ROMANIA, THE PARADISE OF MOBILE PHONES

Do you find it expensive to own a mobile phone? Do you think it's really useful? Is it important in your life?
Well, if you think the mobile phone is just a luxury or a necessary tool, let me tell you what happens in Romania, a country where the average salary is around 200-300 euros (300-400 dollars) per month. Here, there's virtually nobody who doesn't own a mobile phone, except maybe the people who are too old or too young to learn how to use it. Schoolchildren, retired, unemployed, they all "need" mobile phones. But this is not all. The funny part is that more and more people actually have two or three mobile phones.
How can this phenomenon be explained? Paradoxically enough, the explanation lies in the poverty of the country. Because of the very low living standard, the subscriptions the companies offer are really cheap (3-5 euros a month). The call costs are also very reduced, and the companies offer tens and even hundreds free of charge minutes in their network. At the moment, there are three major companies on the market, and each of them struggles to make the best offer. As a result, many people choose to opt for two or three different subscriptions, at different companies, having thus great offers for each network. So, for around 10 euros, they can speak hundreds of minutes in all the networks!

THE WORLD WITHOUT ROMANIA

How would the world be without Romania? Watch this and see!

ROMANIA.... SIMPLY SURPRIZING

LIFE DURING THE COMMUNISM

Discover things you didn't know about Romania!

If you think your life is pretty comfortable right now, and it was pretty comfortable twenty years ago as well, try to imagine you were forced to live under the following circumstances:

• you had access to only one TV channel, only for 2-3 hours a day, in the evening. During these 2-3 hours, you could watch: 10 minutes cartoons, news, songs and poems about the communist party, the happiness of people living in communism and the president Ceausescu, a speech of president Ceausescu, sometimes a movie (especially on weekends)
• you had a monthly amount of bread, meat, eggs and dairy products that you could buy, for instance you could have only 5 eggs every month.
• you could buy exotic fruit, such as oranges and bananas, just several times a year, and you had to queue for it for several hours
• you had to wake up at five o'clock in the morning in order to buy milk
• you had to work or go to school on Saturday
• you could not express your opinion about the system, because you would be afraid of being heard or "told" by someone and being arrested.
• you were pressured to join the communist party (the only existing party) in order to get promoted
• you were afraid/ashamed to go to church.
• you were taught Russian in school
  

These are only a few aspects of life in Romania twenty years ago, during the communist period.
Unbelievable, right?