Somewhere between the Ferdinand Boulevard and Piata Muncii there is a supermarket greeting customers with the message: Buy Romanian products; support the local entrepreneurs. This message reminded me of a Facebook post and a conversation between 2 people at a beauty parlour:
“How are things going for xxxx?” (she is a Romanian designer, and has beautiful products in the fashion industry)
“She puts in a lot of effort; however, Romanians are willing to pay only if it says LV, Hermes Prada on the product. If it has a Romanian name, they want lower prices.”
It is fascinating how we are willing to pay a lot of money for anything coming from abroad but not on something made in Romania.
Ironically, many of the products from the most exclusive fashion brands are made here. Many Romanian designers and producers pay a lot of attention to what they do (not all of them, not all the time, but this happens even to the largest fashion houses).
At one point, I bought a blouse from Prada, I was so in love with it. After I washed it twice my mother told me not to wear it again because it had grown ugly. I told her: “What do you mean, it’s Prada!” To which, my mother, being more down to earth, replied: “So what, it is ugly and you cannot wear it anymore.”
I wonder why we are more likely to choose from a fashion chain than from a Romanian store. Might it be distrust? Might it have something to do with the neighbour’s well-being? To send money to another country rather than ours?
In the field where I work, I still hear foreign clients saying that they bring trainers from abroad because they know better and more than we do. It could be; however, I think that 40 years have passed since the people in this country have been learning, or have exposed themselves to different experiences, working with or in other cultures – and so they might have learnt something. I know highly-experienced people, who are not below anyone with a similar job in a more developed country.
One way or another, the stamp of being Romanian assures you a lack of consideration in your own country (but not necessarily in another one).
If you were born in another country many Romanians will see you as if you had a star on your forehead. Even if you have not done a lot in your life, even if you have not learned too much, ‘made in anywhere else but Romania’ gives you a place in the front row.
For a change, how about buying products from Romanian stores, from Romanian designers? Because it would be better for this country if others were better off, even if they are our neighbours, and even if it might seem that they are better off that we are. When our well-being is not built anymore on the suffering of others, maybe we will have a better chance as individuals and nation.