HOT: » Which party would you vote for (if you could) in the upcoming snap vote in Bulgaria on April 19?
Send to Kindle
The wildfire in Bulgaria's Vitosha Mountain that raged for several days outside the Sofia suburb of Bistritsa has angered Bulgarian eco-activists and volunteers with what was, in their words, an inadequate organization on part of the government institutions.
Why do I believe that?
As a student in the USA several years ago I was lucky to be able to help the relief effort in the states of Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
As a volunteer. For the first time in my life. Not because I hadn't had the good will to help prior to that but because before going to the USA I had been living all my life in Bulgaria where – even if you have the greatest desire to volunteer for relief after natural disasters, there is usually no way for that to happen.
For one simple reason. In Bulgaria, which largely owes its National Liberation to several thousand volunteers (known as "opalchentsi") today lacks completely the social infrastructure to use volunteers; it lacks the respective public attitude and culture to encourage them.
Bulgaria has no organization on part of the government structures and/or the NGO sector (with a few exceptions) that can organize, direct, train, etc. the volunteers that could potentially show up in a time of dire need.
That is precisely why I owe one of the most unforgettable experiences in my life – the weeks I spend volunteering after Hurricane Katrina – to what I call the social infrastructure in the US for those kinds of activities.
Not only that – actually, my college had so many students who desired to volunteer for Katrina relief that I had to go through an application process with several rounds. Since I was the only foreigner applying, I got asked why a Bulgarian would want to go help out the people in Mississippi. I told the interviewers that – in addition to my desire to help – I had always wanted to be a volunteer in such situations but that there was hardly any such possibilities in the country that I come from.
Which is all too bad considering that volunteering not only helps in critical times but creates a real, healthy, and civil society that actually gets to have moral values.
Unfortunately, in Bulgaria volunteers can do very little with their good will because there is no good will on part of the Bulgarian government.
The opposition party “We Continue Change” (WCC) has launched a campaign to recruit volunteers to serve as guarantors of fair elections, under the slogan “It will happen this way.”
The wildfire in Rila National Park continues to expand, now into its eighth day
After nearly a month of relentless efforts, the wildfire in Bulgaria’s Pirin Mountains, which erupted on the evening of July 25
A major wildfire that erupted on Monday near the villages of Dositeevo and Kolarovo in the Sakar Mountain region has scorched more than 20,000 acres
The wildfire in the Pirin mountain range continues to expand, despite sustained efforts on the ground and in the air
A devastating wildfire in the region of Tran has destroyed one of Bulgaria’s most cherished natural landmarks
Nobody asked Europe whether it wanted this war. The US and Israel acted alone on February 28th, and the continent woke up to a crisis it had no hand in starting but now has no choice but to navigate.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it did not count on one thing: that among the defenders standing in its way would be Bulgarians.
Bulgaria has a constitution, a parliament, and a president. What it has struggled to maintain, with remarkable consistency over the past decade, is an actual functioning government. Since 2021 alone, the country has cycled through five caretaker cabinets,
On the evening of December 1, 2025, Bulgaria witnessed its most significant popular mobilization since the 1990s
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.
The term “Iron Curtain” was not coined by Winston Churchill, but it was he who turned it into one of the symbols of the latter part of the twentieth century by using it in his famous Fulton speech of 1946.
Aniventure Comic Con Returns to Bulgaria with Star Guest Christopher Judge!
Global Fuel Shock: Oil Jumps Over 40% Since Iran War Began
