IMF, extreme emergency!

I am writing about this after I have read in the Romanian press about the local elections and the IMF report about the Romanian realities.

I am writing about this after I have read in the Romanian press about the local elections and the IMF report about the Romanian realities. Even though it had tried for several years to get away from the Fund, the Government in Bucharest has to receive periodical appreciations from it, which are very influential for the world capital market. The IMF says we have reached a financial disequilibrium that should stop the continuation of the social expenses and of the development itself.

The durable development has three pillars: political stability, macro-economical stability and social peace. In Romania, all these pillars have cracks. Actually, the first one doesn’t even exist and we get to feel it in the same way in which a man with an amputated foot feels the shadow of what used to be his foot. The permanent political struggle has brought a permanent disequilibrium in the economy. Populist gifts and group hits have worked together to generate financial balances that look disastrous for any analyst. As far as it is concerned, the social peace is severely ill, the strikes targeting the state have transformed into strikes that target the multinational companies that took its place in the economy, which discourages the investors all over the world.

Ok, the electoral campaign has started! There are regulations from the National Audio-visual Board, suspicions, billboards and protests. But will we ever get to debate?

Mass media have been discussing about several methods of buying the electorate (more or less legally) for a week now. All these are historical superficialities of the Romanian politics, which is not a phenomenon of the savage capitalism that appeared after the revolution or of the nationalist communism before it. This is how things have been looking like since 1860. The electoral moment in our country has already been celebrated with drinks, food, fiddlers, strange gifts and bats. There were traditional singers and dancers in the voting centers even during the elections faked by Dej or Ceausescu. However, these things are not European at all. However, they don’t send the European atmosphere away either.

There is one more question, a very important one. Are there any ideas in this campaign besides the ones involving traditional food? Do the candidates for the Bucharest City Hall have any real solutions for the total traffic jam, for the dirty tap water or for the neighborhoods with the piles of waste at their doors? Shouldn’t we be talking about these issues as well? Do the ones that run for the first time for the leading position in the County Council have any spectacular ideas? What about the poor regions? And, another question that puts all the precedent ones head to head: is there any possibility for good and realist ideas in this environment? Can the administrators of these regions attract real funds in the conditions of this chaos? Does the general disequilibrium allow any local solutions?

I believe we should stop talking about food and half-dressed women and talk about problematic IMF reports. Even if the fund is not an absolute master of the truth, the things surrounding us day by day mainly confirm the data in the report.