An Appearance on Romanian Television

On Tuesday night, I was, along with fellow intern Megan and our employer, Radu Oprea, invited to appear on a local talk show in Galați We arrived at the television station fifteen minutes before the 8 pm broadcast time. This would be a first appearance on broadcast media for me. The program was carried live.

We entered the studio and were introduced to the host, Cezar Amariea.

The production crew then fitted us with microphones.

Cezar, Megan, Myself, and Radu 

Cezar speaks English, but the broadcast was done in Romanian with Radu translating into English for us and into Romanian for the audience. The host introduced us and Radu gave a brief synopsis of why he invited us to Romania. Megan and I then each described why we choose to come to Romania and work for SMART over our other options and some of our early impressions of Romania and of Galați now that we have been in the country for three weeks.

Next, we discussed public policy. The host described some of the public policy issues facing Galați and asked us to describe how we would deal with such a situation in the Untied States, and if we had any recommendations regarding possible courses of action. The first issue was, unsurprisingly, the dog situation in Galați .

Next, members of the Galați community called into the program and described some of the issues they had observed. Radu translated their comments and asked us again to respond to the situation. If I've learned anything in my time in Galați its that it is important to be sensitive to the fact that the situation in Romania is often very different from that in the United States. Most of the situations described by the callers would be unfathomable, at least to the degree described to us, in the United States. For example, one lady who called described a situation in which a car wash was constructed next to her home, resulting in excessive noise and chemical fumes. I discovered that Romania does not having zoning ordinances like we would expect to find in the United States in order to guard against such situations. Another caller described a situation in which power lines had been cut to her home. He had been without power for two weeks and there were no signs of any authority producing a remedy for the situation. Another recounted the story of a unstable tree that was deemed a hazard by the authorities. Two months ago, a crew was sent to remove the tree. However, they were called away in the middle of the job, and still have not returned.

I attempted to invoke the training I have received in policy analysis over the last year at Pepperdine in responding to questions, and I think it served me well. One tendency I noticed was that many people want a fix to the symptoms or minor potions of a problem without addressing the underlying issues. For example, several times various minor issues that have resulted from the feral dog population were brought up either by callers or the host, to which the interlocutor would want a solution. However, people did not seem to consider that they were symptoms of the dog problem, and not the problem itself. The dog situation really is a national issue in Romania, and it does not seem to me that any proposal instituted on a municipal level is likely to be a permanent solution, even on a local scale.

The two hours during which we were on the program, with only one ten minute break in the middle, went by very quickly. Below is a recording of the broadcast:

After the show, we went to a football (soccer) game. The last of the season for the local team in fact. Power went out for about fifteen minutes during the second half, after which Galați proceed to lose to Bucharest.

Power On

Power Off