Corruption in Romania is the hot issue right now this side of E.U. Big-time corruption and small-fry bribes have brought the whole country to a state of moral metastasis. The Parliament is currently so busy debating and voting to annul deputies’ immunity, to allow their prosecution and eventual incarceration, that it has no time to legislate. In the meantime, all the ex-ministers stewing in the slammer could form a government of sorts, ex-prime minister and all (they're still in dire need of an ex-president, but many media pundits are predicting he’ll join soon enough).

Presently, big-name politicians are being indicted, some are serving time for long, gray years, while others are squirming publicly under heavy investigation. Breaking news about political arrests are no longer breaking since they're the daily norm. The same goes for businessmen, doctors, contractors, teachers, mayors, policemen, social workers, night watchmen, writers, journalists, and the common folk.

As Romania's politicians pimp laws to hand friends favorable real-estate deals, doctors administer proper treatment in exchange for envelopes stuffed with hard currency. Contractors deconstruct. Teachers peddle degrees for a fat fee. Mayors embezzle unhindered. Policemen defend discriminately. Social workers milk foster parents. Night watchmen steal from businessmen. Writers pay to be published. Journalists blackmail those who threaten to expose their skeletons in the closet. And regular citizens solicit, closing the vicious circle. Corruption is the pits.

Two foreign corporations are dominating the country's corruption and scandal scene right now: Microsoft and EADS, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company. Both are textbook cases of how-to-win-big-money-illegally, for sellers and buyers alike. How does it work? You make a big contract offer to the government. They negotiate. Then they auction that contract to the firm of their choice, which in turn gets a huge discount from you, the seller. The price difference, having been not mentioned in the official papers, can be used up as bribes and other kickbacks to facilitate deal signings.

Microsoft made a 65% discount to the buyer that resulted in 60,000 lei fattening government officials’ pockets. They could have acquired the E.U. software at no price at all – countries like Germany and England had done just that – but they went for the big score.

And score they did. The biggest fish so far is Elena Udrea, the ex-presidential candidate, ex-tourism and development minister, and ex-president Basescu’s pupil. Elena's ex-husband, Dorin Cocos, is in remand for the same Microsoft deal and looks like he’s cooperating. He is not a politician but a businessman, who amiably divorced Elena two years ago shelling her a big chunk of dough without being asked for explicit figures. She was thrilled with it, declaring later that she had never known what kind of money he was making – which didn’t preclude the prosecutors from axing her with money laundering and office peddling charges.

Elena's not going down that fast, though. Used to flaunting her expensive purses, high heel shoes and fancy hairdos, she has cockily challenged the establishment that she and the former president had worshiped. But the accusations coming from the National Anticorruption Agency (DNA) keep pouring in and inflaming the media.

Why? Power games, she contends, and she won't admit any wrongdoing. Instead she blames it all on the special services that she claims framed her, although she has no proof. "Even if you can handcuff me, you’ll never handcuff the truth, and who’s got the handcuffs rules this country," Elena proclaimed. Wow, that's almost a haiku, if not a political epitaph. Elena Udrea aimed her comment at Romania's special services bigwig, General Florian Coldea, and was cuffed shortly after to the delight of reporters and paparazzi.

After spending five days in jail, the judge switched the remand to house arrest, and a couple of days later Elena's ex-husband Dorin Cocos (cocos = rooster in Romanian) admitted guilt for the first time, telling prosecutors the 18,000 lei bribe had been split in three with his business partner and his ex-wife, who further funneled the dough during the 2009 presidential elections. It is also said Elena charged 10% for every contract financed with European money and sanctioned by her minister.

And what kind of contracts did they condone? Brace yourself. A soccer field on a mountain slope, a park in the woods, a children's playground in a marshy area, a swimming pool without pipes or water supply in sight – and all of these projects garnished with solar panels. The crimes and payoffs list is endless; people are being indicted every day, the money trail is tainting everybody, and collateral damages are incalculable.

In front of her peers in Parliament, Elena warned them Holocaust-style: "If they take me today, it’ll be you tomorrow, and in the end no one will be left to tell the whole truth; the guillotine won’t forgive anyone who steps out of the lineup." But how can you sincerely, wholeheartedly protest against the cancerous corruption when in fact you yourself are involved, and guilty, in the process?

Yes, common folks are an intimate part of this incest, fueling the system with their input: “presents,” “attentions,” “donations” - whatever “ation” to solve a problem, from getting rid of the pebble in your shoe to buying PhD diplomas from those interested in selling them. Even the prime minister had to admit to this sort of intellectual thievery. Not to mention the ex-president who had used dirty campaign money and whose brother is indicted for laundering and influence trafficking in conjunction with his hot shot brother.

Who’s to blame? Ancient history. From Roman times to Communism, Romanians have been “trained” to bribe for a better job, for a better stead, a better good, even though sometimes it might have been for worse. Corruption is so engrained in the local psyche it has become second nature, like so many other habits hard to quit – smoking, drinking, heavy eating, wife beating and other activities so closely related to family tradition and community consensus. In a word, the mentality is a hard nut to crack.

Turning to the other corruption scandal, DNA officials have said that EADS paid big bribes to the Romanian government to acquire an integrated security system program for securing the borders at E.U. standards. We’re talking about hundreds of millions spent for political campaigns, publicity stunts, private business, expensive gifts, luxury packages in super resorts and jet setting. It’s a huge bustling rash out there like an expensive disease hatching convicts and affecting everyone.

But the most amazing thing, according to all economic markers, is that Romania has exited from crisis and is climbing up the recovery ladder. Who knows, maybe corruption influenza is beneficial to poverty antibodies.

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