Look at the first image above. It looks like someone parked the car in the wrong (to be more precise, but totally un-Romanian, illegal) place and they’re lifting it so the irresponsible driver has to pay a fine to get it back. Actually, my dear, you’re an idiot for assuming that, as Romanians are never wrong, it’s never their fault. Never. It is the “Others”, all and everyone, starting with the ministry of transport and ending with the, well, “I was in a hurry and had no place to park, why don’t you understand that?!”.

When responsibility is involved or could by any chance occur, Romanians will most probably use the impersonal. A simple announcement like “Do not open the wagon door before the train stops” (i.e. you, passenger, do not do that) will actually be in Romanian “Doors shall not be opened before the train stops”. The reason? One cannot be blamed for something that did not point precisely at himself / herself. Medicine directions, vacuum cleaner manuals, newspaper ads, all statements that might have any official consequence do not refer to the user, the producer or any identifiable entity, but to “one”, to an impossibly to identify entity. Of all people on Earth, Romanians are among the last to assume responsibility for anything, even if it is crystal clear. One (sic !) might assume this is a consequence of the (well, no longer that) recent past, when people feared the Securitate agents of the former Communist regime. I dare argue that, as this impersonal approach existed before, in interwar publications and books. So I argue this is plain fear of assuming any responsibility and of confrontation (other than physical / verbal, where, along with fellow Serbians and Croats, Romanians rock). Because it is always easier to say an untouchable, God-designated being (or maybe God himself) made / pushed / determined our poor bloke do something, of course against his will if it turns out to be a bad decision; for, were it a good decision, it was his own idea and work, that is sure. I shall never forget a colleague’s calling a hotel to ask about the availability of a venue for one of our customers’ conference: “... it is desired that the hall be arranged in U-shape”. Actually I am not sure this phrase even exists in English. Well, in Romanian it does, and unfortunately it goes well beyond its initial meaning. It is not the customer that needs the U-shape setting, it is not us (hell no!), the agency that asks for it, it is One, the Others, John Doe, all and nobody, but definitely not me, not us. If anything goes the wrong way and people had rather be close together, in theatre or classroom shape, it was not the agent’s mistake asking for the freaking U-shape, it was ‘One’. One the Bastard.

Now, imagine something bad happens out of the blue. There is a power failure, the train runs late, it rains heavily or it is too cold / hot. You will immediately hear Romanians blame who else but the “Others”. What does the term stand for? Sarkozy (because he is against Romania’s joining the Schengen space), the Americans (because they never came at the end of WW2), the Russians (because they came at the end of WW2), Iliescu (because he was President of Romania) or Băsescu (because he is President of Romania), the local priest (because all priests are evil), one’s neighbour (because he has 3 jobs and therefore affords to do things our chap does not) or his cat (we’re going through a crisis and the bastard affords to keep a cat?!). It never matters who’s fault actually is; not in this country. People take things way too personal and the fault must belong to the person one has a problem with now. If by any chance one finds no person he is angry with or - more importantly - if the fault is... well, his, then he will blame who else, but the “Others”. To put it the routine Romanian way, “ce să facem acum, asta este!” (En. “there’s nothing one can do about it now, that’s it” and again, there’s hardly a way to put this in English). The “Others” stand for everyone else that is not wrong or late, simply because they do not share our fellow’s self-generated misery.

The “Others” stand for an untouchable, plain evil (or so the guilty one wants), impossibly to define, touch or face entity. The black cat, those 20 million idiots coexisting with our little, innocent Romanian, the ‘little mouth’ that greens one’s eyes, to put it in Salinger’s way. It is not him waking up at 10 AM after a night’s partying, and therefore being late, it is the subway train driver (for being so freaking slow this morning), the traffic (where’re all these imbeciles going all of a sudden?!), the mayor (for not having flyovers built across the city), and then, yes, Bucharest, the source of all existential problems any of the 2 million people living here goes through. But, do not forget while here, never put the blame on a Romanian, no matter what; or actually you might do that, but he will never admit it, the Others are the evil ones and you are a fucking bastard to spoil his day. Period.