They lingered for a moment, then the chatter got loud and
giggly. I glanced up at the window just in time to see some finger tips
struggling to push the windows open further, as if the person on the street was
on tip-toes or perhaps getting a boost from a friend.
And just then, an egg sailed into my place. romerican
winter in Romania (Foto romerican)
ROMANIA by Romerican
This the bizarre story of Mircea Pavel, a
Romanian man condemned to 20 years in jail for murder, who felt he was not
responsible for the actions he was convicted of.
So, Mircea sued the responsible party: the
invisible man in the sky.
Yes, he literally filed suit in the Romanian
court system seeking damages for God’s material breech of contract and gross
negligence. That’s a whopper of a legal assertion.
And
when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the
heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things
the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
The monarchy
dictatorship in the turbulent late 1930s and early 1940s.
As despicable as King Carol II
had been in his abuse of Romania, absconding with national wealth, and generally
derelict of any diplomatic competency, one must endeavor to keep in mind the
primary alternatives were Ana Pauker’s Soviet-collaborating communists and the
two factions of proto-Nazi fascists in Codreanu’s Iron Guard legionnaires or
General Ion Antonescu.
Of course, the Romanian government under Carol wasn’t exactly
tolerant. As part of a power grab, the Romanian king had made an uneasy alliance
with both Codreanu and Antonescu in order to align himself with growing
anti-Semitism and secure a powerbase by which he could control the nation.
Ultimately, as a reflection of his lack of principles, he
granted much power to Antonescu with the understanding that The Legionarries
would be persecuted for their excessive violence.
Make no mistake of misinterpreting favoritism toward the
less-violent approach, he was decidedly anti-Jew. Partly because he incorrectly
believed Jews were the force behind Bolshevik Communism and might unseat him
from the lavish waste afforded by his throne.
His tactics tended to veer away from violence and instead
implement a tremendous amount of social pressure against those Romanians who
happened to be of Jewish faith. He actively encouraged them to voluntarily
uproot themselves from the land of their birth and away from their Romanian
brothers by (among other tactics) promoting propoganda of a utopian view about
starting a new life in zionist Palestine.
…that I love Romania is
because both houses and businesses alike are not afraid to use color.
Outside of the Ceaşescu bloc apartments, there isn’t much in the way of
colorless mini-malls and uninspiring suburban tract homes. Not yet, anyway.
Right now, Romania eschews soulless uniformity and embraces chaotic
joie de vie.
Gentle readers, the move was
successful and all but we’ve hit something of a snag regarding internet service.
Romtelecom has me feeling a bit like I’m fenced into a corner.
Essentially, it took a few visits to the local Romtelecom
office near Hotel Aro Palace and the parcul central for a period of a week just
to establish telephone service. That’s up and running now, but apparently
getting internet service is something more complicated. There’s a lot of finger
pointing going on between the Braşov techs, the Bucureşti internet department,
and the national 930 customer service group. Bottomline: they’re taking me for a
magic carpet ride.
After a couple dozen phone calls and nine separate faxes, the
call came in late Friday that finally someone would assume personal
responsibility to see my situation through to a solution. For you see, they
finally found one of the faxes I’ve been repeatedly sending after receiving
instructions from various people to submit a written request to clear up
whatever confusion was going on. Frankly, it’s a bit like a circus act… only
without the peanuts or music.
Not only do I not know what is going on, but I can guarantee
you that not a single person working at Romtelecom has a clue either. Despite
the use of a central database of customer managements (like any modern giant),
each time you call Romtelecom results in a new story different from the last,
the direction to call someone else (or possibly call the person you just spoke
to a moment ago who told you to call this person), and/or yet another request
for written authority to transfer service.
Asking for a supervisor gets you nowhere because the
incompentent “leadership” at Romtelecom is afraid to pick up the phone and talk
to customers. That is true regardless of the department. The folks on the
frontline straight up tell you that managers will not talk to customers. It’s
indicative of a disease that remains inside Romtelecom despite their fancy
Americanesque branding campaigns that have recently proliferated everywhere. I
predict Romtelecom will dwindle in the face of competition as the telecom market
slowly cracks open here to VoIP companies and international competitors.
MBA 101 for the Romtelecom executives: Deer in the headlights
is a failure of leadership. That’ll get you bought out, into bankruptcy, or
replaced by the shareholders.
Romania
top of page
