An Education in Moldova

I ran across a few things today that I thought might be of interest to those who want to know more of the country that I'm living in. Unfortunately, I can't embed them into this blog, but I can link to them as I describe each. This is slightly over an hour of material on Moldova folks, a goldmine, actually, if you're seriously interested in where I'm living. Poftim.

The first video is about Moldova in general, and it does do a fairly good job of describing much of the situation. It does a very good job of describing the economic and infrastructure story of Moldova. And although the financial situation has gotten better since 2001, Moldova is still the Poorest Country in Europe.

Moldova: Europe's Poorest Country

There was actually an article that came out the other day with updated data that is applicable:

Chisinau, 30 June /MOLDPRES/ - The average monthly salary was 2,370 lei (152 euros) in Moldova in January-May 2008, increasing by 27 per cent against the first five months of 2007.

On this period, the average monthly remuneration in the budgetary sector was 1,862 lei, and in the real sector of the economy - 2,639 lei, according to data put out by the National Statistics Bureau (BNS).

According to the BNS director-general Vladimir Golovatiuc, the average salary of an employee in the financial sector was of 5,328 lei in January-May 2008, in constructions - 3,149 lei, in transactions - 3,003, in industry - 2,842, in public administration - 2,597, in health and social assistance - 2,075 lei, etc.

On the other hand, the lowest average monthly salary was recorded in agriculture and forestry - 1,149 lei, fish breeding - 1,251, education - 1,632, etc.

The average remuneration was 24 per cent higher last May against the same month of 2007.

The above data covers all the budgetary institutions, as well as the enterprises from the real sector, except for those situated in Transnistria, Golovatiuc said.

I would like to remind people that, as of today, 10$ = 100 Lei (around), so when it says the average salary has jumped to 2370, that means the average person makes $237 per month. It is not my place to discuss my family's situation, but suffice it to say that my living here doubles their monthly income, and we live in a government subsidized building (making our rent very very low). Rent in Chisinau is seriously expensive, shockingly expensive to me, and food prices here have tripled since I've been here.



A result of the country being so poor is the massive exodus of people working abroad. This has left many villages practically empty, and also left a veritable army of children without parents. I believe that I talked about some of the children (who barely deserve the name) I met in Peresecina, girls 12, 13 years old that are taking care of younger siblings, doing all the chores, etc. The following video actually highlights this phenomenon.

Left Behind


And finally, a video on the Transnistrian conflict. This video brings up a lot of stuff, and is frankly a little scary. Moldova is, tragically, known for being an inbetween state, a poor state, and this had fed into a large human trafficking problem. Maybe this is a larger problem in Transnistria, and I am absolutely willing to believe that to be true, I'm also not going to say it's not a problem in the general population in Moldova.

Recently, Moldova has been smacked by the world community for its part in global trafficking, and this has caused somewhat of a stir. The following was reported about a recent council meeting: (President) Voronin asked bodies in charge of the issue to quickly adopt a comprehensive plan of measures which would lead to concrete results. He concluded that the issue of human trafficking is of utmost importance for ensuring the interests and security of Moldovan citizens, but, he said, it is also a question of prestige, of Moldova s image.

I added the bold in that last sentence there.

(Sometimes, politics in this country reminds me so much of Chicago politics I can't even stand it)

Europe's Black Hole

So, poftim. (Poftim, by the way, means just about anything. In this context, it means "there ya go." It can also mean "excuse me?" or "you're welcome" or "thank you" or "I didn't understand a word you just said". It's a general, all purpose word that I have begun to use in abundance.

Poftim.