Two people died in Romania on New Year”s Eve after being mortally wounded by poorly made and poorly handled fireworks. One woman, in Ocna Mures, died a horrific death after a firework drunkenly thrown into her garden by a neighbour blew off the bottom part of her face. She bled to death. A Happy New Year indeed. More than 100 people in Bucharest alone had to attend hospital for treatment for firework or firecracker wounds.
In Severin, in southern Romania, one man returned home from a New Year”s Eve party to discover his apartment a burnt-out ruin. Fire department investigations lay the cause of the fire at the door of an unknown prankster who had thrown a firecracker into the man”s apartment through an open window. Hilarious, no?
Almost every Romanian I speak to insists that fireworks do no real harm and that anyway “it”s my right to throw fireworks around,” a seasonal version of the usual “e tara mea si fac ce vreau.” Well, no. Fireworks in the hands of drunken cretins on New Year”s Day do great harm, which is why almost every country in the world outlaws their sale to anyone but authorised organisers of firework displays. Romania too has a law which outlaws the sale of fireworks to individuals, but – like most laws in this country – it is ignored by everyone, especially the police who do nothing to prevent their sale. In the wake of the two deaths this New Year”s Eve, the law is about to be made even more severe: we will see what impact it has next year. Little, if the police continue to be so utterly useless.
Indeed can anyone tell me what the Romanian police force actually does? I mean, you see them walking around: smoking, drinking, speaking on the phone, taking bribes from firework sellers, harassing the ethnic minorities and occasionally directing traffic, but do they ever prevent or solve any crimes? I would be genuinely interested to hear from anyone who has ever had to use the police as a victim of crime. You can email me at the address below.
Foreigners, eh? We come here, guests of this fine nation and spend all of our time complaining, moaning and telling Romanians how we know best. Bucharest especially comes in for harsh criticism, as it did late last year from European Commission representative Jonathan Scheele, who quite correctly said that “Bucharest has a lot to do in order to become a city worthy of the status of a European capital.” The knee-jerk reaction of the Bucharest Mayor, Adriean Videanu spoke volumes. He might just as well have said (and I paraphrase) that “this bloody ignorant foreigner simply doesn”t understand and should remember he is a guest in this country.” Well, maybe he”s right. Maybe we foreigners simply do not understand. I for one do not understand why I can”t cross the street after it rains without getting my feet soaking wet. Neither do I understand why – less than a year before possible European Union membership – so many suburbs of Bucharest do not have running water or paved streets. I do not understand why the owners of expensive cars appear to have more rights than the owners of cheaper models. I could go on.
The point is though that we ignorant foreigners want these things to change. We do not criticise Bucharest or Romania simply for the sake of it. We criticise because we want to be constructive. For a number of multifarious reasons we have chosen Romania as our home, and therefore want that home to be as pleasant as possible. The idea that we are “guests” who should keep our opinions to ourselves is utterly ludicrous, and counterproductive. I have never considered myself a guest in Romania: I chose to live here. Nobody invited me. I will therefore not keep my opinions to myself.
Indeed, far more harmful to Romania”s future are the handful of wistful foreigners who like Romania ?”just the way it is.” One such foreigner recently argued in the local press that he “finds charm in Bucharest”s filth and dereliction,” and that he “dreads the day when the city becomes worthy of being a European capital.” Maybe that”s the kind of thing Mr. Videanu wants to hear?
On January 1st Austria took over the six-month rolling presidency of the European Union. With the fate of Romania”s membership application due to be decided in April or May it could well be time to say nothing but the sweetest of things about Austrians. Alas I cannot.
The European Union recently made grumpy noises about the Turkish government”s prosecution of Orhan Pahuk, an author who has called on the Turkish state to recognise that the death of one million Armenians in 1916 was state-sponsored genocide. The Turkish authorities argue the deaths cannot be classed as a genocide, and have taken umbrage at the following comment made by Pamuk in an interview last year year: “One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares talk about it.” With those words, Pamuk apparently insulted Turkishness and faces up to three years behind bars if convicted.
Elsewhere in Europe – in fact in the country currently holding the EU presidency – David Irving, a British historian, is currently languishing in jail awaiting trial in February for denying the Holocaust. He was arrested in Vienna in November last year while on a speaking tour of Austria for comments he made in the country over 15 years ago. Back then he allegedly made two speeches in which he denied that there were any gas chambers under the Nazis. Holocaust denial is a crime in Austria, and if found guilty Irving could be jailed for up to 10 years.
I have little sympathy for Irving”s revisionist views, and know too little about Ottoman history to comment on Pamuk”s. But I do know that when it comes to free speech it”s all or nothing: we either have it or we don”t. The EU”s double standards – which Romania also implemented earlier this year when it outlawed Holocaust denial, a subject I discussed on this page in May – add up to no free speech at all.
Craig Turp is the author of a number of books on travel in Central and Eastern Europe. He is also the publisher of In Your Pocket, an independent series of locally produced city guides. He can be contacted at editor@inyourpocket.com.