/ world today news/ On the occasion of the voted budget for Bulgarian culture
– Bulgarian culture is underfunded, despite the real contribution of cultural industries to the GDP (according to international statistics in recent years – almost always around and above 4%; contribution preserved even in the years of economic crisis 2008-2012). This violates the constitutional right of Bulgarian citizens to enjoy the national and universal cultural values and to develop their culture (Art. 54. (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus).
– Underfunding applies both to the paltry percentage of the budget allocated to culture ( O,6%, despite GERB’s repeated pre-election promises of 1%), as well as insufficient state and municipal funds for cultural projects and programs. It is also manifested in the almost absent facilitations and reliefs for businesses that could stimulate the private sector to support projects in the field of culture.
– More than BGN 4 billion are turned over annually in the gambling sphere in our country; there are successful international models that show how small deductions from this turnover and from the monstrous income of gambling bosses and oligarchs could solve many problems – not only in the field of culture, but also in sports, education, etc.
This is part of the program declaration of the public movement “Reforms in Culture”. I am quoting only these three points on the occasion of the shameful decision of the National Assembly to allocate a measly 0.6 percent of the “BUDGET” for Bulgarian culture, as Menda Stoyanova from GERB, the chairwoman of the Budget Commission, pronounced this word until recently.
The government of GERB decided that Bulgaria does not need science, culture and a good education system
and began his destructive “reforms”. The absurd and shameful attack against Bulgarian science and the BAS is simply not speaking to me. So Mrs. Menda called scientists “beggars”! And the former “culture” minister stated that there were fewer theaters and operas in Italy than in Bulgaria. If the poor man had read more, he would have seen that in every small town on the Apennine peninsula there is a theater, an opera, a festival, that the big ones are supported directly by the state, and the small ones by the municipalities/that is, again by the state!/. Because it is absurd to ask them to bring monetary profit and to support themselves through this unprecedented stupidity – the “delegated budgets”. Not to mention the number of theaters in Germany, Poland, Austria, France, Russia. Let’s see those from our northern neighbor. There is no district town without a theater, a symphony orchestra and a festival / not to mention the “Enescu” festival, the largest in the world!/ and our Vezhdi / can you imagine it?!/ shortened, destroyed the two leading philharmonics after the capital one – in Plovdiv and Ruse! And what, after the years of the war, our country created with the work and efforts of several generations of dedicated famous Bulgarian musicians such as Sasha Popov, Dobrin Petkov, Konstantin Iliev, Ruslan Raichev, Ilia Temkov / the fathers of the Bulgarian symphonic work, of which little Bulgaria was proud in Europe!/ was brought down by such ignorant and harmful people. The blow to Bulgarian culture is downright deadly. Soon we will have no musicians even for the few surviving institutes. And Bulgaria, the homeland of Orpheus and Boris Hristov, has always produced first-rate talents. And our musicians are already nourishing foreign musical cultures around the world – from Canada to Australia, after Bulgaria treats them like beggars!
The budget they generously allocated two years ago for . for the theaters, orchestras and operas in our country it was only 60 million. And the money for the Ministry of Interior was more than 1 billion and 100 million. And Minister Bachvarova then asked for another 300 million so that the police could work properly! Of this, “only” 999 million was for the salaries of the policemen and the thousands of officials there. And our artists and musicians are paid as much as street sweepers – the world virtuosos from “Sofia Soloists” were paid BGN 340! After the scandal, they generously gave them 50 BGN each. And the police in our country, as we all see, simply does not exist… But they still want money.
And the budgets for culture in most European countries are from 3 to 5-6 percent. Even in small countries like Finland and also in our Macedonia. Asian Turkey also allocates more funds, where books are VAT-free, where new theaters and orchestras are opening, and there are festivals that invite world stars such as Daniel Barenboim and Plácido Domingo.
Here we must remember that the culture budget in our country before 1989 was 4 percent, larger than that of the Ministry of War…
The situation in the theatres, operas and orchestras, as far as they remained / because some were completely liquidated, and others partially – in the form of “open stages” or reduced as “symphonies”, and mainly in the smaller regional cultural centers, as if there were no people living in them and no need for art and spirituality?! / is downright dramatic. Not to mention our poor libraries, museums, cultural centers, art galleries…
The proven unsuccessful SEBRA system, through which theaters and orchestras report their revenue from ticket sales to the Ministry of Culture and then it returns them, is more of a hindrance than any real help. The “return” of funds from sold tickets to the Ministry simply needs to stop. The income should go into the monthly budget of the theaters, which will allow them to keep putting on new performances if the Ministry is late with the subsidy, which happens very often, even with salaries. The approval of expenses should be the right of the directors and financiers, and not for every smallest expense to be asked for permission from above.
Yes, “I’m full of science and culture deaf!”
the famous Radoy would say to our rulers who rob and humiliate us and for whom culture is something superfluous, almost harmful or a luxury. Let our people simplify completely and change the name of our country from Bulgaria to Chalgaria…
#Misery #spirit #full #stomach #culture #deaf
