[...]Romer!can – Dispatches from an American in Romania (was Transylvania)[...]…

[...]Romer!can – Dispatches from an American in Romania (was Transylvania)[...]…

Carolina – Welcome to the show! I didn’t mean to come across quite so simplistic and glib. Yes, a greater percentage of Americans have homes instead of apartments, 57 TV channels instead of 12, larger refrigerators and seperate dryers, budget cars or second hand cars, a huge debt load, and enough pocket change to eat out at Taco Bell or McDonalds. More Romanians are unable to do those things.

There’s a greater percentage of Americans who can pay greens fees to play golf on weekends, purchase HDTV or Plasma screens, put two cars in the garage, and order a bottle of wine with their salad and filet mignon at Le Bistro. A larger percentage of Romanians are certainly unable to do those things compared to the still-quite-large percent of Americans who also cannot do those things.

You’re absolutely right and perhaps I didn’t give it justice in my description.

I think that’s because I don’t find Romania to be day-and-night, black-or-white different from America. There are loads of rich people around here. There is an emerging middle class, even if it isn’t quite as large as Americans at this time. The number of people starving in abject poverty is probably less common than America. Ditto on the homeless.

Plus Romania is changing really fast. More and more Romanians are very much rising up. There are 3 McDonalds and 1 KFC here in Brasov and they are regularly full with teenagers or families with small children, just like America.  Plasma TVs, brand new BMWs, Dolce & Gabanna, Apple laptops, clubbing three times a week, buying and selling apartment properties, new home construction everywhere I look. These are becoming the new reality for a generation.

Does the average American have better creature comforts? Yes, but it’s not such a wide gap as some of the Vicitimized want to believe. A few more TV channels and more frequent trips to fast food or other restaurants. And how are they paying for all that? A crushing debtload that regularly threatens the entire economy.

Don’t worry, the banks are working overtime in Romania. I see advertisements for Visa credit cards in so many places I wonder if they’re just giving them out for free. Car leasing is way up. You can buy anything over $10 on rate/payments.

What’s going to happen? That’s that middle class coming out. More Romanians can afford to make payments on products they cannot actually afford. Just like America. They’re increasingly getting their hands on the materialism they’ve been promised and they’re paying a killing in bank loan interest to do it. Just like America.

I don’t view Romanians as either poor or powerless. In any way. Romanians are on the path to new plastic trinkets and beachside vacations. They’re even being accepted into the mighty EU.

This isn’t Congo or Myanmar. Now those people are poor and powerless.

Thanks for posting your comment. I think it was a really important point to bring up and hope I didn’t come across overly combative. I just find a difference between genuine poverty and eating at Jack in the Box less frequently or missing out on ESPN3.

Now this may be turning around, but that’s the way I see it.

Okay, you got me… I don’t know any manele (yet) that isn’t about drinking, women, and money. The sad part is now you’ve pushed me to go look, which means I’ve got to listen to more. Thanks a lot.

All I’m saying is that the majority modern/popular rappers ignore the origins and basis of hip hop by cranking out song after song as dumb as “I’m in the club… with a bottle full of bub… I’m into sex… not into makin’ love…. because… I’m in the club… with a bottle full of bub… I’m into sex… not into makin’ love…. because… I’m in the club… with a bottle full of bub… I’m into sex… not into makin’ love…. because… I’m in the club… with a bottle full of bub… I’m into sex… not into makin’ love…. because… ”

(But, maybe just maybe, that’s what The Man’s marketing machine wants us to think.)

I do know the Roma have influenced many other genres in different parts of the world. Though, having said that, “they” (official bodies) may exaggerate the extent of that influence a bit. Somewhere between denial and pride lies the truth of the matter.