Bulgarian police intimidating a blogger, again

The title reminds my 2007 post Bulgarian police intimidating a blogger, and the two cases are distressingly similar. Now, however, we are not seeing the wide publicity and the blogger solidarity we saw in 2007. It seems that Bulgarians are in apathy after seeing in more and more detail the logical consequences of electing a cop to the position of Prime Minister, and after losing hope that EU would not tolerate a Third World situation in a member state. I learned about the present case from Svetla Encheva's blog.
The air of the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora has been regularly polluted with high doses of sulphur dioxide for years. This pollution even has its own article in the Bulgarian Wikipedia. The presumed pollution sources are two large old-fashioned power stations located nearby. Some people, including blogger Genadi Mihaylov from Stara Zagora, also suspect a local military training square. Residents of the city have protested many times, to no avail.
Below, I am translating Genadi's Jan. 21 post Come to talk at the police station:

"'Hello, Mr. Mihaylov?'
'Yes, I am.'
'Good morning, I am calling you from the Stara Zagora Police Department.'
'Oooo...'
'I am calling you in relation to something that happened. Can you come to us to talk today?'
'Has something serious happened?'
'No, nothing, I just want to talk with you. When can you come here?
'In an hour or two, I suppose.'
(...)
When such a gentleman with extremely polite voice wakes you up, the wake-up is truly effective - like a laxative.
(...)
'Have you used Internet to announce the date of the protest?'
'Yes, in several Web forums.'
'And you have mentioned the word 'eggs'?'
'Yes, but I meant something entirely different. I have not appealed to anybody to spit on the minister...'
'This turned out to be a media speculation... You have attended the (Jan.) 18 protest (for clean air), haven't you?'
'Yes, I have.'
'And you haven't thrown eggs, have you?'
'No, I haven't.'
'And you do not know who has?'
'I only heard about it later from the news. I have no idea.'
'Have you seen any masked boys?'
'Yes, there were some.'
'Do you know who they were?'
'No, I don't. They were masked, how could I recognize them, even if I knew them?'
'Oh... One egg was thrown and the media reported it was raining eggs... so (superiors) called from (the capital) Sofia (emphasis by Genadi - M.M.)... anyway. Write down your full name and what we talked here...'
At that point, that uncle policeman (who was quite heavily built) opened at his computer a folder named 'eggs'. There were two my photos, this and this one. The next file was a text downloaded from the Web. Everything was of course absolutely serious.
I guarantee with my honour that everything I have written above is true.
...
Gas pollution poisoning hundreds of thousands of human beings vs. a bird embryo thrown at the local authorities by a gang of teenagers - nice, really nice.
Welcome to Absurdistan.
********
Of course that was not the entire conversation. In reality, it lasted half an hour, possibly an hour. The reason they called me to the police station was that I had posted the subject (on the forum) by copying the announcement for the protest which was already distributed all around the Web. Apart from the announcement, I really mentioned taking eggs (to the protest), but how could I know that someone would really take (and use) them? The basic idea was whether I could name the culprits. The policeman told me that at least several more people from the same forum had been called for questioning the previous day..."

Happy New Year 2010 to Enercon

Enercon E-112 prototype with two REpower 5M prototypes at Cuxhaven test field (image cropped from Wikipedia).

Our likes and dislikes may have different bases - some are rational, some are not. My pro-americanism, which is no secret for those who know or read me, is rational. It is based on what the USA do and don't do. And as soon as they do things that seem to me bad, I will attack them. I have already done this (and I intend to do it again) in relation to the Judge Rotenberg Center. This will also be a fiercely anti-American post, featuring another event.

Let me begin with a quote from Wikipedia:

"Enercon GmbH, based in Aurich, Northern Germany, is the third-largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world and has been the market leader in Germany for several years... Enercon was prohibited from exporting their wind turbines to the US until 2010 [1] due to alleged infringement of U.S. Patent 5,083,039 [2]. Recently a cross patent agreement was agreed with its competitor General Electric. Enercon claims their intellectual property was stolen by Kenetech (US Windpower, Inc.) and patented in the US before they could do so. Kenetech made similar claims against Enercon. However, solid evidence has been presented that shows there was espionage against Enercon... According to a National Security Agency employee, detailed information concerning Enercon was passed on to Kenetech via ECHELON.[1][3] According to this report, the aim of the espionage against Enercon was the forwarding of details of Wobbens wind wheel to a US firm. The consequence was that the US firm patents the wind wheel before Wobben, resulting in a breach of patent rights."

So US intelligence agencies devoted their time, resources and infrastructure to intellectual property theft and then the US court issued a verdict against the victim company, inflicting more damages on it. Need I comment this disgusting abuse of power? I think not. I wonder, however, what US people are thinking about this. Are they aware? Do they think that "national interests" justify everything? If so, then Americans will lose their moral superiority over their enemies. Do they worry that preoccupation of US intelligence agents with theft may jeopardize national security? I would worry about this.

Despite stealing innovations it could not develop itself, Kenetech company did not do well. Maybe evil deeds are indeed punished by God, as religious people claim, or bring bad luck, as superstitious people say. Anyway, Kenetech went bankrupt as early as 1996. Here are some relevant quotes from the European Tribune forum:

"Moon also references why Enercon turbines, the best in the world, are not available in the US. And that's only the surface of the sordid story. I fought Kenetech most of my career, because of precisely these kinds of actions. Their bankruptcy was a vindication of sorts for me personally, and my credibility in the industry. In actuality, GE now holds the old Kenetech patents, which expire in 2010, and Enercon has already made a royalty deal with them. But for political reasons, they have no wish to do business in the US... As someone formerly involved in the Aerospace industry, (I know that) this is standard practice for US firms and the US government. That's why I tend to make with the hollow laughing at a lot of the claims about "allies" and US innovation and various other topics."

This story touches me even more because of my soft spot for alternative energy. As I wrote once on Anglo-Libyan's blog, "at high school, I used to go to the university library and read books and articles about photosynthesis. I wanted to construct a chlorophyll-based solar battery. Such plans to save the world, the details varying according to personal areas of interest, seem to be usual at that age - though rarely talked about :-)." Several books on alternative energy sources (including wind power) bought at that time can still be found in my mother's library - the usual location for the books of a married woman.

In the summer of 1996, I saw live for the first time wind turbines, and they must have been Enercon's. I was on my way to my first (and only so far) international congress with several other Bulgarians, our participation being made possible by the enormous generosity of the German host. Soon after we crossed the Czech-German border, a colleague who had travelled the same path before said to me, "Look through the window and you'll soon see three wind turbines". And indeed, after a short time their beautiful giant silhouettes appeared in the blue evening sky, like something out of this world.

Later, I saw wind turbines on Bulgarian land. On our way to the sea resort town of Primorsko (described in my Aug. 2, 2006 post), we spotted several turbines near Sliven, a city famous for its winds. We had no sea vacation the following year because our younger son was still a baby. The next year (2008), we put both children in the car and set out for Primorsko, again, despite our slight dislike for its over-development. As we approached Sliven, I kept my eyes open for the wind turbines. However, I saw only one! Being a malignant pessimist, I immediately started thinking that something terrible had happened to the rest. But this was not the case. Several minutes later, the old group of turbines appeared in sight; it turned out that I had not remembered their proper location and the lonely turbine we had seen first was in fact a new addition. As we passed near them, I read the inscription "Enercon" on them. A year later, I first heard about the espionage story from the Explorer TV channel.

Now, as 2010 has arrived, I am glad that the ban that should never have been imposed is to expire. I wish more profits and less troubles to Enercon owners and employees. Will there be any reaction from the USA? Ordinary Americans could tell the story to those who don't know it yet and write about it in their blogs. Posslibly also e-mail their representatives in Congress that US security agencies should protect Americans from their enemies, rather than rob other countries. And President Barack Obama could welcome Enercon on US soil and say how sorry he is for what happened. After all, he is good at speeches (if not at anything else) and is always happy when he can bash his country.

Souvenir from the summer

These photos are taken in the village of Rasnik. The stork nest is located not far from our summer house. The images aren't very good, so I have to explain what is happening. Initially, one of the parents is in the nest with the two young. Then the second parent flies in (both adults can be seen in photo No. 6) and the first one flies out.

I have blogged before about this nest and its inhabitants. One of the storks that used to live there was killed by a stone three years ago; its partner disappeared the following spring. Then in 2007 another pair came to the nest but left it without hatching young. And now, the same or another pair has returned and reproduced.

The photos are dated July. Three or four weeks after they were taken, the young could fly well and the entire family left the nest. I hope they are now well under another blue sky, while here cold winds are tearing down the last leaves.

Germanea

My husband and children in front of St. Nikola church in Sapareva Banya.

A month ago, our family spent two days at Sapareva Banya, a town at the foot of the Rila mountain. This is a pleasant town I would recommend as a family resort. There is just a small detail - bring your own slippers. The owners of the small hotel where we resided required guests to leave their shoes and use slippers, as is traditionally done in villages and small towns. We obeyed because we had no slippers of our own and didn't want to buy, but the practice is bad. This is the way fungal infections are transmitted.

I had been in the town before in 1995, to express my support for the locals. They protested against the Skakavitsa project that would take the water supply of Sapareva Banya and divert it to the city of Sofia. The protests were eventually crushed by anti-terrorist police and the project was implemented. (These events are partly covered in my 2006 post Water regime, or how to create and perpetuate misery).

I wasn't presented at the actual clash - it happened in a week-day when I was at work. After it, at Saturday I bought some banitsa (Bulgarian cheese pasty) and took a bus. If you wonder how one could just go to a town and express support to strangers by offering them cheese pasty - I also wouldn't and couldn't do it now, people lose some inspiration and skills as they age.

Arriving at Sapareva Banya, I saw a barrier marking the site of the protests and several policemen guarding it. It was enough to look into their eyes to know that they had recently abused people with impunity, had liked it, were bored now and were looking for new targets. With a slight change in the uniform, they could excellently play the parts of Nazi concentration camp guards in Schindler's list. So I was careful not to trigger an attack. The previous day, these policemen or their colleagues had beaten a 60-year-old local woman in her own yard without any apparent reason.

They asked me where I was from and how I had arrived to the town - with public transportation or with my own car. I guess that, had I replied the latter, they would fine me for some made-up traffic violation. Then they defended the use of force against local residents, saying, "Laws are to be kept, aren't they?". I answered nothing; the statements was correct in itself, but used in a bad context (I used it more appropriately as a title of my Feb. 27 post).

After that, I left the barrier and talked with several local people I met in the street. One of them even invited me to her house. Naturally, they were sad and desperate after the defeat. Their houses were remarkably clean and well kept, but the people were so poorly dressed that my heart ached.

During our present visit (I am already talking about last month), the town looked so renovated that I couldn't recognize it. More importantly, the people seemed more cheerful and not so poor. I mentioned the 1995 events to the hotel owners and asked whether the Skakavitsa project was still working. They said that it was but part of the water was reserved for the town and it was enough to satisfy its needs.

When I visited the town in 1995, I naturally didn't behave like a tourist and had no interest in the local landmarks. Now, as we went sight-seeing, I was surprised to learn how many of them were there. During the Roman rule, the town was called Germanea and was quite important. There was born Belisarius, a 6th century "defence minister" of the Byzantine Empire. The beautiful little St. Nikola church (see image) in the center of the town is dated to the 12th or 13th century. We also made a ride to the Panichishte region of the Rila mountain, where crocuses were already sprouting between the pine trees.

Our second day in Sapareva Banya was March 3, the Bulgarian national holiday. It marks the date when a peace treaty mentioning the creation of a Bulgarian state was signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1878. I am not nationalistic enough to be driven to ecstasy on such occasions, and that particular March 3 wasn't very cheerful due to the death of 9 people in a burning train only days ago (briefly mentioned in my March 6 post). So the celebration was modest. On the central square, Bulgarian national revival songs were broadcasted and bypassers were stopping to listen to them, some were leaving flowers at a small memorial. For the first time, I heard Stambolov's song We want no wealth/ We want no money/ We want freedom/ And humane justice. I liked the celebration. It couldn't take place in Sofia; to begin with, there is nowhere to make it because Sofia, among many other attributes of a normal city, lacks a central pedestrian zone. In fact, it doesn't look like a city at all. It is rather some hybrid between stock market, industrial site, college campus and refugee camp.

Another, not so pleasant aspect of the Sapareva Banya reality were the trucks and other vehicles participating in the illegal construction of a ski lift in the Rila National Park. We saw them first-hand during our ride to Panichishte. Unfortunately, the Municipality of Sapareva Banya is an accomplice in this destruction of the mountain; Bulgarian readers can read the details in this open letter by conservationists to local residents. However, I wouldn't blame too much the local authorities and residents. In 1995, they were opposed against another nature-damaging project and what was the result? Riot police beating them, water taken away from them as a punitive measure and the project still implemented. Now, I don't believe their opposition would halt the unscrupulous greedy investors, so why waste energy and possibly put themselves in harm's way. If Rila can still be saved, it is not by the residents of Sapareva Banya and not even by those of Sofia, but by European opinion-makers and institutions (see my previous today's post).

Foreign intervention needed to protect Bulgarian nature

If you are environmental activist, journalist or policy-making official in EU, please read this post - it's for you. I'll try to make it concise.
Greedy resort investors in alliance with corrupt Bulgarian authorities are quickly destroying the protected areas in our country. Illegal construction is underway in Rila National Park and likely to destroy it despite the fact that 140,000 people have signed a petition to protect the mountain. Another protected area, Strandja Nature Park which was about to be destroyed last year and was saved at the last moment after massive protests by citizens, is in danger again. The Municipality of the town of Tsarevo has presented a development plan that includes building over almost 100% of the coastal territory of Strandja Nature Park and legalization of the illegally constructed Golden Pearl resort complex. The Ministry of Environment and Water has, for now, rejected the proposed development plan and required the Municipality of Tsarevo to change it (source, in Bulgarian).
More details about the ongoing destruction of Bulgarian nature are given in this document.
Bulgarian civil society is too weak to mobilize itself to save the country's natural heritage. The widespread appalling and ever-increasing poverty forces most ordinary Bulgarians to devote all of their energy to physical survival. And even when citizens protest and demand the law to be applied, as in the above cases, their will is disregarded by arrogant Bulgarian authorities. Only pressure from outside, particularly the EU, is likely to have effect.
So if you can help in any way, please do it now, before it is too late.

Never elect hunter President - bad for wildlife

I have blogged about Bulgarian President more than a year ago in my post Don't vote for Georgi Parvanov. Below, I am translating from today's Netinfo post without commenting.

Struma newspaper: Parvanov went hunting the next day after train tragedy
Struma, a local newspaper based in the city of Blagoevgrad, stirred a controversy by reporting yesterday that President Parvanov took part in a wolfhunt on March 1 - the next day after nine people died in a fire on the train Sofia - Kardam.
The hunt was organized by forest rangers from the town of Simitli...
The President allegedly killed only a fox. He arrived at DiMario hotel in Simitly at 5.30 AM on March 1. However, National Security Agency personnel cut off and guarded the hotel from the previous day, Feb. 29...
The President's press center reacted today by announcing that "President Georgi Parvanov hasn't taken part in any hunt gatherings although on March 1 he was in the mountain near the town of Simitli"...
Struma reporters were advised by hunters from Simitli to keep quiet...
Commenting the controversy, Petar Yankov from the Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds stated that the open season for water birds in Bulgaria has been prolonged twice because of the President. In both cases, this happened at 7 PM on Fridays - Feb. 1 and 8, respectively. The permission for prolongation was granted in violation of Bulgarian and European laws by the Chairman of the State Forest Agency and the Ministry of Environment and Water.
Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds appealed the permission in the Supreme Administrative Court. "This bad practice must be terminated. It brutally uses legal loopholes," Yankov wrote. According to him, open season could be prolonged only to control epidemic or damages caused by the birds, and nothing of the kind was happening in the present case."

Update: The following quote is from a Dec. 4, 2008 post at the Novinite site:
"Bulgaria President Shot Protected Wild Animal During Uzbekistan Visit
During his visit to Uzbekistan in early November, the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov had shot a wild mountain goat, the "arhar" - a protected animal, registered in the endangered species "Red Book", the internet news site Fergana.Ru, registered and published in Moscow, reported on Tuesday."
The hunt took place in a natural park where all shooting was prohibited. The Latin name of the animal in question is Ovis ammon. You can read more details at the Fergana site.

After Putin's visit

Russian President Putin's visit to Bulgaria about which I wrote on Jan. 13 took place last week. In Sofia, activists of the opposition DSB party posted some placards saying, "Putin out". However, the posting was banned by the municipal authorities. On the placards already posted (and also on other surfaces), other placards were put saying, "Welcome, Mr. Putin". I saw them first-hand.
A colleague from our Medical Faculty moved me by e-mailing an invitation to attend protests against the visit. Unfortunately, the baby keeps me out of rallies, so I just watched the protests on TV. The security measures were unprecedented. Hundreds of policemen were guarding several dozens of protesters carrying the portrait of Anna Politkovskaya (Putin is believed to be behind her murder). Police also prevented bystanders from joining the protest. Residents of the Black Sea port city of Burgas (Bourgas) had also come to protest against the planned Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline.
Bulgarian citizens were promised beforehand that treaties would be just discussed during Putin's visit and eventually signed later. However, as Frog News reported, "an impressive amount of contracts was signed at the conclusion of negotiations between President Vladimir Putin and his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov... Bulgaria will become an active partner in the construction of the pipeline “South Stream”, which passes through the Black sea from Novorusiisk to Bulgaria and a number of other European countries. Yet another contract has been signed for the construction works of 4 new nuclear power reactors, built by Russians to “the sole benefit” of Bulgaria in the nuclear power plant of Belene. Furthermore, Russia will offer a loan of EUR 3.8 billion in case Bulgaria has certain difficulties in the process of constructing the nuclear power plant. Another agreement was signed, concerning the international project company in charge of the construction of the pipeline Bourgas-Alexandropoulos."
As you see, Bulgaria's dependence on Russian energy sources, both conventional and nuclear, is sealed for decades to come. Netinfo reports today that "a Russian consulate will be opened in the town of Belene to provide services for the Russian citizens employed permanently at the construction of the second Bulgarian nuclear plant... The Russian Consul in the city of Ruse estimates that their number will be about 2500".
The "South Stream" pipeline reportedly gets on the nerves of many European politicians because it follows almost the same path as the planned Nabucco pipeline. Europeans are unhappy about receiving such a large share of their gas from Russia and would want to have an alternative supplier, such as Iran. A wonderful situation, isn't it? Don't you, like me, dream of some future beyond the fossil fuel era?
Today, a new rally against the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline was held in Burgas. Local people are protesting because the pipeline will surely destroy what has remained of the environment, plus any perspectives of tourism development. The large Bay of Burgas is shallow and with a circular stream. Hence, its self-cleaning capacity is near zero. It has been damaged enough by the existing port and oil refinery. Now, its death sentence has been signed with the new agreements.
In her 2003 article Bush's Warsaw War Pact, so-called journalist Maureen Doud quoted an unnamed Soviet (?) expert saying, ''Bulgaria used to be Russia's lapdog. Now it's America's lapdog.''
It seems that Ms. Doud and the person who in 2003 still called himself "Soviet expert" were right only by halves. Bulgaria apparently is still Russia's lapdog.
Update: As a symbolic "counterweight" to Putin's visit, opposition-minded Bulgarians had invited former dissident Vladimir Bukovsky. Unfortunately, the visit was cancelled due to health reasons. Bukovsky was already on his trip when he suddenly felt unwell. Taking into account some recent operations by Russian secret services, it would probably be good for Mr. Bukovsky to visit a toxicologist.

For whom is the truth inconvenient?

The above video mocking Al Gore and his Nobel Prize-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth was found by my son, who is right now interested in videos about penguins. The video lists "Things you can do to stop global warming: Stop exhaling. Become vegetarian. Walk everywhere (no matter the distance). Take cold showers."

My opinion about Gore is not all negative. I liked what I found in Wikipedia about his participation in the Vietnam war: "Gore opposed the Vietnam War and could have avoided serving overseas by accepting a spot in the National Guard that a friend of his family had reserved for him, or by other means of avoiding the draft. Gore has stated that his sense of civic duty compelled him to serve in some capacity... With seven months remaining in his enlistment, Gore was shipped to Vietnam, arriving on January 2, 1971... Gore said in 1988 that his experience in Vietnam: "didn't change my conclusions about the war being a terrible mistake, but it struck me that opponents to the war, including myself, really did not take into account the fact that there were an awful lot of South Vietnamese who desperately wanted to hang on to what they called freedom. Coming face to face with those sentiments expressed by people who did the laundry and ran the restaurants and worked in the fields was something I was naively unprepared for.""

These days, we have real winter. I have difficulties dragging the baby pram through the snow to the nearest shop to buy bread. The vegetables left carelessly at the glazed balcony became as solid as stones because the water inside them turned into ice. The TV broadcasts horror stories about people who froze to death in snow-drifts, about patients who died because of impossibility to reach the hospital in time. The entire continent is held captive in the snow. At the other side of the Atlantic, Winston also writes that it is difficult right now to believe in global warming.

Of course all this doesn't mean that global warming isn't real or isn't due to human activity. However, I dislike the way Gore and his award-givers address the problem . First, they politicize an important problem and utilize it to serve a narrow partisan agenda. Second, they distract the attention from the current conflict threatening our civilization. Third, his message is addressed predominantly to the West. Restrict, restrict, restrict consumption, you bad Westerners. It is true that those who buy and drive pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles without really needing them are guilty toward Mother Nature. However, it is much more important how many of us are there. If there were only a billion of humans, the planet would easily endure even if every single adult had a sport utility vehicle. And here the West has done its part of the job. USA has a replacement birth rate and some population growth due to immigration alone. Other Western nations are imploding. Gore briefly mentioned the population burden but he travels and lectures exclusively in the West. Of course it is much more politically correct to tell Westerners that they should consume less, rather than to turn round and tell non-Westerners that for the sake of our dear poor planet, they shouldn't have so many babies.

Last but not least, the documentary seemed fitted to an audience of 10-year-olds. One of the most serious dangers to a culture is erosion of intellect, and it is only encouraged by catering to people with modest intellectual abilities. Because intelligence, similar to commodities, is produced and supplied when there is demand. Perhaps Gore foresaw that schools would request copies of his film; but what worries me was that I haven't heard any commentator of An Inconvenient Truth, even those highly critical of it, to mention the low level of the message.

Conservationists in Serbia need support

Our neighbours the Serbs seem to have the same problem with their nature: greedy resort investors are ready to create Moon-like landscapes in their wild pursuit of profits, and have the support of government and lawmakers. Nature Park Stara Planina is now threatened by a tourism development program. Details and an online petition to save the park at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-staraplanina-petition.

Browsing the Black List

Today, Oct. 15, is Blog Action Day for environment and I find it an excellent occasion to write this post that has lingered for some time in my head.
It is strange how knowledge alters the way we look at things. At http://bgnature-blacklist.bravehost.com/index-en.html, you will find the English version of a document titled Black list of companies, organizations and individuals destroying Bulgarian nature. It is anonymous, for good reason. It contains no links, but I have cross-checked some of its statements with other sources and found them to be true.
The first entry in the Black List is as follows:
"Aleksander (Alexander) Kravarov - Mayor of the town of Bansko who advised the residents to poach openly if Pirin National Park is included in Natura 2000; together with Ulen Company created the Bansko Ski Zone inside Pirin National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site."
The town of Bansko is featured below. It is the first entry in the section "Resorts with irreversibly devastated natural environment":
"Bansko: formerly an architecture reserve town, now a city illegally spreading to the town of Razlog and inside Pirin National Park."
One of my very first blog posts, Bansko and the modernization of Bulgaria, was about a short vacation in this town. My impression of it was quite good, despite some nostalgia for the old days of modest development. Indeed, I am not a fan of ski racing and didn't leave the town, so I couldn't know first-hand about its effect on the mountain of Pirin. So I advised the British (and other) tourists to come to Bansko. Now I would advise them to stay away, so that not to benefit Ulen company. To cap it all, I am sure that Bansko residents will not benefit for long from the development of the ski zone, because global warming will have the final word.
Let's see another person from the Black List:
"Dimitar Zorov - owner of Parshevitsa dairy. His company is the main culprit to blame for the destruction of Vratsa Balkan Nature Park. It pollutes the rivers of the park with sewage waters from the dairy, damaged the road to Parshevitsa hut, constructed illegally farm buildings and hotels and interferes with the normal pedestrian tourism in the area."
I used to buy Parshevitsa dairy products, but I don't intend to do it anymore and advise my readers to boycott Zorov's company as well. There are many other good dairy producers in Bulgaria.
The Black List contains also entries about seaside hotels and whole resorts (too numerous to list). I advise all tourists planning a sea vacation in Bulgaria to check the Black List before choosing their exact destination. Below, I am translating parts of Krastyo Krastev's essay I am a patriot - I am vacationing in Greece, published in the Sept. 14 issue of the saritical paper Starshel:
"Perhaps you wonder what this insolent title intends to say. I'll explain. Officials from the National Tourism Agency complained that last year 1 million Bulgarians prefered to have their summer vacations in Greece and Turkey and spent EUR 600 million in the foreign resorts. Eh well, in the present year these Bulgarians are likely to be even more numerous and I am one of them. I have just reterned from the beaches under Mount Olympus and I'll tell you that one must be crazy to pay 124 leva per day for all inclusive at Zlatni Pyasatsi when he can spend 7 days at Chalkidiki, Greece, for 365 leva... Seven days without chalga (popular awful Bulgarian music - M.M.) and mutri (thugs - M.M.) in Greece, how nice! You haven't to pay in order to enter the beach, bull-like young men with triangular heads don't force you to rent a sunshade or a chaise-longue and the sidewalkes are the best I've seen for years... The Greeks know that order and peace bring money. So do the nice hotels with no more than 4 storeys, the flowers, the greenery, the cleen sand without watermelon peels and cigarette ends, the quiet nights without noise from discos... No insolent prostitutes pulling your sleeve, no women thieves in the buses, no Hammer Jeeps at the beach. Therefore I think that every Bulgarian who vacations abroad is a patriot! If there are more such people, the concrete jungles from Shabla to Sinemorets will become deserted and their greedy owners will finally have to keep diet!"
(Shabla and Sinemorets are resorts at the north and south end of Bulgarian Black Sea coast, respectively.)

It still isn't too late to save Kamchia

Kamchia is a river in Eastern Bulgaria. The area where it empties into the Black Sea used to be a protected territory. However, last year a holiday resort investor eager to build there successfully appealed Kamchia's protected status in court (mentioned in my July 9 post). When the same assault was attempted against Strandja mountain, protests by environmental activists prevented it, at least for the moment. But Kamchia remained in the dark. As I wrote in my Aug. 16 post, "This law (protecting Strandja) is an emergency measure and isn't a perfect piece of legislature. Worse, it cannot protect the Kamchia river which had already been removed from the list of protected territories. If the National Assembly decides to do something about Kamchia, it must be by a separate act. It can be voted no sooner than September (the Assembly is now in summer vacation) and surely much will be already built around the river by this time."
Now, I have a little more hope about Kamchia. My cautious optimism is based on reliable, although indirect, evidence.
Our best man Stoyan (not his real name) is an example of those too orderly and organized people who can never have real fun, no matter how hard they try. There is always something coming in the way. Several days ago, my husband came home and said,
"I have met Stoyan. He has had a sea vacation with his family at Kamchia."
"It was a protected territory until last year," I mentioned sadly.
"It still is," my husband laughed. "They are very disappointed. A sort of a miserable hotel far from the beach and some miserable restaurant far from both. No services. Quite undeveloped place. They had to travel around the wilderness all the time to obtain the most basic things they needed."
So, dear environmental activists and lawmakers, it seems that it isn't too late to save Kamchia! Any rescue efforts are welcome, their object is still alive!

The village of storks

The above photo is copied from a July 16 Pointless Spring blog post of the same title. It said, "At a less than 50 kilometers distance from Sofia, hidden in the lower parts of Plana mountain you will find the village of storks - Popovyane. Every second house in the village shelters a stork nest."

A week ago, we went to Popovyane. I wanted to show my elder son storks and had to find them elsewhere after the Rasnik pair had taken flight. Indeed, the village was full of stork nests. Most of the birds were away. Their young have grown up and there is no reason for them to cling by the nest all day just to enjoy eventual visitors. However, after hanging around for a while, we saw about ten storks in flight and one in his nest. Thanks to Pointless Spring for sharing the information!

The village is located south of Sofia. The road passes through Bistritsa, Zheleznitsa, Kovachevtsi and then comes Popovyane. It is a beautiful mountain road. As soon as you leave Sofia, you find yourself in another world, green and serene. However, for the same reason, these less than 50 kilometers seem longer. This is definitely not a road for fast driving.

If you haven't the convenience of a car - there must be regular public transportation, we saw many buses. Possibly some bus goes to Samokov using this road and can get you there without change.

If you are in Sofia, reading this post soon after its publication and considering whether to visit Popovyane, make up your mind quickly or you'll go there just to discover that the storks have migrated!

Strandja seems to be safe, for now

(This post is about old news, as often happens in blogs that are updated not when it is due but when the author has the opportunity to write.)
Strandja mountain which was about to be stripped of its protected status by an investor eager to build (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2007/07/strandja-mountain-in-danger.html) seems to be out of immediate danger, at least for now. After continuing protests, the National Assembly (Bulgarian Parliament) hastily changed the law, so that acts establishing protected territories now cannot be appealed in court.
This law is an emergency measure and isn't a perfect piece of legislature. Worse, it cannot protect the Kamchia river which had already been removed from the list of protected territories. If the National Assembly decides to do something about Kamchia, it must be by a separate act. It can be voted no sooner than September (the Assembly is now in summer vacation) and surely much will be already built around the river by this time.
Still, things around Strandja developed better than I expected.
The Strandja protests allowed me to find a number of interesting Bulgarian blogs. I have put links to the ones I like most (unfortunately for the non-Bulgarian reader, they are all in Bulgarian, excluding the short English version of the Optimiced blog). I started blogging after the Danish cartoon story last year, inspired by other blogs covering the events. So it was natural for my blogroll to contain mostly Arab blogs. Every time when something important was happening in the Bulgarian political life (e.g. elections), I was searching for good Bulgarian blogs. Now at last I have found some. I am glad that many of them are conservationist - a favourite old cause of mine.
Now, let me translate parts of Michel Bozgounov's July 21 post(http://www.optimiced.com/bg/2007/07/21/feeling-tired/) to satisfy my incurably pessimistic nature. Michel is the blogger who was "cautioned" by police for supporting the Strandja protests (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2007/07/bulgarian-police-intimidating-blogger.html).

Feeling Tired
I haven't blogged for quite a while.
The reason is: feeling tired. I've even lost some weight. I feel strained. I don't sleep well.
The events of the last few days confronted me suddenly so I couldn't even say "Oh!". I haven't yet even read everything posted in the Web about the recent incident with me...
A rally was held to defend not only Bulgarian nature but also freedom of speech. It was said to have been attended by many people. True, I saw photos :). But I was hiding home. I somewhat didn't feel like it. Perhaps due to exhaustion. I haven't slept normally for - I don't know, possibly 5 or 6 days...
I've learned from Capital newspaper that my case isn't at the police anymore but at the Sofia District Prosecution. So, we are waiting now. I have no wish to write about it...
I understand the law and still, when I saw the prints of my blog posts at the police department, I felt wronged. Now, a week later, I am feeling just tired...
I heard that Strandja will remain a protected territory, after all. This is good, isn't it. So we won and our efforts as citizens were not in vain? :-) Then, why am I feeling so down-hearted now... I don't know.
A little sleep would be good for me. Or at least it's worth trying.
Yours sincerely, Michel

I understand Michel very well. In my already not too short life, I have had many causes, all noble (at least I've thought so), most lost. And even in the few cases when things turned out as I wanted, it was after so much efforts that at the end I was unable even to celebrate. I just sat quietly in some corner and asked myself whether the result was worth the efforts, whether anything in life was worth... anything.

Heat

Bulgaria had the dubious honour to be mentioned in the Yahoo! news for its wildfires reported by AFP (Firefighters struggle to contain blazes in south Europe):
"Firefighters backed by helicopters struggled Sunday to douse major forest fires across southern Europe as special prayers were held in Romania for an end to a deadly heatwave searing the continent. Firefighters staged an uphill battle to extinguish the flames which have ravaged forests in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, as well as Spain's Canary Islands off the western coast of Africa. In Bulgaria, where 23,000 hectares (nearly 57,000 acres) of woodland have been burned in the scorching temperatures of the past week, fires continued to rage in the south and centre.
The region around Chepelare was on high alert amid warnings that the 10th century monastery of Rila -- which has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO -- could be in danger.
Bulgarian police said they have now arrested 20 people on suspicion of starting the forest fires."
I haven't seen wildfires first hand, but I feel the unprecedented heat wave. Temperatures keep at Celsium 35-40 for days. Even nights bring no cool air. The baby doesn't sleep well, often wakes up, screams and cries. In Rasnik, where we have spent most of the last two weeks, the small river has dried out. The pair of storks that made me so happy by returning to the nest (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2007/06/life-will-go-on.html) aren't seen there anymore. I've spotted them only once, in flight. My guess is that after the river has dried, they don't find enough food around it and have moved. They have no young, so nothing binds them to the nest. Unfortunately, even if a species isn't directly attacked by humans, it is often driven out of a territory by habitat destruction, usually also brought about by humans.
Every summer in Bulgaria has several continuous very hot days, usually at the end of July or the beginning of August. But this year these days began too early, lasted for too long and weathermen warn us that more are to come. I don't remember such a summer. Neither does any other person I've talked about that, no matter how old.

Bulgarian police intimidating a blogger

Michel Bozgounov has a blog at http://www.optimiced.com/bg/ (in Bulgarian) and http://www.optimiced.com/en/ (in English). He has been active in the campaign to save Strandja mountain mentioned in my previous post (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2007/07/strandja-mountain-in-danger.html). Last week, Michel was called by the police and officially warned about his blogging. Here is the story in his own words (from http://www.optimiced.com/en/2007/07/18/a-short-story-to-speak-or-not/):

"The statute of national park of mountain Strandja was about to be changed so that some companies to be able to build big resorts and hotel chains there...
I felt involved as I care about the nature in my country, Bulgaria, and because this subject is important for me, too, I started to blog about it, using information from all around the blogosphere – copying it & quoting it.
I also went personally on some of the protests, made photos and posted them on my blog. I also posted a couple of reportages, including my comments on the “Strandja” case and on the ongoing peaceful protests.
I never thought this could be something illegal...
Last week I received summons to visit the Sofia Metropolitan Police Department... There they asked me about my website (my blog) and about the Strandja protests. I had to write some explications and also signed a warning protocol, saying that I should not write in my blog anything that could call to disorderly conduct (like unofficial protests) and so on. I saw a line in the police documents, saying “the website www.optimiced.com must be investigated (watched constantly)”. I read on the top of the documents in front of me the name of the National Service for Combat against the Organized Crime, which indeed puzzled me...
Also there were printed sheets of paper from another blog of a guy, who wrote as well about the Strandja case, and he is also a journalist. On the stairs one of the police officers told me “in private” that I should be more careful what I am writing about in future, because journalists have a better defense against possible prosecution and I am just an ordinary person, an independent blogger.
That was the story in short. I had the feeling that it’s somehow strange that our police and also the National Service for Combat against the Organized Crime are so busy with investigating people like me, while there are so many criminals out there...
I decided to tell the story on my blog and I did it. But I wasn’t prepared for the avalanche of comments and people feeling concerned by this precedent, because the whole blogosphere felt that this as a strike against the free speech in the virtual world in Bulgaria. Now my only wish is all of this noise to end, but alas.
I said “no” to some media (a lot of reporters wanted to interview me), because I didn’t want to became a media star... I agreed for a short appearance in a morning broadcast on the Bulgarian National TV (http://www.bnt.bg/), just to show that I am not “virtual”, but a real person...
Michel, free blogger"

Strandja mountain in danger

Strandja (also spelled Strandzha) is a mountain in South-East Bulgaria. It is sparsely populated and so its wild beauty is preserved. It is home to many wild plant and animal species, a number of them endangered. The above photos are from Wikipedia. In 1995, the Strandja Nature Park was founded. Including the central part of the mountain, it became the largest protected area in Bulgaria.
However, the park and hence the natural ecosystem of the mountain are in grave danger now because of the greedy people rushing to build over every square centimeter of our Black Sea coast (I have an earlier post about this madness at http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2006/08/black-sea-coast-newspapers-are-telling.html). The quote below is from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070708/tsc-bulgaria-environment-wildlife-proper-b1f5339.html.

Bulgaria's wilderness areas under threat from property investors
By Diana Simeonova, AFP - Sunday, July 8
SOFIA (AFP) - Bulgaria's wilderness areas, among the largest in Europe, are threatened by property investors who use legal loopholes to contest the territories' protected status to build holiday flats.
Last week, Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court stripped the protected status from the country's largest nature area, Strandzha, which spreads over 116,100 hectares (286,890 acres) in the southeast of the country.
The court ruled in favour of a major property investor, Krash 2000, which operates in the southern Black Sea region, one of the few areas untouched by the construction boom along the coastline.
Krash 2000 had sold some 90 holiday apartments in its "Golden Pearl" complex in the village of Varvara before local environment authorities froze construction last year.
A 1995 law regulating Strandzha's special status bans massive construction in the area, but Krash 2000 succeeded in having the law nullified in court by claiming it did not set clear boundaries for the protected territory.
Last year, another wild spot on the Black Sea -- the Kamchia river estuary north of Strandzha -- was similarly stripped of its protected status by a holiday resort investor.
Environmental watchdogs have warned that over half of Bulgaria's protected wilderness areas are susceptible to the same claim as their boundaries are only vaguely defined by law.
"The court gave Strandzha to the mafia," political analyst Evgeniy Daynov said in Dnevnik newspaper Thursday.
Daynov was among some 500 protestors who demonstrated in Sofia last week to protest the court's decision.
The protestors gathered suddenly, briefly blocking traffic on major crossroads and staging a lie-in in a central square, booing police and carrying banners reading "For a concrete-free Strandzha" and "Strandzha is not for sale."
On Monday, 35 demonstrators were arrested. Interior Minister Rumen Petkov said he would be "uncompromising" in dealing with such unauthorized gatherings.
But the protests seem to have worked as Environment Minister Dzhevdet Chakarov told journalists Thursday that the government would definitely appeal the Strandzha court ruling and fight to win back the nature area's protected status...
Bulgaria has one of the best preserved nature habitats and largest wild animal populations in Europe, including thousands of brown bears and wolves.

You can see photos from the protest at http://nabludatel.blogspot.com/2007/07/20.html. (Update: I am including here three photos from the linked post.) I haven't taken part in this protest. Although other mothers of young children attended (as a photo shows), I am reluctant to bring my babies to rallies of any kind, especially ones where people are very likely to be arrested or beaten.

You can sign an online petition to save Strandja - for Bulgarians at http://www.bgpetition.com/strandja/index.html, for others at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/strandja-bg/ (the latter site also includes more details about the case in English). However, I wonder who will read the petitions. I think it is more important to give the case maximum publicity. If you have a blog, you could consider mentioning Strandja. It will be even better if you have connections to "official" media, environmental organizations or government. I hope that foreign pressure, if intensive enough, will stop Bulgaria from the folly of destroying its own nature

Wanton killing of animals

I cannot understand people who kill animals just for fun. There was a grey cat hanging around our block of apartments. She was young, last year she was a kitten. This spring she was in her first pregnancy, the kittens were already about to be born. She was in perfect health, and suddenly was found dead under a parked car. Somebody must have given her poison, somebody who disliked cats and didn't want to have more of them around. I only wish him to have rodents all over his house.
And in the village of Rasnik, where we were during the weekend, something much worse happened. There is a stork nest in the middle of the village, near our house. I used to see there a pair of storks for years. This spring I was seeing only one stork, but I thought the other was flying around, looking for food or something. Eh well, this weekend the nest was empty. Only sparrows were there, they nest in the lower half of the stork's nest. I told my mother-in-law. She said, "Didn't you know that last autumn somebody killed one of the storks with a stone? So this spring only his widowed partner returned to the nest, but now he has evidently left. I've heard that storks form pairs for life, I don't know what happens if one loses its partner,
possibly he dies soon as well."
I just don't want to go to Rasnik anymore, I'm so disgusted.