“Schimbarea domnilor, bucuria nebunilor” (Romanian saying, En. “Fools alone enjoy kings’ change”)

Despite its obvious evolutionist nature, mankind has its dose of resistance to change which is however overpowered by the former. In Romania it is the other way around.

At the first glance, Romanians could not love changes more. Every second phrase of informal discussion in this country contains “jos”, i.e. “down (with...)”, usually followed by a curse. Nobody is good enough for people in this country or for the position he / she got, everyone is corrupt, evil, rotten to the bone, all and everyone wishes this country’s (or whatever it stands for) collapse. There is no good, they all deserve to burn alive, so that a prosperous (but equally impossibly to reach) future can come by.

However, if looked at under close scrutiny, Romanians despise changes. Be them to the good or to the bad, little matters. ‘Keep the status quo’ seems to be the Nirvana these people are after. Evolution would not exist in this country unless brought by strangers. And, one might have already got it by now, strangers are always the bad guys that have the means and know-how our poor Romanians do not because... well, yes, because of these Nanak-forsaken foreigners (and definitely not due to their own laziness and disrespect for anything).

This is the country where the December 1989 so-called Revolution was nothing more than a coup, while after almost 50 years of Communism people could not be more conservative than monks living in a cave monastery. This is the country where the Middle-Ages typical Orthodox Church is currently building a gargantuan “People’s Salvation Cathedral” while most Romanians make three cross signs when passing by a church, and where every and any infrastructure project is shooed by the half drunk or - worse - shockingly sober masses (of the “we’re starving and they’re building a flyover” kind). Take a new project of any kind. Say, the refurbishment of a railway line. Expectedly, this will bring around quite a lot of inconvenience: train delays, heaps of dirt, rubbish, closed roads that cross the tracks, more traffic along the roads that ply the railway under refurbishment. In Romania this is all there is: people will tell you that money is being wasted, they will curse anyone from the train conductor to the president, they will instantly turn fatalistic and tell you these works will never end, they will call their friends and relatives to complain. At the first glance, you will think disaster has struck. Nay, this is Romania’s routine: complains, conservativeness and reluctance. As for the moment that railway refurbishment is complete, people will instantly forget about it, rather noting: “it is the same, nothing changed, this is wasted money, I am telling you!” (i.e. “I am the father of all grandmothers and I know, so, you dum foreigner living on velvet, listen to me!”).

A while ago, all staff at the company I work for received the typical e-mail asking people to be available on a certain weekend for a presentation regarding the company’s strategy for the year that had begun. People’s discomfort (of the “why me, why then, why that?” sort) was instantly obvious, ad-hoc chatting groups were formed and the matter was discussed at great length, even though the management did not go in any further details regarding the meeting. Weeks passed and we all went to the meeting, where a few structural changes were presented. Nobody that disagreed dared argue them openly, but, once the meeting was over, waves of hatred erupted. Everyone thought he / she was master of puppets and nobody agreed to any change that would alter his / her status in the company. Corporate strategy, company management, hierarchy, future prospects, figures, statistics, they could (and should) have all gone to hell, but Romanians did not want the change. Period. Actually the whole discussion was futile anyway, as people obviously had no arguments against the change, but personal ‘Fear of the Dark’, to put it Bruce Dickinson’s way.

The “why?” question naturally occurs. Why always afraid, why always reluctant, why always resistant to change, why always against even attempting to understand the reasons behind that change? Without being a sort of Brahma (or fortuneteller, as we are in Romania, the land of Mother Omida the Fortuneteller), I dare say this happens as Romanians are afraid of any sort of thing that might involve responsibility. Their responsibility, to be more precise. It is easier to do things the way one is accustomed to, or not to do things at all, than to do them another way and to maybe agree one day that someone else was, well... right in imposing that change.

N.B. The newspapers mostly read on the Bucharest subway at 8 or 9 AM are Can Can and Click!, both of which feature no news but filthy scandal tabloids; no, you do not need speak Romanian, just click on the links, as images suffice. Romanian news portals (let me use two samples: Hotnews.ro and Mediafax.ro) often push sensational news (i.e. no news, just scandal) ahead, as that is what the public wants to read. Change, world evolution? Only if it is spicy enough to go with a glass of plum brandy.