Romanian's orphans - 20 years on...
How can we tolerate this happening in Europe?The images are not only shocking, they are dramatically similar to those shot right after the fall of Ceausescu's regime 20 years ago.
Wasn't one of the conditions of accession to the European Union that Romania had to provide better conditions to its state orphanages? Hasn't the EU sent millions of Euros to Romania (much of that money lost to corruption....) to help them tackle this and other problems? I understand if roads and telecommunications are a priority, but these are human beings we're talking about here! Defenseless and with no hope of leading a normal life.
I mean no disrespect to my many Romanian friends, and I know that every country has its problems. Especially when you have to deal with a legacy of a communist and closed-to-the-world rule. But ignoring it won't make it go away. This needs the good people of Romania to be so enraged over it, that it's on the agenda of every candidate to the next elections. Sadly they just had elections, and I don't recall this being on anyone's agenda.
Shame on you Romania, shame on us Europe.
Posted
by Joao Rei
I was shocked myself about the video shown. I don't want to believe that this is true :( And yes, I am also ashamed although it's not my fault. Unfortunately our leaders always forget about the most important things in Romania. But I don't want you to believe the good people don't care or forget about the bad things going on in Romania. Just that it's very difficult to do something on a large scale, unless you are involved in politics.
For example in my hometown there are orphanages privately funded that I have visited and are very good(as good as an orphanage can be). They have houses with 2 levels in which around 20 children live together with the so called mother. They go to school, they have toys, they have food, they have fun, they have a living. There are people(I also went) that go there and talk to the children, bring them sweets and toys and play with them. Of course this is the happy version of the story; but I just want you to know that it exists. I don't know on what scale, how many orphanages like this we have in Romania, or how many are of the other kind. I pray to God they are little of them and that the situation will go better soon.
Also, taking my example, I know and I see all these bad things going on. But what can I do? It feels really terrible to watch corruption flourishing, dirty businesses being set up, selling of everything that has value in Romania, incompetent and corrupt politicians that don't do anything that they promise, children in orphanages like that and I can't do anything.
For the moment I am in France, working, but my plan is to come back home to Romania in 3 to 5 years time. By then, my current plan, is to join the politics and try to do something good for Romania. But even so with all my good intentions and desire to change something what chance do you think I have trying to fight corruption in a system where corruption is the only law? Anyway, you have my word that I will try!
You were talking about the millions of euros from the UE that are given to Romania. Unfortunately in order to get those money, people of Romania or the institutions of Romania should write projects and feasibility tests and a lot of other things, which they don't do very much. So the money that maybe was supposed to come, didn't come, and even if it did came somehow, a part of that was a tribute to corruption as you said.
I am not trying to make an excuse here or something. I just want to say that I am sorry and ashamed as a Romanian that things like this happen in Romania. But I don't agree that Romanian people ignore these problems. Honestly if you come to Romania you will see that the majority of normal people just try to do a living and that is already difficult to do. What I am trying to say is that normal people are so busy to live that they don't have time to join the politics, fight with corruption, and stand up for ideals, be it even human rights. It's very sad and strange but that is true.
So, what I am saying is that you shouldn't judge people before knowing their situation. You cannot label a whole nation as passive in front of problems when you don't know what's going on there.
Anyway as a conclusion I hope that in a few years I (plus a lot of people of my generation) will manage to change the bad things in Romania!
I know it's not directly your fault, and I'm not trying to blame every single Romanian or the Romanian nation for the situation in their orphanages. And I don't assume that all orphanages in Romania are like the ones they showed.
I'm sure that for you, and for many Romanians, it must be hard to see those images on TV. We always like to see the Euronews reports on how well each of our countries is doing, and we always feel a slight sense of embarrassment whenever a BBC report shows the frailties of our own countries. I know I do.
That is also probably one of the reasons you, me and countless others decided to leave our respective countries and pursue a better life abroad.
But that's not the point..
The point is that, all of this and countless other "legacy inequalities" are still going on in places that only recently joined the EU. And while we all agree that it takes generations to change the mentality of a nation, (i.e. regarding corruption), it shouldn't take such a long time to provide for the weak and less fortunate.
And once a country is in the EU, it's as much that countries responsibility as it is every EU's country responsibility. Kinda "we take care of each other". That has to be applied not only to financial bailouts but also to social problems. My neighbors problems are my own.
And it's hard... it really is. To go by every day and think about this. That is why we tend to ignore it and live our daily lives focused on "surviving" and getting by... But I think we need to be reminded (more often) about these and other inequalities still going on, and that there are people out there that are far worse than we are. And that we owe it to them to do something, even if it is just raising awareness to their problem. Because many of them cannot do it themselves...
I'm happy to know that you try to do something about it :) And I'm sure that once you return to Romania you will do even more.
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