On Irresponsible Driving

A policeman slammed a car near the Bulgarian town of Parvomay and ran away, coming back ten minutes after the incident, refusing alcohol check and giving blood sample. A Bulgarian citizen hit three fellow citizens with his car in Italy and sped off, leaving dead two people, one of them a 15-year-old child. Eighteen innocent people died on a killer-bridge near Byala a few days before last Christmas. 118 people have been killed on the streets of Sofia alone last year. And if this statistics does not touch anybody, because it did not happen in their family, maybe the thought that each one of us can be the next victim of the craze called Bulgarian “Road War” could be a little more shaking.

The changes to the Road Law, which the Ministry of the Interior introduced two weeks ago, increasing the charges for traffic regulation violation, and the ambitious program which aspires by 2010 to reduce the number of the killed in car accidents on the Bulgarian roads from 5842 to 700 are just a small fraction of what needs to be done.

What is more important is a change in the drivers’ attitudes. They need to understand that driving without obeying the rules is not only threatening the life of the others, but also their own. Sitting behind the wheel after having two glasses of rakia is irresponsible driving. Better stay on the table, have another drink and let the sober ones drive. Even if this is your brand new, glossy and expensive new car. And even if it cost a fortunes- a hands-free for your mobile phone is still affordable- and you do need it when you drive.

Dropping ten leva in the pocket of the angry underpaid policeman does not permit anyone to drive with 100 km/h when the speed limit indicates 50 km/h. Because road signs and limits are for everybody and they are put for a reason. They are to raise awareness that there are others on the same road, and to remind the ultimate goal of any trip is to arrive at the destination in one piece.

And if somebody thinks that this is too much to be required- at least use seatbelts. If not- just go to your doctor and sign a declaration that you agree to donate your organs to other people in case you have a lethal accident. Because some need the life others are careless about.

What Is the Deal About a Not-a-Big-Deal Video

Last week, among the entertainment materials on the Bulgarian website vbox7.com, a two-minute long video appeared. It included exclusive footage of Bulgarian soldiers performing their duties in Iraq. The controversial thing about it was, however, not what the soldiers did, but what they said. The video showed them throwing racist remarks at local Iraqi people- in Bulgarian- while giving away free bottles of water. Their speech included phrases like “ugly gypsy, look at him”, “if you only were two or three years older…” (obviously implying that a girl, who does not look more than 10, could be an object of their sexual desires had she only been a little older), and “here is the other monkey”. Soon after the videos were made public, those became widely discussed in the Internet forums and the blogosphere and provoked a lot of comment, both condemning and neglecting the importance of what happened. Allow me to share with you the first lines I read in the forum of the Bulgarian daily “Dnevnik” (I consciously omit the spelling mistakes in the opinion of the user with the nickname Engineer Phillip)- “He [the soldier] told him [the Iraqi child] he was an ugly gypsy- big deal! Why did the government make so much noise? Nobody killed or raped anyone…”

Dear Phillip,

As I do not communicate through Internet forums, let me comment back to you here:

1. Indeed it is not like the Bulgarian soldiers killed or raped somebody. They certainly did not commit a military crime, and did not desert their duties. You are probably right that the Ministry of Defense did make too much noise about the problem, which is neither something new (the video is three years old, from the time when Bulgaria sent its second military contingent to Iraq), nor the most important one the Bulgarian Army needs to solve. I doubt the Bulgarian soldiers meant bad when they made the obviously inappropriate jokes with the Iraqi children, and it is also true that they made the jokes in Bulgarian, so the children could not possibly get them and get offended.

2. People like to mock other people. Usually when they make jokes, they laugh even harder, when they know that the ones whom they are addressing their humor at cannot understand them. It is an especially easy and quite low-profile job to make jokes at the weaker, the poorer and the suffering, especially when they are children. They cannot or do not know how to throw a joke back. There is no dignity in ridiculing small children- in any way- for it is simply not funny. The image of the Bulgarian soldiers, about whose bravery, high spirit and impeccable moral we have heard enough legends, is also not funny. It seems pathetic. This video threw it deeper the gutter than it used to be. The firing of the two or three soldiers, who participated in the small comedy shooting, will not be enough to make up for what people saw. Of course, the arrogant behavior of the soldiers did not surprise anybody, nor did it make anyone in the country blush- for the simple reason that similar things happen in the Bulgarian army quarters on a daily basis, and this video is just a good visualization of something we are all aware of. In the spirit of this, dear Phillip, will it also not be a “big deal” if somebody called you a dirty gypsy (which I am sure you are not) when your country is devastated by war, you live in the desert and have to pray for a bottle of water? Or, speaking in a general context- is it OK for a civilized man to speak like this to others, even though they have no way to understand? Probably not. I think it is time for all of us to get rid of that improper, uncivilized and humiliating language- it’s degrading not only to the people we use it against, but also to the one who uses it .

p.s. This is a column I wrote for a journalism class last week.

To Begin With

This is going to be my first post in my blog, so I decided it's a good idea to present myself to the world.
As regards the basics: I am Lilly, from Bulgaria, 23 y/o, senior at the American University in Bulgaria, majoring in Political Science and International Relations, as well as Journalism and Mass Communication. Currently I reside in Blagoevgrad.
I guess that does not make me quite different and exceptional, and it would definitely not make you read my blog. Actually I am not trying to say there is a reason to read it at all, I set this blog just to put some random thoughts, pieces of writing, and academic papers (maybe), so that I can try to organize what's in my head, and also on my HDD in some way.
My plan is basically to refelct some current events, post some opinion, and also share with you some of my findings during my constant surfing the net. I also like to talk about music and books a lot, so expect me also to write about that- as an admirer, not as a professional of course.
Will be looking forward to receiving some feedback- I will try to make the major postings in English, but I assume I will write also in Bulgarian from time to time. Need any help with translation? Just ask, and I will be happy to help- in anything!
Blogosphere, here I go!
Stay tuned for my first postings!

p.s. This blog is a tribute to my professor Bobby Phillips, who was the first to reveal for me the power of blogging! Thanks!