A Letter by Young Angry Bulgarian Female

Novinite Insider » EDITORIAL | Author: Milena Hristova |June 29, 2011, Wednesday // 16:43
Bulgaria: A Letter by Young Angry Bulgarian Female

Following is my letter to Mr Andrey Raychev, a prominent Bulgarian pollster and businessman, known for his links to the Socialist (formerly Communist) party.

The letter was prompted by an interview with him published in the popular 24 Hours daily on Wednesday.

I have taken the liberty to publish parts of the interview and my replies to them.

A.R: Most Bulgarians today find themselves stuck forever in the "lower" class - the working class. While in the "upper" class - the capitalists, are few. The gap is insurmountable and it has only now dawned on the ordinary Bulgarian that this hopelessness will not doom only him but his children and grandchildren as well.

You adopt the role of an outside observer, which you obviously are not. As a well known businessman and a public figure it is very improper to speak like you are on neither side of the fence and also on behalf of those on the other side.

I don't own a company. I am a hired worker and don't find anything wrong with that as long as I earn my money honestly and do my job properly. I often work ten hours a day and don't complain. I have my independence and a good enough kind of life.

I don't want to be part of your group. You have been discredited to such an extent that at times I wonder how you find the courage to speak in public.

This is the way most of my friends and colleagues feel about our life in Bulgaria and about people like you. Some of them run private companies and try to survive among the billows of the Bulgarian business climate. Others are grandchildren of huge industrialists from the days before 1944 and provided jobs for many people. I can assure you people like you could have learned many things from them.

And please, don't lose your sleep over the future of my children and grand children. They will certainly find their place under the sun if I manage to raise them to be decent people like my parents did.

A.R: I want to answer the question you don't ask me, but often hangs in the air: "Don't you talk in this way because you are a wealthy man yourself?"... I just live according to the rules that Bulgarians decisively (though recklessly) chose.

Wasn't it the duty of your generation and public figures like you to make sure those rules are the right ones?

A.R: Prosperity today has only one dimension – money.

Can you imagine a rich German or American public figure saying in a media interview that the biggest value is money? I personally can't. They have learnt that once you have piled up a wealth, you have to at least pretend you have higher goals and more noble values.

I do understand and accept the fact that in Bulgaria, as in many other countries, the initial accumulation of capital happened in a cruel and unjust way. But, please, now that we all try to behave as intelligent Europeans and citizens of the world, make an effort to improve your manners and use your media appearances properly and wisely.

I can assure you that we, the educated young people in Bulgaria, have high values and good manners. But unfortunately you feature in the media more often than us.

Please, use your media clout more wisely. It is your duty to try to uplift the Bulgarian people, to make them more ambitious and spiritual, make them believe there are higher goals one can strive to than their bread and butter, make them more noble and dignified.

Or do you find some kind of satisfaction in the fact that most of them have already lost the last ray of hope?

The majority of the people in the rich world are consumers. They don't want wars and cataclysms because they can plan their future. The crisis turned Bulgarian consumers into men of the masses. They live to survive.

I know many young Bulgarians – our team is mostly made up of this specimen – who returned to Bulgaria from the United States even though they had the opportunity to buy far too many of the TV sets that you mention in the interview.

They are not the young yuppies, who, unable to climb any further than the clerk positions they held in London or the United States, returned home to turn ministers and steal as much as they can.

No. They, we, are here, just because we belong here and this is the place we have every right to be. And much to your dislike, are likely to stay. Unless you, those with the capital, really, really try hard to drive us away.

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Tags: Bulgaria, Bulgarians, Bulgarian

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