| "Romanian traffic" |
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| Romanian Traffic |
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The weekend has landed� It is a quarter to twelve on a Saturday night and we are sitting on a crowded terrace drinking pints of Tuborg.� It�s 43 degrees.� I lean back on my plastic chair and watch a tired dog stroll between tables. I admire the plastic d�cor, and the large beach umbrellas kindly donated by Winston.� The capital expenditure for the entire terrace could not have cost more than a hundred dollars.� A less than enthusiastic waiter presents a 500ml plastic bottle of Coke like it is his finest bottle of French champagne.� They are yet to grasp the idea that people are likely to pay for superior service.� This could be any night of the week on any terrace in Bucharest. After two and a half litres of beer I decide to call it quits and walk home.� The digital clock at Piata Kogalniceanu informs me that it�s a half past two and still 43 degrees.� I wipe the sweat from my brow in disbelief.� The entire week has been above forty, and neither my home nor office has air-conditioning.� Just two days ago the mercury reached 48, the hottest day in Bucharest for a hundred years.� In the middle of the day you must watch where you step as the asphalt melts from the heat.� Elsewhere these temperatures would have destroyed me, but in Bucharest the humidity is so low, it�s almost bearable. I pull against the door to my apartment block.� Shit, it�s locked.� Since I have been here the lock has never worked.� Now what was that code again?� 5�9�1�6�� I pull on the door again but still no luck.� I can�t believe it.� I am going to spend a night on the streets of Bucharest.� I lean against the door in despair.� It flings open as I struggle to keep my balance.� Push.� Not Pull.� I�ve really got to stop drinking. Kevin Luther � US Trainee. Driving in Romania is an exhilarating experience.� �Quick change lanes a gypsy cart is slowing up traffic.� No it�s not too late, just push your way in.� Don�t worry about them they are just yelling hello.� The lights orange it�s ok keep going.� Change, lanes, change lanes or we�ll lose the car in that pothole.� No, not behind a garbage truck you never know what could fall out.� That was lucky, that concrete block could have squashed us.� Watch out for the dog!� Poor thing he almost got killed.� There are only two driving laws obeyed in Bucharest.� If you are going to run a red light speed up and toot your horn, and when you are at a green light slow down, because somebody could be running a red.� Of course these rules don�t apply to taxi drivers who can do whatever the hell they want.� Double parking is perfectly acceptable and you will never get towed, the council probably doesn�t own a tow truck. The National car is a Dacia, it looks a bit like a Gemini, and it retails for US$4000.� If it won�t start you need to toot the horn and turn the key in unison.� This rattles the starter motor or something and off you go.� Romanian traffic certainly takes a toll on your vehicle.� Bogdan's 2 and a half year old Dacia, with 50,000km is for the lack of a technical term, officially screwed.� Daewoo also has a factory in Romania and it feels like a Cielo convention on the roads. On the way to a meeting Victor and I were pulled over for running a red light.� Victor our part-time delivery guy, got out of the car and told the officer, �What are you doing I�m a cop.�� The officer asked to see Victors� papers and Victor replied, �Of course I don�t have them on me.� Here take my ID card, I�m in a rush, I have important business to take care of.� When I�m finished I�ll return with my papers and we�ll sort it out than.�� The officer looked at Victors� ID, gave it back, and apologized for holding us up.� -� Armando you should try this. Alex Loyd. At work the biggest cultural differnces are the time perceptions.� I am rarely late, when I am going to be late I phone ahead, explain, apologise furiously, and feel tremendously guilty about it.� On the other hand Romanians are always late.� During my first week I was constantly the first person to arrive at the office and found myself sitting in the park until somebody would arrive and unlock the door. It is over ambitious to plan more than three meetings in a day.� Accept the complimentry juice or coffee, and take the extra time to prepare.� If you become board you can phone your next meeting and explain to them that you will have to postpone it an hour.� This is polite, but not absolutely necessary as they were probably just going to keep you waiting anyway. That Romania is a chauvinist society is given. An article in April�s edition of Playboy titled �How to beat your wife without leaving bruises� listed a 7 step guide and was accompanied by several helpful pictures. 30% of Romanian women admit their partners physically abuse them. Many Romanian men see a girlfriend as a possession that they own.� When dining with a female colleague, they are constantly questioned, who is this strange man, where is your boyfriend, does he know about this? 10% of Romanian women are aggressed at work and 5% experience sexual harassment. Recently in Bucharest a woman was kidnapped from the streets and sold to a man who forced her to have sex with several others.� Days later the second pimp sold her to two women for 1.5 million Lei (A$100).� These women forced her to have sex with two clients.� Stories like this are so common place they go virtually unnoticed by the public. Only 3% of broad sheet articles are devoted to feminine issues, mostly rape and violence.� 93% of parliamentary members are men. In progressive societies cannabis is legalized.� In less progressive societies, someone caught smoking pot may be fined a similar amount to a parking fine.� In Romania smoking cannabis is an offence punishable by prison sentence and the victim is labeled a criminal and a drug addict. to the Milky Way feels and looks the opposite of the way it does here. Christina Neesham. When I first arrived every second billboard displayed the face of one of the two potential General Mayors.� The candidates had contrasting advertsing campaigns.� The posters of the ex-communist candidate, Sorin Oprescu are like the standard �Vote 1� posters you see in Adelaide.� Translated they read �Sorin Oprescu for Genral Mayor� and include a photo of him in a very conservative suit, not smiling at all. The pro-captalist Traian Basescu�s campaign was much more aggressive.� His posters included the slogans, �The city is my business, your�s is to vote�, and� �The city is my Business, who will you vote for?�, and showed him with his tie loosened and top button undone pointing out of the poster towards you.� My favourite was his �Here is your General Mayor!� poster, where he had a huge cheesy grin and was pointing towards himself. Kevin Luther � US Trainee. |
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