Global economic growth and need for energy have come with significant environmental and social degradation. Sustainability has been first defined in 1987 as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. More recently, in 2000, this definition was expanded on to include the idea of a global society “founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace”.
This little blog posts documents a personal opinion about a phenomenon I constantly witness and am part of: the gap between younger and older Romanian generations.
Romanian society has been impacted in a distinctive way three decades ago. Globally, the digital age was progressing with the mass public adoption of the Internet in the ‘90s, after a smooth transition from the advent of the personal computer in the ‘70s. Locally, the 1989 violent escape from communism thrusted Romanians towards capitalist freedoms and straight into the digital age, after 29 years of austerity and internal reprisals.
Romania is a dynamic country, historically connected to the heartbeat of European Western nations and receptive to outside trends, before and after the communist period. Therefore, in the early ‘90s, many young people hastily took advantage of the opportunity to absorb the now readily available benefits of globalisation, either from within the country or through the increasingly rapid out-migration.
Mature adults, at the time, did the same in significantly smaller numbers, due to various reasons which I can dare to assume range from financial issues to the fear of the unknown. A yawning gap became apparent between the generation which, even though it participated to the fall of communism in Romania, was still processing the aftermath and the long-term psychological wounds, and the younger generations. In the absence of such unfortunate trauma, the latter found it naturally easier to look towards the future and adapt while leaving the former digitally, economically, culturally and physically behind.
The context, as briefly described, though born out of a part caustic singular history, is somewhat in line with generational differences phenomena occurring globally nonetheless, even in the most developed societies. Young people are born and live comfortably as ‘digital natives ’in a fast-pace world, while many older people require significant effort to use, for example, a smartphone. Whilst still transitioning towards internationalisation, liberalisation and democratisation, Romania became recognised for its cutting-edge tech scene, while its elderly are in the lower quartile of the EU countries’ ranking in terms of international travel and access to internet.
In a modest conclusion, I suggest no judgement be cast on either generation. No judgement be cast on elderly unable to press the answer button on Skype, on elderly who criticise our so called now free, democratic society in which they can’t afford to eat once a year at a restaurant or see a theatre show after a lifetime of hard work in quiet survival mode. No judgement be cast by youth deciding not to emigrate on youth deciding to emigrate, or the other way around. We face enough masked judgement and discrimination outside Romanian borders to do the same with each other. We all love this country, with its little paradise bubbles as much as with the scars of its tormented past and it will always be a safe home for all.
