Very few of you know that I am a Romanian, and that's because I stated that a couple of times on this blog, and tbh it's not something to be proud of and ramble about all day. Was born here, lived most of my life on this land, and currently typing this post from the place I spent my childhood and most of my life's years.
I was three years old when communism was abolished in our country and the communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu was killed, through an inside job with the help of the Russians, and not by the hands of the people who were fooled that they were actually having a revolution and that they were the ones ending the dictatorship. Little did they know how poor and in debt they will become after the fall of the dictator.
Not a fan of Ceausescu, just to make that clear, but that guy managed to make Romania the first country in the world that almost paid its international debt and was planning to make a bank that would lend money to other countries instead of taking from the bankers, while the economy of the country, the agricultural and industrial sectors were skyrocketing. All that at a cost, costs that were paid by the people, and costs that were ultimately paid by the dictator for trying to make this country a purely independent one.
More than 30 years after we got rid of him, Romania sits on the 51th place out of 63 when it comes to economy competitiveness. Why? Well, there are so many factors to be taken into consideration that would make this post some kind of a thesis, but I will mention a few that I am aware of and that I've witnessed working like a charm. First of them would for sure be corruption. The major factor that made the killing of Nicolae Ceausescu even possible. If our nation didn't have the scumbag drop of corruptness in its DNA all that wouldn't be possible.
Now we're not under dictatorship any longer, but the ones pulling the strings in the country are way worse than the dictator, and they're definitely fighting for their positions in the Parliament and Government just for their own good and well being. Almost nothing is enforced for the people and the well being of the country. That goes from the mayor level up to the prime ministers and so on... No matter at what office door you're knocking you should know that money and bribery prevail and that's how things work around here.
This is one of the main reason, the way I see it, that keeps foreign investors away to even try and start businesses in Romania. This and the shitty bureaucracy. Entangled of course with some of the worst transportation infrastructure. Such leaders are denying by any means the possibility of a better life for the country's workmen if they don't get their share, or fatty bribe. Hence big investors from Europe and other countries stay away from Romania and most of the businesses that run in here are owned by the powerful and corrupt throwing pathetic wages to the working men and keeping a whole nation on that 51 out of 63 spot on the chart of competitive economies...
...whereas this country has been a main exporter for agricultural products and rocking a steel strong industry for decades, and as I mentioned above, managed to almost pay all of its international debt. It is in our DNA to stay poor, and we seem to somehow have become brainwashed in believing we can't overcome that poorness. Don't get me wrong, we're not a third wold country, but we're one with a high financial potential, but with low results in making national wealth a reality.
We cut our own cords to be honest through our attitude, acceptance of this reality and of course actions. I'll give you three small real life examples on why this scumbag DNA drop that we have running through our veins keeps us poor. It's about the weak sense of responsibility and commitment, the short term thinking and the fact that we don't feel and act as members of a community which this country really is, and the smaller communities inside it.
The first one is related to my town's shipyard that has had a mix of owners/investors for many years in the past, among them being some wealthy dutch as well. What did the Romanians do to make themselves wealthier and ditch the dutch out of the equation, once they had the money and abilities to do that? They started to turn down contracts, lower the workers wages, fire a lot of them and make the dutch leave. Now the shipyard, after being such a good business and working place for hundreds if not thousands of workers is just a business that benefits mostly the owners and not the community of workers. Again, a few sacrificed the well being of the majority for a better one for themselves.
The low class of workers is not something I'd be proud with either, and in here it's the same selfish scumbag drop of DNA that keeps them poor and enslaved, and I'll give you the next two examples on how this works from my own recent experience. I have had some apartment renovations going on in the last few weeks and hired a skilled
and experienced neighbor to get the job done. The neighbor however, although being an experienced worker, compromised the quality of the work and prolonged the time necessary to get the job done so he could work for others at the same time and make more money, short term of course... Call that simply minding your own pocket and not giving too much of a fuck on the other's... actions that at some point will hit you back like boomerang.
It's again short term thinking that I'm pointing at, lack of responsibility and a sort of corruption. Sold himself for a bit of cash compromising his reputation and probably future business revenues as well. His reputation will become tainted, and when you take into account that there are probably hundreds of thousands or maybe millions that fit such profiles you get yourself a national low reputation score that will gradually turn you into an economic and business partner skunk. The third example comes from the cleaning lady that I paid to make the house look like new after the bastard finished the job.
She again charged more than she deserved in my opinion, although I accepted the payment only for the sake of making her fill fulfilled and do a good job. She couldn't do that because she's Romanian and she had to use some tricks to just make it look like she worked for the money when she actually didn't. Didn't hid the dust under the carpet, but didn't wiped it all either, if you know what I mean. The examples and reasons why this country is an economical wreckage while having tons of potential to be a leading one can fill pages and pages of a blog post, but I believe you already got the point.
A country that was once among the leaders in exports, that was having partnerships with wealthy investors and planned on even making its world wide lending bank has become a land filled with debt, run and suffocated by poor quality mentalities and short term egoistic thinking. It's the perfect example of Economical Wreckage in my opinion. Wreckage that might have been planned from the outside but executed from the inside.
Thanks for attention,
Adrian