I'll give you an example:

I love India on many levels (do business there occasionally) but one has to always be mindful of the context and not become prisoner of ones own standards.
Basically, go to the worse BG Roma slum, and multiply it by 1000 - that's the average city there.
Countless children begging, many of them mutilated, presumably for sympathy, occasionally I've seem dead people linger on the street for days before picked up, often women from the slums (80% of Mumbai) have to wait until dusk to urinate, simply because the outdoors areas used for the purpose are in full view - their society would tolerate complete lack of basic accommodations for the majority, but not a woman answering the call of nature in view.
All that I don't understand but guess what - I don't try.
BG's mentality was much more hard core when things were really tough in the early 2000s. You won't know it if you talk to people, but life has improved on every level, and as more and more people acquire a better life, the misfortune of others begins to affect them more - simple...

Samantha, you are ruining my negative stereotypes for Brits here.

The same way one can't judge history with today's standards, one shouldn't apply them to completely different contexts.

If I as a Bulgarian go to a country with even more basic problems at hand, I'd certainly be appalled by the cruelty there myself, if I am unable to distance my POV from my moral standards.

The more affluent the society, the more emotional the attitude.
Think of the UK in your Industrial Revolution and the unthinkable cruelty of factory child labor and the general Victorian idea of treatment of children.
Unthinkable to most modern Brits and Bulgarians.

There is a degree of parallel here, in that our economic transition, with its societal displacements is somewhat related to the major shifts in the 19th century British society, which if course was much more survival driven and daily cruelties were discounted.
That's what groups of people tend to do, when placed in similar situations.

Andrea Bradley- Your comments on lack of care. Please understand this documentary was sensationalising and a balanced picture was not presented. The carers may have appeared uncaring when looking with Western eyes. But I understand the words they used and they was not uncaring. I also understand alittle of the culture and context and we cannot and should not sit in judgement of anothers culture.
Yes there was terrible neglect, but these things can only be corrected by proper funding and education both issues of a wider picture that Blewett chose to totally ignore in the documentary.

Mia, I think you miss Kays point. The closure of Mogilino has been along time coming with all social care homes in Bulgaria to be replaced with smaller places of care. The documentary did not cause this. There was no attempt to look at the wider picture in Bulgaria in this documentary, just over emotive lingering shots= media trying to shock not to be objective well balanced.

Kay, your comment is totally inappropriate.
I am not English but proud of people like Kate Blewett.
What you are trying to say is that these children are unwanted by their parents and has no alternative but to stay in such a horrible place where they've been abused, not cared for emotionally and phisically and had no respect or rights as humans. This is wrong and you don't need evidence for their abuse. all of them couldn't even hear the name of the place again after they've left. They are happy and better now and that's what important. I wish more things like that will be done and stop suffering in the world.

Absolutely, this was a back slapping documentary about the Brits judging the world and saving the world through Western eyes. I'm not condoning neglect but neither am I convinced that the closure of Mogilino is a result of a sensationalising UK journalist on her crusade! These reforms have been a long time coming and judgmental programmes like these make me ashamed to be British!
I lived in Bulgaria for three years and speak Bulgarian to a reasonable degree and agree that the translations were over emotive.

Why doesn't Blewett try being a little more objective in her "documentaries" - or should that be "monologues"?

To be sure, Mogilino was definiely not a place that anyone would want to live in but what was the alternative for these children? Bulgaria was, and is, a poor country trying to build and improve its infrastructure. There are many more pensioners struggling to live a half-way decent life there than there are children in "institutes", as Blewett insists on calling them - apparently English wasn't part of her university curriculum.

Does she bother to look at where these kids came from? Does it suit her political agenda to draw any conclusions about the self-evident ethnic background of the majority of them or why their parents chose to dump them for the State to look after? Of course not - that would be non-PC, wouldn't it? It's easier to show a bully-boy abusing kids (without any concrete evidence, of course - but hey who needs THAT?); it's easier to mistranslate or carefully choose emotive words when sub-titling so that staff appear unfeeling, uncaring or self-serving - THAT'S what the viewers want to see, isn't it? After all, well-meaning people struggling to help kids that their own parents don't give a damn about won't make many viewers cry, will it?

A good weepie, a wave of indignation and another entry in Blewett's career story of slanted reporting and fact-massaging... But you have to hand it to her - no doubt she’ll get a bigger budget for her next production!

why doesn't BBC do a documentary on Bliar and the NuLabour filth gang?

Well done Blewett. If it takes a documentary to make things move then so be it - would you rather children remained in hopeless situation invisible to your eyes; just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there.

Its sad that people think this film was Britain having a go at Bulgaria. Without any commentary or credits, British or otherwise the callousness of the staff in that home would still be there for all to see. There is no excuse for the way those staff physically handled those children apart from the malnutriton and lack of stimulation. Mogilino may have been on the list to close long before the documentary, that just shows that people were aware of the terrible treatment those children were receiving, yet they let it go on for year after year. Staff should have been and still should be prosecuted for child abuse with the film as evidence. Eva, it does not require any financial resources for an adult who is supposed to be a carer to give a child affection and respect and those things were sadly lacking in Mogilino. The staff couldn't even pretend to care even with the cameras on them. Disgraceful!

I have just watched the revisited documentary and cried throughout. What a terrible situation for any child to be in. As a mother I felt hopeless as I watched but was relieved to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I would like to be part of this in some way and need to know how I could make a difference from the UK even if I could send toys books etc-please advice?

Perhaps I get a bit venomous towards the UK, but it really is an aggregate result of countless jibes at BG, a country with its share of problems to be sure, but what I see from the UK is way past any well intended constructive input one expects from a fellow EU member.
It's pure dumping and I am tired of it.

Valeri, you are right when you say 'self glorifying British'. We are British, and lived and worked in Bulgaria for 3 years in Shumen and Ruse. We used to (and still do) have good contacts with orphanages in Ruse. The directors and staff work hard and care for the children. Maybe the BBC should look at the whole picture instead of jumping to conclusions. We are just about to watch the 'sequal'. Lets hope it is balanced? Vcichko Hubavo!

"The BBC said that Blewett had returned to Bulgaria in 2009 to film with a handful of the children featured in the original documentary, seeing where they are today and how their lives had changed since the outcry and changes brought about by the film."

Another self-glorifying British act.
Aren't we great!
The best! Too good for the EU!

Finding problems in a country just out of dictatorship and economic catastrophe is like shooting fish in a barrel - perfect place for the Brits to shine...

In Bulgaria there is an ongoing reform since 2001 for totally transforming the system of support for disadvantaged children - from a system of social institutions to a system of social services and family-like care. This naturally requires considerable financial resources. So, it is very much a question of money, good will is certainly not
enough. Mogilino was on a list of institutions to be closed already long before the documentary. However, the children needed to be placed somewhere. I would be interested to know more about the support from the UK in terms of people and contributions, which was definitely very much needed.