The winning by Cristian Mungiu, 39, of the Palme d'Or award, shows the impact of a generation that has been "sweeping" the Romanian society, the economy and politics since 1967, when it was forced into this world as a result of the ban on abortion.
Actually, Mungiu's film itself, "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days", deals with the drama of a student that is forced to have an abortion.
Cristi Puiu (director), Dan Ostahie (Altex owner), Lorand Szarvadi (Domo owner), the Fughinas (the owners of K-Tech Ultra Pro), Dragos Cinca (Flamingo shareholder) and Adrian Cioroianu (Foreign minister) are just the elite of a group of about 1.3 million people, those aged 38, 39 and 40 years, who have become the "drivers" of the economy and society: Romania's baby boomers.
They were born in 1967, 1968 and 1969, that is after the Decree 770/October 1, 1966 banned abortion for women under 40 years of age who had less than four children.
As a result, the birth rate doubled in 1967, when 528,000 babies were born, compared with about 275,000 a year between 1960-1966.
In the three years, 1967, 1968 and 1969, about 1.5 million babies were born who are now 40, 39 and 38 respectively. The effect later faded.
As a result, the generation of those that already are or are turning 40 this year has the most members in Romania's history; it numbered 499,673 people on July 1, 2005, according to the latest statistical data available. As a comparison, the 41-year olds number only some 260,000. In total, those born in 1967, 1968 and 1969 currently number 1.27 million people.
The baby boomers born to order at the end of the '60s overcrowded kindergartens, schools and universities and participated in the Revolution when they were 21 to 23 years old.
They were the first to join multinationals or start their own business, bought homes (demand from them may have triggered the real estate boom of 2000-2002, when they were 32-33 years old) and had children (who are again too many for the capacity of the kindergartens) and are now getting ready to get to the top not only in culture and business but also in politics.
They are the main clients of the hypermarkets, of the travel agencies for holidays abroad and of the car dealers.
They, who were initially supposed to be the new men and women of the communist era, are now the pillars that support capitalism.
The baby boom effect became a worldwide reality soon after World War II (after 1946 till 1964). The United States are regarded as an exponent of this world effect, that is a surge in the birth rate after the end of the war.
An entire American generation born between 1946 and 1964 became one of the drivers of the economy of the United Stated in the '80s and the '90s. Baby boomers in America are not just an enormous generation but also one that is quite uniform economy-wise. According to the estimates of the American specialists, about 79 million babies were born in the 19 years after the war.
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