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The world is talking, are you listening?

Sofia: Past&Present. Image by Aleksander Nikolov, used with permission.

To celebrate the Day of the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Sept. 17, Alexander Nikolov posted a photo project called Past&Present. Each photo in this project combines an old and a new image of selected locations in the city.

Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik reports [bg] that 25 asylum seekers (21 Syrians and four Iraqis) went on hunger strike to protest the slowness of the asylum-granting procedures at the detention center for foreigners in the Bulgarian village of Lyubimets. Comments to the Dnevnik article reflect the general indifference to the plight of refugees, as well as anti-immigrant and xenophobic attitudes.

Young Bulgarians and guests from Italy, with support of the New Bulgarian University and project “Beautiful Europe” [bg] will meet on May 23 to discuss the “European idea” and what Europe means to Bulgarians at an event called “Blue Night” – an evening dedicated to the European idea [bg]. The event comes just one day before one of the brightest Bulgarian holidays – the Day of Slavic writing and culture.

Activists in Bulgaria have called for national protests against shale gas extraction on May 22. There is a Facebook event [bg] “National protest against shale gas and changes in Forest Law!”. Tensions are growing after The Greens’ activist posted a video [bg] showing a secret meeting between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) representatives and Chevron officials.

On May 19, the 15th annual May Bicycle Parade will gather thousands of supporters of cycling in Sofia with one clear goal – to count the cyclists and show that in Sofia there are more of them than ever. Bulgarian NGO “Bicycle revolution” is organizing the event [bg]. In 2009, more than 3,000 cyclists took part in the Parade.

As many in Bulgaria fear that there are fewer people reading books now than in the past, Ognyan Antov of Anapest offers [bg] three answers to the question “Why should we read books?”: 1. Because thus we absorb the language and its grammar and spelling; 2. This way, we come to know world; 3. Because thereby we feel like one society.

Blogger Nikolay Delchev condemned [bg] the reaction of the Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov to the recent student protests against construction at the National Sports Academy's Black Sea training facility: “[...] Interior Minister almost regrets that ‘the whole repressive apparatus that they (the police) have by law has not always been used.’ This was said by a minister of a democratically elected government in a European country in the early 21st century. Please leave comments, because I have no words. [...]” A video of Tsvetanov's controversial statement is here [bg].