Changes in Romania and Their Impact on Women
Romanian women, who in recent years have been immersed in the positive changes that have emerged from the post-communist era.
The Woman Post | ALEXANDRA DOMINGUEZ
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In some cities of Romania, they motivate their inhabitants to read more and to put aside a sedentary lifestyle, both cultural and physical.
This Eastern European country has been transforming itself in recent years, showing itself to be a nation at the forefront by launching some initiatives that encourage the reading of physical books as a measure so that young people and users of public transport spend less time absorbed in the screens of their cell phones, thus encouraging reading with quality content and much more conscious. This measure would favor social interaction and culture.
The initial project was born in the city of Iasi at the end of 2015, thanks to the effort and original idea of Eugen Benea, a passionate reader concerned about young people's excessive use of smartphones.
The project called "the Tram of Literature" was launched on 4 local tram lines and for this, it was Benea himself who donated fifteen works of his property, with the slogan "read it, enjoy it, and return it to the seat". The trams used as mobile libraries were painted blue with book cover designs or faces of well-known Romanian writers.
Passengers are advised to take good care of books and return them should they decide to take them home.
Benea also encouraged reading in parks and public places, leaving books on seats, and inviting citizens to donate books to keep the project alive and growing.
Similar initiatives have also been adopted in Cluj Napoca, another Romanian city.
This time the initiative was proposed to the mayor of the city, Emil Boc, by the poet and activist Victor Marin, with the idea of doing something productive with the time a person spends on a means of transport going from one place to another, in a society that lives in a hurry and constant movement.
The proposal is that anyone who is reading a physical book during their journey on public transport does not pay for a ticket.
In addition to the initial strategy, other initiatives were implemented, such as free admission to the city's botanical garden on April 23 (international book day), for all those who bring a book; or special discounts in some establishments, to those who upload photos with a printed book on their social networks.
The same poet gave away books in a campaign to whoever sent photos with typical Romanian costumes, to promote and preserve their own culture, as well as reading.
More recently, in some cities of Romania, machines have been installed that sell public transport tickets, equipped with cameras with motion sensors, with the slogan “healthy ticket”.
The initiative consists of granting a free ticket to whoever does twenty squats. To do this, the person faces the camera, and the sensors count the squats one by one.
The campaign seeks to encourage physical exercise, leaving a sedentary lifestyle, albeit only momentarily, since squats are considered one of the most complete and beneficial exercises for health.
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This proposal has been very well received by Romanian women, who in recent years have been immersed in the positive changes that have emerged from the post-communist era, which sees them increasingly as protagonists by being able to claim their own identity, something that It happened during the totalitarian dictatorship where the egalitarian rhetoric between the sexes was contradicted daily.
The care of her own body and her feminine identity has left behind the characterization of women as being made exclusively to procreate and keep the home in order.
