Living in Bulgaria

Keeping pets at home will soon be controlled by a new regulation of the Sofia Municipality. Part of a three-year project aimed at control of stray animals, the regulation will determine requirements for obtaining, possesion and keeping pets and will be adjusted to the Animal Protection Law. According to the new regulation, the owners will have to secure 10, 15 and 19 square metres for small-, average- and big-sized dogs respectively. Cat owners will have to secure 25 square metres for their favourites. In an effort to improve registration system for domestic dogs, the Municipality plans to increase the registration fee to 24 leva. There will be designated places for walking dogs in Sofia. Containers for disposing of dog waste will be installed.

According to the program, in three years the only stray dogs left in Sofia will be living in the dog shelters, built as part of the project.

Do you think this ambitious program will be a success or failure?

Yekaterina

It’s good to know that Sofia Municipality is not going to raise prices for public transportation. The service that Sofia Public Transport Company (SKGT) offers is overpriced and unsatisfactory, to put it mildly. The tram cars are almost always dirty and overcrowded. Are you using public transport or prefer driving a car?

Yekaterina

Every country has its own cultural peculiarities. The French are said to be good judges of wining and dining. Americans are notorious for knowing how to make the American dream come true and hit the jackpot. Sadly, the Russians are mostly known for their drinking habits. Bulgarians say about themselves that the three things that every Bulgarian understands are politics, soccer and drinking. (Трите нещта, от които всеки българин разбира: политика, футбол и пиене). What are the first three things that come to your mind when you think of Bulgarians?

Yekaterina

Have you had your martenitsa yet? Have you been told that it’s a oh so very unique Bulgarian tradition? Then you might be surprised to know that you will be seeing the same red and white threads worn on lapels in Romania these days. However, it is only children and women who wear them. But the symbolic meaning is the same - the ornament is believed to bring health and good luck. Have you heard of any other country sporting something similar to the Bulgarian martenitsas?

Ani

Route taxis, that’s what they should be called. I have heard all too many excuses from taxi drivers who sit in their cars in the street and are obviously out there to work rather than for the pleasure of it. Or are they? Recently one taxi driver told me he was going to Mladost so he could drive me there and nowhere else. Often I am refused a ride to an address if the taxi driver deems it ”too close”. And yesterday one of them came up with a different but equally impressive reason - he quoted the traffic jam. It makes you think why do they bother to get into the cabs at all?

by Ani Ivanova

Are you going to vote? If not, why? And if yes, what are your reasons?  I just wonder what your thoughts are.

Yesterday (October 11) almost 50,000 teachers and their supporters demonstrated in front of the parliament building. Attitudes seem to be hardening on both sides following the debacle over ministers’ tactless gaffes. What is the way forward? How can either side save face? Who do we blame - the intransigence of the government or the inflexibility of teachers? How can the government offer the teachers what they want without triggering a wages’ spiral? As so often, perhaps there will be a compromise agreeable to both parties. But when? And what about the children being deprived of an education? How will the lost teaching time be made up? Continue to tell us what you think. Should ministerial heads roll or should teachers bite the bullet and accept the offer on the table?

Teachers are demanding a 100 percent pay increase - it sounds like an absurd demand but it still wouldn’t be sufficient for a teacher in the UK to roll out of bed, even taking into account differentials in living costs! The government responds that it has to be fiscally responsible and that the budget cannot meet all the demands of public sector workers. But how can teachers be expected to exist on 350 leva a month?

The other night on the news a teacher of 20 years’ standing held up her pay-slip before the cameras - she was taking home just 318 leva a month. How can any civilised society justify these derisory wages? Or do people believe that teachers are responsible for their own misfortunes? And how can we distinguish good teachers from bad, given that Bulgarian education in Bulgaria is deemed to be so unsatisfactory?

Surely our teachers deserve a better deal. What do you think?

You probably are aware the local election campaign has begun - if not  by the long postponed road works - in the case of Sofia, then by all  the posters and the free concerts in towns’ squares throughout the country. If living in Gabrovo, you may already know a British guy, Clive Wilkinson, is running for municipal councillor. For more, check out VAGABOND’s forthcoming October issue.

I’m Bulgarian which means I’m pretty used to the sullen faces in all public institutions, from libraries  and municipal bodies to shops and restaurants. Although things have changed for the better in recent years, I sometimes am inclined to think we’re still in the 1980s when customers had to beg to get anything done for them. My most recent experience with sulky and what is more incompetent staff was at Sofia’s central bus station where I was first misled about the bus hours and then sold the wrong ticket for the wrong price. My protests faced with a silent wall hidden behind a newspaper although I didn’t want the girl to be polite on a bad day, I only wanted to buy the right ticket.

Ani Ivanova