Edit: ok, maybe I'm not so much saying I want communism back, but I want a better gouvernment. Think haxartus put it best:
Yes, yes, weird title. But let's think a bit.
What were the worst things with my country in communism?
-censorship, yes, horrible, I agree
-to get anywhere high you had to praise the leaders. Hasn't changed much. Just the leaders. You don't praise the state leader alone anymore, now you praise your boss, your buddy with relations at a firm etc. Yes, there are promotions given by merit too, but few and far, so, as I said, not much changed.
-food shortage, horrible, not enough food because the late dictator needed to pay the debt back, so our country actually had no debt when communism fell, and even though that didn't matter, as all debts from communism times were erased for all anyway, now look at us, swimming in billions of euros of debts, having other countries direct what we do all the time on every aspect.
However, if we look at previous dictator, and the starting time of the last one, we see that it was actually good, the food shortage wasn't there at all. So, if the dictator would have stopped with the shortage in paying the debt then ended it, it wouldn't have been as bad, he could have, but he didn't. So yes, he was a bad man... now what? Now you have no money and see all types of foods in stores staring at you, like making you feel like you're crap since you don't have enough money even if you worked for 40 years and you got a pension from which you can barely live on salted biscuits.
-you couldn't travel much unless you were an important member of the communist party. The difference was that our country was filled with resorts, from mountains to sea, from geothermal springs to our only (inactive) volcano. Now all those resorts are sitting rusting and failing, the beach is filled with trash, the mountains filled with trash, the geothermal springs closed by private investors and never reopened.
But now let's look at the plus side:
-subway, there was a subway built in the capital, there were plans to extend it. In 22 years of democracy, we barely extended it by some 6 stations...
-the Bucharest-Danube water channel, almost done, it just needed like 10 more km of digging and we could have traveled by sea to the beach, we could have had goods come right in the capital by boat, making it cheaper... scrapped and forgotten.
-irigations system, for watering the crops, it extended on a large part of the actual area good for agriculture, about 60% of it, so our crops rarely had problems... stolen after the revolutions and sold to scrap iron, now we complain when a small drought comes for we have no watering for the field
-the hidroelectric plant was built then, it gives 20% of all power of the country and Serbia benefits from it too. There were plans for another one. Faded in time, all forgotten.
-the nuclear power plant was built then, though yes, here it was kept in order and extended after the revolution
-the Danube-Black Sea Channel was built then, today it's a major part of european naval travel. Yes, there were some ethics problems in how it was built, since many people who didn't praise the state were sent there to, more or less, die. But this was due to the fact that were were orders from Moscow to get rid of them, as this happened mostly in the time when Stalin hadn't died.
-the workplaces, you were given a workplace given on how good you were in a domain, so if you were good with... chemistry, you were sent in a chemistry related position or something similar. Now people are having problems finding a job, they're kicked out and they take money from banks only to be left on the streets.
-young people got a house from the state. It wasn't much, some people called it a matchbox, it was a 1-room(plus bathroom and kitchen) home... but it was free. Today you're lucky if you can buy one until you're 30 with the prices. Insane prices, like we're London or something.
-many local brands, and good local brands with good products with made many job places... today their buildings in ruin, them having been sold to private investors, only metal stealers going on the old company sites.
I don't know. I just feel sad. I see how in communism my country had nice cheap resorts, how you got jobs and houses from the state, how my country produced so many things, made many great marvels praised today, from the water channels to the House of People, from getting electricity to almost every village in the countryside to having some local made movies that were actually good.
And yes, it had its downsides, censorship, having to kiss the communist party's ass (now you kiss 2 parties instead, they both suck), the food shortage, not being able to travel much...
But then I look at the present and think, what has my country produced? I mean it had some infrastructure built, so it must produce something worthwhile... no. It does not. Even one of our last major brand, the Dacia cars, made a factory in Algeria since it's cheaper and is moving part of its production there after they sold to Renault. So what does Romania produce? Maybe grains, we were the granary of the Warsaw Pact during the communist years, right? Well... no. Most it wasted and burnt in the sun because of no watering. Our factories lay silent as they degrade year after year while thieves steal the metal. So what do we make? A cheap workforce. Companies come here for a EU country with cheap workforce to hire people which they can pay and treat like dirt and when the country moves a step higher by even a tiny fraction, they leave leaving countless with no jobs.
Our politics are a mess. They're like a circus where 2 clowns try to show to the public how pathetic the other clown is while they themselves do nothing. We have even a minority "clown" trying to fool a large minority thinking they'd be better off, even if the region is one of the poorest in the country.
Our highways are crap, being littered with holes after first rain, and we barely even have any, having one to the sea and one to the mountain.
Our nature is being cut by people stealing it because nobody cares. Our ancient sites are either falling because of nobody caring for them or they are under private leadership, closed to all. Our resorts are in ruins, our prices are sky high compared to our salaries which are lowest in the EU. Our buying power is a third of what people in denmark have for example after taxes and all that, yet we don't even get free education, for we pay for most universities, our medical system doesn't pay for all the expenses of more costly procedures and sometimes lacks the money to even give prescription meds. Our entire politics is directed by the organizations to which we now own billions of euros because we lack what to even pay pensions from. Our pensionaries, after decades of work, now sit forgotten in disgrace not even having enough money to eat after they pay their taxes while we want to give internet and computers to convicts. And stuff like movies? Quality entertainment? HA! We now get half-naked full of silicon ladies on tv and manelisti (look them up if you're curious) on all stations. About all the movies we make are crap, all being bad comedies or over the top soap operas now.
That's just sad... after seeing a movie from communism times which was good after one from my time which is... not good, to put it mildly(and this is not just me). After having experienced some communism New Years with popular music, famous actors now to see booth babes and gypsies turned rich... I just feel sad. Most of you probably don't even understand. Most of you aren't even from a former communist country, let alone having lived in communism.
But I tell you this, for some countries, communism might have actually been better then what we have today. Yes, I don't know exactly how communism might have touched some subjects like the internet for example, or computer games (well, I can look to China, but that's not such a good example), but from other perspectives for many it might have been better in communism.
And lol, I just remembered I still have the avatar of the Red Alert 3 soviet lady, kind of fits the post I guess...
Edit 2: an article
http://www.socialistunity.com/romani...ommunist-past/