Bulgaria - Eastern Europe - page 58

But while the slap on the wrist evoked much talk, the only zero the public had seen
by the end of that year was the percentage of successfully investigated crimes relating
to money laundering, forgery, and human and drug trafficking. According to key
industry players, some of whom refer to Bulgaria as the “Wild East,” levels of corrup-
tion are higher here than in Romania, to which it is losing competitive ground due to
its poor infrastructure, the shortage of skilled labor, and a dearth of tax incentives. But
while Bulgaria has made none of the high-profile arrests brandished by its northern
neighbor to E.U. inspectors in 2006 (though it remains to be seen if former Roman-
ian Prime Minister Nastase will ever see a jail term), some Bulgarian commentators
argue that real changes are taking place, and that it is happening where it matters: far-
reaching judicial reforms including a much-needed fostering of judicial independence,
and the removal of immunity that members of the legal profession once enjoyed.
The bleating of E.U. members aside (and that includes the U.K., which—having just
“welcomed” 500,000 Poles—fears the onslaught of thousands of new immigrants from
Bulgaria and Romania), Bulgaria has a strong, stable market economy and, with eco-
nomic growth around 6%, is the envy of many in the West. It's true that the sluggish
coalition government (see “A Look at the Past,” below) struggles to respond to private-
sector needs, or remove the vestiges of Communist rule, but investment, construction,
tourism, property, and banking are all sectors showing strong growth. For now, labor is
also relatively cheap, attracting attention as an outsourcing hub for both American and
western European companies, though this is likely to take a blow when the youth, said
to be of the best educated in Eastern Europe, leave for more lucrative pastures.
On January 1, 2007, Bulgaria joined the E.U., and the World Bank deposited the
first $300 million into the country's coffers; whether the resultant industrialization
and standardization of key aspects such as agriculture, not to mention the shrinking
of an already inadequately sized labor force, will serve Bulgaria as well as is hoped
remains to be seen. But the key challenge remains how best to achieve structural
reforms that will have a lasting effect, not only on corruption, but productivity and
accountability, so that ordinary Bulgarians—too many of whom still live beneath the
breadline—can experience the kind of living standards long enjoyed by their wealth-
ier cousins to the west.
A LOOK AT THE PAST
Fragments and tools uncovered near the coast (on view in Varna's fascinating Archae-
ological Museum) date human habitation here back some 10,000 years, but these pale
in significance when viewing Bulgaria's most exhilarating archaeological finds: the
Thracian treasures, known as “the oldest gold in the world,” proving that a highly
sophisticated civilization flourished here from 3000 B . C . to 200 B . C .
What little we know of the Thracian tribes was recorded by the Greeks, who
described them as “savage, bloodthirsty warriors,” and appropriated a few of the Thra-
cian gods, including Dionysus and Orpheus, for themselves. Weakened by infighting,
Thracian numbers were reduced and finally absorbed by the Romans, who arrived in
droves in the 1st century, only to be turned out during the 5th century by the Bul-
gars. In 681 Khan Asparoukh claimed the First Bulgarian Kingdom, a region compris-
ing latter-day Serbia, Macedonia, and parts of northern Greece. But Bulgaria
remained a cultural backwater until 855, when the Cyril and Methodius brothers cre-
ated the Glagolic alphabet (later simplified into Cyrillic) primarily to translate the
Bible into their indigenous tongue, but thereby creating an independent literary tra-
dition for Slavic communities as far afield as Russia.