Reality check
Author : Miryana Georgieva Zaharieva
Translation: Nikolay Nikolov
(original text published by Newspaper Protest, the print media of Bulgaria’s Protest Network)
More than 60 days of discontent ought lead to a break and reassessment of the situation.
I am not afraid of the possibility of being wrong for speaking on behalf of noone in particular. As such, I will not speak in the first person pronoun; enough individualism. During the last 50 days, walking alongside an array of different people, sharing views and thoughts, searching for common ground, on ground ourselves and find stability. I think it is time we we find that common ground.
A few questions require serious attention:
What are we fighting against?
We are battling against what we see as the foothold of the mafia, oligarchy and monopoly structures in Bulgaria. As much as these words have lost their concrete meaning over the last two decades, they are the right ones nonetheless. We are fighting against the strong bond between crime and power. The truth that we are all aware of is that the first thing which a new government enforces is the rearrangement of the trafficking channels - for cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and people! This is not entrepreneurship! It is a crime and a kind of genocide! Even more so than the massacres of the 1990s. Because it is silent, hidden and we are paying the price. We pay our police officers to close their eyes. We pay with the lives of our children, who are becoming the direct victims of the drug industry. We pay with the lives of the poor and vulnerable, who sell themselves for the pleasure of the perverted individuals in Europe and around the world. This is what we are fighting against.
What are we not fighting against?
We are not fighting amongst ourselves. We are not battling the socialists, the nationalists, nor members of our ethnic minorities. There are some amongst us, who wish to wage such battles but they are not the ones in power. Leftists, right-wingers, nationalists, (christian-)democrats, liberals, greens, are all colors belonging to the same palette, required in its full spectrum. Realistically speaking, such colors do not exist in the current structures of government. They are used to paint over the same old crooks and criminals and are used to divide our society. We are fighting against them. Let us end the blue-yellow (right-wing vs. left-wing) division - such a stance will become necessary only after we have purged our institutions from criminality. Only then can this division be politically sustainable.
How do we want Bulgaria to be for our children?
We want a state, in which the nation is the true sovereign. A state, whose government is not an apparatus used by a small group of people solely for their personal benefit. We want to have the opportunity to be represented equally and fairly before the law. And when this fails to happen, we want to have access to the resources, through which we can make our demands and have our voice heard. We want to be governed by people with clear principles and moral foundations, people with real vision for the development of our country, people with experience and proven success rate in the area of their expertise, people who do not lie, steal, or kill - under any circumstances.
One would say: “This is utopian!” Perhaps, yet for decades we have gotten used to being governed by a mafia clique, which has forced its way into normalcy in our daily lives. And this is terrible - it’s a deeply seated evil, which we must root out! Moreover, there is an alternative. There is another form of reality and normalcy and we wish to reclaim it. We may have forgotten how to enforce our rights as citizens and we may have reconciled with the way of things. However! We do not lack the capacity to reinstate ourselves as the true sovereign of Bulgaria and we should remind ourselves of this - daily.
Where shall we start?
Firstly, we ought to begin by bringing down the Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski’s government, which is not accountable to the people it is claiming to represent. This needs to happen immediately!
Second, we need to cleanse the mafia element from this form of government and not allow a new form to be reinstated. We must also dissolve any future attempt to position individuals prone to crime in state institutions. Without stopping, without hesitancy, we stand strong and sure of our position. Without internal division or complacency. Without allowing others to switch our vantage point and focus. Without needless barter with others. We have only one enemy - the mafia.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it-always.
Mahatma Gandhi
Reality check
Author : Miryana Georgieva Zaharieva
Translation: Nikolay Nikolov
More than 60 days of discontent ought lead to a break and reassessment of the situation.
I am not afraid of the possibility of being wrong for speaking on behalf of noone in particular. As such, I will not speak in the first person pronoun; enough individualism. During the last 50 days, walking alongside an array of different people, sharing views and thoughts, searching for common ground, on ground ourselves and find stability. I think it is time we we find that common ground.
A few questions require serious attention:
What are we fighting against?
We are battling against what we see as the foothold of the mafia, oligarchy and monopoly structures in Bulgaria. As much as these words have lost their concrete meaning over the last two decades, they are the right ones nonetheless. We are fighting against the strong bond between crime and power. The truth that we are all aware of is that the first thing which a new government enforces is the rearrangement of the trafficking channels - for cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and people! This is not entrepreneurship! It is a crime and a kind of genocide! Even more so than the massacres of the 1990s. Because it is silent, hidden and we are paying the price. We pay our police officers to close their eyes. We pay with the lives of our children, who are becoming the direct victims of the drug industry. We pay with the lives of the poor and vulnerable, who sell themselves for the pleasure of the perverted individuals in Europe and around the world. This is what we are fighting against.
What are we not fighting against?
We are not fighting amongst ourselves. We are not battling the socialists, the nationalists, nor members of our ethnic minorities. There are some amongst us, who wish to wage such battles but they are not the ones in power. Leftists, right-wingers, nationalists, (christian-)democrats, liberals, greens, are all colors belonging to the same palette, required in its full spectrum. Realistically speaking, such colors do not exist in the current structures of government. They are used to paint over the same old crooks and criminals and are used to divide our society. We are fighting against them. Let us end the blue-yellow (right-wing vs. left-wing) division - such a stance will become necessary only after we have purged our institutions from criminality. Only then can this division be politically sustainable.
How do we want Bulgaria to be for our children?
We want a state, in which the nation is the true sovereign. A state, whose government is not an apparatus used by a small group of people solely for their personal benefit. We want to have the opportunity to be represented equally and fairly before the law. And when this fails to happen, we want to have access to the resources, through which we can make our demands and have our voice heard. We want to be governed by people with clear principles and moral foundations, people with real vision for the development of our country, people with experience and proven success rate in the area of their expertise, people who do not lie, steal, or kill - under any circumstances.
One would say: “This is utopian!” Perhaps, yet for decades we have gotten used to being governed by a mafia clique, which has forced its way into normalcy in our daily lives. And this is terrible - it’s a deeply seated evil, which we must root out! Moreover, there is an alternative. There is another form of reality and normalcy and we wish to reclaim it. We may have forgotten how to enforce our rights as citizens and we may have reconciled with the way of things. However! We do not lack the capacity to reinstate ourselves as the true sovereign of Bulgaria and we should remind ourselves of this - daily.
Where shall we start?
Firstly, we ought to begin by bringing down the Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski’s government, which is not accountable to the people it is claiming to represent. This needs to happen immediately!
Second, we need to cleanse the mafia element from this form of government and not allow a new form to be reinstated. We must also dissolve any future attempt to position individuals prone to crime in state institutions. Without stopping, without hesitancy, we stand strong and sure of our position. Without internal division or complacency. Without allowing others to switch our vantage point and focus. Without needless barter with others. We have only one enemy - the mafia.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it-always.
Mahatma Gandhi
