Many Romanian drivers are also of a similar ilk, mostly regarding pedestrians, and other drivers, as objects on an obstacle course. Generally speaking, drivers here in Oradea (I can’t speak for the rest of Romania) are more rushed, angry and abusive than drivers in the US, even in places like NYC. I’ve been cursed at more in the few months I’ve been here, just for crossing the road at a rate that the driver in question perceived to be too slow, even though I had the green light in the crosswalk, than the total amount of times I was lambasted as a pedestrian while I lived in the US (40 years). But what makes such road-rage tendencies supremely annoying is that they aren’t contained to the road. On an almost daily basis, I am forced to dodge cars driving on the sidewalk, as if I, or any other pedestrian, have no right to be there. (Thank god handguns are a scarcity)

What the hell is the rush? And why don’t the police enforce the laws?

It’s as if Romanians haven’t figured out yet that personal freedoms need to be regulated by personal constraint. Somebody smart once said (this or similar quotes have been attributed to several people), “Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.” Even though this is an extremely non-violent country when compared to the US, it is still quite aggressive, with people swinging some symbolic form of their fists all over the place. I see it from the failed, sophomoric actions of the anti-Basecu parliament, all the way down to squabbles at the neighborhood market.

But perhaps such experimentation is what it takes to move from a system dominated by political oppression to one based on personal expression. One can only find their boundaries by running into them.

All that being said, I prefer being here than in the US, where we cloak our vicious nature with deformed religiosity, skewed policy and double-talk.

(Nice blog. You’re a damned fine writer.)