Radio România Internațional

Category: Society Today

  • Gender Stereotypes in Literature and Education

    Gender Stereotypes in Literature and Education

    Still present in today’s EU economies and societies, gender stereotypes on the labor market originate most often than not in some common stereotypes found in our communities. But how does society perceive these stereotypes on the role of women and men? Are they disseminated through education and certain cultural models? These are some of the questions that the study on gender stereotypes in Romanian culture and day-to-day life, included in the project “Integration and promotion of women on the labor market” is trying to answer. The study, conducted by the Open Society Foundation, enjoyed European financing under the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development. It focused on four main directions — film, theatre, literature and media — and tried to establish if gender stereotypes have cultural roots.



    Head of the Open Society Foundation, Mircea Vasilescu, tells us more about it:


    Mircea Vasilescu: “The hypothesis we started from is basically correct: our way of regarding women and womanhood is based on a ‘cultural heritage’. Of course, the media plays a very important role, as it reinforces and exploits certain stereotypes about women for rating. And I’m referring to tabloid media in particular.”



    Except for the media, education, in turn, seems to be a source of stereotypes, often highlighted through the analysis of literary works presented to students. Mircea Vasilescu, this time as a literary critic and historian, has studied the way in which certain female characters are described by literary works in school.


    Mircea Vasilescu: “I’ve checked the manner in which certain female characters are presented in literature works studied in school and presented in textbooks, books of literary criticism and on literature-related websites. And I wonder if after graduation, former students will start applying in real life the ideas they learned in school about certain female characters, by using a stereotyped way of thinking.”



    The answer is positive, although many of the interpretations found in textbooks about female figures are neither precise, nor favorable to those characters or the women representing them.


    A new woman archetype has been promoted in the media in recent years, more exactly in certain entertainment TV shows. At present, tabloid TV stations have come up with a new type of woman: the live show assistant, a must in the entertainment shows, whose role is to play the fool for the audience’s amusement. When it comes to more serious shows, however, the presence of women is scarce.



    Mircea Vasilescu: “There are very few women in the political and social TV talk-shows. There are even fewer women invited as experts in certain TV shows. Usually, when that happens, there are the same women invited, coming mostly from the political field.”



    Parents also play an important role in the propagation of stereotypes. Livia Aninosanu, coordinator of the Partnership for Equality Centre, a partner in the project “Integration and Promotion of Women on the Labor Market”, believes that, by socializing, children learn very quickly what’s natural for boys and for girls to do in society.



    Livia Aninosanu: “We encourage certain emotions in boys and we discourage others in girls. Boys are often told: ‘Don’t cry, you’re not a girl’. The emotional language is rather restricted for boys, from an early age. They are allowed to express their negative emotions through fury, but they are discouraged to express feelings like fear or timidity. When it comes to girls, they are not encouraged to express their fury, to say ‘No’ and to set clear limits. On the other hand, they are allowed to be fragile. So we are already assigning our children the roles they will eventually play within society, inducing them the idea that boys are strong and girls are weak.”



    Gender-specific toys also play an important role in predetermining behaviors.


    Livia Aninosanu: “In every children’s store we find girls’ areas and boys’ areas. Girls’ areas can be easily identified by the pink colors, and usually include toys reproducing roles that girls will carry out later in life: miniature kitchens, washing machines, and miniature irons. Boys, on the other hand, have to choose among games allowing them to explore the space, as well as cars and guns. There are very few gender-neutral games. I believe there are many situations where children would want to pick something else. Our work with kindergarten teachers has proved that boys are afraid to play with what is considered to be girls’ toys, such as dolls, or get involved in a girl’s game. A boy’s simple preference to play with a doll raises fears among adults. That boy would be very quickly corrected.”



    What certainly needs correction is the adults’ behavior, experts in gender equality say. Children should not be educated in keeping with some gender restrictions, but more likely encouraged to experiment and handle a wide variety of situations.




  • The State of Romania’s Healthcare System

    The State of Romania’s Healthcare System

    The third edition of “Health at a Glance” a joint publication of the OECD and the European Commission, made public late last year, presents key indicators of health and health systems in 35 European countries, including all European Union Member States, candidate countries (with the exception of Albania due to limited data availability) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. The selection of indicators is based largely on the European Core Health Indicators a set of indicators that has been developed to guide the reporting of health statistics in the European Union.



    The report has revealed a number of positive and negative aspects in all systems monitored, including Romania’s. For instance, life expectancy in EU member states increased by over five yearsbetween 1990 and 2012, reaching up to 79.2 years, but the gap between the highest life expectancy rates, reported in Spain, Italy and France and the lowest, in Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania, has not diminished since the early 1990s. In the case of Romania, a possible explanation for this situation, as the report shows, is the insufficient funds allotted to this sector, below the level of Serbia and Montenegro.



    Romania is also the country that conducted the smallest number of MRI and CT investigations. The scarce funds allotted from the budget – 4% of the GDP in 2015 – as well as the small amount that each patient is able to pay, is indicative of Romania’s poorly monitored healthcare system. A direct consequence of this is the high mortality rate due to cervical cancer – the highest in the EU – although this form of cancer is completely treatable if detected on time. This also speaks volumes of the strong connection between a country’s economy and its healthcare system: rich states can provide better medical services, unlike the poorer states, such as Romania. A country with a weak economy is unable to improve its healthcare system.



    In Romania, the main source of money for the health sector is the national health insurance fund collecting money from both employers and employees under the administration of the National Health Insurance House (CNAS). The private health insurance system is not widespread in Romania and many patients, about a fifth of the total, are paying for medical services from their own pocket. This informal payment might include some presents to the medical staff, a frowned upon, yet widespread practice in Romania. CNAS head Cristian Vladescu explains that it all boils down to the medical staff’s notoriously low salaries.


    Cristian Vladescu: “The importance of Romania’s legal system was recognized several years ago and now its employees enjoy salaries close to the European average. The situation is different when it comes to the country’s medical system. In other words, the social importance of physicians hasn’t been officially acknowledged yet. Only patients have acknowledged the importance of the medical staff. This is one explanation for the informal payment the medical staff gets. However, we need to find short and medium term solutions to better finance the system and increase the staff’s salaries”.



    Besides being underpaid, the number of doctors in Romania is very low, with only 2.5 doctors for every one thousand people. The situation is even more serious if we take into account the mass-migration of the Romanian medical personnel.


    Cristian Vladescu: “It’s a vicious circle: Romanian physicians are required the same degree of professionalism and effectiveness in saving lives just like their Western colleagues, but at the same time the state treats them and pays them as if they belonged to a less important professional category. This vicious circle was broken after Romania had joined the European Union and physicians started migrating for better jobs. They will continue to leave as there is a large job offer in the West.”



    To the same extent to which it depends on economic factors, the organisation and funding of the healthcare system is also shaped by the priorities of each particular state. Although the EU institutions are concerned with the health of the Union’s citizens, as indicated, among others, by a report called “Health At A Glance,” put together by the Commission jointly with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), policies cannot be imposed from Brussels and Strasbourg. These institutions can only make recommendations, as MEP Renate Weber explains:


    Renate Weber : “Unfortunately, the field of public healthcare, for reasons which honestly elude me, is not included in those areas where unified legislation is applicable across the EU. In this case, the principle of subsidiarity applies, so healthcare and education are areas regulated by the individual Member States. I don’t understand why. If you want a healthy Union in all respects, I believe the health and education of its citizens should be the same in all countries. There are a number of public policy recommendations coming from Brussels, but they are by no means compulsory.”



    Setting aside the economic and legislative situation, taking care of one’s own health is a matter of education, of having at least basic knowledge about prevention. Renate Weber:


    Renate Weber: “When I speak about education, I’m referring to that type of behaviour that, at public level, should be compulsory, and thus prevent the development of diseases. Indeed, progress has been made in this respect, thanks to the legislation, such as the ban on smoking and the regulations regarding electronic cigarettes. This is a combination of legislation and education.”



    As regards other aspects, the “Health at a Glance” report highlights both negative and positive things about Romania. We have the highest rate of mortality in Europe among people suffering from cerebrovascular diseases and the highest rate of child mortality, but we are in a good position with regard to diabetes, as we have the lowest number of type 1 diabetics per 100,000 inhabitants. As regards the consumption of alcohol and tobacco, Romania is below the EU average. Just like Bulgaria and Finland, Romania registers the lowest consumption of fruit in the EU, but we do eat vegetables just like the other Europeans, which is why we boast the smallest number of obese people in Europe.

  • Women and Business

    Women and Business


    Equal opportunity and encouraging SMEs, two of the fundamental policies of the EU, can contribute to emerging out of the crisis, whether we talk about global or personal crises. The solution may depend on daring women and the opportunities offered for their entrepreneurship. In 2013, according to EU statistics, businesswomen accounted for only 34.4% of the self-employed European entrepreneurs, holding only 30% of newly created businesses. However, their number seems to be growing. Late last year, Bucharest hosted the first fair for businesswomen in Romania, B-Fair, organized by an association called “Women in Business”. Set up in 2009 by a young entrepreneur, the organization comes in support of women who want to build a business, helping them find the information and support they need. The fair is an extension of this network where people exchange experiences. Adina David is a press officer with the association:



    Adina David: “This year we’ve held B-Fair for the first time. Generally we organize business networking sessions with women speakers, but the fair managed to bring together businesses run by women in a more official and general venue, where they could showcase their products, in addition to networking.”



    B-Fair was attended by 20 companies with exhibitions, and was visited by between 200 and 300 people during the weekend. The participating companies, most of them set up or run by women, were not just SMEs. Many large companies, even multinationals, have women managers and make products aimed at women. We asked Adina David if companies run by women generally cater to women, and if they have a propensity for catering to certain areas:



    Adina David: “We did notice an inclination towards certain areas considered typical of women, such as consultancy or cosmetics. At the same time, a lot of ladies have opened businesses in the IT and automotive sectors.”



    Adina Filculescu is an attendee at B-Fair and member of the organization called Women in Business. She runs a business in an area where women dominate: flowers and event organizing. She started this business right after college, and she says she did not feel discriminated against in relation to men, and that she did not have to face additional hurdles for being a woman. However, she had a lot of hard work to do, but she says she did it happily:



    Adina Filculescu: “It is a lot of work, sometimes I work 17 hours a day, but I don’t feel tired, because I think of the outcome I desire, the satisfaction of the people around me, and my personal satisfaction. If I worked for someone else I may not have worked with such drive and pleasure. I had nights when I worked until the morning, and weekends when I couldn’t go to the mountains for a trip with friends. As for the bureaucracy, we all know how things are: you have to queue for some paperwork, or some tax payment. You have to adapt to each situation.”



    As a member of the Women in Business association, Adina Filculescu monitored the trends of the last few years, and here is what she found:



    Adina Filculescu: “A lot of women started looking into a business of their own, and even left their jobs with corporations or public institutions. They developed their own businesses in the areas that they liked. I noticed that passion was the basis for their choice. On top of the capital needed to open a business, they needed a lot of courage to change their life from that of an employee to that of an entrepreneur.”



    Their courage came from the drive to be independent, and from the emergence of personal priorities: family and children. Here is Adina David once again:



    Adina Filculescu: “While working at multinationals, they have little time for their families, and especially when the first child appears, they really don’t have enough time for their families anymore. That is why they choose to become entrepreneurs, which gives them a flexible schedule. In addition, even though multinationals pay higher salaries, women can make their business grow, securing substantial incomes. The start is always difficult, but for many of them this is not a great impediment.”



    A lot of employees in public or private institutions, in their wish to be their own boss eventually, start a business after work, holding on to their day job. It is not easy, but the wish to be independent is overwhelming in those cases. It is also encouraged by EU institutions, which have already created a European network of mentors for women entrepreneurs, a division of the Directorate General for SMEs.

  • Romania’s rural areas need better medical services

    Romania’s rural areas need better medical services

    Many people face huge difficulties when it comes to getting the medical care they are entitled to. One reason for this is the small number of family doctors in villages, in spite of the fact that 40% of Romania’s population lives in the countryside. People living in rural areas often have to travel to another village to see a family doctor and many of them cannot afford to pay the transportation fee. Not being aware of their rights in terms of access to medical services is another big problem of the people living in rural areas, as Daniela Buzducea, advocacy director with World Vision Romania has noted:



    “There are people who are not aware that children and pregnant women have access to free medical services, no matter if they have health insurance or not. We believe more should be invested in raising people’s awareness of their rights. We also believe that education should start at an early age. Unfortunately, Romania has a problem with unplanned and unwanted teenage pregnancies.”



    The lack of health education is reflected in the high infant mortality rate in Romania. Daniela Buzducea:



    “In the rural area, the infant mortality rate is almost double in certain areas as compared to the national average. 20% of the families with children aged under 5 have never taken their infants to a doctor, although there are strict guidelines as to the medical check-ups children must undergo before the age of 5. Another problem is the big number of malnourished children.”



    Against this background, several initiatives aimed at improving the situation have been launched:



    “A number of programmes have already been run and the results are already visible. One example is a programme that combines continuing education for GPs and nurses in rural areas with information campaigns for parents and material support for underprivileged families. This support is not of a financial nature, but tries to develop these families’ capacity to improve their economic skills to be able to provide quality food for their children. Unless we invest in the nutrition of young children, it will be much more expensive to deal with the health problems that may appear later on.”



    These initiatives have also found a voice in the European Union. This autumn, MEP Victor Negrescu, from the Group of Socialists and Democrats, secured the support of the European Parliament for a pilot project worth 1 million euros, aimed at involving the European Union in the process of improving healthcare services, those in rural areas in particular. Victor Negrescu explains:



    “We will work with health experts and try to find practical solutions that can actually be implemented, so as to improve and increase access to medical services in rural areas. Based on the experts’ proposals, these solutions will be implemented in one or two villages, hopefully in Romania, to see if they work. The solution that works best will receive 3 million euros worth of funding in the following year to implement the programme in different villages and see how it works. If all goes well, in three years at the most, a financing system will become available for the first time to all villages in Romania and the European Union allowing local authorities and doctors in rural areas access to funds for bringing medical services to rural areas, improving the quality of the existing services and purchasing new medical equipment. This is the first step towards a true financing system for medical services in the countryside.”



    MEP Victor Negrescu also agrees that education regarding access to healthcare services is extremely important:



    “We have to make people aware of their choices, of how to take care of their nutrition and other things that are crucial for their health and can prevent serious medical problems. The second most important thing is prevention. Apart from medical interventions as such, we have to focus on prevention, which implies regular medical checks and going to a doctor when faced with a health problem. These things are very important in rural areas, where people do not have direct access to a chemist’s or a doctor and sometimes find out too late that they have a serious medical problem that can no longer be treated.”

  • Investments in Education Quality

    Investments in Education Quality

    With concerns regarding the quality of education deepening recently, particularly among civil society, the “World Vision” Romania Foundation ran a survey of parent and child perceptions of school. Entitled “The Quality of Education,” the survey covered 157 schools in rural and disadvantaged areas in six counties, and unfortunately its conclusions confirm some of the informal debates within society. For instance, in spite of common perceptions, almost 90% of the schools are equipped with specialized labs, however they are only used in 10% of the cases. As expected, the most frequently used labs are the IT ones.



    Moreover, only half of the students get to use the computers and little more than one-third of them have Internet access. On the other hand, one of the positive elements is the number of classrooms, which is generally adequate. Only a small number of schools are double-shift schools, and the majority of them only having morning classes. As for the involvement of parents in the education process, the survey reports a paradox: although in rural communities school is kept in high regard and people are generally happy with the teaching and learning process, parents are not really familiar with the details of school life, as we found out from Serban Iosifescu, coordinator of the survey and the president of ARACIP, the Romanian Agency for Undergraduate Education Quality Assurance. He also gave us more details about the findings of this survey:



    “We found that each student regularly does homework every day for at least three subjects. Eighty percent of the students say that they spend more than half of the duration of a class listening to the explanations given by the teacher. Of the factors that stimulate the learning process, the least frequent in our schools has to do with how knowledge is applied in real-life situations and with the possibility of making connections between pieces of information. In every school there is at least one teacher who makes correlations between various subjects, but generally only one, rather than all teachers, as should be the case. Another positive element that we found was that teachers give support and feedback to children. The evaluation methods have also changed. School assessments are used for corrective measures, but less so for identifying the causes of school under-performance or for improving students’ motivation for learning.”



    All these findings enabled the authors of the “World Vision” survey to draw certain conclusions.



    “Teachers focus on presenting information, rather than on making sure that students acquire knowledge. Student autonomy is rather low, the education process is still defined as passing on information and the assessment tends to focus more on the cognitive side, and less on the behavioral aspect.”



    Apart from not knowing exactly what their children do at school, during classes, one in three parents says they are not consulted on the matter of optional subjects. The same is true for nearly half of the pupils. Another critical problem is school dropout. A lot of children drop out of school or skip classes frequently either because they work to help support their families, or because they have other personal problems that schools are not equipped to deal with.



    “A major concern is the lack of guidance and counseling services, and we have many pupils who said they never benefited from such services. There are also a large number of absences, known to parents and students. The main cause for this is related to problems in the respective families, rather than to their possible discontent with school. A large majority of students and parents believe children must complete their education, but the percentage of those who say they will not carry on studying is 35%, double the national average. This early dropout rate is closely tied to the family’s economic and education level.”



    The dropout rate is also tied to the work that some children provide in their own households. One in ten children does this in Romania, according to the World Vision survey. In fact, school dropout has an impact not only at a personal level, but also at an economic one, reveals a survey conducted by UNICEF and called “The Cost of Insufficient Investment in Education in Romania.”



    Luminita Costache, an expert with the organization, explains the costs of school dropout:



    “Over one’s lifetime, the cost of early dropout ranges between 100 thousand and 1.1 million euros for each person. These figures are included in various country reports, not only for Romania. The overall costs of early school dropout for Romania equal 0.9% of the GDP. At individual level, each additional year in school reduces unemployment risks by 8.2%.”



    Given that Romania already earmarks to education a smaller portion of its GDP than the 6% laid down in a “National Pact on Education,” the long-term consequences are hardly positive. Here is Luminita Costache again:



    “We tried to put together several scenarios, like what would happen if Romania kept the current level of investments in education and what would happen if we increased the investments to 6% of the GDP. So far Romania has earmarked 4% to this sector, including private education expenses, not only the budget resources. If we keep this level of investment, the targets in the Europe 2020 Strategy will not be reached. In the second scenario, if we increase the education budget to 6% of the GDP by 2025, the targets in Europe 2020 will be reached, the PISA test scores will reach the OECD average, and one additional school year will lead to an increase of the GDP by 2.7 to 2.95% in 10 years. In other words, Romania is set to lose between 12 and 17 billion euros in the coming 10 years unless it invests more in education.”



    What the authors of the two survey reports indirectly propose is on the one hand a far-reaching reform of Romania’s approach to education funding, and on the other hand a change in the relationship between school, parents and students.


  • Romania’s rural areas need better medical services

    Romania’s rural areas need better medical services

    Many people face huge difficulties when it comes to getting the medical care they are entitled to. One reason for this is the small number of family doctors in villages, in spite of the fact that 40% of Romania’s population lives in the countryside. People living in rural areas often have to travel to another village to see a family doctor and many of them cannot afford to pay the transportation fee. Not being aware of their rights in terms of access to medical services is another big problem of the people living in rural areas, as Daniela Buzducea, advocacy director with World Vision Romania has noted:



    “There are people who are not aware that children and pregnant women have access to free medical services, no matter if they have health insurance or not. We believe more should be invested in raising people’s awareness of their rights. We also believe that education should start at an early age. Unfortunately, Romania has a problem with unplanned and unwanted teenage pregnancies.”



    The lack of health education is reflected in the high infant mortality rate in Romania. Daniela Buzducea:



    “In the rural area, the infant mortality rate is almost double in certain areas as compared to the national average. 20% of the families with children aged under 5 have never taken their infants to a doctor, although there are strict guidelines as to the medical check-ups children must undergo before the age of 5. Another problem is the big number of malnourished children.”



    Against this background, several initiatives aimed at improving the situation have been launched:



    “A number of programmes have already been run and the results are already visible. One example is a programme that combines continuing education for GPs and nurses in rural areas with information campaigns for parents and material support for underprivileged families. This support is not of a financial nature, but tries to develop these families’ capacity to improve their economic skills to be able to provide quality food for their children. Unless we invest in the nutrition of young children, it will be much more expensive to deal with the health problems that may appear later on.”



    These initiatives have also found a voice in the European Union. This autumn, MEP Victor Negrescu, from the Group of Socialists and Democrats, secured the support of the European Parliament for a pilot project worth 1 million euros, aimed at involving the European Union in the process of improving healthcare services, those in rural areas in particular. Victor Negrescu explains:



    “We will work with health experts and try to find practical solutions that can actually be implemented, so as to improve and increase access to medical services in rural areas. Based on the experts’ proposals, these solutions will be implemented in one or two villages, hopefully in Romania, to see if they work. The solution that works best will receive 3 million euros worth of funding in the following year to implement the programme in different villages and see how it works. If all goes well, in three years at the most, a financing system will become available for the first time to all villages in Romania and the European Union allowing local authorities and doctors in rural areas access to funds for bringing medical services to rural areas, improving the quality of the existing services and purchasing new medical equipment. This is the first step towards a true financing system for medical services in the countryside.”



    MEP Victor Negrescu also agrees that education regarding access to healthcare services is extremely important:



    “We have to make people aware of their choices, of how to take care of their nutrition and other things that are crucial for their health and can prevent serious medical problems. The second most important thing is prevention. Apart from medical interventions as such, we have to focus on prevention, which implies regular medical checks and going to a doctor when faced with a health problem. These things are very important in rural areas, where people do not have direct access to a chemist’s or a doctor and sometimes find out too late that they have a serious medical problem that can no longer be treated.”

  • Romania faces the challenge of an ageing population

    Romania faces the challenge of an ageing population

    Ageing has become a global challenge. This is what studies have shown, warning that the increasing number of old people threatens the social security, pensions and health systems, in both developed and developing countries. It is the young people whose number is constantly decreasing, that will have to support the elderly. According to the EU’s Statistical office Eurostat, in the next few decades over, one third of Europe’s population will be aged over 60.



    There is a similar tendency in Romania, where the ageing pace of the population will increase at the same time with the number of newborn going down and life expectancy going up. This is the conclusion of a report entitled “Romania is growing old — challenges and solutions”, made public recently by the Romanian Friedrich Ebert Foundation.



    Over 16% of Romania’s population is aged over 65, according to a 2011 census and by 2050 their number is expected to grow even more. The survey conducted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation tried to discover the reality behind figures and statistics and bring to the surface some real life stories.


    Ioana Paunescu is 101 years old and is Romania’s first female electromechanical engineer. She survived two world wars and, at the age of 73, remarried to escape the grip of loneliness:


    Ioana Paunescu: “We were both widowers and we decided to form a couple so that we wouldn’t be alone. It’s been 28 years since we got married. We are both the same age, 101. We have had a normal life together. Now it’s more difficult, because my husband has Alzheimer so I must take care of him. He is unable to speak so we can’t discuss anything anymore. It’s hard. I have somebody to help me because I can no longer cook. My arms and legs don’t help me anymore; I cannot keep my balance or walk without support.”



    Another category of old people is that supported by other family members. Laura Tudor is 52 and her life changed completely when her mother, aged 89, broe a hip and became bedridden. She couldn’t afford hiring a care aid so every day she struggles to take care of her mother as well as her own family:



    Laura Tudor: “It is a very difficult situation which takes a lot of my time, because I also have a job and a family of my own. It’s quite hard to do everything. Luckily, we have two apartments on the same floor and I can take care of two homes at the same time. My husband and I have considered getting some extra help, but we cannot afford it, we don’t have enough money. So I do what I can. I can help my mother physically, that I can do. But she probably needs someone to talk to her more. I have neither the patience nor the time to do it. My mother’s state affects me a lot, because I have to witness a progressive, slow and incurable degeneration process, with a predictable end.”



    There are only 131 nursing homes in Romania, which can accommodate 7,152 people. Petru Rotarciuc is aged 63 and lives in a nursing home in the Leorda village, Botosani county. One nurse and two carers are assisting all 70 people there, who are resigned to the situation:


    Petru Rotarciuc: “At first I was left without a job. I tried to find a job but my age was a pretext not to be hired. I had no money to pay for my apartment so I ended up on the streets. I lived on the streets for more than a year, until someone with the county council brought me here at the center. It’s much better here than outside, in the rain. I have a roof over my head and I’ll continue to stay here for as long as I live. I was married once but my wife passed away and I know nothing of my three children since they left home. I looked for them but never found them. I miss them. I don’t need anything from them, just to see them again and have the chance to talk to them. “



    The report by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation also includes some positive data: the poverty rate in the case of old people aged over 65, decreased in Romania from 65% in 2007 to 35% in 2013, but it is still twice the EU average, which stands at 18%. Another positive thing was the introduction, in 2009, of a minimum guaranteed pension of 356 lei, with almost half a million beneficiaries, of whom 123,000 are farmers living on the verge of poverty. However, there are serious reasons for concern, says Victoria Stoiciu, program coordinator with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation:



    Victoria Stoiciu: ” We continue to have one of the lowest state pensions in the EU and one of the lowest replacement rates, defined as the ratio between the average pension and the average wage. Another reason for concern is the significant polarization within different categories of pensioners. In 2009, 81% of Romania’s pensioners had pensions under 1,000 lei per month. A quarter of pensions are below the monthly consumer basket, which is under 444 lei. 40% of pensions, that is 2 million, are below the subsistence level set in 2014 by the National Statistics Institute, at 587 lei. Another highly vulnerable category is formed by retired farmers, with 98% of them having pensions below the minimum subsistence level.”



    The lack of assistance at home, the insufficient number of nursing homes and personnel, the high prices for the sick pensioners who would want to live in such centers, but in the private system, are only some of the aspects defining the living standards of the elderly in Romania.


  • Opportunities for the Underprivileged

    Opportunities for the Underprivileged

    Consumed by our everyday routines, we sometimes pass street people on our way to work, more often than not either deliberately ignoring them or being unable to conceal our disgust. We refer here to homeless people in Bucharest and other cities in Romania. Their story is one of failure, one that can happen to anyone and one that can be easily surpassed with the help of others. But how can we truly help these people? A simple gesture of mercy may, for instance, help them get their lives back on track. Patrick Ouriaghli, the chairman of “Workshops without Borders” Association, told us more:



    “In 2009 we set up a vocational integration workshop focusing on economic activities, jointly with the “Samusocial” Foundation. Over the last 5 years we have been providing jobs to underprivileged people who are referred to us by Samusocial Foundation, the Anti-Drug Agency, foster care centers or probation services. These bodies have contacts with people who are socially excluded or marginalized for various reasons: they are homeless, they are former drug addicts, orphans, ex-convicts and so on. We are talking about people who cannot basically find a job on the conventional labour market. We hire them legally in our workshops for a period of two years, during which time they can familiarize themselves with the standards of the labour market”.



    Catalin is a former military who is now working for a private security company. His professional and personal problems made him lose his home.



    “Last year I was living in a shelter in Drumul Taberei district, together with another colleague from work. But now I don’t live there anymore, this was the very reason why I came to the workshops: to find a decent home, make a living and prepare for vocational re-qualification”.



    A stable job and the opportunity of learning a new trade appeal strongly to underprivileged people. Here is a former electrician who now works at “Workshops without Borders”.



    “I came here from a community center, Casa Ioana. I used to live in a house nationalized by the communist regime, which was meanwhile returned to the state. I rented a place, but I couldn’t find any work, or I didn’t always get my paychecks on time. I want a stable job in order to be able to take care of my family and four children. My wife is a cleaner in four apartment buildings. We moved out from Casa Ioana three months ago”.



    Underprivileged people who seek help with Workshops without Borders are first handed a minimum wage salary, a warm meal at lunchtime and a public transport subscription. Here they get involved in all sorts of activities: they repair old computers, recycle advertising banners and so on. Therefore they gain new abilities that might help them get a job elsewhere and adapt to a certain rhythm necessary to integrate socially. But getting back their self-esteem seems to be the top priority, Patrick Ouriaghli believes.



    “The hardest thing is for them to be able to trust themselves once again, to stop seeing themselves as beneficiaries, as a burden for the others, as being part of this underprivileged category, and to see them as normal people once again. Many of them used to have good families and salaries, but lost them to alcohol or other issues. The hardest thing is to help them regain their confidence. We use economic activities as instruments to help them regain trust. For instance, we have workshops dealing with repairing old computers. Here they take computers to pieces, repair them, salvage components and donate them to schools, foster care homes or other public institutions nationwide. Therefore they get a feeling they serve a purpose, that they can build a future for themselves, that they aren’t useless, that they have something good going on and that people are grateful for their work”.



    Beclean is a small town in Bistrita-Nasaud County. Here the authorities have worked up an alternative way to help 10 homeless people in the community, with the help of all the churches in the region. Nicolae Moldovan, the mayor of Beclean, told us more:



    “We have built a social welfare center for the community, with six large, capacious rooms. People would have to share the room with two or three other people though. The Town Hall will bear all utility-related expenses. In order to provide daily meals or spiritual guidance we have struck a partnership with all the 12 churches in the town. On a weekly basis, each church must take care of these people the best they can, either by donating clothing or by offering spiritual guidance. My recommendation was to give them one warm meal or even three meals a day. We also have a partnership with the local hospital, in order to ensure the medical assistance for these people”.



    Everyone in Beclean knows these people. They were once members of the community, but now they need help to re-gain their status. At first others need to help them get on their feet, so as to later on be able to fend for themselves. Here is the mayor of Beclean Nicolae Moldovan.



    “Step by step, I believe we can re-integrate these people into society, as they finally acknowledge people helping them. All this time when we couldn’t help them, they might have felt left out, abandoned. But now that the entire community is making efforts to help them, I believe they can have their lives back”.



    The material and moral support of others, as well as re-gaining their own self-sufficiency, are key to living a normal life for the thousands of people without a home.


  • The economic effects of smoking

    The economic effects of smoking

    In Romania smoking is one of the main causes for illness and death. Over 42,000 people die every year because of smoking, of which two thirds are aged between 35 and 69. In 2011, the proportion of smokers accounted for 27%. Diseases associated with smoking are also very serious, ranging from cardio-vascular and brain disorders, TB, cancer and other respiratory disorders. Health is not the only factor affected by smoking, but also the economy.



    A recent study looking at the economic impact of smoking and tobacco consumption on the Romanian healthcare system tried to assess the amount of state spending required for the treatment of people suffering from smoking-related illnesses. The cost is covered by the national healthcare system and includes the new treatments applied for these diseases. Doctor Magdalena Ciobanu, an expert with the Health Ministry, told us more about the results of the study:



    “Subsidised medication, consultations with a specialist or a family doctor, as well as all in-hospital investigations required to diagnose these diseases have not been taken into account. For this reason, the costs proposed by the study are lower than the real spending. Even so, expenditures surpass the revenues from the so-called ‘vice tax’ levied on tobacco products. Therefore, the state spent nearly 1 billion euros on treating illnesses stipulated in the healthcare plan, of which 250 million euros was used to treat smoking-associated disorders. This led to a deficit of 25 million euros in 2012. In reality, this deficit is much bigger, its exact value being too difficult to ascertain due to the lack of data”.



    Accordingly, 28% of state funds allotted to treating diseases are spent to treat smoking-related illnesses. Dr. Magdalena Ciobanu told us more:



    “When saying that smoking causes lung cancer, for instance, or leads to heart attack, the extent to which smoking is to blame varies from one disease to another. Not all cases of lung cancer or heart attack are caused by smoking. In the case of lung cancer, 86% of the cases are caused by smoking. For this reason, the study comprises two categories of expenses: the total and the sums spent on smoking-related illnesses”.



    Founded in 2006 with the purpose of combating the excessive use of tobacco and alcohol, other than beer and wine, the “vice tax” turned out to be both inefficient and deficient. A number of recommendations issued by the World Health Organisation must be implemented as well, such as: monitoring tobacco consumption, protecting the population against the effects of smoking, providing support to people who wish to quit smoking, advertising the dangers associated with smoking, banning the promotion of tobacco consumption and increasing taxes levied on tobacco. But are these measures truly applied in Romania? Magdalena Ciobanu explains:



    “All these six measures are indeed applied, although not to their full extent. Important steps were taken in 2007 and 2008, following Romania’s EU accession. Progress was made in 2008 in two key fields — increasing taxes on tobacco products and providing support to people who wish to quit smoking. The other fields saw no spectacular progress, although these are strictly legislative measures we’re talking about. They don’t require any clear-cut investment from the state, but merely a sign of goodwill from Parliament. The best example in this respect is the law forbidding smoking in public places. The draft law has been on Parliament’s agenda ever since 2011, and the Chamber of Deputies has failed to vote on it to this day”.



    European institutions might provide additional support for combating smoking. In April this year the Commission issued a Directive on Smoking. MEP Cristian Busoi is a member in the EU Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety:



    “The revised tobacco directive tackled a sensitive and heated subject in the European Parliament. In December last year the Parliament and the Council managed to reach a compromise on this matter, so the revised directive was published in the Official Journal this year. Member States have two years to implement this directive, which requires public health warnings to cover 65% of the front and back of cigarette packs. Any flavoured tobacco products are henceforth banned, in addition to certain additives, such as caffeine, vitamins, colouring agents and other substances facilitating the aspiration or absorption of nicotine. In addition, the directive has additional requirements regarding the shape and content of cigarette packs, forbidding the use of visual elements that might mislead consumers”.



    European Institutions hope these measures would result in a decrease in the number of smokers and diminish the appeal of smoking among young people.

  • Books for every pocket

    Books for every pocket

    After the fall of the communist dictatorship in Romania in 1989, people became avid for literature that had been censored that far, and this resulted in a multiplication of book fairs and events all over the country. The biggest are Bookfest, held in June, and Gaudeamus, held in November. The latter, which was created by Radio Romania, also travels to other cities and towns all over the country all year round.



    At Gaudeamus, book lovers can purchase the latest releases, attend book launches and press conferences, meet the writers and get books at great prices. The Romanian market, though rich in publications, does not have great book sales, with many Romanians finding the prices too steep at 5 to 16 euros for a book, while the average wage is around 380 euros.



    In order to help people buy their favourite titles for better prices, for the last ten years, Bucharest has been hosting Kilipirim, a discount book fair. We asked Oana Boca-Stanescu, a PR officer for the Kilipirim Fair, how the fair came about:



    “We have other book fairs as well that have discounts, like Bookfest and Gaudeamus, but Kilipirim deals more in older titles, which people get to buy at a discount you won’t see at other book fairs. In any given year, about 24,000 titles are published in Romania, but any given reader isn’t interested in more than 100. Even so, a person cannot afford all of them. Kilipirim was set up just for that: you go to the fair and find that book that you would have liked to buy half a year or a couple of years before. You had no money then, but now you can get it for a pittance.”



    Apart from providing affordable books for people, book fairs also help publishers, addressing one of their biggest problems: distribution:



    “Generally, we need book fairs for a fairly sad reason. There are few distribution chains in this country, and they cannot cope with the immense domestic output. The number of titles being published is far greater than the number of readers. Which means that a lot of book shop chains have shut down and others have simply vanished. If we go to a smaller town, you can see that there aren’t that many book shop around, or, where they still exist, they have been turned into stationery shops, with a book here and there.”



    Even though this year Kilipirim was held in a different place than usual, regular visitors found their way there, like this reader who spoke to us:



    “I’ve been coming to Kilipirim for years now. It is a way to enrich my book collection, and at the same time I can catch up with the latest titles on the market. This fair is a great idea because books, even though their prices have dropped, are still inaccessible for a certain category of people. At the same time, if you have several publishers gathered in one place, variety improves, and the opportunity to find better titles is greater.”



    One other reader was also attracted by the good prices and good variety:



    “For years now I’ve been following Kilipirim, Gaudeamus, and the summer book fair. These are welcome, especially in times like this. The discounts are welcome, no matter how small. There are now on-line bookstores, and before coming here I look titles up, see what I’ve missed. There are also the thematic fairs, where you have all the books in a given category together in one place. In a bookstore you have to look for the section that interests you, here everything is in one place.”



    As for prices, she admitted they are still rather high, especially for certain people. That is why she sometimes buys books she already owns, but not for herself:



    “I give them as gifts. It’s something I enjoy, helping a friend who cannot afford to buy books. In my circle of friends, we tell each other what’s new and look things up on the Internet. I have older retired friends who don’t have Internet, and I keep them up to date with the what’s out here.”



    On the other side of the counter, publishers have their own justifications for the high prices. Here is Oana Boca-Stanescu:


    “I worked for nine years in a publishing house, and I know why books cost what they do in Romania. Issues are small, and we are chasing our own tail in a small circle, because people can’t afford them, or don’t know they exist, since so much gets printed. And issues are small because people don’t buy them. The books have the exact price they are supposed to have. Publishing houses are businesses, whether we like it or not, and when they publish a certain book, they have to think of a profit. The final price includes the cost of paper, translators’ and editors’ fees, the promotion… all these put together lead to prices we see today.”



    Held twice a year, in spring and autumn, the discount book fair is good for both readers and publishers, who can thus sell more books and gain more customers.

  • Teaching theatre in Romanian schools

    Teaching theatre in Romanian schools

    The Vienna Children’s Theatre Association and the National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest have proposed the introduction of theatre as an optional course in the Romanian school curriculum. The initiators of the project say it has been proven that education through art in general, and theatre in particular, facilitates learning and motivates children. Teaching using techniques borrowed from theatre stimulate children’s creativity and improves memory. In school, theatre can build a community of children who learn how to function as a group and that only together they can bring significant change.



    Liliana Preoteasa, an under-state secretary with the Ministry of Education has praised the project, which she says has enjoyed the support of the Ministry from the very beginning. She hopes theatre will be introduced into the school curriculum and be available as a school curriculum in all schools:



    “I’m very glad that this project exists. The Ministry of Education has supported it from the very beginning and I hope it will turn into an optional subject to be introduced in the school curriculum. At the same time, I believe the hard work is only now beginning, because it’s not enough to have a well written curriculum, posted on the website, we also need teachers capable of carrying out this job. I believe training the teachers is a major component which we will have to address from now on, by talking with universities or with teachers’ associations, which can provide another type of training for those who are already in the system. I believe that theatre, besides providing a cultural openness, also responds to children’s need for a different teaching and learning method. I’m sure they will respond immediately to theatre and with a lot of enthusiasm, and I believe that the use of theatre performance techniques will influence their minds and souls in a major way.”



    For over 20 years in Austria and over 8 years in Romania, the Vienna Children’s Theatre Association has been training experts in children’s theatre. Its founder, actress and producer Sylvia Rotter says she wanted to offer Romanian children the chance to change the world they live in. By using breathing techniques and rhythm exercises, by improvising and working in teams children will become more confident, will interact more and will develop their linguistic and physical means of expression in an environment that encourages self-discovery:



    Doctor Raluca Mateescu, a neurologist with the Psychiatric Clinic for Children and Adolescents at Alexandru Obregia Hospital in Bucharest, says this kind of activity is badly needed in Romania, given that children today spend most of their time in front of TV and computer screens. This type of behaviour, experts say, creates serious health issues and damages the ability to communicate:



    “The world of today’s children has changed. They no longer play in the street or spend their entire day outside. These were children who felt, smelled and touched, so all their senses were stimulated. Today’s children, on the other hand, spend their time in front of a computer. The stimuli their brains get can only be of a repetitive and stereotypical nature, unlike children who play outdoors and interact with other people and other children their age. These are two totally different situations. Every day I see in the hospital children who, judging by what their parents tell me, have spent too much time in front of the TV, some from the age of 12 months, children who have their own tablets. And we wonder what’s happening with their brains?”



    About 120 teachers from 10 Romanian counties will attend courses that will enable them to teach theatre in schools. One of the universities involved in the project is Bucharest’s University of Theatre and Film, which has a section devoted to theatre pedagogy. As many as 8 students have already graduated this year. The project runs for 4 years, between 2014 and 2017. In spite of the fact that it has not been included in the school curriculum, theatre is an optional subject matter in schools and high schools.

  • Revitalizing the Danube Delta

    Revitalizing the Danube Delta

    Even though it is a fairy tale place in terms of landscape, the Danube Delta is a much less friendly environment when it comes to living there. The locals have a hard life, isolated by waters from the rest of the country, in spite of the area’s huge tourist potential. For this reason, a number of NGOs have started projects to inject new life into the local economy, many of them involving tourism. The ‘Ivan Patzaichin- Mila 23’ association, for instance, promotes the Delta and wants to put its potential to work economically for people who live there. Tiberiu Cazacioc, representing the organization, told us more about it:



    Tiberiu Cazacioc: “For instance, if someone opens up a place providing accommodation there, they should use local labor, and a concept of building and architecture based on local raw materials, traditional ones. In addition, accessories for interiors, like napkins and breadbaskets, should be hand made locally. The menus as well, should have a local specificity with local products. This is the ideal model, and we are building the elements of this model step by step. It is a model that goes against the grain, because much of the public understands development as an expansion with large hotels, lots of infrastructure and asphalt. A lot of people coming from Bucharest want to feel in the Delta as if they were in Bucharest.”



    This model of tourism makes for a very short and very crowded season in the Delta, while the social entrepreneurship promoted by associations like “Ivan Patzaichin” relies on the tourist staying for longer periods of time, providing him or her with as much access to aspects of local culture as possible. To this end, the association sought to reintroduce wooden boat rides in the Delta, a slow, lengthy way of traveling, that allows the tourist to take in the surroundings. Here is Tiberiu Cazacioc once again:



    Tiberiu Cazacioc: “We worked in a certain direction, towards a revival of the traditional boat. We want to revive it in a new way, to have a wooden boat made of local wood, with oars, locally called ‘canotca’. We invented something to correspond to the times we live in, attracting a certain target public. Canotca is designed as a slow boat. We tried in the Delta several times to reintroduce wooden boats in circuits, because it is an instrument that takes you back to traditions and allows you to spend more time in the open. Spending more time in the Delta means more benefits, people hire guides, they have more meals, and so the season lengthens.”



    However, it’s not tourists that have to be persuaded of the new model of vacationing, but the locals, as Tiberiu Cazacioc told us:


    Tiberiu Cazacioc: “There continues to be a lot of skepticism, because our reference model right now is excessive development. However, maybe the tourist doesn’t want asphalt, but wants to admire nature, to break a sweat, because the rest of the year he or she is stuck in an office, barely moving. We have been working for a few years in the Delta, but education takes time. The reasons for which we do it is because we believe that it is not normal to bring food from Tulcea, which is hours away, to be prepared in restaurants in the Delta, to bring workers from Tulcea, while locals go elsewhere to find jobs. We could create a local economy where people come to breathe in the atmosphere of the place, but the money spent stays locally.”



    Another association getting involved, and facing similar resistance, is the ‘Letea in UNESCO’ association, which wants to introduce thatched roofing into UNESCO’s heritage, under the project ‘Thatch is Concrete’. Here is project coordinator Loredana Pana:


    Loredana Pana: “People want to modernize, they want homes like the ones they see on television, with double glazing windows, and they want modern conditions. Which is why our campaign started with them. We taught them not to trade thatched roofs for metal roofs, to keep the traditional architecture, which the tourists love. We have a lot of tourists at Letea in the summer, but they only stay for a few hours. They get here, they visit the village, go see the forest, then leave. There is no accommodation for tourists so far in Letea, and financial resources for locals are meager. Fortunately for us, a few families in Letea have already understood the importance of traditional crafts and the importance of keeping the village looking traditional. They arranged and renovated houses in this style, and they are maintaining them like that. Which is why tourists often stop by their gate, take pictures, or grab a bite to eat. Gradually, people are catching on to the idea that this is the future, even though it is rooted in the past.”



    A past that is still untouched in Letea, especially in terms of buildings, as Loredana Pana told us:


    Loredana Pana: “Roofs have the same style all over the Delta, but we went to Letea because it is the most isolated village in the area, and for that reason it is the best preserved. It is like a living museum, with many houses preserving their traditional architecture, which is why they look so good, as opposed to other villages, like Crisan, for instance, and Sulina, where houses are degraded, no one observes the building code. It says there clearly that you are not allowed to build using metal rods or to build mountain style houses, or use other colors than the approved ones, green, blue, gray and white. The code also recommends thatched roofs, but unfortunately that is ignored too.”



    The fact that people have forgotten the skills and craft adds up to a real problem. In Letea, the only person still making old school thatched roofs is Costel, and he has been hired by an association to teach those skills in class. The more people learn this old custom, the more will find out that thatch is not just concrete; it could also be a money maker.

  • Palliative care

    Palliative care

    Recent statistics indicate that in 2012 there were some 78,000 new patients, 4,000 more than in 2008. Under these circumstances, a proper treatment should not look only at medical care, but it should provide patients with mental relief and support. How does a young man feel, knowing he’s suffering from a terminal disease? What about his family? What treatment should be used to help those people cope with their illnesses both physically and mentally?



    The Casa Sperantei Hospice Association has been offering solutions to those problems. Founded in 1992 in Brasov, central Romania, by Graham Perolls of the United Kingdom, the foundation did pioneering work in the field of palliative care in Romania. For ten years, Casa Sperantei Hospice has provided home palliative care to patients in Brasov. Then, in 2002, the association opened the first certified centre devoted to this type of treatment, also in Brasov.



    In 2006, the association opened a branch in Bucharest, while a broader center for palliative care was inaugurated early this year. Whereas in the early 1990s, Casa Sperantei Hospice was a pathfinder in the field of palliative care, at present numerous NGOs are active in the field, although their number remains small. Graham Perolls says this is still not enough for the large number of patients in need of such treatments.



    In 2008 Casa Sperantei Hospice started raising funds for building the treatment centre in Bucharest, which was inaugurated only this year. Doctor Ruxandra Ciocarlan, the director of the Patient Service Department with the Casa Sperantei Hospice told us more about the efforts involved, as well as about the facilities the centre offers.



    “When operating at full capacity, this centre of integrated services may provide treatment to a total of 2,000 patients a year. In addition, we offer home care for adults and children, expert medical checks in hospitals and outgoing hospices. We also offer specific therapies for cancer patients and admission. We have 23 beds, 15 for adults and 8 for children”.



    Patient-family dialogue is key to palliative treatments, Ruxandra Ciocarlan told us:



    “It’s one thing to provide counselling and guidance, because more often than not public healthcare services are not well integrated and lack coordination, and patients often don’t know who to address, where to go or what follows. It’s a whole different thing however to treat them as human beings, not at carriers of a diagnosis. Patients refuse to be treated as people suffering from breast or liver cancer. They have names, they are called Ion, Gheorghe or Maria, they are people whose pain is boundless, they have families equally affected by this illness. They may have existential questions, such as what’s happening to me? They want to be treated just like any other normal being”.



    This type of respect is exactly what Cristina Stanica got, both for her and for her little kid, who died of a brain tumour at only 8 years of age. It was respect that unfortunately she didn’t find in the public healthcare system, overcrowded with patients and overburdened by an endless string of problems. Cristina Stanica:



    “Unfortunately, I believe that no one in the public healthcare sector has the necessary time to provide such services. Doctors are always busy, the system doesn’t allow them to do more than what they are already doing. Besides, I doubt they would all be so eager to do this. I’ve met doctors who’ve done everything humanly possible to help their patients, doctors who did their job flawlessly, in a professional manner, without getting emotionally involved, and I’ve met doctors who even if they did have the time, they still wouldn’t get involved, although I admit they were few”.



    Any medical treatment in hospitals should be doubled by emotional support, helping patients to get over their unpleasant experiences with their dignity intact. Cristina Stanica:



    “My kid and I benefited from emotional support. My kid used to say about the Hospice medical team that came to our house that they were ‘our smiles’. ‘When will our smiles be here?’, he would ask. It was an extraordinary team that treated us like normal people, with all our unbearable spells of anger and despair. They knew what we were going through and they helped us, without us realising it”.



    Palliative treatment is most effective when provided at home or, if the patients’ family work or if the patients live alone, in specialised centres. This type of treatment benefits all, patients, their families and circle of friends.


  • The Civic Spirit in Bucharest’s Neighborhoods

    The Civic Spirit in Bucharest’s Neighborhoods

    Built in the late 60s, on the then Bucharest outskirts, after several decades Drumul Taberei neighborhood turned into something more than a bedroom-neighborhood as it used to be called. Among the blocks of four, eight or ten floors, schools, kindergartens, medical offices and a even cinema was built, part of a compound that also used to host a sweets and pastry shop, a general department store, a photo shop and a hair shop. A small square was also built, for young people to have a place to meet. So, the neighborhood got a centre around which people could build a community. However, for 17 years now the “Favorit” cinema hall has been closed, and the commercial area has been fully transformed. So people living in the area have decided to set up an association to bring the cinema back to life. Here is one of its members, Marilena Trica, telling us about the purpose of their initiative.



    It’s actually a group of friends, neighbors and just citizens who want the same thing, to bring the Favorit cinema and the community centre back to life. We set up this association in 2010, with the help of the Resource Centre for Public Participation. Back in 2010, Centre representatives knocked on the doors of 120 apartments and invited citizens to a discussion about their problems. Although we had not expected it, half of them came to the meeting. They were asked to write on a piece of paper what they would like to happen in their area. The surprise was that they all wanted Favorit cinema to be rendered functional again. And this is how our group was born. We have around 300 members in our data base, 10 of them being the active members of the group.”



    What these people want is not just for the cinema to be reopened, but to turn the old Favorit compound into a cultural centre, to host theatre performances and concerts, a place for young people to spend their free time and for children to participate in various educational activities, actually to have the place become the ‘heart of the community’ again, as sociologist Mircea Kivu called it.



    “The neighbourhoods in a city need more than just utilities, and if we talk strictly about functions, Drumul Taberei has everything it needs. It has cinema halls in malls, and plenty of shopping areas. But apart from that, a neighbourhood also needs what I would call ‘symbolic landmarks’, that is, places where people can meet as neighbours, not simply as consumers, places where the community life can unfold. These neighbourhoods need to develop as communities, not as mere agglomerations of inhabitants.”



    Although the communist regime destroyed this sense of association and collectivity, as of recently small groups from various towns or neighbourhoods have started to act as communities. In Drumul Taberei there are a few other initiative groups, such as “Callatis Drumul Taberei Group” or the “Tudor Vladimirescu Initiative,” while in another part of Bucharest a group called “Lacul Tei” has been set up. When people feel they belong to a community, the civic spirit is at work. Sociologist Mircea Kivu knows of other similar initiatives, in other towns:



    “There is a recent one in Iasi, in the north-east, a group of people who oppose the idea of cutting down the linden trees downtown. And I’ve heard about another beautiful initiative in Oradea, where a group came together to restore a shopping area and rebuild it as a community center. We are beginning to see more of this kind of initiatives, with people freely deciding to get organized. Without this, authorities will only do what they choose to.”


    Marilena Trica tells us what the members of the “Favorit Initiative” managed to get from the authorities:



    “We’ve made a lot of petitions, requests for explanations in the meetings of the local council, we issued press releases. We even had arguments with them, and here is what we achieved. In 2011, the funding was approved and a feasibility study was conducted for the Favorit Project. In 2012, money was allotted from the local budget and the blueprint and technical specifications were put together. We were thrilled to hear that in 2013 2.6 million euros was earmarked for the implementation of the project. Unfortunately, we are still in this phase, because the City Hall does not own the cinema building. The owner is the Ministry of Culture, through an agency called RADEF, which we are currently fighting to get ownership rights, so that the City Hall may proceed with the investment. So we keep petitioning.”



    At present, the project is blocked due to bureaucratic issues between the ”RomaniaFilm” State Owned Film Distribution and Exploitation Company (RADEF), which abandoned the cinema hall, and Bucharest’s District 6 City Hall, which cannot take it over. Nevertheless, Marilena Trica and her colleagues from the “Favorit Initiative” waste no time and keep bombarding the authorities with letters about what they would like to change about their district:



    “Here is what a letter I sent to the Culture Ministry sounded like: <> Here is another letter that we sent to the District 6 City Hall: “No pansies and kerbs in District 6. Funds, willingness and education for Favorit Cinema.”



    In time, civic actions have started to pay off. On September 26, when “Neighbourhood’s Day” was celebrated, members of the Favorit Initiative managed to persuade authorities to open the cinema’s doors once again. Two short films were screened in the hallway, and the large number of spectators gave them hope that, maybe, together they will eventually succeed.



  • The report on open government and open public data

    The report on open government and open public data

    The two notions refer to the citizens’ right to have access to information of public interest made available by institutions and authorities. The availability of public data in open format is already standard practice in the most developed countries, enhancing the transparency of government, discouraging corruption and contributing to economic growth.



    The Open Society Foundation has recently launched its report on open Government and open public data, which provides an overview of the main developments in the implementation of public policies, thus making government more transparent for citizens. The report reveals that while nobody in Romania is clearly opposed to the idea of open government, nobody truly promotes it either. Andra Bucur, the representative of the Open Society Foundation, explains:



    ”The report shows that we can have open government in Romania, but there is no political will to achieve this and no culture of transparency. The recommendations in the final part of the report are specifically meant to strengthen open government in Romania and solve those problems. In the report, we defined the idea of open government in terms of three fundamental principles, based on the American model. The first principle is transparency, which refers to the access to information of public interest. The second principle of open government is public involvement in the decision-making process at local and central level, while the third principle has to do with the collaboration between public institutions and citizens in the implementation of public measures and policies, which may take the form of public-private agreements and partnerships.”



    Romania made a full commitment to open government in 2011, when, together with 46 other countries, it became a member of the Open Government Partnership, an international initiative aimed at making more information of public interest available to citizens, free of charge using the new technologies. The first National Action Plan for the implementation of the partnership was thus approved and the idea of “open data” concept was made part of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. The Online Services and Design Department was also created in 2013 and 2014, later becoming the body responsible for the implementation of the Open Government Partnership in Romania and the introduction of the new technologies in the activity of public administration institutions.



    Despite these measures, no budget has been made public and it is still unclear what are the resources for their implementation, warns the latest report on open government and open public data published in Romania. A platform was also launched, called data.gov.ro, on which public institutions can upload their datasets in an open file format, so that they can be reused. However, there still does not exist an update procedure for the data, nor the obligation for constant republishing, not to mention that many already published data contain errors, writes the report by the Open Society Foundation.



    At the moment, the portal contains about 158 datasets uploaded by 29 public institutions, mostly by the health and justice ministries and the National Institute for Heritage. Andra Bucur gives us an example of what access to information really means:



    “The first example I have picked is an application used in London that collects data from several government agencies, such as the environment agency and the employment agency, and provides citizens wishing to move to a certain area in London with information on the quality of life, price of apartments, crime rate and number of schools and nursery schools in this specific area, etc. You only have to visit one website and find out all the information you need before moving to a certain part of the city. This application was designed by reusing the available datasets published by state authorities. This is an example of data reusing which benefits citizens.”



    Radu Puchiu, the coordinator of the Department for Online Services and Design, is optimistic about achieving open government in Romania:



    “I think that open government is possible in Romania. I believe that governments cannot not ignore the ‘open data’ issue indefinitely, or the concept of ‘open government’, because we have adhered to these principles and are making progress in implementing them. In terms of political support, I would of course like to see the top political decision makers in this country embrace this idea. I think we are on the right track.”



    In 2007, 84% of legislative bills were adopted at local level in public meetings attended by 69 citizens on average. In 2009, 65% of European companies accessed the websites of public institutions to look for information or download certain forms. In 2013, 5% of Romanians used electronic government services, which is far below the European average of 41%. In 2013, the Defence Ministry recorded 18,222 requests for access to information and over 50,000 visits to its information desks. In view of such figures, the experts who drew up the report on open government and open public data concluded that while public participation is low in Romania, the need for information is increasing.