Why the Visit of Ban Ki-moon to Bulgaria Was In Vain

At the end of last week UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon honored Bulgaria with a rather lengthy and profound visit.

Ban spoke at the Sofia Platform - a brand-new high-profile forum spearheaded by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to compare the democratic transitions in Eastern Europe with the current Arab spring; Ban delivered a keynote lecture with Sofia University and the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria in which he praised the legacy of Bulgarian national hero Vasil Levski – who was not just the greatest Bulgarian 19th century revolutionary but also one of the greatest European democrats of all time; Ban spent an entire day marveling at the grand cultural heritage of Bulgaria's Plovdiv – a city of many epochs and many cultures...

Ban became the first head of the Organization of the United Nations to visit Bulgaria after the fall of communism (actually, after 1984). Getting him to stay for almost three days was a great success for the Bulgarian government, and he did take Bulgaria more than seriously - telling Bulgarians the truth - that they've got plenty to be proud of in terms of their heritage.

Sadly, all of that was in vain because all the above sentences read to the average Bulgarian as "bla-bla-bla." That is, today's Bulgarians - of all ages! - are so desperately ignorant of global affairs (and of their own heritage, by the way) that hardly anybody in Bulgaria noticed that the head of the most important global organization invested much effort into his visit to their country.

Even though they madly believe the opposite - and probably precisely and largely because of that - Bulgarians are horrifyingly ignorant of the world, of Europe, and of Bulgaria. Period. (Since this is supposed to be a brief comment stressing one fact.)  

To be fair though - probably about 3% of the Bulgarians paid attention and were actually excited by Ban's visit. These must be the same 3% that actually know and understand what the European Union is (as public opinion polls have found).

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