Blog of Romania

Costel Busuioc, the recent flag carrier of the country which we live in, has won the contest “Hijos de Babel”. Basically, it’s the story of a Romanian who went to work in Spain, a “strawberry picker” who got into the contest because his hosts liked his voice. And yet, it’s not exactly like that. The story is more than that, it’s the story of a sad Romania, a hypocritical Romania that wants to have as much as possible without doing anything.

The Romanian Costel Busuioc is a simple man. A country man who left his home to win some money. He became a national hero overnight. Everyone is in a hurry to praise him, to praise the country he’s from. But no one is saying that Romania has no merit in what Costel Busuioc has become.

I read in a newspaper article that his teachers in secondary school (because this is how much education “Pavarotti from the Carpathians” has) always told him he is stupid and ugly. He became a construction worker in Spain. Being in a contest, but especially winning it, turned him into a handsome and intelligent man. The smoke packing factory that is Romania started to nicely wrap a merchandise that doesn’t belong to it. Because this is the sad truth: Busuioc is not a product of the factory “Romania”, he is a product of Costel Busuioc. Costel reached the top through his own struggle, with no support from the Romania which is now kissing his ass.

Romania doesn’t have a patent on Costel Busuioc. The patent belongs to Spain, because Spain assembled him. Romania has lost every right on the Romanian it neglected for 33 years. After we weren’t able to offer him the most basic conditions for individual development, now we want to make him an ambassador of Romanian culture. All of a sudden, we want to make a mascot for Romania out of a man for whom Romania never did anything. Now we want to offer him a scholarship to study music, maybe decorate him with the Star of Romania (because, oh well, we decorate everyone, if even Vadim got a medal…) and hire him at some embassy.

“I was born in the Carpathians”

The Romanian - a born poet - knows what he’s saying. For 14 years or so, the Romanian music schools haven’t produced anything much. There are hundreds, thousands of youth with talent, with a great voice, who waste these gifts because a whole industry want to promote anti-talents. And then we wonder why we hear lyrics like “I was born in the Carpathians/Out of a mother and two fathers”.

And yet, the truth lies in the lyrics of the poet-Romania: all of a sudden, the mother and fathers want to benefit from their son who, by accident, got where he is now. No, I am not refering to Costel Busuioc, it’s a generalization of what is happening here. Cristina Foarfa from Metropotam compared Busuioc situation with that of Cristian Mungiu. And it’s so very true: after Mungiu won an award, all Romanian directors were the best. After Costel won the Spanish contest, all Romanians are better than anyone else.

A Romanian robbed a restaurant

What we’re forgetting is that, whatever we say, one Romanian won’t change Romania or the image the country has overseas. Costel Busuioc didn’t do anything in winning “Hijos de Babel” if in two or three days we’ll see on the news that a Romanian robbed a restaurant or killed an Italian or Spaniard.

The impact of a negative piece of news will always be more powerful than that of a positive one. And, judging by the way things are going, I’m sure that Spain will forget about Costel Busuioc when another Romanian commits a crime. Do we want to make Costel a sort of ambassador for Romania? We’d better not.

The precontract with Sony

Sony Music and Costel Busuioc signed a precontract. It remains to be seen what the Romanian will sing. If he chooses classical music, my hunch is that, once the record gets to the Romanian market, only genre lovers will buy it. The Spanish success will remain in Spain. The cultural level of Romanians isn’t high enough for them to buy something like this. Costel Busuioc stopped belonging to Romania when he entered the “Hijos de Babel” contest.

Don’t forget!

Last but not least, what we have to remember is that the national hero is a simple man. And he should stay a simple man. The Romanian press should forget about him. He is paying the price of fame anyway, all the TV stations are hunting him, all the reporters are asking him questions. Let’s be decent! Let’s not torture a man just because he did more in life than we did.

Let him fulfill his dream. Let him be a happy man. Let him be a product of himself, not of a Romania which doesn’t deserve him. Let’s not forget he got there on his own, and we did nothing to support him. Let’s be proud of him, not proud of ourselves, because we have no reason for that. Not last, let’s try to follow his example, not be sorry for ourselves, not be jealous for the success of a man who worked to get where he is now.

Original post: here. (RO)
Alex is a 23-year old journalist and in Bucharest.