The ongoing fight against Government supported corruption

[clivehorridge]

For anyone interested, this article from the Economist may be worth a watch... just to understand what joe public is up against here...

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6470481169690427392

 

[jibberjabber]

Hi Clive,

How's thing in general over you way with regard to the current situation?

And then,

I was thinking, no it didn't hurt, considering Roumania's past especially during WW2 and the Nazi era, and then the Ceaușescu years, I was wondering what the peoples take on life is now and what the political and politicians take on life is now, as the the two usually have differing views.

In other words, is there still an 'old guard' Fascist or Communist, is there much State opression, or just general State involvement in day to day life and the running of things like here in the UK?

The reason I ask is that I was watching a Documentary on Sky, it was called 'The Truth About Franco: Spain's Forgotten Dictatorship' a four part series, and made me wonder if there is still any underlying extremism Right or Left, left over from the old days in some of the so called 'less well developed' countries of Europe.

And as I don't know anybody on the ground or with their finger on the pulse, so to speak, and as you seem to be an objecive person, I thought I'd ask you about Roumania.

Hope you are all well.

P.S, The article in your post #1 above, from 2018 was interesting.

 

[clivehorridge]

Hi JJ,
I don't know that I actually know anything to be truthful, but my impression as a resident and hearing the views of my (Romanian) wife, is that there's little or no "State" interference from 'old guard' Fascist or Communist influences.
There will always be older folks maintaining that the old regime had benefits, time fades the memories of the bad days, but these are their personal grievances not political activists.
The truth is that under Ceaușescu, the working class were literally worked to death in many cases, his overwhelming ambition to clear the countries debts in a short time meant that agriculture (for example) was 100% geared to export sales, at the expense of there being enough food left over to feed Romania.
Farmers had to meet strict quotas and they included their own strict 'ration' for their own use feeding the family. If the quota wasn't met, the personal ration would have to supplement it and folks were literally starving to death when there were (frequent) crop failures.
That sealed Ceaușescu's fate, they had had enough.
Proper politics here (IMO) is still in its infancy even after 30 years of democracy. The politicians pay lip-service to proper governance, instead seizing every opportunity to bend the rules to suit themselves. That's all they care about, politics is just an extension of their own efforts to line their pockets. There seems to be very little interest in proper governance for the benefit of the electorate in general, although the standard of living here has still improved over the years. The whole economy seems false to me, there's little manufacturing industry and little money in the pot.
During this COVID-19 pandemic, the President has announced all the usual restrictive measures, but there's been little or no rush of money into the National Health System and no relief whatsoever for folks who have lost their jobs and business due to closures.
JMHO of course.

 

[jibberjabber]

Hi JJ,
I don't know that I actually know anything to be truthful, but my impression as a resident and hearing the views of my (Romanian) wife, is that there's little or no "State" interference from 'old guard' Fascist or Communist influences.
There will always be older folks maintaining that the old regime had benefits, time fades the memories of the bad days, but these are their personal grievances not political activists.
The truth is that under Ceaușescu, the working class were literally worked to death in many cases, his overwhelming ambition to clear the countries debts in a short time meant that agriculture (for example) was 100% geared to export sales, at the expense of there being enough food left over to feed Romania.
Farmers had to meet strict quotas and they included their own strict 'ration' for their own use feeding the family. If the quota wasn't met, the personal ration would have to supplement it and folks were literally starving to death when there were (frequent) crop failures.
That sealed Ceaușescu's fate, they had had enough.
Proper politics here (IMO) is still in its infancy even after 30 years of democracy. The politicians pay lip-service to proper governance, instead seizing every opportunity to bend the rules to suit themselves. That's all they care about, politics is just an extension of their own efforts to line their pockets. There seems to be very little interest in proper governance for the benefit of the electorate in general, although the standard of living here has still improved over the years. The whole economy seems false to me, there's little manufacturing industry and little money in the pot.
During this COVID-19 pandemic, the President has announced all the usual restrictive measures, but there's been little or no rush of money into the National Health System and no relief whatsoever for folks who have lost their jobs and business due to closures.
JMHO of course.

I think it's good to have the outlook of the 'Man on the Ground' as opposed to the journalistic view.

Thanks, that's an intresting read, from a local, and I hope you can speak fluent Romanian by now