A Youtube video with nearly ten thousand views, which seems to reference other videos from instagram or bytedance, is calling a local bakery a “Cult.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGGAgRSUq5E
The title of the video is “Cluj Napoca are une Cult secret?” (Does Cluj Napoca have a secret Cult?) We do not know much about the “Twelve Tribes” church that “allegedly” runs the bakery, but you can find accusations that are documented under “controversies” on wikipedia and the accusations within the video. One of the Google maps reviews of the bakery says it is a “cult” too, and levels an accusation (which they may have gotten from the video or from Wikipedia).
These allegations look bad. Are they true? Perhaps we will do a follow up story.
We do know that lies have been told about minorities in the past in Cluj, and you can read about pogroms in the local Jewish museum and old newspapers might tell you about ethnic violence, and yet unorthodox religions like the Unitarians have thrived here. Cluj was the first place in Europe to allow religious freedom (well, after the collapse of the Roman empire, anyway).
Although you might see prejudice occasionally, it seems the Jehovah’s Witnesses feel safe enough to have a stand on pretty much every street corner. I tried some cinammon roles made by other religious minorities, and none of them were very good. Perhaps the Twelve Tribes make better cinammon roles? I don’t know.
What is most concerning about the video is part of the “proof” that the bakery is not on the level is that it is “foreign” owned. As we know many expats in Cluj want businesses here, this underlines the kind of xenophobia that we did not expect to find within Cluj. We see that a lot of the beneficiaries are French and Swiss.
A well known directory of businesses in Romania lists details about ownership and who runs the business, as well as profits and loss, number of employees, etc. However, the only detail they seem to use an icon for is the flag of the owner. Therefore, foreign owned businesses stand out like a sore thumb.
Could you imagine if France or Switzerland was denouncing a bakery there, and using the fact that beneficiaries were Romanian as evidence that it was a shady operation? Or if all non-French owned businesses had to have their flags by their names? They would be called xenophobic, racist, and all sorts of things. It would be compared to the Taliban making sikhs wear purple. Yet Romanians fly around foreign flags in the ownership of a local bakery (one that even is partially Romanian owned) and no one says anything.
One of the accusers has that annoying nose ring, that looks like those things that bulls in the Spanish areas wear during bull fights, except the ring part broke off. What is up with that style? Twenty years ago, if you saw someone with a nose gadget like that, you’d think she was the cult member. It doesn’t look cool or pretty or clever, it just looks uncomfortable and silly. Maybe it is a tool to stop kids from picking their noses? It looks weird, even for Cluj. I mean, at least walking on stilts requires skill.
If you find yourself wanting to talk about those nose rings, here is some vocabular that might come in handy:
- A se scobi în nas – to pick one’s nose.
- nas înfundat – a blocked nose
- a-și sufla nasul – to blow one’s nose.
- inel purtat în nas – nose ring
- fler – flair (nose)
- bot – the nose of an airplane.
- curios, indiscret – nosey
- a-și băga nasul – to sniff around, (to stick one’s nose into…)
- a da cuiva peste nas – to wrap someone on the knuckles..
- a-și lua nasul la purtare -to stick one’s nose up (at somebody), to get uppity.
- fix, exact – on the nose
- a duce de nas – to fool, to lead someone by the nose.
Now, people comment that the bakery seems weird. Does it seem weird because of their odd religious beliefs? Or, is it because individuals there are foreign?
We do know foreign business owners who have been cheated in Romania, who have been charged by accountants for services not rendered (or not needed or asked for).
Is it true concern over a “cult” being in Cluj, or a veiled case of xenophobia?
No. To us it looks like it was created to build a brand, in the horror genre. Although extremists often use fear of the “other” to gain support, the channel does not seem political. Another of their videos disrepects a cemetary, claiming to hear voices within it. They look for controversy not to out the “bad” guys, but for a few clicks. Like those old ladies who gossip about the “weird new neighbour” so they have something “interesting” to talk about.
And it appears to work. Ten thousand isn’t that bad for people with no real content. Will expats worry? While Seventh Day Adventists, Unitarians and Jehovah’s Witnesses are well established among the ordinary population, other religions that are common amongst expats might be unusual to Romanians. But Cluj seems diverse enough that you shouldn’t have to worry. (There is alleged mistreatment of pagans here, and some isolated instances of xenophobia, but most of the time foreigners just attrack scammers.)
That said, the twelve tribes bakery seems to get lots of great reviews, and other than the rare objections to their religion and prices, most people seem to enjoy it. So, for now anyway, they probably will enjoy their stay in Cluj.