gangboy

Written by Marius Ghilezean

http://www.evenimentulzilei.ro/english/?news_id=126618

Looked at from the outside, the Romanian seaside resembles Potemkin’s villages. The chain of resorts looks like a row of nicely painted bunkers. Those in charge of running the Romanian tourism stuck some colourful images over the rows of concrete boxes that have so far represented the land of gulag like tourism. The photography of the seaside is the same as the older ones, but slightly made up and with some mascara here and there. Nothing has changed. The etiquette and the trowel cover the misery and bad taste without prejudice. Terraces where people listen to bad taste songs, plain water slides and stands where pieces of fabric are sold at the price of cosmic souvenirs, all of these create the organised disaster sold with great skill. Fortunately, there are enough “suckers” to by it, may say the organisers. Romanians have yet to find what real tourism means, have yet to see the places where big international operators make everything in their power to please tourists. These days’ descent of the noisy big shots make it crystal clear that the seaside has become a sort of neighbourhood of the regime’s newly rich. One is faced with the the arrogance, opulence and two-facedness of the new world at each street corner. There are only a few unaltered places left. Vama Veche resort is now in danger. The newly rich want to relocate their noise with revolving lights in the middle of the naked nature. Expansionist as they are, they want even more. Vama Veche was the place where each individual had the right to be a dignified free person, even during Ceausescu’s regime. Nobody until this summer dared to disturb the oasis of unconventionalism. This was the only place where there were no rich or poor people, there were only free spirits. The “people of Vama Veche” know each other, they know to praise a fresh piece of fish and to rejoice in everything. Life was intensely lived in the tents placed between the casemate and the derelict. Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Led Zeppelin, Rolling stones, Phoenix, Maria Tanase are differently listened to on the sand. Recently, Veraplaya, one of the most famous seaside resorts in the world, which is located in southern Spain, was one step away from being closed because of the invasion of Russian pimps and their “producers”. Today’s descent of “bathing costumes wearers” together with the jeeps has nothing to do with what was going on in Veraplaya. The action to save the only place of alternative culture must be sustained. A Romanian “Woodstock” would do but to give a hand to the revival of an unprejudiced world. people can drink beer and listen to Janis Joplin or reading Mircea Eliade at the same time. These are refined things that are hard to explain to those whose culture lies in their checks.