Farsang 07

Last year I mentioned Farsang, the Hungarian (possibly Transylvanian only, who knows) pre-Lent feasting period, and I presciently mentioned that we might have to go to a school farsang party this year because Bogi would be at real school. Well, I was right, and that party is tonight. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but it seems like costumes are not really part of the deal (which is alternately a relief and a disappointment). It's also unusual to have a (non-family) party to which one is obliged to go, and to not go would somehow be breaking the unwritten but fiercely guarded rules.

Things are somewhat busy and manic these days, which will explain the lack of blog posts. In a two month period from mid Feb to mid April I will (I think) be spending significant time in 7 seperate countries, which sounds exhausting, but kind of intriguing all at the same time. Further details of my itinerary to follow.

It is still not cold! I never imagined I could see pictures on the news of snow on the ground in Spain and England, while Csikszereda remained snow-free. We're due to have winter start this weekend, I'm told.

A tale of two winters

This time last year the temperature in Csikszereda was minus 32. Today it reached plus 15. That's a swing of 47 degrees. (Or 85 degrees Fahrenheit for those you still living in the 19th Century). This winter is mental.

Not near, but Spar

When I was a lad (some years ago) the most common shop in England was "Spar", which apparently was some kind of franchise operation by which corner shops could sign up to be a spar and benefit from their distribution networks and so on. It was basically a byword for the cheap corner shop, and in fact their slogan was the obviously memorable "So near, so Spar". You weren't using the shop because it had a great selection or because it was cheap, you were very definitely using the shop because it was local and convenient. But times changed and Spars started disappearing from Britain's high streets, to be replaced by VG and Londis, and god knows what else. I have no idea if there are still any last remaining Spars in the UK, but I haven't seen them for ages.

I knew the shop still existed though, since I'd seen them elsewhere in Europe. But never have I seen a Spar like the ones that are now opening in Romania - large edge-of-town supermarkets with parking and allsorts. Yesterday we went to the one that's just opened in Udvarhely and I found myself wandering the wide, pushchair-friendly aisles with barely disguised glee.

Fresh herbs!

Basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, and most incredibly, coriander (cilantro for US/Spanish readers). Sadly the coriander was past its best (giving the lie to the "Mindig Friss" slogan that is plastered everywhere), but it was there. that's the point.

Wild rice

I mean we've only just sighted brown and basmati rice in Romania, and here we are with wild rice already

Sea food

Most people round here when you suggest that things like prawns or calamari are worth eating look at you as if you're completely unfit to have taste buds. But here there were not only those two things, but mussels and even octopus too.

Rice wine vinegar

I can't really think of a use for rice wine vinegar except for making sushi and since there were none of those sheets of seaweed you use for wrapping, the special rice that you use, or even more crucially wasabi, it's not that useful yet. But one day. Oh yes, one day

Australian wine

I'm not likely to buy any, delicious though much Aussie wine is, because it costs much more than Romanian wine - and Romanian wine is also excellent, but again, it's nice to see it

and finally...

Fresh rucola

...or arugula, or rocket, or what have you. Rocket is one of those words which I learned in English after I'd learned it in other languages first. Mostly, I suspect because we didn't have rocket in England when I was growing up, and had to make do with lettuce or lettuce. And I can't really bring myself to use the word rocket now that I have learned it because it sounds so bloody stupid. But anyway to find some of that stuff, for sale, fresh, and in Romania made my day.

But why has Udvarhely got this retail heaven while we in Csikszereda have been lumped with bloody Penny Market? The kind of place that gives cheap and nasty a bad name. It's a disgrace, that's what it is. But think of me this evening, while I'm eating freshly made pesto, with a side of arugula salad, and a fine bottle of Romanian red, and weep.

Unwelcome Germans

Hurricane Kyrill has swept across us this morning after leaving Bavaria. Driving rain and high winds and a stunning rainbow have so far been the effects. Bits of trees falling off and that kind of thing. Still, nothing compared to what Ireland, Britain, France, Holland and Germany got, if the pictures on the news this morning are anything to go by. [What kind of name is Kyrill anyway? Is it Russian? I've never heard it before] Apparently we're on "yellow alert", whatever the hell that means. No-one seems to have a clue. But it sounds impressively "we're on top of the situation, people, no need to worry."

Our second unwelcome teutonic visitor is German measles (rubella), which Paula was diagnosed with yesterday. Still, it's the easiest of all the childhood ailments, so now her fever has gone it's just a question of keeping her at home and seeing what pictures you can make by joining up the spots on her chest. [I ought to point out that the name german measles has absolutely nothing to do with Germany, and is apparently derived from the Latin word "germanus" meaning "similar" since rubella is similar to measles. So now you know.]

In other Romanian news, the government is falling apart, having held themselves together long enough to get into the EU. It seems like everyone in the governing coalition hates everyone else, and we'll have some form of election sooner rather than later. Also some bones were found in the rest of the country, which according to all the media sources I've read, including things like the BBC, say "prove" that European humans continued to evolve after migrating from Africa. Which, as far as I am aware, is like saying that a fossil of a fallen apple "proves" that gravity existed 10,000 years ago. Who writes all this stuff?

What the EU means for me

Yesterday, I got my new residency permit for Romania. Things have certainly changed. In the space of two years I have now had (and reported on) three entirely different documents which allow me to remain here. The first was a kind of rubbishy handwritten passport thing. The process to get this document was both expensive and baffling.

This document lasted a few months before being superseded by a fancy hi-tech card that had to be issued in Germany. Once again this was not exactly cheap. In fact by the time I'd got that one, I'd spent somewhere in the order of €200 in total on various documents enabling me to live here (and that doesn't include the money it cost me to set up a company which gave me legal permission to even start applying).

But now things have changed. Out has gone the German-issued laminated card, and in has come some other official looking large scale piece of paper. Because now, of course, Romania is in the EU, and my ability to stay here is determined by that new status. (Romanians can't stay in the UK longer than 3 months, but fortunately for me the Romanian state chooses not to reciprocate - though I would quite understand and even applaud them if they did). Anyway, the new piece of paper, with all the documentation and stuff that was needed to get it, cost me a sum total of 4 Lei. That's approximately €1.20. That sum still involved two different receipts of 1 and 3 Lei each from two different offices in two different parts of the town, with associated queueing, but let's not quibble about that.

The only downside of the whole thing is that while the card was very convenient and easy to carry around with me, this new document isn't, and if I were to stuff it in my wallet it would disintegrate within a couple of months, necessitating a replacement. And of course, being British, I don't possess an ID card. I don't fancy carrying around my passport all day every day, so will have to come up with some system to cope with the Romanian need for people to have official ID on their persons at all time. Hopefully my driving licence will do the trick.

Anyway, I thought you'd all be glad to know of the advantages of EU membership for me. It's not all strict legislation and baffling regulations you know.

"Subjective Transylvania" - a review

Recently (at the end of a fairly fractious exchange in the comments section of my post on the Romanian Orthodox Church's attempt to Romanianise Csikszereda), somebody enigmatically signing themselves "MS" suggested I read this book which is available online through OSI (Soros) in Hungary. So I did. And it was well worth reading, I can tell you. If you download it you'll find that it's 147 pages in Word, which may be rather daunting, so I'll attempt to offer a brief review here. Hopefully if this piques your interest you'll read it yourself.

The book, which I assume was eventually published by OSI, is entitled "SUBJECTIVE TRANSYLVANIA: A CASE STUDY OF POST COMMUNIST NATIONALISM" by Alina Mungiu Pippidi PhD, who is a Romanian social psychologist. It is a throughly researched study into the disagreements between and perceptions of Hungarians and Romanians in Transylvania, including reams of qualitative data. It concludes with some suggestions into what the future might hold and some suggested models for the future in creating a more harmonious situation. It's not clear when it was written, but it was obviously (from the context given) at some point during the Constantinescu government of 1996-2000.

I'll admit that my first impression was a negative one, since early on in the inroduction to the work Dr Pippidi refers to the 1990 ethnic clashes in Targu Mures/Marosvasarhely as a "violent outburst" while then going on to refer to an incident in Udvarhely "where the local community instigated by the town council brutally evacuated four Romanian nuns". Now I'm not familiar with this incident, and have no idea whether the adverb "brutally" is justified (I'm assuming it is), but it seems a bit biased to append it to whatever happened there and to merely refer to the mini-civil-war in which 8 people died and countless others were injured in Targu Mures as a "violent outburst". Given the context in which I'd received the link, I began to suspect that this would be yet another biased nationalistic tract of which there are so many out there (from both sides).

However, I gave the book a second chance, and am glad that I did. Since in the main the author (aside from the instance above and a later jarring reference to "the Hungarian problem") is broadly impartial and prepared to let her subjects speak for themselves. What really surprised me, I suspect, was how familiar all the quotes were - she interviews various groups of Tranyslvanians from different places, different ethnic backgrounds, different age groups, etc - and all of them repeat what I hear more or less every day about the differences and similarities between the two communities. I have cut and pasted some examples below:

Some comments on being a Transylvanian Hungarian
"When I was in Hungary I visited the fathers-in-law of a friend of mine. And they were surprised I speak such a good Hungarian. I never felt so insulted in my life."

"We, Transylvanians, sometimes feel like second rank Hungarians when compared to Hungarians from Hungary and second-rank Romanian citizens when compared to Romanians. We sometimes feel betrayed by both"

and, interestingly, from some of the Romanian subjects:
"It's more honorable to be from Transylvania than from any other part of Romania. When I am sometimes ashamed of being a Romanian I feel better when I think I am from Transylvania "


On the cultural differences: "Romanians need less than we do to feel satisfied. They watch TV and they feel happy, while we are concerned by one or by other and we can't get over it so easy. We Hungarians are so deadly serious"

And the following sentiments I have heard so many times that I have lost count:

This is the bosses business, politics that is; we ordinary people get along fine. (Hungarian workers, Cluj)
It weren’t for politics we wouldn’t even know who’s Romanian, who’s Hungarian, as it was in Ceausescu’s times, we were all alike then. (Romanian workers, Cluj)
You just can’t imagine how well we get along with people here [Romanian]. Politics doesn’t let us live peacefully. (Hungarian peasants, Miercurea Niraj)

I think my favourite bit would have to be this:

The most telling fact is, perhaps, that a social representation of nations living like a family within Romania is simply missing, so difficult it is to imagine an in-group including both Romanians and Hungarians. When asked ‘Were Romania a family, how would it look like’ most Hungarian groups told us they cannot conceive it as a family ‘or we would be the intruders' (intellectual, Miercurea Ciuc). Even Romanians had difficulties. ‘It would be like a mother-in-law with the daughter-in-law’ (classical image of conflict in the Romanian folk-stories) (peasants, Cluj). At the other extreme is this beautiful representation of a young Romanian student in Cluj:
The father should be a German, the Hungarian the cook and the Romanian should take care of the house. Now it's not working because the father is Romanian, not German.

As I say it is a fascinating piece of research, and well worth reading.

At the end Dr Pippidi concludes with the need to find a solution that satisfies the following (very little of which I can find any reason to disagree with):

1. to secure the right of the Hungarian minority to a shared public sphere of its own, that meaning 'a communal domain that is constructed not only as an arena of cooperation for the purpose of securing one's interests but also as a space where one's communal identity finds expression' (Tamir: 1993: 74). This space already exists to a large extent: all that is needed are supplementary legal guarantees.
2. to eliminate by a policy of affirmative action the disadvantages Hungarians still experience (proportion of Hungarian students compared to Romanians; proportion of Hungarian policemen, and so on) This was started in 1997, when the University of Cluj (babes-Bolyai) reserved seats for Hungarians applying for the Law School: this allowed them to be accepted with a much lower threshold than the Romanians.
3. Creating incentives for the Hungarian elite to choose moderate instead of radical policies
4. The same for the Romanian Transylvanian elite
5. Eliminating unnecessary competition between the two national groups as groups wherever this can be avoided
6. Preventing a deepening of the division between the two national groups and keeping a decent level of communication and interactivity between them in order to create at least occasionally a 'in-group' of both Romanians and Hungarians, instead of having them permanently exclude each other.
7. Eliminating the Hungarian theme from the Romanian internal political debate
8. Adjusting the political system in order to satisfy the listed requirements with reasonable costs and at a pace that would not endanger the stability of the political system (so often threatened both by ethno-regionalism and by the Romanian nationalist reaction).

Sadly, not much seems to have changed since the time 8(?) years ago when this was written - Hungarians are still very underrepresented in the police force, for example. (pt. 2)

And finally, in order to achieve the above, the author presents three models and critiques them. These models are
1. Hegemonic Control [the state controls/coerces/forces the minority group into submission]
2. Federalism [autonomous regions are created - the question remains whether these are formed on ethnic lines (cantonisation) or not (federalism)]
3. Consociationalism (yes, I had to look it up too) [By which power is somehow shared, either formally or informally. She opines that this was beginning when the paper was written, as the UDMR (Hungarian party) was at that time part of the ruling coalition. It has been ever since, to my knowledge]

She seems to lean towards the third, and I would be interested to hear how she feels now, given that to all intents and purposes this consociationalism has been going on for ten years now, and the problems seem to be exactly the same as when the paper was written. (I've written to her to ask).

I have been meaning for a while to write a post on the movement for autonomy in Szekely land, and this seems like a good starting point for what will end up being a series of pieces. I realise that there are so many issues to discuss in such a debate (the concept of nationality/ethnic identity; language and culture; balkanisation vs autonomy; centralisation vs de-centralisation; nationalism; discrimination against minorities; and many many others) that to attempt to do so in a shortish blog post would be impossible. I will (over the course of the next months) return to this subject and attempt to build up a picture of what I believe would be the best way forward. Not that my opinion matters as such, but I feel I ought to offer one at least.

The unkindest cut

A Romanian surgeon was having a bad day, and decided to (and you may wish to cross your legs now) chop off some poor bloke's john thomas. And the damages awarded are somehow likely to mean that "in future doctors may have to think very carefully about what work they undertake." I certainly hope that they give pause to any doctor tempted to vent his stress and anger on the nearest innocent member.

It's a brutal way to deal with stress, whichever way you slice it (as it were)

What's the point?

So, let me get this straight. The White House commisions an extensive report into what should be done about the mess in Iraq. After months of exhaustive work, eagerly awaited by everyone, the Baker Hamilton report is delivered. It's principle conclusion is that in order to stabilise Iraq, the US needs to build bridges and mend fences with the Arab/Islamic world, in order to, in particular, involve Iran and Syria in supporting the new Iraqi government.

In response to this, Bush threatens Iran and Syria with military attack, and then authorises the storming of an Iranian consulate in Iraq.

It's mind-boggling.

What's the betting that the Democrats and that waste-of-oxygen Blair fall into line behind the plan?

Best of Romania Awards

Last year, I tacked a little “Best of Romania” guide on to the end of the local equivalent, but it got rather lost. So this year, I have devoted an entire thread to it. It should be pointed out that this is a best of list which involves only places that I have visited, which isn’t that many really. I’ve done most of the cities, or at least the ones that people refer to as being worth doing (I haven’t been to Drobeta-Turnu Severin for example, but then I’ve never heard anyone talk about it as being worth going to. In fact the only reason I’ve heard of it is that I know someone who comes from there (and she can't stand it). This happens quite frequently with Romanian cities in Oltenia – only yesterday I noticed a town called Resita on the weather forecast that had not previously impinged on my consciousness. I feel quite ashamed of myself when this happens). But with that proviso, here we go…

Best city to visit as a tourist: Sighisoara. The only cities that didn’t have their central bits destroyed by Ceaucescu are the three major Saxon ones – the middle of Brasov is also great, but the endless miles of hellish urban sprawl beyond the walls mark the city down. Sibiu is my nemesis and couldn’t buy my vote. If they have actually finished doing it up for its position as Euro Capital of Culture it probably (he grudgingly admits) looks quite nice.

Best restaurant in Romania (fancy): Bella Musica, Brasov. Really great job in doing up the old wine cellars, and providing top quality food in romantic surroundings. And fantastic service too – why have I never been to a restaurant before which has a little button beside your table so you can call over a waiter when YOU want? Excellent place (and they give you free palinka and free chips and salsa when you sit down too)

Best restaurant in Romania (homestyle): Hanul Dracula not far outside Sighisoara – though it is 4kms off the road down a rutted track – they have great food in a very nice location. Rubbish name, obviously, but you can’t have everything. It’s also a great place to stay if you’re visiting Sighisoara, have a car, and can’t get a room at…

Best hotel in Romania: Casa Cu Cerb, slap bang in the main square in Sighisoara, done up by a German foundation under the supervision of Gabriel Lambescu. Very romantic, very understated, and very very reasonable.

Best trendy bar: Bit of a fake category this one, since I go into trendy bars about as often as I walk around in a tutu, but I was taken to a fairly heavily trendy one in Cluj when I was last there – Diesel – situated in the main square (or what I think of as the Hungarian main square – i.e. the one with Matyas Kiraly in it rather than the one with Avram Iancu), also in old tunnels and cellars – there’s clearly a bit of a pattern here. The music was too loud, but that’s because I’m virtually geriatric, but they mixed a mean Mojito (and a mean Caipirinha – I really did have to try them both to check, obviously).

Best Car Hire Company: To be honest I've only ever used one - Eurocars in Brasov. But they were so incredibly helpful when this happened, that I feel they deserve a mention.

Best beer: Csiki Sör obviously (that's Bere Ciuc to any Romanian readers). Silva Dark is good too. This year, the geniuses (or genii, whichever you prefer) at the company (Heineken, basically) have brought out “Ciuc Winter” to cash in on the town’s reputation for, well, winter. I’m not a fan of strong beer, usually, but this one is surprisingly good.

Best wine: "Prahova Valley" – Pinot Noir. Good wine and at $2 a bottle you can't go wrong. Romanian wine in general is excellent.

Best bread: All bread here is fantastic. Except in restaurants curiously. For some reason, when you go to a bakery, you have loads of delicious crunchy loaves to choose from, from all regions and with various little twists – potato bread, brown bread, rye bread, bread from Cluj, bread from the Banat, etc etc. But when you go a restaurant, as often as not they give you a basket of rubbishy pre-packaged soft, white pap. Where do they get it from? Is there some kind of “crap bread for catering” franchise dealing in it? I think we should be told

Best English language blog: Modesty forbids and all that. More seriously, I’ll give a three way tie to Shrinkmamma, Gorgeoux, and Romerican. (The funniest one is Albino Neutrino, but he never updates, so he’ll have to wait for his prize)

Local Warming

Yesterday, the thermometer that we have outside our (north facing) kitchen window hit 10°C. It’s another sweltering day again today, with temperatures once again soaring above zero. It did actually snow one day last week, and there was even enough of it for Bogi and I to have an extended snowball fight, but now that brief taste of winter has vanished, and obviously all the snow has melted.

There is now some snow on the mountains though and we managed to go up to our local ski resort of Hargitafürdő (Harghita-Băi) on Saturday and Sunday so Bogi could indulge in her extremely new hobby of skiing. Irritatingly, but unsurprisingly, she's already way way better than I am.

The slopes were a study in contrasts over the weekend – Saturday, the end of the Christmas/New Year holiday period, was full of tourists from all over the country having their last day of skiing before heading home for work. Car number plates were all AB and BC and AR and so on, with only a smattering of local HR plates. And the dominant language of the chattering skiers was very definitely Romanian. Sunday, it was much quieter, and we passed lots of the out-of-county-ers coming down the mountain as we drove up it. At the top it was all day tripping Harghitans, and the dominant language had switched to Hungarian. It was like going to the same place two days in a row but finding that place in a different country. Saturday we were in Romania, Sunday in Szekelyföld.