Ode to the country of my heart (and other things)

I got back to Paris yesterday with a heavy heart, firstly for leaving so many dear and loved friends behind and secondly for the situation (both economic and political) in the country of my heart. I had such a wonderful time. How marvellous to see everyone, hug them, hear their news and talk, have stories, updates and gossip, eat that marvellous food, drink the fabulous wine and excellent coffee, walk the streets I love so much, avoid the holes I miss (I am not kidding - I do miss them for I got so used to them), pat the maidanezi and give them biscuits to cheer them up, take old ladies shopping I found begging outside supermarket Nic... I had missed it so much. The noise, the bustle, the fact that there's never a dull moment. There's always something happening. Normally an idiotic, stupid and unbelieveably cretinous something. Dar asa e.

I went on three fabulous walks - Icoanei and Armeneasca neighbourhoods with Cristina, Vulturilor and Mosilor with Mihaela and the spanking, swanky new Lipscani with Aura. I loved them all. Cotroceni Palace and the Botanical Gardens with Doamna Fanica, a nice cosy coffeeshop with DD, our favourite Lebanese restaurant and my dear Atheneu Bistro with my bears, the Marriott (oh là là!) also with Aura... I sat at Tantza's kitchen table and heard all the news of my old str. Telenovelo, what was going on upstairs, met Flori, Oana, Cristi and Alex at Manuc Bistro and enjoyed a lovely evening at La Mama with Aura and Flori. It was a non-stop bonheur of dashing from one place to another, one dear face to the next, one hug and a pull at the heart strings to the proceeding one and it was marvellous.

So many GOOD things have happened in Bucharest since I left in September 2008. The first I guess, is what is today known as Down Town. Lipscani has become elegant, clean, well paved and a hub of activity for all ages and persuasions. Bars, restaurants, clubs, a renovated theatre... it did my heart so much good to see it. The work continues. It's still not complete. But it's getting there and I was proud, proud, proud!

The Pasajul Basarab seems llike an excellent addition too, joining East to West and cutting down traffic in the centre of the capital. From afar, it looks like a vague throwback of a Calatrava bridge, its white arms stretching out like a fan. The Pasajul Baneasa from the centre to Casa Scîrtei goes directly to the airport and was opened in February/March.I do not know what was demolished to make way for these practical improvements for transportation and frankly, I dread to think.

There is now a train from Otopeni airport to Gara de Nord. I didn't take it but was told about it and saw the posters. That will ease the lives of travellers no end for the buses only went to Baneasa and the metrou didn't even go that far. Next time, I shall try it out and see where I end up!!

We drove down Calea Grivitei and there stared wide-eyed at the brightly painted apartment blocks...the ones that Sirban Sturdza so criticised and I don't blame him. Many have had facelifts but many have not. I wonder how they decided who would have new termopan and orange/red/yellow/blue or green stripes under their windows and who would not. One doesn't know where to look - at the blocks left dirty and drab or the brightly coloured eyesores!

So, there, some improvements. Good ones.

But they are rather outweighed by the negative side of things. Times are hard. Very hard indeed. Money is tough to make if you're an honest soul, salaries are cut, pensions are ludicrous to the point of offensive. Cars are parked willy-nilly all over the pavements, often bonnets to walls so pedestrians must walk in the road (where, admittedly, there are less holes). The gaping holes left by demolitions scar the capital at a startling rate. Visarion, Cobalcescu, Polona, E.Grigorescu, Clemenceau (pix left)... on and on it goes. The city continues to be slaughtered and mutilated with little or no care for what is being destroyed whether it be gravestones or houses. This, I think hurt me more than anything else, if I can say this without sounding like I don't care about people. It's not that. It's just the constant crumbling, maiming, mindful destruction of a city under ones very eyes makes one wonder why. Seriously. Has the government completely lost its mind (if indeed it ever had one)? Has respect for history and the past disintegrated to that sorry and shameful extent? Corrogated fences surround rubble, bulldozers and gypsies dig about for anything worth salvaging to sell. Gates hang off their hinges. Windows are broken. Rooves hang on by a thread. The ruins throughout the city of those houses dying a slow and agonising death are plentiful. I passed them on foot and on the bus. My favourite old house at str Visarion nr 5 (left) had its usual hug. It looked exactly the same. I stayed with it for a good ten minutes. Sad windows that no longer glint; damp, peeling walls that have lost their desire to stand tall and be admired. The old door can no longer welcome because what will a visitor find on opening it. The 'For Sale' sign has been there ever since I left and before. Noone has bought it. Where are the owners? I knocked. No answer. I knocked again, yelled over the wall. No one. Neglected, alone and dejected my dream house stood, so sorry for itself, so embarrassed for looking the way it did, so ashamed of its crumbling corners and filthy steps, its unkempt garden and foul window panes. Poor, dear house.

And yet, through the dilapidation, decay and general erosion, the loveliness is still there. You can see it above the windows, under the rooves, in the eaves. You see it in the architectural features. You feel its memories. Some have been very tastefully renovated indeed which gives a little hope for the future of Bucharest. But unfortunately, the stories of demolition continue. Just today, the most appalling story of a stunning old house ( str.Berzei nr. 34 str. Stirbei Voda nr. 89) destroyed in order to eventually make way for a motorway (yes, you read that right. A motorway) which will cut right through the city. The pictures in this article from Adevarul are heartbreaking.  (photo right, source: Cristina Iosef)

It is surreal. While most capital cities are directing their traffic away from the city, the brains who govern Roumania prefer to encourage the opposite and in doing so, have plans to take it right through the unique historic centre, which is so special and so lovely. 89 buildings in total will be sacrificed for this hare-brained scheme and of those, 14 are historic monuments (Oprescu called them 'so-called historic monuments'. What's with the 'so-called'? They either ARE or they ARE NOT). A whole valuable neighbourhood will vanish over the next few years right before our very eyes and there's little one can do to stop it. Ceausescu did it to build his Casa Nebunului and now it is happening again. This would not happen anywhere else for people would form a human chain around the buildings, sit there all night on the pavement, stand in front of the bulldozers, get arrested and not care, make noises on the radio, television and in the newspapers, have demonstrations in front of the government buildings and the townhall...but this kind of thing doesn't happen in Roumania. I do not know when it ever did, IF it ever did. The 'lovilutie' doesn't count, before anyone yells 'what about 1989?' That was a mis en scene. I am talking about people being so angry, so outraged by what is happening to their own city, their history and heritage, that they all get together and become one voice. I can count on my two hands people I know for sure would do this. But it isn't enough by a long chalk. And while everyone talks about it, cries over it, says 'nu mai pot!' and 'vai de mine', another building dies, another historical monument gets whacked. It is a fallacy. What Ceausescu didn't finish, today's politicians are. To be fair, with regards this story and Berzei, the decision was made 7 years ago. The project was agreed by the then mayor of Bucharest (shame on him). It is not Oprescu's bag. But he is in a terrible hurry to get demolishing and that beautiful house is now gone. The photos in the above article from Adevarul are dreadful. Quite dreadful. I feel as If I am witnessing the vicious beating of a human being.

I cannot speak for the Bucharesteans I don't know of course, but as I went past the neglected buildings on the bus, no one looked, no one commented, no one really noticed. They see it every day. They are saturated. They are immune. They are so busy trying to make ends meet that they do not have time to worry about or be aware of the state of the city and a building or two. One cannot blame them. Living in such an atmosphere of mass destruction is depressing and heart rending. They ignore it out of self preservation, not out of natural indifference.

My closest friend's husband came in to breakfast yesterday morning, sat at the table and declared, 'Roumania is dying. Do you realise it?' He turned to his wife and said it again. She gazed at her plate, for what could she say? She feels it too. She knows it. Roumania is dying. It is living on handouts, producing nothing, the only new businesses people seem capable of creating at restaurants and café bars which are so numerous in the centre of town that it's utterly absurd. In Lipscani, I am convinced that most of the pubs and restaurants are from foreign investors. Irish pubs, English pubs, Mexican, Japanese restaurants... you name it, it's there. Roumania isn't exporting anything of value. It is not creating anything at all.

Someone said last week, 'even the most intelligent person could not have done to Roumania what has been done. It is unthinkable. There must be a bigger picture. Something we do not know. Something no one is going to tell us. But WHY kill a country? The intelligent Roumanians are a very sad and frustrated minority. The country is run by morons, uneducated idiots, gypsies, illiterates. It is being done systemmatically, little by little and it is extremely organised. Morale is being dismantled. Education is at an all time low - the most effective way to control a people. My own daughter wants to get out of here and study abroad. Who can blame her? There MUST be a reason for it. We are not aware of it. We don't know what is being planned for us but Roumania is dying and it is meant to be like that. It is being done on purpose.'

One cannot blame anyone for thinking this terrifying thought. Roumania could be a great, rich country again if only it had the right people at its head. It was, once. It has marvellous earth, it is fertile and anything can be grown from vineyards to corn and wheat. Why not consider a conspiracy theory? It's not the first time I have heard this. If Roumania 'dies' and is inhabited by morons, in come outsiders and Roumania becomes the vast bread basket of Europe. Why not? What is happening there right now is preposterous. It is incredible. It's like something out of a Huxley novel. Europe doesn't come to its aid except in handouts which will take 30 years to pay back. People are missing Ceausescu because at least then they had jobs and food on the table, crime was low, they could walk on the pavements (there weren't many cars!) and the offspring of ministers and officials had to toe the line... Roumania has become lawless, brainless and heartless.

Dan Puric said that Roumania has two kinds of people: Roumanians and those that only speak Roumanian. He has been horribly criticised, threatened and menaced. But he keeps on. He is a brave man who loves his country and won't shut up. Roumania needs a ton of Dan Puric's.People say that things cannot change unless the government changes. But even if it were Crin and Iohannis (for me the best combination), the rot is way too deep. I do not know what the answer is.

I left the country of my heart yesterday with a huge ball of love in my chest that exploded at intervals during my flight so that tears squeezed from the corner of my eyes although I kept them closed or hid behind my book so noone would notice. The sadness, the helplessness, the indignance. I do not know what I can do to help. I do not know how to make things better. But as always, I want so much to gather this beloved country of mine and hold it close, protect it, keep it safe until the end of my days... but I cannot.What now?

Comments

[aura]

But you do protect it -the country of your heart- dear Sarah; nobody can keep it safe!Yet. Because we are not strong enough. But one day we will be...maybe you and me, will be old or maybe we'll be "gone" but I know that this country in which I was born in this life will be one day blessed.
You are a sparkle, a little one but some time little sparkles could start big fires, big changes even if in people's mind (for the time being.)
And you are a model and you not alone....I can see that......but it takes time....
I know will be much better if we will be able to see it with our own eyes but what are we as human beings in the dimension of time?
In my opinion you Do a lot!
At least for me... You showed me what a beautiful country I have, what great values there are here, and what marvelous people we could be...
Do not cry for the country of your heart....just come and visit it whenever you can to give us strenth to go further.
with love
yr aura

[Mihaela]

Thank you so much, Sarah. There isn't really much one could add. You have said it all.

[sairj]

I cannot imagine that this can be true. By the numbers I just punched into my calculator, the 29 million mentioned divided by the 89 buildings to be destroyed (imagining that each one has an owner to be compensated and also imagining that each house is the same size which isn't the case as we know) comes to 326,000 euros. Not enough really under the circumstances.
Illegality. Abuse of the law. Taking advantage of one's position and power...
Sickening.

[Nicole]

It is, indeed, a somber view of Bucharest and little can be done. Very disheartening. For those who want to see pictures of the area going to be affected, here is a link:
http://forum.metrouusor.com/viewforum.php?f=121
The art. in Adevarul metnions the fact that oprescu offered 2,000 euros.sq.m for the houses to be demolished, if this is true, I have no idea...