16.11. The day we wrote history.

   Habemus presidentum , but that's not really a new thing, right? We have been having presidents since 1947 when our last king was forced to flee...
  What has changed is that this one is supposed to be completely different and he is expected to change everything for the better. Yay!
   If you ask me - I wouldn't have given him much hope. In the first election tour, he got only around 30% of the votes, so you can understand my position. I said he has no chance, that's it, maybe in 2019, perhaps 2024...When did I become such a cynic, I have no idea.
  But then - I have read some things last night that made me feel ashamed of my previous position. Romanians in France, Italy have spent up to 10-12 hours outside in the cold, in the rain so they could exercise their constitutional right to vote...In Paris and in Turin they were thrown at tear gases... In Denmark they have traveled up to 500 km just to vote...In some countries they were kicked out of the embassies even before the closing time...The way these people were humiliated was so outraging and sad that I burst out in big tears and I felt so embarrassed of my "I don't care" attitude.
  And then the miracle came. Votes in the country were pretty much 50-50 %, but guess where did the (almost all) votes from outside go to? Yes, you guessed it right, all those Romanians who had to fight for their essential right to vote have actually decided the president, they are to all of us just like heroes who fought in a Revolution.
  But it is Revolution: for the first time in 25 years, things are bound to change. For the first time, you can smell it in the air: we are no longer afraid to come forward and fight for what we need and deserve. For the first time, we decided to surrender indifference, to go against the odds and to vote for someone who was thought to have little chance to succeed. For the first time in a long time, we are willing to stop being ashamed of being Romanians.
  Feeling so proud of all those people who had to suffer yesterday, I asked myself when was the last time I was proud of my nation or of one of my co-nationals and I realized I, just like many other Romanians, have been ashamed of my country. Of course, there was the Simona Halep phenomenon and we all watched her marvelous performance with tears in our eyes. Of course, our hard working students get medals in Maths, Chemistry or Physics on an Internation level. Yet, every time someone asks me where I'm from, I answer in a whisper: "Ro-ma-ni-a", hoping they will not hear it; we have become so ashamed of our people and our culture that I had no hopes Revolution will ever happen; how can a couple of good people matter when all the world knows about is those gypsies who steal?
But then, the unexpected happen, our shy voices became so loud and clear that we shook the deep layer of corruption. "We are Romania, we have the right to vote for a change, we have the right to fight for future generations", this is the message those people sent us; it's the most wonderful thing that could have ever happened; Baby democratic Romania took its first step on its own.
  Now the twist comes: someone needs to be held responsible for everything those people went through yesterday; it is unacceptable to wait 12 hours to vote, to be humilitated so badly, it is unacceptable that the one organization supposed to protect you while abroad - an embassy - screws you big time. And for that, we need to turn our heads towards those who were responsible for organising the elections: the government. Who is the head of the Government? Of course, the prime minister, but who is the current prime minister of Romania? Well, well - if it's not the very candidate who lost!
But he doesn't get it; he sees no reason why he should resign, which shows only one things: he lives in an imaginary world where the leader of the country is sort of a boss, he claims he wants democracy, yet he acts as communist as he can. No! In a democratic regyme, the President, the Prime Minister and all the other public workers are merely servants of the people and if millions of those who you basically work for want you gone, can't you see how degrading it is to even try to resist?
  Newspapers said something like this: it was not the political campaign of Iohannis that convinced millions to vote for him, it was rather the arrogance of the current prime minister that determined Romanians to rise against him. It seems like we cannot tolerate corruption forever and we are ready to fight for a different future. A better one.
Yesterday you made me prouder than I've ever been, yesterday you have all become my heroes. We have said : Enough is enough and realised it is high time we changed the future; it is high time we fought so our Romanians come back home and have a better future. Yesterday we finally got our country back.