Category: Society Today

However, the economic crisis and drastic austerity measures have taken a heavy toll on their morale. Early this year, hundreds of people across the country took to the streets in protests that spanned days. At this point, 70% of Romanians believe that the country is going in the wrong direction. A study was recently released. Called “Public Opinion in Romania in a European Context. Structures and Trends in Societal and Regional Spaces 2007-2011”, the study detailed local attitudes and compared them to other European countries. This study, run by sociologist Dumitru Sandu, drew on Eurobarometers published between 2007 and 2011, and puts forth some interesting conclusions. Here is Dumitru Sandu:





Dumitru Sandu: “One of the major conclusions of the research shows that the main factor in social change in Romania is the dissatisfaction that Romanian young people have towards opportunities offered by institutions today. Back in early 2008, optimism had reached 63%, the highest percentage ever. In the last two years, it slumped from 63 to 27%. Has anyone else had a phenomenon of this magnitude in the EU? Yes, it was young people in Greece.”





The similarity between Romania and Greece, an old EU member state, is surprising for those that are used resort to old sociological clichés, Dumitru Sandu believes. His study revealed that Romanian and Bulgarian attitudes, for instance, mirror closely that of citizens in the south of the EU. Dumitru Sandu explains why:





Dumitru Sandu: “The group formed by the Baltic countries together with Romania and Bulgaria is strongly shaped. We are talking about a poor Europe in the extreme east. This group behaves differently than Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. The Baltic countries are not included in the northern group, since they are totally different. The south is dominated by a different situation. Right now, there is clearly a struggle between the south of Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. As far as satisfaction with life is concerned, Central and Eastern Europe, the old communist states and newest members, has better social indicators then the south of Europe overall. This is a major change”.





While in the north of the continent the crisis has left almost no traces in terms of morale. In the south things are completely different. Sociologist Mircea Kivu had certain observations to make regarding the delineation of European regions in terms of optimism:





Mircea Kivu: “Of course, Greece and Italy are all in southern Europe, but I would be hard put to call them a region, first of all because that they are not neighbors. The same goes for the Baltic countries, as well as for Romania and Bulgaria. I’d rather try to explain the differences by the common history that brings together these countries. Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic countries have had a harder time parting with their communist past, and the countries in the southern area have been affected in a major way by the economic crisis”.





Also, the fact that Romanians perceive the country as headed in the wrong direction has to be interpreted by correlating statistical and cultural data, as anthropologist Vintila Mihailescu believes:





Vintila Mihailescu: “It has been repeatedly said that the country is headed in the wrong direction, and that is one of the constant indicators in polls. Here we can culturally interpret the relationship between uneducated society and regimes, which have always been considered as outsiders. This attitude still holds. Power is power, it is the government, ‘the others’ that are always on the outside and are always the ‘bad guys’. As a result, people who believe that things are going in the wrong direction make up a percentage that is not very relevant. In order to understand it, it has to be completed by another type of analysis.”





Romanian confidence in EU institutions is strong and it somehow resembles confidence in the Church: a higher power expected to amend all things wrong here. Dumitru Sandu again:



Dumitru Sandu : “Back in 2006, confidence in the EU stood at 67%, while confidence in the Romanian government was only 27%. The average Romanian seeks solutions to their problems in Brussels, while an Italian, French or British citizen looks for solutions in their own country. This is a fundamental difference. In early 2011, 62% of Romanians stated they trusted the EU. This confidence then lost12 percentage points in one swift stroke over the next five or six months. However, this drop in confidence in the EU is general, not just Romanian. At the same time, Romanians continue to be Euro-optimistic, and optimistic in general. They recover quickly from crisis shocks”.



This zigzag in Romanian attitudes is, however, a favorable condition for social movements, according to the study called “Public Opinion in Romania in a European Context. Structures and Trends in Societal and Regional Spaces 2007-2011”.

Unemployment among the disabled stands at twice as much than the unemployment figure among the other categories of the active population. Against that backdrop, the Estuar Foundation in Romania has launched www.faraeticheta.org the first online job platform for people with disabilities. With details on that, here is Raluca Chiriac, the foundation’s vocational advisor:





Raluca Chiriac: “The idea of the platform is part of a larger scale project, Invest in People, co-financed by the POSDRU European Social Fund, through the Human Resources Development program. We wanted the program to act as an Internet-based meeting place between people with disabilities, that is between people with mental health problems, and employers — people who are willing to hire those facing such problems. In short, it is an online recruitment site, but one that is tailored for people with disabilities.”





In October 2011, Sulfina Barbu, then Labor Minister of Romania, said that a little over 12 per cent of the country’s disabled population have jobs. The small number of vacancies and the inadequate qualification of such people are some of the reasons mentioned by employers for this situation. Adding to that is the poor knowledge of the employment opportunities for the disabled. We asked Raluca Chiriac about the employment problems the disabled are facing in Romania.





Raluca Chiriac: “People with mental health problems or with other disabilities will certainly find it a lot more difficult to get a job, and society, employers are not yet receptive enough or are poorly informed, which is why they are reluctant to hire people with such problems. Yet progress has been made in this respect.”





To encourage the social inclusion of the disabled, the Romanian government offers tax facilities to all business operators recruiting and hiring people in that category. A law was passed in 2006, forcing companies with at least 50 employees to hire people with disabilities up to at least 4% of the total number of employees. Alternatively, companies may choose to pay to the state budget a monthly sum standing at 50% of the national minimum gross salary, multiplied by the number of jobs that are not taken by disabled people. The platform www.faraeticheta.org offers employers detailed information on what qualifies as disability, especially mental disability. Raluca Chiriac adds:





Raluca Chiriac: “We try to help employers understand that hiring people with mental health problems benefits society, all of us all in the long run, because those people will thus be able to support themselves and won’t get support from the state alone. So we help ourselves by helping each other.”





Moreover, the lack of a constant occupation, the need to belong to a social group and to be socially valued make disability a lot more difficult to bear, leading to deterioration of that person’s and their family’s well-being. Another problem regarding the information employers should have has to do with how jobs must be adapted to the employee’s needs:





Raluca Chiriac: “As a foundation that has been working with disabled people for more than 18 years now, we can help employers by providing the information they need on how to tailor working conditions so that a person with a mental health problem can have maximum efficiency at work, just like any other person. Employers should know that from the very beginning, so that they can plan their activity knowing that every now and then, such a person may not feel very well and may not be as efficient as they usually are. Also, these people should not be assigned high-stress positions, meaning that tasks need to be very simple and clearly explained, with no ambiguities… In case of problems, we also talk with the employers and employees. We also stay in touch, after employment, with those who hire people with mental health problems. “





The online recruitment platform www.faraeticheta.org, addressing people with disabilities, was launched in December 2011. At present there are 11 vacancies and 158 applications posted on that site. The latter mainly focus on office work — secretarial or administrative — but also on practical activities. According to the initiators of the project, the Estuar Foundation, it will benefit everybody, and it is crucial for employers to know from the very beginning that these applicants have a mental or physical problem and belong to a vulnerable group.

Between the 2nd and the 6th of April, ordinary classes were replaced by extra-curricular activities. One such activity involved a visit to the public radio. Virginiana Bogdan, an English teacher at the Maria Rosetti School in Bucharest tells us more about her class’s activities as part of “A Different Type of School” programme:

“My pupils are in the 8th grade and, although they don’t yet have to choose their future profession, they soon have to choose a high school that provides them with the training necessary for a future profession. I talked to their parents and decided to introduce the children to other professions than those they hear about every day: doctor, teacher or economist. We also wanted them to do more physical exercise and become involved in more cultural activities. This week, we will be walking through some of the older areas in Bucharest with a guide who will tell us about the buildings and monuments in the old part of the city.”

The children naturally welcomed the idea of a different type of school that involved being in the city rather than staying in school. Emilian Diaconu is in the 8th grade:

“I think it’s a great idea, but I didn’t like that at first we were supposed to stay in school and do all those different types of activities in the classroom. I didn’t think that was a good idea.”

Although she basically agrees with Emilian, his colleague, Teodora has a slightly different opinion:

“Children may relax and take part in cultural activities at the same time. I’d also like to go out of the school more, but we have to realise that if all children were on the streets at the same time, there would be chaos. We have to organise ourselves and try to do as many activities as possible in school.”

Madalina, another 8th-grade student, also believes that innovative and creative teaching methods should be used more often:

“If we had these programs more times a year, maybe it would be too much. But two weeks a year is just fine. Plus, it would be nice if we had more out of school activities during the school year.”

Civil society teaching experts also hailed the Ministry’s initiative for emphasising creativity and innovation. As students spent a week away from their school, in their native towns or regions, the local community also had to contribute. Anca Nedelcu is a teacher at the Faculty of Psychology and Pedagogy and an expert with the The Education 2000+ Center non-governmental organisation. Here is what she told us:

”This programme requires a lot of creativity from the school and the community. We can’t go visit the same places again and again. That is why we need a lot of creativity and different activities. This is why “A Different Type of School” should stimulate not only teaching institutions, but also museums, for example. They should renew their collections and create children’s workshops. Some are already doing this. We should also have a science museum, which we don’t have at the moment, where children can go and see how sound and light travel, for instance. As long as the offer coming from outside the school is limited, the school is left alone with the task of developing children’s creativity.”

As students are really keen on changing the way in which classes are held, creativity shouldn’t be limited to one week a year. Here is Anca Nedelcu again at the microphone:

“School should be different. It should be stimulating, fun and creative all the time. We shouldn’t just tick a week of creativity on our requirement list and then go back to the strictness of traditional teaching methods. We should eliminate traditional classes and have more than one special week a year when we can do things differently.”

So we can only hope that the lessons in creativity learned during this first week of “A Different Type of School” will be applied throughout the rest of the year.

The recently released Global Adult Tobacco Survey drew attention to the dangers of active and passive smoking alike, and aimed at increasing the awareness of Romanians older than 15. Romanian authorities have been hopeful that an enforced ban on smoking in public spaces will come into force, and that ways will be found to toughen anti-smoking legislation. This will perhaps lead to a ban on smoking on private property as well, in order to prevent the exposure of non-smokers of all ages. We talked to Sorina Irimie, study coordinator in Romania.





Sorina Irimie: “Well aware that smoking is the number one preventable cause of death, the World Health Organization together with the Canadian Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control launched a global tobacco watch system, back in 1989. The system includes data gathered from several surveys – one focuses on students aged 13 to 15, first conducted in 2004 and rerun in 2009. This study looked at tobacco consumption in school personnel, professors and auxiliary staff. Another study focused on 3rd-year students in dental medicine, general medicine and pharmacy and nurses’ colleges. There is also the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, monitoring tobacco consumption in adults. The latter was first introduced in 2007.”





The global survey on tobacco consumption in adults, conducted in Romania in 2011, illustrated tobacco consumption in Romanian citizens over 15 years of age. The Survey provides data on tobacco consumption, the quitting rate, passive smoking, and economic aspects, as well as attitude and perception towards tobacco consumption.





Statistics show that 24.3 percent of adults in Romania are daily consumers — 34.9 percent of all male citizens and 14.5 percent of female citizens. Meanwhile, 2.4 percent are occasional smokers — 2.5 percent of male citizens and 2.2 percent of female citizens. At global level, most current smokers fell into the 25-44-age bracket. 37.8 percent of current smokers have had at least one attempt at quitting in the last 12 months. 35.4 percent of respondents over 15 years of age said they have been exposed to second-hand smoking at home.





Meanwhile, 34.2 percent of employees were exposed to second-hand smoking at the workplace during the previous 30 days. The average smoker spends 273.1 lei — about 62 euros — on cigarettes every month. This figure is slightly less than half the minimum wage. Dr. Sorina Irimie is back with details on the severity of the phenomenon:





Sorina Irimie: “Epidemiological evidence is crucial in crafting measures to end an epidemic. And as far as tobacco goes, we can safely speak about a smoking epidemic. In Romania, 4.8 million adults are current smokers, and as such they are subject to high risks of disease and early death. The good news as regards the smoking epidemic is that it is reversible, and GATS focuses on measuring the efficiency of intervention. Romanian legislation bans smoking in public areas, but unfortunately it is not complied with. Amendments and punitive measures must be identified, to ensure the enforcement of the law. In fact, we want smoke free’ legislation, because this is the solution. Over 70% of the respondents are in favour of a total smoking prohibition., Smoking should not be allowed anywhere, not even in cars, because children may be passive smokers in such cases. Over 6 million people are exposed to cigarette smoke at home. So we want smoke-free cars, smoke-free homes. We focus on this because on the one hand it protects non-smokers from cigarette smoke exposure, and on the other hand it may lower the number of people who take up smoking.”





Of the unsettling findings in the survey, one that has caught the attention of experts is that out of the total number of current smokers, 60% seem to be nicotine-addicts, i.e. they smoke the first cigarette within half an hour from waking up. For them, public healthcare regulators must create special support programmes, must raise smokers’ awareness that smoke-quitting programmes are free of charge, that they can receive counselling and that there are toll-free phone lines for entering such programmes.





One measure that Romanian authorities are encouraged to take based on the GATS is to increase the price of cigarettes to a level comparable to the EU average. An unexpected 60% of the respondents backed such a measure.