Goodbye and touch the sky with Mariana Barbu

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
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Speaker 1 (01:17):
Welcome or welcome back, everybody to another exciting episode of
Aaron's Opinion, the podcast for blind people where we speak
about critical issues in the bindness community, and all other
issues from across the universe, galaxy, and even issues in Romania.
We'll get to that in a moment, but you certainly
know where we're going. One two four zero six eight
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(01:38):
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(04:20):
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Speaker 3 (04:21):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Well, as I mentioned, welcome to Aaron's Opinion, where we
talk about critical issues in the blindness community and all
other issues from across the galaxy and even issues from Romania.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
So here we.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Go with our guests from Romania today, the first time
I've ever interviewed anybody from Romania, and probably the first
time anybody from Romania has ever been on this podcast,
and probably the first time a Romanian has been on
any podcast starting from the United States. Her name's madi
Ana Barbou. You know how I found her, Well, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
She found me.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
She was listening to that a great episode from our great,
our great friend Alan de Wheeler. Absolutely, you know the
bass player man out in out in Oregon, who spoke
a lot about NPR and he had a wonderful life too. Anyway,
this Marianna Barboo sends me a friend request, and I
thought it was just, you know, a usual scammer, which
in more cases than not when you get a friend

(05:15):
request from some other country, and in some cases it
can be a scammer, which I am aware of that,
so you have to be careful. But then I did
some digging and some investigation figuring out that this is
some Marianna Barboo woman and she's blind, and I asked her,
I said, so, what's going on? She says, well, I've
been listening to your podcast. I really like it, and
I want to know if I can come to your show.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
I said sure. So then you know, we started.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Talking and she started telling me how she speaks obviously
Romanian and English, and you know, she tries to get
off the hook with her English and say that her
English isn't good enough, but you'll hear it in a minute.
Her English is fine, and things like that. But yeah,
she has a truly fascinating story to share with overcoming
dealing with Romanians. You know, the Romanian society not tolerate

(06:01):
very well people with disabilities, so she has a lot
to overcome. And she also does a lot to educate
people all over the world about blind people. And she's
very knowledgeable about NFB and many organizations, many great organizations
here in the United States.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
And she just has.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Such a knowledgeable personality, and she's so friendly and so warm.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
And just has such a character.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
And it's just a just a very very pleasant and
just just a wonderful friend in the community who happens
to also be fascinated by language acquisition like me, because
that's actually my job. I'm a language teacher, so I'm
fascinated by anybody who speaks Romanian, which Romanian, interestingly would
be the language I should learn next, because I already
speak in English and French.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
But at any rate to make a long.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Story short or a short story long, or however you
look at it, we want to just say that that
Mariana really just completely knocked it out of the park
today with a absolutely fabulous conversation, and I I could
not have asked for better. She was very nervous at
the start, obviously she had to get used to it.
But then once she got used to it, let me

(07:07):
tell you, it was just wonderful. This is a fabulous
conversation with our great friend from Romania, Mariana Barbou. And
of course she said something that will become the title
of the episode because when she said it, it was so
cute and so sweet. I just have to make sure
that it's the title of today's episode. So without further ado,
don't forget my name's Aaron Richmond. You're listening to the

(07:30):
Eron's Opinion podcast. All right, let's go over there, over
to Eastern Europe, to one of the oldest and most
ancient societies in our entire world. Let's talk to Mariana Barboo.
Let's talk about Romania. So without further ado. You're listening
to the Eron's Opinion podcast and now let's sit back
and let's listen together too. Goodbye and touch this guy

(07:50):
with Marianna Barbo. Welcome or welcome back, everybody to another
exciting episode of Erin's Opinion, the podcast for blind people
where we speak about critical issues in the blindness community
and all other issues from across the universe, galaxy, and
even just countries in the world.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
One of the oldest countries in Eastern.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Europe, one of the countries in Eastern Europe that American
people are really anybody else around the world never hears
from until today. I understand that we've had a longtime
listener by the name of Madiana Barbu. She joins us
from the great nation, the ancient nation of Romania. I
got to say that I understand you've been a longtime
listener of the show, and.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
I really appreciate it, we really do.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
I also understand that you do a tremendous amount of
important work over there in Romania to not only educate
blind people, but to educate sighted people how they can
become better attorneys. And I know that you do a
lot with I know you have a lot of knowledge
in the legal system and the education system and everything else.
So I don't really know where this fascinating conversation is

(08:58):
going today, but it's going to be fast. So Maria
and a BARBEO, I'm gonna mute my microphone for a
bit and.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Let you talk.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
So who's Mariana Barbe what's going on in Romania? What's
the life story? Just go for it and just dive
into the conversation head first.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Go.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
Thank you, Aeron, thank you for letting me join the
Aaron's Opinion podcast. It's so nice to be here. It's
my first podcast in my life, so I hope I
can make it. Yes, I am a young person. I'm
a blind person. I'm twenty six years old, and I
am I'm having a retinal of prematurity as a dinolysis

(09:43):
about myself. I you know, tried to, you know, think
about to visualize how it would be like to be
in this podcast and try to figure it out. An
introduction about myself. I am a person who's passioned about innovation.
I'm very spontaneous, and I'm very deep. I am a
person who is trying to understand the world around her,

(10:06):
you know, being blind, suddenly you realize that you are
connected to what you're saying, but not very much with
the person in front of you. Uh. And that's why
I I want to connect myself with the others and

(10:28):
try as many you know of our appeers to make
our society more inclusive, more respectful towards people with disabilities.
And not only.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Can you hear me, yes, exactly, very good, very very good. Yes.
Well that's a that's a wonderful introduction.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
And I think you're I think you're very right that
as a as you say, is a deep person, you
really understand that a lot of times in life you
go through life really searching for the meaning and searching
to find true connection with other people, right, And that
when you're blind or when you have a disability, this
can be a very difficult thing.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
So I think you're very right.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
I also think that you've taken it upon yourself to
do very well in Romania, getting an education and getting
ahead in Romania. So why don't you start out by
kind of talking about things sort of in the order
that they happen.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
So why don't you tell us.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
More how you grew up in Romania, where you're from specifically,
you know, education and how that works, because we've heard
a lot of interesting things from the United States about
the education in Romania, but we're certainly not experts, So
why don't you kind of walk through the way Romania
works and the philosophy and the education.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
Sure, sure, I'm so happy to be a messenger of
my country and too, uh speak about my country because
we have a very beautiful country. The sun is rising
right now and we have a beautiful, beautiful light, So
you don't have to you don't have to see to
feel that. I am a person who has more questions

(12:15):
than answers. So still I'm you know, I'm very curious
and trying to put thousands of questions and to understand
the world. Uh, you know, my life is very simple.
I don't know if you've had any young person like
me in your podcast you I've seen the episodes and

(12:36):
you want of the invit inviterers that you brought. They
had a lot of you know, professional work, and I've
done a lot of things. They had their own NGOs
and stuff, but I have and they I mean, I've
got a lot of idea from ideas from them, and

(12:56):
they've inspired me so much. You know. And yeah, actually
I was born in a pastoral village not very far
from the capital from Bucharest. I was born here in
a family that works in agriculture. My parents are farmers.

(13:22):
We are growing animals. We love nature, and we planned,
you know, from cereals and from vegetables and you know
other things that we sell here locally because we are
local producers. And I had my normal childhood because I

(13:49):
have my sister. I had my sister and brother here
with me. We've done a lot of things. Even though
I could not see, they adapted to my world easily.
We climbed into our house bridge and we uh went outside.

(14:09):
We played with our pets like it were our children.
And you know, we we've tried to be great cook
by using the soil and other you know toys. I mean,
I have a lot of memories in my in my

(14:29):
family because here I could spend the you know, summer
vacations or Eastern and Christmas holidays. And I remember being
and helping my my family selling you know, the vegetables.
We were traveling with a truck around the country and

(14:56):
we were selling that. I remember, you know, during the
they I was playing with the sand at the beach
and during the you know, evening and night, tried to
sit nearby the truck and sell the watermelons or whatever.
I mean. I find myself, you know, this western and

(15:19):
country culture like you know, you can find it in
California and United States. I love the United States and
I love how you know, we are using the American
agricultural machines like that, you know, Johnt tractor and we

(15:43):
we really you know, love the discipline and you know
the value of work, and it was given to me
by my parents. And yeah, this was about my early childhood,
you know, my my three years of living so or

(16:07):
so you.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Know, sure, sure, absolutely absolutely, Okay, So now can you
paint more of a picture or kind of So you
started out, you started out helping your family with the
farm and participating in your village in Romania. Excellent, Okay.

(16:28):
So based on what I've read up about you, you
obviously have attended university. So why don't you now try
to talk a little bit more about the education system
in Romania, how you got through it and.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
What you're doing.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
You know, what you can talk about when you know,
in regards to your knowledge of the Romanian legal system,
and the education system in your country, because that's incredibly,
incredibly powerful and incredibly powerful information.

Speaker 5 (16:58):
Well, yeah, you know, before university, I want to say
that I was to I attended a special school for
the blind in Bussel County.

Speaker 6 (17:11):
It is like three hour and a half from my home.
It was very hard for me to accommodate over there.
It was a boarding school there. I've learned so many things.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
I'm very grateful for the teachers, for everybody I've known there,
for my colleagues there. I was spending more than fifteen years,
so you know, kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, high school
was there. So I know everybody I met, you know,
every day and every weekend, the same people. You know,

(17:44):
different disabilities, different ages, different stages. You know, this is
how things worked after, you know, in in US, in
the Eastern Europe, and you know most of us we

(18:10):
were we are somehow sent to those special schools. Uh.
The mainstream school has been you know, promoted ten years ago.
Still we thinking, we are thinking about institutionalization. And you know,

(18:31):
I was living in a boarding school. I was I
was having my life so surrounded by so many children
and so many educators. I was eating in a canteen.
I was sleeping in a you know, in a big
dorm with other girls, and we were trying to ah

(18:59):
have a free time. That really matters to us. You know,
when you are spending your time in a school for
the blind, your imagination is trying to build a lot
of castles, a lot of games, a lot of you know,
even though I could not get outside, I would. I

(19:22):
was not very well socialized. I've learned so many things.
I was participating in a lot of literature competitions, musical contest,
creative writing competitions, and you know, I've tried to evolve

(19:47):
into the improvement of the life of our boarding school,
you know, system like trying to improve our daily meal, trying.

Speaker 7 (20:00):
To speak about you know, how we would like to
get more fun and to you know, do activities with
other sided peers.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
You know. So it's a period of time that I
could not forget because there I was spending eight months
per years and the other four here in my village.
You know. So this was the transition in my life,

(20:36):
you know, between two places. And this was my childhood.
Very protected, very sure, I mean, nothing wrong happened. I
was listened, I was seeing over there. You know, the
teachers and the personal were they were really kind to me,

(20:57):
you know. But what I'm trying to say is the
thing that this also should get, you know, maybe simple reforms,
because when I when I graduated from high school, I said,
oh my god, I'm not prepared. I'm not prepared for
the cited world. I'm not very aware of my disability.

(21:21):
I don't know nothing about accessibility. I don't know nothing
about what happens with me. What is what would be
the future, like what about my rehabilitation? What about my
independence system?

Speaker 4 (21:33):
You know?

Speaker 5 (21:33):
So okay, in this special schools, we are taught you know,
a lot of a lot of information, a lot of
you know, vocabulary. We will learn how to read and write.
But you know, we need more exposure. We need more

(22:00):
you know, speeches about disability about you know, how the
world will be looking like what do we need to
know as young adults because we don't have a you know,
preparation for college. I love the United States. I know everything,

(22:24):
almost everything about every organization for the blind United States.
I'm following their pages every day, so I get to
learn a lot from your system. I'm not trying to
compare the systems. But I'm trying to understand what was
the gap, and you know, this is the in Eastern Europe.

(22:52):
I understand that in other, you know, countries, blind people
attend schools, this schools for you know, six months or
a few years, and after that they go to the
mainstream schools. So they go there only to learn some
braille and computer skills and that's all. But they have

(23:14):
a large of social interaction, you know. And you know,
that's why I think we need these kind of programs here.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
I think you're very right.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
You know, we here in the United States have learned
and have heard a lot about Eastern Europe, and we've
also heard, and I think it fits into the conversation,
we've also heard a lot of negative stories about people
who have basically survived the system in Romania and survived

(23:51):
the system in Bulgaria, and both of those countries in
Europe have had to put it, very directly, a poor
reputation for blind people and people with disabilities, and that
has been something that has been very well documented. And
I think you really put your finger on the problem, Adrianna,
which is that the reality of it all is when

(24:11):
you grow up in a school for the blind. When
you grow up in this institutional setting, which is you know,
where you grew up and mostly how you are educated,
it's not preparing you to actually be successful for the world.
It's not really exposing you enough to the world around you,
you know. So that's exactly the problem. And I think

(24:33):
you're very right. You know that the teachers might have
been nice, and they probably were, and if you'd like
the teachers, that's great, excuse me. But the reality of
it all is that when you're in that setting, you're
not going to be able to be competitive with other
sited Romanians. You know, You're just not going to be competitive.
It's a isolation like that in a school for the

(24:55):
blind setting cannot prepare you for the real world. And
that's one of the issue shoes that you know, I
have seen similar things, similar yet not comparable, because I
will I will never compare the United States to Romania.
That's both in poor taste and not possible. But I
will say that other blind people who I've spoken to

(25:17):
in the United States who have been to schools for
the blind have also noted the same thing that you're noticing,
is that when you're out of school for the blind.
It's just not it. You're not competitive with sight of people.
And I think you're very right. I also think you
have taken a lot of time to learn, though, and
I think you're someone that's really really gifted academically obviously.
So so after you went to the school for the

(25:39):
blind and you you know, you had all these experiences. Well,
for one thing, do you keep in touch with any
of your friends from the school for the blind today
or did you ever know whatever became of those people
that you went to school with as a child.

Speaker 5 (25:56):
Well, yeah, I keep I mean, I mean in touch
with my people, even teachers. And you know, even my
teachers told me, okay, I wanted to do something else
in my life. But what did I do? I went
to teach in a school for the blind because there
were no opportunities. So, you know, it's collapsed my my system,

(26:21):
my way of thinking, my way of seeing the world.
Because I've our story. I've read about our movements about
you know, the ADA and the protests, and you know
what has happened in the United States and in other countries.

(26:42):
I've read so many laws from other countries and what
do I see here? I see, you know, children that
go to contests only between you know, children for the blind,
and that's all I see, you know, an association for

(27:04):
the blind who you know, never mentored me for who
I want to be, only for what it is. So
you have to accept what it is. So don't change
our system, don't change our thinking. You have to go

(27:26):
to the massive therapy and you know, try to you know,
limit yourself maybe and you know, accept the fact that
you are blind and see the fewer options that you
know are in front of you because you don't have choices.

(27:47):
You know, you don't have so many choices. So I
want to say this statistic that we are on the
last you know, place in the EU where people with
disabilities attend the universities. And it's very very hard because

(28:12):
we have not been exposed, you know, and we hope
for the best in the future.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
You know.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
I wanted more. I wanted to work, I wanted to
to be a researcher. I wanted so many things in
my life and I'm still hoping that I can I
can achieve. But first of all, I wanted to make
sure that the that blind people should not be only

(28:41):
with blind people should not be sent to places and
you know, should not compete only with blind people, because
this is not how the world works and how the
experience on the way. You know, it's about feeling the rejection,

(29:06):
which you know, to be honest today has happened to
me and it's very difficult to to accept it. It's about,
you know, feeling the discrimination about opening doors that are
that were not open before. And you know, this is

(29:28):
what my my.

Speaker 8 (29:31):
Perspective would be like absolutely absolutely well, you know, believe
it or not. Even in the United States, blind people
face discrimination, which may surprise you or it might not,
but blind people are discriminated against anywhere and anywhere, and anyhow,
I do have faced severe discrimination even in the United States.

(29:53):
So what I'm saying is you're very right that it's
incredibly difficult in your society in Romania. But also I
can also tell you that there is tremendous discrimination in
the United States.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
I am aware.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, sure, yes, go ahead.

Speaker 5 (30:13):
I am aware. I'm reading about you know, uber discrimination
and guide dogs discrimination. I know it's not perfect, it's
not perfect, but you know, here ten percent we are
you know, population is like nineteen million, and we like

(30:34):
one million of us. We are people with all the
disabilities and ten percent have a job, you know, and
imagine this ten percent maybe you know, they are not
severe disabilities or stuff, you know, and we have to
change this perspective that we want special treatment or you know,

(30:57):
we want absolutely.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
We want to, you know, to be treated like queens
and kings.

Speaker 5 (31:10):
But we had to understand again our history. We have
to read about eugenism. We have to read about everything
that was in our past to understand and to act
differently in our future. This is my advice for all
the listeners, for all our community with disabilities. Please make

(31:34):
sure that you understand your your history. You understand that
you want they want to be in the schoolar's books.
You want to write maybe your autobiography. You want to
you know, understand that you don't want to be only

(31:57):
a consultant, but you want to propose law changes and
you want to be the one who can read the provisions,
you know, not letting others decide for ourselves, you.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Know, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
And one of the first ways to do that, and
one of the first ways to make these changes is
to speak up on podcasts like this one. You know,
I do wonder by the way, how did you how
did you hear about Aaron's opinion. Originally, how did you
come across the podcast?

Speaker 5 (32:31):
No, I've heard on Facebook. I've met this guy called
Ellen Wheeler. He has been on your podcast and he
was talking about his life and he likes, you know,
his hobbies and about Yogan meditation and you know, being naturally.
He sure, and I said, oh my god, I should listen.

(32:55):
I should have listened to some episodes. And some people
really inspire me. And as I told you about, you know,
the you know, the attorneys from Nigeria who lived in
Portugal and indeed, yeah, and the music teacher that lives
in the New Zealand. So yeah, they they said, Okay,

(33:17):
why my country is not there? Like, okay, there are
people around the world, but.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Not Okay, cool beautiful Marianna.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Sure sure.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
So I mean, I guess the rule is if I
talk about Nigeria, if I talk about New Zealand, France,
you know, then we have to talk about Romania.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
That's the rule.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Right. If I talk about Nigeria, then I have to
talk about Romania, right.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
Absolutely here as well, you know, you can come and
visit us.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Well considering well, I'll I'm just kidding when I say this. Well, really,
we didn't know that nobody's heard of Romania. No, but
we don't hear about your your your country never calls me.
We don't know about that country. We just think the
people farm and we don't know what they do. They
speak a beautiful ancient language and they have a beautiful
ancient culture.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
But we didn't know they wanted to be called. We
didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
I would have I would have called Romania ten times
a week if I had known that. Look, the fact is,
by the way, we should pause for a moment of
being respectful.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
By the way, rest in peace.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
As I said many months ago to Sonny Ezoique, that
was the Nigerian attorney who lived in Portugal who passed
away by the way shortly after the recording, and he
never lived to not to be morbid, but in all honesty,
he never lived to actually hear his own recording, and
we know that he listened in spirit.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
And also, yes, you're very right.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
We've covered a lot of different topics, and it's just
interesting how you happen to be friends with Alan Alan D.
Wheeler and you just happen to hear hear from.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Him and things like that. So that's really incredible. But
you're very right. You know, the first the first way to.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Start making changes in your country in Romania is to
talk to people. It's just start educating people to speak
up about it. You're very very right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
So what.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
So obviously as a brilliant thinker, which you certainly are, Marianna,
So what do you know about the United States? What
if you researched, what do you know about our advocacy organizations?
What can you tell me about your knowledge of America?

Speaker 5 (35:19):
Oh, oh my god, I am so passionate about the
United States. You know, I hope one day I will
be leaving about two years over there. I love the culture.
First of all, I am you know, my my bachelor
is in Romanian and English literature. So you know, American

(35:40):
literature for me is a kingdom reading about you know,
John Steinbeck and William Faulkner and you know everybody that
made America and political thinkers and those who contributed to
the US Constitution. And you know, they they they set

(36:04):
my values. You know, they they set my my my
you know, stand up movement, stand up for yourself, Try
to to be more representative, don't don't hide uh and
for me, you know, United States, it's about freedom, about

(36:36):
dreaming and about truth, you know, and you know that's why,
uh it helped me to understand why we have this
issue here in our country because we don't have the
international exposure. We don't have international projects. For example, you

(37:00):
know our Association for the Blind maybe would you know,
introduced us to our to other blind people who made
something who could inspire us more. And that's why I try.
I tried to look for models to look for, you
know people, So I love bloggers, from bloggers to organizations.

(37:22):
I love Molly Burke and other bloggers from the United
States for example. I know many things about NFB and
ACB and b it T, you know, Blind Institute of
Technology and Smaller Organization and headily and everything that you

(37:46):
know is doing something different that you know help blind
people in every state, you know. But first of all,
it's about friendships that I've made online with American people.
They've trusted me, they wanted to come visit me. For example,

(38:07):
last year in November, Laura Whiller, she is from Texas, Texas.
She has a foundation called Laura Willer Foundation. She came
and visited me at home. We made a list. We
tried to look for people who can't afford technologies and

(38:28):
supplies and white cans. So we found together here and
try to bring a braille printer to one NGO and
to other fifty people seniors and juniors and those one
who will attend universities, magnifiers and things that we have

(38:53):
never had and I have never had, you know, because
it's about you know, founds, it's about assist the technology,
and nobody is talking about that so much, you know,
when talking when referring about governments and why does he
or she need that, because you know when they try,

(39:16):
they say, oh, it's so expensive, he will do nothing
with that. And you know, it's about a lot of
impediments and stereotypes that we have to change, you know.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
So I know, absolutely absolutely right.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
So you're you're so your point is so perfect, It
truly is. You know that America is about freedom, it's
about opportunities.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
You are so right about that, Marianna. So if I
were to ask.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
You, you know, it's now that you know so much
about now that you love America so much and understand
the foundation of freedom in America. So what is Romania about?
REALI what really is Romania if you were to actually
stop and think about it and tell someone who doesn't
know what is Romania, what is Romania.

Speaker 5 (40:10):
First of all, Romania is my home, and nobody would
change that. Romania is about my family, is about waking
up every morning hoping for the better. Romania is very
beautiful and we have four seasons. We are very proud

(40:34):
about it. We have sea, we have mountains, we have
everything that you can dream about. We have people that
believe in hospitality. We have great food, we have a
great tourism. We have dark glass castle. So you know,

(40:55):
it's amazing that we we produce, you know so much
when it comes to agriculture, so you know more than
fifty it's an agricultural country. You know. We we love nature,

(41:16):
We love we are very spiritual. We connect ourselves with nature.
So I have here will I will want to make
short parentheses. So I have here a toy which I
brought to me. It's a musical box, so I want
to put it for twenty secns. It's in my toy.

(41:38):
It's a mechanical toy. So I have to press it
the Romanian rhapsody so that you can hear it. You know,
it's composed by our great composer.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Fortunately.

Speaker 5 (41:51):
Yeah. So yeah, you can connect in a virtual way
with my country.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
You can play it, you can play the song.

Speaker 5 (42:29):
No I can't.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
Oh oh, I thought you were going to play as
a song.

Speaker 5 (42:33):
Oh, okay, I will, I will play a song for
you at the end.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
Okay, okay, at the end. Okay, I see, I see
all right.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Are but here I have a musical box. You know,
it's from wood, and you have it's a key, so
you have to as you heard, you know. That's why
I wanted to bring it here because I I love
my country.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
Here you brought that's like an artifact.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
That's like a like an artifact from your from your country. Okay, interesting,
very very good. Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (43:09):
I'm a collect h I love collections, and you collect
to collect things.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
You like collecting things. Yeah, that's really good. You collect
beautiful artifacts. That's great. That's great.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
So the other thing that I want you to dig
into kind of head first is your degree in university.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Right.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
So you have this bachelor's degree in Romanian Romanian literature
and and American literature, right.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
Yes, and English literature.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
And English literature. Right.

Speaker 5 (43:42):
I've been studying British literature and the last year I've
been studying American literature and poetry. Uh and also Masters
in Romanian literature.

Speaker 9 (43:56):
Yeah, for me, university was an incredible stage. I I
had so many.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
Opportunities. I was I was understanding my my style in writing,
and I was learning about speech and linguistics and you know,
theoretical discourse and phonetics and pragmatics. You know. You know,

(44:37):
in my university, I was not very exposed. I had
some issues with the accessibility because we haven't had our
office for students with disabilities, so we had our self
information the books. You know, I had to scan a
lot of books, you know, hundreds of pages to tell teachers, hey,

(45:04):
can I record it for the academical purpose and nothing more,
you know, can I can I be here with a
guide dog? So, you know, I've had so many, so
many obstacles during the university. It's not I was not
very much enjoying this period of the time. But now

(45:27):
I'm proud to say that we have an office for
students with the disabilities, and they are trying to build
that all around the countries and maybe in the you know,
five bigger cities, you know, but we are a little behind,
you know, from other countries. I'm sure that there is

(45:48):
worse in other spaces, but still I feel it on
my skin that we are really behind, you know, when
it comes to disability policy and inclusion.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
You're very right, You're very very right.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
And this is this is a common problem all over
the world, in addition to Romania and in addition to
all the other countries. This is a recurring problem that
I'm hearing about more and more frequently, not less frequently.
So that is a point that needs to be made,
a note made, you know, noted. Yeah, So, being that
I'm a bilingual guy, being that I speak English and French,

(46:25):
and so you know that I love geeking out about
linguistics and language acquisition. So uh, you know, what can
you tell me about your beautiful Romanian language and the ancient.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
Language of of of Romania.

Speaker 5 (46:38):
Mm hmm, yeah, So I love that you are speaking French.
I wanted to, you know, propose to you. Maybe we
can propose to European Blind Union. Maybe we have to
start a radio station here as in you know, in
the United States there are radio stations for a blind

(46:59):
piece people, and you would be a great you know,
starter and a great person who could have his podcasts,
you know, more centered on on European people because you
can adapt so easily. So I don't know if you

(47:21):
you have been born in France or you've learned it
you know by yourself. But Romanian language is a sister
to French language. It's a Latin language. It has also
slav slav Slavic influence, and I love to teach it.

(47:47):
I teach this language to children in my village and
also English language, and uh, it makes me dream in
my own language, you know. All the revelations, all the
questions and restlessness happens in my language, you know, and

(48:13):
the metamorphosis of every thought.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Absolutely absolutely, you're very right.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
The Romanian language, by the way, is an ancient language
that has roots of Latin, Slavonic and what would well
end up becoming other languages. So it's a very It's
one of the oldest languages in the world, you know.
And I graciously accept your offer, by the way, to
say that we should have a some sort of radio

(48:45):
station over in Europe that helps blind people to connect
to podcasts like ours here at Aaron's opinion in many others. Right,
that's a great idea. I will say, over the five
years that we've been on the market in the podcast space, Mariana,
we have had very few listeners from European countries. Actually

(49:06):
mostly Europe has I mean, we have downloads from Europe,
but not many. The majority of the downloads come for
me at least, come from Asia and countries in Africa
and the Middle East and the Americas, in Latin American
places like that. However, Europe has been significantly more reserved

(49:27):
and more shy when it comes to, you know, participating
in the podcast space. And I've consistently noticed that even
I mean I've had some downloads from France, but not many.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
So Europe. You're right, Europe really as a.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
Continent, Europe really needs to step up to the plate
more in the podcast and broadcast space.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
And I think that there's a lot more.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Never mind or to not mention your country for a moment,
but I have observed that many European countries are very
reserved and the people are just more insular and shy,
so in Europe. So I've noticed that fewer people from
Europe are participating in the podcasting space. I mean, there
are podcasts from England there, definitely are there probably are podcasts.

(50:08):
There are podcasts from France and a lot of countries,
but they participate less than we do in America and
the other in the other countries. I have noticed that
as well. Yes, definitely, shortly later today or tomorrow, you
will be added. And I'm sure you have a WhatsApp
number or that you have experienced on WhatsApp, because we

(50:31):
have several communities at Aaron's Opinion for you to join.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
You'll be added. I'll send you information later.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
But there's a group that I will add you into,
and there are many people who have internet radio stations
in that group, and so you would be you would
be very welcomed in those groups and you can definitely
connect with all the other guests and things like that,
and that would be really really good for you. Yeah,
but you're right, there does need to be more more
of an emphasis on the European market. I would certainly

(50:59):
agree with that.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Uh, are there somebody on?

Speaker 1 (51:01):
Are there podcasts? Are there like Romanian podcasts or Romanian
content creators at all who are cited or blind?

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Is there? You know? What do you know about that?

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Yes? There are e cited people there are you know?
Podcasts that I used to listen to, you know, psychologists
and you know about parenting and about you know, education,
but not so much about blind people or people with disabilities.

(51:36):
Maybe there are some bloggers and stuff, but not center
on issues and you know, you know, international collaborations and
and you know, life out of on individual And that's

(52:03):
why I'm saying that we really need to you know,
we don't even speak with blind people from Poland or
you know, last year it's something has started, you know
what one convention, but I've never met people with disabilities
from friends from Denmark, from Sweden, from you know, we

(52:24):
we we are, we don't have we are split it out.
We don't have a parents group here in Europe for
a specific disease. I think we really need we need
to maybe go and maybe rehabilitate ourselves in this space

(52:48):
because you can, you know, go free by using Worldly
Lady card. You know, this is the way we we
go in the EU. So we don't. But I would
really need to find out about other resources and about
other you know, opportunities here. So that's why I'm saying

(53:10):
that we are so we are behind all of this,
so we we know our community. So much, but we
don't know about other communities and people.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
You know, you're very right, and I too have not
really spoken to people with disabilities, and I mean I have,
but only once. There's this French guy that I interviewed
who has a French podcast, and being that I'm a
French speaker, I was able to be on his show
in French and things like that. So you're very right,
there are very There's a tremendous lack of resources around

(53:45):
the European countries. One of the obvious reasons for that
is each country in Europe speaks their own language. So
I mean, I think the reality of it is, you know, say,
for instance, you speak French, if you research these things
in the French language and got into French groups, you
would see that they're probably are groups.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
But you're right, they're not connected to the other countries.
You know.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
I would say, you know, we'll connect later on tomorrow
and things like that, but I would say you should
spend some time connecting with some of my groups and
trying to, you know, connect with some of the groups
that I can get you connected with. But yet at
the same time, the thing that you can continue to
do is educate people keep speaking up and keep going
to podcasts and things like that. So yeah, have you

(54:29):
ever tried to contact any cited podcasters like in your
country and say.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
Hey, look, you know, your name's Mariana.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
You have a story, you know, have you ever tried
to reach out to media in your country?

Speaker 5 (54:40):
Of course, of course, and I have contacted media, not
in a very maybe a joyful way. I mean when
trying to make a change in our universities, I had
to make a letter to the press and saying about
you know, issues in our universities. So you know, this

(55:03):
was the the way. I mean, media is very helpful. Media.
Media should not use people, but we should use media.
So that's that's why I really believe I have a
basic course in journalism and interviewing people, and I really
think g for media for for this opportunity. But I

(55:26):
understand that I have to be present. I have to
uh to invite media in our disability events. I should
invite journalists in you know, in our activities. I have
to promote and to give a voice to disability through media.

(55:49):
And uh, those journalists who say, okay, she doesn't want
only to give a critique opinion, but she wants to
say about real some realities. You know, they are those
journalists that I want to talk to. You know, I

(56:11):
I value this field and we we really need media
in our lives.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
Yeah, we really, we really do. You know.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
So when people try to get news in Romania, you know,
what are the choices for media in your country? Where
do people get their information from in Romania?

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (56:34):
So, you know, the older generations, they used to watch
the TV, mostly even in my family. So even I
have this kind of talking to my dad and he says, oh,
why do you do you get the news on written websites?

(56:57):
You don't you have to be present on TV. But
I said, oh, I don't have so much patient to
listen to all of that. But he says, you know
it's live, everything is over there. So you know, I
try to get the information in a quicker way, you know.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Both.

Speaker 5 (57:11):
I would say that the younger generations prefer, you know,
getting that news online, specifically you know, on TikTok they are,
they prefer TikTok. I don't prefer TikTok. I'm not a
tictorical user. I am more classical. I'm using only a

(57:32):
Facebook page and that's all. But I try to to
read quality news. I try to analyze the information and
try to take what resonates with me and not to
make a conclusion very quick.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Sure, sure, you want to make sure that you get
all the information about a case before you, you know,
before you pass judgment or things like that.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
Yeah, that's really interesting.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
I'm absolutely and I think that everybody's a little bit
different about that. I mean, also, Instagram too, is a
major source for spreading news and spreading information as well.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
Yeah, or are you on Instagram? By the way, No,
I'm not. That's okay, that's all right.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Well, Facebook is also incredibly powerful too, So yeah, so
where have you traveled to outside of Romania?

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Have you been to the States before?

Speaker 5 (58:25):
By the way, Oh my god, you're you're you're putting
me the question that really hurts and makes me happy
the most, you know, because I want to be there.
I want to, uh to spend the family weekend there.
I want to you know, visit New York. I want

(58:47):
to visit some states and spend the time with local people,
with you know, farmers, and try to attend the university
course disability studies. You know, have you ever heard about
this field?

Speaker 3 (59:03):
It.

Speaker 5 (59:05):
So it's an that many countries don't know about. And
you know, I've tried for about three years to apply.
I was a semi finalist for a full Bright Romanian
American full Bright commission in Romania. It's called so three

(59:25):
times I've tried to apply for public policy master's degree,
but I was only a finalist. So you know, guys,
if you know about any other opportunity, just let me
know and send into the comments. Because I want to
to build myself in this country. I want to to

(59:51):
leave and bring something to my to my own country
and make some changes for the future generations.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Yeah, you're so, You're so right, You're so right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
So after studying you know, you know, Romanian literature, British literature,
after having these degrees and studying this, you know what
what are whether you're blind or cited? What are the
job opportunities in Romania? Is there a tremendous lack of
employment in Romania? What are some of the what are
some of those issues in Romania?

Speaker 10 (01:00:24):
You know, I am a girl who you know, was
like first generation of guide dog users, you know me,
we had only fifty dogs guide dogs for the blind
people in Romania and we are only.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
One hundred thousand blind people in Romania living here. So
I was maybe not in the university, but regarding employment,
it was very hard for me because I didn't want
to go again in the special school for the blind.

(01:01:07):
There are cited people who used to work there and
other people who you know, they are feeling very comfortable
by doing that. But you know, after graduating from university,
I could become you know, a Romanian an English teacher
for the secondary and post secondary school. I chose not

(01:01:34):
to do because we haven't had updated our manuals, our
school books since maybe twenty years ago. This is I've
read on the news. So I said, I don't want

(01:01:56):
to send and to repeat same informations. We you know, experts,
educational experts are trying and they are working to establish
a new curriculum, a new you know, to reimagine the
programs here because you know, pandemic moved and changed a

(01:02:17):
lot from what and who we are, and I I've
tried to look after jobs in various fields. First of all,
I wanted to say, hey, I've lived a lot into
the disability with with people with disabilities. I want to
live in a world and in a job where I

(01:02:39):
am surrounded with cited people. And I've tried to work
in a you know, in call centers, in libraries, in
you know, uh schools, but you know private schools. M hm,

(01:03:01):
those schools right to search for jobs. I've been to many,
many interviews, but they've never seen a blind person before.
So is it? So?

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
I mean, what what I'm understanding is in Romania, you're
you're giving the impression, and I think I understand it,
and I sort of know this already, but I'm wanting you,
as the Romanian.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
To say it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
So basically, in Romania, is it fair for me to
say that they don't really hire blind people?

Speaker 4 (01:03:29):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
Is that a fair statement for me to make?

Speaker 5 (01:03:32):
Yes? Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
So this is this is the thing which the reason
why I'm saying it is that this is also a
problem in other countries. When you simply refuse to hire
a group of people, then the problem can never be solved.
So until they change, and until they start hiring people
with disabilities, then nothing will change in Romania. Then Romania

(01:03:56):
will be the same.

Speaker 5 (01:03:58):
Absolutely, because we organization don't request for more, people don't
request for more, you know about you know, we don't
have disability experts. The only thing that we have ability
mainly is psycho pedagogy, which is you know, being a

(01:04:19):
general a general special educator. It's something between psychology and pedagogy.
But nothing regarding you know, rehabilitation counseling, nothing about you know,
accessibility specialists. You know, in the Union we are talking
about universities and what they are delivering, right, we don't

(01:04:43):
have this specialization in orientation and mobility which other countries.
You know, this job is on the earth since the
First World War two, sorry, the Second.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
World you're very since World War two exactly. Yes, So.

Speaker 5 (01:05:07):
That's why I'm saying that, you know, they're trying to progress.
So yesterday I've readden news that they will do for
one year in Bucharest. Here at the university, they will
have for one year course uh authorizing interpreter for the death.

(01:05:29):
You know, you will have the chance to go there
and study sign language for one year only sign language.
You know, because when you are trying to learn about
disabilities here you all the disabilities are taught in a
single curriculum. You know, it's nothing related to a single disability. Okay,

(01:05:51):
I understand there is something to be taught generally, but
you have to get your expertise in a in a
thing disability if you want to work towards this disability,
if you want to help those people in the future
in your career. As you you know you have in
the United States, you have specifical technology instructors. You have

(01:06:14):
only for the blind people. I'm saying, you have, you
have O and M instructors, you have UH speech therapy,
you have you know, occupational therapy. Here. They are starting
to bring this new specializations or concentrations into our universities.

(01:06:38):
But I think that it's a long way. It's a
long way to you know, to see that that happening.
I mean, as a person, you know, with the blind,
I didn't get something when I should have had two.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Unfortunately, one of the other things that happens when you
refuse to hire a group of people is eventually that
group of people You're obviously not in this group, but
the majority, you know. Probably the saddest and the most
frustrating thing of all of this is if you, Mariana,
were to ask other blind people in Romania if they

(01:07:29):
really want to work or if they really don't want
to work, probably they would say, well, I don't know
because nobody will hire me. And that that affects the
psyche of a group of people. When you tell people
they can't do it, then they believe it. Eventually it
becomes true. As we say, if you say that your friend,
let's say you have a friend named let's say you

(01:07:51):
have a friend named Peter, and everybody's been telling you, oh, Peter,
Peter believes all these things. He tells lies. He's been
telling lies his whole life. And then I would tell you, Mariana,
Peter never tells lies. Peter only tells the truth. If
you believe a lie long enough, it is true. So
the problem, So that's the psyche, that's the how that works.
The blind people and the people with disabilities in Romania

(01:08:14):
have been told no so many times that they believe
that they really can't. And so not only is it
a social issue of demanding employment, but it's a psychological barrier.
And the problem is it's very hard to undo psychological damage.

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
And this has been proven in every country.

Speaker 5 (01:08:32):
Yes, true, it's true, but it's it's it's about how
you think your impossibility is. For example, I'm talking about
you know, I'm talking from my self experience I break
the eyes into you know, try that I can do more.

(01:08:52):
So I had a short period of time I had
the job in a big corporation. I love everything that
happened there. I've never seen more technology than I you know,
even in my house, even in my university, I've never
seen so much technology and so much you know, movement
and dynamic and you know progress, and you know they

(01:09:15):
were trying to you know, h help h employers develop
their skills and their abilities their I mean, I love
the corporate environment. I hoped in this field in the
future because why I want to take I want to

(01:09:40):
first of all, I want to have an English job.
I want to to get the management skills so I
can really transfer that to public policy in the future.
This is my my dream.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
I was.

Speaker 5 (01:09:57):
I was not planning that I wanted to be become
a teacher from the very beginning. But you know, so
many issues that I have to talk about, and you know,
it became a passion, and you know, it's between you know,
it's about even though it's pain and pleasure, but it's

(01:10:20):
also my way, you know, and we know better what
we what we what our needs are. Nobody knows than ourselves.
What we need, you know. So this is the way.
You know, many people gave up. Of course, many people says,
oh what should I do? They you know, they work

(01:10:44):
in you know, during the communism, they were trying to
do brushes and to you know work, they were doing boxes,
they were they were having a job, you know. But
since ninety nineties they were left they Yeah, now nobody
gave them a chance. Nobody, nobody made a vocational or

(01:11:07):
rehabilitation program that uh, you know, could change their mind,
could change their uh way of thinking and see the future.
So again we need we need to hear about people
that do things differently, that work in different jobs, you know,

(01:11:29):
accepting the the physiotherapy, massage and you know, being in
a special education. I love these people. They know what
to do. They are our best coach and trainers and
vocational rehabilitation specialists. They you know, our peers. They can

(01:11:49):
make it for us. But if we want to overcome
our condition, we uh, we need an extra support from
our society, from corporations, from you know, different institutions, from
our government. So this is how I think I'm still learning.

(01:12:16):
I don't know many things. You know. For example, disability
is something that I would be love to become a researcher.
So one of my questions would be, what is really
happiness for people with disabilities? You know, you know, happiness
could be when you play a sport, or you do things,

(01:12:37):
or you meditate. You but how is it like to
be a happy person, to have options, to be free
to go? Because here, more than forty percent of the
people leave their home. You know, I'm one of them.
I'm here in my village, I'm trying to look for

(01:13:00):
a job and still I'm applying, and I'm disappointed. I
feel this. You know that after after, maybe after I
will be thirty, nobody will hire me because you know,
they were saying, but what did you do during this time?

Speaker 3 (01:13:18):
What?

Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
How many? How many you know, certifications? Should should you get?
Until you will be there? Until you will be you
know question?

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
The thing is the thing about living is we never
you never stop learning. And that's a very subtle and
very important thing learning. Learning just never stops. Okay, I
agree with you. You should definitely continue doing research. One
of the things that I would do. And and when

(01:13:50):
you speak to the other guests, which soume when you're
in the WhatsApp, when you're in our communities are private
communities that are in opinion, you'll certainly be able to
talk to all the other guests from all the other countries.
Certainly not now, not every guest who's been on the
show is in the WhatsApp, obviously, but many of them are.

Speaker 3 (01:14:06):
And you'll find that not only are.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
The stories that they tell you very similar in some
ways to what you are going through, just in a
different way, you'll also find that they will give you
other ideas. And one of my ideas is you you
should set up some way for you, Mariana, to reach
out to other people with disabilities, simply in Romania and say, look,
you're going to start interviewing them about their life, and

(01:14:29):
you're going to start doing blog posts about it, and
start getting the word out obviously posting in Romanian and
educating other Romanians so that they start to really get
that there needs to be changed. Because one of the
other many issues is I don't think anybody in Romania,
except for well you, many people in your society do

(01:14:50):
not even understand that there needs to be changed. See,
so it's not only about the fact that they don't
allow people with disabilities to work it's that they don't
understand that a change is a necessity. So there's a
lot of a lot of moving parts and a lot
of ingredients here.

Speaker 3 (01:15:08):
Hold on, hold on just one moment.

Speaker 5 (01:15:12):
Absolutely, absolutely, I really agree with what you're saying. And
but one once again, it's a very gam because youth
have never interacted with old people. And some of us

(01:15:36):
do know how to use technology. Some of our don't
used to. You know, there are some small associations who
are trying to do rehabilitation, but they can't even cover
a big city.

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
There we learn, we teach ourselves, we teach each other, sorry,
as as blind people. But when when we will be
having maybe a national convention as you would have every
year in the United States, you know, you have a

(01:16:13):
convention for blind people a c B. And they do
that because I'm reading maybe they could hear a message
from someone stronger than me. I'm doing. I'm asking and requesting,
and you know, maybe I'm not doing that in a
very diplomatic and polite way because I was not very

(01:16:36):
well thought to press it, you know. I And but
I'm including, I'm including, I make sure to include everybody,
because you say we are still learning and this is
the most fascinating thing about life. But you know, we

(01:16:58):
are learning because we want to. But what happens when
we will learn after there you know, one mistake, or
when we don't want to learn, you know, this is
this is my my, my question, because learning sometimes it

(01:17:21):
doesn't come from curiosity, it comes from experience. So this
is the most painful learning. I have a lot of ideas,
you know, as I told you, I'm involved in the
disability communities. And that's why I want to be involved,
involved from outside of the community, not from inside, because

(01:17:43):
I've tried doing things from inside and they don't have
the ability to think out of the box outside. That's hard, Yeah, exactly,
they're afraid. So I tried. Let me tell you what,
I uh what I you know, what worked for me?

(01:18:06):
It was to find the people who think like me
and to create a small association. We are three blind
people and one in the wheelchair. She is our bigger sister.
She has a lot of experience, because you don't need

(01:18:28):
to have only the disability experience. You have to have
a lot of you know, some working experience to do something.
So as I, as you're told in the very beginning,
we are trying to bring a new perspective to train
students at the University of Law. And after that we

(01:18:51):
want to set a subject a subject a course about
disability international and national uh legal framework UH. And in
the end we hope that we could have disability attorneys
so that can they they can speak individually to those

(01:19:17):
people about their issues, so that they could be reached
more easily, so that they could you know, the law
could be there. There could be a better follow up
when it comes to law and change and you know
who is who is the you know, following the the

(01:19:42):
politics here in Romania. These disability lawyers who could have
a voice, you know, they could they could work with
organizations that they could work with the people and individuals.
So that's why I'm saying that it's you know, it's
about opportunities and those people in my community, I think

(01:20:09):
that they need a lot of meetings with the international
people to understand what is outside of Romania, what is
outside of the world, sorry, outside of our country when
it comes to accessibility, when it comes to inclusion and

(01:20:29):
job opportunities and rehabilitations and social life, adulthood life, because okay,
our country is offering us our basic rights, our you know,
and all the rights that we can have as a
person with disabilities. Education, you know, benefits, you know, to

(01:20:52):
travel free around the country. But what happens with our
activity after we graduate from school, well, thank you for us.
When what happens with this person off keep.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
She you know, there's no there's no real plan for
the future. There's when it comes down to it, there's
no true plan in Romania.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:18):
Yeah, Well, Mariana, I wanted to kind of just tell
you that I agree with everything we've covered today. You
have done a absolutely spectacular job. Whether you whether you
agree with me or not, I can promise you that
this episode will be tremendously impactful around the world, and

(01:21:39):
I commit to that. I will certainly be trying to
get your word out to people who care. It can
also be very hard to find other people who care
as much as you and I care, but I will
certainly do everything in my power to make sure that
the right people listen to your knowledge, because you're you're
a sense of of tremendous knowledge that is really unheard of,

(01:22:03):
and I mean that I've encountered very few people who
are this knowledgeable. And from whether you're Romanian or not.
I've encountered very few blind people who have this level
of knowledge and ability that you obviously have. And you've
spent a tremendous amount of time focusing on yourself just
being a successful you, and that's truly what stands out

(01:22:24):
to me. I do want to say that I would
like to wrap up the conversation, but before we do,
I certainly want to ask you, so, what are some
questions you have for me, Mariana. You know, as I
always like to say, as you know, I always like
to say, considering you're a great listener, if you can
ask me only one question to really make me speak,

(01:22:46):
to see if I'm worth myself as a podcaster, what
do you, Mariana Barboo want.

Speaker 3 (01:22:50):
To ask me.

Speaker 5 (01:22:52):
I want to say first of all that I felt
really comfortable here. I was very excited. I don't know
if I was using the perfect English.

Speaker 3 (01:23:03):
For you know, for your English, and uh.

Speaker 5 (01:23:10):
I want to say that I want you to come
to you know, as I said, come and present something
a program in in the EU. You are a French speaker.
I don't know. Maybe in the future I will write
to European Blind Union and they are also based in France,
so maybe we can do something more. We can bring

(01:23:33):
those European people together and you know, your your podcast
would be broadcasted more more in this space where I'm living.
And yeah, I don't have any questions, but only one
question that I'm still searching for. You know what is

(01:24:00):
what is in your view the happiness for people with disabilities?

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
You know, I think what really needs I think what
really needs to happen is for people with disabilities, whether
you're blind or not, for for well, for one thing,
for people, for people to be happy one of there's
many things that they need to do, but the two
or three main ones that have been studied extensively is

(01:24:26):
you need to have friends, you need to have social connection,
and you need to have an important role within your
community where you live, regardless of where you live. So
those are those are two things that actually have to
happen before employment, before you before you can make money
and earn a living, you need to have social connection
and you need to have a place within your within
your community.

Speaker 3 (01:24:44):
To be happy.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
So that's what we need to happen. Is It's the
other thing is, yes, the things everything needs to change.
You know, many things need to change in your country,
the first of which is that they need to I.

Speaker 3 (01:24:57):
Don't really know past some sort of law that would
say that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:01):
Blind people need to work and need to be allowed
to work, rather than what is happening is rather than
just draining the government of funds, it would be you know,
one of the things that you can do is to certainly,
with your knowledge, you can make the argument that it
would be economically economically healthy for Romania if they employ

(01:25:21):
people with disabilities. You know, you need you need to
show that when you employ people, you're actually helping the economy,
that that that the country's economy becomes healthier over time.
So these are all of the things that need to happen,
slowly but surely. So that's what I think, you know,
if you think about what is happiness, and we would

(01:25:43):
also say that, you know, blind people need to, yes,
need to have social connection like a podcast or social
media like you and I have. Right, they need to
have a role or a position within their community like
you and I have. And they need to try to
have some sense of employment. And then the other true
intrinsic and truly intellectual answer and philosophical answer is that

(01:26:07):
the entire collective of our lifetime is the search of happiness.
Meaning if we truly knew the truth, if we truly
knew the meaning of happiness, then that would be the
end of life. So that's the answer, is that there's
some there's some concrete things, there's some organic things.

Speaker 3 (01:26:25):
That needs to happen. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
You need to have friends, you need to have a
place within there in your community.

Speaker 3 (01:26:31):
You need to have a job.

Speaker 1 (01:26:32):
Romania needs to needs to demand that people with disabilities
are employed, and all of a sudden, the economy of
that country will grow because there's a there's a lot
to be said for when when people are working for
one thing, they're a lot more productive, they contribute to
the society, and they also.

Speaker 3 (01:26:49):
Agree with the government more.

Speaker 1 (01:26:51):
By the way, when people have jobs, there are a
lot more likely to agree with the administration and the
regime of a country. Yet, outside of all of that,
what you can do is keep talking about this podcast,
keep trying to connect with other Romanian creators, and keep
trying to just continue to do the right thing, because
you're certainly on the right path. You are, you are

(01:27:12):
far you're far more ahead of the game than you
ever realize.

Speaker 3 (01:27:15):
And you're more ahead than you would ever know.

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
And I wish that other blind people had this level
of intellect, in this level of determination. And we will
certainly be thinking about this in Aaron's opinion, and certainly
getting the word out to the most loyal listeners who
will truly.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
Love having you within the community. At Aaron's opinion and
things like that. But that's me.

Speaker 1 (01:27:36):
That's Aaron's opinion, and that's what I really think about happiness.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
And she's and she's.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
Madiana Barboo from a beautiful country in Romania.

Speaker 3 (01:27:45):
Okay, there you go. That's the story. Thanks so much. Okay,
so what else do you want to know?

Speaker 1 (01:27:51):
And by the way, if someone if someone wants to
get in touch with this Madiana Barboo, how can they
get in touch with the Madiana Barboo? Apart from just
sending you a message on Facebook m hm.

Speaker 5 (01:28:01):
Of course, they can be in touch with me on
email and Facebook, even in WhatsApp of course, after we
talk a little bit. I'm so happy to make friends.
It's about social safety and uh, you know this is
I'm I'm resonating with your thoughts and we really need friends,

(01:28:22):
we really need interactions, We really need groups. And I'm
so thankful for all of those people who are trying
to to contact me after the podcast. I'll be so
blessed to to find out about other countries and yeah,
why not visit each other and you know, try to

(01:28:46):
inspire and try to you know, h do maybe projects together.
You know, I'm very sociable, I'm very open, and please
do and try to you know, even write down in
the comments. I'm getting back to you. I'm going to
follow this, you know podcast, and you know, all the

(01:29:07):
people who are coming and helping this community to grow,
I will.

Speaker 3 (01:29:12):
Be here, you know, yeah, absolutely, so good, so good.

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
Well, we'll certainly put your description in the link below
and all of that. All I can say is, Mariano Barbu,
I could not have asked for a better conversation from Romania.

Speaker 3 (01:29:30):
You are the first person.

Speaker 1 (01:29:31):
I think you're certainly the first person from Romania to
be on this podcast. You're probably one of the first
Romanians to be on an English language podcast. I don't know,
although probably if you research it, you would find that
there are others from Eastern European countries, but probably few
and far between. So you you are, you are more,

(01:29:52):
you are more ahead than as I said a moment ago,
you're more ahead than you realize, and you're more of
a leader than you would have you would have ever thought.
So that's that's what I can tell you that apparently
you're a leader, whether you want to be or not,
Apparently you're the leader. So so we'll certainly, we'll certainly
be we'll certainly be keeping in touch. So without further ado,
I just want to say that again, this is Aaron's opinion.

(01:30:15):
She's Marianna Barbou. And do you want to give the
since I know you know the slogan, do you want
to say the slogan that we say at the end, Yeah,
you do one? Oh, please say it, Please say it? Okay,
So thank you and as we say, you're at Aaron's opinion, Okay,
say it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:26):
Go.

Speaker 5 (01:30:27):
Thank you for being in Aaron's opinion. Subscribe to the channel,
and please help us grow, help you know, help us
get our daily inspiration. This is a very energetic so
do belong.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
Well, thank you so much, and of course until next time,
whether we talk to Romania or not, next time, until
next time, help one person today, goodbye, in touch this
guy that's adorable, Goodbye, goodbye. So for you, you would say

(01:31:07):
goodbye and touch the sky. I would say, I love that.
Oh that's gonna be in the title. That's gonna be
in the title. That's adorable. Okay, that's that cracks me up.

Speaker 3 (01:31:17):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:18):
Okay, so fine, So goodbye, touch the sky and of course,
help one person today, help one million people tomorrow. You've
been listening to Goodbye and Touch the Sky with Mariana
Barbie right here on the Erin's Opinion podcast, the podcast
for blind people where we speak about critical issues in
the blindness community and all other issues from across the universe,

(01:31:38):
galaxy and Romania. Mariana Barbo you today, magnificent job, all
the way from Romania, and you are going to be
an incredible an incredible friend.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
Here in the Aerons Opinion family. We'll get back to
you in a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:31:52):
One two four zero six eight one nine eighty six
nine one two four zero six eight one nine eight
six nine. Aaron's Opinion six at gmail dot com, aarnsop
i n Ion six at gmail dot com. Don't forget
about that public WhatsApp community, Aaron's Opinion podcasting community and
the private Facebook group Aaron's Opinion podcasting community at Aaron's

(01:32:12):
Opinion on Instagram. Go ahead and join it.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
If you want to be in the discord server or
the email list, please do let me know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:17):
Don't forget about writing, don't forget about liking, following, and
writing a review of the Facebook page Eron's Opinion podcast. Remember,
as I always like to say, the only way for
somebody else to find out about the important work we
do is for you at home to rate and review,
rate and review.

Speaker 3 (01:32:32):
That's the kind thing to do. We always do like
to say that.

Speaker 1 (01:32:35):
Don't forget to be rating and reviewing on Apple where
most of you do listen, or whatever platform you're listening on.

Speaker 3 (01:32:40):
That doesn't matter. We're just glad you listen. Don't forget.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
We want to take this time to thank this week's
download contest. As I said, Serbia and Canada, you guys
switch places on US here, United States. Thank you Serbia
in second place, Thank you in Canada, Oh, Canada in
third place today for this week's download contest.

Speaker 3 (01:32:57):
So thank you for that.

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
Remember, if you want me to say you're that means
that you need you need to download this and many
other episodes of Aaron's opinion to make sure that your
country gets all the way into the chart and all
the way to the top of the download chart. It's
quite competitive. You know, it's a big world. So keep
listening and keep downloading, and thank you. Don't forget about
joining us on Patreon if you do like to do that,
and don't forget about following along on.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
TikTok if you also like to do that. Don't forget
about following on, following along on x.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
And of course the YouTube channel Aaron's Opinion TV. Don't
forget about subscribing to that channel, because I don't know
many of you like to watch the videos, probably if
you're cited. The videos are actually more exciting because you
can see things and that actually is more dynamic. So
Aaron's Opinion TV on YouTube, don't forget about liking the
video and commenting below and subscribing so you'll never miss
an update and you'll never you'll never miss another another

(01:33:45):
video when we premiere the video on the channel.

Speaker 3 (01:33:47):
When the videos premiere on the channel, that's the.

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
Same time they will be available to you in your
podcast player of choice. Thank you, Mariana Barboo from Romania.
Thank you so much from my heart to yours, you
did an absolutely magnificent job. And don't ever say that
your English is not good enough. That excuse will never fly.
Your English is magnificent, and you have you have a

(01:34:10):
truly endearing You have an endearing, warm and fascinating personality
that I want to make sure our listeners from around
the world can keep learning from your beautiful wisdom. And
just you just have a beautiful personality. And we're just
we're just appreciative and grateful that you're that your personality
can be part of the Erin's Opinion family. So keep
educating people, and keep keep practicing your your your beautiful

(01:34:33):
languages that you speak and all of that. And of course,
Mariiana Barbou, from my heart to yours here at Aaron's Opinion,
You're forever welcome in the Eron's Opinion family.

Speaker 3 (01:34:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:34:44):
We want to take this time to thank all the
other podcasts and radio stations for continuing to download and
play Aaron's Opinion or sharing the message each week. Whenever
you do, we couldn't do it without you. And thank
you to all the other guests, past, present and future
who continue to share knowledge with us each week or
whenever you come to the podcast, so thank you. We
couldn't do it without you either. And of course least

(01:35:06):
but not last, or last but not least, however you
like to say it, thank you to you at home,
the listener, the downloader, whoever you are out there in
the United States, Serbia, Canada, many other countries. Thank you
so much for downloading this and many other episodes of
Aaron's Opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
We know, I know you know.

Speaker 1 (01:35:26):
There are millions of choices out there in that podcast catalog,
and we thank you for choosing Aeron's Opinion. There will
be a lot of exciting stuff right around the corner,
so don't forget. We'll be back soon, and of course,
thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:35:41):
Everybody. Have a great day.

Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
And as Mariana would like to say, goodbye and touch
the sky, but as I like to say, you're listening
to the Aeron's Opinion podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
My name is Aaren Richmond. We will be back soon.

Speaker 1 (01:35:53):
Have a great day, everybody, and of course, help one
person today, help one million people.

Speaker 3 (01:35:59):
Too much Row

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