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| Rally in Brasov Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
On a
beautiful sunny morning, May 21, 2015 when the Orthodox celebrated Ascension Day
and Sf. Elena, we walked in the beautiful park downtown Brasov set at the foot
of Timpa Peak, where a crowd had gathered in front of a large cross and several
tombs of the young men and women killed on December 22-26, 1989, during the
Revolution that toppled Ceausescu’s brutal communist regime. Some of them came
to a rally and some were simply walking through the park.
Shots rang
out from many directions, mowing down those unfortunate enough to be in the
path of the stray bullets. As many as 46 people were shot within ninety minutes.
Two large flower wreaths were placed in front of the cross in their eternal memory.
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Heroes Day May 21, 2015
Photo: Ileana Johnson |
I
interviewed Mircea Brenciu, member of Uniunea Scriitorilor din Romania
(Writers’ Union) and spokesperson for Asociatia Revolutionarilor din
Brasov (Association of Revolutionaries from Brasov). Brenciu gave a
fiery speech to the crowd of mostly middle-aged men who had gathered on Ziua
Eroilor (Heros’ Day) to pay respects to those who died for freedom,
freedom that had been squashed in Romania during more than four decades of
communist terror.
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Fallen Heroes
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
The
Association of Revolutionaries had asked City Hall repeatedly for a monument to
honor the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in December 1989 in this park
and elsewhere.
A monument
is needed, Brenciu said, to commemorate not just those who died but those who have
survived “an event that represents the most important moment in the contemporary
history of Romania” – the defeat of Ceausescu’s communist tyranny. This often-requested monument has been
refused by officials under various explanations. Brenciu believes that these
politicians who run the country have no gratitude and deny recent history. “Full
of hypocrisy,” Brenciu said, “they come to place a wreath, pretending to care,
and in the next second, they forget everything.”
In his
opinion, disrespecting history is one of the many reasons that have determined
the miserable state in life of Romanian citizens in general. Conditions have
improved, he said, Romanians can go abroad to work, they can speak freely, they
can travel, they can curse the regime freely, but nobody is listening, Brenciu
added.
Prices rose
to the European Union levels since 2007 but salaries are still “10-15 times
smaller.” Austerity measures imposed by the EU have compounded the problem. “How
can a Romanian citizen survive under these conditions,” he asked. We have
become the beggars of the European Union even though our country is very
wealthy in natural resources that have been sold out to foreign investors to benefit
the ruling elite class while Romanians struggle to make ends meet.
“Poverty is
glaring, nobody has any money. Doctors ask for bribe money (even though the
medical system is socialized and generally free), officials ask for bribe money,
food is extremely expensive, how can one live in a country that freed itself
from communism?
Most people
are still afraid to go to the doctor even for simple operations. Many good
doctors have fled to the west for better pay and working conditions and, for a
while, young people chose other fields of study. Who wanted to work so hard to
become a doctor when they made the same paltry salaries like everybody else? I
asked about the average college graduate pay and I was shocked at the answer,
$300 per month. And unskilled workers in America demand an economically
impossible living wage of $15-20 an hour.
Romanians
have told me that dental care is very expensive and the quality of work lacks a
lot to be desired. Few acquire the expert training of dentists in the U.S. Socialized
medicine is a disaster, slightly better than during Ceausescu’s regime. Retirees
are compensated at the 50 percent rate for the first three prescriptions; after
that, they must pay full price for any additional drugs they need.
Forgetting
and rewriting history is not occurring just in Romania, it is a wave happening
around the globe, a groundswell of global revisionist curricular history
smacking of communist indoctrination.
“Globalism
is a form of anti-nationalism, with the idea of forming a unique global state,
a utopia that begs the question, who is going to run this global state, who is
going to establish the rule of law, what is going to happen to the principles
of democracy? As long as there are nations, there is equilibrium and respect
between countries, a tradition and history that balance out a social
equilibrium. European Union is a first step of this globalization. Why is the EU
abandoning us while exploiting the country for everything possible for their
personal gain,“ asked Brenciu pointedly.
Brenciu described
how the technocrats in Brussels lured Romania into the EU like the
Conquistadors lured Indians with cheap beads and mirrors. “They are taking
everything and we are applauding - so great that we are Europeans now.”
Brenciu
talked about Rosia Montana mine exploration in the Apuseni Mountains of Western
Transylvania, which is currently blocked, and its vast reserves of gold, rare earth
minerals, and rare metals such as wolfram (tungsten), vanadium, nickel,
manganese, which are more valuable than gold. Gabriel Resources of Canada is
planning to reopen the currently blocked gold mine which has been closed since
2006.
“Why should
Romanians not exploit their own resources? In this fight, Brenciu said, we are
going to lose because we have traitorous politicians.”
Brenciu
alleged that over $120 billion have been stolen since the fall of communism,
enough to bring Romania to an economic development on par with the EU
countries. This calculation, Brenciu stated, was based on Dr. Ilie Serbanescu’s
opinion as an economist, academician, and Former Minister of Reform. The money
that was stolen is now in foreign accounts, Brenciu said, while the country
survives in dire economic needs.
Dr.
Serbanescu explained in a TV appearance that EU is a colonial system that
facilitated the control of Romanian natural resources (gold, silver, rare
metals, minerals), the distribution of energy (gas, oil, electricity), and
banking. Globalists challenged his views as nationalist. It is a no-brainer
that none of the EU members were able to control their monetary policy once
they accepted the euro as a national currency. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JnVK5vg9DM
“I was
personally shot at,” Brenciu said, but I was lucky to escape, “I ducked into
the post office building nearby. Nobody knew who was shooting, we personally
caught one guy who spoke no Romanian and we turned him over to the officials and
I think they released him. He was wearing dark coveralls over his street
clothes, had shiny eyes like a person on drugs, and was armed.”
“It was carnage,
people were mowed down, and there was blood everywhere and screams of pain
coming from the injured.” It is inconceivable to be the mayor of this town that
has sacrificed so much for the Revolution and to refuse a monument to
commemorate this profound event, I do not and cannot understand,” Brenciu
added.
On November
15, 1987, in this same park, workers came out of factories to protest and took down
Ceausescu’s “Dear Leader” portrait from Cladirea
Prefecturii (the Prefect’s Building). Everybody was of course arrested and
their fate unknown since they were dispersed around the country and held in the
many political jails Ceausescu had built or opened. I discovered one such jail
at Cetatea Fagarasului, located in a 15th century fortress, cold,
damp, and mildewed from standing water in the basement. The solid rock
construction made the interior considerably colder than the exterior.
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Liviu Corneliu Babes Memorial in Poiana Brasov
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
Before the
Iron Curtain fell, on March 2, 1989, a citizen from Brasov, Liviu Corneliu
Babes (1942-1989) skied down the mountain in Poiana Brasov. Wearing a sign
protesting Ceausescu’s vicious regime, he told the whole world that Romania was
a communist Auschwitz and then set himself on fire.
I journeyed
to Poiana Brasov to pay respects to Babes. A plaque commemorating his sacrifice
(and erected by Mircea Brenciu and his organization) stood next to a small wood
church. I went inside to pray for him and for my Dad and I encountered a young
priest. I asked him about Liviu Babes and he let me know in direct language
that the church considers him an apostate because suicide is not condoned. But
his next words shocked me even more. He said that the church teaches the parishioners
to obey the state and the government at all costs. I tried to reason with him by
asking what he remembered from Ceausescu’s regime. This priest was barely 5
years old when Ceausescu was executed. He told me that he remembered long lines
with his mom trying to buy food on rationing coupons, otherwise, he said, it
was fine. I left speechless. His washed brain and twisted view of reality clashed
terribly with historical facts.
Wood Church in Poiana Brasov
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
It is a
shame that there is no monument where one can pay their respects and light up a
candle to the memory of those who fought against communism. Brasov gave their heroes
who sacrificed for the European fight against communism. It is shameful, “people
who don’t respect their past, have no future,” Brenciu explained.
“I have a
fear that we are going to lose our country,” Brenciu concluded. “I only see one
solution, to bring back the institution of monarchy.” The people are
disoriented and discouraged, he explained. “The biggest theft occurred under
the ten-year rule of President Traian Basescu.” The Revolutionaries are
supporting the new President, Klaus Johannis, the former mayor of Sibiu, but
his success depends on the political class. Right now the country is terribly
divided.
There is a
saying that goes, “Our country is so beautiful, it is sad that it is inhabited.”
We have so many simple and uneducated people who are easily manipulated by the
mass-media, they are voting for the wrong people who control, lie, cheat, and
steal. In exchange for a vote, bribes of 5, 10, 15 euros are paid and accepted.
And schools
are no longer teaching healthy values and morality. Democracy and freedom are
understood as a lack of morals, honesty, personal responsibility, and as a
culture of welfare dependency somewhat different from the communist culture of
dependency where at least one had to pretend to work. “We are losing our national
identity and it is deplorable.”
Days after
the interview I was mulling over the similarities between the fate of our
countries in terms of purposeful destruction, curricular indoctrination, moral
bankruptcy, banking corruption, crony capitalism, disinformation of the voting
populace, and the endemic corruption of the ruling elites.
