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LITTERAE
Multilingual literary magazine

Eugene Giurgiu

Wandering sons

Some years ago I received a letter from a gentleman in Craiova asking what advice I might have for his children, engineers by trade, both married, who intended to resettle in Canada. It asked for detailed information on the education system in Canada, the climate, how one might make headway quickly without an adequate knowledge of English, if employment is available, if salaries are generally good, if one should come prepared with bed linen and kitchen ware, etc. I replied with the following advice, that his sons and their families ought to stay put, look for a job in Romania or establish there an enterprise suitable to their background, because the tales regarding the exhilarating successes of Romanians in exile, and guaranteed fulfillment,  are only that, tales. I suspect my advice went unheeded, as years have passed and nigh every day I hear of another Romanian couple who have chosen emigration and are looking for work in Toronto or Montreal or have just decided to bring over their aging parents to look after the children.

There are small communities of Romanians in Toronto and Montreal, indeed in other Canadian cities. They include some who work in their field, earn a good living, travel regularly to their homeland, manage to put some money aside and overall seem satisfied. When in Romania, they advise others to follow them to Canada. Here prosperity beckons. It’s true. A good life is possible. Immigrants who manage to put down roots, ten years later might have enough to buy a house, the dream of all immigrants. Their children grow up and learn good English. Soon they answer only in English when spoken to in Romanian, and eventually no longer understand even the simplest question in the old speech, except after proper explanation or a rough translation. Forget about communicating with grandparents! The parents are proud the children do well in school, are mannered, don’t use ill language, don’t smoke or do drugs. These are happy families. It’s true as well that the parents more often than not dwell on their youth years in Romania, hoping desperately to meet other exiles, drink Romanian plum brandy and eat Romanian cabbage rolls, smell the smell of spicy meat balls, get drunk and sing old songs, sighing as they do. Time passes faster in exile. Friends are fewer. We go to church if we need to meet compatriots. We boast of achievements such as a new car, a bigger house or new ensemble of patio furniture, the cottage by the lakeside we paid a small fortune for. Many of us are Romanian only in name, assuming we haven’t changed it. Are we happy? I assume, but Romanians we’re not. Most of us don’t read the native language, don’t listen to native music because we have no inclination or no idea where to find any. We don’t travel to Romania and no longer invite anyone from Romania over to visit us, because we can’t communicate with them. We share no common interests with regular Romanians. In this way the country is being depleted of hundreds of thousands of citizens every year. Beginning in 1991, and ending with the last census (2002), we’ve lost to exile approximately a million inhabitants. Anyone cares? Apparently not.

More than ten years ago I started a monthly literary publication (LITTERAE) in which I published verse and prose in Romanian, addressed to Romanians in Canada. I included book reviews and chronicles detailing cultural events. I presented Romania to Romanians living here. I included essays, translations, interviews with major figures of the exile. Five years later (marked by much applause and praise—but no support), and being some forty thousand dollars in debt, I ended this adventure reluctantly. My appeals for support to public institutions in Romania went unanswered. Not quite despairing and showing more stubbornness than perhaps this little "cause" warranted, I resolved to take my magazine the electronic route, reasoning that with a wider audience I might achieve a decent level of profit. I put it on the Internet and included texts in English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish. I turned the enterprise into a sort of centre of literary information. For instance, I determined to publish lists (as complete as possible) of writers writing in the forenoted languages, setting out their works accessible to the public on the Internet. I remember I appealed to a Romanian authority, Mr. Aurel Sasu, responsible for creating a dictionary of Romanian writers, asking his excellency for a list of Romanian contemporary authors. There was no reply. This explains why we provide a list of Spanish authors, but not Romanian. Some two or three years ago, taking up a suggestion by the Union of Writers of Canada, I approached the Romanian consulate in Toronto with the following proposition. Let’s organize an exhibit of Romanian books, similar to one organized by the Bulgarian community, with excellent results. The Consulate promised cooperation, assuming, of course, that the authorities in Romania approved. That was that.

The Bucharest media recently mentioned a forum on the subject of the links between the government and Romanians abroad. These fora are common. They consist of exchanges of ideas, blueprints and many beautiful speeches, including some by dignitaries as highly placed as Mr. Manolescu or the President of the Republic, Mr. Iliescu. I wrote the former, without a reply. I wrote to some newspapers in Bucharest such as Ziua, Adevarul, Evenimentul Zilei, perhaps Cotidianul. I wrote to Mr. Paleologu. No answer. In my zeal, I set up a course offering instruction in Romanian to non-speakers. I wrote the ministry of education in Romania asking for support, such as textbooks, manuals, works of literature, etc., anything. No reply.

My experience is that patriotic speeches made in Bucharest, including plans and blueprints, all beautifully conceived and theoretically ratified by committees of energetic bureaucrats, do not advance beyond the planning level. In reality nothing is done. As in other spheres, in the cultural domain the government do not assist the efforts of the diaspora on behalf of Romania. The marketing of the Romanian image abroad isn’t a priority. Neither the political elite, nor the media, support us. The Romanian Cultural Foundation, based in Bucharest, circulates in the diaspora a monthly pamphlet (poorly done) devised by editors without an inkling of what to do about the country’s reputation abroad, lacking in inspiration and propagating the old Romanian "image" found in communist propaganda, a fellow well-behaved and clean-shaven, dressed in the national costume and spouting information out of a book. Some students are sent abroad to study. They come back with impressive diplomas. They look around at opportunities in Romania and choose not to work there, because they can’t accept the miserly salary offered nor the demoralizing working conditions and atmosphere of laissez faire. They leave.

Leaders in government or the legislature are looking for solutions to administrative or political issues besetting the country, issues touching on aspects of public life long ago resolved in the countries which we, Romanians in exile, have adopted. We are a valuable source of information to our leaders in the home country on all levels. We have lived in democracy for many decades and have participated in public life. Abroad we have developed personal contacts with individuals of note in the education system, in culture, in government and other areas. We might be of assistance, as perhaps we’ve learned a few things, but who’s asking for our input? Who might use our initiative or ideas? Our compatriots in Romania, once they have achieved a certain status, are unwilling to ask for assistance from anyone in exile—as that might lessen their importance domestically. There’s a lot of talk about the reputation of Romania abroad. Money is being spent in reasonable amounts to produce a more favourable impression around the world. Unfortunately, if one speaks in objective terms, that is, believes that changes are necessary in order to improve the image, one is accused of tarnishing the reputation of the homeland. Yet it is enough to open any newspaper in Romania to see the country is in colossal trouble. The standard of living is low, the bureaucracy is flourishing and corruption exists unabated at all levels—being checked only on paper. Given today’s means of communication, the truth can no longer be "managed." The world no longer can be deceived with ad hoc speeches and legislation never applied.

The current situation affects the attitude to life of the citizen who has no reason to believe in the rule of law, the open society, honesty or correctness in behaviour. One immigrant recently arrived in Canada states that, had he been able to bribe the Canadian ambassador in Bucharest to the tune of 5,000 dollars, he might have obtained his visa a year earlier. Another, armed with a letter of introduction to a Canadian university dean, as soon as he arrived started looking for an "inside" contact, unable to imagine how else he might get the dean to read his letter, without an initial monetary impulse. New immigrants don’t easily accept that Canadian institutions function differently. They assume the same "networks" they knew in the old country. They can’t imagine another world than that in which they matured and which they’ve left behind. They’re suspicious and sceptical. A woman teaching German told me she can’t find work because she’s Romanian. I know an engineer looking for a bursary who still hasn’t made up his mind to seek an interview with a professor in the university, of Romanian origin, because he fears the latter won’t speak Romanian to him. Most new arrivals believe, truly or not, that Romanians are a chosen people, with much merit to recommend them in the eyes of the world, indeed God. In the Romanian press I’ve come upon a declaration by a bishop who believes the world is sure to perish, but not Romania, because our country is safe in the bosom of the Mother of God. According to some students of history, Egyptian civilization was built by our forefathers, construction workers from the Danubian North, approximately three millennia before Christ. Why, the inscriptions archaeologists have turned out at Tatarasi in the Alba district precede anything discovered in Sumer, which proves that our forefathers also invented writing. Such beliefs feed the national frenzy in no small measure. They create that feeling of superiority linked to a kind of self-confidence which only leads to chauvinism. In some publications in Toronto I find regularly a salmagundi of scientific claims according to which Romania will save humankind from destruction as forecast in old scripture, usefully translated for the reader by a disinterested expert. And our brethren, in exile and home, read and believe because lack of experience with cultures and beliefs different from their own makes them naive and arrogant. What they also bring over is a lack of trust in institutions. Invariably Romanians assume bank managers secrete away as much as they can. Published rates of interest are only propaganda, as it’s perfectly clear that in one way or another the bank will "get" you. You might as well accept that. Sooner or later you learn about the bank’s alter ego, which is to charge for everything. You might as well keep your earnings under the mattress.

Another of the immigrant’s great sources of confusion is the lack of adequate knowledge of English (and reluctance to ask for clarification when needed). A Romanian woman who taught highschool French concluded she was fired from her job because the principal addressed, impromptu, a few remarks to her. Terrified, she stopped going to the particular school. After a while the principal looked her up at home to inquire why she wasn’t coming to work. The husband, who knew English, learned quickly what had happened. Seeing her rush down a hall, the principal told her slightly amused: take it easy, we won’t pay you a cent extra for being in a hurry.

Another, specialist in IT, left from his doctor’s office in disbelief after being advised to search the Internet for information on forms of treatment his particular malady required. In actual fact the doctor, knowing this man knows computers, advised him merely to learn more about a certain remedy prescribed by another physician.

I’ve been trying to set forth some less encouraging aspects of life in the Romanian diaspora. Those looking for an opportunity to migrate here ought to be warned in advance that Canada is a land of milk and honey, but also of many tears. Who should deliver this message? Not us, as our contact with immigrants is possible only when it’s too late. They’re already here. Going back home is impossible, as it means degradation, declaring oneself defeated and, as is well-known, Romanian determination is iron-clad and any Romanian has seven lives to spare. He doesn’t declare himself beat. Altogether a different publication, sponsored by exiles the world over, ought to take over such a job.

We receive in Canada monthly the Romanian Messenger, but its pages tell only of the beautiful life in exile, the great regeneration and numerous accomplishments, considerable happiness, etc. The Messenger, sadly, isn’t edited by immigrants but by natives full of good intentions and equipped with bad information. I hope that among those reading these lines some at least will think twice about setting out on the arduous journey without return, exile. I do not image the number of North Danubian migrants will decrease considerably, as the bad situation in the country, corruption, lack of incentive, poor organization, dishonesty in politics, are sufficient to make any individual throw up his arms and leave the native land in order to survive. The government bear a great responsibility along these lines. It sees that the nation is losing its elite to foreign parts, that its culture and language in the diaspora are diminishing, that its leaders home are incapable or dishonest, or both. Recently there was more talk of establishing a Romanian cultural institute in Bucharest to replace the existing Romanian Cultural Foundation. What will this new body do? Assuredly it will hire a number of functionaries chosen from the ranks of those in sympathy with the regime and will ask them to make more plans, draft projects or laws, or will send some abroad to learn more about "foreign models," and that will be it. The government will speak of another realization, another step forward, and will trumpet it in elections as saving nationhood and culture, while we in exile will continue to spend our last resources struggling against ignorance, lethargy and indifference in the leaders of the country. We will, because we care. They don't  We’re the wandering sons.

The author of these reflections is a writer, the only of Romanian descent currently a member of Union of Writers of Canada, and editor of the Internet-based LITTERAE, multilingual literary magazine.

Eugene Giurgiu. June, 2003

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