ROMA DESTINY

Crisis, crash, hopelessness, degeneration, destruction… these are words accompanying our everyday life.

Well, those are only several parts of the destructive jig - saw – puzzle of the state in our nation and of our society:

- Two times more of the men between 35 and 44 years of age die from a myocarditis cancer in comparison with men from the other European Union countries.

- Bulgaria holds the second place in mortality from cordial-vascular diseases among the ex socialist countries.

- Nearly 1,4 million Bulgarians have psychic disorders. Every fifth person has developed some dependence, makes crises or suffers from heavy mental disease. Nearly 700 out of every 100 000 children have psychic issues as well.

- Six million are the unborn bulgarians after the legalization of abortions since 1956 till now!!! “The Bulgarian holocaust… for which we have not even thought existed. 6 million unborn children. Even more precisely said - 6 million Bulgarian children killed. The Sixth Commandment of god states: “Do not kill!”… The spilled innocent child's blood has a price. Today's 300 000 Bulgarian family pairs, suffering from durable sterility, are the first that pay this price… When the abortions are legalized, the responsibility for the killing of these children drops on the entire society (Peter Marchev).

- In the country, over the 270 000 people have a medically proven degree of physical handicap.

- The minds of the people in Bulgaria are blocked by different phobias: fear about surviving, fear of failure in general undertakings, fear about the future, fear of illnesses, fear of natural disasters, fear of death, fear of loneliness, fear of the different from us people… fear…fear…fear… But look at what Dr. Irina Lazarova, a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist, shares for Light: “The people that have faith in given values and ideas have a much lower fear level. People that have faith have very little fears and they are in practice only everyday ones – that we do not stumble while walking on the street, that we guard ourselves, that we don’t hurt ourselves in some way… In this context, the global fears and concerns are being dropped off – such as the fear of death, fear of sickness, wear of losing our loved ones or fear that they will abandon us, fear of our life ending disgracefully up, fear of being eternally miserable, etc. When there is an authentic, unmovable authority, guarding over us and not letting us fail, our life will be peaceful and comfortable.

- The Bulgarian society is particularly tolerant towards prostitution. According to the investigation, done by MDMB, more than half of the men in Bulgaria find it completely normal for the profession of prostitute to exist.

- According to data from nongovernmental organizations, nearly 50 percent of the prostitutes at the moment are below 18 years of age.

- The interior ministry states that nearly 10 000 people were exported through the border for the last 2 years. The greater part of them are women and girls.

In the entire world the human traffic with the purpose of sexual exploitation is the third criminal business after the illegitimate trade with weapons and drugs. But we try in Bulgaria to legalize the prostitution and the connected with it traffic of women and children. The legalization of a criminal business that will increase demand to sex-utilities, leads to the expansion of child's prostitution.

- Statistic states that Bulgaria is the only country with so many institutions for abandoned children. The spare children of Bulgaria, waste to their parents, abandoned, thrown out… having in mind the negative accretion and the so many childless pairs available, that dream about having children.

- What is the demographical picture of our society? According to last year’s data, the population of the country is 7 640 240 people. In comparison to the previous year, it has declined with 39 thousand people. The coefficient of birthrate is 9,8 percent (Ireland, France - 13 percent - 14 percent). An important index that classifies us very negatively in comparison to the other European scountries is the child's mortality – 9,2 percent (European countries - 3 percent - 5 percent). Only Romania has a higher indicator than us in this area. But at the index-mortality of population among European nations we again hold the 1st place - 14,8 percent. The people that die since 1990 till today, yearly, are more than the ones born. The worth of the coefficient to the native growth rate is subtraction 5 percent. (Ireland asset 8,1 percent ) . As we see, the demographical policy of the country, if there is such at all, continues to be ineffective.

- The data provided by the National Statistics Institute show the crisis in the Bulgarian family as well: in 2007 the number of marriages decreases, while at the same time the number of bastard born children increases. For last year they are more than half of the born children altogether(!) - 27 825. We live in a society, where we change the impressions and the character of the major cell in the society - family. But more and more social scientists, theologians and economists think thatresolving the issues of the contemporary family will happen by returning to Christian valuables. When the family is stable, settling internal family issues is not carried away outside the family and thus does not create negativenesses for society. The wellness of each separate family will lead to the overall wellness of the entire nation. When man and woman’s destinies are joined, they become one. According to Christian religion, family is this whole thing, where such qualities as responsibilities, support, frankness, dependability, security, and altruism and being cultivated. By observing the moral-ethical code of behavior of the Christian religion, family as an institution has succeeded to withstand in the battle against the instincts and moral defects, and has preserved itself through the ages. But now society tells us that the Christian ethics is antique, limiting and inadequate. But right in a such state of ethics degeneracy in society, the Bulgarians, more than ever, need a spiritual consideration of their existence.

The entire culture and ethics of our authorities must change, in order that our society can understand the necessity from the such a policy, that will peg the authority of the family as the basal social institution to increase the valuables of the bridal family life. Actually, the media already reflected the “concern” of the government for the Bulgarian family with their new law project about institutionalizing the “factual cohabitation” which, according to its authors is “a modern law, that suits the need of society and family”. But another mark to this law emerged in the media as well – that it is a “genial foolishness”!, which perfectly describes this cheering to irresponsibility. Our society already got accustomed permanently to look what Europe is doing. Therefore let us have a look at these countries that make various pushes for cheering the family as an agency, for cheering the birthrate. Various initiatives that prolong human life and close orphan homes for abandoned children, due to their adoption. Our society though still can not grasp the fact that the family issue is not only a legal problem, but a moral and religious one.

- In the background of intensifying nationalist's spirits, ethnic xenophobia also increases, especially against the gypsies. The fact that the majority of the Bulgarians are against “the gypsies as a whole” does not speak well about the spiritual condition of our nation. This shows that there is a tension inside the Bulgarian community, which leads to an aggressive approach towards the ones that are different from us. Only in sick societies as ours, the gypsies become a reason for pointing out our national pride. The ethnic prejudices against the gypsies have a long history and tradition in the Bulgarian society. The roots of this “phenomenon” can be traced back in the long non solving of these problems.

Our prejudices against the gypsies are predominantly in the area of they being: “dirty”, “illiterate”, “thieves”. About the mass dispersion of the negative image of the gypsies and hereby about their social exclusion, the responsibility lies with the media and other information sources of the authorities. Years in a row society as a whole constructed (and continues to do so) hard to climb barriers against the gypsies, accrediting to them an excessively low social status, defining their culture as primitive, and their way of life and their behavior – deserving punishment.

The cause of the social exclusion of the gypsies throughout the ages, has been poverty. Even today, their mass poverty is one of crucial factors for increasing the social distance between them and the remaining population. Solutions therefore must be searched in the sector of the social policy – the labor market, education, healthcare, home policy. Unfortunately, the Bulgarian state, in this very important moment of the present transition period, does not have a strategy for the integration to the gypsies. There isn't any doubt, that the crisis in the gypsy community is a result and reflection of the general crisis in society.

In the past years of the communist ideology in close to 20 years of attempts for the Bulgarian people to live in a democratic society, we could very well see that neither one, nor the other society can accomplish a spiritual and intellectual rise of this nation. Spiritualty as a highest value system does not settle today in our souls. The only that affects our being is the improvement of our material standards, and in political aspect – the interest for the redistribution of the national possessions.

There will hardly be found opposers to the fact that today, the Bulgarian society happens to find itself in a growing degradation, because of the collapsed value system. The core of the heart of society is missing – the thing that creates moral, responsibility and duty. Without these factors society is killing itself. But there is a solution for coming out of this total crisis - the Christian value system must be given must be given an opportunity. In other words, it is time for some Real Christianity, true Christian Religion, when we can with firm certainties say, that the Bulgarian nation is a Christian nation, due to the validity to the Christian values, not only in our personal life, but also in political, social, collectivized relationships. Is this excessively unreal for the Bulgarian nation?

Today the European constitution dismissed the Christian values, which were not even mentioned in the main document of the European community. In other words, the Christian beginnings of the European culture were not respected. The issue arises: Is Europe Christian? As a consequence, there is another question as well: Is Bulgaria Christian, since it is a member of the European union?

After 500 years of slavery the Bulgarian still remains a bond servant, enslaved, full of biases, cowardice, with many fears. Lack of spirituality led to an absolute collapse of society, where evil has turned into an institution. Such “abstract” impressions as conscience, duty, love towards our neighbor and even the meaning of life, became spare. The only creed of the Bulgarian is the survival! But for the Bulgarian society be able to fight against its moral crisis, first and foremost it must realize that there is such a crisis and then it must desire a change. As history teaches us, after each crisis there comes either death or renewal.

The spiritual renewal of the Bulgarian society would not be possible without returning to the Christian values. Without them, no external reforms of the society and the state will be able to better the life of the people, and the people themselves will not be ready to receive them. Every human community has the chance to survive and grow only if it can create a value system on which to stand and principles which to withstand.

The bulgarian people needs its Reformation - spiritual, religious, public-political. The society needs reformatory power, that will revive the Bulgarian state. The source of this new power are spiritual - love, hope, and faith in the future of the nation.

The Bulgarian society fell into a shock, when the money by SAPARD program was stopped. But our state does not so much need money at the present moment, but able and strong leaders, who will first and foremost appeal to the Bulgarian people for a spiritual renewal. We are blasting everywhere about the notorious Bulgarian spirituality and intelligence, which, of course, far exceed all-analogical indices of the other nationalities. If this is so, where then are our home intellectuals and artists, to stand against the spiritual destruction in the Bulgarian society, calling the nation to return to its own Christian sources? Where are the clerics in this state (orthodox, protestant, catholic…), to liberate the spirit of the people and to awaken the Bulgarian society from an atheist-materialistic attitude to a spiritual attitude, where the Christian spiritualty, and the Christian values will prevail?

Half a century ago, there was a man (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), who stood in front of his nation and proclaimed his creed – “I HAVE A DREAM!...” a dream about another kind of society - righteous, appropriate, prosperous. In order for that dream to come true this man gave his own life. Are there people in Bulgaria today, that have a dream for the renewal of the nation?... Are there people, who believe in the greatest resource – the people.

The time has come, for the return of the moral values in the society, responsible for the future of its nation. The time has come for the return of the moral, dignity and community feeling in society.

Valentina Petrova Chernova (Valentina Nacheva) is born in Ukraine. In 1987 she graduates the Russian linguistics University in the town of Siktikar. The same year she moves to live in Bulgaria. At present she is working in the Rodina Library in Stara Zagora city. She is a member of “Love Bridge – Bulgaria” Foundation and is one of the active leaders of “Lfe in Glory” Apostolic Christian Center in Stara Zagora city.

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