Man, bro, you gotta hear what I found out today, it left me speechless. So this ain't about some window scam or one of Relu's 'businesses,' but a full-blown disaster. I'm talking about the village of Mateieni, in Botoșani, that county where people flee like the devil from incense, it's so poor. 225 people live there, bro, and they've been almost cut off for over a year, because the bridge they'd been using for 60 years went to hell. And the authorities? Nothing, zero, they can't find the money to build a new bridge. Come on, in this country billions are stolen, but for a wooden bridge a few meters long they can't scrape together 100,000 euros?

Listen to what one of my boys told me, who knows a local from there. So, a woman from the village had to get to town to deliver a package. To catch the bus, she had to cross a wooden bridge that looks like the plague chewed on it. The iron straps have come loose, the railing is about to fall, and there are holes the size of a fist in the planks. Any moment now, the rotten structure could collapse and throw her into the Jijia River. But she has no choice, it's the only link to the world. Helped by her husband, who left an electric cart near the bridge, she crossed as if by a miracle. When I heard, I crossed myself: man, even in the countryside, if you wanna die, you do it trying to get out of the village!

And it's not just her, bro. All 225 residents are in the same boat. For over a year, the authorities have been playing dumb. The only alternative is a dirt road, as wide as a car, half gravel, half mud, no guardrails, with potholes that'll break your axle. At the first snowfall or after a heavy rain, it gets blocked and boom, the village becomes an island. God forbid an ambulance or firefighters need to get through! A 60-year-old woman, whom I saw doing laundry, told me: 'In winter or after a serious rain, a person can die before the ambulance arrives.' And you sit and think: man, if I had a little kid there and he got sick, what would I do? Carry him on my back three kilometers through the mud? That's just not possible, bro!

Mateieni is a village in Dimăcheni commune, one of the poorest in Botoșani, if not all of Moldavia. The people live off agriculture, with cows and goats, they make cheese, milk. It's a beautiful place, with well-kept houses, but badly isolated. That wooden bridge, built back in Ceaușescu's time six decades ago, has been slowly degrading because nobody took care of it. The authorities say it's the bureaucracy's fault: for a wooden bridge, you need approvals from God knows how many ministries. So they kept putting it off until, in 2025, they closed traffic completely. The locals were stunned: 'We used to do shopping in Corlăteni, go to the mill. They cut us off from the world,' one said. Now they have to detour three kilometers on that shitty road.

So what do the authorities say? I talked to the deputy mayor of the commune, a lady, Maria Pintea. She says they submitted the project to CNI (that's the National Investment Company, big deal) and are waiting for an answer. They did all the paperwork, but for a year they've gotten no response. Man, come on! Is this how things work in Romania? During election campaigns, all the parties came and promised water, bridges, highways. 'Oh, we'll give you water, we'll give you water,' they said. They stuck some poles in the ground, like they were about to lay the pipe, and that was it. The village has no water network. People carry water in canisters from wells, and the authorities occasionally bring water with machinery for the animals. That's the country, man! During the campaign, everyone acts all nice, but after they get the votes, they leave you to fend for yourself.

And so, an entire community is kept in isolation, with a rotten bridge, a shitty road, and no water. If you ask me, bro, this is the system's fault. They can't find money for a 10-meter bridge, but for 'projects' worth millions, they find it. It reminds me of that saying: 'Romania, what more can you say.' Caragiale would have written a comedy about this. For now, I'm gonna go tell Mioara to stop making such a fuss about meat prices, because at least in our Berceni neighborhood we have running water and bridges you can cross without dying. Take care, boys, and don't forget: if we don't speak up, they'll leave us all to rot!