FrankN
Regular Member
When I worked in Bulgaria in 1992, a Bulgarian friend exposed me to an essay titled "The Eternal Province" in a local English-language magazine. The essay started with considerations on the word "province" (pro vincia -> to the victorious), and postulated that Bulgaria had always oriented culturally on the "victorious": Rome/ Byzantium/ Istanbul until 1850, Vienna and Berlin between 1850 and 1945, Moscow from 1945 to 1990, and the USA (NYC & Hollywood) thereafter. The article contrasted this to a "normal" pattern, which would rather search for cultural inspiration from and exchange with nearby centres, i.e. - in the case of Sofia - with Plovdiv, Belgrade, Bucuresti, Thessaloniki and Tirana. The author concluded that Bulgaria needed to emancipate culturally, gain self-confidence and start interacting with her neighbours, though he was sceptical whether his country would ever move beyond being "the eternal province".
Since it has been quite a long time that I have worked on the Balkans, I would be interested to learn from Balkanite forum members whether:
Since it has been quite a long time that I have worked on the Balkans, I would be interested to learn from Balkanite forum members whether:
- You feel that "eternal province" can also to some extent be applied to your country / region?
- There is change going on towards more regional exchange and less orientation on the "victorious"?