Europe

[Visited: March 2007 and before]

After my first visit to Romania in 1985, a lot of things have changed in the country. The most obvious changes can be seen in material things like cars and buildings, but what has happened to the people? In a search for ordinary Romanian people on the streets, I came across old women, men, and a place in a city park where people were playing different games.
The people in the street have changed, and these changes are unmistakeable especially in youngsters. They wear fashionable clothes, call their friends with their mobile phones, carry their school books in colourful plastic bags. They often speak English, look defiantly into the world, and appear to be conscious of their important task in the development of their country. Many of them have not lived the revolution that changed the life of their parents and their country so much - they take developing and modernizing Romania for granted.
But what about the older generations? The people who consciously experienced the Romania of Ceaușescu? They largely appear as grey and colourless as they were before. They walk around in clothes that could have been bought 20 years ago. But they don't dominate the streets. They can be found on benches in the many city parks, or playing chess, backgammon and other games under the trees. Most of all, they evoke the atmosphere of times gone by. Socially they are perhaps worse off than under the old regime, and in fact, surveys show that some of them long for the good old days. But you can also see resignation in their faces, they know that the more colourful, dynamic and completely different new youth have the future - a radically different future than the past they lived.

Around the World in 80 Clicks

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Romanian people > Romania > Europe

[Visited: March 2007 and before]

Around the World in 80 Clicks