Witty bits from what I learned in the UK (10) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat în UK]

One of the most surprising things that ‘struck’ me in the UK was to witness how many French people live there. Every 15-20 minutes I could hear people speak French on the busy streets of London.

I liked that because, everywhere the Lord may bless me to go, I try my best to practice also my French, which needs considerably more improvement than my English ...and let this not be understood as a claim that I would speak + write faultless English.

Of course, I was expecting to hear people speaking Polish around me, other Eastern-European languages, as well as Arabic or Hindi/Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Sinhala – no that I could tell the difference between these :-) – but not so much French as I did hear!

Then, I would learn that if all the French people living in London were gathered in one city, it would be among the first most populous 12 urban centres of France. There are at least as many (if not even more!) French people living in London than in Le Havre or Reims (a ranking by population of France’s cities – here).

According to a NYTimes article from 2008, there are 180,000 French residents in London, not mere tourists as I imagined or like the one I talked to on Oxford Street. And – possibly to my friend’s dismay :-) – I must state that most of these French people seemed to enjoy being in the UK.

They were economic immigrants who – unlike the Huguenots some hundred years ago, fleeing Catholic persecution in France – came to the UK for one main reason: to be able to work more, therefore earn more!

I guess they were the ones to whom Nicolas Sarkozy promised the chance to work more, which the French system didn’t allow… and his reforms of the working hours are still far from being accomplished two years after he took office.

Two of these French people working in a French-style bakery, and in a 4-star hotel restaurant can be seen in these pictures, which I took during their working hours. They had both arrived to Brighton, by no means because of the French Protestant Church there, but for better paid jobs.

At least from what polite answers they could give in a few minutes of chatting with a curious blogger like I am – and some people know that I do like to chat with strangers, and I especially liked it with the purpose of blogging about the UK, and exchanging views about this country with fellow foreigners :-) –, they gave me the impression of being quite happy with their decision to work in the UK.

None had clear plans about how much they would stay in this country, but they said that working in the UK helps them save some money, Brighton offers a fascinating multicultural experience (unlike many dull provincial cities in their home country), and the girl also gave me a secondary reason for being in the UK.

It’s a reason that many Britons – who generally speak no foreign language, while some foreign students end up speaking a more comprehensible & grammatically correct language than the average Brit – could take into consideration. Well, this French girl said to me that she took a job here in order to improve her English!

I hope I’m not offending anyone, but I find it hard to imagine a Brit going to Greece, Spain, Portugal, let alone France… in order to learn that country’s language :-( With the exception of my atypical British friend, it’s harder and harder to see a British youngster going abroad these days for anything else than booze, promiscuous sex, wild partying…

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

La muncă în UK (7) [Working in the UK]

Atunci când îi mai apucă, pe unii britanici (de regulă studenţi), câte o criză de vinovăţie pentru consumismul din jur şi efectele sale devastatoare asupra proprie ţări şi a lumii întregii, un exemplu devenit deja clasic este cel al copiilor care lucrează ca nişte sclavi pentru a realiza haine fiţoase, precum acelea înşirate în magazinele de pe Oxford Street.

Desigur, îşi zic britanicii de bun-simţ, imaginea copiilor-sclavi, demnă de o Mare Britanie din vremea lui Charles Dickens, nu poate surprinde acum decât undeva departe – cu precădere în foste colonii ca India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc.

Însă tare mă tem că, cine vrea cu adevărat, poate vedea că sclavia (sau, mă rog, semisclavia) există încă şi pe teritoriul UK, deşi s-a abolit 1833.

Şi nu mă refer aici la prostituţia din UK, ci la sclavii de pe plantaţii – români şi bulgari, care au drept de muncă pentru aceste ocupaţii istovitoare, deloc palpitante (munca este repetitivă) şi supuse capriciilor vremii britanice, că doar nu prea sunt pub-uri pe ogoare, unde să te adaposteşti...

Multe dintre fructele scumpe (o colegă din Croaţia constata că raportul ar fi cam acesta: preţul pentru o bucată în UK = un kil în ţara ei!) şi nicidecum atât de gustoase (pe cât de arătoase!) sunt culese de sclavi din România şi Bulgaria.

Atraşi cu promisiunea unui salariu de £ 200 pe săptămână (oricum derizoriu), adesea, ei nu încasează nici măcar jumătate din sumă în urma a tot soiul de comisioane şi cheltuieli cu întreţinerea barăcilor în care locuiesc ca în lagăre.

Nici n-ar trebui să fie de mirare, că doar naziştii doar au perfecţionat, dar nu au inventat lagărul de concentrare – idee preluată de la ceea ce făceau britanicii în vremea războiului cu burii din 1899-1902.

Pe siteurile oficiale (vezi aici şi aici) toate sunt bune şi frumoase pentru muncitorii agricoli, doriţi în UK strict pentru perioada recoltei, dar care sunt amăgiţi că măcar îşi pun un ban deoparte. Condiţiile de lagăr nici nu lasă posibilităţi de distracţie, unde banii să fie cheltuiţi aiurea, astfel că, până la urmă, patronii le fac un bine, nu-i aşa?

Chiar şi când sunt plătiţi cu jumătate din salariul minim din UK (cel mult £ 3, în loc de £ 5.73 pe oră), chiar şi când ajung să muncească mai puţine ore decât li s-a promis, chiar şi după ce veniturile le sunt jumulite de diferite comisioane şi necesitatea de a-şi plăti avionul înapoi, poate că – dar strict din punct de vedere financiar! – toate umilinţele rentează.

Dar oare să fie aceste jalnice condiţii de muncă din agricultură un soi de vaccinare a muncitorilor agricoli români şi bulgari (fără dreptul de a ocupa alte locuri de muncă în UK), ca nu cumva să îndrăznească să se îndrepte către alte slujbe în această ţară, unde de bine, de rău, condiţiile de lucru sunt cel puţin decente?

[Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]

An atheist reborn in the Orthodox Church (7) [Un ateu renăscut în Biserica Ortodoxă]

One of the most amazing gifts that the Lord offered me throughout my stay in the UK was – on my ninth day on British soil – meeting a man having such a fascinating story of spiritual rebirth as Dionysios from Peacehaven has.

By God’s grace, my friend’s story helped my faith grow even stronger, as he brought St. Dionysios into my life, and he told me a lot of things that I used in my series dedicated to the Orthodox church in East Sussex (which started here).

Moreover, he gave me an altogether different perspective on Zakynthos (a destination sought by many Brits), and he took me to this lovely place… To put it as shortly as possible: he enriched my life.

That was just the beginning, as I was due to meet many more other special people in the UK. As a matter of fact, in Christ, all people are special, and everywhere I came across a true believer, I can’t help being amazed.

They they have found the only true meaning of life, they have a genuine personality, and they are not mere carbon copies of shallow characters, taken from a pathetic gallery of human destinies that the contemporary consumerist society displays.***

Clearly, the fifth episode of the current series stirred up what was probably the most enflamed little debate on my blog. Whatever people think of conversions like the one Dionysios went through, these stories simply can’t leave anyone indifferent.

At least for a short while – unfortunately, most contemporary people are too busy with meaningless things of their everyday lives, and their interest in questions of live and death quickly evaporates :-( – some of my readers stopped to ask themselves some questions.

“Why do some believe and others don’t?” …this is one of the questions people ask themselves when facing a story about an atheist converted to Orthodoxy. Ever since St. Paul, who first persecuted Christ’s disciples, and then became a devout servant of His, conversions could always shake people’s cosy trivial daily universe at least a bit.

Most people won’t dig deeper into their soul, so that they would go beyond a little discussion on a blog. I noticed this happening to many of those who were my daily readers at the beginning of 2008 – they would often comment on every little aspect of British daily life, yet remain completely uninterested in the ‘religious bullshit’ a weirdo like me was posting.

Every now and then, some people (fewer and fewer these days, I’m afraid) will go all the way to changing their lives just like Dionysios did. It’s sad that all people rejecting Christ would surely find when it’s too late (after their death) that, if they had really wanted, they could have really found out Who their Maker is.

May the Lord have mercy on all of us (believers and unbelievers), and may He bless my friend Dionysios, for whom I posted this episode, hoping that these words would make this ordinary summer day a little special for him!

If – and only God can know this – the present episode were the last of this series (although I’d still have to write some things), I’d very much like to end it with the above picture of a smiling Dionysios.

His life was surely far from being a perpetual pleasure cruise – and no honest Christian life could ever be as fun as today’s hedonist world considers worth living –, but I wish he’d carry this smile forever.

*** NOTE: These articles about atheism and consumerism in the USA, and in Australia would certainly apply also to the UK. Additionally, here’s a great article about how dull, and self-pitying most militant atheists (note that I didn’t say all atheists!) from all over the world are.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Alcoolul ăsta, prietenul cel mai bun al britanicului? (10) [This alcohol, a Brit's best friend?]

Mă miram eu – atunci când mă plimbam printre uriaşele standuri cu băuturi alcoolice dintr-un magazin al acestei celebre reţele britanice – să nu fie ceva în regulă cu o aşa ofertă îmbietoare. Ei bine, nu era! Pentru a vinde toţi metri aceia cubi de alcool expus (nu mai zic de cât or fi avut în depozite) trebuia să fie ceva necurat la mijloc…

…şi iată că, cel puţin într-un caz, s-a descoperit că aşa era – multe din sticlele precum cele din imagine erau vândute minorilor. Toată chestia aceea cu posterele care te întreabă dacă ai sub 21 de ani (deşi de la 18 poţi cumpăra alcool în UK!), de care scriam la începutul serialului de faţă, văd că nu-s pentru unele (toate oare?!) supermarketuri decât o păcăleală.

Unii vând minorilor, alţii îşi atrag clienţii cu oferte de băutură ieftină, iar ziarele se vând cu tot felul de avertismente, legate de câţi britanici ucide alcoolul în fiecare an, de cum au crescut internările în spitale odată cu extinderea dreptului la alcool oricând în 24 de ore.

Important este că TOATĂ LUMEA VINDE şi, altfel, consumul ţine în viaţă pe toată lumea. Unii mai mor din pricina acestui consum excesiv (40,000 britanici pe an!), dar nimeni nu a băgat vreo picătură de alcool pe gâtul altuia cu forţa, doar UK este o ţară liberă, nu-i aşa?

[Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]

About public transport in the UK (8) [Despre transportul în comun în UK]

Another article of faith which today’s Britons are told they should live by is – according to my friend & fellow blogger from Scotland – “Privatised transport is the best in the world.” Is it really so? Can everything be so simplistically reduced to ‘privatisation = good, while state ownership = bad’, as the ideologues of ‘free market no matter what’ claim?

First and foremost, I must say that, undeniably, British public transport is incomparably better than it’s Romanian counterpart. There’s absolutely no term of comparison between the two, in spite of having encountered some common ‘bad examples’.

If I were to use a gold standard for public railway transport, I’d name the rail system of France. The TGV is a masterpiece of contemporary transport technology, trains are safe, comfortable, punctual, and not excessively expensive.

In the UK, travelling by train seem to me undoubtedly comfortable, but relatively safe, sometimes only relatively punctual (see what a little snow can do!), and dreadfully expensive. An Easy Jet flight from Gatwick to Edinburgh is cheaper (currently from £ 40.99 to £ 78.99) than the cost of the Caledonian Sleeper (£ 54 to £ 185.5) on the same route.

Therefore, due to budgetary constrains, I opted for what is many times cheaper than the two mentioned option – a Megabus night bus for only £ 24 (half this sum if you pay with weeks in advance!). I survived three times the experience, and – with the Lord’s help – I’d do it again.

But I wouldn’t recommend night bus travel to those who have a sensitive stomach. If you’re not some kind of tough traveller like I become, and if you don’t like chatting with strangers (one even posted a comment on the current series – here), bus travel could really wear you out.

Train travel in the UK could have been the most pleasant, if privatisation had driven the costs down for the passenger. This has not happened yet, and it probably never will :-(

As it can be read here, among the effects of rail privatisation in the UK one could find more set-backs and disappointments than straightforward successes. I wish I had any readers (British or not, but using British trains) left to comment on this topic…

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]