A pleasant crisis

Everywhere you go these days in Bulgaria you hear about the crisis. People avoid celebrating the holidays in restaurants and they make jokes about how santa claus is coping with the crisis. In the weekly Kapital writers take a glance at 2011. An optimist argues that the bottom is reached, while a pessimist argue that the crisis will continue throughout an unknown future.

True enough, Bulgaria has been affected by the international financial turmoil. Unemployment have risen, and remains uncomfortably high even after the country returned to GDP growth earlier this year. Bulgarian companies are cautious about investing, and many Bulgarians are forced to cut down expenses. But I am still a little curious about the strong feeling of crisis.



Data from Eurostat

There are hardly any Bulgarian now who does not remember times that were rougher than this. Much rougher. After all, the current unemplyment levels are hardly higher than they were in 2006, when the country was booming. The crisis in Bulgaria is nothing compared to its neighbours Romania and Greece, or even in the Irish tiger economy. Wouldn't the correct emotional response be "thanks god we live in Bulgaria and not in Greece or Ireland"?

Such a response would probably demand a massive mental change in a country that by and large sees itself as a poor corner of Europe. But the sense of crisis probably is probably well founded. One reason is that unemployment in Bulgaria is still a very diferent reality in than what it is in the west.Another is the massive mistrust against politicians. When the world is shaking, Bulgarians wisely enough do not trust their own politicians to do what not even Obama has been able to do - turn the economy around. The statistics might look promising now, but they can be replaced with bad surprises any day. In the Kapital article mentioned above, the pessimist first of all mentioned the risk that misdirected populism causes havoc in the Bulgarian economy with increased spenditure, taxes and borrowing. Few will object against that.

Maybe more striking than fear of the future in this article was the pride with wich Kapitals economical writers discussed this subject. They have always loved to discuss fundamental economical issues rather than business news (which makes the paper readable), and it is as if they enjoy having found a topic both worthy of discussion and relevant for Bulgarian everyday life.

This crisis is not the kind of crisis that empty people's stomachs, but it is historical news. For the first time in a very long time, Bulgaria is so integrated in the western hemisphere, that her economical development is more dependent on what happens in Brussels and New York, than on decicions by maverick Balkan politicians. The fact that Bulgaria is in a moderate state of crisis like all other European countries hint at something that many Bulgarians have been waiting for: she is finally becoming just a normal country.

(Which by the way, The Economist realized before me... )

Winter in Sofia.

Europe is a funny thing - the eastern and western part are like two siblings, constantly competing, thinking they know all abut each other, and bot feeling utterly misunderstood. Noone can misunderstand you like your own family. The prejudices run deep, and years of experience don't seemt to change much. Most Bulgarians think that Sweden is always very cold, and that everyone take their own life, which is not true. Swedish people think that Bulgarians drive Ladas, and that it is as warm as Spain. This is also not true. Sofia is currently covered in beautiful white snow, that adds an extra factor to the chaotic traffic.

There are other problems than traffic jams, of course. In any crowded bus here, there are always at least two old ladies (why always women?) who start arguing with each other. Initially about something very concrete, like whose seat it is, but the discussion quickly escalates to be about the new political leadership, the old political leadership, corruption, "taja durjava" (this state), the influence of communism and why not the 500 years of turkish occupation. Yes, there are actually quite a lot of people here who think that nothing has been right since beore the turks came in the middle ages, I saw some of the nationalist organisations dealing out flyers on a square today.

It is possible that this Bulgarian national sport of complaining, and blame whoever rules the country has been aggravated by the financial crisis, which is definitely elt as much here as elsewhere in Europe. Yesterday in a shopping mall a little boy passsed me by asking his dad what crisis everyone was talking about. "The FINANCIAL crisis" the dad answered in a strained but pedagogical voice.

In a way it is silly to speak about a crisis here. What is going on now is nothing at all like the dismemberment of society in the wake of the fall of communism, in -93 and -97. That was a real crisis, where peoples existance was at stake. In many ways Bulgaria have just recently got up after those blows.

This one is of course much smaller, and just like in Sweden it has the caracteristics of hard times under capitalism. What is an existential crisis for those who ose their job, is not even a problem for those who can keep theirs. Many Bulgarians have as much money as ever, and the streets are as clean as ever. For others it is really tough now.

If this was the whole story, the Swedish and West European picture of one of Europes poorest countries (an attitude that is not much different whatever country in South Eastern Europe we are talking about) would make sense. But the problem with a prejudice is not that it is wrong the problem is that it leaves out vital parts of reality.

In Sofia today you can for example see Picasso, Dalí, Miro and Chagall paintings, for free. I have seen Dalís in Paris as well, but at a much higher price. You can also get a cheap cup of coffee in a cosy café, where wireless is free to use. That is valuable for a blogger, and symptomatic forcultural life in Sofia. When things happen they are much more inclusive than in the west, where you need at least one university degree to feel welcomed on a Picasso Exibition. There is a liberating abscence of canons, which makes it easy to incorporate all kinds of cutural influences. Here high litterature mix with hip hop in a way that could not be unnatural, only innovative.

Here are some street pictures from today, to give you a more tangible experience...To see them you will nee Firefox 3.5 or similar browsers that can play video without a flash player.