the return of the prodigal daughter

Never have I hesitated to make my views on Romanian immigration known. I think that most people leaving the country for good are better off living in Ro (though European tourism needs to expand, especially among college students, who also have Erasmus to take advantage of). That is why I’m conflicted about “Maria’s Manifesto”, a rather incongruent and emotional appeal to “patriotism”.

646x528-daciBut who exactly is the 20 year old author, Maria-Cristiana Mărcuş?

According to her Shelfari intro (preserving punctuation; deleted in the meantime, see her books below, in sources),

I'm 18, [20 in 2013] I'm a war studies student at King's College London♥,I'm from Romania,i live in the past,i love studying history,propaganda,war and its causes,politics and diplomacy.I hate fashion and all the other communist things that make people look or be alike , I'm unique,different and let's admit it,a little freak;))

I hate communism ,lies,liars and stupid people.

I like honest people,people that enjoy their lifes,smart guys,mountains,skiing,hiking,horses,classic music(piano♥),the German language,my wonderful books and reading them,my pink laptop(which is a little weird for a war studies student i guess;)),drawing,painting,nudes,pin-up girls,40's 50's fashion,40's women and men,40's in general,families,dancing,tango hahaha it's enough;))

Compare with a more concise statement from Simone de Beauvoir:

I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.

You can also watch her reciting “Avem atatia morti” de Radu Gyr (“we have so many dead”).

Unlike Radu/PiticiGratis (pg), I don’t think she’s ugly or fat (or, more accurately, that’s irrelevant). I don’t have Nadia’s patience to answer seriously – I’ve done something like that for a friend in vrem sa imigram in Canada – mess log and halucinantul interviu. I do share, however, her belief that too many Romanians are leaving their country wide-eyed, without a clear picture of what awaits, with the expectation that “over the Schengen rainbow” everything’s perfect and all their problems will magically disappear. OTOH, I am uncomfortable with appeals to emotion, especially the kind that are short on reason and facts.   I’ll simply translate (with Google) the CT-Adevarul version and comment on the most egregious claims:

    1. I do not know if I'm patriotic.  Stalin and Ceausescu were also patriots. I love Romania for the nation and its absolutely special land. This contrasts well with most Romanians, who subscribe to the “beautiful country, too bad it’s inhabited” school of thought. These may very well be the wisest words in the article.
    2. So eventually I discovered that our wealth is poverty. Especially in the West, more people run after money and they forget to communicate, socialize and know not to look at their souls. Romanians don’t care about money? Really? WRONG. F.O.B. Romanians distinguish themselves by being a little too materialistic, much like other new immigrants. Romanians in Romania would certainly not mind making more money, but despite the lower than European average unemployment rate, they perceive it to be more difficult than elsewhere (“we live in Romania and this takes all our time” is the closing line of the most popular TV personality).
    3. We Romanians have our issues, but we know to rejoice and be thankful for any and for what little we have. On the contrary, virtually any Romanian from Romania will talk to you for hours about how shitty everything is inside, how they’re sick and tired of living in a country full of morons, how they can’t wait to leave. If the mess log linked above is not proof enough, some (along with the materialist obsession) should come out of the “top 10 Romanian Obsessions” by Bendeac. There seems to be a contradictions with the first few lines, which are mostly accurate: We are a generation brought up with disdain for our country, with TV stations always criticizing our country, we grew up being taught to admire “superior” and ideal Western values. We believe that politics, culture and international education are very beneficial as we believe in globalization, we all agree that "Romania is beautiful, but it's a shame that inhabited" and "the grass is greener out West."

My time and patience have run out. In short, Christianity / BOR and Protochronism don’t go well together. The West is stronger and more advanced for not being nationalist (the lessons of the last 2 World Wars were assimilated). Romania has (or had, last time I looked at stats) more abortions than the West per sexually active woman, possibly the most in Europe, and this is due to poverty and lack of education.

Hers was an effort to keep what she perceived as her identity in a world quite different, quite competitive, where school work is more demanding, where copying is frowned upon, where people don’t care so much about money (because they have more) but have clearly defined boundaries, where friendships take more time to form and can be easily confused with just being polite.

Have a nice week!

Sources / More info: adv-constanta, father?, fb, li, ril, wiki-prodigal, pg, nadia

She’s read a few books (heavy on Thomas Hardy, Sven Hassel, Marquez).

12 comments:

  1. krossfireTuesday, 30 July 2013 at 11:13:00 GMT-4

    The problem itself is wider and I think you've treated it quite well in your "big picture articles''. I think we're giving this girl too much attention and, in some cases, too much crap. She's only 20. Plenty of time to mature and change her mind. I mean, come on...we've come to the point where we're actually listening to BAC graduates?

    ReplyDelete
  2. zamoThursday, 1 August 2013 at 16:05:00 GMT-4

    She's 20 and wrote this when she was 18. Still, it's quite interesting and she voices what many new immigrants may think.


    We should totally listen only to ppl who failed the maturity exam! That's what you meant, right? :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. BlegooFriday, 2 August 2013 at 10:10:00 GMT-4

    Haidi bre... lăsați caterinca să meargă, ce dreaq'!
    "Un Fluture pă Lampă", să mor dacă nu!
    Poezia lu' Radu Gyr nu merge, că-i "privată".
    Bleah.

    ReplyDelete
  4. zamoFriday, 2 August 2013 at 12:08:00 GMT-4

    Ea cu appeal to emotion, tu cu apel la caterinca :)
    Poezia e recitata seara, cu muzica in background, aproape in soapta. Pacat!

    ReplyDelete
  5. BlegooFriday, 2 August 2013 at 16:35:00 GMT-4

    Nu încerca să mă dai d-o parte.
    Io l-am cunoscut pă Radu Gyr.
    Tu nu.
    Io am vorbit cu el.
    Tu nu.
    Io am mâncat bătaie la secu.
    Tu nu.
    Io am... da' ce pla mea mă justific la lăstari mici?

    ReplyDelete
  6. zamoFriday, 2 August 2013 at 17:02:00 GMT-4

    Asta-i pentru mine, sau pentru recitatoare?

    ReplyDelete
  7. BlegooFriday, 2 August 2013 at 19:53:00 GMT-4

    Pentru hamîndoi.

    ReplyDelete
  8. zamoSunday, 4 August 2013 at 19:37:00 GMT-4

    @Blegoo: do u have anything relevant to say? learn from @krossfire :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. krossfireMonday, 5 August 2013 at 00:31:00 GMT-4

    I think she hasn't entered that exam yet.

    ReplyDelete
  10. zamoMonday, 5 August 2013 at 09:59:00 GMT-4

    this "letter" was her "social networking BAC" :)


    I think I'll write more on the subject, even though I don't really have the time

    ReplyDelete
  11. krossfireMonday, 5 August 2013 at 10:24:00 GMT-4

    In that case, she passed: hundreds of thousands of shares and press reactions for a mediocre article.

    ReplyDelete
  12. zamoMonday, 5 August 2013 at 12:42:00 GMT-4

    she can add it to her resume for a job in PR: a "viral" letter :)

    ReplyDelete

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