Alo, Salut, sunt eu, un haiduc...

Somehow, this article from the BBC tells you pretty much all you need to know about Romania.

The gist of it is this: Gigi Becali was a shepherd "who made a fortune in land deals" and now owns the country's biggest soccer team. He is "a devout Christian" (as the golden icon in his photograph no doubt tipped you off), and he's one of Romania's most flamboyant politicians. Described as a "Robin Hood figure," he announced his candidacy for European Parliament from prison. Why was he in jail? When some thieves stole his car and demanded a ransom, he first paid the money, then sent a gang of thugs to trap, kidnap, and beat up the thieves.

Naturally, the thieves went to the police to complain about the violence, and Becali was arrested. Now he has been released and got himself elected as MEP, but a travel ban has been placed on him while the investigation is underway. As a matter of course, he's decided to ignore the ban and go to Brussels anyway, challenging the Romanian authorities to arrest him there.

Romania is a very odd country, and if my own experiences there are any indication, crime is viewed somewhat differently there than it is in other parts of the world. The long conversation I had with a cutpurse named Funny on a Bucharest city bus is a story for another time, but I mention it now because of the relative nonchalance with which he admitted to being a thief, and his emphasis on theft as a rectification of the injustices of class difference. Granted, I'm still unsure of Funny's mental soundness, but he seemed to see himself as a kind of Robin Hood, as well.

And I've just remembered something else: as I was about to wonder whether there was an analogous Robin Hood figure in Romania, I suddenly flashed back to a restaurant in Braşov where I ate cotlet haiducesc, or outlaw's porkchop. As referenced in the title of this post, the song "Dragostea Din Tei" (arguably Romania's biggest export since Dracula) also has the singer calling himself "haiduc."* From a completely unresearched perspective, I get the sense that there is a romanticized outlaw folklore in Romania. I think I'll look into it.