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aprindea · 7 years ago

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Romania vs Cardassia Prime

It is actually surprisingly difficult to organize all the different aspects of this into one coherent essay so this will probably be in 2 parts. I think quite a number of you have heard me draw similarities between Cardassian culture and political climate and Romanian culture and political climate (specifically during the tail “end” of the Cold War era). It comes to no surprise because dictatorships have similar features even in sci fi literature/movies/tv shows, but, let’s start with the basics. In Romania during the communist period: there are actually several periods but two are official because the country changed its name from Romania to:

-People’s Socialist Republic of Romania (1947-1965) -Socialist Republic of Romania (1965-1989)

The two periods are actually fairly distinct, but the period I will be talking most from is the Socialist Republic of Romania. Effectively, I did not grow up “during the Communist period”, but I was taught by teachers who were and the influence was far reaching. My parents, however, did grow up during the Communist period. My mother was born in the same year as Madonna. My father was born two years prior. At that time, Communism had been in effect since 1947. This is just to give people an idea of how relatively quickly things became “normal”.

“Nothing comes before the Party and the State”. These are the first two priorities for any citizen. For reference, the Communist Party is the ONLY acceptable political party at this point. There is only ONE candidate at the polls but people are required to actually go out and vote so that the numbers, for a while, showed a 98% or 99% “vote” for a specific candidate. (First was Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej and then Ceauseascu).

The third priority is the Family. The Party did award large families with certain benefits, including money, so that they lived above the poverty level. Large families were considered as 10+ children and came with a commendation from the government (a medal) for the “work serving the State”. There are, at this point, several awards and commendations issued.

My grandfather received several for his work in his industry (he literally built part of the industry in my city of birth and had 5,000 people under him), which he sincerely considered worthless garbage. I have a different perspective than he did and we argued many times about it.

My parents’ schooling, jobs and places to live were decided by their family situation to an extent but to a greater extent by the State. My parents were admitted into university (Polytechnique is the equivalent) based on the number of placements which the State predicted to be required for very specific projects. As a result, the marks of the newly admitted students mattered greatly, as the project one would be assigned to could be in a better city or worse city. My parents were in their early 20s when they married and as a result were assigned together in the same city, but based on my mother’s marks and my grandfather’s work position, which guaranteed them both jobs. One could not be without a job; there were three shifts where my mother worked, for instance: 8 AM to 4 PM, 4 PM to 12 AM and 12 AM to 8 AM. Monday-Friday. Weekends were for volunteering (you guessed it, each citizen was assigned a volunteer position until they had children). The State located people who were unemployed and assigned them into jobs constantly, but there was some logic to this because one was assigned a job based on their education. My parents were both engineers, which was a reputable field; both worked in automotive. At that time, Romania produced its own cars, trucks, etc but we still did import some models and my grandfather would later win a French car from the lottery. This was unusual because by then (70s) the country was beset with isolationist policies as a result of Russian interests and isolationist policies. (if you want to know more just look up Brezhnev… a lot of things will then start making more sense). Post communism, as students, we were all constantly evaluated with tests and compared against each other from a very young age. Standardized tests were and are still a matter of course in Romania. Each year, we had exams and in my school, the “passing grades” were far above 51% as we were competing with each other for a very limited amount of spots. For example, I was in a class of 30 students, and my marks had to be above 80% at the end of each year, but I competed for a spot at the end of 4th grade and was to compete again for a different spot for high school (same school) at the end of 8th grade. These were standardized tests for several subjects, so a lot of us spent long hours in tutoring to ensure that our grades were up to par. We also had behaviour marks: if we skipped school (unacceptable) or talked back (we could be hit for this as punishment: that’s the only thing that has been a visible change since I was in 4th grade vs 8th grade for me because the Ministry of Education passed laws against it. But I was hit in 4th grade. Hard and more than once. Once I distinctly remember it happened because I stood up for a classmate. I got in trouble for doing this more than once in my school career, but … I never quite learned that lesson lol! Class punishments for one student’s transgression remained common, but no hitting.) In Canada I explained the above to my therapist and she was kind of shocked, lol, but she had asked me how long I had been struggling with anxiety and I did not have an accurate answer. Mental illness in Romania is not and was definitely not acceptable during the Communist period. People were put into forced care, which often lasted for months or years, if they weren’t outright killed. LGBTQ+ people were never permitted out of the closet, and they were subjected to conversion therapy. (I argue that the latter would not happen on Cardassia Prime, but that’s another essay for another day)

Everything was rationed, especially starting mid 1970s. That means food was rationed (people had cards with lists that were checked off by government workers, if I find a copy of ours I’ll post it) gas was rationed (no more than 2 large flat metal cans per vehicle and gas stations were extremely far apart) and the government set up a system for clothing: if one had had a baby, a family member could collect a baby box which could contain anything from pacifiers to formula bottles, to formula and baby food and possibly blankets. No regular citizen was ever to be informed on what exactly they were going to receive. I asked my mother what my box contained and she told me my grandfather lined up for it and the workers recognized him and she believes they may have given him a better one/extras. We’re not entirely sure, but mine was useful. It had a pacifier I never used, a formula bottle (we still have that) and a few other things.

There is no church and no religion which can come before Party or State. The Orthodox Church is the official state religion, but it is in and out of favour depending on how much they can “serve”. Every citizen MUST serve The Party and the State fully. This meant everyone over the age of 18, voting age, is a member of the Communist Party. (my parents and their parents were members; I am certain my grandmother burned her party ID card after December 1989 :) ) Socially it was more acceptable to be Atheist. So you are probably wondering: how did the State effectively control people for that long? -propaganda; this was present everywhere from the more subtle (posters in the workplace) to more obvious (party meetings, union meetings, schooling) -The Securitate (this is that Obsidian Order). I often joke about the Obsidian Order. A lot of people probably would get upset with me, but the truth is that most of us bore the weight of the Securitate by making dark jokes about them because there was little choice. Many people disappeared without a trace and this happened pretty frequently. My grandfather told me of many arrests which would happen in the middle of the night. The next day, everyone (co-workers, family members, etc) were to pretend that the person who had been arrested never existed. That’s not an exaggeration. Most homes were miked/bugged so one’s phone conversations were recorded. Additionally (or perhaps even more importantly), family members were enlisted to report each other. So, mother reported son/daughter and children were expected to do the same. Another way in which people were recorded was in the workplace and restaurants. Specifically, a clear, good quality microphone was placed in or under flower vases in restaurants, and restaurant owners were directed to place a flower vase on each and every table. That’s a small example :) .

The members of Securitate did not have uniforms normally because they were practically undercover at all times; they also received information via travelling and talking with regular people as if they were having a friendly conversation, or playing with children in parks. (surprisingly effective) However, the Securitate did have military/army designations, such as “Lieutenant”, “Major”, “General”. My grandfather, one time, in an act of open defiance, actually raised his voice at two agents who were talking on the same line he was using. He knew he was being recorded, but he was trying to conduct business for the day… and the two agents had been making weekend plans… he never heard them again. After the 1989 Revolution (or Coup d’etat), my grandfather continued to openly greet former Securitate members in public by their former designation. Many of them were old men by the late 90s. He always told me, after we’d part with such people, that I must continue to be careful, lest I be followed, watched and reported on. He frequently insulted them with information he’d obtain through unofficial channels… but although he was offered better pay, positions in the Party and a job, he’d turned it down saying he was “an engineer” and “I am better serving as an engineer for the State”.

I can and will answer questions about any of this. (Part two will be at some other point in time... if anyone is interested in reading another 1500 words...)

#cardassia #obsidianorder #romania #star trek ds9 #amwriting #aprindea

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