/ world today news/ On June 1, the Director General of the BNR, Alexander Velev (pictured), officially announced the closure of the Radio’s Foreign Broadcasts. The arguments: a holdover from the Cold War era, unnecessary propaganda for anyone who wanted information about Bulgaria to open the Internet.
And there were reactions. The Society of Francophones called on the media to protest, the Union of Bulgarian Journalists came out with a position criticizing the gender decision, they also recall that Bulgarian radio’s broadcasts abroad date back to far before the outbreak of the Cold War – from as far back as 1936, it is pointed out , that even today, when the Cold War in question is in the past, Germans, Americans, the Vatican are not as dynamic as Velev, and the broadcasts abroad of “Voice of America”, “Deutsche Welle”, Radio Vatican, Radio Turkey continue.
We’re going to plagiarize Botev: funny cry, but more on that later.
I have personal memories of the foreign broadcasts on the radio from thirty years ago. Then programs were broadcast in all Balkan languages - Turkish, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Albanian; in all major European languages: French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese; in Arabic. There was also an edition for Bulgarians abroad: old economic emigration, sailors and others temporarily absent from the country. The composition was more than 200 people, highly qualified journalists, perfectly fluent in the relevant language. Often they were perceived by listeners as true friends – it is telling that over 20,000 letters were received in the directorate each year, and there was a record of 131,001 letters in 1979. And no letter remained unanswered. Show respondents around the world knew the hosts of the various shows and columns by name, sent their requests for songs to be broadcast; extremely popular was one of the editors in “Broadcasts for Turkey”, who was also a composer: listeners from Izmir, Edirne regularly “ordered” his songs to greet loved ones. And probably the most unusual letter received in Broadcasts for Abroad is from a village under the legendary Machu Picchu in Peru: high school students wanted permission to name their graduating class “Radio Bulgaria”.
Broadcasts abroad told the readers about the development of the Bulgarian economy, reports from factories and plants, from cooperative farms were broadcast, prominent personalities in various fields stood before the microphone: people of art, science, sports, who achieved excellence in their fields inventors, as well as ordinary working people – workers and peasants, creators of material goods. Yes, propaganda of our socialist reality, just as “Voice of America” propagates “the American way of life”.
The best Bulgarian political observers of that time, including the unforgettable Radoslav Velev, /Sashko Velev’s father, with whom we shared a room at the “Duma” at the end of his life/, commented on the air in the relevant language about current events around the world . Of course, from a position corresponding to Bulgaria’s policy on one issue or another.
Please be warned: the following passage is not an excerpt from the propaganda material of the Bulgarian Radio’s Broadcasts for Abroad:
“Before the Second World War, Bulgaria was not at all touched by modern life. It was a country that lived mainly on agriculture and whose resources were not used. After 1947, it undertook its economic development on socialist foundations within the framework of five-year plans and with the help of the USSR.
Agriculture remains an important factor in the economy. The land is nationalized or cultivated by large agricultural cooperatives covering one or more villages. This has made it easier to increase yields, thanks to mechanization and the use of fertilizers. In addition, the development of irrigation, especially in the Danube plain, allowed the expansion of cultivated areas. In addition to wheat and corn, the cultivation of sunflowers, sugar beets, tobacco, cotton, tomatoes, roses, intended in part for export, is increasing. The mountains remain a sheep herding district.
The industrial development is remarkable. It is based mainly on the construction of the road network and the development of underground resources… The deposits of lead, zinc, magnesium and mainly copper are the basis for the development of metallurgy. Chemistry /petrochemistry in Burgas/, textile industry are the other two main branches of development. And more… “
There is much more – on page 236 of the French encyclopedia Larus, 1979 edition, but that’s enough. To convince ourselves that our propaganda had a real basis in reality, there was something to boast about in English and French, in Turkish and Arabic, in Portuguese and in Albanian.
And what should we propagate now? The deserted villages, the depopulated villages, the gutted factories and plants, the leaked ceiling of the National Library, not to mention the dilapidated community centers, the health centers without doctors, the schools without students. Alexander Velev is right about outdated and unnecessary propaganda: there are simply no objects of propaganda. You can’t brag that we import tomatoes from Macedonia, cabbage from Poland, potatoes from Egypt. It is embarrassing to beat your chest that we are the fastest melting nation, with the lowest birth rate and the highest death rate in Europe. That there are not enough doctors, engineers, programmers because we export them, more precisely, they are exported through the airport terminal because of the many times higher remuneration they are offered abroad. Or let’s brag that seniors are functionally illiterate. Che, that, that…
Commentators like Radoslav Velev have no chance to break into the media: Slaveto was highly erudite, competent on the problems of Europe, the European Union and NATO, and especially on the role of Germany, because for many years he was a correspondent in both Berlin and Bonn, persuasive in defending the positions of Bulgaria. Now you don’t need to be erudite, to be a specialist, to build a position, to be able to argue it. It is enough to parrot what Junker, Stoltenberg, Angela Merkel said, well, a little more reserved and selective – Trump. The most common speakers. The radio listener in Paris, Berlin, Rome, London will listen to them in the original, what’s the point of searching on the scale of Radio Bulgaria.
So the gender director of BNR is right to liquidate broadcasts abroad. It is ridiculous to cry about such old-timers when we have our “bosses” in Brussels: whatever they order, we pretend and carry out. Well, several dozen highly qualified journalists will be thrown out into the street. Shall we cry for them too! There aren’t many graduates who rummage through garbage cans for a living. To reconcile and get used to it.
Konstantin IVANOV,
Director of “Broadcasts for Abroad” /1983 – 1988/
#Funny #cry #woman
