| Submitted by: Mark R. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 10 February 2005 |
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The army started firing on the counter- demonstrators. The problem was the guys doing the firing actually agreed with the anti-Ceausescu people. They started firing on the government buildings. The generals had been loyal to Ceausescu but they really got their power from being able to marshal soldiers. They could not risk having their own men turn on them and even if they stayed loyal to Ceausescu, he could easily turn around and blame them for what their men were doing. They had no future being loyal to Ceausescu; their only hope was to switch sides, so they started commanding the attack on the government buildings. The secret police were feared, but they could not stand up long against the army. They could be destroyed with Ceausescu or could take their chances with the anti-government side. They decided it was better to switch than fight. Ceausescu still had his mercenaries to protect him if they were still loyal. But mercenaries don't have loyalties--they have bank accounts, and they know how to save their skins. Ceausescu would probably not be able to pay them any more. And no pay is not a whole lot of reason to fight a war against an army and a secret police force. Suddenly the mercenaries had really good reasons to want Ceausescu dead. At this point Ceausescu probably got really nostalgic for good old a-day-ago. He went from holding the reins of power to having a big bulls-eye on his back in just nothing flat. He had a helicopter rescue him and started to make his escape but was captured en route to the airport. [P.S. We later heard the helicopter pilot ditched him on the way to the airport.] Within hours it would be all over for him.
Now, what was really happening? In 1965 Ceausescu came to power under the protection of the Soviets. It is presumed now that it was somewhat at the urging of his wife, Lady Macbeth, that he make the government a family affair to consolidate power. Ceausescu was the president and he made his wife the vice-president. This is a pretty sobering thought. Imagine if George Bush had to sleep with Dan Quayle! Ceausescu made his son the head of the youth movement. That must have been real inspirational. You too can be big in government if your Papa puts you there.
[P.S. We later saw a BBC documentary on PBS on THE RISE AND FALL OF CEAUSESCU. They were no more kind to him than anyone else. He put his wife at the head of a chemical institute, though she had no more than a grade school education. Every paper published by the institute had to have her name among the authors with top billing. His hunting parties were a joke staged to make him look like a great hunter who killed hundreds of animals. When he visited New York most of the government dignitaries treated him with respect. (Well, the term 'kissed up' seems more accurate.) Then he saw a Hungarian demonstration and demanded an apology from Mayor Ed Koch. Koch arrived on the scene but only started asking Ceausescu about all the injustices rumored to be taking place in Romania. Ceausescu flew into a rage and demanded that the other dignitaries make Koch apologize. Didn't he work for them? Well, no he didn't really. This was too much. Ceausescu insisted on leaving immediately. Unfortunately Mrs. Ceausescu insisted on three more hours of shopping at Cartier's.]
The people did not like Ceausescu, but nobody was asking them. Finally his own Communist Party wanted to start easing Ceausescu out, probably as an embarrassment. This was to happen some time about March 1990. They were the only organized party (the National Salvation Front, as they called themselves), so come election time the choice was the new improved socialism or chaos. Chaos lost. Iliescu became President. The students did not like this and demonstrated against him a year ago, as I already said, but the miners came in and broke heads until the demonstrations stopped. The miners, it seemed, liked what Iliescu had promised them. Of course, if miners knew that much, they wouldn't go to work in a hole in the ground. A year has passed and the miners have been enjoying the fruits of the promises of the socialists. This year the miners agree with the students and the students are saying, 'I told you so.'
Most of the major sites of Bucharest were not considered sites two years ago. There are sites that were involved in the anti- Ceausescu revolution. There are gardens that were once public, were appropriated by Ceausescu, and now are public again. Almost everything we saw, it seems now, was turned into a tirade against Ceausescu. 'These are the botanical gardens that he stole.' 'Here is where he trained the military to attack the people.' Felicia found few reasons to push subjects against predicates without somehow jamming Ceausescu in between. At one of the sites we got a book supposedly telling the story of Ceausescu's last hundred days, but found it only to be newspaper pictures with captions like, 'Like any megalomaniac, he needs to be overrated, applauded, cheered.' There is little explanation as to what the pictures mean.
You hear far less about what the Romanian people want and how it can be achieved than about what they hate. It was with the people in that frame of mind that Communism first took root in Russia. It was in that frame of mind that the National Salvation Front took control after Ceausescu. The people could get something in office they did not bargain for.
After the main part of the city tour, we were taken to an outdoor museum. This is much like outdoor museums in other countries such as Sweden. Old houses from all over the country were purchased, disassembled, moved to the museum, and reassembled. In the museum they could be seen and many could be entered, The park is laid out so sections of the park correspond to geographical regions of the country. I think they knew that Transylvania was their biggest tourist draw and had it near the entrance. The houses did look a bit like the film versions of them and it is perhaps surprising that the films did get the style correct.
There was supposed to be a cultural show from the Maramures region and usually when we passed it they were playing local music, but at least once somebody was giving what sounded like an angry political speech. There are a lot of people expressing their viewpoints in Romania these days and it rarely is 'God Bless Romania.'
One strange touch was that there was an air show going on at the airport. Only once did I see a plane, but the whole time there seemed to be the sound of big aircraft above coming from an empty sky.
The afternoon was free but not easy. It was a Sunday afternoon and most things were either too distant or closed. We spent the hottest part of the day writing our logs in a room that was noisy, over 85 degrees Fahrenheit, with no air flow. Every hour or so I would soak a T-shirt and put it on.
About 6 PM we took a walk on the streets. Earlier there may have been more people selling on the streets. Now there were just popcorn vendors, women who had big plastic bags of popcorn the size of garbage bags (you occasionally see the same thing in our movie theaters where they no longer pop the corn--they just heat it). If you want popcorn, she scoops it out with a paper cone. We also saw that they have genuine New-York-style schizophrenics in Bucharest. One who walked by us was having an animated conversation with an invisible creature from the planet Twilow.
The streets of Bucharest are surprisingly wide, even off the main streets. With few cars you can almost cross streets without looking. If a car comes, there is plenty of room for it to drive around. You can tell just by looking at Bucharest that the economy is stagnating. As much as I get tired of advertising in the United States, I have to admit it is a good sign. Here there appears to be little to sell. We looked in a grocery. There was a shelf twenty feet long. It had in four rows, twenty feet long each, lines of jars of canned peas. It was two rows (one row, two jars deep, and the same on a higher shelf). All the same brand. The store did not seem to have anything but peas, spinach, and tomato ketchup. A little further on there was a very fat bag-lady exposing herself on the street. The police moved in to convince her to stop doing it. Bucharest is getting to be more like New York.
We walked through a park and around to the square where the revolution took place. The buildings were very much shot up at that time and have not been repaired, so you see a lot of buildings that look very shot up.
As we were looking in a store window, a man talked to us. He had his wife and daughter with him. Initially, he made it appear as if his interest was in us, but it turned out to be a request for a handout. I have money with me, but it is in a pouch around my neck in a wad. I don't want to start fooling with that, so I tell him we came out without money. He asks what can we give him, particularly something American. Years ago, Evelyn bought a bunch of key rings with colorful pictures from STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. She thought she could sell them to a dealer at a science fiction convention but could not. She brought a bunch with her and gave one to the man. He asked for a 'ballpen' and she gave him a ball-point. He said it was not good for foreigners to buy in the local stores. Really what he is saying is that prices are low and the people are poor. They don't want visitors buying up the goods and making the prices high.
Back at the hotel we freshened up a little, then sat in the lobby to write. They had not yet turned on the lights in the lobby for the night. I sat down to try to write in my log and realized I could not see what I was writing. This is unusual for me since I generally can write on a bus well into the evening. The lobby was genuinely very dark even though the sun was still high in the sky. Light bulbs are one of the many shortages. Their revolution against Ceausescu has come and gone and many of the same people are in power and everybody else is suffering with shortages that lie somewhere between comic and tragic. The people are angry; they know what they hate, but not what they like. I strongly suspect that bloodshed is not finished in Romania.
Dinner wasn't great, but it was better than it had been the previous evening. Sam wanted more light in the restaurant and pulled aside the curtain. This just meant that a lot of people on the street stopped to stare in to see what people ate when they have food. Eventually I asked that the curtain be closed. There was ice cream for dessert, so they do have it in Romania. It seemed to have unpleasant lumps, like from cottage cheese.
I was up past midnight writing my log. Finally I went to sleep. The room was still hot and encomfortable.
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At 4 AM Evelyn woke up and decided to fool with the window. Then we both were up. By 5 AM we were having a theological discussion about what is and is not the definition of the term 'God.' Honest!
Breakfast was fried eggs. Even that improved the second time around. By a few minutes after 8 AM we were on our way out of Romania. The discomfort of staying in Romania was noted, but please understand it was not resented. If Romania is an uncomfortable place to be, I am perfectly happy having been put in a bad hotel. I prefer being put in a good, modern hotel, but I prefer having been in a bad hotel. Hmmm! That's about as clear as mud. Let me put it this way. Nobody prefers being uncomfortable to being comfortable. Well, let's say it is rare. I would rather be comfortable. But then I learn nothing. The interesting stories and the learning experiences usually come from the uncomfortable experiences. Once the experience is over, I am glad to have had the real experience than to have been insulated. I want to have been to difficult places more than I want to be in difficult places. |
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