With Lilly out of town I had an old fashioned, immature, extra long, boys weekend watching 12 world championship football games back-to-back in JJ Murphys Irish Pub (www.jjmurphys.net), and more to come.
Business and cultural events such as the Albena Media Events (http://2006.bwa.bg) (where The Sofia Echo picked up two prizes) and the Monday night Sting (www.sting.com) concert in Nessebar passed me by as ships in the night. From Friday afternoon, when we supported Costa Rica against the Germans, to Saturday when it became dangerous not to support the English, and Sunday when the future and the bar became Orange, until Monday when the Socceroos started Oz fest 2006.
As I am writing this on Tuesday due to the strict deadline imposed on me by our heartless editor and his team of enforcers, the match between the Boys from Brazil and the Crazy Croats shall be discussed next week. My silly money is on the Croats
During all these matches there was loads of time for passionate discussions between the different expats about life and it in this Pearl of the Balkans (www.bulgaria.com). After all, you cannot stay focused on 22 men and a ball for that long.
I overheard and partook in alcohol-fuelled debates about why this is such a great place to live, the generousness of the people, the friendliness towards foreigners, the usually great weather, the affordability and the good atmosphere in general. It was a pleasure how positively the majority of this collection of international misfits talked about their new motherland in terms of their personal lives. Of course, there were some exceptions, but they shall be ignored It became very clear to me that for many it was as much their disenchantment with life in their home country as the advantages of their new one that made them stay here.
Even more interesting were the discussions about doing business in Bulgaria. The entire group, which included guys from a variety of industries and trades such as real estate, IT, telecoms, film, transport, banking, embassies, retail and others, coming from countries as diverse as Britain, Ireland, the US, Canada, Brazil, Holland, Australia and more, all agreed that Bulgaria has become more corrupt and unstable in the past year. The stories I heard could make any EU inspectors report look like a thesis on the history of Chicago in the 1920s.
Especially the real estate people seem to suffer from more and more corruption and apathy at both a municipal level in the towns and villages where they try to purchase land and get building permits and at government level when they try to get their problems sorted out. According to the transport people, the borders are getting worse and the customs more greedy then ever before.
But the general consensus was that if you want to function in this country youd better calculate these bribes into your business plan or get the hell out! One builder told me that he decided not to pay to expedite the paperwork for a small apartment building in the mountains and was made to wait six months for a piece of paper that usually takes three weeks.
Many other stories were told that cannot be repeated, and definitely not printed, since they are too easy to identify and this would only complicate matters.
The contradiction between the quality of the personal and the business life of this group of people was staggering and although in my business I rarely come across any of these situations, it made me more than a little worried.
One of the guys who has been here for a long time said that during the previous government at least some progress was made in cleaning up corruption at the top and at a municipal level, but now the socialists are in power it is again one great rush to the trough.
So please, when you kneel beside your bed tonight and ask the good Lord to protect you and your kin, it might be helpful to mention the poor folks of Bulgaria since although they voted these people into power they did not know what they were doing. (Luke 23:34)
Koos Jan Schouten (1954) was born in Amsterdam, has lived in Bulgaria since 1998, owns webfactorybulgaria.com and has been married since 2002 to his lovely Lilly.
