Totul despre Iubire
Romanian discussion room => Zona liberă => Subiect creat de: viulian din 25 Mai, 2006, 11:37:00 p.m.
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Iata ce cred strainii despre acest lucru:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/08/16/exroman.xml
Mi se pare INFERNAL de adevarat. Eu rezist cu trufie la cele mai salbatice acuze de ce ma voi imbolnavi daca stau nonstop sa bata ventilatorul pe mine cand e cald. Sau cand merg cu toate geamurile deschise la masina.
Pe voi... v-au abuzat la fel mamele, bunicile, matusile, sutinute apoi grav de tati, unchi, frati mai mari, si ei deja convinsi ca veti pati orice ?
Se pare ca pot publica textul articolului - daca nu il folosesc in scop comercial. Iata:
Copyright The Daily Telegraph
Where draughts are truly dangerous
By Debbie Stowe
(Filed: 16/08/2005)
In Romania, the greatest threat to life today is not poverty, climate change or al-Qa'eda. It's moving air. Fans, air conditioning and open windows are not - as I had thought - useful mechanisms to generate a nice breeze, or give a little respite as summer temperatures climb to around 40 degrees. They are weapons of mass destruction.
I first noticed this phenomenon last summer. Romania has extreme, continental weather, and I suggested to my Romanian boyfriend - quite reasonably, I thought - that we purchase a fan. He shifted uncomfortably, which, given that we were sweltering through every night in a stuffy room, I found odd. Nonetheless I persisted, and after a few abortive trips to the department store, a fan was acquired.
Yet this was just half the battle, as I then found Vasile showing extreme resistance to turning the fan on, but hesitating to offer an explanation. And I observed similar strange behaviour elsewhere. Both at home and work, panic would break out if ever two windows, or a window and a door, were open simultaneously, and somebody would race to close one, wailing "Cur-rent!"
Colleagues, shirts stuck to their backs with sweat, would stomp to close the window, shutting off the one fresh air supply we had, growling this dirty word.
The humble ceiling fan: Romanians may display extreme resistance to using this weapon of mass destruction
It turned out that "cur-rent", or the draught that circulates when two windows are open, is blamed in Romania for almost every ill one can think of. Toothache, headache, cold, flu, meningitis, paralysis, even death - all are apparently the result of moving air. This was solemnly confirmed to me by Vasile's mum, who has just retired from a 30-year career as a nurse.
I saw how widespread this belief is when Vasile came down with toothache. In my layman's view, there are many possible factors that could contribute to a Romanian's teeth deficiencies: poor dental hygiene (a friend from the UK government's trade department told me that average toothpaste consumption per capita here is half a tube per year); low quality toothpaste under communism; the view of dental care here as a vanity issue rather than a health issue; a diet high in sugar; and smoking. But every single person to whom Vasile complained of his ailment attributed it ardently to his having been in a draught.
Moving air had been blamed, he said, for almost every medical problem he had had, by grandparents, teachers - even his dentist. Consequently, it took a while to convince him that slight breezes were not universally feared outside Romania. He then went back to his mum and asked what, apart from the draught, could have caused the toothache. She fixed him with a serious look and pronounced: "There is nothing apart from the draught."
Air currents are the most reviled, but other cooling devices are also treated with suspicion. It can be quite a problem in Anglo-Romanian relationships. Either you don't sleep because the room is like a sauna or they don't sleep because they're terrified of waking up paralysed.
Each time I mention it to a Westerner in a relationship with a Romanian, or anyone who has spent time in a Romanian home, they nod and sigh, recalling hot nights and even more heated debates with people convinced that any affliction can be put down to a slight breeze.
No-one can explain where this moving air phobia has come from. It seems to have elements of superstition and self-fulfilling prophecy. Most Romanians - especially the older ones - have no chance to travel, and therefore get little exposure to other cultures and viewpoints. Scepticism was crushed by communism, and people tend to hold on to beliefs they have acquired without questioning them.
Recently my boyfriend read his parents an article in a newspaper written by a doctor, headlined "Sitting in a draught does not cause toothache." They muttered, suspiciously. I told them that I, and many of my compatriots, actively seek out a draught when we are hot, and that we are all in rude health. This, I was told, was due to the in-built English resistance to draughts.
Life here for many is austere, and it's a shame to see people suffering when they could at least enjoy a comfortable room temperature. For that reason I try to make a point of exposing myself to the draught and then emerging undamaged, telling everyone how nice it is to get a bit of a breeze going. But long-held superstition is a tough foe to beat, and I don't expect the wind of change to be blowing through these parts any time soon.
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Eh... diferente de cultura si mentalitate. Eu am mers o gramada cu masina cu geamurile deschise si nu am patit nimic, daca nu aud ce spui inseamna ca nu imi pasa, nu ca am tras curent :) ..si la urma urmei, de ce sa nu tragi curent, mai ales daca e gratis! :)