Expat In Romania

Notice the title is not, " Why Communism Was Good For Romania". With that out of the way, let me explain 'how' communism did us a favour in Romania. When a country is run around a massive lie (ie. Reality = people are starving. Official stance = "Everything is great!") and the lie is so blatant that any fool can see it, it doesn't take long for the Average Joe to reach two basic conclusions: 1. "The government lies to me" 2. "The government doesn't have my best interests at heart" It's like cheating in a relationship. Once the trust is gone, it's gone, baby, gone. Romania went through three successive generations where the core of understanding around governance and authority echoed these sentiments. (Granted, there are some nostaligcs who miss the guaranteed employment and yearly vacations, but, as with any toxic relationship, nostalgics only remember the good times.) You might think that, post '89, this...

Believe it or not, this is actually a topic of debate among some circles in Romania. It reminds me of an awesome joke I heard on Radio Guerrilla. This guy who lives in Bucharest goes back home to visit his parents in their small town, still stuck somewhere between 1972 and 1997, where one neighbour still drives a mint condition Dacia 1100 while the other feeds the chickens every morning at 5am. That kinda place. He gets there while one of the neighbours, Ionel, is out on the porch. "Come back to visit us, eh" Ionel says. "Well you know, I don't have much time for home visits nowadays." The guy says, detecting the underlying reproach. "Oh, yeah, I know, I know, you big city folks have everything except time these days. Wasn't like that during communism, though," he says wistfully. "Come on, Ionel, we don't need to go there..." "But of course, and in some ways it was much better, really!" "Oh stop, you're goin...