A few days ago, on a Midwestern US university website:
Internet access brings Romanians new freedoms (article about a research mission led by Ball State Anthropology Department who took a student team to rural Romania to examine the impact of free Internet access in several small villages):
Installing computers with Internet access in Romanian public libraries was designed to support positive social change in this underdeveloped eastern European nation, but it's also spurred online dating, comparison shopping and social networking, says an analysis by Ball State University. (...) "The Internet has the potential to bring most of Romania into the 21st century," Nyce added. "Right now, it is mainly an agrarian society that, for our students, resembles the rural U.S. around 1910. It will be interesting to see how the country transforms in the next decade as information technology and e-commerce becomes more prevalent."
After back and forth emailing with the authors and reasonable arguments, the article changed its tone. However, hasty generalizations and stereotypes will always make the headlines... Where is the true Romanian spirit among these?
Abonați-vă la:
Postare comentarii (Atom)
Good old american ignorance at work!
RăspundețiȘtergereThat's exactly what I said at first. Yet, I realized that after one says that, there is no room for conversation, so no room for improvement.
RăspundețiȘtergereI then tried to see it from their perspective: Romania is quite far and dark. How can we see it clearly if few people put light around it? To make it simple, it might be our part of the job to help them get rid of their ignorance...