Paul Doru Mugur and Adina Dabija

1. Romania viewed through the hole of the pretzel

If I could use a single phrase to describe Romania as it is today, that would be: “a country struggling in the promised land of capitalism”. After Romania's communist regime was overthrown in late 1989, the country experienced a decade of economic instability and decline, caused in part by an obsolete industrial base as well as by the lack of much-needed structural reform. Starting from 2000, however, the economy reached a stage of relative macroeconomic stability, high growth, low unemployment rate and an increase in foreign investment; currently, it ranges among the most developed in Southeastern Europe. One may say that Romania has a booming economy, one of the fastest growing in Europe. In January 2007, Romania has joined the European Union, which is, arguably, the most significant event since the fall of the communism.

But these are just figures. From the perspective of ordinary people, Romania is seen through the hole of the pretzel. “The pretzel”, “covrigul” is the magic wand that makes you see la vie en rose. The traditional “pretzel”-covrig, has been one of the cheapest and most popular treats, equally enjoyed by adults who stopped by for a glass of beer or wine at the neighborhood pub, or by schoolchildren during their breaks; covrigul was also linked to Romanian rites of passage, as it represented the symbolic food offered to those taking part at a memorial service in remembrance of those who had passed away. It appears then natural that one of the frequently heard Romanian sayings that warns us not to be too enthusiastic when something sounds too good to be true should be created around this symbol of basic food, ritual celebration and merry moments: “he/she thought that dogs walked with pretzels on their tails”, sounds the voice of commonsensical wisdom, in a literal translation. This is why I believe that, more than the Romanian replica of the French Gavroche that made a media career worldwide in 1989 (the street urchin peeping through the hole in the flag), the roundness of the pretzel speaks for the desires and paradoxes of a country that has to adjust to consumerism.  Thus, if you can afford to buy the pretzel – an apartment, a car or, unfortunately, in too many cases, just a lunch - you see life through rosier glasses. The more you get, the happier you are. After the prolonged age of generalized shortages during Communism, when you had money but nothing to buy with it and in order to manage to get some basic food you had to wake up at 5 am and wait in long lines for milk, bread or meat, the consumerist cornucopia blessed Romania with food franchises and supermarkets, fancy restaurants and Turkish malls. Romania became just a new market that turned more and more interesting as the buying power of its inhabitants is increasing slowly but steadily. From this perspective, during the early 90s and even more now, after its recent admission into the EU, Romania  proves a social energy and vitality that reminds us of America at the beginning of the century when immigrants from all over the world were moving to United States in quest of a better life. The Romanian dream sounds like the American dream – be free, enjoy life and take charge of your own destiny.

Unfortunately, it is not that easy to get the pretzel. If you are an honest, hard working and naïve young person that just graduated from a form of professional training of whatever level, you’d rather look for job opportunities abroad, or so you are advised by your more experienced peers. And this is exactly what many Romanians are actually doing. If you want to “make it” in Romania, and I am referring here only to material success, basically, with some notable exceptions, you have only two options. Either you have some good connections, or you hold some position that allows you to be the happy recipient of bribe money - şpagă. In short, you need to enter a complicated social game, to be able to negotiate and relax your moral values, a game that defines by excellence the balkanic context, which emerged 500 years ago as the Turkish empire was requesting the tribute from their possessions – including the three Romanian principalities. At the beginning of the democratic period, in early 90s, the “ have-a-connection” game was played by ex-communist apparatchiks, who detained two key elements: the right information and some foreign currency. As a result, a new social class emerged in the mid 90s: the nouveaux riches. Later on, as six or seven governments rotated, five parliaments changed and three presidents were elected, this structure considerably enlarged, embedding more and more social networks. A more diffuse Piovra, a diverse spectrum of “Cosa Nostras”  that work on various social levels are the most acute diseases that maim new Romania- many young innocent people died during the 1989 revolution fighting for freedom and it is sometimes extremely hurting to see today, after 18 years, what became of their dream. But there is still some hope. During the process of Romania`s integration into the European Union a great deal of political pressure from international organisms accelerated the process of self definition of Romanian social and economical framework in a safer, more functional and less bureaucratic structure at all the levels of economic and social organization. 

To give you some examples of encouraging official figures, I will mention that, in January 2005, Romania's new government imposed major fiscal reforms, replacing Romania's tax system with a unique tax rate that apply to personal income and company profit equally. Romania now has one of the most liberal taxation systems in Europe, and it is expected that this, along with increased foreign investment, will boost its economic growth in the coming years, as it will contribute to bringing grey economy to light, thus lowering corruption.

On a darker note, despite Romania's rapid economic development, despite its more than 17 million cell phones users and almost 14 millions internet users, poverty is still a big problem, and the effects of modernization are hardly felt in the rural areas. The average monthly wages in Romania is 357 USD but these figures do not say much, as the spectrum of monthly wages vacillates between extremes: there are at least 630,000 people (according to the reports of the ministry of employment) earning the minimum monthly income of 130 dollars and there are thousands of people, mostly managers or business entrepreneurs, with very large salaries. The highest declared salary in Bucharest in 2006 was almost 140,000 USD/month.

The differences between the rich and the poor are striking -as the middle class is almost inexistent, emerging very slowly, it includes better paid professionals, such as teachers, professors, lawyers, media personalities. Nevertheless, Romanians like to show off. Romanian women have always been very fashion smart and if you are a woman you better dress up if you want to look your best, as the rumor goes that Romania is the country with the most beautiful women in Europe. Although the average monthly wages is under 400 USD, there are beauty salons where women pay 100 USD for a hair styling session. For an ambitious Romanian young girl it is sometimes better to live on an empty stomach than without a fancy tee shirt or a French perfume.

2. Strawberry fields and the big corporations promise

Everybody hopes that accession in the European Union will continue to speed up the country's development. However, everybody is aware that this process takes time and most young people gradually lost their initial euphoria in early 90s, hope in late 90’s and patience in 2000. The working class left the country for better job opportunities and the most desperate ones abandoned themselves to prostitution and other underground jobs. In a country with twenty one and a half millions inhabitants, estimates of 2 million and a half Romanians work abroad. The ones who leave fall into three main categories: the ones who decided to leave for good, the students & teachers who left for small baby-sitting or summer fruit picking jobs for some pocket money, (the so called strawberry pickers, “căpşunarii”) and the ones who left in order to continue their education in schools abroad or just for adventure. In a study published by the World Bank called "Migration and money transfer: Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union", it is reported that 38% of the Romanians that live abroad send money home regularly. The authors of the article specify that the money sent back to Romania increased the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) in 2004 by 1%. "Most of this money is spent on clothes, electric and electronic appliances and very little of it goes to long term investment. An extremely small amount is used for donations and social projects." it is specified in the report.

The massive migration abroad is causing many problems. In 2006 more than 30,000 young families left abroad leaving more than 40,000 children in the care of relatives back-home. These children become a social problem, as many of them abandon school, use drugs, practice prostitution or fall prey to shady adults. The elders left home do not enjoy a better life; in a country where extended families and care for the elders was a social tradition, one can now see long waiting lists for those who applied to be admitted in a nursing home, as they no longer have relatives to take care of them.

On the other hand there is a booming outsourcing market in Romania. According to a global IT IQ report made by Brainbench, the world’s most important agency that makes on-line research on professional qualification, Romanians already dominate Europe with more than 16,000 certified specialists. The research has studied the qualification of labor force in various fields: software, general knowledge, finances, health, industry, information technology, foreign languages and communication, management and executive. The research indicated that Romania ranks second in Europe in professional competence and intellectual training.

Amazon.com has begun recruiting personnel for its software development lab, that will soon open in Bucharest. The company opened a similar center in Iaşi in November 2005, when it announced its interest in establishing a second one in Bucharest, but without giving a precise date. The number of employees may reach 600 specialists, sources on the market say.

Oracle aims to help push Romania into becoming the Silicon Valley of Central and Eastern Europe according to Giacoletto, Executive Vicepresident for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In order to supply services to clients all over Europe and prop up this target, the company has opened 3 Oracle Services and Technology Centers in Bucharest’s Financial Plaza.

3. Romania In quest of a soul

In the Communist times, there was a schizophrenic split between the real beliefs of the people shared in the privacy of their homes and the demagogic declarations of the Communist media. At that time, the biggest problem was the absence of a common social project to which people could adhere wholeheartedly and this resulted into generalized indifference. Nowadays, Romania seems to experience another type of schizophrenic split between the official reports and the people’s feelings; on the one hand, the government agencies report economic growth, yearly increase of personal income, increase of GPB and quality of life, increase of life expectancy; on the other, you hear the complaints of the people who declare to be unhappy and poorer than ever. In order to cope with these two conflicting tendencies in the Romanian society, people have found survival mechanisms as extreme as the life they live: some abandoned their hope and “made the pact with the devil”, agreeing to participate to illegal actions and to enjoy personal happiness bought with laundered money or to abandon their moral principles in order to serve the powerful of the day. Others rely on hope exclusively, the hope of wonder-working quiet Byzantine icons that protect churches and monasteries, or they created personal imaginary worlds of never-ending bliss. The biggest danger that haunts contemporary Romania is “marea lehamite”, the big indifference, one of the most dangerous and most difficult to eradicate social diseases. 

Romania appears thus as a country of extremes and paradoxes, where you will find poets and monks and prostitutes, kitsch palaces and beautiful monasteries, exuberant art shows and snobbish receptions. Dangerous and fascinating, young and old, happy and sad, grotesque and uplifting, always moving forward in quest of her soul, Romania is everything but boring. We, Romanians, hope for a healed, unified Romanian soul inside a united Europe.