THEY CAME forward, clutching faded phetos and icons from the distant past, many of them in tears. Gary Bannerman | OPEN LINES “It was something else,’’ said Dan Macarovici of North Van- coaver. ‘I didn’t expec’ such an emotional response fzom everyone.”’ The occasion was the Van- couver visit of King Michael I of Romania earlier this month. It is a name that still haunts the totali- tarians of Eastern Europe: both the Nazis of Hitler’s Germany and post-war Communists. One of the most curious twists of modern history now portrays this exiled monarch as the cham- pion of true democracy. One 1991 rally attracted 15,000 people in the streets of Bucharest, demanding his return. Similar gatherings throughout the country, and local elections everywhere, are choosing can- dlidates faithful to the royal fami- ly. The wholesale brutality of Nicolae Ceausescu's 25-year regime gave way in Romania to a cosmetically democratic new gov- ernment, but also a stifling bu- reaucracy, largely unchanged from the repressive era. A leading Romanian scholar observed recently, ‘‘King Michael is the only living true Romanian personality.*’ The current government equates the return of royalty with its own defeat, and even the political op- position is nervous. One of its spokesmen has written: Place To Go | You're Pregnant And Need Support: | | QIRTHRIGHT | Bl Call 987-7313 » Free Pregnancy Test » @ 229 Lonsdale 4 North Vancouver 687-7223 interest and paying more taxes? FIND OUT HOW TO SAFELY INVEST FOR INCOME AND PAY LESS TAX *Rates subject to change without notice. For more information please call The North Shore's only full Service Investment firm. RBC . DOMINION SECURITIES 925-3131 201-250 15th Street, West Vancouver In Vancouver Call “*The adherence of ever more participants to street politics, to the person of King Michael, stems from the feeling that we are un- able to produce a leader from among our own forces. **The king appears to be a ready-made leader: he enjoys royal standing, and his short reign amply displayed his political skills. One must add to this the injustice inflicted upon him by both the present and the past regimes, which have built him up to per- sonify the great injustice done to the Romanian people through the importation of communism from the Soviet Union. **However, although the king may fit the image of a providen- tial leader, civil society might get off to a wrong start if it were un- able to find a leader from among its own ranks, a leader born of the years of dictatorship, of the miracle of the revolution, and of the awakening of 1990; hence, a man sharing our common experi- ence.”” Michael became King — at least symbolically — at the age of six. When his grandfather King Ferdi- nand died in 1927, the Crown Prince Carol was absent from the country. Father returned to replace his infant son as monarch in 1930. The Nazis provoked the abdica- tion of Carol in 1940, and Michael again became King, with limited and vanishing authority. In 1944, King Michael I of Romania became one of the war’s many heroes. Leading a revolu- tionary coup d@’etat, he was ultimately honored by the United States, with the Legion of Merit and the Soviet Union with its highest civilian accolade, the Order of Victory. Michael now describes the latter honor as a sham, 2 sop to pave the way for his ultimate banish- ment. He vigorously opposed the new totalitarianism that was settling in right after the war, appealing to the West to stop the suffocating hand of Russian communism. No one listened. In 1948, King Michael and his mother, Princess Helen of Greece, left Romania. He did not return until 1990, when he was hastily dispatched out of the country. The ‘‘alleged’’ new democracy feared the democratic repercus- sions of the King’s presence. And now the 71-year-old exile, a great-great grandson of Queen Victoria, is winning global sup- port. The visit of King Michael and his wife Queen Anne to Canada was a modest affair. Canadian Romanians financed visits to Toronto and Vancouver, enhanc- ing an international movement that seems certain to change Romania forever. The earliest roots of this ethnic Canadian community can be trac- ed back 90 years to a few dozen families who settled in Regina and another pocket near Vegreville, Alta. During the intervening decades it has grown incrementally. Most of the arrivals in modern times were refugees escaping despotism. There has been an explo:ion of immigration since the collapse of the Ceausescu government. The Vancouver community now numbers about 5,000. Despire the polite, low-key press accounts of his royal visit, it was likely the most significant event in the history of the Roma- nian Canadian community. ‘*We wanted to show Canada that Romanians are not a bunch of gypsies or descendants of Ceausescu,”’ said Dan Manarovici. For those who attended the many functions, it was a triumph. But, sadly, many with family back in Romania were too paranoid about repercussions to be seen at an event. One of the organizers, Teodora Hoffinger, said: ‘It is hard to (rust someone after you've been repressed and harassed for a life- time.”” eon Prior to a private audience with the King and Queen, we read sev- eral press accounts. We learned of his home near Geneva, his various careers as a farmer, Lear jet ex- perimental technician and stockbroker, but predominantly his dignified courage. Writers from the Christian SINGLE VISION 1st PAIR *59.99 Glass or plastic lenses. To Powers + or - 6 with 2 cyl. (Extras Excluded) VANCOUVER 833 West Sroadway 873-3941 NORTH & WEST VANCOUVER (amalgamated) 1456 Lonsdale Avenue 987-1611 LANGLEY Highland Village Shopping Centre 4-20555-56th Avenue 530-6313 MAPLE RIDGE 22365 Lougheed Hwy. 463-3133 y. RICHMOND 145-4600 No. 3 Road Parkside 4800 270-3634 COQUITLAM Renaissance Mail $2883 S. Fraser Way 328 North Road #520 (Across from Sevenoakes) 936-4522 852-6640 Sunday, April 19, 1992 - North Shore News - 9 Reclaiming Romanian royaity Science Monitor, the Washington Times and others have remarked upon his striking resemblance to the late King George VI of Engtand. The Washington columnist remarked: ‘*The king is a courte- ous, soft-spoken gentleman ... he does not blow his own trumpet; that would be unseemly.’”’ Escorted to his Vancouver hotel suite we were unsure whether we were embracing past, present or future history. King Michael’s gentle, elegant bearing was in sharp cuntrast to the steel-like determination in his eyes. He said he was encouraged by the reception he is receiving around the world, but not sur- prised that the post-revolution government is slow to accept him. “Their minds were poisoned about me,”’ he said. ‘‘Terrible things have been said -- most of them completely false — for 40 years. This will take time.’’ AN The extraordinary paradox of the Nicolae Ceausescu era was that education, industrialization and solid business agreements with the West were always a high pri- ority, The West, impressed by externa! appearances of Romanian in- dependence, were blind to the atrocities. The bloodthirsty final days of Ceausescu and his execution has incorrectly left the impression that Romania is unskilled, uneducated and destitute. With a proper democracy, in- stitutions worthy of respect, a free press and a free market, Romania may well prove to be the econom- ic miracle of Eastern Europe. This is the dream of King Michael I, who, despite his long banishment, remained true to a comment attributed to Bismarck: “Being a Romanian is not a na- tionality, but a profession.’’ EP INVITATION You are cordially invited to our Annual General Meeting and a celebration of song, laughter and joy, with our patron, ANN MORTIFEE MONDAY APRIL 27 7:30 PM At Lions Gate Hospital Medical Day Centre - BRING IN YOU RESCRIPTION Bi-FOCALS Ist PAIR $79.99 aiass or Plastic 2nd PAIR Reg. Mono, or Kryptok To Powers + or + G with 2 cyl. {Extras | Excluded) All specialty lenses available at TRU-VALU - ask our opticians « All social service customers are treated equally. All New & Modern Optical lab for Even Better Service & Quality « Over one million prescriptions filled. 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