{"id":6216,"date":"2020-05-16T12:12:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-16T16:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/?p=6216"},"modified":"2020-05-16T12:21:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T16:21:34","slug":"work-politics-and-love-under-the-pandemic-specter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/2020\/05\/16\/work-politics-and-love-under-the-pandemic-specter\/","title":{"rendered":"Work, Politics, and Love under the Pandemic Specter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Romania, Spring 2020<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by<\/em> Andra Stan-Dragotesc, mom of two, on maternity leave from her job as manager of the international relations office at West University of Timisoara, Romania<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The rainbow the author and her son made as a kindergarten project during the lockdown.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The reality of the COVID-19 pandemic hit me on my son\u2019s third\nbirthday, March 10th<\/sup>. We had a small party at his kindergarten and took\nhim for a piece of carrot cake (his favorite) at a small bakery near our\napartment, in Timisoara, Romania. But we did all of this with some degree of precaution\nand, to be honest, fear. Just 6 days later, the state of emergency and a country-wide\nlockdown would be put in place in Romania. A few weeks earlier China had seemed\nfar away. But, all of a sudden, Italy wasn\u2019t far at all. We have close family\nliving and working there, some in the healthcare sector, a result of European\nUnion integration processes regarding movement of people and work access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 11th<\/sup> the kindergarten where my son spends\neight-nine happy hours a day closed; subsequently, me, him and my six months\nold daughter at the time moved into isolation, in the Romanian countryside, at\nmy parents\u2019 home. We haven\u2019t been out since then. On March 16th<\/sup> my\nhusband\u2019s workplace, in the hospitality sector, closed without a time horizon\nfor reopening. He joined us in the countryside. Everything happened SO fast.\nFor us and everyone else. The feeling of urgency is a difficult one to handle. Things\nwere happening on fast-forward and the situations we found ourselves in were\nunpredictable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WORK<\/strong>. I am currently on maternity leave and grateful I do not have to give\nbirth in these times in Romania. Fathers are not allowed on maternity wards,\nwhich is problematic on many levels. There are also major problems for pregnant\nwomen trying to access care, as well as women who opt for terminating\npregnancies (no hospital in Bucharest, the capital of the country, performs\nabortions upon request). God, are we really going backwards on women\u2019s basic\nrights now?! In Romania, a country where Ceausescu\u2019s ban on abortions killed\nmore or less 10,000 women not so long ago?! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an international-relations-in-higher-education passionate\nand a visiting lecturer teaching her \u201cGender and Development\u201d master-level\ncourse, I still do some work from home, out of loyalty to a team and a place\nwhere I found myself and grew, professionally. I don\u2019t know how I would\u2019ve\njuggled full-time work and parenthood with two small children, in isolation. I\nguess a lot of meetings could have been e-mails, but some just can\u2019t. Also,\nmoving entire education systems\/levels online so quickly in a country where not\nall households own the technical instruments for participation in online\nclasses\/courses is complicated for every stakeholder involved. From where I\nstand now, the public-private divide regarding work politics and policies in\nRomania is deepening. The private sector was hit hard. It made direct and deep\ncuts, immediately. Ending contracts and leaving people unemployed in a matter\nof days, or placing them on \u201ctechnical unemployment\u201d (supported by the state,\nthrough governmental measures). This means people receive a state funded\nallowance of 75% of their gross salary, but no more than 75% of the country\u2019s\nmedium gross salary (this means you can\u2019t receive an allowance higher than\nroughly 915 US dollars\/month). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My husband is not working, and our income is diminished in comparison to last year\u2019s spring period. He is technically unemployed. Some days it seems he is privileged. Some days, not so much. Depends whom you\u2019re comparing yourself with: the IT people who continue to work from home and earn bonuses due to the fact that everyone needs them these days, or the unregistered workers that don\u2019t even qualify for the above-mentioned allowance. The public sector hasn\u2019t been hit very hard yet in terms of salaries, but pressure on governmentally funded institutions at all levels to resolve the crisis is enormous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, history teaches us that, in Romania, this sector almost always pays a high price during and\/or after crises. I don\u2019t think this will be any different on the medium and long term. It already feels like no-cuts (personnel, salary, etc.) are seen as privilege. And privilege is problematic, especially here, economically, politically, and historically. And the economy will probably hit new lows soon. All I can say is I refrained from judgement as response to the Romanian migrant workers who took charter flights back to [insert EU \u201cWestern\u201d country] in order to engage in agricultural work (that their citizens were unwilling to take up?). I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a moral and ethical matter there, I know there is, as well as a very complex economic and social counterargument. Both of them will probably refer to survival. Also, could we please spare the hypocrisy and realize that essential workers don\u2019t need to be hailed as heroes, they need to be paid what they deserve? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

POLITICS<\/strong>. During the first two weeks of lockdown I donated to hospitals, I made\nonline lists of local businesses I wanted to promote and support, I commented on\npolitical and economic decisions, wrote e-mails to government officials in\norder to put pressure on them, burnt myself down with frustration. I was\nfrustrated about the fact that people were starting to die in Romania too; that\nour public health system is in continuous cardiac arrest since forever and,\nonce again we were not prepared, once again we didn\u2019t have the necessary\nequipment, corruption was unmasked too late; that politicians began to instrumentalize\nthe crisis for electoral gain; that I disagreed with some governmental\ndecisions; that infected people have not been honest about their whereabouts\nand that led to tens of persons being identified as infected by one sole\nindividual; that some people are treating the lockdown as a conspiracy and\nconstantly find ways around it, disrespecting and putting other people in\ndanger; that party-affiliations literally infect every dimension of life,\nstill, even if in different ways than decades ago; that racism has bloomed\nalmost infectiously this spring, especially against the Roma community; that\nthe lockdown led to speculation on the market; that the militarization of our\nlives transformed exception into norms and Giorgio Agamben\u2019s writings on the\n\u201cstate of exception\u201d topic should be compulsory reading for everyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know what\u2019s interesting? The fact that in this general\nstate of exception imposed in Romania, a country ruled by military orders now,\nour government sometimes creates some sort of super-exceptions from the rules\nit previously set through these orders. Mind-blowing and highly problematic\nfrom an ordinary citizen\u2019s point of view. Just recently, the priests and\nvolunteers of the Orthodox Church were allowed to go door to door, to share the\nlight from Jerusalem, in lieu of people going to church on Easter night.\nNevertheless, Romania took tough measures quickly in comparison to other\ncountries. At this point it seems it was the right path to follow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEALTH<\/strong>. I have chronic asthma. I am also breastfeeding my daughter exclusively\nsince birth and she\u2019s only started eating solids last month. What if I get\ninfected? I remember crying one evening while reading a doctor\u2019s story from the\nRomanian region of Suceava, one of the epicenters of the virus spread in our\ncountry. Before being transferred to the hospital in Suceava, that needed his\nexpertise, the doctor had been confident that he was well prepared. However, he\nquickly realized how unprepared he actually was once he entered that hospital\nand started treating COVID-19 patients. The best infectious disease specialist\nin Western Romania writes posts in a Facebook group with tens of thousands of members\nand tries to teach people about the new coronavirus, how to stay safe, etc. He\nmakes time for that although the team he manages has the highest rate of healed\nCOVID-19 cases in the country. Humility is a great thing. It could help move\nmountains. There\u2019s just so little of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romania still tests few people, in my opinion. But, as a\nperson that followed international news on the topic before we even had our\nfirst cases, really, the situation is dramatic everywhere, nobody was really\nprepared for the intensity of this pandemic blow. In comparison to others, the\nRomanian health system was and still is lacking, not only advanced equipment\nfor treatment, but also basic protection equipment for prevention and procedures\nto address a pandemic. We have a public health system full of problems that\nwere suppurating here and there. Now they\u2019re bleeding all over. Hopefully,\nafter all of this will have passed somehow, we will address and resolve them,\nnot simulate change and action, as we did for the last 30 years, but actually\nimplement change. Romania is a country that always did well importing policy\nand implementing it inefficiently. Some of the price for that is being paid now\nand has been paid in every crisis that involved our hospitals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The author, doing something she never found time for before: trying on a 50 years old Romanian traditional costume that belonged to her maternal grandmother and which has been passed from generation to generation on to her. She found the time to try it on during the lockdown.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

LOVE<\/strong>. Two months ago everything moved online, from shopping to teaching, from\nwork to family and friends gatherings. There were positive and negative\nconsequences to all of these transfers of experience into the virtual world. Now,\nwe are very close to the shift from a state of emergency to a state of alert.\nSome people think this means we\u2019ve gone through the pandemic and everything can\ngo back to normal. Some are redefining their normality and continue to be\ncautious. The world is changing. Maybe we\u2019ll hug less. Which, for me, as a\nperson who loves her space, will be great. Maybe everyone will continue to\ndisinfect and wash everything and I won\u2019t seem weird for doing so since before\nthe pandemic. Some days I want to do more, with myself, for my family, career-wise,\nas a parent and as a partner. I feel I should see and use this as a window of\nopportunity. But, there are also limits to what you can do in isolation, for\nyou and for others. Probably that\u2019s why some other days I just want to\ndisconnect from the world as much as possible, exist in the present moment,\nbake no-sugar cookies and just love my kids under this spring sun. Maybe that\u2019s\nhow I\u2019ll do it, one day at a time. For some reason, one thing I am certain this\npandemic hasn\u2019t taken from me is hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romania, Spring 2020 by Andra Stan-Dragotesc, mom of two, on maternity leave from her job as manager of the international relations office at West University of Timisoara, Romania The reality…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":289,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50909,18694],"tags":[61850,8586,15619,31357],"class_list":["post-6216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fieldnotes","category-events-news","tag-pandemos","tag-politics","tag-romania","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/users\/289"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6216"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6235,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216\/revisions\/6235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/tcds\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}