Sociologist Gelu Duminică explains, in a Facebook post, why he strongly believes in the existence of a single Romania, „extremely diverse and stratified,” and reminds how all Romanians can be united by „emotion” when „something or someone” manages to „inspire” them and make them take to the streets, „shoulder to shoulder, all those who now” look at each other „askance.”
„In recent years, internal division has reached paroxysmal levels: we are divided between ‘sovereigntists’ and ‘those defending democracy,’ between those who protest and leave cleanliness behind them and those who crack seeds, in Bucharest versus the rest of the country or, even worse, between ‘dependents’/’poor’/’beneficiaries of social aid’ and ‘free young people,’ ‘intellectuals’ and ‘those defending the country.’
Until recently, the major ruptures were, and still are, between 'righteous believers' and 'sinful homosexuals,' 'Gypsies who embarrass us in Europe' and 'Romanians who work for a piece of bread,' between 'old folks/illiterate peasants who vote for a snack and a beer' and 'city dwellers who love democracy,' overlooking the fact that those we curse are the ones alongside whom we must make this country flourish and that they, in turn, have plenty of prejudices about us," says sociologist Gelu Duminică in a post on his Facebook page.
He confesses that he has never understood "how on earth we expect to win the support of those who are different from us, given that we continue to show them that we do not respect them and consider them inferior and guilty for all the evils happening around us!"
"How do we not understand that by promoting disharmony and labels, we force the other person to react instinctively and blame me in turn? With what else, other than placing myself above everyone, does this division into 'his Romania' and 'my Romania' help me?
I firmly believe that there is only one Romania, which is extremely diverse and stratified. My Romania has, within it, people who have never seen a light bulb lit in their life and people for whom access to clean water, sewage, roads, and a dignified life is still a dream. In my country, there are plenty of illiterate people, toothless, drunkards, poor, women, men, Hungarian, Roma, Jewish, Lipovan, Italian, Saxon, and Szekler ethnicities, homosexuals, Christians, and atheists, who leave in search of a better life or who stay here and work for their children, intellectuals, athletes, thieves and honest people, lovers, corrupt and corrupters, pimps and sex workers, politicians, people with mansions, entrepreneurs, addicts, and alcoholics, etc., who have done more for this country, at some point in their lives, than I have ever achieved," explains Gelu Duminică.
The sociologist notes, in the same post, that we can all be united by the emotion we feel when someone manages to remind us how proud we are of our national belonging when we have reasons to do so.
"These days, the national football and women's handball teams have managed to do this. We have experienced it in the past as well, then we took to the streets, shoulder to shoulder, all of us who now look askance at each other. We did it for various reasons, for the simple reason that something, or someone, managed to inspire us," says the sociologist.
In his opinion, Romania needs soul and self-esteem.
"It needs to understand that this country is a construct that encompasses all those who feel, live, and breathe its air and the fact that to be beautiful, it needs each one of us. And to carefully look at its mistakes, learning the lessons it needs to learn. There are not multiple Romanias.
There is only one country in which every person composing this nation must feel that Romania is 'home.' And that is what we must work on together!" says sociologist Gelu Duminică.