Dara is a winner, the Giro d'Italia passed through Bulgaria, but someone will still come out to ask who paid for all this. Ask who paid for the draining of Corpbank and where the billions for Hemus are, says Krasimira Hadzhiivanova.
DV: I love your irony and self-irony. Where do they come from?
Krassimira Hadzhiivanova: From my parents and from life. It's good when a person grows up in the company of intelligent people with a sense of humor. You learn not to take yourself too seriously and to joke with yourself.
Life, especially in Bulgaria, then provides an opportunity to hone these skills. I was a teenager in the 1990s and by the sixth grade I had changed four schools because we were moving. That also helped a lot - a new class every 1-2 years keeps you in shape. I remember the Lukanov crisis, then the Videnov crisis, the electricity and water regime. I hung out with my parents for visas in front of the Austrian embassy, and now you buy a ticket while drinking your coffee. That's boring - another thing is a queue and explanations that you won't cut the Prater for secondary raw materials.
I went to private lessons, which, as we know, have been the backbone of the Bulgarian education system for the last 40 years, in Bulgarian and literature in the cooperative where Lukanov lived, and when they shot him, I couldn't go - the police wouldn't let anyone in. I took the $20 for the private lesson home, because the Bulgarian lev was very strong at the time.
During these years, people have shot themselves and blown themselves up. I recently read an article by Slavi Angelov about his work as a crime journalist in the 1990s and onwards - these are dozens of crime heroes eliminated in a decade.
We have forgotten all this, because we joined NATO and the EU, we started going to Greece, there are strawberries in Lidl in February, we live normally and one quickly gets used to the good. But the traumas remain in the background and if you channel them into something that makes you laugh, everything is fine. In general, I am very grateful to live here. If we were in Switzerland, for example, what memories would we live with? What would we talk and write about, joke about? That the tram was late last Thursday?
DV: What annoys you about our social media life?
If you knew how many times I've quoted you on this very subject. Many years ago, you said somewhere that if home internet were three times more expensive, we would live easier. What sometimes annoys me is actually the greatest freedom - to speak out. Everyone speaks out about anything, including me. This is great because you learn the opinion of the republic about the Met Gala, music, healthcare, bears and military operations.
Anonymous commenting annoys me because many people don't want to put their faces in front of their own opinions. But put your name out there and say what you think. But I understand that too, because another anonymous person will come from somewhere, tell you that you're an idiot, and fifteen people will like it and you'll be depressed for three days.
I'm writing these words while hundreds of people are greeting Dara at the airport. This magnificent girl almost gave up Eurovision because thousands of anonymous and non-anonymous fellow citizens practiced writing on her back. She herself said that she managed to survive because she moved to live in Athens after the wave of negative comments. Now she's the winner, and our country will be the subject of international advertising and conversations for a whole year. Just a few days ago, the Tour of Italy cycling race passed through Bulgaria. And someone will still come out to ask who paid for all this and why there's no bread for the people. Don't worry - it pays for itself. Ask who paid for the drain of Corpbank, where are the billions for the unbuilt Hemus highway and what not.
Lately, statuses written with ChatGPT have been irritating me to no end. Endless outpourings with the same structure like "this is not just what you are... but what you are". Facebook is full of boring plastic texts that lack any life or authentic thought.
And of course, I am irritated to no end by the absolutely inexplicable mass inability to put the short and the long where it belongs. Everyone sprinkles it wherever they want, and it drives me crazy. Why is that? There must be some explanation. If you write "many policemen", how are you going to write "one policeman"? I know we have bigger problems and that in 100 years everyone will probably be moaning, but I have taken this niche of things that annoy us, and I refuse to vacate it.
DV: Do me a small favor - if you can, summarize the political situation at the moment. Because I, for one, am a little tired of saying that it leads to nothing.
The situation is "no people". It doesn't look carefree at all, but this couldn't be tolerated before. On top of that, we are on the threshold (we have even already crossed it) of a huge change in technological terms and we need to be very careful about what this will lead to in political terms. Sometimes I dream of appointing artificial intelligence to the Council of Ministers and parliament in 100 days, to give it a proper go and see what happens.
DV: Then why live in today's Bulgaria? This sounds like a Markovian and even somewhat Kafkaesque question, but in my opinion it is completely valid.
Because it's nice. Our country is great, it has everything a person needs to be well - the sea, mountains, cuisine, you can go to your neighbors, some without borders. Any point in Europe is accessible in a few hours, and from there the whole world. There is also this slight chaos inherent in the Balkan countries. It is lively, it is interesting. We have enormous opportunities, if only this corruption and the appointment of our people, and not people who understand and can, should be stopped. And the education system should be urgently reformed, because now it is preparing children for the past, not even for the present, let alone the future.
DV: What do you think about the division between the PP and the DB? Is there something funny and perhaps inevitable in this?
I don't think anything. Divisions happen everywhere in life. What I would like is to see less discussion of internal party issues through Facebook statuses, because it is frivolous. One of the positive features of organized crime is that it is organized and does not discuss its problems on social networks.
DV: The horror, the horror of Joseph Conrad and Coppola: what if we lose the achievements of liberal democracy?
At the moment, many of us are probably asking ourselves this question, right? Well, let's hope we don't lose them, but if we don't move a little in the direction of modernizing education, I'm afraid that in a few years we may find ourselves in a situation where AI has replaced many job positions and then we will only need the achievements of liberal democracy. And in fact, perhaps it is precisely the achievements of liberal democracy that will allow us to be sustainable. Most of all, we will have to be more adaptable than ever.
DV: Where are you on the horizontal scale left-center-right?
Believing the tests, center/right.
DV: How do we teach European meaningful integrity to people who both benefit from it and hate it?
They hate it in front of others, otherwise they use it to its fullest, so - by openly reminding them that we are aware of this contradiction, if we are talking about public figures. Otherwise, for the rest, I will return to what I said above - by remembering how we lived just 20-30 years ago and how we live today. And to all those who will say that we live worse today - no, it is not true. We're all just getting older and nostalgia is spreading its nasty tentacles into our souls, but objectively speaking - we live better, or at least we have the opportunity to do so.
DV: How does your day go?
It depends on whether I'm in the mood or not. In both cases, I get up at 6:50, because this is how the Ministry of Education and Science keeps all parents of children in the primary stage of education in shape, and even after. I walk the dog and then work - from home or from the new studio of "Maiko Mila".
We started a new podcast, which we called "The Next 10" - in April our media turned 10 years old and we want to look into the next decade, for which no one seems to be prepared. We talk to interesting and smart people and try to guess what awaits us. And when I'm not in the mood, I do the same, but reluctantly. I think most people are like that.
DV: What real economic measures and actions do you expect from "Progressive Bulgaria"? Do you see "a better Bulgaria", with apologies?
I don't know - a progressive cheese coupon and other similar instruments with a long-lost need? Otherwise, I love the expression "a better Bulgaria" - it's like at funerals, when they tell the mourners "it's already in a better place". How do you know? It's not bad here either. And it's the same with Bulgaria - we don't need eternal sympathizers who will keep making Bulgaria "a better place" for 40 years. It's good, just don't sign any more contracts with "Botas", for example.
DV: And something else about Dara?
Dara ruined this country. It sounds ambiguous, because it is. First we tried to ruin Dara, because, hey, every second person here is a singer and knows about Eurovision and all sorts of other competitions and contests, so let's shower her with our absolutely useless opinion about her, her "dumb song" and ask her where she even imagines she's going?
After that, thank God, the girl not only didn't give up, but even won, and all the traumas, complexes, fears and unmet needs of this people poured out on her. Some even deleted their comments from two months ago to stand out again, writing that they had always believed in Dara. And of course - that they were proud of her and her success. I don't know what our problem is with this pride - it's as if we can't exist if we're not given a reason to feel proud. At the same time, I watched videos of people in Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Serbia, who were heartily happy about the success of Dara and our country, and that's great - a person can simply be happy. Without necessarily being proud.
I never understood the absurdity of the claims that the song is satanic - what the hell does that mean? And what I liked the most was the petition against organizing "Eurovision" in Bulgaria. Why just a signature - let it be a referendum! But seriously - my concern is that next year, against this backdrop, we will have to welcome tens of thousands of "Eurovision" fans and some people will not fail to stand out with our legendary hospitality. From now on, I expect organized groups with posters that say that this is the land of Khan Asparuh, not of genders and European debauchery. There will certainly be many icons, tservuli, stuffed foxes with a machine gun and vodka boards, there will be talk about national pride and identity, about Bulgarianness and morality. I can't wait!
But let's get back to this wonderful girl - Dara. I hope she has a real international career and I hope more young and talented Bulgarians from all walks of life dare to pave their way like her - boldly forward. The world will not stop evolving just because someone disagrees with this development and wants to announce it from the bottom of the retrograde funnel in which it exists. And in general - calm down. We are all going to die! Play "Bangaranga", in the original or in the bagpipe performance, as you prefer, and live your life.