Strife and vituperation

I would respectfully ask that you please stop speaking about "Romanians", as if you were not one of them.

If you haven't figured it out from the first article, then I will say it now, explicitly: as a Romanian, when you speak about your co-nationals, you have to use "we", never "Romanians".

For example, "We don't know how to make money" means something else than "Romanians don't know how to make money", it has a different nuance - an important one and you will see why.

The former phrase means "getting together to discuss what can be done so we can live better"; the latter one makes it sound like Romania is a crippled nation.

The context doesn't matter.

You may come in and make clarifications all you want, say that your intention was to stimulate private entrepreneurship, my dear Mr. Adrian Vasilescu; since "Romanians" are born deficient, why would they even mobilize to attempt to do anything?!

It's pointless to give us the example of the Chinese; they aren't Romanians and hence they are not crippled by the disability you have uncovered in their case.

Personally, I am giving you the benefit of the doubt and think that you may be acting in good faith; but it gives me chills that when you think about us, you call us "Romanians".

If "Romanians" don't know how to make money, then who does?

Jews?

That's what Lucian Boia claims.

He says that there were no Romanian traders in Romania in the period between the two world wars.

Gentlemen, before reviving anti-Semitism, allow me to explain: do you have any idea in which country you're going to find Jewish beggars?

Definitely in Israel.

The Jews' country is a country just like any other, and some people over there have no idea how to make money.

Jews have made money in the countries which they have spread to, because that was their only chance.

As soon as you bring Jews within their own country, a large chunk of them lose that "magical ability" to make money and needs to be gathered together in communist-style kibbutzes.

Isn't it ironic that many Jews have emigrated from the communist countries, where they counted as wealthy people, to join kibbutzes?!

Let me tell something else: do you know where we can find numerous wealthy Romanians?

Abroad.

As soon as we escape the pressure of the domestic corruption, we surprise people with our initiative, talent, diligence, intelligence.

Romanians have sent into the country, billions and billions of Euros, every year, and that wasn't stolen money.

Where am I going with this?

To the fact that, when it comes to the level of skills at making money, there is no such thing as "Jews", "Romanians", "Armenians", "Greeks", "Americans" and "Bushmen", but simply systems that allow private entrepreneurs to make money and those that don't - examples of businesses that do well in hostile environments are exceptions and they cannot serve as counterarguments.

The solution proposed by Adrian Vasilescu to have the country exit poverty - the exhortation addressed to the students participating in the banking education program to start private businesses, is far too orthodox: come on!, if each of you builds a small business and you create your own jobs and if millions of citizens do the same, woah!, just imagine how that country will change!

Let's get serious, Mr. Vasilescu!

Paradise isn't created using exhortations.

That exhortation invites the young to jump directly into the grinder of our corrupt society.

The owner of a small boutique on the corner is forced to pay a "protection fee" to policemen in his precinct.

The dentist that has returned from abroad to open his own practice here, has the envelope with the payoff ready every week.

The small vegetable farmer is forced to pay the fee for his stand even during winter, and it is pointless to tell you how proficient he has to be when it comes to giving bribes to keep that stand, and even more so, how he has to be even more careful to avoid being forced to move his stand to some isolated corner of the market where no one would see him, thus preventing him from selling anything.

A small plant, a small tavern, an import/export business, a business that offers transportation for people or freight services (do you have any idea what truly goes in the customs?) - they all have their costs that aren't going to be featured in any business plan, and the authorities shut any small business down whenever the going rate for bribes gets too high for them to handle.

Are you from another planet, Mr. Adrian Vasilescu?!

Do you really think we are lacking entrepreneurial spirit?

Do you really think we are retarded?

Do you really think that "Romanians are to blame"?!

Do you not remember how, back when he was a mayor, Traian Băsescu bulldozed the booths of small retailers, while journalists were singing his praises, claiming that his actions were finally giving the sidewalks back to the pedestrians?

Can't you really tell what the object of the political struggle over the last 25 years has been for?