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Thursday, September 16, 2004

The new Romanian Government's House

The Government opened yesterday the new Government's House, that has been raised in the last 2 years.

The House features high-tech equipment (Swiss atomic watch, conference equipment, etc) as well as very high-class and fancy decorations, with marble and Gold all over the place.

Of course, the house has been built from public finances, meaning money that the Government takes from ordinary citizens, from companies and so on. The estimated investment is 500 bilion lei, meaning over 15 million USD.

Of course, when asked about if such an investment is justified, especially when the country is in very much in debt and when the teachers have an average income of about 100 USD / month, the government was very low-profile and declined to answer.

I couldn't stop thinking about the Statue of Liberty case in USA, which needed a fund-raising of about 300 million USD by 1986. Even though it was a symbol of the country, much more representative than a Government's House, it was built from fundraising, so that only those who would like to pay had to pay. It was a deep respect for the people's money, which unfortunately in Romania it lacks.

I ave the feeling that for the Government, the public money is like a deep wallet in which all the people put cash, but in the end the Government doesn't care....it thinks it is his to do whatever he wishes (higher wages for themselves, better buildings for themselves, better cars for themselves...and so on).

I really hope sometimes soon the Romanians are going to start asking serios questions about their money....if they care!

Posted by Mihai : 9/16/2004 01:50:00 pm