I'm so done with this... Meaningless, tiring digging through the most common social-media platforms, diving into shout outs, rampant trolling, memes and food photos. I hate Facebook from the bottom of my heart (although I still find it a silly postulate to #DeleteFacebook) and I have wished for a long time to emigrate somewhere where I will find myself amongst people who have something to say, whom I will not have to carefully pick in an ocean of kitty-pic spammers.
And here I am, hoping I've come to the right spot.
Why is it so important to me? Mostly because I've got very little time to write. I run my own publishing business in Bulgaria and despite the fact that, nominally speaking, I'm the top editor of the Bulgarian outlet Baricada.org, most of my work is focused on commercial issues related to the services our company offers. And I would like to have the feeling that my time isn't wasted, that I write and distribute my opinions in an environment potentially interested in comments and positions rather than beach photos of your ex-girlfriend's feet when she went on that oh-so-fantastic trip to Mauritius.
Of course, I can have no idea whether what I think and write will in any way appear more interesting or exciting than pictures of someone's limbs, but let's see. What I think I can offer here is political expertise on Eastern Europe. I was born in Bulgaria and moved to Poland in the early `90. I have been politically active since 1998 when I joined one of the largest socialist youth organizations. In 2001 I established strong relations with the All-Poland Trade Union Alliance (OPZZ) and for over a decade I was contributing to their weekly magazine until I finally became its editor-in-chief in 2009. During all this time I have also been active in the international left and I have been educating myself politically as well as I've been gaining journalistic experience.
After I decided to give up on the labour-union magazine I helped establishing the most successful Polish left-oriented website Strajk.eu and some years later, with a couple of colleagues from Bulgaria, we set up our own publishing house and created our own platform Baricada.org (also quite successful!). We've even translated some of the texts in English, see: en.Baricada.org.
Also, as it's now obvious after the last two paragraphs - I'm left. And I stand firmly on the left, but I dare to say I'm not part of the 'typical left.' I'm against all postmodernist tendencies, I'm not obsessed with political correctness, I don't think there's any chance to liberate women or gay people without deep systemic changes which will not stem out from love parades and I do not think it is correct to put the question of gender before the question of economics, I do not think B. Obama was a good president or that V. Putin is the actual Satan and even though I'm not a Trump supporter by any stretch I have no political tolerance for stupid, white American youths who would form the liberal-leftish 'protestariat' class carrying posters "If Trump wasn't a president we'd be having brunch now". F*** your brunch!
Furthermore - I'm not part of the 'lef't who thinks life is all about smoking weed and feeling comfortable or that there should be no points of reference, no authorities or that everything should be governed on the principal of direct democracy. I'm still waiting someone to explain to me how are we going to run, say, Wall-Mart this way after we nationalize it. Unlike many on the left I recognize the need to participate in current political processes driven not only by our morals and final political postulates but also by sense of proportion. It's an easy thing to put forward just a long list of demands and then lament. It's just as easy to say that we are 'against the system', which is supposed to mean against everything and everybody. Tested, tried, failed. Failed miserably. There's so much naivety and ignorance on the left... I will write about that too.
And one final point - on the technical side, I will write in English, Polish and Bulgarian. I'm looking forward to your comments!
