It's in the eyes of the beholder, isn't it?!

Not once have I felt that ones garbage, or used stuff, may become someone else "new thing" and probably that's the idea behind one second hand store that wears the name New to you. Exactly the same thing I felt when reading @holm's latest post where he talks about Steemit, his experience with it and especially his experience as a blogger in Romania, my home country. It's not the first time he mentioned and presented some of the places from it, which honestly, I haven't visited yet, but it's the first time when I get inspired by him to write about my own country and my own people.

Funny how Steem connectsisn't it?...

Now, in his latest post that I tagged above he compared a bit the costs of living in Denmark with Romania, the wages for the two countries and he also pointed out why he feels very good in my country, blogging on Steemit, and why he doesn't feel the need to take a job for sustaining his living in here. Details that moved me and should move some other Romanians also, if they get to read the both of us posts. If you visit his post and you should, as it is a well written one, you will find my comment also stating that I am amazed to see a foreigner trading his country for Romania. Well he hasn't done that permanently as he pointed out also in his reply, but for now he seems pretty satisfied with his life in our poor old Eastern European country.

Much more than that this is the country from where tens of thousands of people have migrated towards other countries "spitting" on its flag, talking bad about it and forgetting about it entirely. I lived also abroad and I saw the difference between my country and others, but never have I thought about denying my origins and talking bad about it. It's like my mother and I would never treat my mother bad, no matter her flaws, but many of us don't think this way. Many of the Romanians forget very easy where they were born, embrace too soon other cultures without them being accepted by those cultures and...yeah, start licking some asses having the idea that any nation ever will consider them as their own which is completely wrong. They don't even deserve that...

image source

It's natural to be this way same as it is natural to be polite with everyone, no matter of his/her nationality, but I don't see it natural to talk bad against your country instead of working for it and many of us should read @holm's post and see Romania through different lens. If one Danish could see the good parts of this country why we can't see them also? It's has its flaws of course, and some of them were pointed by him also, but when one foreigner comes and lives into your country and has better words to describe it than you, you know you have some real issues. Issues that can be fixed if there is the awareness to acknowledge them and that's what I am trying to do with this post.

It's not a rant one against my people, its not a praising one towards foreigners that see the full half of the glass, but it's rather an awareness alert one towards any Romanian that might read it. Too often have I heard Romanians talking bad about our country once their out of the country and too often I disagreed with them. If there is something to learn from the foreign countries that we get to live in, at some point in life, one would be to work for improving things in your home country rather than spit on it. I never heard a German talking bad about Germany, and they have their frustrations also, because they know it's their home country and they work for it to get better rather than denying it. There's always room for improvement if you focus on improvement.

I am not overlooking Romania's flaws and neither try to lie to myself that it's everything good around here, but I will never talk bad about it either and find the kind of people doing that disgusting. Romania for me is not a whore, as it is in the opinion of some of its sons and will never be. It's a work in progress for decades and I will do whatever I can to make it better and that's what I think every one of us should do. If foreigners can see the opportunities and the bright parts of it then we can and should do also. It's where our attention goes that grows my brothers.

Ending the post I will thank @holm for his posts about Romania and admit that he managed to do them better than I could. He makes a good example for us and hope to see many others like him. Probably this way some of the Romanians will change their mentality also. Which is not a healthy one at all...

Thanks for your attention,
Ace