The fall of Communism
Romania - Land of Opportunity?
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As part of Euranet's Fall of Communism series, Richard Walker travels to Romania to discover how the post-Communist country is coping with the transition to a dog-eat-dog capitalist economy.
Since the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe 20 years ago most countries in the former Soviet Bloc have enthusiastically embraced capitalism.
Firsthand experience of the dog-eat-dog system is outside all living memory though, and this has made for a steep learning curve.
Not to mention the occasional problem with corruption. In Romania while horses and carts pull villagers around the country's spectacular rural interior, the Lambourghini is the often preferred method of road transport in central Bucharest - despite the fact that the average Romanian's €300-a-month salary wouldn't even fill the tank more than a couple of times.
But by fair means or foul there is growing evidence that Romania is a good place to make your mark or your fortune.
Opportunity - or just opportunism?
The opening scenes of Borat the movie were filmed here in the village of Glod in 2005. The movie's producers have since been taken to court by some of the villagers who claim they were exploited after being paid just a few euros a day for their appearances and the use of their less-than-well appointed homes.
For some, suing the producers of Borat is opportunism, an attempt to milk a cash cow.
For many in Brussels, Romania's sometimes wayward use of EU funds is much the same.
But what opportunities exist for the average, honest Romanian? Mario is a small businessman who's recently moved back home after 10 years in America.
On his wedding day at a church in the foothills of the Transylvanian mountains he says he's expecting Romania to present him with opportunities to rival those he found during a 10 year stint in the US. If not, he says, he'll be heading right back.
Cultural values
But is there more to Romania than making money?
Benjamin Rebout is a French festival organiser who has been in Bucharest for five years. He sees Romanians learning ways of doing business from skilled Westerners and those skills trickling down to benefit the wider community in the long term.
Journalist and promoter Tom Wilson has been in Bucharest for seven years. He has hosted his own TV show, produces radio, and promotes Romanian arts through publishing. For foreigners like Tom it is quite possible to quickly dive into cultural society here as a big fish in small pond.
While packs of wild dogs roam the streets of the capital and other provincial cities, a canine hangover from Ceausescu's forced relocation programme, life is still in transition for the average Romanian. The dogs have been wild for 20 years now, and while you don't have to be as ruthless as them to make a good fist of life here, they do in some ways represent the harsh realities of a system trying to westernise.
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