Blog of Romania

“It’s not that I don’t like it here”, he said. “I just don’t really like the people, the bumpy roads, the mess and all the other stuff.”

“There’s just too much garbage everywhere,” he added while throwing the empty cigarette pack out the window of his car, visibly irritated that he couldn’t smoke.

“And you know what else? All these political scandals, what’s with that? And the old people on the buses, I really hate them. They’re always so slow and angry!”

“Well, is there anything you like about Romania?” I asked.

“Yeah, the girls,” he laughed.

He was Romanian. It might seem weird that a Romanian thinks that about his own country, but I’m used to it by now. A lot of Romanians think like this. They always have solutions to these problems, but they rarely practice what they preach, themselves.

We feel inferior and search for acceptance from other nations. I can see that in the fellow Romanian that lies about his origins when asked by some Western European where he’s from. I can see that in the Romanian that shows extreme hospitality to foreigners, although he’d not extend that hospitality to another Romanian. I can see it in the one that criticizes Romania in front of foreigners. I can see it in the Oh-how-good-it-would-be-if-some-divine-intervention-changed-things-in-Romania-without-work-from-our-part type of talk we have with our friends over beer. Or in the mass agitation that is spurred when some foreigner says we have no culture, we’re thieves or whatever. We always feel we need to prove them wrong.

I honestly think it’s OK to be Romanian. We aren’t the action-packed-do-it-yourself American. Or the cultured, sometimes nationalistic European. And we shouldn’t be. Who we are is just perfect.

Sure there are things that we should improve about ourselves and our country. But we shouldn’t do that to feel accepted by others. Or even worse, to be like others. We should improve because we have a healthy self-respect. Because we owe it to ourselves.

The irony of all this is that by not accepting ourselves, others won’t accept us either. So I say, stop being what you think Europeans may want us to be. Why should you care? Instead, find things you like about being Romanian. Stop contributing to the junk around you. Stop criticizing. Be hospitable to other Romanians. Be yourself around foreigners. You’ll find, in time, that it’s OK to be Romanian.