Sifrat Haomer

Ever since Klaus Iohannis has asked for a "Country project", I have felt the need to go to Sinaia.

Not everybody knows that the city of Sinaia draws its name from the Mount Sinai, where, after Sifrat Haomer (The count of Omer - forty nine days since the Pesah/Jewish Easter/the departure from Egypt), God delivered to the Jews the Thorah (the five Books of Moses in the Old Testament), which is what is celebrated on the Savuot (the Jewish Pentecost).

Knowing and living the Thorah seem to have been requirements for the Jews to be allowed to enter Eretz Israel (the Promised Land).

But we, we have such a country.

The land promised by God to Abraham, Isac and Jacob/Israel was a "Country project".

On the other hand, we've had it for thousands of years, since 1859 since 1877 or at least since 1918.

We do not need a "Country project" - that expression is an unfortunate metaphor which (probably involuntarily), removes Kogălniceanu and Cuza, Prince Charles of Romania and the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia from our history.

They are the ones who had a Country project.

Romania isn't a Promised Land, but a certainty.

"A country project" could be the plan to unite Romania with the Republic of Moldova and with Bucovina, but it is obvious that president Klaus Iohannis, prime-minister Dacian Cioloş, NBR governor Mugur Isărescu and the president of the Romanian Academy Ionel Valentin Vlad - the ones who have delivered the document "Competitive Romania", with the claim that that document meets the presidential urge to come up with a "Country Project" - have no intention to work towards such a unification.

No, the so-called "Country project" provided by the leaders of our authorities is a first-year college student level strategy, both in its strategic objectives as well as in their configuration strategy (a metatheoretical hodge podge which embarrasses the Romanian Academy, first of all, as well as Mugur Isărescu, the only one from the "collective" of whom it would be normal to have expectations of epistemological knowledge).

Dull, lacking any idea, ingenuity, reasoning, argumentation and soul, in the end, considering the level it came from, it is idiotic.

I understand that the document supplied to journalists upon the launch of this strategy is a synopsis; can a stupid synopsis have behind it a superior work?

I doubt it.

My experience as a journalist tells me that if the original text is stupid, the synopsis will also be stupid, if they both come from the same author.

But even when being idiotic, a development strategy should demonstrate a good intention to rally the nation around something, it doesn't matter what, unless it is something criminal or toxic.

It can very well be something stupid.

It can very well be "The program of the Romanian Communist Party to forge the multilaterally developed socialist society and lead Romania towards Communism", which, as a matter of fact, "Competitive Romania" has drawn heavily on, except Ceauşescu was a bit more thorough, serious and intelligent than nowadays' captains.

The rallying is the goal, the goal is to live together, to work together, so that we can truly feel close, and helpful to one another.

If we succeed in doing that, then the economic, social and cultural development comes naturally, even with a mediocre strategy.

In fact, "Competitive Romania" is achieved as a secondary outcome of the process of reclaiming the national identity.

The problem of needing to rally behind something is also noticed by the authors of the "Competitive Romania" document.

But it is only noticed, nothing more.

They naively express their belief that the national rallying will occur through a large scale, "profound" national debate, (four hours of debate for each strategic area, in the building of the Romanian Academy), through the consensus in the making a decisions and the clarity of their wording.

Hmm...!

"Once you know what you have to do, all you have to do is do it", Aristotle says.

It is true.

But does the simple fact of knowing what you have to do cause you to do act?

No, you also have to care.

You also have to want to, you also have to not be disgusted with your path and your companions.

That is the premise of any strategy.

The only reason for a strategy to be drawn up is if those who are called to implement it actually exist.

Does our nation exist?

Does the mere unity of land, the consciousness of the historical identity and the unity of language and religion guarantee that we are indeed a nation, since apparently all that resembles the definition in the dictionary?

But what about dissension?

Hostility?

Generalized distrust and immorality?

The lack of respect for your fellow man?

The lack of self-respect?

The lack of dignity?

The lack of compassion?

The absence of friendship?

Romania's vulnerability, which the Romanian Supreme Council of Defense should take steps to mitigate, is the absence of friendship.

National decomposition.

A nation lacking dignity, a nation that is humble, convinced of its own stupidity, can be occupied and ruled by five people in key areas and those five people don't even have to be foreigners, they could very well be locals.

Aristotle had taught that lesson to Alexander the Great - it is the explanation behind the biggest empire in history.

The national cordiality is the one that ensures that the territorial unity, the consciousness of historical identity and the unity of language and religion become functional, provide cohesion to the nation as a whole, to emanate the national spirit, the one that you care for, because you feel good experiencing it, being a part of it and contributing to it, part of the beauty of the social life.

We are in the process of full national decomposition.

After publishing "Why is Romania different?", its author, Lucian Boia, instead of becoming the target of national contempt, was admired, praised, by the so-called "intellectual elite" of the country, the ones that the book systematically ridicules.

The foundation of this esteem reveals the national disassembly: the ones who accept the preconceived notions of Lucian Boia (which converge towards establishing the absence of our national identity) has the power to raise above this national slime.

Essentially, if you accept Boia, you reject your place of origin and you configure your virtual "European citizen" certificate - here is the way that the book makes its own truth.

The regaining of the dignity, of the respect and compassion, the reconstruction of the national identity and spirit represent our main concern, before any strategy.

As an atheist, I want to draw attention towards the unforgivable absence of the Romanian Orthodox Church from this work for the reconstruction of the Romanian nation.

Besides, the document "Competitive Romania" doesn't find that the Church plays any part in the country's development.

I would have gone to Sinaia to receive the Romanian Thorah - the guide on how we should behave towards one another.

But this year, "Shalosh regalim" Savuot ended on June 13th, it has already been a month.

I will have to wait eleven more, until the next one.

Meanwhile, Sifrat Haomer, I am counting the days, in the Sin desert, between the Elim land and the Mount Sinai.

It is obvious Klaus Iohannis is not God at all, and the authors of the document "Competitive Romania" will never be able to write the Romanian Thorah.