Comments on: Tickets, Please

By: Bucharestian

Bucharestian — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:09:20 +0000

The system is built by people. There is no Vlad the Impaler to shove a stick up one’s ass and impose Order. RATB should come with a real solution for selling tickets, agree, but what about any of the following (just some examples):
- Romanians’ throwing garbage off their car window (such as an empty pack of cigarettes, the remains of a sandwich a.o.
- Our not buying train tickets when we have a ticket office and no queue to blame
- Our complaining about the traffic or parking, and doing our best to mess it up.

By: Parmalat

Parmalat — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:23:51 +0000

@Bucharestian: I agree, but for this to happen (order to be put in aspects of life in Romania) it means a certain system has to be built. For example if you want people to buy bus tickets you first have to sell bus tickets in every station. So as long as the system is not built correctly you can expect people to solve their problems according to their own thinking.
You know why the Americans got to rule the world? Because they had the chance to build a new system from 0 – based on the previous experience that they had – but much more improved because when building something from 0 you are able to avoid repeating previous mistakes.
Romania has the chance to benefit from the experience of the whole Europe. Unfortunately we can not organize ourselfes in order to apply that experience and improve it. Other countries don’t have the chance that we have and still they manage to get by, sometimes better than us. For example I expect Serbia to have a stronger economy than ours in about 15 years’ time.

By: Bucharestian

Bucharestian — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:42:19 +0000

Andrei, but have you ever wondered what would happen if you paid the official fine to the RATB guy? Back when I was a student, I went to Fagaras Mountains in winter, I wanted to go camping with a friend. Very heavy snowfall, a blizzard and reaching a hut at midnight, we gave up and stayed there. Money spent there, there was not enough left for the train back (well, we were students), so we decided to bribe the conductor. It worked well until there came the “supra” (some other CFR officials checking the conductor). Got a big fine and have always bought tickets since. Yeah, people told me I shouldn’t have given them the ID, I should have come with a story that would make them cry and try to give the “supra” guy something as well. This is what creates this country’s bad: the more one goes wrong, the harder he / she persists in doing so. And then, we think this is fun. Hell it is.

By: Parmalat

Parmalat — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:01:17 +0000

Don’t say that, I got myself an ‘Andrew Marc’ jacket and it looks =P~ awesome
The city (as well as the country) runs itself through some sort of an instinct. That means in order to solve a problem people have to start from the place they believe to be the most appropriate and then gradually be sent to another place and to another place until they finally reach the person that can solve their problem.
So in Bucharest you can not solve problems unless you ask someone else. It’s not like in the US where everything has a certain order and even a total stranger can get by simply by following the very clear rules. No, here you have to feel the rules as they’re not clear at all, you have to ask people as nothing is written anywhere, you have to go from place to place like in the pinball games in order to find the place that is of interest to you.
If the RATB controller catches you without a ticket, you give him your ID and ask that you both step down at the following station. Then you take 10 RON from your pocket and place it in his pocket saying a story about how you forgot your bus card home; the controller will pretend he believes you and will ask you to be more careful next time and that’s it.
I was reading Ziarul Financiar today and I came across a stunning figure: if the black economy in Romania would be taxed, the total benefits from the taxation would reach 11.4% of the country’s budget !!! We have a 16% unique tax rate so multiply 11.4% roughly by 6 and you’ll see that except the budget that’s approved by the Government – there’s another budget running loose on the streets and created by the black economy.
Now you realize why BNR holds 10% interest rates, the biggest in Europe, because – even if money flows heavily out of the country nobody cares, the inflation is maintained by the black economy!

By: Bucharestian

Bucharestian — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:26:29 +0000

Yeah, I have just realized I did not mention bribes / corruption (important source of income for the public sector, but not only) and, yes, the 4 years of fierce Nazism between the Middle Ages and Communism. 4 years Romanians loved to paroxysm, simply because they had the chance to hurt other people but themselves for their own misfortune. Some other people that were more educated, more hard-working and had a – there is the rub – different background than themselves.