Living in Romania

Hi Everyone,

One rather depressing aspect of modern life is the relentless onslaught of globalisation. Commercially for some time now the omnipresence of McDonalds, Starbucks, Ikea etc has been evident. But now television has become the domain of franchising - not just Oprah and shows like hers, but programmes with exactly the same format, just in the local language. So "Who wants to be a millionaire", "Pop Idol" and "The Weakest Link" can be seen in almost every country now. And the biggest surprise is the popularity of the dancing programmes. But that's where Romania comes into its own.

Every Friday night from 20.30 to at least 00.30 or 1 in the morning, is the show "Dansez Pentru Tine" (Dancing for You). I have mentioned this unbelievable show before. In one way the format is familiar - a famous person dances with an ordinary person and they have to do various types of dance over the weeks, with the public voting off one couple each week. But the Romanian twist is that the non famous dancing partner is actually dancing on behalf of someone else (hence the title Dancing for You). Inevitably that someone else is a close family member or friend who is in desparate need of medical help or some form of treatment. And their only hope is winning the competition so they get the prize money.

The presenter, a very slimey man called Stefan (who is adored by all the middle aged women) has no hesitation in really laying it on thick:
"So Raluca, you will now dance the Waltz with Ion. Just remember your son with lukeamia at home watching you tonight. You are dancing for him and his future."
And that is no exaggeration, believe me. It is jaw droppingly astoundingly bad taste.

On the final show, when just two couples are left, they bring on the two people who they are dancing for. So you have a child in a wheelchair on one side of the stage and a woman on a drip looking so pale and ill on the other side. And one of them will go home disappointed......and you decide who that is!!! Even the most bizarre and cruel Japanese shows can't match this spectacle. And it's a ratings winner in Romania, hugely popular.

And then the show is repeated on Saturday afternoon just in case you missed it or want to see all the crying and anguish over again. Just as the repeat was coming to an end last Saturday another aspect of life in Romania surprised us. I was in the kitchen making dinner when I thought the fridge was going to explode. It was making a huge amount of noise. When I looked at it, the whole fridge, which is over 2 metres high, was swaying. Then Tiberiu shouted to me from the other room:
"Andrew, are you OK?"
"Yes, I'm fine" I said as I began to realise what was happening.
"It's an earthquake" he shouted "but I think its stopped"

Sure enough a few minutes later the breaking news on TV was a 5.3 earthquake. Thankfully there was little damage and no loss of life. Only a month ago the British Embassy gave us all training on what to do in an earthquake, so that was timely!

The last really major quake was in 1977 and registered 7.3 on the Richter scale causing huge damage and killing a lot of people. Apparently the quakes go in 30 year cycles, so we are overdue for the next big one.

Well that's all from your man in Bucharest. Hope you are all OK. I'll write again soon. I think the next one will be about Eurovision, HRH the Prince of Wales, big parties and.....the weather.

All the best

Andrew x