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Moldova's Independence Day
Every year on 27 August Moldova proudly celebrates something that it won't allow Transnistria to have: Independence. Here, American blogger Jerad Scott Tietz shares his first-hand experience of how Moldovans feel about independence and their strong racial intolerance against anyone who speaks Russian.Yesterday was independence day in Moldova. Sixteen years ago Moldova gained its independence. We tend to think that the United States is a relatively young country, but Moldova having only 16 years of independence is still a baby.
I heard mixed views of how Moldovans feel about independence day. Some people are very happy that Moldova is independent because Moldovans are now free to direct their country into the direction they see fit. Other people say that this freedom came at the cost of a bad economy and no real possibilities for its improvement in the near future, i.e., joining the European Union or getting Transnistria back.
Despite the mixed views on the country's independence, Chisinau had concerts and celebrations all day yesterday. Masha and I were in the city and there were not as many people in the center of the city and at the concerts as we thought there would be. However, the weather yesterday was beautiful. We finally had a break from the heat and it was a sunny and cool day, a perfect day to celebrate a nation's independence with a barbeque or party.
There is another holiday on Friday called "Limba Noastra", or Our Language. This is another holiday that gets mixed feelings from Moldovans. The basic reason for this holiday is to celebrate the Moldovan language. There are many people in Moldova who resent the Russian language and the former Soviet Union. Many of these people could speak Russian fluently but they simply refuse to utter a word, even if some one speaks Russian to them they will understand every word but just answer back in Moldovan (Romanian).
It's not too uncommon to witness, or be involved in, a conversation where one person speaks Russian and the other person speaks Moldovan and they both understand each other completely. I have been involved in such a conversation and it's kind of surreal, I mean you're speaking one language and hearing another but yet you completely understand the conversation.
Jerad Scott Tietz was a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova from 2004-2006 and currently works with the American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova. He met his wife Masha while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer and married her on 16 February 2007. They are now in the process of submitting documents so she can leave Moldova.
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Both Transnistria and Moldova will benefit if they choose freedom and democracy instead of imposed solutions that the voters have already rejected. And this freedom is the only realistic choice that Moldova has left for Transnistria says regular Tiraspol Times columnist John Moynihan. . . 
