A Sad Day
Yesterday, Libya sentenced the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for the second time. The news spread like wildfire and caused outrage among politicians, the media, and ordinary people alike. It was the only thing I heard anyone talking about yesterday. Everyone I know condemns the sentence.
You can read more about what BBC News has to say here and here. Also, here are some reactions from various politicians and organizations, an article in Dnevnik, CNN's coverage, and an interesting interpretation of what could be done in the future to put more pressure on Libya from fellow blogger Metodi (not sure how true some of the things mentioned are, but thought it might be an interesting read anyway). (Just a note that the latter and the Dnevnik article are in Bulgarian; unfortunately, there are no English versions.)
My stand is that the sentence is unfair and that it is high time these people be freed. However, I am also appalled by how much hatred has gathered (and continues to gather) on part of Bulgarians vis-a-vis Arabs in general. I have heard people commenting about the "dirty Arabs" etc. (I will spare you the details); even some friends have projected what is happening in Libya on Arabs in general... That, I don't agree with.
3 comments:
what's even sadder is that bulgaria hasn't done very much at all for these nurses till now (i can remember kostov saying "yeah, but what if they really are guilty?" wtf?!?) and neither has the EU. everyone's barely starting to do something about them *now* and i can only hope it's not too late.
as for the hatred...most bulgarians like to generalize and like to blame without thinking too much. i cannot believe some of the comments to metodi's post. i guess that's the result of trusting everything on tv and in the media - total lack of critical thinking. but that's a whole different story.
Yes, I agree. This definitely is a case of crying over spilt milk, or as the Bulgarian saying goes: след дъжд качулка. If this had happened in the U.S. for example people would be signing petitions, protesting non-stop in front of the White House, etc. in other words, public pressure would be significantly greater. Sadly, I don't think a public conscience really exists in Bulgaria right now. It's every man for himself. We can debate at length why this is so (and we should), and there are many factors to explain the situation.
I do hope that something starts happening now. Our entry into the EU should help in terms of having a greater institution behind our backs to put pressure on Libya for our cause. But if we don't start the ball rolling ourselves, no-one else is going to do it for us.
Why is it that so often we wait for an external force to come in and rescue us?
fuck, where did the first part of my comment go?
i was saying that it's really sad how a these poor people are just scapegoats for libya's poor health system and in a more general sense, victims of power politics.
as for why we wait for someone else to come rescue us...i guess that's directly linked to the lack of a public conscience. first we act like every man for himself (продиктувано от вплетената ни в днк-то философия "он че ми ка'е на мене кво да пра'им!"), then we see that doesn't work and only then we start yelping for help to a higher (and better organized) authority. yeah, it's fucked up.
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