The brand Switzerland

This post is for all those interested in country branding and to the ones who want to see nice videos about Romania...but mostly for the former reason :-)

Why write about this now?

1) The topic has been a hype in the last 3 years in Romania.2 totally different country images were developed for Ro.Although one of them had many good things inside, they've lacked a holistic communication, that one idea to leverage at different touchpoints: through TVC, Print, Internet banners,national tourism website,prints in each townhall, mobile phone apps, etc. Consequently,nothing was built around it and it faded away.

2) A few weeks back I've been to the Museum of Design in Zurich to visit "Paradise Switzerland" - the exhibition. It has been mind opening to see what and how long it took to create the Schwiitz brand. In this case, it took 50 years for the brand Switzerland to stand for:quality, mountains, and precision.




It all started in the 1920s, when the Swiss government advisertised Switzerland to Swiss as a winter holiday destination. The communication idea was: healthy kids thanks to fresh air and sports in the nature.
In parallel, Switzerland has promoted its agriculture: fresh mountain milk and cheese.

So, how did Swiss build their brand?
-Find 3 things that define your country,are different from the ones of neighboring countries and are deeply rooted in the
territory. In the Swiss case: spectacular mountain scenery, quality products, precision (clock industry).
-Think of a campaign idea that is general enough to include the 3 characteristcs to promote.The campaign idea needs to be easy understood so that it can be leveraged at multiple touchpoints. In the Swiss case: keep yourself fit and enjoy the quality Switzerland has to offer.
-Think of a logo and a slogan that reunites these 3 elements.This will be the common element in all advertising media. For CH, the flag was chosen as a logo. As for the slogan: Swiss Quality.
-Develop the Tvc to leverage one element at a time.If you can logically connect 2 elements, you can then include boh in
one Tvc.Do Not try to fit all the 3 elements in one Tvc b/c it will dillute your message.Use alternatively different
Tvc,having as a common element the slogan and the logo.
-Repeat,repeat,repeat the same ideas over and over again.The executions can be different,but the idea Must be the same.

And now, to the Switzerland example:
- for mountains they chose Matternhorn and they repeated the same image, though in a modern look,for 70 years;
- quality - the executions were always different,but same idea;
- clocks - he idea of precision was communicated.In some instances, quality and clocks were
connected in the same commercial by "precision".
-to this, they added a fourth element: chocolate.This was alternatively connected to mountains and the fresh milk of mountain cows or to quality.

So, what can be done in Romania's case?
1) elements:
- wild, virgin nature and the Danube Delta as an image for this;
- authentic villages - which is easily connected to nature;
- hospitality - fits with villages.

2) Slogan/logo - the use of the flag is not recommended b/c it is too disturbing in a print;
3) Tvc - below are 2 attempts to portray Ro. I prefer the former b/c it is captures some of the typical ro elem.

1st video- was done by Ogilvy 4-5 years ago. The campaign idea is: Romania - simply surprising. It is my favorite one due to the combination of music and image choice.


2nd video - the positive in there is the placement of known personalities, sport people like: Hagi, Nadia Comaneci, or Ilie Nastase. However, the slogan was less inspired, as well as the image selection, which doesn't really capture the most special things/places in Romania. To end with, this video tries to cover too many distinct aspects of Romania and it thus dillutes the message. At the end you cannot really tell what Romania is. This probably proofs that the creatives behind this video weren't briefed correctly and didn't really immerse in the topic. However, enjoy it! There are 2 versions for this video.
The first one is a teaser. It's funny and it serves its purpose.


The second version is the real TVC:



and finally...a teaser sponsored by SAB Miller to refresh/ learn more about Romania:

Romania in pictures

This is a presentation which I prepared two years ago to present Romania to my master class colleagues.
Enjoy!

Romania

View more presentations from ligiafolea.

And one more which I found on the Web. It has more pictures.

Romania - Wonderful Places

View more presentations from Raissa_ro.

Celebrating spring...among others

Today I celebrate two important events:

The first one is the beginning of spring, which is celebrated in my country, Romania, with flowers and certain pin-ons which are given as a gift from men to women, from children to moms and to the teachers, as well as among pupils. It's meaning is briefly explained below:




The second celebration is that today is one year since I started writing on this blog. Be it in times of economic growth, crisis and depression, I tried to capture and present what I passionately care about besides my daily professional life. Apart from being a "catching up" platforms with my friends from all over the world, it is meant to reflect the changes in my interests, a certain "how I was vs. now" kind of thing. As such, even if this blog is not as interactive as was initially aimed to be, I still find it very valuable as a storyboard of my globetrotting. I thank to my friends who take the time to read my pages from every now and then and I am happy that we can stay in touch through this, although I would prefer to meet you all in person again.

Enjoy reading and have a great spring!

Vals

As part of a Graubünden tour (the canton in Eastern Switzerland), I've visited a more remote location called Vals. Vals is a village of 800 inhabitants, situated in the mids of the Romansch speaking region, whose main income source (75%) comes from tourism. 

What is interesting though, is that for the first time visitors, the village seems to be at the end of the world, as one usually has to change trains two times and then take a bus for the rest 20 km in order to get there. For the "less initiated" with the Swiss small mountain roads, it is recommended to go by bus. As you will see from the images, the road is too narrow to allow two cars to take a turn. 

While walking through the village, the first idea that stoke me was: how does this village survive and why is it such a touristic attraction? As previously mentioned, it is a remoted place, with a typical Swiss mountain landscape. 

So how do they do it?

After a brief analysis from different information sources, the following important elements could be drawn, which contribute to Vals's success as touristic area:

- A very open local administration, that markets its region very well and which also took the role as a one time stop for everyone who is interested in visiting Vals. That is, they not only advertise the natural beauties of the region, but also already suggest possible touristic activities and active support the visitors in planing their trip, finding accommodation, offering insights about what is to be seen.

- The peasants which were mainly active in agriculture, saw and reapt the opportunity to diversify their income sources by enlarging their challet and accommodating a small number of tourists (aprox. 10-15). The provided food is advertised for originating from the area, as well as the served dishes.

- Vals has thermal water sources and posseses a hotel made of two eight storey buildings and the building which accommodates the baths. Although the two hotel buildings are architecturally typical for the seventies, the inspiration came when the most renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumtor was appointed to re-design the bath building. As in other examples such as the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, the new building became "the point of attraction" for the entire village. By using only local materials and taking its inspiration from the particularities of the region, Zumtor has designed a special place for relaxation and health, where the combination of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements contribute to a sensation appealing pilgrimage through the Vals region.

 

If I were to compare this to a place in Romania, I would name Baile Herculane as being the most similar to this place. Briefly described, they are also situated in the mountains, being not very well connected, but still close enough to big cities such as Craiova or Timisoara. It benefits of a mild, sub-Mediterranean climate and vegetation, of thermal waters and fresh mountain air. So, why isn't it as known as Vals is, and what can be done about it?

I would recommend to compare the three elements mentioned and see where this resort lies in terms of competitiveness in comparison to Vals. Take the example of Vals and particularize it for Baile Herculane region.

Dacia is heading to the top

Dacia is one of the companies that benefit from the crisis. According to a consumer survey made in Germany, 11,5% of the ones questioned, are considering to buy a Dacia in response to the "Environment Package" offered by the German government. This policy is meant to indirectly support the car manufacturers during the crisis. 

However, according to the "official version" of the policy, this is meant to be an environmental policy, aimed at progressively changing all the old cars to new cars which conform to the EURO 4 standard. Described in a sentence, the package was voted at the end of January 2009, and offers EUR 2500 to the owners of cars which are older than nine years, who opt for composting their old car and buy a new one.

All in all, the German package of promoting European car manufacturers is in fact promoting Romanian cars and small cars. 

Heading to...?

Dear all,

There are critical moments in life when one asks oneself:

What to do with my life?

Numerous books and articles have been written on this topic. What they suggest is:

- The assumption that you can follow your dreams after having raised enough money is false, as one freeze dreams because they die in time. Fulfilling one's dreams is liberating and makes one happier even having less cash. Postponing to fulfill one's dream is wrong as time flies and without something personal negatively impacting one's life, the dream will be abandoned.

- Using logical reasoning to solve this problem usually only leads to answers that make the brain happy and jobs that provide "brain candy." Intense mental stimulation. Thus, the right question to ask is not "what am I good at?", but "what would stimulate me for a year or something that I can be passionate about for 10 year?"

- Thirdly, the right question to ask when searching for a job is not "what will I do?", but "who will I become?" This is because once rooted in a particular system, it's often agonizingly difficult to unravel oneself from its values, practices, and rewards. In other words, one needs to find a job that complies with one's values and principles.

- Lastly, it's very important to ask oneself the question "what to do with my life?" and think about it seriously. Let yourself time to consider several options and check whether they are in line with your inner self. One needs to be aware that the more options one has, the more difficult it is to answer the Question.

In line with a previous post on whether to return to Romania after finishing your studies, here is a survey made by the Association of Romanian Students and Scholars at Princeton University. These findings call for the need to bring together high potential young individuals, to create a platform for them to network and develop future businesses in Romania.

Here is the presentation.

Survey Romanian Student and Scholar Association at Princeton

View more presentations or upload your own.

GDL Seminar in Sinaia

DISCOVER REGHIN'S HEART

These days I’ve been taking part at a three-day seminar on the topic of why and how local authorities should include communities in the strategy development process. Besides the theoretical aspects discussed, I have left from this seminar with the following take-outs or better said observations:

About Reghin’s development potential:
- There is limited will to bring significant, beneficial changes to the town and the ones who are committed to it, namely young, motivated individuals, are being suppressed.
- High ranked local authorities are half willing to bring a significant change and are concerned only about political games.

About local public authorities in Romania, in general:
- As the salary for the ones working in a public authority is uncompetitive with the one in the private sector, the most motivated and knowledgeable people avoid taking a public job and leave for another job in the private sector as soon as an opportunity comes along.
- Generally, people working in the public local authorities lack the will to drive a significant long-term change for the city they administer.

As such, a city can significantly change only when:

- There’s a strong will coming from high ranked local authorities, which are committed to bring about a change
- Motivated individuals are rewarded accordingly based on performance and merit and not on hierarchy
- Public authorities should collaborate with NGOs and other representatives of the civil society in order to receive more feedback from the town’s residents and consult them in important matters concerning the town’s development.
- NGOs could play the role of the intermediary between the local authorities and the citizens, could educate the citizens regarding issues such as how to preserve historical areas. Furthermore, NGOs could be used to consult citizens and to explain to the citizens in plain language the development proposals coming from the authorities.

Christmas modernity

Father: So, here's the Christmas tree. It is pretty uniform...

Daughter: Please bring it in after you refine its height.

Father: But what about the artificial tree that I bought last year? It's in the garage. It looks like a real one and it doesn't even leave any leafs. 

Daughter: ....I see...and what about the typical Christmas tree smell?...

Father: But you see, because of the temperature, the real one will soon dry and its leafs will start falling. 

Daughter:..I understand...ok, bring the one from the garage. I'll try to make it look real. However, what do we do then with the real one? 

Dana (a co-worker) is just arriving. 

Father: Dana, do you already have a Christmas tree? 

Dana: No, I don't. 

Father: Would you like to have this tree? Look how nice it is. It will be perfect for your apartment. 

Dana:  Thank you, sir. Do you mind if I come to pick up the tree only tomorrow?

This snapshot shows how modernity is seen in Romania. Artificial trees replace the strong scent of the Christmas tree, the smell of home made cookies are replaced by the series produced cookies bought in the hypermarket. 

Why did the old traditional values go? 

The generations that are now between 40-50 years old have been raised during the communism, when traditions and values were suppressed, religion was banned and larger group gatherings interdicted. 

Now, when they start affording the goods they didn't find or could buy before, they are rushing to internalize them in their homes. 

Question: Why did you buy that curtain? I once asked my mom. It doesn't really fit to the style of our house.

Answer: The lady from the shop told me that these curtains are the trendiest of all. 

Examples such as the ones above show how Romanian middle class people from mid and small size towns think. Even though one might argue that it is not representative for the entire land, it is the kind of thinking that I often deal with when talking to 40-50 year old. 

That's why I miss the Christmas feeling, the Christmas cooking activities and the Christmas cookies smell, the wine, the carols...and I actively try to influence people to revive it. 

Mobile phones - lifestyle or necessity?

"Romanians change mobile phones as they change socks"

According to a recent market study, one out of three Romanians change their mobile phones every 6 months. 

If we compare this with the Americans' buying behavior, they change their mobile phones every 3 years.

Irrational behavior I would say if we think that the average monthly income is EUR 470. However, as for everything, there IS AN EXPLANATION.

For Romanians, mobile phones are fashion and lifestyle objects. Mobile phones are used as artifacts of a certain life quality or social status that people aim to have. So it happens that even though some don't afford it, Romanians feel the need to own the latest technology, the most fashionable mobile phone and to show off with it. 

Post-communist Romania is a materialistic society. In this Romania, material objects such as a German car brand, a Nokia or Samsung mobile phone, play an essential role for one's image in the society. 

This behavior is somehow explainable by the political history. In communist times, all people were almost uniform in what they owned. Now when they have a wide variety of goods on the market and they have the possibility to buy them, they try to differentiate from another by owning sometimes extravagant material goods. 

However, I believe that Romania as EU member will change. Its citizen will learn from their EU peers that showing off doesn't bring too much long-term. Thus, they will prioritize their investment and will put more emphasis on: their homes, cultural and sport activities and health / wellness. They will understand that one doesn't show its quality of life by the car he/she drives, or the phone he/she speaks on, 

BUT

by the cosiness of one's house, by the overall image, especially the appeal of healthy and fit person, who feels good in its body and who enjoys a rich cultural life. 

Regulations for bicycles in Switzerland

I have been waiting for a long time to happen and it finally did: the police stopped me while I was biking today. Strange, isn't it?

In Romania it would be strange because there bicycles are de facto not considered to exist on the streets although there are some cyclists on streets. Police is Romania is probably too concerned with managing the automobile traffic and does not get involved in how bicycles circulate.

So what does this mean for the cyclists?

Basically, they can go whatever, however they want on the streets as long as they don't get hit. Furthermore, they needn't have any lamps or other protection elements. They can even get drunk and still hop on the bike and cycle to get home. However, don't think that this has only advantages.

So what are the disadvantages?

First, you are in danger when you find yourself on the street between the cars because they see you only as an obstacle and not as an equal participant in the traffic.
Second, if there are no rules to follow, the cyclists can adventure in dangerous maneuvers that put their lives in danger.
Third, you don't have any special parking places for your bike. this means that it can easily be stolen or hit if somebody thinks it stands in his/her way while parked.

But how is it in Switzerland?
I'll mention only those facts that I usually come across.

1) Every bicycle that runs on the streets needs to hold a vignette, similar to the ones for the cars. In this case, this is an insurance, like a car insurance.

2) It is forbidden to cycle if you drank. Should the police stop you, you risk losing your driving licence. Yes, your driving license although all you drove was a bike.

3) The police can stop you like any traffic participant and ask you for your documents. The reason why they stopped me today was to check if I had all the lamps. If something misses, then you risk being fined.

4) Cars usually pay great attention to the cyclists and give them priority. It somehow makes you feel good when you make a Porsche stop in front of you to allow you to cross the street. :-)

Coming back to more serious reasons, all this attention given to cyclists as well as the special dedicated bike routes promote the use of bikes for within town circulation, making the air more breathable and reducing noise.
For the cyclists it brings some significant advantages: rapidity especially in traffic jams and use of bike both as a sport and as a utility vehicle.

Let's talk again about rural development...again

Yesterday I visited...again...the beautiful town of Appenzeller. For the ones who know the place, I know that you are already jealous for not being able to re-see it again (sic). For the ones who haven't visited it, pay attention and continue reading. :-)

So, how can you make money if you're living in a town which is known only for keeping its traditional way of living?

1) Take herbs from the area, mix them and sell them as Appenzeller Tea.
2) Do you have any fruits in your garden: strawberries, grapes, plums...whatever grows in your country. Then you should make spirits (all sorts of schnaps, alcoholic drinks) out of them, put them a local brand name and sell them in souvenir shops.
3) If you have anything else to sell which is locally produced, then pack them ecologically, traditionally and sell them at a premium price.

In every small town or village that is on a main road or has a touristic attraction spot such ideas can be used as a source of additional revenue.


And here are some examples to inspire you:

Let's talk about OLMA

For the ones who haven't been through St. Gallen, I will introduce you to a very popular event that marks the town two weeks long every October.
It's called Olma Messe/ Olma Exhibition. You're probably imagining now pictures hanging on the wall or Greek and Roman sculptures.
You'll be surprised to find out that Olma it's not at all about art in its classical sense.
OLMA stands for "Schweizer Messe für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung", that is Swiss Exhibition for Agriculture and Nutrition. The farmers come to exhibit their animals and present their products (usually cheese and wine).
When I found out about this exhibition, I was quite amazed. Why? I didn't expect to see in a country such as developed as Switzerland such an "animals show".

This event still puzzles me and I wonder how come the agriculture plays such an important role, even though it doesn't bring a great value added to the GDP. However, the same is valid for France, too, where the farmers benefit from a comprehensive protection from the government, being largely subsidized.


But in Switzerland, the country of banks and pharma, why is agriculture important?

I have three hypothesis for this question:
1) It's a matter of national pride to have your own products which you market internally and in the EU markets. It's not only a matter of country pride, but also the Swiss consumers attach a premium value to a product to which they personally know the region of provenience.
2) This subsidization can also be looked at as the result of the "distributive function" of the government. By this I mean the distribution of the funds from the "haves" to the "have not-s". In this case, the transfer of money from the banks' and other multinationals headquartered in Switzerland, to the farmers who live in harsher living conditions.
3) This support can also be considered as a reward for the fact that farmers, by taking care of their assigned properties, contribute to maintaining the beauty of the Swiss landscape.

So, how can this help? What are the learnings for other countries, and especially Romania, from the story?

Let's take three take-aways:

1) We (Romanians) should start and brand our national products with more pride. As lots of Romanian consumer goods products and especially food is still traditionally cultivated, we should promote this particularity. We should, furthermore, try to market our products outside our country with more pride and actively participate at exhibitions. The premium price will follow as the brand will progressively become established.

2) We should try and promote the farmers' traditional way of life in Romania in our country image strategy. There are only few countries left in the EU (only Bulgaria), where this customary way of living is still alive.

3) We should be nationalists like other countries are (France, Switzerland, Austria) and choose our national food products if they provide a similar quality. That's how each of us can support the farmers' way of life, which further has a direct positive impact on Romania as a touristic attraction. Furthermore, this also helps maintain our country's identity.

Parkstrasse vs. Spitalului Str.

While I was biking today through the museum quarter in St. Gallen, suddenly a question popped up in my mind: how was that street that I was just biking on different from a secondary street in an 70.000 inhabitants Romanian town. And so I started to compare and contrast two similar streets in different towns.

I mainly looked at the following elements:

1) Houses - in St.Gallen - built in the first half of the 20th century, height: usually P+2 or P+3. We have that in Romania, too. So what is so special? The special atmosphere that they diffuse comes from the fact that they don't show off in your way, they rise there like discrete strangers who don't want to interfere in your way. Usually, they are partly masked by trees or bushes, which separates them from the rushing pedestrian or cyclist. There's no flashy pink, crazy green, or dark blue house to hypnotize you with their color.

2) Streets - it is designed to limit your speed to theoretically 30 km/h. Practically, no one drives with more than 15 km/h. Why? The street provides in both direction parking spaces for the residents. Blue and white lines indicate the teritorry meant for parking. As everyone there is conscious enough to respect the regulations and the others around him, everyone respects those drawings and no cars don't come up in your way because they are wrongly parked.

Furthermore, in order to reduce speed, traffic circles have been built every now and then and they are also a green area with trees and flowers. What is even more interesting about the secondary streets in the living areas of St Gallen is that the road and the pedestrian road is not clearly defined in some areas. There are some fragments of let's call them "third spaces" which both cars and pedestrians use. This is again not a breakthrough concept one could say. That's true, but the beauty is in how they (the Swiss which I don't usually praise) have succeeded to combine all these ubiquitous elements into a relaxing atmosphere.

3) People - not too numerous are walking on the street quietly. If you look at them, they politely return your look, but you don't feel at any moment that they are interfering in your life or that they judge your appearance. This is something which is quite different from Romania, where people tend to compare and judge each other by their clothing. I see this only as a transition phase for Romanian, too, which is mainly caused by their "materialism orientation". This "orientation" makes them judge people in a superficial way according to their: phones, cars and clothes. In Switzerland, it is the character that matters most and you don't usually pay attention to the material aspects.

To sum up, what I tried to do was to compare two streets in middle class residential areas in two countries. I compared and contrasted houses, streets and people. My overall impression is that what distinguishes streets here is that they allow each one: driver, cyclist or pedestrian to circulate without interfering in each other's way.

------
I'm still looking for some pictures make it visually more clear what I mean.

Rural areas - attractive spots for the creative class?

Yesterday, I've watched on ARD (a German channel) a TV report on the village Avrig in Romania. Before going further into details, let me provide you with some background information on this place.

Avrig is a small town of 16000 inhabitants, located about 25 km away from Sibiu, on the road connecting Sibiu to Brasov and hosts two nationalities (Romanians and Germans).

I was impressed when I found out that a young 29 year old German was elected by a Romanian majority to be mayor of the town. Still, it doesn't seem unique enough to attract my attention. Furthermore, what I found to be really interesting about this mayor was that, after his university studies in Germany he chose to return to the home town. He was interviewed by ARD and with a accent-less, correct German he presented his plans for the town's development.

As soon as I've learned this, I immediately made a connection to the Richard Florida's creative class and I energetically started to look for empirical evidence showing the possibility to attract the creative class to rural areas.
One study from Cornell University, which I find very relevant in this regard is available under the following link:

Recasting Creative Class

Even though the study shows that such a possibility exists, it doesn't go into details on how to attract the creative class. Thus, I would like to enumerate some ideas that crossed my mind:

1) A good transport and communication connection to the two vicinity cities (Sibiu and Brasov) are vital as they allow the creative class to commute to the vicinity cities whenever necessary.
2) Leisure amenities are definitely another "must be" in the town. Under this category I refer not only to hiking or biking tracks, paragliding, or other outdoor sports, but also to the stores able to provide with the necessary equipment.
3) Organizations of like minded individuals - where the members of the creative class can socialize and of course, some places that allow for socialization. Such organizations have a further role, namely they can provide the mayor with input ideas for attracting more members of the creative class. That's how the county Walle Walle in the US received input for developing "attraction strategies for the creative class".
4) Security and tranquility - I built this idea on the results of the above mentioned study, which shows that the middle age creative class segment decides to move to rural areas, that is families with children. Thus, it is important to know that it is safe to leave the children play outside your private property and that one finds in Avrig a quite place, appropriate for relaxation.

This sounds all very nice, but now, let's be reasonable and take an objective look at where the town Avrig stands. It lacks transportation and water infrastructure, as well as the necessary leisure amenities. The positive side is that now Avrig has a mayor that is committed to build the necessary basic infrastructure and turn an unused mansion into a touristic accommodation.

Now, some of you might say that the lack of modern infrastructure can sometimes be an advantage and that it attracts a certain segment of tourists. That's true, but I believe that we can offer to these tourists secondary routes where they can experience how it is have only basic living conditions. In this case, Avrig would be a starting point for such trips.

I could go on and expands my ideas further, but I find that the information provided are enough for you to understand the topic.

Vama Veche - An exotic destination at the Black Sea

Dear all,

I would like to share with you a secret destination. It is the most southern point on the Romanian Black Sea coast, right at the Bulgarian border.
Unlike other resorts which have become too popular and too consume oriented, this place targets people who want to enjoy an uncomplicated holiday at the sea. It doesn't attract fancy people who want to show off their material belongings: cars with 8V engines, haute couture and whatever else you understand through trendy.

In this place everybody is friend with everybody, social boundaries are down, as well as taboo subjects or actions. However, the one important liberty rule is regarded: "you have the right to do everything as long as your actions don't limit another person's liberties".

Typical for this place is not to be accommodated in hotels or other agri-hotels, but to come with your own tent and set it on the beach wherever you like it. Despite this freedom, the "spontaneous order" takes care of everything. This means that you won't be bothered by people's cars too close to the sea or by tents built almost in the sea. Not only this contributes to this bohemia atmosphere.

If you go in the restaurants, pancake or ice cream stands, you will find "odd names" for the food, such as: thrown pancakes, perverse pancakes, "mar'dute" (pancake with apples; it is a nice word combination which loses its meaning through translation).

After the sunset, a new life begins on the beach. Every 50m you find one beach location with different music; however, in this resorts, rock and metal music of different strengths dominate.

What it stroke me is seeing a young man, a rocker, lifting a trash can that was on the ground. This event made me look at rockers through a different light. At that moment I thought for myself: some rockers seem to be more educated than the fancy people strolling through Mamaia (which is THE RESORT for showing off).

Finally, I hope that this has aroused your interest in this place called......Vama Veche (the Old Border).

Bucharest through my eyes

Dear all,

Last week I've been to Bucharest and during the few days spent there I've felt like a visitor. So, here is Bucharest seen through my eyes and captured by the camera. I will try to share with you my feelings when visiting those places. One more thing before I begin: this is my very personal view of Bucharest at that moment and might not be an accurate picture of what the city is like.

Tourism idea for Ro

Salut din nou/ Hi again,

Being on holiday, I'm inspired by anything that I see or experience here in Romania. So, here it goes my latest idea. This time is for the tourism branch.

I've read today in the Neuer Zürcher Zeitung about a bus trip through the woods of Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. Under the name "Exploring Silva Magna Bulgariae", a bus takes you on a 17-day trip through the nature of these three countries. What is special in all this is the fact that tourists can see the untouched, virgin nature. Although for my Romanian fellows this might not seem extraordinary, it seems that in the countries of central and western Europe you don't really find such places anymore.
So, a tourism agency called Silvatur Reisen from Zurich is organising similar trips to other Eastern European countries except for Romania.

Now, I'm wondering why shouldn't one offer similar tours throughout Romania? Undoubtedly, I strongly believe that the nature in Romania is one of our most valuable assets to leverage for touristic purposes.

What can we offer?
We have countless forests of different kind and a natural, well kept vegetation and fauna. I am thinking of the nature in three main categories:

- mountain areas - with fir trees and other ones from the same family. Given the fact that the mountains have on average 1700-2000m altitude, you can always see typical flowers (e.g. stone flower) and other plants. As for fauna/animals, there are: bears, reindeers, and birds (e.g. the mountain cock, which is a protect big bird). Nonetheless, you can admire the sheep herds, the huge, white dogs that take care of them and even have a philosophical chat with the shepherd. You can even listen to some poems which have this theme written by well known Romanian poets. Let's not forget the spread, small villages on the hills of the mountains. Who visits them will definitely be impressed by the hospitality of the villagers, despite the hard life and isolation which they are confronted to.

- hill area - around 1000m - here you will find a totally different kind of vegetation, fauna....and even the people are different. Whereas the former led a very simple, traditional life, the ones living in the latter area benefit from more connectivity to the "civilized world" if I may put it this way. How will you notice that? Pay attention to how they decorated their houses, the way they are dressed and you will notice a mixture of popular/traditional clothing and modern clothes.

- plain area - usually along the rivers (Mures, Olt, Danube). Apart from the nature differences, what it strikes me most whenever I visit these places is the difference in housing. Because of the wind and the higher average temperature, houses are spread horizontally and don't have more than one floor. This is different from the hill area, where houses are higher and give you an impression of wealth.
Ok, I could continue talking about this, but let's move forward and see what we need in order to be able to organize such tours.

What are the resources involved?
- Basically, we need accommodation options for each of these areas...and not any kind of accommodation, but specific, real life like accommodation. I believe this wouldn't be so difficult, as you can always find people who move to the urban centers and leave behind their houses.
- Secondly, the road network and accessibility to some areas plays a decisive role. This may be problematic in the mountain regions, especially during the wintertime. However, this can be solved with some SUVs.
- Thirdly, we need a guide that knows every place and has stories for each of them. This is not so difficult, as everybody can learn from books general information about the area. More specific information will be gathered from discussions with inhabitants from the area. Word of mouth stories are always the most valuable as they are unique and cannot be found in other countries.

What are the risks incurred?
- Not enough people interested in such tours - However, if we look at the success of Silvatour Reisen who has already tested this kind of tourism, the level of risk is lower in this case. I assume that people who have done one similar tour and liked it will be interested in going on other tours in other countries.
- Difficulty of receiving finance for the resources needed (houses, SUVs).
- The weather conditions prevent from organising such tours during wintertime or cause delays/cancellations.

All in all, this is a very grob idea that I've presented here, which needs to be further brainstormed on and analysed more carefully. However, it is a new business idea for Romania.

Keep your eyes and ears open to the world and you will receive more ideas that your brain can process...
L.

Corruption in Romania - An Article from "The Economist"

Dear all,

While reading the daily RSS News Feed, I've come across an article in The Economist about corruption in Romania. Naturally that I've read it carefully to see what the views of the authors are. To sum it up, it mainly says that the level of corruption in Romania is more acute than what the European Commission states in their periodical reports about Romania's progress. The authors go even further and explain how Romania joined the EU. They mention the help of France who "pushed" Romania on the EU Enlargement Agenda. So, this is what they say. What do I think about this?

First, it is true that the accession of Romania to the EU didn't take place because we really deserved it. However, he did make a lot of progress in the last 18 years since the communism fell. What is more, we are connected to the EU in the values that we share: liberty, respect and tolerance, multiculturalism. The ones among you living in Romania may ask me: where do you see tolerance or multiculturalism? I would simply take the example of Transilvania where Romanians live together with the Hungarian minorities. The Hungarian minorities have the right to education in their own language starting from kindergarten to university level. If you go to the public administration, they will greet and talk to you in both languages. This extends to every shop and stores, from the small boutiques to the shopping malls. Maybe these proofs might not impress my Romanian fellows, but having the example of other European countries, I would say that we handle multiculturalism issues pretty well.

To the corruption issue, I have to be very straightforward and say that I consider this to be the biggest challenge in Romania's changing process. Why? It's not because we haven't seen yet any "high level corruption case" solved. What concerns me are the small corruption acts which take place every day, the so-called "spaga". For this to change, I see the need for a change in the education of people right from school. It's there where small corruption acts begin and that's where you can end it. However, a change in mentality, in not thinking anymore that you might solve your problem easier or quicker if you give the other person "an attention", requires time....time, education and permanent reinforcement of the principle "no gift, no attention needed".

Secondly, it it true that the accession of Romania was mainly due to geopolitical and economic reasons. Geopolitical, because of its location and its access to the Black Sea, which we share with Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia and Russia.
The economical reasons are obvious. Being a developing country, almost any market segment that you take is not saturated yet and represents a large potential distribution market for the European companies. Even if the purchasing power is not comparable to the rest of the EU, the quantity (population of 22 mio. inhabitants) compensates for this. Furthermore, there is need for important infrastructure investment, which represents a big opportunity for the European construction companies, given the fact that the EU construction market is stagnating.

Thirdly, looking at the EU overall, if it wants to keep competing with the big world players (US, China), it needs to grow. We see that on average, the "old" EU countries grow with 2%. In comparison to this, because of the "catching up effect", the new EU countries have a growth rate of min. 5-6%.

Finally, I haven't forgotten that the citizens from the old EU countries pay for the development of the "new EU". However, I think that this money have a multiplier effect in terms of investments in the latter, which help the EU companies maintain their competitiveness and the jobs in the old EU countries.

To sum it up, this is the way that I see these problems in Romania. Overall, the information conveyed in the article are true, but they fail to offer an overall picture of what Romania is really like, with its main pluses and minuses. It is exactly this gap that I've tried to cover in this post and I encourage you to write what comes to your mind about the issue. There are also some interesting comments from the readers included in "The Economist" after the article.

Here is the link to the article:
In denial

Cultural bike tour

Dear all,

As part of the Reenerländchen cultural bike tour project, I've been on the localisation of the Cultural Route Uila, Logic. These are two villages about 20 km away from Reen (the German name for Reghin, my hometown). They are part of the Reenerländchen Region, which comprises all the villages within aprox. 20 km around Reen.

So, what is so special about these villages? Why a bike tour there?

First, it needs to be mentioned that these villages are "at the end of the world" so to say, that is, they are very isolated. As other isolated villages in Romania, they lack most of the facilities of a civilized world. Thus, you might imagine that people there must feel miserable. However, what stroke me most while I was biking through these villages was that people looked happy. You could read in their eyes and on their faces their calm, their kindness and hospitality. I asked my friend if he thought people were happy and he confirmed my impression: people looked happy with their lives.

Another interesting thing was their perception of the distances. You must understand that these villages are not connected to any highways. Furthermore, although some people have cars, most of them have traps (Pferdewagen in German). Thus, when we asked them: what's the distance to another village, different people gave a similar answer..."that's far and you won't make it there because it has been raining in the last days and you will get stuck with your bikes". However, we took our chance and went by bike to the nearest village. Our GPS showed that there were about 12 km until there. Some areas on the route were more delicate to go through, but it was doable.
What I wanna stress is that for these people who live in isolated villages they're Europe is restricted to the village in which they are born.

Let me tell know something about the landscape so that you better understand the pictures. This area has the largest orchards in the country, mostly apples and cherries. It is a plane area, at 400m altitude.

So that you visualise the place, here are some pictures:

I hope you enjoyed them and will sometime in the future be interested in visiting these places.
For more information about the cultural bike tour project, visit Velocult website.

1 März - Frühling Tradition in Rumänien

"Die Rumänen feiern am 1. März "Martisor" - den Frühlingsanfang. Frauen und Kindern schenkt man an diesen Tagen ein "Märzchen" - einen Glücksbringer - zum Beispiel ein vierblättriges Kleeblatt, Schornsteinfeger, Hufeisen oder ein kleines Herzchen - mit rot-weissem Band. Überall auf den Straßen findet man kleine Stände, wo diese in unterschiedlichster Form kaufbar sind.

Diese Tradition stammt schon aus vorchristlicher Zeit, von den Geto-Dakern, den Ureinwohner Rumäniens, die ein Stamm der Thraker sind. Am Anfang wurden aus Schafwolle zwei Fäden, rot und weiß, gesponnen und von den Frauen den Männern geschenkt, die sie sich um das Handgelenk banden. Die beiden Farben symbolisieren den Schnee und die Sonne.
Unter dem Schnee schlummern die Keimenden Körner der Feldfrüchte, die von der Sonne ans Licht geholt werden. In dieser Zeit begann die erste Feldarbeit. Man trägt das Märzchen so lange, bis man einen blühenden Baum sieht, dann wirft man es in den Baum und wünscht sich etwas." (Transylvania Travel)