Why is it read so little in the Republic of Moldova?
PAS deputy Angela Muntean-Pojoga and the Minister of Culture Sergiu Prodan spoke the other day about a legislative initiative, namely that February 14 should become the National Reading Day. The deputy and the minister spoke about the need to encourage reading and the tradition of reading in the family, stressed the connection between the passion for reading and the economic situation, told us that those who read are more empathetic and better, so reading could reduce violence in society. The two government officials want a cult of reading among children, lamented functional illiteracy, which is more pronounced here than in other countries, and called for the urgent need for reading to heal societies and promised to help libraries and publishers. I have the impression that it is the most serious step in support of reading in recent years here or maybe even since 1991. The initiative is commendable and we hope it will materialize in concrete things. But in order to boost our love of reading, we need to understand why we haven’t read much here so far…
Poverty is a major impediment. In our conditions the book and often a luxury item. In the province, where it is very difficult to reopen bookstores, people mostly buy cheap books. People in the province do not have much access to books and there are not many who would popularize the book and reading. Village libraries are often poor, and librarians and teachers are poorly paid. I had the opportunity to talk to some Romanian literature teachers from the villages who confessed to me that they can’t read either, overwhelmed by worries. But how many books are in kindergartens in our villages?
And there’s something else. It leaves much to be desired the status of the reader, of the man who reads. That the two officials want a cult of reading is wonderful, but in the collective mind and very strong the cult of things, and the car is considered more important than the book. So there are big issues that he governs, eager to make reading prestigious and popular, he will have to overcome them. Will he succeed?