Pride for your country and standing up for the protection of that is something that has fast disappeared from where I come from. So when I read about this story in Yambol where I now live, work and fell like this is now home, it is a pride that was felt for Yambol and Bulgaria as a whole.There has been legal proceedings being taken against five Gypsy citizens who were witnessed tearing down the national flag of Bulgaria. This incident happened in a school in back in February 2008.
A 19 year old teenager (whose name was published) has had added charges of resisting arrest.
It took place is a local village school, but originally was prime news as the policeman who arrested the five was accused of beating them up. He was completely acquitted of the accusations a few weeks ago. The said policeman now confirmed that he would testify in the trial against the youngsters who as well as insulting the Bulgarian flag, now they had been found to have made up the story about being beat up.
There is strong support from Bulgarians across the country, as well as civil organizations and political figures publically in favour of the proceedings going ahead.
Talking to Bulgarians locally about this, they all agree that the degrading not only Bulgaria's national emblem (the flag) but the emblem of any country that looks after you, educates you and feeds you is blatant anarchy and should not be tolerated. They went on to say that it was an insult to the Bulgarian people.
Many gypsies in Bulgaria don't conform to Bulgarian law, segregate themselves away from Bulgarian society and many don't even consider themselves to be Bulgarian. This is an ongoing problem here with no resolution in sight. Bulgaria is seen now to be making a stand in this case namely that no one, regardless of their religion or other 'beliefs' is above the law and indeed the spirit of law.Bulgaria has many faults, but on this my view I say "Good on you Bulgaria!"
Meh, I don't like the article's tonality, I saw it in a couple of places.
ReplyDeleteAll of them had either Roma or Gypsy in the headlines, which only feeds the hatred for this ethnic group and to be honest, many Bulgarians don't consider these people Bulgarian either.
As for the flag thing... I guess they should be judged for vandalism and public disorder or sth of the sort. Nations draw lines across the planet that some cannot cross and those born within those lines might have a fortunate or a miserable life based on that. Then there are also forces of nationalism.
This is why I don't think doing something with a nation's symbol is a bad thing. The nation (any nation) itself is great at defacing itself; why does it outlaw competition?
I guess we have very different views about this ;-)
Baz, I respect your point, but I guess like you say, we will have to disagree on this particular principle.
ReplyDeleteLike you I agree that there is nothing wrong with being anti-Nationalistic, it's a free world, but not the point of detriment and antagonising of others who are.
If you want to deface the National flag, fine, but do it in private and don't stir up and incite public disorder.
Bear in mind that Bulgarian law was broken and arrests were made from this - it can be looked upon as simple as that.