Romania: Difference between revisions

Romania has many long-standing problems, one of them being [[Orphanage of Fear|nasty orphanages]]. This had to do with Ceauşescu wanting to boost the Romanian population by all means, even if this involved many mothers not being able to care for so many unwanted kids, abandoning them instead, so they ended up in... right. And we haven't even gone into the chaotic post-Communist situation, the Mineriad, the inefficient education system, the severe corruption and plain [[They Just Didn't Care|incompetent governments]]...

 

 

Transylvania, setting for "Dracula", is in Romania - now. It was transferred from Hungary at the end of [[World War One]], and has always been an ethnically mixed country (there is a serious unresolved - on an international level - debate going on about that though, regarding who was there first - science has pretty much said it was likely Romanians, not that it matters anyhow): despite some 400 years of efforts from Hungarian, and later Austro-Hungarian authorities, it's been mostly Romanian at least since the Turkish Wars; despite some 50 years of best efforts from the Commies, the Hungarian "Szeklers" are still there; they currently form an ethnic majority in the counties of Covasna and Harghita (where they form 85% of the population) and are a significant presence in Mureș and other counties, causing some hand-wringing and [[Misplaced Nationalism]] over minority rights (want to see an [[Internet Backdraft]]? Bring up the question of language rights). Traditionally, the south was inhabited by Germans who had come to the Mongol-ravaged land in the Middle Ages, but they mostly packed up and left after the war or were bought the privilege to leave - one of Ceauşescu's brilliant ideas was to sell off Germans and Jews to West Germany and Israel. There is a still a larger-than-average German minority, German in high-schools, and German names on some road signs. Bram Stoker's Dracula was a Szekler, but its inspiration, the "real" Dracula, ''was'' Romanian, although, ironically, not a Transylvanian at all: he was from Wallachia, the southern third of the country.

* [[Common Knowledge]]: The history curriculum in Romania conflates the Dacians and the Getae, something modern historians aren't very eager to champion (some go so far as to suggest they were two separate tribes of Thracians, the Getae living in southern Romania and the Dacians beyond the Carpathians). This is mostly a legacy of the long Romanian-Hungarian dispute over who "rightfully" owns Transylvania, wherein both sides gleefully bent history to try and fit their own narratives - the Geto-Dacian classification is meant to emphasise the fact that Romanians were there first.

* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: In practice, less accent on the ''crazy'' part and more on the ''crazily fast''. While may be many crackpot theories to explain the disregard of rules<ref> Don't try. [[Flame War]] ensues.</ref>, in reality the disregard is first and foremost for the police, who are regarded as the most disgusting species of [[Corrupt Hick|CorruptHicks]] on Earth.<ref> Their efforts to prove [[I Am the Trope|they are just that]] [[Sarcasm Mode|are admirable]].</ref>

* [[Misplaced Nationalism]] and [[Patriotic Fervor]]: Bring up the Hungarian minority's rights, or just Hungary in general, in the right crowd. Make sure you have popcorn.

* [[Nosy Neighbor]]: Description is futile, one has to experience life among them to believe.

 

== the Romanian flag ==

 

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