Category: Jhane Reifsteck
Despite Violence, Romanian opens Cultural Center
Posted Thursday, June 04, 2009 by Jhane Reifsteck
La Strada is a little piece of Romania in Rome. Adrian Nichifor opened the commerce and cultural center in March of this year—the first of its kind in Rome. The center brings Romanian products to the Romanian immigrant community in Rome, a little touch of home. Romanians can buy things ranging from Romanian groceries to wedding dresses to books . The Center is also a place for Romanian’s to gather, and where Romanian children can learn the language of their homeland. While his business appears successful, life in Italy hasn’t always been easy for Nichifor. Just this past January, a bomb was planted in his grocery store.
Nichifor believes the bomb was retaliation by Italians for the rape of an Italian girl by four Romanian boys. He believes that the chance of more violence is low. Sometimes, it seems Romanians are second class citizens in Italy.
Nichifor is one of the two million Romanians living and working in Italy. He immigrated to Italy from Bucharest, where his parents currently reside. He believes that opening a business is his destiny and that being an immigrant is just part of his life, and the lives of the other millions of Romanians that emigrate out of the country. He plans to return to Romania one day.
Romania’s Alcohol Laws
Posted Wednesday, May 27, 2009 by Jhane Reifsteck
Beer in Romania often costs less than the bottled water at restaurants and bars. That may have some effect on the amount of alcohol consumed in Romania, but according to my student counterpart here in Cluj, Bianca Turcus, the laws seem pretty similar to those in the United States.
Drinking and driving is illegal and also serving alcohol to minors is against the law. There is no minimum drinking age, but the purchase age is eighteen. However, we haven’t seen anyone asked for identification or proof of age when purchasing alcohol. Turcus mentioned that in order to make more money, a club in Cluj started a teen night. The city ended up not allowing the club to do this.
The drinking laws regarding driving seem to be better enforced. The driver that took us to the vineyard last week told us that he does not even drink when he’s off work because he can’t have any alcohol in his system. That’s probably a good thing. It’s easy to imaging how out of control a driver would be on the Romanian roads if they had alcohol in their system. Romania has one of the highest number of deaths resulting from car accidents in Europe. According to Eurostat, Romania has 130 deaths per million people, and the other countries topping the list are from Eastern Europe as well. Malta and the Netherlands had the lowest rates with 29 and 43 deaths per million.
Other people I’ve talked to have said that it is considered okay to have a drink during the work day or for business men and politicians to keep bottles of alcohol in their desks. You would think that in a country where beer is cheap and people appear to be laid back about drinking, there would be more problems. However, we have yet to see or hear of any real issues with violence or fatalities from alcohol consumption or abuse.
Bucharest Gay Festival Aftermath
Posted Sunday, May 24, 2009 by Luke Cleary
The conclusion to our coverage of the 2009 GayFest March in Bucharest. Within: video highlighting the extensive security detail and an image slideshow.
Security was tight for the GayFest March this weekend, and with good reason. Bucharest Police had concerns about the rally after a week of anti-gay demonstrations in various parts of the city. Many Romanians frown upon homosexuality, and the 2006 march was met with violence. The 200 to 300 hundred participants in this year’s GayFest were surrounded by hundreds of police, some dressed in riot gear. K-9 units and horse-mounted police dotted the perimeter, while motorcycle cops rode in and out of the crowd
Just a few snapshots of the GayFest Parade. While flags and signs were present during the speeches and march, at the end of the march the participants rushed to put away these items. People were also encouraged to leave in groups and get rid of gay pride symbols before leaving due to the threat of violence from protesters.
Life in the Romanian Countryside
Posted Saturday, May 23, 2009 by Jhane Reifsteck
The gap between the rural areas in Romania and Bucharest is easily visible. Yesterday, I traveled with John Paul to a vineyard in rural Romania in the Delau Mare region. Some differences were obvious right away, like the vast fields of oats, rape seed, and corn in the place of large buildings and congested traffic. Also, instead of swerving past cars and people in the busy Bucharest streets, our driver was trying to avoid carts and potholes.
After talking with a Peace Corps Volunteer, Kenny Dunn, the villagers’ mentality is completely different than that of urban dwellers. Much of the land is divided into strips about equal to two acres. This is the land that was given back to the people after the fall of communism. Each of the land owners plants, plows, and hoes the fields by hand or with horses. Dunn mentioned that many villager said they wouldn’t know what to do with their time if they didn’t have to devote time to farming.
We only saw small glimpses of mechanization… A few tractors, and one grape picker. The viticulturist at the vineyard, Vali, told me that they used to employ villagers to harvest the grapes, however, the grape picker made the process more efficient. We did happen to see a competing vineyard employing people to help tie the grapes to the guide wires.
Villages in rural Romania look completely different than Bucharest. The streets were small and the houses and buildings looked very modest. The narrow roads were often made smaller by the horse drawn carts loaded with hay, or being used for transportation. Many of the farm land surrounding the villages were scattered with people walking rows of corn, with their cars and carts parked on the edge of the field. Often times, there appeared to be for to six people working in each field with usually only one horse.
The trip was very enlightening. I was able to get a sense of the conditions in rural Romania. I won’t say that villagers are unhappy, though. Dunn mentioned that villagers are content with the way that they’ve been living for the past century, and are hesitant to move away from their traditions.
Bucharest… Some Observations
Posted Thursday, May 21, 2009 by Jhane Reifsteck
In the short amount of time that we’ve had to walk around Bucharest, we’ve decided that there is a lot to see and a lot to hear. Tonight was our first real chance to venture out around our hotel.
The streets are filled with large umbrellas and tables out in front of restaurants buzzing with locals talking, eating, drinking, and having a good time. Something that seems to catch my eye is the diversity in the types of buildings around the city. Buildings range from old communist apartment buildings to modern buildings with glass facades to classic European buildings with embellished and ornate fronts.
The city is beautiful… in parts. Tonight, when talking with a source, he mentioned that the reason the buildings are intermixed is because Ceausescu, the last leader under communism, tore down blocks of buildings to make room for people moving from rural areas to the city. Something we learned at the Embassy was that Ceausescu’s goal was to make Romania an industrial powerhouse and he expected many rural people to migrate to the city to work in the industrial industry.
Apparently, Bucharest was once known as the “Paris of the East”... interesting, you can be the judge….
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