Bucharest - Romania riot

Hello,

I doubt that you think of Romania, some of you might not know where it is. Still i wanted to bring to your attention a little riot in Bucharest.

Antena 3 - TV station

There were two manifestations today: University - peaceful, Unirii - violent. The president is having a nice weekend in the mountains while all this is going on. No one from the state had comments regarding the riots.

What I wanted to tell you about is not the riots, we've seen many of them in Europe lately, but the real reasons. The politicians reduced wages and pensions last year by 25%, they increased taxes VAT is 24%, they reduced benefits, we are cowards so we didn't do a thing. Romania pays 10 mil $ for 1 KM of highway, other countries pay 3-4 mil, we pay millions on roads that are remade every year, our trains have a speed of 50 KM/h, for example recently a drunk kid driving a new BMW and running from the Police killed 2 people he was released and is now in germany at school...

Anyway recently because of a new Health law a man Raed Arafat, one of the only we have that doesn't steal , resigned. The president stopped the law, but it was too late. We were fed up ... this man saved lives.

Please note that in Romania the majority of the Parliament belongs to a party called PDL, the Prime Minister belongs to the same party, the president used to belong to the same party. The prime minister is a pupped for the president who replaced all the ministry heads with his own people. In the media almost every day there is proof of corruption, but the justice department is controlled by the same people...

Yesterday was peaceful, but late at night when the people were dispersing they were beaten by the police (after they had left the manifestation, not extreme violence just a hit here and there). Today the peaceful protest continued, but also a violent one was started.

Strange thing though, our doctors don't have money for a stethoscope or a bandage, you not only have to bribe them for an operation (they earn 500$ a month - the rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in Bucharest in 300$,just the rent ), but we also have to buy all they need to operate. On the other hand the Police had new Kevlar vests new riot protection, they fired hundreds of tear gas rounds...

reply to post by RanDeLv2


Thank you for the updates from your part of the world. They cut your wages 25% then raised your taxes by an equal percentage?! I'd burn down the place too...geez.

reply to post by antonia


Sorry no, it's a lot to write and I didn't want to be too boring.

They cut the pay for people working for the state by 25% and also pensions by 25%, they increased the Value Added tax from 19 to 24%, they reduced maternity leave money from 75% of you wage to a maximum of 300 $ even if you earn 2000$ a month. They removed heating aid for people that earn under 150$ (note that for a 2 bedroom apartment the heating in winter is a bout 100 $ a month).

Salary, let's say i earn 2000 lei, from this money the state takes 650 to I keep 1450 and also my employer pays other taxes that amount to about 800 lei. So for my work if I get 500$ the state gets the same amount from taxes.

Simple math then: I get 1450 the state gets 1450, but if I buy something the state takes the VAT so another 360. this means that if I spend all my money i get 1090 Lei worth of products and because I earn a living the state gets a total of 1810. Note that total taxes for cigarettes and petrol amount to 60% or more of the final price.

The smallest salary you can get in Romania by law is now 700 Lei so about 200 $ (working full time). It's really hard to find a place to stay in Bucharest for less than 150 $, if you include heating, water, gas, electricity you don't really have any money left for food. There is a calculation that for a person to eat, have a house to rent, buy something to wear from time to time, and just live (no smoking, eating out etc) you need 300$, this is an average with other cities where rent is 70-100 $.

A medical intern gets about 100-150$ a month because it's not work for them, a teacher can get even 100$ because there aren't enough classes to teach. Strangely enough there are so many expensive cars on the roads ...

People bough land from the state for 1$ a meter and then sold it back for 100$ the next week etc. Because of the system and the fall of communism a lot of things were sold for small amounts to politicians and their relatives. They bought 10 story hotels with 1.000$ that are now worth millions and this goes on to this day.

Here is the thread

www.abovetopsecret.com...