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Moldova
Culture & Identity
Moldova's Personality
Moldova, forgotten by most of the world, or more accurately
never known by most of the world, it is perhaps the only country in the world named
after a dog, and how can one not like a place named after "man's best friend"?
Well, perhaps due to the internal strife and division. Moldova is one of the finest
examples of Soviet policies gone wrong and today is like a young man torn between
two girls; Moldova's future is uncertain and whatever path is taken will end
in hard ache.
Not sure if they should move towards Europe as their Moldovan
population seeks, or remain closely tied to Russia in
the east like their Russian and Ukrainian populations
seek, any move made in Moldova is countered, fought,
debated, and ends in stalemate. This division prevents progress, but as so many
international organizations boast, also prevents violence. The lack of change seems
to be a death sentence for the people and, as everyone around them advances, Moldova
remains forgotten in the vineyards and fields of the primarily rural country.
Identity
On one extreme, people in Moldova identify as Romanian
and seek union with Romania; others see Moldovan as a
unique ethnicity and cling to that. On the other side, Ukrainians
see themselves as such, Russians as Russians, and Gagauz
and Gagauz (a Turkish minority in the south). Still others
see themselves as Transnistrians, a fictional country lying east of the Nistru River
which has maintained independence (although not recognized) since the early 1990s.
This division and confusion on who they are has caused all this hard ache.
This page was last updated: February, 2012