It is impossible to miss it. For one can find heaps of garbage from downtown Bucharest all the way to Negoiu Hut in Făgăraș Mountains or to the otherwise beautiful countryside in Sibiel area. Romanians go by this percept: once I do not need something, off it goes. They will empty their ashtray off the window, they will throw their empty plastic bottle through the car window, they will leave their cans and tins exactly where they had lunch, up the mountains or in the Danube Delta. Even more, they will create heaps of rubbish in the stream next to their own house, at the foothills of the Rodna, in Borșa. They will throw leftovers and food packages through the train window, even though it would be easier to put them in the bin provided in their compartment. They will shit in the middle of the trail up the mountains and then laugh at it. They will throw their Christmas tree off the window when they no longer need it. When told, they will curse you and do even worse on purpose. In the best scenario, they will blame it on the garbage collectors which are not doing their job right. As if this life is about our throwing garbage wherever and about others’ picking it.

Health? Civilization? Their children? Future? Respect? These are things only to be taken into consideration on paper, respectively on TV. For this is the Garbage Society. Dirty, disrespectful, rude, arrogant, miserable, afraid of everything starting with itself. Bold, in a desperate attempt of hiding its being weak and sick. Loud just to hide its being impotent.

For the record: the picture above was taken just 100 m. away from the mambo jambo Palace of the Parliament. In a place where Spirii Hill once began. In a place where a fine old quarter once existed, before being razed off to make place for the current utopian pyramid. An old quarter with its residences, single storey houses surrounded by small, green gardens. A city which was about rich merchant or fine boyar houses we like to remember and about the poor clay cottages inhabited by those we prefer not to remember. At a time when the PET did not exist and Romanians used to throw more bio-degradable trash in the streets or in Dâmbovița River.