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| 1,2,3,4, We are about to blow. 5, 6, 7 Who will we incinerate? |
I can see at least fifty, maybe more,
standing there on the short cropped grass.
They stay bunched in a tight group, surrounding a tall, slim man who is
carrying a stick. They react to his
every gesture. They undulate around him like a slow moving school of fish. It is amazing how coordinated their movements
are even though the person they are watching seems completely detached from
them. He’s not really paying attention. He is more intent on examining the turf ahead
of him and trying to decide what to do to advance his position. From my casual observance I’d think the guy
did not have a care in the world. Looks can be deceiving. "Where am I", you ask?
Could I be at a Washington area golf course watching the mindless
followers of our nation’s current President? Mesmerized by watching him play yet
another round of golf?
No, I am not watching Mr. Obama. I am in Medias, Romania, staring across a
hillside at a flock of sheep, being herded by a staff wielding Shepard, as they
slowly meander across the rolling pasture.
I didn’t mean to denigrate these sheep by comparing them to Democrats,
but there are similarities: The wool
suits, the vacant stares, the collective intelligence of…, well,… sheep.
I am in Romania to do some fact finding about equipment
problems. I have an idea of what could
be wrong but my theory needs to be validated with facts, unlike global warming,
so I came to see for myself what is going on.
But I know you are not interested in hearing about that any more than I am interested in writing about it. Better to tell you about Romania.
The terrain of Romania reminds me of Northern Italy and
Slovenia. Modest, tree covered mountains with
broad, open meadows make it a beautiful place. This country is just now emerging from the
cesspool resulting from Communist control that started when World War II ended. After
the breakup of the Soviet Union there was great unrest. Many of the small countries that had been under
the thumb of the Soviet Union were now free.
The Berlin wall came down. Suddenly
these countries could choose how to govern themselves. Romania is one of those former Soviet
satellite states. The country had been
run by strong man Nicolae
Ceauşescu, who had ultimate control since 1947. There was a coup in 1989 and he was subsequently
removed from office and summarily removed from the living.
Since then, Romania has struggled. The transformation to self-rule is difficult
when a culture has been accustomed to Mr. Big, from Central Planning, dictating
the next five year plan. But the country
now seems to be on the right path. The day
I arrived was Election Day. A new
president was chosen. But it was not common
knowledge from the people I spoke with whether the President has a four year or
a five year term. I was told both. That kind of information seems like an easy
bit of political science that any Romanian would know. But maybe I am speaking with the same kind of people
that are routinely interviewed on the streets of the U.S. These U.S. citizens might know the size of Kim
Kardashian’s ass but do not know the name of the Vice President. But, in fairness, maybe that is what happens
to a population when there are no elections for half a century. The new President has a German last name. I was told as if I would be shocked by that fact. It was explained that it was a surprise for him to get elected since he was not Romanian. Huh? You’d think they’d have written the election law to exclude non-citizens. Turns out that what was meant by that comment was that a large German population migrated into Romania about 800 years ago….so this new President, being a part of that ethnic group, was a newcomer. That explained a political banner I saw supporting a competitor and the sign simply mentioned that candidate’s name and Romanian. I guess that little dig at the German’s heritage was all this fellow thought was a reason to vote for him rather than for that German interloper. I say “guy” in a generic sense. There were 14 candidates on the ballot and three of them were women. The candidate that exceeds the 50% threshold wins. This Election Day must have been the run off, but that was not mentioned by the person telling me about the election process.
Another lingering relic from the era of Soviet rule that I
spotted from the roadway was the cooling towers for a Nuclear Power Plant. I have since done a little research and
learned that it was built with failed 1980’s technology. Now, I am hardly a
nuclear power expert, but I noticed there was no containment dome over the
power plant. Some of you may recall another famous Soviet Nuclear Power
facility, with no containment dome, that experienced a mildly significant
event. This Romania reactor has the same
design flaws as the Russian Chernobyl reactor.
I wonder if word of that
disaster has reached Romania yet.
There is much more to say about Romania, but since this post
is less funny than factual, I will end it here. I just hope that my reason for
coming to Romania on this trip becomes as informative to me as this post will
to the reader. Even if you are the kind of
person to play golf when you should be working. 
