October 2, 2001

Bulgaria needs a hero. It needs many heroes. Maybe the new Prime Minister – the exiled and now returned Tsar – and his government will fill that role. But even he hasn’t risen up through Bulgarian society to become the favored political leader. He has returned form Western Europe (Spain) and now he is trying to lead the country down the road to full-blown capitalism and liberalized laws for foreign investors. While many Bulgarians see him as one of their last hopes before the country falls hopelessly behind the other former Eastern-Bloc countries, he’s not really one of them. Essentially he’s still an outsider that’s trying to come in and give a helping hand up. He left the country when he six years old. He and his family were forced out by the communist regime. Still, he seems to be filling the role at this time. He’s composed and at ease on the nightly news and his words are always well chosen. But where is the Bulgarian that has risen to a place of prominence in Bulgaria and captures the hearts of Bulgarians without leaving Bulgaria? There are many heroes of Bulgaria, but they’re all outside of Bulgaria. One of them is Hristo Stoichev, who now plays for the Chicago professional soccer team. And I hear of all the local heroes who are praised because they got out of Bulgaria, not because they’re staying here and making this place better. One of my students who graduated from last year is now in Germany, studying for three years with an option to study at Rice University in Texas for one semester. Two more of my students are living and studying in America for one year, during their 11^th grade year. Another student introduced himself to me last year as a former student of the high school and told me he just completed his third year at Harvard. These are the heroes that I am introduced to in Bulgaria.

But these are not the heroes that Bulgaria needs. These heroes send dollars, pounds, or deutschmarks back to Bulgaria, they flock to foreign potential and forsake their own, and they drain the collective energy little by little. It takes tremendous courage to stay in Bulgaria if you are given the chance to live in another country that has more opportunities. It’s not easy to live here. A Bulgarian will be the first one to tell you and then you’ll hear it again and again. I hear the constant praise for my country with its relatively vast riches and opportunities. And again, they’re right. But I know my history and I know that America is young. Just over 100 years ago, we were still rebuilding our country after the Civil War, which decimated the male population and left the South in a wreck. A few years later, America was standing in line for food and desperately looking for work during the Great Depression. Whole fortunes were erased from banks and opportunities were scarce. I think about Germany, Berlin especially. The pictures of the Reichstag – just a shell of a building after WWII – and how the people cut down all the trees outside of it for heating and then began to farm in order to survive – in the middle of the city. Then there was the divide of Berlin that strained business, politics, and culture. Now, Berlin is a massive metropolis with plentiful opportunities for itself and its immigrants, if it would just loosen up its hold on immigration work laws a little more. People came to America and worked hard. America isn’t a miracle – it’s the result of freedom and hard work. People; my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, chose to make America what it is today. Those immigrants who decided to make it a place of their dreams mostly succeeded. The burden of expectation from their homeland had been lifted and they were free to make mistakes, experiment, and then duly rewarded when they did succeed.

Before I left the States to come here, I had grown sick of capitalism and the constant barrage of commercialism, seemingly in every part of my life. I hate the “plastic” quality of consumerism that has so easily been assimilated into the American lifestyle. I hate the violence that somehow seems to follow a free market, for whatever reason. These are some of the downfalls to what America has chosen to be. And most Americans are well aware of them. We put up with and fight them, at least for the time being, and we’re incredibly open to new ideas, change, and self-questioning.

What I want my Bulgarian students, colleagues, and neighbors to know is that Bulgaria isn’t the way it is today by mistake. These things didn’t happen by chance. Life is a result of choices. Maintaining the status quo and getting frustrated that better things aren’t arising shouldn’t surprise anyone. This seems to be something we run into a lot. The teachers are paid poorly, or sometimes not at all, and the parents expect quality education. New ideas are treated with suspicion, instead of constructive questioning. And there is an overarching feeling that things are out of our control. Leaving things up to fate never served anyone well.

So where is the hero who takes control of his life and shows Bulgarians what a Bulgarian truly is? Where is the man or woman who shows the native potential inside of each Bulgarian? Where is the Nelson Mandela of Bulgaria? Who will step forward and claim Bulgaria as his or her own and then lead the country on its own path? In reality, it probably won’t be just one person, but hopefully they are sprouting up in local businesses, art exhibitions, concerts, books, classrooms, and so on. Hopefully teachers, professors, priests, and others who work closely with people will begin to spur Bulgarians into finally being everything a Bulgarian can be.

When my student told me he was going to Germany, I had to congratulate him. It was a regretful congratulation, but I knew it was an incredible opportunity for him. After all, I’m also living in a foreign country. I know the benefits to learning about a new culture and not only seeing it, but also living it. But I hope that forsaking Bulgaria isn’t part of his plan. I hope that Bulgaria remains as a challenge to him and a field of opportunity waiting to be sown.

-Josh