http://www.topix.net/world/romania/

that website has stuff on romania… just current news and business news.
i was reading an article about dracula… now that romania is entering euro… more tourists are coming… and dracula and his land is being regularly visited… its becoming like a disney land for romania. the government of course is happy about the money coming in… but… many many romanians are worried… because its a bad image to relate to romania. they are saying… america has mickey mouse … which is cute and cuddly and people love him. japan has pokemon and other anime… also cute… is it a good idea for a country to be related with a crazy murderer who slaughtered everyone???? it might be cool… but its not something that you can market and sell for a long time… its also not healthy… it won’t create a “friendly” image. and many romanians think its something we should not want to show the world… its not a good idea to show the world that “this is who we are”… and act as if we are proud to be the country of a dirty murderer. It might sell and bring in interest now… but they are afraid of the future image it will create.
i have 2 reactions… 1- good job! i am soooo glad to see romanians thinking beyond just getting food and money! and 2- i think i agree… however… look at batman… he is the second top selling american icon… possibly in the world these days… yet he is not “cute and friendly”… in fact quite the opposite. and he has had this image for almost 100 years now!!! i think with the right marketing it can be done.

also… there have been recently some crazy problems in romania… you know how american companies lately have problems with law? like ENRON… lied about taxes… to make extra money? well… romania is having some problems like this. an advertising company erai hito… was found to murder 4 people. and then the president of a romanian airline company was found in australia with 20 kilograms of cocaine….
hmmm… americans steal tax money… romanians murder and take cocaine… which would would you rather trust?

also… recently… a famous band called COMPACT… they are famous for britney spears style music… more for kids and stuff… the lead singer was murdered… onstage! there is rumors about it being because he didnt pay money to mafia….
i wonder how american rappers would react to this kind of stuff? like… does 50cent have these kinds of problems ? or Eminem? you know… in romania the mafia is also the government… so this could be like… COMPACT guitarist didnt pay taxes… so they murdered him. i wonder if Bush would murder Eminem for not paying his taxes……