One day into the spotlight

President Bush has put Romania into the spotlight. For several hours, international TV stations broadcast parts of his speech to Romanians. Unexpectedly, Bucharest was presented as the capital city of Romania, not Bulgaria, while Sofia and Budapest kept their places on the map, without being relocated to the DA„smbovita River, as required by an old Western journalistic tradition.
But this is the smallest of our achievements. The biggest success is just a glitter of hope for the time being: investors are watching CNN and, on Monday morning, they invest their money based on some splendid images (enthusiastic crowds, lights) that were shot on Saturday afternoon, in Romania.
Still, the speech delivered by president Bush, rich with freedom hints, does include a roadmap: change of the current state of things (he called it economic, political and military reform, unaware of the worn out meaning of this term, which is often used with no relation to reality here). President Iliescu, surprisingly alive and still poor and honest, had fine words to say about the moral values that must be shared by the public servants. Behind him, officials that are known for their lack of preoccupation about these issues, smiled happily, aware they were being filmed. It is worth noting the crowds were not thrilled to hear the word “corruption” – or perhaps the new promise to get rid of it, who knows – as the applause kind of stopped at that specific moment of the discourse.
On the other hand, the economic message conveyed to the world by the NATO invitation and the visit of the American president cannot go unnoticed, especially since we cannot afford to refuse even the smallest help. Only illusions must be chopped and stashed away: we won’t be as lucky as the three states that were invited back in 1997, as there is less money on the world investment market, while we are not so well prepared to receive it as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were back then. They were already transition stars and this was their chance. Despite our economic growth of the past three years, Romania is still rather a starlet with a very recent plastic surgery, aware that, at least for a while, the scars will continue to show.
In fact, Bush did not focus on this aspect and he did not pledge money or economic exchanges. In his speech, the term “investment” is nowhere to be found. He praises the Romanians’ endeavours to build a better life, but promises that partners can be found in the NATO countries only if we push on with reforms. In other words, NATO will not bring us money, but will protect us from any dangers. Provided we agree to face them.
Of course, we are joining the NATO because we agree with the Americans. President Bush has discreetly said so, professing his appreciation of the newcomers’ “moral clarity.” Which is opposed to the rather stale views of the NATO veteran members, as he said in Lithuania.
Beyond his message to Romanians, Bush fixed in Bucharest some of the tensions generated in Vilnius, assuring the Russians that NATO expansion is not a threat, but an opening to cooperation.