This global, global world
The preparations for Christmas, which Romanians celebrate on the 25th
like Catholics in spite of being Orthodox, is going on full steam. I've
just came back home from the supermarket nearby, which is located 50
meters from my block. The line to the cash-register was just like in old
times. Standing there, I was looking on the either side, examining
people, shelves and goods.. In such places the strong spirit of
consumerism is usually felt. Probably, the word must be written with a
capital letter, like this: Consumerism, no any other way. It is a power
that drives society these days. I can see packets with coffee, an
inscription made with big letters: "noul ambalaj", which means "new
pack". Well, just out of couriosity, am I interesting in the package or
do I need a coffee anyway? Am I going to eat the pack or something? And
what makes this new one better than the old one?
The main word here is "new". Brand new stuff, mean you've gotta buy it.
Otherwise the Consumerism will stop, give out. Brand new! Don't think -
buy. Consume. In this very case there is nothing wrong with it. However,
recently an absolutely unknown guy sent a link to my ICQ account with a
link to the flash movie which demonstrates someone's point of view
very well. Probably this point can be called antiglobalism or something,
but it says quite obvious things. Well done.
The 13 years anniversary
But besides Christmas, these days Romania is remembering its Revolution
heroes. When they say "revolution" here, they mean the events of 1989
that resulted into the gloomy dictator Ceausescu being shot on the 25th
December. He was ruling the country for 24 years after he came to power
in 1965. The protests started in Timisoara, a city in the West part of
the country and then were supported in all the major localities, finally
arriving in Bucharest. The army got an order to break up the
demonstrations with force, some people were shot. Recently I saw
chronicles on the local Realitatea channel: a crowd of desperate people
chanting "Libertatea!" (liberty). They had reasons to dispair. The local
government man who was also called "Carpathian genious" who, having
distanced from the USSR and took a lot of debts in the West, decided to
make his country autonomous and independent of everyone, shunning the
Soviets and the West. In order to pay off the country's debts faster, he
set to the task of economizing. Everything, starting from simple
provisions and ending with electricity, was given to the population
portionally. For food there were cards, like in the USSR with Stalin in
30's, and water and light were on only several hours each day. Plus,
there were several hours of TV every day, filled only with propaganda,
obviously. It was also illegal to go outside after 10pm, like it was
war.
My personal conclusion is that such a "nice" governer I would kill
myself. I remember back in 1989 we in USSR were bewildered "savages,
gipsies". Caught and immediately shot along with his wife, without a
trial or investigation. It turns out, there were reasons. And a short
trial took place exactly in the place where the dictator's helicopter
landed, in a village near Bucharest. For some reason he decided to not
to escape abroad, but to resolve the problems himself. Probably he was
that sure about his power. They also say that being totally embarassed,
Ceausescu was giving orders "to stop all of this circus". Like an
allmighty king who ordered the sky to clear out the clouds and
completely stricken by the fact that nothing happened.
On the other hand, those who believe in a pure and crushing people's
anger, which can appear without someone's help, should think about the
fact that shortly before the events of 13 years ago, at one of their
meetings, Gorbachov and Mitterand discussed the topic of Romania, and
even, according to some sources, came up with a decision that it was
time for Ceausescu to go. Yes, that's global.
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