Rumania, Sweden, the World… 'our way is the right way.'
In December the King of Sweden presents the Nobel Prize for Literature to Rumanian author Herta Müller. In her work Herta Müller is deeply critical of the present day regime of Rumania - 20 years after the fall of Ceaucescu and the old school communists are still running the country, she laments.
Swedish Radio contacts the Rumanian ambassador in Stockholm for a comment. The ambassador is a woman about the same age as Herta Müller, also as forthright and articulate. 'Herta Müller is correct of course,' says the ambassador. 'Our country faces many problems and we have not yet freed ourselves of all the shackles of the past. But we are trying. Reforms are being made. No-one ever wrote the manual on how to make the perfect society. You can't take up a book that says do this and everything will be perfect. It is a process, it takes time…'
The Rumanian ambassador is right, I think. There is no manual. Only culture. A set of values we share and try and uphold, and in every culture we convince ourselves - 'this is the right way to live together in a society.' Culture is like a pathway, and in every country we are convinced we are travelling in the right direction. But there are many paths, and many scenic routes, and time at least to enjoy taking a few different directions now and again.
The website is: www.lagomsisu.com
