Singer and songwriter Zoia Alecu says that a Colectiv Memorial should be raised in a place other than the site of the tragedy, which she associates with hell, and that the monument should symbolize the youth and their desire for change and the music they love.
AGERPRES: How do you see the building of a Colectiv Memorial as a symbol against forgetting? Is it important to create such a Memorial?
Zoia Alecu: No one and nothing in this world could make me forget what happened on the evening of October 30 at Colectiv. Maybe only if I get Alzheimer’s. This tragedy has turned me upside down for more than one month. I couldn’t get more than 2 hours of night’s sleep, because I was unable to collect my thoughts and put together something logical, and what’s worse, I didn’t feel like singing any more either. Thank God I can say I am better now, but in all honesty I tell you, I find it very disturbing that some sort of worship temple will be built on that spot where so many beautiful young lives were cut down, and which I associate with hell itself. That’s how I feel, maybe I am too sensitive.
AGERPRES: How do you imagine this Colectiv Memorial? Should it be built at the site of the tragedy or somewhere else?
Zoia Alecu: I perfectly agree with the idea of an outdoor cross and a monument being placed outside “hell’s” site for people to come forever to lay wreaths and light candles on October 30, for the souls of these children.
AGERPRES: Given the situation of the space where the Colectiv club was situated, who and to what degree should take care of designing and constructing a Colectiv Memorial, including finding of necessary financing: the Romanian state or the non-governmental organizations?
Zoia Alecu: I very much want the monument to symbolize youth and their desire for change, the music they prefer, and I want this monument to have an admirable execution. I fully agree that the construction be entrusted to NGOs that should take all honorable and honest diligence for everything to turn out at the very best. I am fed up to the point that I almost get a lump in my throat with the “assistance” the state offers us. The state is tirelessly ripping us off, it doesn’t offer us anything. I for myself never received anything from the state other than enslaving taxes and all sorts of obligations, I am not allowed to do this, or do that, it’s all taxes and indifference to all the real problems we are facing. We are no longer allowed to smoke anywhere, we’re no longer allowed to sing anywhere, maybe just at home … and little by little, like in Ceausescu’s time, we will gather in our own or our friends’ homes like humble and obedient slaves, to listen to the “Occupied Free Europe” radio station.
AGERPRES: What motto do you believe should define this Memorial?
Zoia Alecu: Why is it only death that gets us, Romanians, united? Why such a high price?
AGERPRES: What do you believe should be the most important lesson remembered after visiting the Colectiv Memorial?
Zoia Alecu: The most precious lesson to us Romanians, and I say this for the thousandth time, is that we must stay united, give up the false comfort we delude ourselves into having, and we must understand once and for all that only by staying united and respecting our culture will we be an indestructible force. But for this, understand my dear fellow Romanians, sitting before the TV or the computers and venturing into hypotheses and plans or voicing our discontent only to close friends is not enough. We must take attitude whenever there’s an attempt that runs counter to decent living and that ruins our backbone. More…