Random Thoughts....
- Thread starter Firecat
- Start date
I saw a stereotype today on my way home.
It was an Alfa Spyder being pushed back into the parking lot after it didn't even make it to the corner. :lol:
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Hidden_Hunter
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the worst is when you get a shit tonne of days back to back of hot unpleasent weather...
Lupin_IV
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Even worse - thunderstorms on the one cooler day in the week.
toma_alimosh
Also known as "Myke Hunt"
No, my parents don't have any porn on their computers ... and I know this because I'm in charge of maintaining and cleaning their systems. Plus, they're not very computer savy. My dad's good with electronics in general, though ... so long as it doesn't have software on it.
Yup, that's true. Homeless persons are one of the biggest issues plaguing Romanian society right now. It has been an issue for a long time.
Everyone thinks that the levels of comfort we enjoy in the west are pure necessities. Over there, if you had a house as big as an average one here in Canada, with a pool and a satellite dish in your backyard, a dog and a decent car, you must be the best damn surgeon or lawyer within 100 miles.
Romanian's views on the film ... well, first of all, nobody likes anyone badmouthing their country. Just like Americans don't like to be talked about for always being at war with another nation, or like Indonesians don't like to be talked about for sweatshops, Romanians don't like when people talk about the faults of our country. People always catch the bad things being said about someone much rather than catching the good things. And unfortunately, there are some pretty bad things about Romania. Homeless people and poverty in general are only one of the problems.^ It sure does give you some perspective on your own life, and to be honest I needed some in my life right now. But I was born and raised in Iran, so I've seen my share of poverty and despair.
That documentary is actually a good film as well as covering a very disturbing topic. It's not just good because of the shock value.
Is the film well-known in your country vikiradTG2007? I read some behind the scenes stuff about the film, looks like most Romanians were infuriated at the filmmakers for showing their country in such bad light. Can't blame them... or the filmmakers actually.
The most interesting thing for me was how mature the kids were... I can safely say they're much more grown up than me, and they're less than half my age for the most part.
Most of the animosity that the film gets stems from the fact that Romanians need to keep up a good international image. Now more than ever. We've just barely gotten into the European Union, after years and years of attempts that were denied to us.
After communism fell and the soviets wouldn't offer us their support anymore, and especially after the soviets fell themselves, nobody really wanted to help us. All the blame of the communist regime failing was put on the shoulders of Ceausescu and few of the bigger leaders of the time, but the rest of the governing bodies stayed in power ... the former corrupt communists who apparently turned democratic overnight. Unfortunately, because we decided to keep some of the old leaders, instead of making like the west and sharing the fruit of the communism regime with the citizens of their country, the government elected to sell the major industries of Romania to foreign investors ... rivals of the Romanian industries, who, of course, bankrupted Romania, plunging it into poverty.
The animosity that stemmed over from the Cold War was still going round. Even though we weren't part of the Soviet Block, we had been considered sympathetic to their cause in our communist years, and as such, we were treated as "allies of their enemies", and of course, the allies of the Americans, the industrialized countries of western Europe, never lifted a finger to help us. This animosity continues to this day, and people still know us as a former communist state, as countries like Italy are very rarely though of as ex-fascist countries.
From poverty came other problems as well, and in the view of western Europe and the west in general, we were the forgotten few with a whole lot of problems, thus nobody really wanted to help us, or do trade with us, or most especially, invest in our country. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Romania needs right now. Democracy was supposed to encourage entrepreneurship in the country, but the money was given away to central and western Europe, not to the people, so you start making a company with no money in your pockets. Although some industries have stayed on due to friendly foreign investors, most have come to a halt and are even now in a very slow starting phase. Most of industries in Romania are not owned by Romanians up until this day. All of our cellphone carriers, all of our satellite or cable TV providers, all of our malls and a lot of not all of the biggest Romanian companies are not owned by Romanians .. or at least not more than 3-5% of shares. They are all owned by foreign companies. They speak Romanian, they have services made especially for Romanians and business is conducted in the Romanian way, but all the profits go outside of the country. So all the growth that we're supposed to get goes to someone else. Not to mention that we import almost every consumer good imaginable: cars, clothes, electronics, appliances, oil, heck even furniture and construction matterials a bit .. most are not made in Romania... and of course they cost more.
What our acceptance in the EU and NATO has brought to us more than anything we like is foreign investment ... and we need a lot of that. Big companies from western Europe are moving their production plants in Romania, giving us better paid jobs, profits to the state and citizens and most of all, innovation. Because of this acceptance in the European Union, westerners don't look down on us so much and now they think that it's pretty safe and cost-saving to invest in Romania. We've been a member of the EU for only a few years and already you can see a big improvement in the quality of life in Romania, so you can tell why we want to hold on to that membership for as long as we can, and we have to take care of it very well, especially since we're the newest kid on the block, don't want anyone to kick us out. All of this bad advertisement for the country stops tourism, stops foreign investment and international trade from entering the country. The truth is that we're not the only country that is facing these issues, and every time they're brought up, we're afraid that people will talk about us badly ... and indeed, if you go abroad, the only things you hear about Romania are the bad things.
Throwing gas on the fire with these documentaries doesn't help us much. Indeed, we're in deep shit, but we're not going to get out of there if everybody knows the kind of shit we're in. It's like applying for a better job and everyone asks that you have experience in it ... but how can you have experience in it if you've never been accepted in the first place? It's a deadly circle and we're trying to get ourselves out of it as well as we can.
As for kids being more mature, hell yes, over there, poverty or not, for most of the Romanian population, every day is a struggle to keep your head out of the water. Most families make just enough money to sustain themselves, most of the time this involves going into debt beyond their heads ... and they don't go into debt because they're big spenders, but they go into debt to buy decent clothes and decent food. Unlike most of the kids of the west who were spoiled from a small age, being able to afford icecream every time they wanted, Santa Clause bringing them the toys they wished for around christmass time, being able to attend those peewee sports leagues that they love to play in or taking the piano lessons that their parents want them to get, having the money to buy nice clothes and music CDs as teens, having an allowance that they can spend, cellphones, being picked up from school by their parents ...
oh, there's a whole different reality back in Romania. For most kids, icecream is too expensive, and their parents teach them that from a small age, it's an expense that can go towards better meals instead and they understand that. Santa Clause always brings sweaters and mittens, or socks, or fruit, and seldomly, a toy which is much smaller than what you may have wanted; and sometimes Santa doesn't come at all. There's no peewee league and no piano lessons that you can get, the most you will get is time to go outside and play with your friends ... playing soccer on the hill ... no uniforms, no flat fields, no field lines, and especially no goal posts or refferies. Your parents buy your clothes ... they buy cheap clothes, most of the time second hand, because they can't afford new ones ... and you can forget about fashion, you want ripped jeans, rip them yourself ... and reaceive a hell of a beating from your folks if they ever find out you did that. Cellphones? Let's just say they're a bit out of reach ... not even the parents can afford to have one, for christ's sake. And a car? Oh, yeah, you can take a cab, but the fee will kill you. So will riding the bus which are jam-packed with people, so you might as well walk it .. 2-8-12 kilometers ... better be packing some good shoes. And allowance? what's that? Oh yes, it's the money that mom and dad give you to go to the corner store and buy a loaf of bread with. And yes, you have to come back with a loaf of bread, in fact, you better.
Well, I'm not saying that things are the same way right now, because for some they aren't ... but for most, they still remain that way. And for most kids, that's how you grow up ... you have to dead with hardship every day of your life and that toughens you up mentally and forces you to think more like an adult earlier in life. So that was my childhood ... and it was actually more than that, those are the smaller and non-embarassing issues that I had to deal with from day to day ... that's what I used to call "life" and a very good life compared to most people I saw every day, for that matter. The real hardship comes in the small instances that happen to you in particular that you have to deal with yourself ... some heart-wretching, some that left bruises and scars and some that I'm still too embarassed to recount up until this day. But I don't regret having lived a shorter childhood or having faced hardship in my life. If anything, I enjoy what I have now, what I have become and what I've made of myself to this day much more than all the people that surround me right now. For them, they think they are low par and that their lives basically suck; I just look back at how bad it was back then and sigh in relief that it can't get as bad as that anymore.
Oh, yes, the Romanian Parliament ... the traitors who have been looking after themselves all this time and will always be looking after themselves. Then again, we never did pick our leaders well ... most of the good leaders that we got, from anciant times and up until now, were good leaders because they were named, not because they were chosen. I forget which ancient Greek historian or philosopher wrote the earliest account of the Tracs to their north, but what they said holds true to this day and the Romans taking over didn't chage our characters very much either. One of the things that were known back then about the Tracs ... who became the Daci, who became Romanians ... was that they're bad at picking their leaders.
"Lupul isi schimba parul, dar naravul ba." (old Romanian saying basically translated as "The Wolf can shed its fur, but not its habits").
We get temperatures over 30 in the summer ... sometimes over 40, here in Toronto, I don't know why you guys complain, you get milder summers AND milder winters.
But if you want to stay cool without an aircon, here's the few things that have worked for me: keep the blinds in your house shut, but leave the windows open ... it stops the greenhouse effect outside the house and helps quite a lot ... but will only work as effectively if your blinds are white, as they give better reflection. By keeping all the blinds in your house shut but keeping the windows open you also create a bit of a breeze through the house, it helps keep things cooler overall, even though the air is still hot.
But if you want to keep cool better and on a low budget, an inexpensive fan is the best thing you can get .. stay in its breeze and you will be cooler than the room temperature. No need for an aircon below 30 degrees.
\Damn, I'm writing novels again, aren't I?
\\Sorry for the long post.
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Serj
Active Member
fuck...im not reading that.
Cobol74
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^^ Look on the bright side. Romanians play Rugby well at least!
[youtube]Xe1a1wHxTyo[/youtube]
[youtube]Xe1a1wHxTyo[/youtube]
toma_alimosh
Also known as "Myke Hunt"
^ lol, westerners talking about hardship ... :lol:
Cobol74
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Yorkshiremen (from the accent, oh and it says so on youtube!).
toma_alimosh
Also known as "Myke Hunt"
^Oh damn, haven't shecked youtube. Which Monty Python was this taken from?
Cobol74
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Live in Hollywood.
toma_alimosh
Also known as "Myke Hunt"
Thanks, will look for it.
Cobol74
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OK The British Police the Best(?) in the world!
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL1519562920080515
Words fail me.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL1519562920080515
Words fail me.
Polly
wants a cracker
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Damn! Here I stand, corrected.
Random Thought: I'm feeling a bit high today, being on the 4th day on my mission to defeat Jesus in the ancient art of fasting.
/Yes, an "a".
Peter3hg
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I need a recommendation for a new XBox 360 game.
Basically I want a FPS that has multiplayer with the ability to have AI bots playing as well offline. Good examples from the original XBox were 007:Nightfire and Timesplitters.
I couldn't care less how old it is as the older it is, the cheaper I can get it second hand.
Basically I want a FPS that has multiplayer with the ability to have AI bots playing as well offline. Good examples from the original XBox were 007:Nightfire and Timesplitters.
I couldn't care less how old it is as the older it is, the cheaper I can get it second hand.
chaos386
.sa = bad driver!
Blayde
Forum Addict
What a horrible week :< Apparently while i'm still on one subject, they decided to start another course i'm supposed to attend right after this early. So now i have 4 days of morning till evening class and an exam on Sunday. Crud.
Blayde
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Friday/Saturday, since the whole local thursday/friday and international saturday/sunday was a whole 4 days of missed business, they changed it so that only three days are lost in the week.