“The world is going through a bit of a time” is what many people are saying now adays. This is definitely true, but usually when people think this they are referring to three specific things: The Trump Presidency in the United States, BRexit or the exit of Great Britain from the European Union, and the Refugee across the world most notably in Syria due to the civil war raging there are the moment. However these terrible things are not all that is happening in the world. The media tends to bombard us with terrifying knowledge from ‘The West’ but fails to adequately report on tragedies happening in other parts of the world. There are too many to name, but a notable one that is fairly representative to changing global political climate is the scandal and subsequent protests that have occurred in Romania.
The protests over the last two weeks have erupted because of an emergency ordinance to parliament on January 31st that effectively decriminalised small corruption and embezzlement charges for politicians. This ordinance would resind all changes against politicians accused of misconduct of funds under the amount of US$47 000. Many in the country took to the streets to protest this law, and called for the resignation of the Prime Minister, Sorin Grindeanu, as well as the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. There has been discontent against the government growing in Romania for some time now, and this recent set of events has created a string of protests that have not been placated by the resignation of one of the architects of the ordinance and the minister of justice: Florin Iordache.
There have been protests in over 50 towns across Romania against the bill, as well as a main protest movement in Piata Victoriei in the capital Bucharest. These protests were a success, with the ordinance getting repealed a week after it was put into action. This is a win on the part of the anti-corruption protestors, but it did not stop them from continuing to protest. Many in the country are protesting for the current government to resign, but this was to no avail as the vote of no confidence placed by the opposition party against the current government failed. However many protestors are saying that the protests are far from over, and they will not stop until meaningful, sustainable change has come about in Romania.
The scandal in Romania is one of many crises happening in the world. Another that could be sighted is the religious violence and refugee crises in Burma. However these issues are not talked about, they have not grabbed the attention of Western Media as fully as Donald Trump or Boris Johnson. It was reported on, but I can almost guarantee that many of you reading this didn’t know about this protest that is affecting an entire country. It is difficult to remain up to date with all the pain in the world, and it is a hard life to lead, balancing knowledge of the world and emotional stability. At least once a day, I encourage you, the reader, to find out what is happening in the world today. Outside the West that is. It’s good to have some perspective.