Belgian male, 62

Age: 62
Sex: male
Nationality: Belgian
Education: university degree in “Geography – Anthropology – Archaeology” + a degree in “Science of Education” (History, French, English).
Occupation: teacher of Geography in a Gymnasium, preparing for the Baccalaureat.

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
A country that has always been between two worlds, the Occidental and the Oriental ones, because of its geographical situation. The historical past of the two parts of the country also explains all the differences between the various mentalities of its populations. The period of the communistic phase even more reinforced the difficulties of expression because of the totalitarian aspect of governance.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Not really. I have found the concretization of my different mental perceptions (historical and geographical theoretic ones). But I have discovered a far more open minded and extraverted population than generally expected, people having a great human aspect and constantly developing it. The Ceausescu period of course reinforced the underground solidarity between specific nets of connected people.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
It is extremely difficult to make a selection of the different encounters, because all of them are very specific ones. But there are two different aspects I would like to put in the light.
- The first one goes back to my first years coming into Romania (1990) and refers to the thirst of contacts with the Occidental people that Romanians expressed at every occasion. When a real sense/sensation of comprehensiveness was expressed between us – which has nothing to do with any sort of compassion! –, as well as a deep understanding of their past and present situation, we could assist to the development of a profound confidence between us. Those relations have sometimes developed into a deep, strong and close friendship with some specific people.
- The second best encounter situation I have known is a more recent one. It goes back to the last three or four years, and refers to the youth of the country. Before, there was a deep feeling of despair in the mind of most of them. They were very pessimistic about the situation of their country and a great many of them saw no other future than outside Romania. I have got the impression that kind of reaction is becoming to change among them, and I have had the pleasure to meet a group of young adults (25-30 years old), professionally engaged, that have decided to do something for their country, not going outside but staying inside, struggling with the present difficulties of life. They have created a non profit association to be free from the political and administrative situations of the every day life (that everybody has known...). Their deal is to give a hand to the social, educative and cultural life for the youth of the marginalized rural regions they live in. And they have put it into practice for more than three years now!

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Not difficult to find and it is from the very beginning up to now! Nearly all the contacts with the Officials of the commune I am in relation with (as representative of a NGO association). The lack of confidence, the untruth and the lies of the Mayor and his staff (he was re-elected twice by the population), misappropriation of funds of our partner NGO association, discredit spread abroad about some specific persons working in a social way in the village, systematic corruption… I am not the only one to have experienced those bad contacts with that kind of Officials, but it is very hard to suffer and to accept, when I see the negative consequences on his own population who dare not react.
By the way, the same kind of situation encountered by the young adults I was just speaking about is the actual reason why they have decided to create their non profit organization, not to be confronted to the administrative and political Officials any more!

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
- social difficulties
- administrative corruption
- desire of economic Western integration
- false perception of the same
- danger of progressive lack of their human and social aperture and solidarity
- courage

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
- second class population perceived and/or considered
- courage and constant work
- false attraction of the Western world
- danger of sexual exploitation
- liberty of the young women in town

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
- corruption
- egocentric perception of life and individualistic way of life
- difficulties of economic adaptation and professional conversion
- great gap between the adults and the young men

What is the age you associate Romania with?
The age of the youth, hope for the future

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
“Ţuică” of course! How could it be otherwise, even if it is not the most important drink in the country.

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
- general corruption of the Official sector
- egocentrism of a great part of the population
- politician way of considering the Sate affairs
- nationalism based on voluntarily false spread ideas

Name 3 prominent Romanians
- Mihai Eminescu
- Lucian Blaga
- Mircea Eliade

What time of the day you associate Romania with??
?? No specific day. Is there one?

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Bulgaria or/and Moldova (but not for the same reasons…)

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
There are so many! But the main one is probably the richness of personal relations and friendly contacts Romanians can have between each others, the joy of life (despite the factual reality of economic life…) and the second degree they can consider everything, finding so signs for a better future. Here, in Switzerland (I live in this country even though I am a Belgian citizen), people are so narrow minded, egoistic (non only egocentric!), not willing changing anything to their planned time-table; they are self-sufficient and, very often, conceited persons. The main difference lies in the mental perception of things and persons.