I am originally from Glodeni, a pretty small town in the North of Moldova, currently its population is about 5000 people, maybe less. Because I only spent there full 6 years, in this assignment I will focus on Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, where I have been living for the past 16 years. Chisinau is a pretty small capital with its population under 1 million and it is the only relatively big city in the country. My assumption is that none of you will travel to Chișinău in the near future. BUT IF YOU WERE TO TRAVEL TO Chișinău IN THE NEAR FUTURE, below are three emojis that will help you learn a think or two about Chișinău prior to your potential visit.
What do my emojis mean and why are they related to Chisinau
Babushka
In Russian, babushka means grandma. While there are already emojis depicting older women, supposedly grandmas, there are no babushkas and I would argue that the two are different. A babushka, in a colloquial sense, is not only defined as an older woman that has children whose children have children. In a broader sense, it depicts a woman – born and educated during the soviet times, that found new meanings in Orthodoxy following the collapse of the USSR. Babushkas are lovely and sweet and their scarfs represent their humbleness. Among other responsibilities and skills, babushkas are able to cook 7 meals with only two potatoes, are really unhappy with the ways in which teens behave, have strong political opinions, and are involved in the formation of the all encompassing babushka-public-opinion. Everyone knows about babushkas and has babushka related stories. I, myself, had many babushkas shouting at me in public places in Chisinau. This is why, in my opinion, having a babushka emoji is a must. They don’t only embody the idea of communication, they also, due to the massive migration, found themselves obliged to become proficient Skype users, which places them as the pioneers of both communication and technology.
Chirtoacă
I am not entirely sure how I produced the third emoji. It was at a moment of despair (1AM) when I downloaded this caricature and uploaded it to the illustrator. The said caricature is of our ex mayor that I believe is currently under home arrest. He is important for Chisinau, firstly because he lead it for years, and secondly because he did that in a notoriously inefficient way. He has been “memefied” years ago, however not for his actions. He became a meme because the opposition always tried to blame everything on him. An itemised list of things he has been accused of includes – the fact that we did not have a president for over 1000 days, high prices, low salaries, global warming, collapse of USSR, communism, etc. As a result, in popular culture, whenever someone asks who is guilty/to blame? People in Chisinau answer – “Chirtoacă îi di jină”, which is the phonetic version of a sentence that translates as “it is Chirtoacă’s fault/Chirtoaca is guilty”.
I believe that making a real person an emoji is problematic. I decided to nevertheless still keep this due to the fact that what has been memefied is not his persona, but mainly the opposition’s attitude towards his actions.
USD1 billion emoji
In 2015 it became clear that Moldova suffered a massive bank fraud. One billion dollars, or ⅛ of our GDP, has vanished from the banks. Ever since then, everyone is asking the same question: “Unde-i miliardul” or “where is the billion”. This is the the only explanation for the emoji.
The money is still lost, but we are looking for it. The emoji can not bring the money back, but it can make us feel slightly better about it (?).
My friend’s response:
I sent the initial version to my brother, who currently resides in Romania, and one of my closest friends, who currently lives in the Netherlands. Their feedback to the initial emojis, portrayed below, was as follows:
- Babushka – her scarf has to be more colourful, to better depict the look.
- Chirtoaca – adding some colour, maybe blue, the colour of his party, could make it more interesting.
- USD1 billion emoji – make it in Romanian and present it in the form of the question.
The second wave of feedback
I showed the emojis to other two friends, studying in France and the UK. They told me that my emojis made them homesick.
I wanted to learn ages ago how to use Illustrator so I decided to try to learn it for this assignment. It is worth saying that I underestimated how time consuming this would be but I now know a few commands (and even shortcuts).
Overall, this assignment made me think a lot about my home and things I appreciate and dislike about it.