The lines to follow
are not an essay for its own sake. We think a foreign investor should have an
idea of the soul of his Bulgarian employees- what they enjoy and suffer. A local
employee or a local partner are not race horses in business whose only features
are how much they eat and how fast they run. A foreign investor in Bulgaria should
go further than the grotesque exchange with his staff “How are you today ? – Fine,
thanks and you ?” if he is to make them give that personal and secret “more” which
helps the edge cut. He should throw a glance at the twilight beyond the happy-end
smile which is often fueled by “smiling pills”.
November 10th
Last Station of the Journey to the Promised Land
On November 10th 1989
forty five years of Bulgarian communist rule were brought to an abrupt end turning
that date into the symbol of a new era. The obscure political mechanics of this
event only added to the irrational ecstasy of millions towards a miracle they
never thought they would live to see. The nation’s mood reminded of Jewish people
having just crossed the sea by miracle and starting their journey to the promised
land of democracy, market economy and decent life. When hundreds of thousands
of ordinary Bulgarians rushed to the streets of the 1990s to bury communism
they had a simple and understandable dream. Carrying the huge sign “A red gang
is raping Mother Bulgaria” and seeking for someone to confront them those Bulgarians
imagined US/European integrity in their domestic daily life within the country.
Instead they got abstract, meaningless and familiar foreign policy “triumphs”.
They have the feeling that the cherished US/European domestic daily integrity
was traded for and substituted by such foreign policy triumphs. Bulgarians have
little if any respect for an elite which behaves like a pet looking for a new
master and that is why many of them will not vote in next year’s elections.
As one joked : “We got color-blind. We can no longer tell the gang’s color”.
Today 15 years later
the journey of transition seems to be over- a sense of an end station with no
further tracks. The ticket was expensive and one-way. Ordinary Bulgarians can
only claim back the ecstasy, hope and trust with which they started the journey
and lock them deep for the predictable future. Till the next wake up call of
history when they realize that the road to Promised Land is a fight with casualties
and not a sightseeing trip. In the meantime we may be back to November 9th when
the chance of survival depended on the art to pretend.
November 2004
Braykov’s Legal Office