Romania is a paradise of spectacular landscapes, mountains,
valleys, rivers, gorges, the famous Danube River, the Danube Delta with its
rich fauna and flora, the Black Sea, and fertile lands that could grow so much
wheat and corn, it was known as the bread basket of the Balkans. Many yet to be
explored natural resources are hidden beneath the soil and rocks: gold, coal, iron core, bauxite, manganese,
lead, salt, silver, zinc, petroleum, and natural gas.
Temporarily forgotten are the economic problems that ail a crony
capitalist system emerging from decades of communist dictatorial oppression. What
is important at the moment is whether Bucharest will build the biggest mosque
in Europe, in the middle of predominantly Orthodox and Catholic Christianity.
It is an existential dilemma in the lands that Vlad Tepes, the infamous
Dracula, and many voivodes and rulers after him, protected with guts, blood,
and glory, from the constant invasions of the Ottoman Empire during five
centuries.
Why would Bucharest need such a huge mosque? Who will pray
there? The population is atheist, agnostic, or Christian. Dobrogea, in the
eastern part of Romania, already has mosques to accommodate the Turks whose
ancestors had settled in these parts of the Black Sea.
Can the country, struggling with many economic issues, afford the influx of Middle Eastern men of
fighting age who are sure to come as war “refugees?” Apparently the prime
minster, who allegedly received a new knee in Turkey, was quoted as saying that
Romania is prepared to receive refugees and has opened two camps with a
capacity of 500 each in the western part of Romania, but so far, few “refugees”
have petitioned for asylum. Asked if such refugees will be distributed by areas
or by counties, Ponta answered that the said “refugees” are free to go wherever
they wish, with only one interdiction, they cannot vote. http://www.ziare.com/victor-ponta/premier/romania-pregatita-pentru-refugiati-ponta-sa-i-integram-sa-nu-ramana-pe-cheltuiala-statului-1385886
“The mayor of Arad, where unemployment is zero, told me that
they need workers, especially those who are easy to train. Nothing happened
what ‘the crusader Basescu’ said,” Ponta concluded. Basescu, the former
president, vehemently opposed the Bucharest mosque and the “refugees” being
settled in Romania.
Those who survived Ceausescu’s four-decade long dictatorship
are divided. Some who are too old to work and fend for themselves, are
nostalgic for his tyranny because they did not have to work very hard, did not
have to be responsible for themselves. As long as comrade government provided
meager rations and salaries, enough to survive on, they were satisfied.
The young, representing the “tyranny of the oppressed,” have
no memory of Ceausescu’s regime and thus think that socialism and communism are
great ideas – who would not want to be taken care of in the fashion of the
western European Fabian socialist societies whose governments are bankrupt?
These two groups do not see any problem with building the
largest mosques in Bucharest – the more the merrier. The fact that the two
cultures, Islamic and western, are incompatible, does not seem to faze them.
A short list highlights the alleged corruption and theft affecting
society and the economy profoundly. These events took place after Ceausescu was
executed on Christmas 1989 when a period of chaos ensued. How long this period
lasted is debatable but the results are still felt today.
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Part of the national bank’s gold was allegedly
taken out of the country.
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Factories that may or may not have been
productive were sold to foreign investors or destroyed and sold for scrap metal
and the money was pocketed by those in power.
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Diesel payments for ships sailing under Romanian
flag were stopped, the ships were sold as scrap metal in the ports where they
happened to be docked, and the money was pocketed by those governing and making
such decisions.
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Even though Romania had no debt, once some industrial
and agricultural production was stopped, it was necessary to make loans from
foreign banks in order to keep the country afloat, thus Romania began its
indebtedness to the western bankers.
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Oil, gas, and gold were given to foreign
investors in exchange for substantial bribes to governing individuals.
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Laws were passed that allowed foreigners with
money to invest in “agriculture” to exploit the land and to harvest timber,
gold, and frack for natural gas, desertifying large tracks of land in the
process, and poisoning rivers with cyanide and other toxic chemicals; the said
foreign investors were not required to clean up the ecological disaster they left
behind.
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As more and more taxes were imposed, the money
were not put to good use, benefitting or building schools, hospitals, and
orphanages; the money built thousands of churches and fattened the pockets of
the governing individuals who used priests to preach to their flocks to vote in
the most corrupt politicians who were skilled orators.
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The alleged sabotage of Romanian investors who
found efficient and non-toxic ways to explore for gold without destroying the
natural habitat.
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Out of control deforestation resulted in
landslides and floods and the destruction of entire villages.
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Alleged damage to tourism at the Black Sea due
to fracking for natural gas in Dobrogea.
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Creation of a class of EU-style welfare
dependent citizens and parasites who watch mind-numbing telenovelas while their
country is being destroyed.
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Laws that allow politicians to purchase land for
prices below real estate values in beautiful areas and to build villas on that
land.
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Exacerbating the decades-old divide between
Hungarians, Swabians, and Romanians in Transylvania through corrupt political
moves, keeping the population at odds.
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Passing laws of immunity for crimes committed by
those in power who undermined the country’s economy for personal and political
gain.
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Expropriating private land of those who opposed
the land grab across the country.
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The irrational decision to pay Holocaust
reparations of 60 billion euros to Israel (even though 95 percent of Jews were
alleged to have survived in Romania when they were sent to Transnistria, away
from Hitler’s grab) at a time when former soldiers, workers, teachers, and
other poor Romanians living on pensions of 300 euros per month had to take substantial
EU-dictated austerity cuts; 20 billion euros were already paid even though
Romania had to likely borrow the money.
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The Penal Code was changed and expunged of the
punishment for undermining the national economy.
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Billions of euros were allegedly funneled to
finance electoral campaigns of those in power who speak so eloquently and convincingly,
promising to eradicate the blatant corruption in society but deliver nothing
except more wealth and power to themselves.
Despite the bleak economic reality, the useful idiot voters
who applaud and reelect to power the very same corrupt politicians who have relegated
them to comfortable poverty, are busy on social media, discussing passionately
the pros and cons of the mosque, while the economic and societal quagmire
around them continues unabated. They seem to be deaf and ambivalent to the
historic song of previous generations, “Wake up, Romanians, from the sleep of
death.”
Whether some of the allegations can be proven and could stand
up in a court of law remains to be seen. It is a fact that the majority of the
population is still relatively poor even after twenty-five years since communism
“fell” while a few politicians and oligarchs have become millionaires and billionaires
many times over. Crony capitalism has
replaced one set of ruling elites with another. The only difference now is that
the masses can idle their time with tele-entertainment on every channel and
food is available. They can criticize the new regime, but nobody listens.
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