They may look ugly, but those apartments are really not half bad, espcially when properly maintained and modernized.

I am tempted to agree with “shadowchase”: Heal the past, Live the present, Dream the future.

May the future look brighter in the EU in 2007! Happy New Year to all!

By the way : name of the city is Tîrgu Mureş and not Târgu Mureş.
On the other hand the story reflects just few images of a city which grow and go to other life than years ago .
We have in Tirgu Mures greek kebab and armenians. We have chinese restaurants and of course italian gelateria .
Is not like in Bucharest , but I live this place .
Romania is not dirty . Romania is full with different things which are not at the right place , but not more dirty than other countries .
2007 will be a new beginning for Romania , like a country part of UE . I am sure that after few years in european Union the things will be different , cause we learn first and we are creative enough and eager of work to do nice things on this beautiful country .
I do business with USA ( houston, LA, SF , NYC, DC etc) and West European countries from 6 years ago and from what I learned from them and not only , is just a problem of time :).
After a long period of non-democracy is normal to see what you saw and for an american from New Hampshire is difficult to understand :) .
Craciun fericit si multi ani cu sanatate si bucurii !

Anyway, I’ve taken my own advice and chilled a bit. It’s my daughter’s first birthday tomorrow, and “winterval” to boot, so I’m not inclined to let this get to me any more than it already has.

Cristian – You were an unrelenting tour de force, the likes of which Targu Mures has never seen! And to think such heights of ridiculum could be done without any vandalism or hooliganism. Shocking, I say.

Too bad you won’t be home for Christmas. I’d say we should gather up a bottle of Iancu palinca, then battle the snow by joining with a banding of singing Roma while taking turns playing the capra.

The glory! The fame! The riches!

Andy – Despite the edit, I actually thought you brought a very interesting perspective to the issue. I can relate to anecdotes about a person seeing the composition of their city go through radical upheaval and how that change might surprise them.

I still haven’t finished processing the topic, actually. It brings up notions of US issues, where we’ve seen rapid growth in Hispanic populations recently that leads to some tension. We’ve mostly swallowed the bitter pill of Segregation reversal, although some effects still linger. Prior to that, the Irish were treated like the plague when they came in large numbers. Those are the contexts which first ring a bell with me.

Musculin – No doubt you’re right about the pursuit of the personalized local story. It’s a subject I’ve thought about purposely, but don’t always delve into. In this particular case, a bit of mayhem was the underlying experience involved in my first trip to Targu Mures. And we did accomplish a little of that, I should think.

While the kebap appears to be a uniquely Romerican fascination, I would differ with you ever so slightly on the fotbal topic. Granted, it’s not particularly intellectual, per se. But! It does represent an accessible culture aspect which many people can easily identify with. What, with sports being the great unifier and all.

I take note of the historical fact that Targu Mures was under Hungarian administration from 1940 to 1944. I must concede the same point which you concede: there’s historical accuracy in there with respect to which government issued the orders for that particular town/region. Nevertheless, I remain adamant in that it’s an unnecessary cheapshot taken by nationalists intent on plying ethnic tension towards their own political aspirations while probably attempting to frame history in a light that allows some denial of culpability by shifting the appearance of all blame belonging to Germans and Hungarian “enemies.”

On the other hand, I suppose the truly cynical would be glad such people even admitted the events occurred at all.

There’s no doubt whatsoever that Romanians have long been maltreated by their various rulers over the centuries. This survivability is one feature that endears me to Romania. It’s fascinating. I’ll be sure to find out what I can about Schei.

Ron – I share your point of view on this topic. At times, it seems the entire environment is completely trashed. It’s an overstatement, of course. There is far more garbage and rusty car parts and old dishwashers dotting the landscape that it definitely detracts from what should be otherwise beautiful rivers, amazing forests, pretty valleys, and gorgeous mountains.

It is a real shame. And it is pervasive. While I have not yet been everywhere, I have been to some fairly remote areas and I can sadly confirm that I’ve seen this waste in almost every place.

It’s a problem that needs fixing. From my point of view, this starts with the people first and foremost. There are elements of the younger generations who care about such issues, but they aren’t quite organized and/or popular enough to make a substantial impact. I think it’s coming Real Soon Now.

A culture change needs to happen where people stop running at the mouth about their pride in this or that particular natural wonder …and put that pride into action. Apply a little peer pressure to some thoughtless jerk you see dumping their muck in a beautiful spot. Chide your neighbors, pressure the local governing committee, talk about the issue!

It’s a mindset problem, not much more IMNSHO.

The government has an authority figure but I get the impression she’s been busy trying to frame industrial policies and regulations to prevent further damage and, let’s be honest, manipulate the economy for EU ascension purposes rather that focused too much on clean up work.

I may spent too much time in Texas, but for my nickel, I’d like to see the government consider the option of penal labor in certain circumstances. If you’ve been involved in a minor fight or other relatively minor misdemeanor, I say rather than put those folks in jail for a week, put them into mandatory community service cleaning up some area of the judet in which the infraction occurred. With one junior supervisor watching a crew of, say, 12 to 15 people doing 6 hours of work in a day… you’d get some results pretty fast while perhaps deterring future departures from the law.

Got some white collar crime involving fiduciary penalties? Great! Charge the offender with a stiff fine, but also require them to get outdoors with the common man (see above) and pitch in a couple days cleaning up a nearby estuary. Between the money and the sweat, I bet he’ll think twice about trying to pull a fast one when it comes to business technicalities.

Applied equally to a defined set of non-violent crimes, I think such a policy could be a highly productive asset to the state. There’s nothing cruel about a couple days work or even a full week of it. It’s called paying your dues to society.

Shadow – Actually, I believe the plaque had alternate versions in Romanian as well as in Hebrew, if I recall correctly. But not Hungarian, notably… not that I think it should be required, but I thought it odd.

As for English, a fair percentage of people under 30 have some basic communication skills (primarily from watching American movies) but are understandably shy about using it. As for people over 30, I’m constantly surprised when I run into some random guy in his 50s or 60s who suddenly breaks out in nearly perfect English upon meeting me. Where these dudes come from? Clearly, they’re well educated.

Andy – The Hungarians were entirely unkind to Romanians for the better part of a millenium and it’s time you stopped denying it. Frankly, I’m appalled at your unwillingness to admit the Romanians were viewed as free labor and cannon fodder for centuries. Oh? You’re aware of that, eh? Hmmm…

Just had to tease you a bit.

I certainly think that Romanians have had the shorter end of the stick, on whole. Even though that’s true, I feel it incumbent on them to demonstrate a better morality with respect to ethnic tension. There’s a difficult balance to be found.

I thought your piece on the Romanian Orthodox Church buying up property to be quite thought provoking. I also found this article about Szeklers (despite its pathetically sensationalist headline) to be worth reading. Then again, I am the same nut who finds it fascinating to read UDMR memorandums about Hungarians in Romania, so I can make my own judgments about where they make strongly valid points and where they are inadvisedly biased.

With respect to Musculin, I must be missing the larger picture where this appears to be but one spot in a broad thread of discussion you two are having. You’re welcome to use this forum to help sort it out if you like… partially because I love the drama, but primarily because I’m interested in the topic of historical Romanian oppression and modern Hungarian… nonfavoritism ( I’m not sure the correct term there). Heck, I might even join in the fray!

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that neither of you made reference to Ramadan, but what really offends me is your joint conspiracy to purposefully exclude any mention of Festivus… the holiday for the rest of us.

For what it’s worth (since he needs me to spell things out in the most low context way imaginable):
*I know the history of Transylvania (and am not about to defend any of the many historical rulers of this region)
*I think ethnic tension and distruct of the other is a BAD THING
*I offered up a possible explanation as to why some Hungarians suffer from ethnic distrust, fear and anger in that city (and thus why there may be xenophobia from that community – a BAD THING)
*I haven’t offered any explanations as to why Romanians in the city may be xenophobic (and in truth I haven’t encountered any Romanian xenophobia in Tg Mures). I actually have no idea why they might be (or indeed if they are – it was Bogdan who made that observation).

Really, Musculin, you seem like a “well-informed and perceptive” person as well, so I have no idea why you chose yesterday to launch into me in an across-the-blogosphere series of nationalistically motivated attacks.

Just in case you are wondering, I don’t think that Csikszereda’s winter weather is a vicious act of Romanian xenophobia either. Now chill out.

(You’ll probably want to delete this too, Romerican. I’m so furious at his slurs that I’ve lost all sense of decorum here. It’s not fair to clutter up your blog with this shit)

I KNOW THE HUNGARIANS SCREWED THE ROMANIANS IN TRANSYLVANIA FOR MANY MANY YEARS. OK? For fuck’s sake.

(Sorry, Rom, I’m just carrying on my frustrations at Musculin’s wilful misreading of eveything I write it seems. If you don’t want this personal argument in your comments, feel free to delete this)

Happy Christmas to all and sundry too. Even you Musculin (though you’ll probably read my seasonal felicitations as some kind of call to arms for the Szekely)