Romania. Welcome to the new commercial campaign :)

I always stated that one should be seriously out of order to come and visit this country. But seeing a few European countries – Germany, Spain, Italy, Malta, UK – made me think outside the box and the conclusion was that Romania lacks neither the touristic possibilities, nor the beauty, but the infrastructure.

I’ve opened this old issue because today I saw the latest creations of ADDV EURO RSCG advertising agency. The brief: make Romania “visitable”. Three emblematic Romanian faces – Nadia Comaneci, Ilie Nastase and Gheorghe Hagi – said “Yes!” and became part of this campaign. Great effort, great job. But a beautiful package won’t solve the big problems. No one will enter a country which doesn’t have the primordial criteria for visiting it: roads.

No one will stay in a country which starts stealing from you as soon as you’ve entered it, just because people here still have bits and pieces of the communist mentality which, isn’t it, taught us that the occidentals have lots of money. No one will return to a country in which a trip from the airport to the hotel costs as much as the one night accommodation in a five stars hotel.

I remember one of the first stories about Romania, after the December 1989 revolution, the moment when communism was eradicated here. I remember seeing orphan children, sick children in poverty, being fed wretched food. Those were the first images of Romania spread worldwide. Twenty years passed. Romanians didn’t solve all of their problems.

Romania is not a land of choice when it comes to living conditions. We don’t have a proper education system, a proper medical system. We still fight poverty, often in its worse forms. Not even do we have 200 kilometers of highways in this entire country.

But we have corrupt politicians, hungered old people struggling to live with just a few bucks each month, villages without electricity, bureaucracy, dirt and filth.

Still, I think that you should come to Romania. ‘Cause this country is a life lesson, it teaches you to keep your head high, even when you’re in the deepest shit. If Romanians lived through this, you should live through anything that may occur in your life.

You should visit Romania for its people, for the way they fight. From the thief you’ll learn to be witty, from the poor you’ll learn to appreciate every sun beam and every rain drop. From the beautiful women you’ll learn that having brains makes you more beautiful. From the hard working Romanian men you’ll learn the pleasure of “mici” and beer. From the children living here you’ll learn that fulfilling your dreams is possible no matter how harsh the conditions are. From the teenagers you’ll discover that not only India has the best IT specialists. From the villagers – some of them keepers for hundreds of years of Romanian traditions – you’ll learn the freedom and the power of being humble and honest.

I don’t know if there is anything to learn from Romania. But I do know that there is nothing that one can’t learn from the Romanians.