Expatriate Statement - Untrue!

It was commented by an expatriate today that Bulgarians have loads of time off work for celebrations and festivities, whatever the cause, but don’t have any money to fully take advantage of the party times. This comment was taken and put in perspective when mentioning that it was the opposite in the UK where people have lots of disposable income, but no time off from work to spend it on partying.

Generalisation just makes my blood boil and this is a fine example of that. How can anyone make a statement like that and label everyone as being the same here in Bulgaria or likewise in the UK? Why say something like that, is it a reaction they are after or is it just being too lazy to draw more into the observation, which actually isn’t an accurate observation anyway?

I took the essence of the comment and made the point that many Bulgarians don’t need money to celebrate or party, they just need company and there’s plenty of that around with their normal socialable habits. Good cheap homemade food and drink with company and a television provides a formula for celebrations that cost no more than a normal evening meal anyway. In fact it is cheaper to have a get together and party as the savings on heating just one home rather than several makes good economic sense.

It is always a cold winter here and most people are tucked away in one heated single room whether entertaining others or not, why do they need riches to be happy in joyful communities?

So for someone to say that Bulgarians can’t afford to party is a categorical lie.

What Makes a Good Christmas?

Having now got really quite sick by watching all the crap on TV about buying expensive Christmas presents, I saw an article today that tried to answer the question, what makes a good Christmas? The conclusion was, and I agree, covered many things but definitely not money.

We will be spending Christmas with family here in Bulgaria with lots of food, drink, music, dance talk and love, but no expensive present swapping. Firstly we can't afford it and secondly, which leads on from the first point, it is insulting and quite rude to give expensive presents here it just embarrasses.

I have quoted an exert from the article I read, and mentally equated to it really easily, how about you?

From Money doesn't make a good Christmas

If spending money on expensive gifts is what makes a good Christmas for some people, I sorrow for their Christmases when money is tight.

At this time, when more and more people are struggling to pay their bills and keep ahead of gloomy economic forecasts, it's nice to know a good Christmas is really about love and good will, smiles and songs, friendship and family.

At its most basic level, a good Christmas is about a young couple, arriving in a strange place with nowhere to stay but a stable full of animals and no gifts to give each other but the baby that was born there.

That was a good Christmas.

Poverty Trap in Bulgaria

Having been living in Bulgaria for quite a few years now it has become more and more apparent that lack of money and high inflation are big problems for most people in Bulgaria. My family here are no exception. Even with our increasing poverty, the bandwagon of western influence hits hard on the weakness of materialism and greed. Everyday Bulgaria is being bombarded with adverts for new cars, fast food and numerous credit options to take to pay for these. It is a vicious spiral of temptation and a constant fight for many Bulgarians to feel that they have to have many things that aren’t commensurate to their income. It is a sick feeling I get when watching and experiencing this as my family here are glued to all the influence of advertising with a wish list of most things that are thrown at them.

Just to put this in perspective, our income as a family here is just enough to put our heads above water. Galia earns £140 a month and Baba’s pension comes to just over £60 a month. That’s £50 a week to live on,before I became part of the family and Galia didn’t have any work. They just lived on just that measly pension. Without my contribution from my small savings brought here (and that won’t last long as things are) the family would suffer intolerable poverty and stress. How many other families are in this poverty trap with inflation running as around 25% in real terms? Wages and pensions never keep up with inflation here so it just gets worse month after month.

A quick word about inflation here: We all know how much things have gone up in price here. We see the 30% increase in gas and electric over the last six months, we see the cost of homes rising at over 20% + per annum and we see the cost of food shoot up, even in the height of the growing season! No matter what Bulgarian politicians and manipulative economists conjure up as the rate of inflation, the people of Bulgaria living on a day-to-day basis here, know the what the real inflation rate is

Now it’s not just being lured into paying for luxury goods by credit as it now becomes a ‘normal’ way of funding, but having to pay for essentials by credit is becoming more common. Credit is now here to stay in Bulgaria, this wasn’t the case a few years ago.

It really is so difficult to forecast where this will end. There is no sign of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow here but just a case of trying to avoid the hell of running up credit. I can see many in the future here, many mortgaging their homes to fund day-to-day living. Looking even further ahead, many more will lose their properties to the banks and the next generation will not inherit their rightful homes causing more credit and mortgage runs.

The only advantage Bulgarians have over this wave of western materialistic virus is their in-built system of surviving through poverty using effective practicalities to combat this. This time however Bulgarians are not just against simple poverty of basic needs, but a danger of succumbing American culture and ways. In case you didn’t know, this is where it all the advertising comes from. There just isn’t the infrastructure in Bulgaria to live this way and they are taking advantage of a country whose population are easily led through the media looking glass.

Supermarket Slavery and Bulgarian Lemmings

Supermarket slavery to some may seem like a strong statement - but just ask anyone who has worked for these profit making monsters, me included. It is rooted right down the line their complete and prime objective to make money and total disregard for any humanity in the workforce.

Supermarket slavery goes deeper than the shop floor and the checkout girl with the grim face.... add Bulgarian lemmings and you have something called workforce manipulation in full flow!

Stories about Bulgarian being lured to the UK to work for pittance and live in squalid condition carries on regardless. What on earth possess these skilled workers, many with University education, to go and do work that Brits don't want to do. This picture of the the UK where the streets are paved with gold still stands in the mind of many foreigners who haven't been there!

Recent stories still hit the headlines one in particular where some weren't even paid for their services made under a false promises. Where do these unfortunate Bulgarian workers' get legal support? Where is their trade union? Who has their interests at heart? The only way this particular incident was resolved was apparently only through media attention. Where does this leave all other instances out of the public eye? Simple answer really it still carries on regardless.

Most of the workforce are there in the food chain geared up to serve supermarkets with their massive profit margins. Why do they have gross amounts of profit? - because of the proven 'criminal' cost cutting exercises that go on further back in the food chain process.

Much of this goes on where sub contracting work goes on but who is responsible for the contractors who lure these workers? Much is unregulated and even now where there claims to be more mandatory regulation introduced. Regardless of this, history dictates that this 'immoral system' contrived by the pressures of profits will still continues due to the screw being turned from supermarket demands.

The supermarkets on the face of it may have a moral responsibility from the root of their profits to account for the treatment of indirect industries that make them so successful. Vetting can be made throughout the food chain process with a drop in the ocean to them in terms of investment needed to solve this.

It should be mentioned that would be a complete u-turn in policy from them as their sole aim is to make as much profit as possible which leads to this corner cutting and feeding off the poor, in essence turning a purposeful blind eye to anything that involves additional cost nibbling away at profits.

The money earned by and Eastern European workforce in Britain for unskilled agricultural work is between 3-4 Euros per hour. How on earth will they pay for their ticket back home on this let alone sending back any disposal income to families back there? It would seem they would be better of finding work in their own country as least they wouldn't go hungry!

With my ear to the ground in Bulgaria there is still this impression that the UK is rich hunting ground for 'loads of money' jobs. Even with negative publicity pushed upon them they are still like Bulgarian lemmings jumping off a cliff. The only saving grace to many is that they can't afford the flight to the UK in the first place.

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