WALL PANEL

A panel for ideological publicity hanging on the wall facing the entrance door of every institution, under the eyes of all comrades coming in or going out. It included a printed article cut out from the ?Scanteia? paper and another one on issues related to the production in that particular unit. In the middle of the panel there was also a special area for the photos (ID card size) of the best working employees. Most of the times they were mainly informers and idlers under Party protection. Rarely, there was also some truly good working employee featuring among them. The caption under these photos read: ?Honor be to them!? The up-dating of the panel was the task of the cultural methodologist of the Syndicate.

At a pub near a construction site (there was one next to any work place) where the workmen drank most of their salary, there was a panel facing the entrance door, too, which read: ?Drunk persons will not be waited on!? Someone added: ?Honor be to them!? (51)

There was a wall panel in every school. It was meant to stimulate the pupils. The photos were accompanied by short resumes of the children or simply by their names. It was divided into two columns: school results and discipline. The two were on the same par. Discipline as they understood it meant numbness and lack of initiative.

In our class the model of good behavior was Spalatelu Laura, who was incapable of the slightest stir, she?d only sit there on her seat, both during courses and breaks. That?s why she was a regular of the ?discipline? column on the wall panel. Later we found out she was mentally deranged, and even had to be interned for a while. The case was paradigmatic, that was what they looked for, ataractic individuals who would do exactly what the system told them to, because it was the system that did the thinking for everybody. This was the ideal subject, this was the ?new man?. And this was the aim of such exaggerated valorization of discipline.

Besides the wall panel there were also several other panels displaying various works of the pupils: poetry about the country and its people, drawings featuring the peace dove and the diplomas won at communist children contests. (C. B., 44)

The water supply could be interrupted at any time. Then, all that came from the tap was  dirt. Generally, water had no pressure.