by Peter H Frank | Dec 11, 2009 | Politics, TV Commentary |
[Originally broadcast on Dec. 11, 2009, on The Frank Show, here.]
I have a question. For the politicians. Ok, it’s a rhetorical question. Of course, you’re welcome to respond. If you do, I can put your face on TV, which is, it seems, why you work so hard to get elected. But I don’t really expect an answer from you. I know you’re busy. So many TV cameras — so little time. In fact, I’ve been feeling a bit sorry for you. For those of you guys out there not on TV, you have no idea how hard it is to remove this studio makeup. But ok, back to my question. You politicians have been around TV so much this week, have you had time to watch the news? I mean, not about yourself, but about the world? You know, the news about Dubai, about Greece, about Spain, about Ireland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Baltic states, Ukraine? Have you seen any of it? I include it on this program – maybe too much — but I do it on purpose so people here will see what other countries are doing about problems similar to the ones we have here. Have you read a newspaper? Have you talked to anyone who’s read a newspaper?
No? Ok. Let me give you a little recap. On the one hand, Dubai has borrowed itself nearly to bankruptcy to build new islands and big buildings. Greece is in the toilet with the EU because of corruption, politics, and a budget that apparently was drawn up on a cocktail napkin. Sound familiar? Spain, with 20 percent unemployment, just can’t stop itself from spending. Even the US and the UK got their hands slapped by a ratings agency because they’re screwing up their finances. Now, on the other hand, there’s Ireland, Bulgaria, the Baltics. They’re serious — very very serious about agreeing, cutting, and balancing. Then – then, there’s Ukraine. We all know about Ukraine, right? Well, they now have no choice but to go to a street corner, hat in hand, and beg the IMF, out of kindness or fear, to come back, please come back, and toss a couple billion dollars their way.
No, you haven’t read about that this week? You’ve been too busy? That’s a shame. Because there are lessons here to be learned. Not from history. You don’t need to go back that far, or even read a book. Just look around. Just read the papers. You will see in front of you one of two or three directions you will be taking Romania in the near future. Are you doing that? No. Instead, you’re still fighting. And you’re still boring us. Well, don’t misunderstand. Whether the election was corrupted by fraud IS important. To know that is vital. If it deserves to be overturned, then it should be. A new election should be held. The problem is that this very important issue comes after weeks of campaigning in which there seemed to be NO important issue. All of a sudden, AFTER the vote, the vote becomes important. THAT is no joking matter.
But neither is the budget. And I don’t see anyone talking about that these days. December 10 – a deadline the IMF set when it said it would come back this year if a 2010 budget was submitted. I didn’t see any mention of that deadline passing. And now the IMF has said it would return, for a quick visit, before the holidays. Apparently, there ARE people working. I say thank you. But where were the long wonkish discussions about the budget during the campaign? Where are they now? Listen, we want you to sort out the election results. We want to know if it was a fair election. But we also want you to get to work. Our vacation hasn’t started yet, why has yours? Don’t you have a job to do? Aren’t you supposed to be getting a budget together for next year, and explaining it to us, so this country can survive? Do you really think the world has stopped while you sort all this out?
Well, just look at some of your colleagues in the EU. They’ll tell you. The world has not stopped. Their budgets are not fixing themselves. The rest of the world, including investors, are indeed watching. And many of us are waiting. We want you to talk about the real steps that are needed to bring this budget under control. Let your lawyers sort out the election results. We want you to talk about what steps you will take. We want you to talk about the consequences if they are not. We want you to talk about priorities – and policies. Yes, I know it’s less exciting than calling people names. Yes, it takes more work. But at least, I can assure you, if you did that, you’ll still be on TV.
by Peter H Frank | Dec 4, 2009 | Culture, Life in Romania, TV Commentary |
[Originally broadcast on Dec. 4, 2009, on The Frank Show, here.]
I want to provide you with a service. Free of charge. Consider it a Saint Nicholas Day present. Now, if you saw an interview on this program earlier this week, then you know we interviewed someone who helps expats here get to know this city with directions, recommendations, and helpful tips. Well, I was thinking. With the lei strengthening this week — ok, well, just a little – maybe some of you are thinking of traveling for the holidays. New York is such a huge destination at Christmas time for tourists, it’s such a wonderful place to be during the holidays that – actually, if you live there, you can’t wait for it to end so all of you will finally go home.
But that’s not the point. For any of you from here thinking of visiting my home town, I want to share just a bit of a newcomers guide with you to New York. I hope it helps in some small way ease the transition.
First of all, after you land and take a taxi to Manhattan, the change you get from the driver – don’t be shocked – will be correct. No, he will not keep a few dollars for himself just in case. That does not mean you shouldn’t tip him. As a former taxi driver myself, I suggest between 15 and 20 percent. Especially if he actually gets out of the taxi to open the trunk.
Speaking of tips, let’s get this out of the way. Tip everyone. Everyone expects it. I mean everyone. Even the guy who sells you that Rolex watch or Hermes scarf from a cardboard box on the sidewalk.
Now, once you get into the City, that’s what we call Manhattan, the first thing you should do is go into a subway. That’s like the metro here except it’s dirtier and darker. Don’t worry, you’re not going anywhere. Just go to the booth where they sell tickets and ask the attendant for a subway map. They’re free. And they are as good, if not better, than any map of New York you can buy.
Now go back up to the street and start walking. In any direction. But don’t get confused or scared. You might get lost because the streets are all straight, north and south, east and west. Compared with Bucharest, it’ll seem very confusing at first, but you’ll get used to it.
As you’re walking, if you see any stray dogs. Run. They are not supposed to be there. They do not have cute little yellow tags on their left ear. Oh, and don’t spit on the sidewalk. People seem to spit a lot here, I’m not sure why. But in New York, they take that sort of thing seriously. At least since Mayor Giuliani. Then, when you get to the street corner, cross it. In fact, don’t wait for the corner. And don’t wait for the green light. If you do, you’ll be the only one standing there. No, cars will not stop for you. As a driver there, we know that’s not our job. It’s yours to get out of our way. After all, we’re the one in a car.
And yes, you will see a lot of police. Everywhere. Just standing around. It’s ok. They’re supposed to be there. It does not mean they’re expecting terrorists. Just other New Yorkers.
Now soon you’ll be hungry. You see, if you knew it or not, that’s why you go to New York. To eat. A couple tips there. Eat beef. Not pork. Beef is basically America’s pork anyway. Since we’re not in that TV market, I guess I can suggest Gallagher’s Steak House, on West 52nd.
And speaking of eating, we eat all the time there. You’ll know what I mean when you see the average size of an American. So after dinner, of course, you’ll want to go to Carnegie Deli. You know, to have a sandwich for dessert. Try the corned beef – lean – with some celery soda.
After you leave, turn right down Seventh Avenue and walk into Times Square. You’ll know it when you see it. It’s like Disneyland only it seems less real. Now, if you’re like most Americans, you’ll be hungry again. Stop anywhere and get a slice of pizza. It is the shaorma of New York. But never ever eat it with a knife and fork. Fold it in half.
Pretty soon, you’ll be tired and ready for bed. Don’t try to call a taxi. I don’t think they have phones. Just go to the street and wave. And of course, as you get ready to sleep, you’ll start thinking about breakfast. My final advice, take your own slanina. Trust me on this. You will not be able to walk into a grocery store and order a slab of pork fat.
Oh, yeah. And between meals, enjoy the shopping and a Broadway play. They sell great candy at the theater.
And that’s my helpful commentary for this week. As always, we’d like to see yours. Especially if you’re going to New York. I have a grocery list of food I need you to bring back.
by Peter H Frank | Nov 27, 2009 | Business, Economy, TV Commentary |
[Originally broadcast on Nov. 27, 2009, on The Frank Show, here.]
It is the long Thanksgiving weekend in the US. And even though I’m not there, I feel part of the spirit of the holiday and so I want to give thanks tonight. After all, that is the reason for the holiday. So to all you economists out there, I thank you.
I’m serious. I love you guys. I can not, in all honesty, say that any of my best friends are economists. But I’ve never met one I didn’t like. Including the first one I met, Father Joseph Zrinyi, who taught Macroeconomics 101 at my university. He was terrific.
You see, without economists, I’m not sure what we would talk about all day. I’m not sure WHO we would talk to all day.
I’ve been told, and I agree, that part of my job is to bring you a perspective from someone who has lived in AND WITH business most of their life but from outside Romania. I do enjoy pointing out how things are different here. Well, then, let me tell you, I have never before seen economists as popular as they are here. They’re like rock stars. Sought after. Photos in the paper. Interviewed. Household names just about.
You might not believe this, but in other countries people actually avoid talking to economists. Or listening to them. They think they’re boring. Like killing time sitting on a beach and talking to a fisherman about how high the waves are going to be tomorrow. Yes, that can be relaxing on a vacation for a day or two. But every day, two or three times, to see, to read, to hear about the same thing over and over – the same thing that doesn’t change much day in and day out. People in other countries don’t know what they’re missing.
So maybe you’re thinking, I’m being a bit harsh. I don’t mean to be. Listen, economists have a profession as interesting as any other in which you sit behind a desk all day. Nevermind the jokes about the fact they have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions, or the one where three men are stranded with a can of soup and no way to open it. The economist has his solution. “First, assume there’s a can opener.”
No. I won’t tell those jokes. And it’s no joke that I say, I have personally liked each of the economists I’ve met here. They are smart and articulate and friendly. Mister Lungu tonight was terrific. I enjoy interviewing them. But they’re like doctors. They have diagnosed our recession and they have given their prognosis. There are some disagreements among them. But, if I’m sick, I don’t need to talk to my doctor every day to know that I’m still sick. I don’t need 20 of them to give me the same prognosis within a couple tenths of a percent. I don’t need my temperature taken every five minutes.
I knew this preoccupation with economists was getting out of hand recently after I was interviewed for several publications. They have ALL asked ME about the economy. That’s like asking the guy in the hospital bed next to me how I’m doing. I mean he’s heard everything my doctor has told me, why shouldn’t he comment and give his opinion? One of the questions even started with assuming I WAS an economist. Actually, I liked that one. I felt for a minute like a rock star. So to all you economists who made THAT possible, thank you – and a belated Happy Thanksgiving.
by Peter H Frank | Nov 20, 2009 | Politics, TV Commentary |
[Originally broadcast on Nov. 20, 2009, on The Frank Show, here.]
Well, the Presidential election is Sunday and I’ve thought long and hard about not talking about it. But I suppose I have as little insight and as little to add as everyone else who IS talking about it — so why not?
No, I’m not going to endorse anyone. That’s not my place. And, it’s not my desire. If I were you, I wouldn’t listen to anyone, anyway, about whom you should vote for. Do you really think they’ve thought about it any more than you?
But the fact that I’m a foreigner, an American, has attracted a swarm of Romanians to me recently – sort of like flies in a cow field — who DO want to talk politics.
You won’t be surprised to know they are not happy with the way politics works here. And they say it in a way that suggests, because of the way politicians act when they campaign, and because of the way they DON’T act when they’re in office, these people want nothing to do with it. Nothing. They don’t want to listen. They don’t want to think about it. They don’t want to vote.
And I’ve had one message for them. Believe it or not, politics is not that different here or anywhere in my experience. You can look at other countries, from afar, and it’s easy to think, now why can’t Romania be more like that? A functioning government. Politicians on TV looking like statesmen. Rational discourse. A sense of purpose. Unity of country and ideals. But, believe me, that’s a perception that only works if you don’t LIVE in those other countries.
I’ve always loved politics. Probably because I was a kid in the 60s and old enough to worry about being drafted into the Vietnam War. In high school, I read about the Watergate scandal every day. I skipped school to work for George McGovern in 1972 and then I skipped school again in 1976. I worked on Capitol Hill for a US Senator and I’ve spent a lot — maybe too much — time with politicians and lobbyists. I love politics.
What I don’t love, though, is what happens to people after they’re in politics. I’ve seen it happen even to those who work around politics, write about politics, and talk about politics. The game becomes the point. The process is paramount. The profession is no longer a means to an end. No. For those who enter it, it quickly becomes an end in itself. It’s justified with the thinking that nothing good can be done unless I first win. But after the victory, the game resumes, not the results. Unfortunately, Socrates was right when he describes the difficulty of finding a leader. True lovers of wisdom and the Good don’t need, don’t want, the power associated with ruling. Too often, those who don’t deserve it, want it.
That’s true everywhere. You don’t need to read many history books on the US to discover that for 200 years, our political system, when viewed from inside, has been repeatedly shameful and in shambles. Name calling, rumors, lies, mud-slinging, assassinations, cartoons of candidates as monkeys, snakes, dogs. It can bring out some of the most base and disgusting of human behavior.
Here? Well, you haven’t had time, perhaps, to establish more coherent rules and traditions for how politics and governments work. Then again, maybe that won’t help. Look at the fist fights that break out inside parliament in India, Taiwan, Mexico, Italy. Maybe this country IS destined to be the Italy of the Black Sea, as someone recently suggested to me. Well, I love Italy.
But the one thing I haven’t said to all these who have come up to me. The one thing I’ve wanted to say to the ones who dismiss politics with a shake of their head and a disdainful look in their eyes. Stop complaining. Stop feeling separate and alienated from things here. Stop looking away and standing back and shrugging your shoulders and resigning yourselves to the government is if it were some kind of artificial edifice. That’s what politicians want to create to make themselves believe — and make others believe — that they are different, untouchable, separate and special. Stop complaining, I want to tell them, and do something about it. Too idealistic, you think? Well, I’ve met idealistic, intelligent and capable people here. Many of them. So I suggest, if you don’t like it, you’ve got five years to get ready.
by Peter H Frank | Nov 13, 2009 | Culture, Life in Romania, TV Commentary |
[Originally broadcast on Nov. 13, 2009, on The Frank Show, here.]
Well, as we end the week, if I seem less American, maybe more Romanian, let me explain.
I received my residency card yesterday. Yep. For me, it was a big day. I know citizenship will have to wait, but still, I feel suddenly like a true Romanian, a Dac, just being a resident. I’m ready to drink lots of polinca, have my old Dacia break down on the side of the road, and eat slanina and onions for breakfast.
I’m not sure I can explain how satisfied I am. I suppose I now feel I have an identity here. Maybe I’ll change my name to Petru.
But like many things here, maybe most things, the process did not come without confusion and surprise.
My one question is this: why does the government care so much where I live?
Now, I know it’s not easy to get a so-called green card in the US. Residency there does not come easy at all. There is a lot of confusing paperwork everywhere. But I’ve lived in the US, Mexico and England, and no one cared THIS much what my address was.
A driver’s license in the US is the only photo identification we usually carry. On that is our address. But you know what? You just go into the office there and TELL them your address. You don’t prove it. You don’t fill out forms in triplicate. You don’t go to the police station. You don’t pay a notary. You don’t have the owner of your apartment attest to it. No one takes responsibility for you.
Yes, at banks in those countries, they need to know your address, because of anti-terrorist regulations and other things. They DO want to know that you live where you say. But all they require is a phone bill, or electricity bill, showing your name and address on the envelope. The phone company or electric company requires no proof at all. Maybe in big cities you need to show your rental agreement to enroll your kids in school, to prove you live in the district. But except for special situations, no one cares where you live unless you owe them money.
You see, in these other places, if you give the government a wrong address, it’s your problem. You will not get mail. It will be sent to the wrong place. Maybe your credit card will not be approved because it does not match what’s on file. Or maybe you’ll have trouble buying a computer over the internet. But that’s YOUR problem. That’s YOUR responsibility. Not the government’s.
Honestly, it feels a little creepy to have the government THAT concerned about where I live. I suppose it will be useful for when I get lost. I can find a policeman, or walk to Piata Victoriei (I do know where that is) and go up to the government building. All I will have to do is show them my identity card and they can drive me home. That will be nice.
The Romanians I’ve talked to didn’t even realize it’s different other places. We can move anytime and not tell anyone, except maybe our mothers, as long as we don’t want our mail. The truth is, I don’t think governments there really want to know where we live as long as we vote for them.
So my guess is I’m seeing just one example of the vestiges of pre-revolution Romania apparently living on. For no discernible reason. I know there are other examples. And this is just one. But that’s how you change things, by erasing one antiquated, silly, intrusive and cumbersome rule after another. My suggestion is, you get rid of this one. And now you have to listen – because I’m a resident.
