On the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the declaring of the Independence of the Republic of Moldova, IPN gathers together the thoughts of those who have something to say about these years, about the country and society. Here are the thoughts of Natalia Bzovaia, a teacher of the Waldorf Theoretical Lyceum of Chisinau, on the occasion of the anniversary:
Natalia Bzovaia said she was 11 when the independence was proclaimed. The grownups around her reacted differently to the event. Some were joyful, others were afraid and there were also persons who expressed inexplicable feelings of hatred. “During the 29 years, nothing has changed in this regard. Our society is as divided as many years ago. We continue not to know our language and history and revive the national traditions and culture only if this is fashionable and there is demand on the market. In polling stations, we choose ballots in the official language and vote pro-Russian politicians in the hope that the state where there was the cheapest and most delicious ice-cream will be revived,” said the teacher.
VParadoxically, those who fought after 1991 for the independence, sovereignty and democracy of the Republic of Moldova, denying the own history, culture, language for fear of the reunion with Romania, did nothing else but divide the people, erase the earlier gained identity and push us towards the arms of the elder brother using our collective memory of vassals. The same persons scared the people with the return of the Romanian police, forgetting about deportations, dictatorship and iron curtain of the USSR.
“During those years, we remained stagnant, didn’t strengthen ourselves as a nation and celebrated the Independence Day involuntarily, only at official level and without soul. This year, given the pandemic, this holiday will probably pass unnoticed while waiting for the new school year to start.”
According to the teacher, the Independence Day during the pandemic is not the most serious challenge for Moldovan society. The people already learned to celebrate through ZOOM, to sing on YouTube and to post the tricolor on Facebook. But only those who already enter this category that is thoroughly calculated by the Google Ads algorithm will see this.
Natalia Bzovaia is satisfied that during these hard years of transition, she had good teachers, faithful friends and an environment in which she could develop despite the obstacles, financial problems, bureaucracy and corruption. Regardless of the situation, there were more people who helped her than people who aimed to punish her for her way of being, thinking and acting.
“This gives me power and hope that I can change things here, in the country, and that I have for whom and for what. I hope that now that we have access to information, we are freer than those from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. We, those who have the right to choose, will detach ourselves from the traumas of the past and will go on with the clear head and new views”.
Natalia Bzovaia noted that that the pandemic shows how immature and vulnerable the Republic of Moldova is as a state and how patient and strong its people are and now the people will stop electing politicians who think only about the own pocket. There will be elected young, wise politicians with skills, practical thinking and, what is more important, with another mentality so that the politicians who scare the people with phantoms of the past will be ultimately forgotten.
Natalia Bzovaia was born in Chisinau on January 29, 1980. She holds the first teaching degree and works at the Chisinau Waldorf Theoretical Lyceum. She graduated from the Teacher Training University “Ion Creangă”, the Faculty of Special Psychopedagogy, and from the State University of Tiraspol, the Faculty of Pedagogy and Primary Education Methodology. She is a Business Trainer for Kids at the Prospera Education Hub and within the Junior Achievement Moldova program and is the founder of the Solidary Teachers Initiative. She attended the Waldorf teacher training course within the Waldorf Association Romania in partnership with IAO (Internationale Assoziation fur Waldorfpadagogik) Germany.
