Rare day

I have a very ambiguous relationship with patriotism and my country.

I am bugged when people discriminate Romanians just because they come from 'a chip off the old Soviet block, used to get up early in the morning singing patriotic songs and peppy reporting of false improvements'. Pardon my French, but up yours, orright?

I am equally bugged when Romanians consider themselves as the perpetual victims of history. History is what you make of it, but if you just let it happen, you have no one but yourself to blame.

I am known to speak not exactly kindly of my country. There are many, many flaws and it really breaks my heart to see good things go uselessly to waste.

Nevertheless, there were three occasions when I was proud of my country. I am not referring to sporting events or such. There were three times when the elections were not won by the PSD. First time, I, along with many others, naively thought that things will change. Nothing changed. The second time, cautious after the first major disappointment, we voted for change again and got it. Things changed some, but not always for better. Now, yesterday, it was the third time we voted for change and the third time we won - marginally (50.37%), but we did win.

I am strangely proud. Proud that against the media manipulations of the last years, blatant and shameless and obvious, history got to repeat itself. Last time the exit polls were ordered to show a different winner, and the victory speeches were embarrassingly loud and brash from the party that proved to be on the losing side.

I was afraid yesterday, watching the national television, that this time the horrific pictures could be true. Today I am glad that social-democrats, liberals and the other morons, plus the moguls behind them, get to choke back on their words.

It is a bid sad that the people actually living in Romania get to be so easy to be fooled around. There was a documentary on Arte that is refreshingly unpointing fingers at anyone. Although I suspect whom the maker voted with. But still, one very sad conclusion is that the most lucid of them all appears to be Dan Diaconescu, the guy who invented OTV, a controversial and very looked-down upon TV channel. He says that people who live there are numb, manipulated by the media, because in Romania, TV is everything (oh, so very true!), and that those who get disappointed, they emigrate. No fancy words, no nifty sketches, no chest pounding. Sad.

Another sad thing is that almost 50% of Romanian voted for someone whom they call 'the village idiot'. And the diaspora vote was needed to tip down the scales.

I know those who disagree with me think that I am petty being so 'involved' in politics. Being on the winning side here, I can agree to disagree.

It is not that I am  bursting with pride. I do not think that things will be radically different from now on. I do not believe that the current president is Prince Charming on a white horse who is going to fix everything. But I am glad that he has the chance to at least try to make things a bit different. And I have to admit that getting to see the looting bunch from PSD and the rest making fools of themselves does make my day.

On this note, I may add that more good news are more than welcome!