Okay, I admit it - as an American, you tend to preconceive a tad when you see something like this. But in reality, the German national anthem is a good song that got a bad rap thanks to the connotations added during WWII. http://ingeb.org/Lieder/deutschl.htmlI would like to believe this is an expression, admittedly highly dramatic, of simple patriotism for one's homeland and not a four-wheeled recruiter for neo-Nazis. Still, this is taking a bit of a chance. Even a historically Ameriphilic Romanian would nowadays throw a brick as likely as a cheer if I drove around with a big Old Glory in my rear window splattered with a few lines of Scott Key? My personal pick to drive home the analogy would probably be,
"Then conquer we must,
When our cause it is just,
And this be our motto,
'In God is our trust!'"
In fact, Germany and the US might be said to have an interesting similarity in that they were both transformed into planetary pariahs by 8 years' arrogance and stupidity of one man. Ours just happened 60 years later. Who says history doesn't repeat itself?
But I digress. And the above photo is probably nothing to worry about. Bucharest already has one recruiter with a monopoly on bulky, brainless, skinheaded bullies: BGS Security.
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Now, I may be making some wrong assumptions here but; if you do drive around in an oversized american sports car, you ARE more or less doing what the guy with the German national anthem (assuming he's German) in his rear window is doing.
ReplyDelete...obviously in Bucharest, flaunting wealth is more socially acceptable than patriotism - in fact national pride and patriotism in Romania is generally frowned upon, but I am not from Romania and I can't help feeling you're being a bit of a hypocrit (with no disrespect of course).
Mind you, I haven't seen your car yet, I'm actually really keen to see it, I love cars and driving and stuff (who doesn't?) :-D
I'm not convinced that I'm "flaunting." You are correct about my car, it's a convertible V8 Mustang. It may be an oversized American sportscar, but I am an oversized American! The shoe fits, as it were. It also helps to know that I'm simply a Mustang fan and have owned one since 1990.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of flaunting, the truth is that in Bucharest my car and I are actually near-anonymous in a sea of Land Rovers, Land Cruisers, Hummers, Cayennes, A6, A8, M3, Z4, SLK, X5, X6, Xcetera. There are even the odd Jag, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati for the few red lights in town that haven't yet been run. Focusing on aforementioned oversized US cars, you can readily find bad Bucharest traffic being made worse by screeching-tire Chrysler 300s, Chevy Camaros, Dodge Challengers and Chargers, again with at least one Corvette and Plymouth Prowler also known to be skulking about town. Hell, there are even now at least 6 newer Mustangs in town, including another ragtop, a Shelby supercharged model and a California Special Edition. I'm nobody!
And from what I have personally seen, virtually all of the pretentious Stateside projectiles tearing up the town are owned and operated by LOCALS. I know for a fact that the other Mustangs mentioned above are driven by Romanians, as are any other sports/SUV which have dared to roll down their tinted windows within my visual range. Even if I wanted, whatever small nationalism I might scrape up driving an American car is more than cancelled out by all the Romanians driving American cars. Whatever message THEY think they are sending, should perhaps remain a well-deserved mystery. I fear I'm unavoidably lumped together with a legion of poseurs with ill-gotten gains compensating for small penises.
Finally, a word about Romanian patriotism. It's there for sure, but only triggered externally. It's like a fat woman. The difference between her saying "God, I'm so fat!" and YOU saying "God, you're so fat!" are beyond night and day. Do I really have to explain why? Just think "compound fracture," "life insurance," or at the very least, "soprano."
Similarly, when a Romanian says "Romania sucks," you might absentmindedly agree. You might then also get an earful of words like "arrogant," "superficial," "haven't suffered like we have," and "then why don't you leave?" If you REALLY want to test this, try a quip about Romania's suckage outside Steaua Stadium after a winning game. Or worse, a losing game!