Hello from Bucharest

I am in sunny Bucharest at the moment, soaking up the ... er... diesel fumes and the loving tenderness of ex-Communist bloc hospitality. I did my little bit for the cause- I told the woman who served me in McDonalds that actually she's supposed to SMILE at the customers, not SCOWL. Given she didn't speak a word of English it only helped me escape my feeling of irritation. I was on the phone just now with someone in England, and I found myself musing about what exactly the Romanians have been doing since the 'revolution' as they so quaintly call it. Nothing seems to have been built or changed or cleaned or painted since about 1953, apart from the huge sheds put up literally in the last few months by British, French, German and Japanese companies. What the hell have the Romanians been doing? Hungary has been through a whole economic cycle since 1993!

When I come to countries like this, it always reminds me of one of the least remarked aspects of the Anglosphere- the concern of both society and the government for the 'little people'. And by government, I mean everybody from the Prime Minister down to the guy who checks the parking meters. There are rich people in Romania. I saw some of their mansions, guarded by private security men with assault rifles. But not very far from my hotel children will sniff glue in the underground heating ducts tonight and some will not wake up tomorrow morning. There is a strange harshness to ordinary people here, that seems to expect life to include large numbers of people with nothing but misery in their lives. How pitiful. And look at the society-wide outcomes. I can't imagine why even a very rich person would want to live in Romania- the moment you step out of your door, people are trying to get your stuff, quite a lot by means of violence or whatever it takes.

Leaving the airport, there was a traffic jam directly under a beautiful, pristine flyover almost certainly built with EU money. As a metaphor for Romania, it seems almost perfect. The traffic jam was caused by about five hundred people who had parked in the road so they could walk into the supermarket slightly easier, not caring that they had brought traffic from the biggest airport in Romania to an almost complete standstill. Its the 'Fuck you mate, I'm alright' attitude that almost did for Britain back in the '70s when the Labour communists were riding high. My wife, who is Russian, says that in every ex-Communist country, the attitudes are roughly the same. Because there was no unemployment, and no more Christian morality, people treated other people like shit both at work and socially: you couldn't be fired, and there was no hell. You sorted out your friends and everybody else could go hang. Nice.

I'll return to England somewhat chastened by this experience, I believe.