I am in Paris…And my little French often determines people to ask me questions like “Where are you from?”, “What is your native language?”…They often answer themselves: “Italian?”, “Russian?”… I found myself in a weird and uncomfortable situation…Tell the truth or let them think what they want?
Because, you know, on the subway, if I hear a man playing the accordion I often recognize some old and traditional Romanian songs… I feel real pleasure hearing those, but after a while, the singers begins: “I don’t have what to eat in Romania! I am the eldest brother and my mother is waiting for money from me to feed my six little brothers…”
Once, there was this young gypsy boy who spoke poor French and said as loud as he could that his father bit him to death and he ran away from the terror in Romania and here, in Paris, he had no one and no money…
And my boyfriend asked me: “Should I tell him in our Romanian to go and work some place?”…I don’t know what was better to say or do but my answer was “No, what’s the use?”…
So, I talked to our French friends… They told us with frankness that all beggars are Romanians… They try to educate their children not to steal, not to swear and there they come: the worst car thieves, burglars and pickpockets are the Romanians…
And suddenly I feel real rage… We are a good, smart and educated people and we can not be judged by some individuals that speak Romanian… because this is their only link with our country.
November 17th, 2006 at 11:52 am
We get judged by whatever people perceive us to be… and right now they’re only meeting out beggars, and thieves and prostitutes and troublemakers. It’s a normal result of years of living under the Communist Regime, with a useless economy and industry, low wages and the difficulty of living a decent life. And authorities not doing anything to stop it.
And while every country has it’s “bad apples”, ours have ran away to France, to Italy or Spain. You can’t expect someone who’s wallet was stolen by a Romanian thief to believe your “We are a good, smart and educated people” when he has clear proof of the contrary. To him, the reality he sees around him is what’s important and believable. He is educated to work for money, while most of the Romanians he sees are educated to steal and cheat him.
I’ve been in Paris twice and I know they have their own problems and troublemakers there, but I’ve seen more Romanian beggars than there are in Bucharest. However, Paris isn’t a good example, as I’ve stayed in more French cities, as well as through Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Czech Rep. or Italy, and the only Romanians I’ve seen there were tourists. In time maybe they’ll see as like that, or foreigners will come and visit Romania and discover there’s more to this country than beggars (well, if they’re not overrun by them the moment they leave the hotel)
November 28th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
I’m not ashamed to be romanian. Really! I just wish other romanians felt like me. If they’d just listen to our hymn a bit more they’d realize that it speaks the truth. WE DO NEED TO WAKE UP! I didn’t always think this way though. When I was younger I always wanted to live in the US, but never got the chance to do so. I hear lots of stories about people who’ve been there and said they miss their country but I don’t think that’s at all true. When it comes to greed, I believe romanians are more confortable being somewhere where there’s allot of money. And basically that’s all it comes down to. It doesn’t matter we live in a jungle as long as we have money. My parents got divorced because they started fighting about money. And sometimes it seems like they couldn’t care less what happened to us as long as they got their stupid money. As for the beggars and the poor, they’re probably worse than anyone else. That’s how they came to be. There was noone to take care of them or tell them how to live, so they just did what anyone would do. Fortunately, I took a better path. So I guess I’m the proof that beggars aren’t supposed to exist. They’re just lazy people that need to wake up.