Gypsy adoption

I have been planning for a long time to write a post about adoption of abandoned Bulgarian Gypsy children by non-Gypsy Bulgarians and foreigners. (I prefer to call them Gypsy, not the politically correct Roma.) Gypsies in Bulgaria, as in other European countries, have always occupied the low end of the socio-economic ladder. They still have a high birth rate, many of the babies are unplanned and some of them are left in orphanages. And because the abandoned "white" non-disabled babies are fewer than the families seeking to adopt a child, the overwhelming majority of non-disabled children in Bulgarian orphanages are of Gypsy origin.
You can ask why the prospective "white" adoptive parents don't take these children as well. Essentially, the answer can be summarized by a confession that we white Bulgarians are damn racists. The former Communist government in the 1980s tried to integrate (as we would call it today) the Gypsies by denying their existence as an ethnic and cultural minority. The success of this pretence was zero, and from that time is the saddest story about racism I have ever heard. A childless couple from my city adopted a baby, allegedly without knowing that he was of Gypsy origin. In the beginning, everything was wonderful. The local diagnostic and medical center had a special wall to show photos of children best cared for, and the adopted boy had his image put on this parents' wall of fame. However, as he grew, his Gypsy appearance became apparent. For that reason, the adoptive parents decided they wanted him no more and left him back at the orphanage.
Traditionally, Bulgarian couples wishing to adopt tend to have unrealistically high requirements to the child being adopted. An employee at a child protection agency ironically described children wanted for adoption as "5-6 months old, healthy, beautiful, white, blonde, intelligent, having a university student as biological mother and, if possible, her professor as biological father".
Happily, things are changing and the same employee added that more and more white families not only take the chance to adopt a Gypsy child but later call to say how happy they are and offer their services to encourage other couples to adopt a Gypsy. Couples from other countries have less racial prejudice, but there is so much bureaucracy and obstacles to international adoption that too few children can benefit by it.
Recently, a family "indirectly known" to me adopted a Gypsy toddler. A friend was a bit worried and asked whether the child was predisposed to become a thief after growing up. I was happy to assure him that this has nothing to do with the biological ethnic origin. (I mentioned the case also in my Bulgarian blog.)
Another concern of prospective adoptive parents is that their child may never grow up to be close to their level of intelligence. This reason to worry is more legitimate. I do not believe that there are significant differences in IQ between different ethnic groups, but there are other possible factors affecting the intelligence of children available for adoption. These children may have had suboptimal prenatal development (a malnourished or even substance-abusing mother), they may have had a difficult birth, and they may be already damaged by their stay in an orphanage prior to the adoption. Anybody adopting any child, especially a child coming from a disadvantaged group such as the Gypsies, must prepare himself well for the possibility that he may never brag about the academic achievements of the child.
Of course, anybody deciding to become a parent must be ready for this possibility. People become parents for selfish reasons, for their own happiness, and always have an idealized image of the future child which must gradually be adjusted to reality. So, if a parent of a younger child tells me that his child, biological or adopted, has disappointed him, I could only say - welcome to the club!
However, there is a difference between birth and adoptive parents, and let's not trivialize it. Whatever our biological children bring to us, we still see "our blood" in them. In adoption, spirit triumphs over biology. And when a white person adopts a child, he needs a bigger heart if the child is Gypsy. He has to come to terms with the fact that his baby is so much unlike him. He has to face his own prejudice, conscious and subconscious. And if he lives in Bulgaria or another East-European country, he knows that he must also confront the racist society, stand up for his child and teach the child to stand up for himself. Therefore, I admire those white people who adopt abandoned Gypsy children. They and their children are trailblazers who, I hope, will in the coming years catalyze the integration of the entire Gypsy community.

Ruin

My district is called Zaharna Fabrika, which means Sugar Factory. It was named after the first sugar factory in Bulgaria, built in 1898 by the Belgian Solvay company. At that time, it was located at a railway crossing 4 km away from the city of Sofia. The city grew and eventually reached the factory. In the early 1940s, the district was built as accommodation complex for the factory workers.

The sugar factory itself stopped work decades ago. I have never seen it working, but have always liked the simple beauty of its buildings. It had the status of a cultural landmark. Unfortunately, Bulgarian government after 1989 abdicated from its duty to protect cultural and historical landmarks. Officials perceived democracy as an opportunity not to spend time and efforts on performing standard government functions, the functions that justify the very existence of government. Law and order deteriorated, education deteriorated, landmarks were sold away to private individuals and companies. In theory, the law required any owner of a landmark object to care for its maintenance. However, there was nobody to execute the law. Predator "investors" started buying landmarks and deliberately letting them to deteriorate by all means short of openly calling a wreckage crew. After some time, the landmark in question reliably turned into ruin, its disappearance was documented and the owner was free to do whatever he wished on his cleared land.

On Jan. 7, the Trud daily reported on its 2nd page:

"Greeks are appealing a fine for the Sugar Factory

The owners of the former Sugar Factory in Sofia are appealing in court the fine of 100,000 lv. (about EUR 50,000 - M.M.). It was imposed on them by the Municipality of Sofia because the building was dangerous. In December 2009, collapse of a concrete plate in the factory killed two Roma (Gypsies - M.M.). The Greek company TAB Real Estate, which owns the building, says that the fine is too high..."

I remember that day in 2009 (it was actually November, not December). My mother in-law came back from shopping and said, "I have passed by the Gypsy ghetto, people had gathered there, women were crying. Something has happened. Let's watch the TV news to find out." The same evening, TV channels reported that three young Gypsy men, two brothers and their brother in-law, had gone into the sugar factory building to collect iron pieces to sell them for scrap (many unemployed Gypsies try to feed themselves and their families in this way). However, the iron rail they took turned out to be a supporting part, so the building collapsed over them. The brother in-law managed to escape, but the two brothers were buried under the ruins and later found dead by the rescue team. Dnes.dir.bg gives their names as Dimitar and Stefan and their ages as 31 and around 40.

It was immediately reported that the owner was a Greek entrepreneur who not only failed to take the measures prescribed by the municipality to strenghten and guard the building but actually encouraged the local Gypsies to remove metal parts from it in order to accelerate its deterioration. The quotes below are from a Nov. 19, 2009 report by the BNT TV channel:

"Two brothers die in Sugar Factory building collapse

...Minko Gerdzhikov, Deputy Mayor of Sofia, said, "Owner of the building is TBA Real Estate (most other sources give it as TAB - M.M.). This is a Greek company, the owner's name is Kafalis. At present, he is hiding from us, does not want to speak. He is clearly aware that he is guilty of negligence. On the other hand, he apparently wanted this property not as a sugar factory but as a piece of land to be used by him for other purposes. I was informed by police sources that the owners even encouraged those living in the vicinity to demolish the building."

The locals quickly found whom to blame. The victims' sister said, "My brothers came to earn 5 leva, to buy food for themselves and their children, because they are unemployed. The owner came himself here in front of us and told us to demolish the building and told the police not to harass us, but policemen gather and only want money from us. They stop our horse carts and take 20, 30, 50 leva and this is why my brothers died here."

In October 2009, just a month before the tragedy, BTV channel reported that the cultural landmark could collapse any moment.
I would not lay any blame on the poor Gypsy men who struggled to support their families. You cannot realistically demand respect to cultural heritage from people who are hungry. And after the owner himself told them it was OK to demolish, how could they realize they were doing something wrong? I am sorry for them and their families, and I think the owner is guilty, and also our authorities.
I wanted to have the Greek nationality of the owner confirmed before writing this post, so I waited for quite a lont time. You see, it is dangerous even to report the truth in these matters, because it spawns xenophobia, let alone trust on rumous and unconfirmed hearsay evidence. Still I would not put "Greek" in the title as Trud did. One could assume that all Greeks have invaded Bulgaria en masse to destroy our heritage.
I wonder, what would happen to Mr. Kafalis (or whatever his name is) if he had tried the same business plan in his native Greece? Greek authorities would push him down a mouse burrow, as we say. And I think any government must deal with its nationals destroying heritage, whatever country they choose for their evil deed. Cultiral and historical heritage belongs to all of the world. And there is no hope to preserve it without international cooperation, exactly as it is impossible to defeat corruption without ensuring international transparency.
I made the first photo shortly after the tragedy, in January 2010. You see the collapsing builsing, and also the open unguarded gates. Anybody could enter there, any poor Gypsy scrap collector or bum seeking refuge or playing child could become the next victim. The next three photos are from July 2010. I made them to preserve the image of the Sugar Factory which I like so much, because it continues to deteriorate. It is already in a worse state that shown in the photos, and I guess it will be levelled to the ground in a few years. The last photo, like the first one, shows the crime scene. At least, the so-called owner has made it inaccessible. There is a fence and the gate is locked. Some minor buildings of the Sugar Factory complex have not been bought by TAB Real Estate and have remained outside the fence. They are illegally occupied by Gypsy families who maintain them as they can, and they are the only parts of the cultural landmark likely to survive.

Our local school is closed

My elder son is now 5 years old, so 1st grade is within seeing distance and I am already collecting information about schools. In Bulgaria, parents are allowed to choose which public school their child will attend (as long as there are vacant places in the chosen school).
My friends with schoolchildren enrolled them in schools with high requirements. However, their children were not only with above-average intelligence but also very disciplined. The situation with my son is different because of his hyperlexia. He was a late talker and still is more than a year behind his peers in speech. Worse, he rejects the very concept of discipline. As said his classmate, "he doesn't obey at all, never follows orders". So a school with high requirements would hardly be suitable for him. On the contrary, we need a tolerant school where difficult children are not regarded as things to get rid of.
I first thought of our local school, Primary School No. 110. Indeed, our district of Zaharna Fabrika (Sugar Factory) is mixed, so we could expect some Gypsy students. Most of my friends would never consider educating their children together with Gypsy ones, because this automatically lowers the quality of teaching (and if some opponent here objects and starts talking about racism, I would kindly ask him to bring his head out of the sand). However, I would not be bothered if my son has Gypsy classmates, as long as they don't bully him. This is not because I am less racist than my friends but because my son anyway learns what he is willing and ready to learn, rather than what he is taught, so the classroom environment isn't as important for him as it is for other children.
However, as soon as I found the school building (a rather nice one, with noble dark-red colour), I heard that it has been closed, most likely forever. My city of Sofia has so few schools that all of them work in two shifts, so the news of closing a school sounded insane. My mother in-law, who (unlike me) has lived for decades in Zaharna Fabrika and knows all local gossip, told me how it happened.
"The school was closed because it had too few students; as you know, schools with a number of students below the reglament are closed. When the downward trend first appeared, teachers and municipality officials tried to recruit additional students from the Gypsy ghetto. There were many school-age children there, but their parents didn't want to let them attend school. The officials offered the parents benefit money and they agreed. However, when those Gypsy children started going to the school, Bulgarian parents moved their children to other schools. Very soon there were fewer students than before enrolling the Gypsies, so the school had to be closed. I don't think it will ever be opened again. The building will most likely be sold and used for other purposes."
If you ask what happened to the Gypsy schoolchildren - I cannot be sure, but I guess they have returned to their so-called parents and now don't go to any school.
My husband, who had attended School No. 110, was saddened when he heard about its demise. His mother laughed and said that he may now pretend to be sad, but does he remember how after the big earthquake in 1977 he expressed hope that the school building has collapsed?
To end the post - I don't intend for the moment to discuss the big question of educating all children and inclusion vs. segregation. Let me just mention here that if regarding disadvantaged children as mere obstacles to other children's education is troubling, I find at least as troubling the attitude of regarding "privileged" children as little civil servants who are obliged to go to school in order to educate and integrate, rather than to learn. I'll be thankful to readers who share their own experience in these matters.

Don't buy stolen things

Several days ago, as my friend was travelling in a tram, two or three Gypsy women raided through it and her cellular phone disappeared from her bag. Usually in such cases people rush to blame the victim ("Why didn't you look after your things?"), so let me mention that pickpockets know their job well and, besides, my friend was a bit out of touch with the surrounding because she was just returning from a funeral.
The phone had been bought via monthly payments, so my friend for a couple of months will continue to pay for a device she no longer owns. However, she is not a material person and easily got over this. She regrets only the digital photos she had made, about 40 files that were stored only in the phone. "They stole my moments," she complained to me.
The police apparently aren't in a hurry to do anything. They said, "Cellular phones are often found but it takes a long time." As far as I know, the mode of operation of a cellular phone allows it to be located within hours.
I don't want to muse now about these nasty Gypsy thieves who make a living by preying on hard-working people too poor to afford a car. They are miserable creatures, how good that we weren't born in one of their families to grow up like them. Neither am I going to rant about our police. We all know that it isn't there to help us. I am now thinking of the white, educated, law-abiding Bulgarians who buy a second-hand phone without much thought about its origin and then brag about the good deal. These people are the reason why cellular phones are stolen. If pickpockets couldn't sell so easily what they steal, they would pick only a few cellular phones to supply themselves and their family members.
So my appeal is: Don't buy a second-hand cellular phone unless you know and trust its former owner. In countries like Bulgaria, there is much chance for the phones offered for sale to be stolen. The same holds true for second-hand computers, car radios, CD players and many other devices.

Gypsy teenager murdered by Bulgarian teenagers

On Aug. 21 in the town of Samokov, two groups of teenagers met, one consisting of Bulgarians and the other of Gypsies. They started a brawl. One of the Gypsies, 17-year-old Asparuh (family name given by different sources Iliev or Atanasov) was beaten to death. The crime scene was in the range of security cameras and suspects were identified quickly. Four were arrested, of whom two turned 18 this year and the other two are juveniles. The authorities, again, are eager to dismiss any notion that the crime was motivated by hate (http://www.mediapool.bg/show/?storyid=131412&srcpos=1).
I remember a similar murder which took place in 1998 in Sofia. A homeless Gypsy boy was killed by skinheads, all aged 15-16. Then, a human rights activist said, "I cannot think of a crime more scary than murder of a child by children." I agree.
I never knew whether anybody was punished for the 1998 murder, but it is said that in Samokov alone, this week's murder has been the 4th murder of a Gypsy in 7 years and nobody has yet been convicted (http://big.bg/modules/news/article.php?storyid=50761). On July 27, 2007 Bulgaria was sanctioned by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for failure to bring to justice the perpetrators of another racist killing. The victim, a Gypsy man (28), was murdered in 1996 in the town of Shumen by seven Bulgarian teenagers, all but one of whom were juveniles. Although the case was fairly clear, investigation was protracted until the statute of limitation expired and nobody was convicted (sources, http://netinfo.bg/?tid=40&oid=1077473 in Bulgarian, http://www.idebate.org/roma/newsarticle.php?id=1855 in English).
I have been several times in Samokov, which serves as a gate to the Rila mountain. I remember it as a quiet town, I'd even say boring and sleepy. But it isn't quiet anymore.
When I heard of Asparuh's death, my first impulse was to pay a tribute to him by modifying or even deleting my Aug. 17 post, which is directed against his people. But then I thought over and decided to leave the post exactly as it was. Yes, it feeds stereotypes. But hate crimes aren't caused by stereotypes. They are caused by the idea that if The Other creates problems for us, we may solve the problems by getting rid of him.
People campaigning for minority rights often say, "We must fight prejudice, we must shake stereotypes." I don't find this a very good idea. Most stereotypes are firmly rooted in facts. Hence, "shaking stereotypes" means denial of reality and immersion in wishful thinking. Nobody needs a rosy picture portraying The Others as perfect people who they aren't. What is needed is acceptance. It doesn't mean that we may not want The Others to change and may not demand things from them. Rather, it means that no matter how problematic they are for us, we may never wish them away.
As for Asparuh, I hope that unlike the earlier cases mentioned above, this time justice will step in and perpetrators will be punished. Let me repeat what I added as a comment to the same Aug. 17 post: "To manage law and order... is the state's basic function and therefore the state is never allowed to abdicate of it."
UPDATE (Aug. 28): While police continue to deny that the murder in Samokov and the earlier riots in Sofia are motivated by ethnic tensions, psychologist Hristo Monov reported why the Bulgarian teenagers attacked: they thought that Gypsies mustn't be let into the central part of Samokov (source: Mediapool). Other sources said that the Gypsy youths went to the town center to buy ice-cream.

Bulgarian police: Our safety first!

The above image is from yesterday Netinfo report about events that took place several kilometers from where I live (http://netinfo.bg/?tid=40&oid=1085596). Here is a quote from the text:
"On Tuesday night, there were Roma riots in the (Sofia) district of Krasna Polyana. Several cars were destroyed. Nobody was injured. Police presence was reinforced. The day before, four men were hurt after being beaten in a cafe... They were attacked by about 150 Roma who mistook them for skinheads. Property at the cafe was also damaged."
For those who don't know, "Roma" is the politically correct term for Gypsy.
Now, the million dollar question: If mobs of Gypsies armed with rods, spades and knives goes on a rampage through the city, damaging property and beating innocent people, who is to blame?
The answer of Volen Siderov's fans: The nasty Gypsies, with whom one should deal as Hitler did.
The answer of some politically correct people living at a safe distance from the Gypsies: The racist Bulgarian majority which, by discrimination and abuse, has driven the poor Gypsies to such acts of despair.
The answer obvious to anyone of the meanest understanding: The police, whose job is to deal exactly with behaviours like these.
However, our police have a different idea about their job. I am translating a little more from the same Netinfo report:
"Kamen Penkov, Deputy Minister of the Internal Affairs, spoke for the Darik Radio. In response to critics saying that policemen were standing by, idly looking at the armed men, he said that the police acted adequately in the very unruly night of Tuesday. "In this situation, against this group of people who cannot be compared to environmental activists, protesting Suhodol residents or retired citizens, I think that the tactic chosen by us was absolutely right," Penkov said."
The environmental activists Penkov was referring to are obviously the protesters campaigning to save Strandja (see my July 9 post). Suhodol is a Sofia suburb where the garbage of the entire city is stockpiled; the garbage was to be dumped there for a fixed period of time but the city authorities continued transporting it to Suhodol after the deadline and this triggered protests by residents. I am not sure which retired people Penkov meant, but police have recently mounted a campaign against old women who try to make ends meet by "unauthorized" sale of flowers and berries in the streets (Simion Pateev eye-witnessed one case and described it at http://nabludatel.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post_08.html, in Bulgarian).
In all these cases, the police acted brutally against people unwilling and often unable to defend themselves by force. I haven't blogged about this, as I didn't initially intend to blog about this week's riots. I am not going to let either the Gypsy problems or our rogue police dominate my blog. But Penkov's statement was too juicy to omit. Let me translate its essence to plain understandable language.
"We, the police, are prepared and willing to use force against offenders such as peaceful protesters and old women selling flowers. Don't demand us to confront numerous armed and aggressive men. We were quite right not to intervene in this situation, because it was unsafe."
This is indeed exactly the attitude and mode of action of Bulgarian police, as I have observed it for years. However, it was surprising for me that Penkov said it in plain text.

"Alfa Roma"

Recently, my husband had to go to the airport - one of the few occasions when he needs a taxi. As usual, he called his favourite taxi company. It is known as "1 Dollar Taxi" and isn't among the biggest in the industry.
And as usual, my mother in-law was angry. "Why did he call them again? There are only Gypsy drivers working there; in fact, the company is named "Alfa Roma". Some time they'll drive him to some remote place and rob him."
("Roma" is the politically correct term for "Gypsy".)
As a matter of fact my husband, despite his habit to go to the airport late, has never (yet) missed a plane. Besides, I feel there is something wrong with my mother in-law's logic. After we demand the Gypsies to work, it isn't very honest to boycott them when they do. So these days, when I needed a taxi and saw a "1 Dollar" approaching, I raised my hand.
The taxi was quite good. The company may hire Gypsy drivers (and I think it is good if it does) but that particular driver was white. And while on the outside of the car was written the popular name "1 Dollar Taxi", inside there was a label with the official name of the company. It was "Alfa Romeo" with some additional letters.
I don't know why. Possibly they have some agreement with the auto producer.

Dimitar Stoyanov, the child prodigy of the Ataka party

The Ataka party is the newest jewel in the crown of the Bulgarian democracy. I have devoted an earlier post to it and its fuhrer Volen Siderov (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2006/04/volen-siderov.html).
The youngest member of the parliamentary group of the Ataka party is the student Dimitar Stoyanov. He is grandson of the late satirical writer Radoi Ralin, whose short poems mocking the Communist reality had made him a legend. He is also an informal stepson of Volen Siderov. (Stoyanov's mother has divorced his father, Radoi Ralin's son, and is now living with Siderov). You guess that with such relations, the young man's personal qualities were hardly decisive for his political career.
Last year, the election campaign in my district, Zaharna fabrika, was shaped by an ugly crime. A crowd of Gipsies attacked partying Bulgarians and beat to death one of them. Then, Ataka made a series of rallies in the district, gathering Bulgarian audience and supplying anti-Gipsy talk to it. Of course I didn't take part in these rallies, neither did my husband, but my mother in-law attended most of them. I know from her that Stoyanov was a regular speaker and was "talking very well". Indeed, she added, there was another student who was talking equally well, if not better, yet the party didn't include him in its parliamentary group. I commented that the other student had no famous grandfather and no mother sleeping with Volen Siderov, so his rhetorical abilities weren't enough to catapult him into the Parliament.
Later, Stoyanov was sent to the European Parliament as an observer. And here comes the present scandal. You can read a short version in English at http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/observer-from-bulgaria-causes-european-parliament-scandal/id_17938/catid_68. However, the report at http://www.dnes.bg/article.php?id=27977 (in Bulgarian, but look at it anyway to see Stoyanov's photo) is much more juicy, so I'm translating below.

"Two days after the EU decided about Bulgarian membership, Ataka MP Dimitar Stoyanov managed to create a racist scandal in the European Parliament... Invited to support the nomination of Hungarian member of Parliament of Roma origin Livia Jaroka for a human rights award, Stoyanov sent to his colleagues an e-mail to explain why he was against it.
Here is the text of the e-mail: "In my country, there are tens of thousands of Gipsy girls, much more beautiful than this respectable lady. In fact, if you are at the right place in the right time, you can even buy one (aged 12-13) to make her your loving wife. The best of them are very expensive - up to EUR 5000... Let's return to Miss Laroka's nomination. Believe me, I've seen many Gipsy women, but all of them at her age were much leaner. Doesn't she share the terrible suffering Roma people throughout Europe have to endure, the poverty, miserable conditions and unemployment?..."
...The mailbox of the Bulgarian observers was flooded by dozens of angry e-mails... In response, Siderov's stepson sent out a second e-mail presumed to be an apology. However, the scandal's author added to his apology accusation to the members of the European Parliament. Here is the text: "In the 21st century, to accuse somebody in racism is the gravest insult. According to Bulgarian law, if somebody is insulted and replies with an insult, charges against both can be dropped. I think this is what happened. Once again, I offer my sincere apology to Miss Livia Laroka... But I also feel insulted because I am not a racist, I am proud to be a Bulgarian, a member of Parliament and observer...""

No comment needed, I think.
By the way, my mother in-law first heard the story from me. Her reaction: "Unfortunately, this isn't very surprising. There are even rumours he is taking drugs."
It seems to be true that you cannot deceive people indefinitely!

A racist post

A Gypsy ghetto in Sofia, built on mucipality land without any permissions, was scheduled for demolition last Friday. However, Tsvetelin Kanchev, leader of the Euro-Roma party, notified members of the European Parliament. Four of them (from the Green Party) sent a furious letter to the Bulgarian Prime Minister Stanishev. As a result, the demolition is postponed (a link in Bulgarian, http://www.btv.bg/news/?magic=bulgaria&story=50471).
I've posted earlier both about the Gypsies (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2006/04/gipsies-in-rasnik.html) and the EU (http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/2006/06/why-i-am-reserved-towards-european.html).
Let me first say who Tsvetelin Kanchev is. I'm translating his page in Wikipedia: "He feels a Gypsy by soul... Media call him Don Tsetsi... He was elected in Parliament in 1997 in the group of the Bulgarian Business Block party, later moved to the Euro-Left party. Founder and then chairman of the Euro-Roma party (founded in 1998)... Stripped of his immunity in 1999, sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment in 2000 for beatings and abductions... Released in 2003, pardoned in 2005..."
As you see, the self-appointed defender of the Gypsies is a convicted felon. Also, he isn't of Gypsy origin. In fact, he tried to present himself as a Gypsy, but too many people had witnessed and talked about his birth and growth in a Bulgarian family. One should ask, what motivation had this criminal to embrace the Gypsies? I guess, he sensed that there are much Euro-money and power associated with the Gypsy cause ("Euro" is another buzz word in the above citation).
Gypsies, the only surviving nomadic people of Europe, got swamped by the modernization wave of the 20th century. Without having ever been very productive, they degraded to a parasitic and aggressive community becoming more numerous, parasitic and aggressive with every generation. Gypsies originate from India and so have a slightly darker skin colour that other Europeans, which allows everybody talking about the Gypsy problem to be labeled as a racist. Yes, racism and discrimination against the Gypsies do exist, but they aren't the real trouble. The real trouble is that Gypsy adults don't work and Gypsy kids don't go to school, and no name-calling can change this disastrous fact.
To be solved, the Gypsy problem requires indefinite supply of funds, resolve, expertise and goodwill. Unfortunately, none of this is available in Bulgaria and, as I see, in the EU even less. The EU is virtually hijacked by the brainless and destructive Left. There are basic rules of economy (You cannot distrubute more that is produced), upbringing (Never encourage unwanted behaviour) and law (Nobody must be allowed to benefit from his guilty behaviour). The Left, on the contrary, think that all problems in the society can be solved by taxing productive law-abiding people and distrubuting the money among non-productive and law-breaking people. The Left particularly like taxing white people in order to subsidize coloured people. And the more parasitic and aggressive these coloured people are, the more they are viewed by the Left as victims and darlings. These leftist attitudes transformed the Third World immigrants into the greatest menace for Europe. Without the Left, I'm sure, these immigrants would be ordinary workers and taxpayers. I bet that without the Left even the famous Palestinians would by today be an unremarkable community of olive producers. I wish to tell the European Leftists, "Please leave us alone with our minorities! Unlike yours, ours at least don't put bombs in subways. But if you continue to mess, nobody knows."

Volen Siderov

Today Volen Siderov will lead a rally in Sofia to protest the planned creation of US military bases in Bulgaria. So it is a good day to write a post about this unpleasant man.
I have no information about the pre-1989 biography of Volen Siderov, except what the paper Starshel wrote - that he was a photographer working for the militia (i.e. the communist police) in the town of Vratza. So nobody seems to know why after 1989 Siderov was appointed as an editor of the anticommunist newspaper Demokratsia ("Democracy") and later became Editor-in-chief.
Later Siderov was fired from the paper (which, by the way, exists no more) and stopped pretending to be a democrat. He started a show called Ataka ("Attack") on the cable channel Scat TV. I have had an occasional glance of his show. It is based on primitive hate of The Others - the Jews, the Gypsies, the Turks, the Americans and so on - blaming all Bulgaria's problems on them. Of course there is plenty of nationalistic talk, waiving the Bulgarian flag etc. (Unlike some other countries, e.g. USA, in Bulgaria good people don't have the habit to waive the national flag and show their patriotic feelings in public.)
During last year's election campaign, Siderov suddenly formed a political party naming it Ataka after his show. Its program followed the same pseudo-patriotic and hate-mongering pattern. In his public appearances, Siderov showed much similarity to Hitler, most likely due to careful watching of Hitler's videotapes and deliberate imitation. He used very efficiently the murder of a Bulgarian professor by Gypsies (mentioned in my previous post). His party organized rallies in the district where the murder occurred and elsewhere and promised law and order to the Bulgarians.
Days before the elections, my friend traveled in a taxi. The driver said he would vote for Ataka because he was fed up with the Gypsies. My friend asked, "If Ataka wins, do you imagine they will make the Gypsies disappear?" After some thinking, the driver replied, "You are right." But few were asking questions, and Ataka emerged after the elections as the No. 4 political force, performing better than any of the anticommunist parties. Some commentators, trying to exonerate the pro-Ataka voters, said this was a legitimate protest vote. But Starshel again offered the best comment. It was titled The headless voter (reminiscent to Mayne Reid's novel The Headless Horseman) and said that voters deserve much blame when they voluntarily choose to be headless people instead of citizens.
In the Parliament, Ataka continued with the hate talk and nothing else. However, several weeks ago an incident made headlines. I'll copy some text from the blog An Englishman in Bulgaria (http://bulgarbrit.blogspot.com/):
"It all started when the glorious fuhrer, Volen Siderov, was involved in a minor car crash. He was quick to make the most of it, claiming that it was a failed assassination attempt. However, after some police investigation a more plausible story emerged. Pavel Chernev, the Ataka deputy leader, was travelling with Siderov when their car hit another. Chernev got out of the vehicle and proceeded to beat up the driver of the other vehicle. This was the story until Chernev changed it - claiming that Siderov persuaded him to take the blame when it was really Siderov's driver that carried out the assault. Siderov apparently wanted to protect the driver, who was already on probation for other crimes. Chernev was allegedly paid to be the fall guy, according to nationalist MP Mitko Dimitrov. "Chernev had no money at the end of last week, but now he seems to be quite rich," he told reporters. I don't know why Chernev changed his story, but Volen Siderov is still sticking to his claim that it is all a vast conspiracy to discredit him and his party. Personally, I think he is doing a good job of this himself. "
I wish to add that the driver of the other car was a student taking his 84-year old sick grandfather to the hospital. Siderov's companion not only beat the student and reportedly the old man too, but perforated the tires of their car to prevent their eventual "escape". The boy was studying in Britain and, being out of touch with Bulgarian political life, was quite shocked. He thought he was in the hands of bandits or possibly roque cops, who in Bulgaria are sometimes difficult to distinguish from bandits.
Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that we become what we pretend to be and therefore we must be careful what we pretend to be. Siderov imitated the madman Hitler so keenly that started to behave like a madman himself. I hope this story will bring about his political demise, but one should not be too optimistic about the Bulgarian reality - here almost everything is possible.

Gypsies in Rasnik

Yesterday we went to Rasnik again. At the garden gate, there was un unpleasent surprise: the padlock was damaged, apparently by manipulation, and couldn't be unlocked.
"Somebody has attempted to unlock it and enter," my husband said.
"I wonder whether they have succeeded," my mother-in-law said. "We must check whether everything inside is in place. This could be expected. There used to be no Gypsies in Rasnik, but last year a family came to live here."
My husband called neighbor Vassil to ask for some instrument to cut the padlock. And we immediately learned how it had happened.
Vassil has keys of the house and has accepted the duty to keep un eye on it when we are not there. We had left some very old clothes outside to dry properly, so that to use them as rags. Vassil saw the clothes and thought we had forgotten them. So he unlocked the garden gate, collected them, but when he attempted to lock again, the padlock didn't behave normally and a small part fell out of it. (You can guess that our padlock was not top technology.)
I would not write about this minor incident if Gypsies were not mentioned. Like other Bulgarians and other Bulgarian minorities, I am not a fan of Gypsies. We have prejudice against them, and like almost all prejudice, it is firmly based on facts. Last year, about 100 meters from our home, a Gypsy was insulted and allegedly hit by Bulgarians at a cafe. He brought back a crowd of maddened Gypsies who attacked all Bulgarians at that cafe, killing a professor. (You see, I mention his degree, because if he were un unemployed man with 8 grades of educaton, somebody could say he must have been to blame.) About a week ago and a kilometer away from our home, a 22-year-old Gypsy man quarreled with several Bulgarian teenagers, took out a gun and shot at them. Three schoolboys were injured, a 14-year-old seriously.
Still, you see that when we rush to blame The Others for all our troubles, we are leaving the path to Truth and stepping onto the path to Hell.
By the way, several years ago the house in Rasnik was robbed by some young men who were not Gypsies. Two years ago, such young non-Gypsy men also wanted to rob it, but left when they saw that it was occupied. (My mother-in-law was there with her granddaughter.) Because of this incident, my mother-in-law supplied the windows with bars. I regretted it, because now the house has some similarity to a prison, and it will be harder to leave in emergency.