Sunday, November 12, 2006

Cultural earnings of Romania make not so glorious benefit for Glod

Returning briefly to the Borat theme, I noticed an article in the Financial Times which reports that the inhabitants of Glod, an impoverished village in south-east Romania used as the location for the Kazakhstan TV reporter's home town are unhappy about the pittance they received to appear in the film which grossed £13m in its first weekend. Apparently most of the extras were paid only 4-5 euros for their trouble. Perhaps Romania's accession to the EU next year will have come too late for them.
Taking a wholly different view, the mayor of the local municipality was quoted as saying "They got paid, so I am sure they are happy. These gypsies will even kill their own father for money." Just like something Borat himself would say. A case of life imitating art?

5 comments:

Antonio from Italy said...

Believe me, Ciaran, the annexation of Romania to EU next year will be a real pain in the neck for many of us...
It'd be really better if they were left where they are!
In this part of Italy we have the largest Romanian community outside its natural border and the most of them aren't good people at all.
When the local news report an offence or a violation to the laws you can bet that a Romanian is involved. They drive drunk and too often they are the cause of mortal car accidents.
Now the most favourite sport of them is to steal the copper wherever it is to be found, mainly from power lines. Many small towns can be left without power all of a sudden, because these Romanians cut the lines at both ends and carry away the precious material.
Railways aren't immune either. Last week a train line was stopped because they stole an entire power line, with all the signal material.
They are quick and they don't get caught on the spot. Last friday police found a illegal depot with 15 tons of copper inside, the worth of it being several hundreds of thousands euros. Look at this page:
http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/cronache/200611articoli/14055girata.asp
The police arrested 6 Romanians!
They rape girls and women. They broke into houses (even in the daytime) where they beat the owners with clubs and iron bars and steal anything they see.
I fear the moment when the frontiers will be open to them as well. I fear we'll find 23 millions delinquents outside our doors!!!

CW said...

Antonio
I can understand how this is certainly a problem for Italy and other EU countries. Without wishing to tar all Romanians with the same brush (I'm sure some are hardworking decent people), it seems that their accession to the European Union is somewhat premature. The UK has imposed a cap on Bulgarian and Romanian workers - they will be allowed to enter country as visitors, but will not have automatic rights to work, but this will be difficult to enforce and will most likely fuel a black market economy. The Romanian government should have been given more time to sort out its own social and economic problems before being allowed to join.

Antonio from Italy said...

Ciaran,
giving them more time to solve their problems wouldn't hove led anywhere. It's an attitude coming from centuries of tradition. They're deaf to authority. In some Italian schools Romanian kids go with book, pencils and knives. They threat other kids for money and snacks.
Romanians say that they cannot stand to be ruled by some authority that is not imprinted in their DNA, they want to work, of course, but at their own conditions and schedules.
I'm afraid that we'll have to face bad times!

Anonymous said...

Um...this is pretty racist. I mean, judging all Romanians based on a limited, self-selected few who leave Romania because they're too poor to stay? And then blaming crime on "centuries of tradition"? Are you serious? Man, I'm sure it's a problem and it may get bigger with the EU assention, but Antonio is the only one here who seems to be speaking with reason. The other posts seem motivated by simple hate. This is astounding.

CW said...

In no way am I suggesting that all Romanians are criminals and delinquents. It is however a sad fact of life that when economic immigrants move to another more prosperous country they become an easy target for locals to tar them all with the same brush. A country can only take so many incomers, otherwise overcrowding leads to increased unemployment and a strain on public services - there's nothing racist about this -it's simply a fact. The problems Antonio mentions are largely a legacy of the corruption and tyranny of Ceaucescu's reign, which the country is still recovering from.