Romania
SOME FACTS
Romania is a South-Eastern country of Europe, with a population of almost 23,000,000 and an area of 237,500 square kilometers.
The capital of Romania is Bucharest, one of the most beautiful cities in the country, situated in the South part of Romania. Bucharest is also called 'little Paris', because of the many French influences of the last century, when the most spoken foreign language in Romania was French.
Since 1918,the national day of Romania is on the 1st of December, the day as the 3 parts that once were apart came together and formed the country as it is today.
The official language is Romanian, a Neolatin language, being related to the other Latin languages in Europe, such as Italian, Spanish, French etc.
In the year 106 A.D. the Romans have conquered the country and brought many of their traditions and habits to what later became Romania.
The main creed in Romania is the Orthodoxism (around 87% of the population),followed by Catholicism (5% of the population) and others.
People in Romania are very faithful, they believe in God, worship Him and it's not rare to see people going to church every Sunday morning and coming home at noon time, hearing them talking about their believes and praising God, mostly in the countryside.
The official currency in Romania is the 'Lei', but it's usual that banks and other institutions work with the USD or with the Euro (the official currency for most of the countries in Europe).
THE COMMUNISM AND THE REVOLT
For 45 years (1945-1990) Romania was a communistic country, ruled by Ceausescu, a president who held the entire power of the country. Besides being the president, he was the army's commander-in-chief, the president of the unique politic party, named the Communistic Party. He made the laws and had the right to decide about life and death in the country.
'Communistic' means that every single person in the country was equal to the others. There was no rich and poor people, everyone was equal: poor . Therefore, were taken away by the state, no one owned a house, it was all the countries and even if before the communistic time one owned their house, as Ceausescu came to rule, everyone had to pay rent.
In the villages, the peasants were taken away their land and their animals, being forced to give everything to the state, that was exporting the products to make money.
Soon after the communism came into Romania, its inhabitants became more and more poor every year, being supressed and being treated more like animals than human beings.
It was forbidden to travel abroad,to get any news from abroad.The television was broadcasting only the speeched of the president,30 minutes per day.There were no movies,no entertainment all what people were given to see was the speeches about patriotism and about the loyality for Romania,of Ceausescu.
Being totally shut from everything that was happening outside Romania,the Romanians were living a depressing life,not even being allowed to buy all the food they wanted.They had 'food cards' and got only 3 breads per person,in one week,rarely finding other goods like sugar or oil or butter.The shops were empty and when there was something to buy,there were endless queues,cos everyone was wanting everything they could get.
Only a very small number of Romanians say that the communism was a good thing and then they probably were spies,cos as a spy,in the communistic Romania,you have facilities that the other people didn't have.
Spying meant to watch and listen to everyone and when a person said something against 'The system',he was inprisoned,same as every intellectual person.
The communists didn't want intelligence.The more stupid people are,they thought,the less questions they will ask,so they inprisoned every free thinker and told to everyone that work is the meaning of life,not knowledge.
On the 16th of December 1989,in Timisoara (a city in the West of Romania) people went on the streets,demonstrating against Ceausescu and his wife (who didn't even graduate elmentary school,but after her husband became the president of Romania,she had a diploma in Chemistry) and were shot by the army,that was on the president's side.
Even if thousands of people died,they didn't give up.The army and the police was fighting them,but they were ready to change their situation,cos communism couldn't last forever.
5 days later,on Dec. 21st people in other cities went on the streets to demonstrate,and so the revolt started.
On the Christmas day,the president and his wife felt like they are in danger and wanted to flee in the moutains,where they had a house,but the pilot of the helicopter landed on a highway in Bucharest and left them there.The army,even if before it was fighting for the president,arrested him and his wife and took them to the court,where they were tried by the group of people who said about themselves that they are ruling the country now and one day later,Ceausescu and his wife were shot.
Before New Year,Romania was a free country,democratic country.
The new president was Iliescu (the current president of Romania),a former communist.
Changes that have been made was that the personal properties were returned to their owner,everyone was free in thinking and talking,free to travel and Romania imported products from other countries,so the old shops,with endless queues were now history.
The situation of the country improved,but Romania still has a bad working economy,so that poverty is still a problem.
THE GIPSIES
The gipsies are people that come from India and settled to Europe in the 15th century,as slaves of the European people.
For a long time they worked as slaves,for the rich,having no rights and living a suppresed life.Only in the 19th century they broke free and some of them went back to the country they came from,some of them stood in Europe,integrating into a new world.
In most of the other countries,gipsies changed so much that you don't notice the difference between them and Europeans anymore,only by the skin color,that is way darker than the one of the European race.Not the same we could mention about the gipsies in Romania.
In Romania they didn't integrate that well.They still seem to be savage and when they travel abroad,they call themselves 'Romanian',so many people in other countries,believe that gipsies and Romanians is the same,making a huge mistake,cos it isn't so.
About 8% of the population of Romania are gipsies.They are born in Romania,so the country can't expel them,but Romania gave them a special name.They don't like to be called 'gipsies',so Romania calls them rromi.
There are 2 categories of gipsies: the rich gipsies,that are way richer than the Romanian people,that were abroad and came back to Romania with lots of money and the poor gipsies,that live in awful conditions,mostly in special gipsy districts,that don't have a job,but many children.Five to twelve children isn't something unusual for gipsies.
Gipsies do have their own king,their own culture,but mostly they live after the same traditions as Romanians do and they have to respect the Romanian laws,like as Romanian citizen.Their king is only a 'fake' king,not having any prerogative.
