As a continuation of the reader's reactions to the scandalous Newsweek article of February 25, and the publicity it received, our Editor-in-Chief received a letter from Maria Sarvanska, Bulgarian living in New York, addressed to Newsweek Editor Ms. Begley.
Dear Ms. Begley,
I am Bulgarian living in New York, and I am addressing you in reference to
your comment:
".Even fans sympathetic to Jamie and David wondered aloud whether they would
have gotten the gold if they had been homely, bucktoothed, balding and
Bulgarian, rather than cute, charismatic Canadians", published in your
article "Our Sport Has Gangrene" in Newsweek on February 25, 2002.
I am a marketer with a Fortune 500 corporation and my job responsibilities
require to continuously project positive image about the brand, thus
attracting customers and generating profits for the corporation. I am very
much aware of how much creativity, effort and money is necessary to build
positive perceptions, yet how easily they can be destroyed if negative
word-of-mouth spreads out. May I quote Dr. Edwin Louis Cole who says: "The
most powerful thing one can do in life is to create an image. The next most
powerful is to destroy an image". I am speechless to describe how I felt
after I saw the choice you have made to depict Bulgarians. Yet I still
wonder what made you pick such description.
I would like to share with you just a few historic and social facts about
Bulgarians. Our state was established in 681 A.D. Among the many
intellectual contributions that followed perhaps the greatest to ever last
is the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet, invented by the brothers Cyril and
Methodius of Bulgarian origin, who after their death were canonized Saints.
In the 860-ties brothers Cyril and Methodius gave the Slavonic languages a
written form, which is still being used nowadays by Russians, Bulgarians and
some other Slavic nations.
Bulgarians have very high musical intelligence. Bulgarian singers Nikolay
Gyaurov, Rayna Kabaivanska, Gena Dimitrova - to only mention a few, are
famous and highly respected world-class opera performers. In addition, the
Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria choir had charmed a wide audience worldwide. I
would like to quote a description of their art: "No one who has been to one
of the concerts of this almost legendary choir can elude the magic and
fascination of these voices. They transform sounds into strange vocal
colors, almost as if something other than the human voice, perhaps some
foreign instrument, is arguing. They jubilate, shout, ornament, form fast
and perfect glissandos, let one crazy rhythm follow another and make their
voices build the most daring chords. One listener believes he has heard "an
archaic world of sounds from times long gone," another one "the marriage of
avant-garde and the middle ages." [www.imnworld.com/bwc.html].
Bulgarians also have very high sports intelligence. They regularly achieve
in various sport disciplines and win medals in international competitions,
the latest evidence being the three Salt Lake City Olympic medals won by
Evgenia Radaniva in Short Track Speed Skating and Irina Nikoulchina in
Biathlon. It will be a long list to rightfully mention everyone who made the
Bulgarian flag rise and the Bulgarian national anthem played at
international sports competitions during the recent years. However, I select
to mention the names of Stefka Kostadinova, a world record holder in high
jump (women), and Hristo Stoychkov chosen to be the European Player of the
Year 1994 (soccer).
These examples of achievement, contribution and creation of human value
sould make you think different about Bulgarians. If you work the numbers
and take into consideration the small size of our nation - a little less
than 8 Million, you might come up with a ratio of success much higher when
compared to the success rate of some larger nations. Bulgarians are
spiritually elevated, hospitable and fun-loving people, and I can only
suggest you to find a way and personally become familiar with our nation.
Why not collect your own impressions about Bulgarians, and then see what you
would really feel writing about Bulgarians?
In today's world where international business trends and human values call
for tolerance and higher mutual understanding, you should consider a
different approach when writing about people. No one is ever perfect and
everyone needs to improve, however sticking a label is the least effective
way to promote change and build relationships.
I invite you to publicly apologize to the Bulgarian nation, and try to shift
the opinion of Newsweek's readers to a positive perception about Bulgaria.
Sincerely,
Maria Sarvanska
New York
Send to Kindle
