Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0043/00433.txt

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$Title{Romania
General Information}
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$Author{C. Gheorghe}
$Affiliation{News Agency Rompres}
$Subject{romania
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$Date{1990}
$Log{See Table 1.*0043301.tab
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Title:       Romania
Book:        Romania December 1989-December 1990
Author:      C. Gheorghe
Affiliation: News Agency Rompres
Date:        1990

General Information

Romania's National Anthem

     The patriotic song of the 1848 Revolution "Desteaptate Romane!" (Wake Up
Romanians!) was adopted as Romania's National Anthem in 1990. The lyrics
belong to poet Andrei Muresianu (1816-1863) and the music to folklorist Anton
Pann (1796-1854). It is an interesting fact that the two creators had written
the poem and music independently, that for almost ten years when the poem and
the melody were brought together they circulated separately, under different
titles before the outbreak of the 1848 Revolution, that the song preceded the
lyrics, and that the melody and the poem were brought together by psalm singer
Gheorghe Ucenescu (1830-1896).

     Resorting to a romantic-type poem (Adio) written by Grigore Alexandrescu
before 1840, composer Anton Pann (who named it Din sinul maicii mele From my
mother's bosom) enjoyed large popularity. The seminarists, students and church
singers included the song in collections of "blissful" melodies for young
people's parties. In 1850 Anton Pann published his song in the collection
Spitalul amorului (Love's Hospital) in spite of the fact that the 1848
Revolution made of Din sinul maicii mele a patriotic song. The lyrics of Romania
s National Anthem had been written in 1842 by Andrei Muresianu under the title
Un rasunet, the eleven stanzas being published for the first time in the 25 June
1848 issue of the magazine Foaie pentru Minte, Inima si Literatura of Brasov.
Being excessively long only the first stanzas of "Desteaptate romane!" used to
be sung (even the present National Anthem retains only four of Andrei
Muresianu's stanzas. The new "Romanian Marseillaise" (as the 1848
revolutionaries called it) circulated throughout the territories inhabited by
Romanians, both within the boundaries of ancient Dacia and in the university
centres and the Romanian political circles abroad becoming... folklore! Almost
all the collections of folk songs of the 19th century mention "Desteaptate
romane!" without specifying the name of its composer. Arrangements for school
and professional choirs followed, just as studies for piano and orchestra (Iacob
Muresianu, Heinrich Ehrich, Ciprian Porumbescu, George Enescu a.o.) Desteaptate
romane! is sung at all national rallies (on the Liberty Plain near Alba Iulia in
1918 when Transylvania, Banat and Bucovina united with Romania, Anton Pann's
song became the symbolic anthem of national unity). Although forbidden for
several decades after the second world war, the song has been subsequently
reintegrated in the Romanian patriotic repertoire.

     Full of historic signifiance for the Romanian people, "Desteaptate
Romane!" has imposed itself as the centuries-old anthem of a nation longing
for freedom and social justice.

General information

OFFICIAL NAME - ROMANIA.
NATIONAL DAY - THE 1ST OF DECEMBER.

     The Senate and the Assembly of Deputies, democratic bodies elected after
nearly 53 years of dictatorial regimes, unanimously passed the bill proposed
by the National Salvation Front with a view to making December 1 the National
Day of Romania, given that "the Union of all Romanians achieved on December 1,
1918 and its corollary, the foundation of the modern, unitary, sovereign and
independent, nation-state, remains a crucial event in the Romanian people's
millenary history. On the grounds of that historic decision of the Romanians
in all the ten traditional provinces... the 1st of December is proclaimed the
National Day of Romania".

     Besides the union of Transylvania (an autonomous principality for
centuries under Habsburg suzerainty, annexed to Hungary in 1867, within the
dual Austro-Hungarian Empire), the year 1918 had also brought other events of
significance to the completion of Romania's national statal framework: on
March 27 - the reintegration of Bessarabia, which had been seized by the
Tsarist Empire in 1812, and on November 28 - the reintegration of Bukovina,
which Austria had occupied in 1775.

     The 1st of December stands for the conclusion of a long historical
process that began with the short - lived union of the three, major Romanian
principalities, which ruler Michael the Brave accomplished in 1599-1600. In
the ensuing period, the restored national unity reflected in such momentous
historical events as the Union of the Principalities of January 24, 1859 and,
on May 9, 1877, the proclamation of Romanian's full statal independence. In
1918, the heroic fighting in the war for the reintegration of the nation, and
the sweeping revolutionary struggle in the Romanian territories held under the
sway of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires made it possible for those
provinces to reunite with the motherland.

     The 1st of December moreover symbolizes the Romanian people's unanimous
will, the overpowering aspiration after unity of the large majority of the
country's inhabitants. That unanimity emerged clearly from the vote of the
1,228 delegates gathered in the Constituent Assembly at Alba Iulia, and also
from the presence at Alba Iulia of over 100,000 people from all corners of the
territory inhabited by Romanians, rallied there to back up the fulfilment of
their centuries-long yearning. The 1920 Treaty of Trianon and the Paris Peace
Treaty of 1947 confirmed and reconfirmed Transylvania's historical and ethnic
belonging to Romania.

     The Union of Transylvania with Romania provided the natural statal
framework for a democratic development of the Romanian people, together with
the national minorities.

     GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION - Romania is situated in SE central Europe, on the
lower Danube, bordering on the Black Sea 43 degrees 37'07"-48 degrees 15'06"
latitude North and 20 degrees 15'44" - 29 degrees 41'24" longitude East. The
total length of its borders is of 3,190.3 km, out of which 1,326.9 km with
the U.S.S.R., 444.8 km with Hungary, 544.3 km with the S. F. R. of Yugoslavia,
631.3 km with Bulgaria and 244 km on the shore of the Black Sea.

     AREA - 238,400 sq.km.

     POPULATION - 23,000,000 density 97.5 inhabitants per sq.km. urban
population 54% (including the 3.9% which is the population of suburban
communes) birth-rate 14.3 per 1,000 pop. death-rate 10.4 per 1,000 pop.
natural increment 3.9 per 1,000 pop. (1983) life expectancy: 67.42 years
(men) and 72.18 (women). Romanians - 89%, Hungarians - 7.1%, Germans 1.6%,
Gypsies 1%, Ukrainians, Serbians, Jews, Tartars, Turks, Slovaks, Russians,
Bulgarians, etc. With its area Romania ranks 11th, while with its population
it ranks 9th in Europe.

     THE CAPITAL - Bucharest, situated in the South of the country, in the
Romanian Plain, on the rivers Dimbovita and Colentina. Population:
2,227,569. In the present-day territory of the capital city were unearthed
vestiges from the Paleolithic, the Neolithic, the Geto-Dacian period, the
epoch of the Romanian people's formation and early feudalism. Though the first
documentary mention of the city, as princely seat of ruler Vlad the Impaler,
is dated 1456, Bucharest existed before (14th century). In the latter half of
the 17th century, it became the Walachia's permanent capital. Capital-city of
the nation state after unity was achieved in 1918, Bucharest is Romania's
foremost political, economic, cultural and scientific centre.

     OFFICIAL LANGUAGE - Romanian, the mother tongue of over 88% of the
country's population. Romanian is a Romance language belonging to the
Indo-European family, a language which by its origin, structure and word
stock is the only direct descendant of the Latin spoken in the
Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic space, in the Roman provinces of Dancia and Moesia.

     ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION - 40 counties and the municipality of Bucharest
which has county status.

     GOVERNMENT - Romania is a republic. The president is elected by
direct, universal and secret ballot. The president is the head of state and
represents the state power in the internal and international relations of
Romania.

     Political parties: Sanctioning of the multi-party system has been one of
the major points scored in the process of political democratization in
postrevolutionary Romania. Over 100 political parties and formations have been
officially registered since December 1989, many of which entered the first
free elections on May 20, 1990.

     The legislature consists of a bicameral parliament - the body of state
power and the sole law-making body of Romania. The local bodies of state power
are the county , municipal, town and commune prefect's offices. County
prefects are appointed by the Government. Executive power is exercised by the
cabinet formed by the party or group of parties which wins the elections.

     NATURAL CONDITIONS - Features: Romania is a Carpathian and Danubian
country, opening on the Black Sea. The features are harmoniously distributed
the mountainous arch in the central part occupies 31% of the area, the hills
and tablehands - 33%, and the plains in the South and West - 36%. The Romanian
Carpathians, a component of the Alpine-Himalayan system, have an average
elevation of 840 m, ca. 90% of their area extending below the height of 1,500
m. Highest elevation: the Moldoveanu Peak in the Fagara-s massif (2,544 m).

     North of the Dobrogea Tableland there extends the Danube Delta (4.340
s.q.km. on Romanian territory), the area where the great river divides into
three arms with un uneven flow of water: Chilia, Sulina, and Sfintu
Gheorghe.

     The Climate is continental-temperate of transition, with slight oceanic
(in W), Mediterranean (in SW) and continental (in N) influences. In winter the
average temperature is of-3C, while in summer it varies between 22 and 24C.
Precipitations average 637 mm annually.

     Water bodies: The river system is radial, rivers emptying into the
Danube directly or through the Tisa. The rivers have an energy potential
of 83,450 GWH/year, largely harnessed by the string of hydro-power stations
on the rivers Bistrit-a, Arge-s, Olt, Lotru, Some-s, etc. On the Danube, which
flows on 1,075 km of Romanian territory, at the Iron Gates, there is a big
power station (2,100 MW) built jointly with Yugoslavia. The Iron Gates II
hydropower (442 MW) and navigation system is being completed in the area of
Ostrovu Mare-Gogo-su. A covenant has been signed for building a hydro-power
station at Turnu-Magurele-Nikopol, jointly with Bulgaria. There are about
3,500 lakes, of which the biggest are the lagoons and sounds along the
shore of the Black Sea (Razelm - 415 sq.km, Sinoe - 171 sq.km, Golovita -
119 sq.km, Zmeica - 54 sq.km). Of the other categories of lakes, to note are
the glacial ones, present especially in the Retezat, Paring and Fagaras
massifs.

     Vegetation and fauna: The primeval forest that initially covered the
whole territory of the country gradually receded and  farmland appeared. Today
the forest covers 26.6% of Romania's area, the woodland species being leafy
and coniferous. Pastures and alpine glades occupy large areas and are used
especially for sheep grazing. The fauna is rich and varied, with hunting
potential (deer, bears, foxes, wolves, wild boars, etc.) the rare species,
like pelicans, otters (in the Danube, Delta), the chamois, the mountain cock,
the lynx and others are protected by law. The Danube Delta is a haven for
many bird species.

     LOCAL TIME - GMT+2 h. Romania is in the same time zone as Finland,
Bulgaria, Greece, Egypt, Sudan, etc. Daylight saving time (GMT+1 h) was
introduced in May 1979.

     CITIES - The oldest cities in the Romanian territory date back to the
7th-6th centuries B.C. on the Black Sea coast - the Greek colonies of Histria.
Tomis (today Constanta), Callatis (today Mangalia) - and to the time of the
Roman rule in Dacia, in the case of the rest of the country. More towns
appeared in the feudal epoch, when boroughs and market towns developed. Of the
about 300 urban centres at present (56 municipalities), the capital-city is
the biggest, with over 2 million inhabitants, 20 are ranked as big (with over
100,000 inhabitants), 80 are medium-sized (20,000 to 100,000) and the rest are
small (less than 20,000). The cities with a population of over 300,000
(suburban communes not included) are Brasov, Constanta, Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj,
Galati, Craiova, Ploiesti, Braila, Oradea, Arad.

     ECONOMY - General background: A developing country, Romania has a large
variety of deposits (oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, lead,
uranium, gold, etc.). Significant shares of the global industrial output are
held by: machine building, the food industry, iron and steel, chemistry,
fuels, textiles, woodworking. The capital-city accounts for about 13% of the
total industrial output: other major industrial zones are southern
Transylvania (Bra-sov, F!ag!ara-s, Sibiu) northern Muntenia (Ploie-sti,
Tirgovi-ste, Pite-sti, Cimpulung, Buzau) the South-West of the country
(Hunedoara, Timi-soara, Re-si-ta, Arad) central Transylvania (Cluj,
Tirgu-Mur-es). In the region of Oltenia, the cities of Craiova,
Drobeta-Turnu-Severin, and Tirgu-Jiu have developed. In Moldavia, which
between the wars was almost deprived of industry, new industrial areas have
developed in the Trotu-s Valley and the old cities of Ia-si, Neamt, Buhu-si,
Bacau and Suceava are growing. In the South-East, notable are the industrial
and urban concentrations of Galati - Braila, Tulcea, and Constan-ta
(N!avodari).

     Agriculture - The second most important branch of the Romanian economy,
contributes over 14% of the social product, and 15.2% of the national income.
Before the December Revolution the socialist sector held 90% of the country's
farmland. The sloping areas, less productive for grain crops, are increasingly
used for wine- and fruit-growing. Animal raising, a traditional pursuit of the
Romanians, contributes over 40% of the global agricultural production.

     Foreign trade. In has grown markedly. Exports of machines, equipment and
transportation, means, chemical products, fertilizers, rubber and industrial
consumer goods exceeded, for the first time in 1975, half of the total volume
of exports. At present Romania has commercial relations with 150 states. The
tendency toward equilibrating the trade balance was stalled in the last years
of the past decade by rising prices of imported products (notably oil). After
1981, after the limitation of imports and the expansion of exports, Romania
obtained balance-of-trade surpluses that enabled it to pay back its whole
foreign debt. The main exportables were tractors (parts included), bearings,
cars, railway freight cars and tanks, aluminium, oil products, cement, soda,
tv sets, refrigerators, footwear, etc. The main imports are oil, iron ore,
coal, metallurgical coke, potassium fertilizers, cotton, natural rubber, raw
hides, rice, citrus fruit.


[See Table 1.: Principal Pointers of Romania's Economic Development]

How Rich Is Romania

     Everyone has learned, as early as one's childhood, about Romania s
riches. We were proud of that situation which we believed eternal and
immutable. We believed we were the bread-basket of this part of Europe, that
we would bathe in oil, that we had all kinds of ores one more valuable than
the other. The image of interwar Romania, of its dynamic economy had persisted
for a long time, down to our days even, although the situation altered a lot.

     This optimistic image has nonetheless neglected several essential
aspects, first of all essential historical aspects that could have helped
shape a more accurate picture. What do they commonly forget E.g. after
Trajan's conquest of Dacia, the Romans could more easily solve the financial
burdens of the Empire all the migratory populations that reached here before
settling in Central Europe tasted and benefitted by the riches of this land
the lands north of the Danube was the Ottomans' source of food and good
supplies when the demise of the Ottoman Empire started in the Phanariots'
time, the Ottomans sought to straighten up their situation at the expense of
the Romanians' riches all while the latter were forced to secure food supplies
to the armies of the three neighbouring empires (Russian, Hapsburg and
Ottoman) that for one full century fought their battles in this space parts
of the national territory - Bukovina, Transylvania, Bessarabia and Dobrogea -
were ruthlessly exploited by foreign occupiers in various periods of our
history. Reckless spoliation of the national wealth continued well into the
20th century when Romania was the battlefield of two world wars that
inflicted extensive damage and losses upon it whereas it supplied industrial
and agricultural primary materials in large ammounts to Europe's advanced
countries.

     Both the intense exploitation of Romania's natural wealth for the good
of Nazi Germany during the war and the big drain of resources to the U.S.S.R.
which as occupying power demanded war damages dealt a lethal blow to
Romania's economic potential that was largely responsible for the drying up
of our resources and the decline of the production potential.

     The aberrant, nonsensical, inefficient expansion of a number of
industrial branches in the years of the communist dictatorship was another
serious blow.

     Therefore, is Romania a rich country And if it is, then how rich Some
experts are of the opinion that the axiom "resources = wealth" (with stress on
natural riches) is altogether false and misleading. Certainly, there are
exceptions (Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain where crude is an
immense wealth for these small countries with a small population). Therefore
wealth is not (only seldom) equal with mineral resources. For instance, there
are countries in Europe (Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland,
Austria, to mention just a few) ranking high from the point of view of their
economic development which cannot be considered rich in mineral resources
(except the crude in the North Sea for Norway and the iron ores for Sweden).

     As far as it is concerned, the situation of Romania's resources is, in
most of the cases, precarious. The present oil refining capacity is of about
30 million tons a year. The home production, which reached some 14.5 million
tons in 1975, started to drop, being of only 9.2 million tons in 1989. Ever
larger quantities of crude started being imported - about 22 million tons in
1989. Last year's methane output accounted for only 1.7 per cent of the 1985
production. Geological tappings (on the continental shelf of the Black Sea
included) could not make up for the difference.

     The reserves of "coking pitcoal" (existing only in the Anina coal basin),
discovered two hundred years ago, supply only 160,000 tons annually which is
not enough. The lean coking coal extracted from the Jiu Valley can be used
only in combination with high-quality pitcoal which is imported (some five
million tons in 1989). Otherwise, the extractive industry supplies
energy-producing coal, low-grade lignite which requires the use of
hydrocarbons (fuel oil in particular) in thermal power stations and burdens
the balance of payments. And even so another about nine million tons of brown
coal and 9.2 million kWh  had to be imported in 1989.

     As for iron ores, the deposits which met the requirements of the Romanian
iron-and-steel industry at its beginning (before 1948) no longer count today.
Last year for instance, 13.6 million tons of iron ores and 138,000 tons of
ferroalloys were purchased from abroad (sometimes from far away and at very
high transport costs) to produce 14.4 million tons of steel.

     Under these circumstances, the opinion that Romania has numerous mineral
resources is real, accurate. But they are inferior (some of them) both in
point of quantity and, more particularly, of quality.

     As for the other component of a country's wealth, the land, it is obvious
that it does not become (it is not) wealth unless it is tilled, and well
tilled! And the level of works mechanization and of the existing equipment is
considered to be below the productive potential of the land. And if neither
mineral resources nor the land are enough to determine the wealth of a
country, hence of Romania, then the only way to turn them to best account,
to turn them into riches is work, any kind of work, from research, designing
and working out of technologies to investment and production.

     It is obvious that for the time being Romania is not one of the rich
countries of Europe. In the new conditions of democracy and of transition
to the market economy, only by producing better and by retooling its
production units can Romania improve its position among the European
countries, being at present the 19th out of 24.