Why is it usually women who stand up and have courage. From judge Raluca Moroșanu to doctor Camelia Roiu
36 years ago, in Timișoara, Romanians refused to obey the order “circulate and clear the place”, when they were faced with an injustice. The crowd gathered around Pastor Tokes' church and refused to leave. Many of the hundreds of people were women with candles in their hands.
A woman comes before the court, on a dark day in October 2018, and tells, getting angry as she speaks: “You know that in front of the manager Secureanu, everyone signed out of fear. Including the doctors, they signed everything that was put in front of them, also out of fear of swearing. I am ashamed to say how he spoke to the medical director. If so, I will write you on a piece of paper, honorable court.”
The judge asks her to continue. No need to reproduce the swear words, the facts matter.
The toner is changed 20 times a month
“Director Carmen Obilişteanu's mother had been dead for three days and he cursed her to death. He made me a gypsy because I didn't want to make false invoices,” the woman continued.
What company?
“There was a company, RYS Force, which, on a daily basis, fictitiously repairs printers and changes the toner. 20 times a month!”, the woman continues.
There is laughter in the hall. This is how toner is changed when you are a manager at a state hospital, 20 times a month. The judge smiles too. The witness's name is Nicoleta Ciobanu and she is an accountant at the Malaxa Hospital. Somewhere in the room, another witness, Laura Nițu, is waiting.
The gesture of women who were brave precisely because they were afraid
“Malaxa” was looted for a decade and the theft stopped only when Nicoleta Ciobanu, Laura Nițu and two other colleagues decided to contact the press. They were so scared and convinced that no one would blame Secureanu that, a day before the publication of the investigation, they said they wanted to come to the newsroom, alerted that Secureanu had bragged that he bought us for 1 million euros.
And if they were scared, why did they have the courage to say “No”? Probably for the same reason why Raluca Moroșanu stood up, after the movie Recorder. For the same reason why ATI doctor Camelia Roiu, from Spitalul de Arși, spoke after Colectiv. You're not brave when you ignore courage, you're brave when you feel it, but you do what you know is right.
Women are the first affected by the faulty administration of the country
So many “integrity whistleblowers” in Romania in recent decades are women, and it is unlikely to be a coincidence. They did not seek the consecration of heroism, as theories try to suggest which, every time, need to assassinate their character in order to attack the cause.
Not one of these women ever said they were brave. And not that she's perfect. This is about the decision of judge Raluca Moroșanu, who gave this court decision, in the case of Coldea.
But why do they do it? Why do these gestures come primarily from women?
One pragmatic explanation may be that the administration of the country affects the administration of the family in ways that we men rarely experience. We live in a traditional society where “housework” falls to the woman. It's unfair, but that's how it's been in Eastern Europe for centuries.
Who goes with the children to hospitals? Who keeps the papers in order? Who encounters injustice and abuse more often? The women.
The weather of firmness
Women generally accept these administrative burdens very patiently. I fulfill them step by step. Because they have to be solved. But they gather resentment, day after day. At one point, seemingly out of the blue, they stand up and say “No.”
Their stubbornness comes from the accumulation, drop by drop, of the little situations that a woman goes through. And when I say “Done”, it really is done. Welcome!
When I saw judge Raluca Moroșanu, I thought she was doctor Camelia Roiu. The same thinness and the same slight tremor showing, in fact, a firmness of a tall, sturdy bridge over troubled waters.
Those who pull the bells
Another thing that is circulating these days is the fact that Raluca Moroșanu is doing what he can to get a higher position in the judiciary.
I have no idea if it would be good or bad if that were to happen. But the history of women who broke the silence shows us that none of them gained any advantage. Never.
They did not advance to leadership positions. Camelia Roiu is also an ATI doctor, and accountants are also accountants. In general, they are even more disliked than before.
Those who ring the bells to alert their neighbors in the community do not get peace for themselves. But at least the toner is no longer changed 20 times a month.
