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Romania: Difference between revisions
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Romania, a member of the [[European Union]], is a country of 22 million people and one of the only two Latin countries that are Orthodox Christian, the other one being its close relative Moldova.
It's had quite a troubled past, with large chunks of its history being about [[Failure Is the Only Option|resisting encroaching foreign powers for as long as possible before the inevitable failure]], even larger chunks about the struggle to carve a place for itself while surrounded by larger countries like Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire, all slathered in heavy doses of being the [[Butt Monkey]] of Central Europe and occasional moments of [[Yank the
Romania's entry into World War I mostly came about under pressure from the Allies and promises that they could annex Transylvania from Hungary. It proved to be a disaster, with the Germans, Austrians, Bulgarians and Ottomans all ganging up on a poorly organised army and forcing it to retreat up to Moldova, where they held together for a few more years before finally capitulating. As part of the Peace of Bucharest of March 1918, Romania [[Disproportionate Retribution|was reduced to a vassal state occupied by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, had several of its territories yanked away again and would have a German monopoly on oil exports for 99 years]]. Said peace treaty was never completely ratified because King Ferdinand refused to sign it, and Romania re-entered the war one day before the armistice with Germany was signed and well after the military forces of the Central Powers had been thrashed on the Western Fronts. The Allies eventually kept their word, giving Transylvania to Romania (but Romania had to twist their hand a bit by starting a [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomp War]] with Hungary in 1919 and occupying and plundering it for about a year or so, and then milking some abusive armistice terms), which had also regained the Romanian-dominated area (Moldova between the Prut and Dniester rivers) in the meantime. Greater Romania was born.
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* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Ron's brother, Charlie Weasley, works with dragons in Romania.
* In ''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]'''s ''[[Breaking Dawn]]'', some of the most ancient vampires come actually from Romania, angry at the Volturi clan for destroying their castle and the other Romanian vampires.
* ''[[South Park]]'''s answer to the Elian Gonzalez debacle, ''Quintuplets 2000'', involved Romanian quintuplets... whose home country is apparently still Communist, and certainly dominated by grey, bland architecture and an economy and populace so poor that a few hundred US dollars makes one "rich" there. Probably not the best depiction, and not necessarily all that accurate, either it turns out (current-day Bucharest, at any rate, is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharest actually quite pretty], as far as we're concerned, and the country's been a democratically-elected Republic for years). This probably stems more from the fact that Romania ''was'' Communist-controlled until 1989 and [[Ripped
** The older bits of Bucharest are pretty. The Communists did their best to hack the place apart and fill it with depressing architecture. It's all a matter of finding the old parts that escaped relatively unscathed.
* An ''unintentional'' depiction occurred in an episode of ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'', where an old woman "gypsy", instead of speaking ''Romany'' (which she was allegedly speaking), was actually speaking, yes... Romanian, which is a ''completely different language''. Methinks that show was even more low-budget than I thought!
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* [[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>
* [[Useful Notes/Greece|Greece]]: Romania has a connection with the start of Greece's war of independence, as Filiki Eteria's initial plan was to both start an insurrection and get all the Christians in the Balkans on their side (and hopefully Russia too). Unfortunately, this simple plan got [[Spanner in The Works|bungled big time]] when Alexander Ypsilantis clashed with the Romanian rebels led by Tudor Vladimirescu, was upbraided by Tsar Alexander for misusing the military force he'd received, [[What an Idiot!|decisively lost all Romanian support by executing Vladimirescu]], and was left to lead Eteria to get annihalated at Drăgășani.
* [[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.
* [[Terrified of Germs]]: ever since before Communists came, authorities had been concerned with contagion and disease, for good reasons. Families, Communist schools and state-owned health system had pounded the people to always be careful what they eat, what they drink, whom do they sleep with and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|always to wash their hands]]. While nowadays an Anglophone makes a big fuss of even a very simple CBC test, the ordinary employment medical test for a Romanian (supported by health insurance) includes physical examination, eyesight, blood pressure, lungs' auscultation and others, according to his or her profession, and [[Crazy Prepared|no less than]] ''[[Crazy Prepared|forty]]'' [[Crazy Prepared|blood tests of which CBC is just one]], including VDRL, VSH, AST, ALT, TSH, ASLO, hepatitis A, B and C, cholesterol...
** Also expect complex examinations (which include, beyond the usual eyesight and psychological test, 2 blood tests and a lung X-ray) from at least 7 doctors for something as simple as getting a driver's license. (Expect similar examinations from ''10'' [[Up to Eleven|doctors]] to get a firearm license.) Clinics use economies of scale to perform all of them for as little as $50 per patient.
* [[The Mafiya]]: most business and politics enterprises are almost entirely dependent of personal or family relationships, even more visible outside large cities. Stepping on the wrong people's toes in business or inter-gender relationships may have unfortunate results. Having the right friends always helps.
* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: From the way Julia Gelardi describes it, Romania was severely losing at the first few weeks of the Paris Peace Conference<ref>backing the theory that the Allies only promised the country territory to get it into [[World War I]] in the first place</ref>, so in a fit of desperation PM Ionel Brătianu asked Queen Marie to travel to France to represent the country. Marie proceeded to use her charisma and reminders about Romania's considerable losses to charm-bully the Allies onto her side, and the conference ended with Romania receiving all it set out to gain (and then [[What the Hell, Hero?|starting a curbstomp war with Hungary and pillaging it in retaliation]]). [[Broken Aesop|Clearly, if you want to expand a country's territory, you should join the war, get beaten, re-join at the last minute and then send your monarch to annoy everybody else into giving you what you want.]]
* [[Slave to PR]]: Romanians [[Turn of the Millennium|of the 2000s]] are masters of online campaigns (in the English language nevertheless). In the recent past, they have [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb bombed Google] only because [[Disproportionate Retribution|they did not like the unflattering auto-completion phrases]] when someone searched "Romanians". After withstanding much slander combined with some truth over the years, [[HAD to Be Sharp|they had to do something to change the situation]].
* [[Vodka Drunkenski]]: Romania is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption 9th country in the world by alcohol consumption]. When you're 7 places [[Oireland|above Ireland]] in the top, this should tell something. Russia is the 5th. Sister country Moldova is the first.
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