Boooo! Quite Uncool

Before the 1989 Revolution which attempted to put the country back on the democratic track it had been taken off by the Soviet Union, two things were known about Romania by almost anyone abroad: girls’ gymnastics and communism. 

More than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, here’s a strange rendition of the moment the West united with Russia to decide spheres of influence over that country :-)

When Romania’s girls’ fencing team won the gold in the European Championships in Sheffield, everything seemed to go smoothly. Medals were hung around their necks, little souvenirs handed over... then, at minute 4:35 of this video, the whole team leaves the podium in the middle of the ceremony! Only to be replaced, moments later, by smiling Russian and French girls, silver and bronze medallists. The Russians went as far as to sit on the podium while the Romanians were nowhere to be seen. 

How rude of the Romanians to leave this way, many people are likely to say. But maybe if they knew that the old, communist anthem of Romania was played during the ceremony instead of the one chosen by the country when it got rid of the communist dictatorship at the price of more than 1,000 lives, they’d be more sympathetic.

Let Me Make One Thing Clear About Churchill

I was talking to a Western friend the other day and he thought I hate Churchill. That’s because I said I consider the British war-time Prime Minister to blame for the 45 years of communism in Eastern Europe, the slavery and the millions of dead in the Gulag and communist prisons. And for the millions more who saw their destiny dictated not by their own abilities, skills or desires but by the whims of the communist “elite” – perpetrators of an alien ideology, imposed upon them by Stalin’s people.

I don’t hate Churchill. But I think he is to blame for this – along with Stalin but obviously much less than him – because of the percentages agreement that he concluded with the Soviet leader on October 9, 1944.

That day, Churchill was in Moscow to discuss the division of Europe after the war was won. It was Churchill who advanced the percentages of influence over Eastern Europe and the Balkans to Stalin. “Let us settle about our affairs in the Balkans” he told the tyrant and then proceeded to suggest who will have what influence in the area.

To people who have lived in those countries, it is remarkable how closely Stalin and his followers have met these requirements. Indeed, the Soviets’ influence – manifested in abuses of human rights, deprivations of freedom, deportations, executions, confiscation of property, various punishments for criticising communism and the smallest attempts to exercise free speech - was divided according to the percentages set out by Churchill in his bit of paper. Romania suffered the worst dictatorship, Bulgaria’s was pretty bad too, Hungary was exposed to a lot of Western influence, Yugoslavia was regarded in the communist bloc as “the West” and so on. After 1989, Bulgaria and Romania were among Europe’s poorest countries – and still are to this day.

I do not hate Churchill at all. I can understand why he sold the Eastern Europeans to Stalin – if he hadn’t, Britons would have probably been forced to learn Russian and the “values” of communism, along with everybody else in Western Europe, in the worst case; in the best case, fighting for the freedom of these people and obtaining a victory against Stalin would have been too expensive for the democratic countries, already weakened by the war.

What I cannot understand is the attitude of people today. Western Europeans – and Britons – largely regard Eastern Europeans as some sort of nuisance, backward little countries who shook off a regime that was conveniently keeping them away from the rich West and who now are “invading” these countries, stealing jobs and welfare and God knows what else. The episode of Gordon Brown being crucified for calling a woman who expressed such a view “a bigot” is well known.

There has been no public condemnation of this infamous agreement, there have been no apologies from Britain and Russia to these people. What happened in Moscow on October 9, 1944 was, in effect, the selling into slavery of millions of people in bulk – and nobody seems to have any recollection of it or remorse for it, in Western Europe.

Back to how I feel about Churchill: he did what he thought was good for his own people, so no, I don’t hate him, but I blame him for what happened to my people during the 45 years of slavery. I used to think that I don’t respect him, either, but actually there is one thing that I respect in him: the fact that he had the courage to tell the world about what he did, in his journal, so that Eastern Europeans know who decided their fate back then.

I just want to make one thing clear: by writing this, all I want is for people in Western Europe to stop and think of history the next time they complain of Eastern Europeans “flocking” into their countries. I know it’s not nice to have lots of poor people coming over looking for jobs. But hey, maybe you owe them your freedom.

Give Herta Mueller a Second Nobel Prize

Why are so many Romanians going abroad? No, not everybody is after the money and the "easy" life. Some of them leave because they have no choice. And I'm not speaking here about the Roma who can't find work and hope that they will in the richer West.

I'm talking about the ones who are still, 20 years after the 1989 revolution, fleeing the loathed secret police, the Securitate.

Nobel prize winner Herta Mueller, an ethnic German writer born in Romania, who left the country in 1987, at the height of the communist dictatorship, explains:

"I know that in Romania, scores of people who used to work for the Securitate are now in high-level positions and this has virtually no consequences. It is not important for the society," she told EU Observer.

And listen to this:

"These people have gained so much influence that they have managed to almost re-create their old network of power, where they all know and serve each other. It is the second life of the dictatorship. Under different circumstances, organised in a different way. And without ideology. Without Socialism."

Please, give the woman a second Nobel prize! This one, for being able to explain what is wrong with that system, in a nutshell.

Those of you who are still wondering why things are still not working in these countries, why people are still looking for a better life abroad, why those who stay have to give in to corruption, read her words, over and over again.

What she says is that communism is not really dead. It just changed its name to "market economy" and has taken over the private sector as well.

Mueller goes on to suggest that Eastern European countries should not have been so readily accepted into the EU. This is the part where I don't agree with her.

Joining the EU was the best chance these countries actually had (and still have) to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Those sick of working like slaves in a corrupt system can travel freely and escape the Securitate agents populating companies – and at some point even corrupt managers will realise they need highly-skilled people to advance their businesses and will get rid of incompetents.

Eastern Europeans can now also go to the EU courts when the corrupt justice system in their countries defies logic and common sense by taking absurd decisions that infringe on their freedoms, property and integrity.

The EU's principles of freedom and justice are well known. Too bad Western European companies investing in the East don't always follow them.

It seems that the Romanian saying that "money has no scent" is an international principle. But even those who currently hire the former Securitate agents will realise, at some point, that they aren't getting their money's worth - unless they hire them for the only job they know to do well: backstabbing.