Paul Wood blogs:
25 reasons why I love living in Romania, in no particular order
The lack of diversity, although things become more pluralistic. Despite the terrible damage that Communism did to this country, which it maimed, there is still a tremendous sense of cohesion and common values. People are assumed to be Orthodox, unless proven otherwise. Catholics are considered odd but are regarded as slightly grand – but Adventists, Baptists and adherents to other sects are not considered true Romanians at all. I like this very much. I only wish this cohesiveness went with a sense of public spirit, but this seems to be absent in all the Orthodox as well as all the post-Communist countries.
In most countries, Jews and Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses etc would not be considered real citizens aka French or Romanian or Russian, right? Instead, they would be considered aliens, right?
Do most Americans regard Jewish-Americans as American? My sense is that most do while most Russians would not regard their Jews as Ruskies.
