Iulian Mitran - Columnist

Moldovan or Romanian?

The story of a single nation that walks on two different paths

   We can say that identity is the result of culture or that identity is assimilated this term. Or maybe identity extends beyond culture .Culture is a collective product that forms as a consequence of  human interaction , culture is form from both material and spiritual components and it is usually regarded as the mirror that shows  a nation the image that they have about themselves .
    So culture plays a internal role , its helps people to create a image about themselves , it practically helps them to answer to the following questions:

 a) Who we are?

b) From where we are?

c) Where we are heading?

d) What we created?

In contrast to culture , identity is something more. Identity represents a product of culture combined with the perceptions of others about us . If we wanted to represent identity in a graphical form the image wold look like this : A segment with two heads , one head is - Our perception about us - and the other head - The perception that others have about us .
     Identity wold be a point at half of the distance from one head to the other. Identity can also be defined as the way in which a group presents itself in front of other groups , the image that we build as a "visit card" for others can incorporate elements of culture but in some cases it can reject them.
    This  point is never exactly in the middle of the segment , it usually lays a few units to the left or to the righ . This is a result of the fact that each group wants to present its self more then it really is .

  I made this brief introduction about the roles of identity and culture so that the following case that we will analyse will be easier to understand.

Romania and Moldova...two different nation that share a common past that are heading to two different futures. 
   Why so? Why dose a ethnic group by slit in two different countries?

  Moldova was assimilated in 1940 by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , what many people don't understand that the answer to the question - Why romanians are split in two nations - lays exactly in two key factors : the dynamics of culture and the self image of a group.

As a result we will use this two key factors to give a answer to this dilemma :

Dynamics of culture - Analyzing this factor can lead us to the right solution , what many don't take in to consideration when studying a case like this is the fact that cultures are very dynamic , they shape according to the various historical , economical and social climates . 
    A other key element that shapes a groups culture is the contacts that it has with other groups , cultural influences are the effect of interaction between groups . This can take two forms : mutual influences or influence in a single direction . Mutual influence its specific to groups of similar status and the one direction influence it characteristic of two groups with different statuses . The more powerful will influence the weaker . 

   As a result moldovan culture do to the different economical and cultural context started to create its own shape , we cant say that moldovan culture had nothing in common with the romanian one but its no longer identical to it . As a result of the dynamics culture shapes over time , even Moldova's poverty and isolation from the western world shaped its culture. The culture of Romania after '89 started to be strongly influenced by the West , this influence was visible through western brands , magazines and tv shows that were present in the romanian life.
      At the other side we have Moldova which after gaining independence suffered from a hard economical downfall that still effects it today , this downfall was the reason why the county was so unfriendly for the development of western brands and media . 
    More then that in Moldova entered brands from the from the ex-soviet republics .The differences started to be even bigger when the national language of Moldova - romanian - changed its name in the constitution to the "moldovan language ". This was the subject of  lot of argues between the two nations as Romania refused to recognize the existence of a moldovan language separate from the romanian one.

As a conclusion we can say that national culture is "manufactured" by people , every nation constructs through culture a image with which it can present its self in from of other nations . Its up to every nation to choose which elements will create its culture . And every nation has the right to autodefine its self . Culture is dynamic and do to this many states who had a common past can head to two totally different futures.