It is moral to state aloud what you are, it is moral to be consistent in affirming your own beliefs, it is moral to think in the long run, it is moral to affirm your own identity. It is moral to have the courage to say you are different from the others, even if the others represent, for the time being, the majority.In 1773, the British government passed the Tea Act, a law which made the East India Company the only entity allowed to sell tea in the American colonies and which included a special tax in the final price of the savoury leaves. It did so because it was, on the one hand, preoccupied with the well-being of the East India Company and desired, on the other hand, to highlight the fact that it, the London-based government, could bloody well impose a tax on the colonies if fancy took it to do so.
Some two hundred years later, and in spite of the benefit of hindsight this couple of centuries ought to provide, the Boc government took a fancy to demand that all those who receive copyright payments should go personally to three different institutions, fill in three different forms and stand in three different queues to submit them. And to do the same thing every single month of the year. Adding insult to injury, while the law became effective at the beginning of July, the methodology for its application only became available in late August, days before people would have been fined for failing to comply with the law.
What the grand Imperial government of London and the petty, semi-colonial government of Bucharest (semi-colonial, because it willingly buried the country into debt and relinquished a measure of its independence by calling in the IMF) have in common is an unrepenting heavy-handedness. Their mentality is not that of servants of the public, but of thugs who just love to make servants of the public.
In December of 1773, the good people of Boston saw they were asked to choose between a cup of tea and their status of citizens. And, being the good people of Boston and not the good eunuchs of Boston, they chose the latter. The same people would soon thereafter start the War of Independence and lay the foundations for one of the most successful democratic societies of the world. Because they understood the necessity to resist the whims of an oppressive government, they have earned their freedom.
Two hundred years later, and with the benefit of hindsight this couple of centuries ought to provide, the Romanian people now ponder what the best course of action may be. The press, which has received the heaviest blow (some say it was the main target of this measure, for having the impertinence of representing a bastion of freedom and outspoken support for the democratic values, severely encroached upon by President Basescu and his cronies), has cried out in rage, but has failed so far to adopt counter-measures. The civil society, which for once seems to take the initiative, now urges a bold move – fiscal strike.
This is nothing short of a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party. Citizens united around this idea understand that, by becoming insensitive to the people’s needs, by becoming oppressive, the government has placed itself outside the terms of the fundamental contract that allowed it to have a meaningful existence. A government which does not exist to help citizens live better lives does not deserve to exist at all.
The next few weeks should be watched with interest. Will the civil society succeed in galvanising the support of the citizens or will individuals prefer a quiet cuppa?
„The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” (Thomas Jefferson)
The Democrat-Liberal Party, whose unofficial slogan is „shut your mouth!” did it again: following the public declarations of some preeminent members of ...
read more
The government coalition is terrified. The protests which will take place today in Bucharest, and which will gather around 80,000 people according to their organizers, are described by the government ...
read more
RSS Articles