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I think I've said that in some of my previous postings, but I will repeat it: I do support a delay, not because I want it, but because I believe Bulgaria is not ready. And from what I have heard, Romania is not ready either.
One thing for sure is that  the rate of organized crime in Bulgaria has been by now impossible to control. Let us not only think about the people who got killed, but what they did to deserve their fate, what businesses were they involved with, and how many people they have also done harm? Doktora was the big boss of the cigarette smuggling business, and he was believed to be involved with Marko Milosevic, the son of the former president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic. Then the next question is: how such people as Doktora did what they did, and where was the state then when it had to interfere and sue, and send to prison all those people, who were spoiling its image in front of its European partners?
The other thing is that even if we become members on time, it would be better if we do not acquire an immediate access to all the EU freedoms. Why? Because Bugarians have a weird interpretation of what freedom is and they have a strange inclination to abuse it, and this will be good neither for the Union, nor for our country. In Bulgaria changes need to happen gradually, because overnight they simply cannot.

I can resist anything but temptation.- Oscar Wilde
by Little L (ljolito (at) gmail (dot) com) on Sun Mar 5th, 2006 at 04:13:13 PM EST
Yes, Little L, i absolutely agree: the state has been doing little to punish the mafia and we need to do things gradually. I just disagree Bulgarians have a weird interpretation of freedom: i'd call it an immature interpretation. The reason is that we haven't had a lot of democracy, we haven't had enough time to establish our institutions and we still tend to have more respect for personalities, not for traditions. We just need time.

Another reason why a delay would be good is the perception of the Bulgarian public. Most common people seem to be saying, the EU will be bad for us - now we're making ends meet, what will we do when we join the union? Nobody seems to be responding to this in human language, to the point. The more chagrined the public is, the harder it'll be for our politicians to sell their policies.

by Brownie on Sun Mar 5th, 2006 at 08:25:39 PM EST
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I totally agree with your interpretation of why Bulgarians have an imature interpretation of freedom. Communism leaves a permanent scar,which is difficult to erase.

Yes, it is also true that our politicians do not give the society sufficient information about what and why they are making certain policies. I have just a small disagreement with you. Most of the people in Bulgaria are very positive about the country joining the EU. The problem is that they do not exactly know what the good thing is, and which is more important, they do not believe the membership will affect them personally in a positive way. So, the attitudes of the society are a little controversial :-)


I can resist anything but temptation.- Oscar Wilde

by Little L (ljolito (at) gmail (dot) com) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 06:17:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I totally agree with your interpretation of why Bulgarians have an imature interpretation of freedom. Communism leaves a permanent scar,which is difficult to erase.

Well, there was not much of freedom and real democracy before 'communism' either, so these problems run deeper.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 06:27:41 AM EST
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Actually from what I've heard from my parents, there was none. I was lucky enough to be born just 5 years before communism collapsed and don't remeber much. The only thing that's clear in my mind is how I loved bananas and oranges, and they never sold any, only for New Year. My father once went to Hungary and when he returned, he brought me two bananas, but by the time he was home, they had already gotten rotten. Sorry for going offtopic, I'm sure everyone from the Eastern bloc can share similar, if not worse, experience.

I can resist anything but temptation.- Oscar Wilde
by Little L (ljolito (at) gmail (dot) com) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 06:52:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
What I meant is that 1989/90 was our year zero in freedom and democracy, not a return, and the past what many of our right-wingers were either whitewashing or yearning to return to was rather ugly in many ways. Hence, this immature sense of freedom is not the consequence of 'communism', but of an almost unbroken sequence of various dictatures or oligarchies or rigged/limited democracies for thousands of years.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 07:01:10 AM EST
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