“So now what? You all have graduated and will now flood the capital instead of going back to where you came from?!” Capital overload I had just finished my undergraduate school in Blagoevgrad, a southern Bulgarian town, and was having dinner with professors and alumni in Sofia. The above remark came from […]

Here in Bulgaria the International Women’s Day is humorously called “The Florist’s Day.” Since the early morning hours, flower retailers suddenly start occupying the streets and offering their merchandise at a double or triple price. Bulgaria has a long tradition of celebrating March 8, dating back from Communist times and […]

Old and New Europe opened their borders to each other through a formal political and economic partnership meant to deliver peace, stability and prosperity, a partnership to help raise living standards in the 27 member states as if they were one country called the European Union. When Bulgaria and Romania […]

All the discussions about developments in today’s politics, society and governance inevitably start with the assumption that because the world has become a worse place to live in when compared to previous periods, all our mutual efforts should be directed towards making it work better. However, I am quite skeptical about this idea as […]

When Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid in December 2010, nobody expected what was going to happen afterwards. Several observers and experts attempted to draw a parallel between events in Tunisia and the dramatic changes that took place in eastern European countries after […]