How many Times were Diplomatic Relations between Russia and Bulgaria Severed
If we look at history, there are not many cases in which relations between Bulgaria and Russia at the state level were as bad as they are at the moment.
Survival of the Cheekiest
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Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia News Agency)
By Milena Hristova
My father, like thousands of other ill-fated Bulgarians, is waging the toughest battle of his life - the battle against cancer. It was only until yesterday that all my family and I could blame for his suffering was crossed stars and karma. Today it became clear that life could have been worth living again was it not for a doctor's oversight, lack of knowledge or I-don't-give-a-damn attitude.
It is nothing but a question of how much the life of my father and those thousands of suffering Bulgarians is worth living now. Anger would not help them, nor would pity. Least of all would the insolent statements of officials such as Atanas Shterev, the deputy chair of the parliamentary health care commission, who made front-page headlines by advising against the allocation of additional funds for cancer sufferers, who, in his words, were doomed.
Now comes the cheekiest part - Shterev feels so much insulted that he said he would appeal the fine of BGN 500 that the Commission for Protection from Discrimination imposed on him. Could have buried his head instead! After years of lumbering reforms in Bulgaria's health care system done by no other but health officials such as Shterev, cancer patients and their families feel abandoned in their struggle to come to terms with the illness, both in terms of treatment and emotional support. Unlike other European countries, whose health care systems do their best to fund extra services to support these people and their relatives through the darkest of times, those who have been diagnosed with cancer in Bulgaria face a chronic shortage of life-saving medicines. Not to mention the lack of support they need to cope with the emotional turmoil of the illness.
So it was small wonder that the response to the official's cheeky attitude was an anonymous letter of a woman, who claims to be a mother of a sick girl, reading: "I want to kill you and then serve my sentence in jail." Unlike Atanas Shterev's words however, the words of the mother or the diagnosis of her sick child cannot be redeemed for "being taken out of context."
My father, like thousands of other ill-fated Bulgarians, is waging the toughest battle of his life - the battle against cancer. It was only until yesterday that all my family and I could blame for his suffering was crossed stars and karma. Today it became clear that life could have been worth living again was it not for a doctor's oversight, lack of knowledge or I-don't-give-a-damn attitude.
It is nothing but a question of how much the life of my father and those thousands of suffering Bulgarians is worth living now. Anger would not help them, nor would pity. Least of all would the insolent statements of officials such as Atanas Shterev, the deputy chair of the parliamentary health care commission, who made front-page headlines by advising against the allocation of additional funds for cancer sufferers, who, in his words, were doomed.
Now comes the cheekiest part - Shterev feels so much insulted that he said he would appeal the fine of BGN 500 that the Commission for Protection from Discrimination imposed on him. Could have buried his head instead! After years of lumbering reforms in Bulgaria's health care system done by no other but health officials such as Shterev, cancer patients and their families feel abandoned in their struggle to come to terms with the illness, both in terms of treatment and emotional support. Unlike other European countries, whose health care systems do their best to fund extra services to support these people and their relatives through the darkest of times, those who have been diagnosed with cancer in Bulgaria face a chronic shortage of life-saving medicines. Not to mention the lack of support they need to cope with the emotional turmoil of the illness.
So it was small wonder that the response to the official's cheeky attitude was an anonymous letter of a woman, who claims to be a mother of a sick girl, reading: "I want to kill you and then serve my sentence in jail." Unlike Atanas Shterev's words however, the words of the mother or the diagnosis of her sick child cannot be redeemed for "being taken out of context."
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