The other night I had the questionable pleasure of visiting Zala Hristo Botev in Sofia's Students' Town borough. The pothole filled road that takes you to the hall, is lined on both sides with brand-new buildings, housing what tries to pass off as "upmarket" shops and clubs. The posh glitter and glamour of the over-priced shops that have nothing exceptional to offer, is interrupted for what can best be described as wasteland. And in the middle of this wasteland, stands what once was a modern sports complex. read more

My grandmother was fastidious about her canvas shopping bags. She washed and ironed them regularly and demanded their prompt return from borrowers. In those pre-1989 days, milk was sold in pre-sealed plastic bags, which we dutifully washed and reused for storing food in the freezer. There were hardly any other plastic bags in those days. Even in the first post-totalitarian years, plastic bags were a luxury of the West, coming mostly from duty-free stores, and especially precious when branded with Marlboro or Camel. Back then, it was even fashionable to carry your schoolbooks in such plastic bags. Except, it wasn't hip to carry them using the handles; one had to roll the top and carry the bag like a plastic clutch, even if it meant having one's nails permanently stained in Marlboro red. read more

The “ecological” green movement in Bulgaria has much to be indignant about, in a country that seems determined to allow its natural resources to be drowned in a cesspit. Yet the first thing that the green movement should be indignant about is itself. I have just finished reading historian RJ Crampton’s splendid Bulgaria (Oxford History of Modern Europe, 2007; available from the British Council library Sofia, read more

It’s Sunday once again, the day of the sun, but the last holiday before the hated Monday… well, not this time: thank God, it’s Easter! However, the theme of this article is not Orthodox, or any Easter. It is Earth Day, which passed by only five days ago, noticed or unnoticed. read more

Summer is coming and it would not be wrong to say that Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast is preparing for another profitable holiday season. It is no secret that Bulgaria’s economic growth, that some choose to call a “boom”, is due more to the tourism industry than any other sector. read more

For nearly a year now, the Government has been making soothing noises about inflation. First, after last year’s floods, there were the pleas to wait until the harvest before jumping to conclusions. When the harvest was predictably poor, there were the hasty calls to track and cap the prices of foodstuffs. As inflation relentlessly went up, in autumn last year Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov kept talking, unconvincingly, about deflation as if it were just around the corner. It’s spring again and prices are showing no sign of slowing down, reaching 14.2 per cent year-on-year at end-March, although we are told now that in summer that will change, that last year’s spike was a one-off occurrence, which had little to do with the Government’s policies and everything with an unfortunate set of circumstances, causing last year’s drought. read more

Politics is sometimes enveloped by what seasoned commentators always refer to as "a sea change", a tangible shift in public mood that can almost be detected in the air. Is the UK in the grip of one now? read more

Perhaps it stems from time spent editing, which, in turn, requires a greater attention each word; perhaps it is a result of coming from a country where having material and societal comfort is only normal, but this obsessive emphasis on exclusivity and luxury that Bulgaria places on things is disturbing. Take, for example, a new housing development at the base of Vitosha Mountain billed – granted, in an advertorial – as a “VIP village” complete with a “luxury hotel” and “central discreet security”, designed by “prominent young Bulgarian architects”. read more

In a recent report on the public image of the judiciary in Bulgaria, prepared at the request of the union of Bulgarian judges, the idea was launched that a television series about the work of the Bulgarian justice system could help improve public knowledge and create a more favourable image of the judiciary. Writing a script for a series like that would a real challenge. How does one keep such a script about the Bulgarian judiciary relatively close to reality to be relevant, without sounding completely ridiculous and unrealistic? If we look at the news from the past couple of weeks this seems a mission impossible. read more

In a photograph taken of me as an undergraduate in 1980, prominently in the background is a handmade poster of Robert Mugabe. Handmade because it was a photocopy of a plastic bag made for celebrations of the coming of majority rule to Zimbabwe. The photograph surfaced as I was packing up my photo albums in 2001. My nephew, then 18, reacted with horror and astonishment that Mugabe could have had pride of place on my study wall. read more