Raided the New York Times (NYT) archive again this morning. Found this, a very good despatch from the NYT’s man in Bucharest, Alan Riding, filed 20 years ago to the day:
With foreign delegates and journalists in town for this month’s Rumanian Communist Party congress, it was standard practice for the Government to supply Bucharest’s shops with goods so that reports of shortages could be exposed as enemy disinformation.
More unusual for a country where window displays of clothes, plants and food traditionally bear no relationship to what is available inside, socks, sweaters and apples were actually for sale. And as evidence, normally idle shop attendants looked deeply depressed about having to work.
Two things to note:
1. Even as late as 1989, Americans were still spelling Romania Rumania (despite Romania having successfully lobbied the UN heavily in the early 1970s to have the official international spelling of the country changed to Romania).
2. The line ‘normally idle shop attendants looked deeply depressed about having to work’ remains valid today…
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting to see that normal Americans knew about Romania back then…
If you asked me I’d say they don’t know about Romania not even today. After all, what do Romanians know about Iowa, Michigan etc…?! Pretty much nothing, except maybe the fact that they exist.
On the other hand if you ask Romanians about Switzerland, about the U.K. or France they can tell you at least some general stuff. Americans too can probably tell you at least some general stuff about those countries.
Interesting…
What a nut! Whenever I read these articles from the 1980s I immediately understand why there is a fitze class here in Bucharest. I guess I would want a top of the range Mercedes AMG roadster too if back as a kid the shops were always empty! The weird psychological games that the Ceausescu’s played on the Romanian people really are just that–bizarre! Hearing about them helps explain to me why Romania is still the way it is.
I am gradually adding to my 20 Years Later Archive:
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/davinellicson/gallery/A-Vision-of-Bucharest-20-Years-Later/G0000f6Xv2paFjZ0/
Interesting, not a word about the other countries that had already switched ideologies by then, nor any prediction if Romania would crumble too.
Anyone know what happened to Paul Focsa who’s mentioned defending the destruction of Bucharest?