I was invited to give a series of presentations to business owners and budding entrepreneurs in Bucharest, Romania. After one of the talks, I was approached by someone from the audience and invited to go outside for a cigarette.
I don’t smoke, but realised that this was just a code for a discreet chat about the contents of my presentation.
During the discussion, I asked whether he felt that things were better now than they had been under Ceausescu.
His answer surprised me, he said that everyone now had the “freedom to be uncertain”, and that whilst he wouldn’t want to go back the days of the dictator, at least back then people had certainty in their lives and things were more predictable.
He explained that getting a car used to mean waiting 5 years just to get a Lada, but at least you got one. Everyone had a job, the state provided everything and life ran according to a comfortable, predictable pattern.
Having had 100% certainty removed from their lives, the people of Romania and other similar Eastern European states, find it challenging to cope with the “freedom to be uncertain” that we take for granted in the “West”.
For some, the chalice of freedom has been poisoned with the venom of unpredictability; personal choice and responsibility have replaced comfortable reliance on a Soviet state.
