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Tue, Feb 09 2010
Hell is a place
LETHARGIC: In Radovets we are met by 76 unusually lethargic men – sleeping, or simply sitting in the yard. Too many hands are trembling, faces stiff, and movements heavy.
Photo: Provided
COURT ACTION: This is Rusi Stanev. He's one of the residents of Pastra. His case in front of the European Court of Human Rights has been given a priority, and he'll be going to Strasbourg this November. Rusi is suing the state of Bulgaria for unlawful detention, as well as inhuman treatment. That's the first such case for Bulgaria.
Photo: Provided
DIRTY SECRET: The home in Svilengrad has a dirty secret, called the pavilion for the immobile. It’s the stench that hits you first. The sweet and sour, aggressive stench that is the oldest resident of almost any institution – sticky and sickening, stench of urine and faeces, of drenched floors and mattresses, of something rotting. Women are packed in rooms, where beds are the only piece of furniture
Photo: Provided
KUDELIN: The protected house for men with intellectual disabilities in Kudelin - one of the few of the kind in the country. The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee calls the reform in the country ‘imitation of de-institutionalisation’. In a recent report it states that there is no ‘closing of the entry’ (about 1300 people are on a waiting list for adult institutions), nor a ‘broad opening of the exit’.
Photo: Provided
KULINA: A day room for the ‘more able’ children. Kulina is an institution in southeast Serbia housing 500 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Kulina got international attention in 2007, when Mental Disability Rights International, MDRI, which promotes human rights in this field, published a damning report on Serbia, highlighting habitual use of physical restraints, seclusion, lack of staff, degrading treatment, lack of medical care and life-threatening physical conditions in Serbian care homes. The Serbian government angrily rejected the accusations and prime minister Kostunica was quoted as saying that the report was fabricated slander.
Photo: Provided
Someone is screaming her head off in what seems a desolate part of the yard. There is a fence surrounding some shacks and, with each step taken towards it, the shrieks get louder. Ten more steps and there’s a gate in the fence. Another ten and all hell is let loose.
There is the screaming woman – barefoot, skinny and dressed in rags. There is another woman, unable to walk, rolling around on the ground, covered in flies – hundreds of them. In her filthy hands she clutches two chunks of bread. There is a girl dipping her dry bread in the dirty puddle in front of the outside toilets. Then she eats it. No-one pays attention.
It is lunchtime in Goren Chiflik, an institution in eastern Bulgaria, housing 90 women with intellectual and mental health disabilities. It was renovated recently, but the place of horrors – the shacks for the "most disabled" residents – was left untouched. It is well hidden; so well hidden, in fact, that the head of the regional directorate for social protection says she has never seen it, despite having paid numerous visits to the institution. The 30 women here are not allowed to eat with the others. Instead, they are given their food behind the fence that is usually locked, effectively turning it into a cage.
This investigation, mostly conducted undercover in institutions for adults with intellectual and mental health disabilities in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, uncovered evidence of human rights abuses, inhuman and degrading treatment and appalling neglect. It showed that reform in this field remains patchy and slow, and too often leaves the most vulnerable behind.
Bulgaria and Romania, both EU members since 2007, and Serbia, which seeks the same status, have a grim track record when it comes to institutional care. This investigation suggests that they are still failing to meet international standards. Inadequate policies result in underfunding and a failure to recruit qualified, motivated staff. Residents are not being treated so much as controlled. Many are gradually destroyed by constant exposure to harmful, high-dosage medication. People do not leave their beds for years. Children are being kept tied down for most of the time.
Much is at stake for these countries if they do not improve things. The European Commission has said it may suspend payments under the European Social Fund in case of serious irregularities in Bulgarian and Romanian institutions. As for Serbia, many important voices insist that the EU must demand a better human rights track record from future candidate countries. However, in practice, Brussels has been turning a blind eye to such abuses for years.
Tied up with drugs
In the institution for adults with mental illnesses in Radovets, I meet 76 unusually lethargic men. Too many hands are trembling, faces stiff and movements heavy. I am about to find out why.
Radovets is a tiny village in southeast Bulgaria and, like most institutions, it is as remote as can be. Attracting qualified personnel here is practically impossible.
Officially, I am in Radovets as a researcher for the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, BHC, the country’s most influential human rights NGO. This was the way I chose to gather most information for this investigation, as journalists make institutions nervous.
Although almost all the residents are diagnosed with schizophrenia, Radovets does not have a full-time psychiatrist. The director of the institution, Krayo Kraev, says just one such specialist works within a radius of 50km, and he only visits once a month.
One consequence of this neglect is that all the men in Radovets are on the same therapy, haloperidol, in every medical record we see. The director confirms this. "All residents have been prescribed haloperidol by the psychiatrist," he says. He sees nothing wrong with this state of affairs.
Medical experts maintain that haloperidol, an old antipsychotic drug, has extremely strong side effects, including tardive dyskinesia – involuntary movements of the face, hands and feet; akathisia – manifested in repeated rocking movements; lethargy and sleepiness.
The men in Radovets have taken haloperidol every day, sometimes for years. Records show that doses are high and the drug is given without consent. This means tranquil residents and untroubled staff. It also results in blurred minds and harmed bodies.
"This is not treatment, but taking control of people," Krasimir Kunev, head of the BHC, says. "I’ve never seen side effects so widespread."
During our visit, the men either sleep or sit in the yard doing nothing. Hristo is one. This 32-year-old, once an award-winning chess-player, describes his day: "I wake up, have breakfast, take my pills, but they suck all my energy out and I fall asleep. I wake up, go to lunch, thankfully we are not given pills then, so I play some chess; dinner comes, I take my pills, I am exhausted, I go to sleep."
As this applies for all the residents, it becomes clear why the old isolation unit – a tiny closet under the stairs – no longer has to be used. Drug-based restraint has become a substitute for physical restraint.
Challenged about the therapy, the director of Radovets says he will look into the issue.
"In these places, it’s the staff that de facto administer medication. As the psychiatrist is not around to monitor, the staff tell him who ‘needs’ more sedation," Kunev says. "The staff in these institutions are, by default, unqualified and insufficient. Thus, it’s a temptation to turn medical treatment into a method of controlling behaviour."
The Bulgarian government says the remote location of so many social care homes is a key factor behind the lack of qualified staff. It says it is committed to solving this problem.
The men in Radovets are not the only ones kept restrained with high-dosage tranquillisers. It is the same in Oborishte, a care home for adults, one third of whose 98 residents have a mental illness.
A look at the medical records in Oborishte also reveals the widespread use of haloperidol. Many residents have been on 9mg per day for years. Professor Toma Tomov, a leading psychiatrist, says such strong doses should only be given for short periods and for acute conditions.
Professor Tomov asks the part-time psychiatrist at Oborishte why such high doses are routinely given to people who do not need them. "At night, we have only one guard and one nurse and it’s scary," she says.
Her answer confirms that here, too, people are over-medicated with potentially harmful drugs to guarantee peace for the insufficient staff. The director of the institution, Ilcho Goranov, defends the use of the drug on the grounds that "it is being administered by a professional". He has no plans to change dosages.
Those most in need get least
"We identified what we consider to be torture – children tied down to bed; a man who was in bed for 11 years," Eric Rosenthal, executive director of Mental Disability Rights International, MDRI, tells me. "The question is whether those abuses have been brought to an end."
The answer is no.
In 2007, MDRI, which promotes human rights in this field, published a damning report on Serbia, highlighting habitual use of physical restraints and degrading treatment in Serbian care homes.
Serbia’s authorities angrily rejected the accusations and still seem in a state of complete denial. Asked to comment on the current state of its care homes, Serbia’s ministry for social affairs merely forwarded its reply to the 2007 MDRI report to me.
When I visit Kulina, an institution in southeast Serbia housing 500 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, there is some evidence of improvement. An attractive new building for "supported living" has been erected. There is also a new sports field and day rooms, where less disabled children can draw and play. But, as in so many of these institutions in the region, parallel universes operate in Kulina.
In the two-storey pavilion for immobile residents, there is no lift. Upstairs, I find people tightly packed in dark rooms. They are never taken out. Each room looks and feels like the next. It is dead quiet.
The "severely disabled" children spend their time motionless in bed – sometimes physically restrained – or tied to chairs in empty day rooms. Some rock back and forth on the floor for lack of attention. I see many such forgotten children. Bed-ridden teenagers look no older than four. Children in cribs are horribly thin, arms and legs atrophied from disuse.
In most institutions in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, one problem is that those who need help most get least. There is not only a lack of financial and human resources and good medical care. There is a lack of understanding. As a result, people in the gravest conditions tend to suffer most.
In all the institutions visited, reform is patchy. Most have some renovated buildings and some "transitional facilities" for a handful of residents. But improvement in overall standards of care, the provision of therapies apart from drugs, and programmes preparing people for a return to the world all seem a long way away.
Churug, a Serbian institution housing 206 men and women with mental illnesses, is another example of reforms that leave the most vulnerable behind. Churug contains three pavilions, of which two have been renovated. The third, housing "severe cases", has not. It is an old army building with dirty, dusty, stinking rooms. The manager says the people here receive no therapy apart from drugs. Activities in the day rooms are reserved for the "more able" residents.
In the home for women with mental illnesses in Svilengrad, Bulgaria, it is the same story. A cosy new transitional facility coexists with a pavilion for the immobile. There, it is the stench that hits you – the sickening smell of floors and mattresses drenched with urine and faeces. Women are packed in bare rooms. One woman is quietly crying. She is lying in her own excrement.
Goren Chiflik, the Bulgarian institution introduced at the beginning of this article, offers perhaps the most shocking case of parallel universes. The small new transitional facility, the main building, an empty new pavilion and the horrifying stables, where 30 women are locked up, are all in the same yard.
Director Stanislav Enchev is not planning to move the women from the old stables to the new pavilion because he fears that "they’ll break everything". He says the authorities should grant funds to build one more pavilion.
But Borislav Natov, the local mayor, says such funds will not come from the municipality. "We have no budget to ensure normal living conditions for these people," he says.
Maria Chankova, head of the regional social support directorate, promises "urgent measures". She has paid numerous visits to Goren Chiflik, but says she has never seen the women in the old stables.
I find Liliana in the old stables, covered in flies. Here since 1999, she is paralysed, crouched like a grasshopper, the skin on her legs yellowish-blue. At 62, she looks malnourished, her body strikingly thin. "Do they ever leave their beds? Do you take them outside?" I ask. The sanitary worker gives me a sad smile: "Usually I am alone here with 30 women. There’s no time."
Another place where care is provided for some and not others is Mocrea psychiatric hospital in western Romania. 70 out of its 160 patients are chronically ill. The institution has recently been renovated. However, about half of the patients are effectively prisoners, locked in their rooms, only allowed out under supervision for 30 minutes at lunch and 40 minutes for a walk. The resident psychiatrist explains that some "might run away", and that others are "very aggressive".
In another Romanian institution, Gura Vaii, there is not even consistent access to running water. The 56 patients shower once a week.
Despite numerous promises, the Romanian health ministry never answered a series of questions about the conditions in Mocrea and Gura Vaii.
At Gura Vaii, the lack of care is complete. The two day rooms are locked and unused.
"Is anything else going on here apart from medication?" I ask.
"Well, the music outside," the manager answers, referring to the loud sound of the radio blaring in the yard. Equally shocking is the manager’s statement that most of the patients in the chronic psychiatric ward are not mentally ill but intellectually disabled, suffering from dementia or simply homeless. In the yard, they rock back and forth or stare into space. By the time I leave, even the music outside has stopped.
Getting away with murder?
"The European Commission is fully aware of the current problems in Bulgarian and Romanian institutions," the European Commission said in response to my questions. "There is always a possibility of payments being suspended under the European Social Fund in certain cases," it added.
Although many experts think the EU should require better track records on human rights from candidate countries, the Commission has refused to comment on this assertion.
"Bulgaria and Romania were quite literally getting away with murder," Oliver Lewis, of international rights organisation Mental Disability Advocacy Center, says. "People were, and are still, often subject to the most grotesque neglect and abuse."
Laura Parker, who worked as social policy advisor for the European Commission in Sofia before Bulgaria joined the EU, says: "It is clear the decisions about enlarging the EU were primarily political [and] human rights are simply not an EU priority."
She and her colleagues "tried to reflect the reality…but, by the time various European Commission officials had edited them, the final Regular Reports did not accurately represent the situation".
Far from the eyes of Brussels and the minds of national governments, institutions housing the most vulnerable citizens in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia remain no better than dumping grounds for forgotten people.
The graveyard of Radovets is a metaphor for this state of neglect. For about half a century, the institution has had its own plot and dozens of former residents lie beneath this overgrown field. However, there are only a couple of tombstones. Anonymity in death is a logical end to a life spent without rights or identity.
* This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation, in co-operation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN
There is the screaming woman – barefoot, skinny and dressed in rags. There is another woman, unable to walk, rolling around on the ground, covered in flies – hundreds of them. In her filthy hands she clutches two chunks of bread. There is a girl dipping her dry bread in the dirty puddle in front of the outside toilets. Then she eats it. No-one pays attention.
It is lunchtime in Goren Chiflik, an institution in eastern Bulgaria, housing 90 women with intellectual and mental health disabilities. It was renovated recently, but the place of horrors – the shacks for the "most disabled" residents – was left untouched. It is well hidden; so well hidden, in fact, that the head of the regional directorate for social protection says she has never seen it, despite having paid numerous visits to the institution. The 30 women here are not allowed to eat with the others. Instead, they are given their food behind the fence that is usually locked, effectively turning it into a cage.
This investigation, mostly conducted undercover in institutions for adults with intellectual and mental health disabilities in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, uncovered evidence of human rights abuses, inhuman and degrading treatment and appalling neglect. It showed that reform in this field remains patchy and slow, and too often leaves the most vulnerable behind.
Bulgaria and Romania, both EU members since 2007, and Serbia, which seeks the same status, have a grim track record when it comes to institutional care. This investigation suggests that they are still failing to meet international standards. Inadequate policies result in underfunding and a failure to recruit qualified, motivated staff. Residents are not being treated so much as controlled. Many are gradually destroyed by constant exposure to harmful, high-dosage medication. People do not leave their beds for years. Children are being kept tied down for most of the time.
Much is at stake for these countries if they do not improve things. The European Commission has said it may suspend payments under the European Social Fund in case of serious irregularities in Bulgarian and Romanian institutions. As for Serbia, many important voices insist that the EU must demand a better human rights track record from future candidate countries. However, in practice, Brussels has been turning a blind eye to such abuses for years.
Tied up with drugs
In the institution for adults with mental illnesses in Radovets, I meet 76 unusually lethargic men. Too many hands are trembling, faces stiff and movements heavy. I am about to find out why.
Radovets is a tiny village in southeast Bulgaria and, like most institutions, it is as remote as can be. Attracting qualified personnel here is practically impossible.
Officially, I am in Radovets as a researcher for the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, BHC, the country’s most influential human rights NGO. This was the way I chose to gather most information for this investigation, as journalists make institutions nervous.
Although almost all the residents are diagnosed with schizophrenia, Radovets does not have a full-time psychiatrist. The director of the institution, Krayo Kraev, says just one such specialist works within a radius of 50km, and he only visits once a month.
One consequence of this neglect is that all the men in Radovets are on the same therapy, haloperidol, in every medical record we see. The director confirms this. "All residents have been prescribed haloperidol by the psychiatrist," he says. He sees nothing wrong with this state of affairs.
Medical experts maintain that haloperidol, an old antipsychotic drug, has extremely strong side effects, including tardive dyskinesia – involuntary movements of the face, hands and feet; akathisia – manifested in repeated rocking movements; lethargy and sleepiness.
The men in Radovets have taken haloperidol every day, sometimes for years. Records show that doses are high and the drug is given without consent. This means tranquil residents and untroubled staff. It also results in blurred minds and harmed bodies.
"This is not treatment, but taking control of people," Krasimir Kunev, head of the BHC, says. "I’ve never seen side effects so widespread."
During our visit, the men either sleep or sit in the yard doing nothing. Hristo is one. This 32-year-old, once an award-winning chess-player, describes his day: "I wake up, have breakfast, take my pills, but they suck all my energy out and I fall asleep. I wake up, go to lunch, thankfully we are not given pills then, so I play some chess; dinner comes, I take my pills, I am exhausted, I go to sleep."
As this applies for all the residents, it becomes clear why the old isolation unit – a tiny closet under the stairs – no longer has to be used. Drug-based restraint has become a substitute for physical restraint.
Challenged about the therapy, the director of Radovets says he will look into the issue.
"In these places, it’s the staff that de facto administer medication. As the psychiatrist is not around to monitor, the staff tell him who ‘needs’ more sedation," Kunev says. "The staff in these institutions are, by default, unqualified and insufficient. Thus, it’s a temptation to turn medical treatment into a method of controlling behaviour."
The Bulgarian government says the remote location of so many social care homes is a key factor behind the lack of qualified staff. It says it is committed to solving this problem.
The men in Radovets are not the only ones kept restrained with high-dosage tranquillisers. It is the same in Oborishte, a care home for adults, one third of whose 98 residents have a mental illness.
A look at the medical records in Oborishte also reveals the widespread use of haloperidol. Many residents have been on 9mg per day for years. Professor Toma Tomov, a leading psychiatrist, says such strong doses should only be given for short periods and for acute conditions.
Professor Tomov asks the part-time psychiatrist at Oborishte why such high doses are routinely given to people who do not need them. "At night, we have only one guard and one nurse and it’s scary," she says.
Her answer confirms that here, too, people are over-medicated with potentially harmful drugs to guarantee peace for the insufficient staff. The director of the institution, Ilcho Goranov, defends the use of the drug on the grounds that "it is being administered by a professional". He has no plans to change dosages.
Those most in need get least
"We identified what we consider to be torture – children tied down to bed; a man who was in bed for 11 years," Eric Rosenthal, executive director of Mental Disability Rights International, MDRI, tells me. "The question is whether those abuses have been brought to an end."
The answer is no.
In 2007, MDRI, which promotes human rights in this field, published a damning report on Serbia, highlighting habitual use of physical restraints and degrading treatment in Serbian care homes.
Serbia’s authorities angrily rejected the accusations and still seem in a state of complete denial. Asked to comment on the current state of its care homes, Serbia’s ministry for social affairs merely forwarded its reply to the 2007 MDRI report to me.
When I visit Kulina, an institution in southeast Serbia housing 500 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, there is some evidence of improvement. An attractive new building for "supported living" has been erected. There is also a new sports field and day rooms, where less disabled children can draw and play. But, as in so many of these institutions in the region, parallel universes operate in Kulina.
In the two-storey pavilion for immobile residents, there is no lift. Upstairs, I find people tightly packed in dark rooms. They are never taken out. Each room looks and feels like the next. It is dead quiet.
The "severely disabled" children spend their time motionless in bed – sometimes physically restrained – or tied to chairs in empty day rooms. Some rock back and forth on the floor for lack of attention. I see many such forgotten children. Bed-ridden teenagers look no older than four. Children in cribs are horribly thin, arms and legs atrophied from disuse.
In most institutions in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, one problem is that those who need help most get least. There is not only a lack of financial and human resources and good medical care. There is a lack of understanding. As a result, people in the gravest conditions tend to suffer most.
In all the institutions visited, reform is patchy. Most have some renovated buildings and some "transitional facilities" for a handful of residents. But improvement in overall standards of care, the provision of therapies apart from drugs, and programmes preparing people for a return to the world all seem a long way away.
Churug, a Serbian institution housing 206 men and women with mental illnesses, is another example of reforms that leave the most vulnerable behind. Churug contains three pavilions, of which two have been renovated. The third, housing "severe cases", has not. It is an old army building with dirty, dusty, stinking rooms. The manager says the people here receive no therapy apart from drugs. Activities in the day rooms are reserved for the "more able" residents.
In the home for women with mental illnesses in Svilengrad, Bulgaria, it is the same story. A cosy new transitional facility coexists with a pavilion for the immobile. There, it is the stench that hits you – the sickening smell of floors and mattresses drenched with urine and faeces. Women are packed in bare rooms. One woman is quietly crying. She is lying in her own excrement.
Goren Chiflik, the Bulgarian institution introduced at the beginning of this article, offers perhaps the most shocking case of parallel universes. The small new transitional facility, the main building, an empty new pavilion and the horrifying stables, where 30 women are locked up, are all in the same yard.
Director Stanislav Enchev is not planning to move the women from the old stables to the new pavilion because he fears that "they’ll break everything". He says the authorities should grant funds to build one more pavilion.
But Borislav Natov, the local mayor, says such funds will not come from the municipality. "We have no budget to ensure normal living conditions for these people," he says.
Maria Chankova, head of the regional social support directorate, promises "urgent measures". She has paid numerous visits to Goren Chiflik, but says she has never seen the women in the old stables.
I find Liliana in the old stables, covered in flies. Here since 1999, she is paralysed, crouched like a grasshopper, the skin on her legs yellowish-blue. At 62, she looks malnourished, her body strikingly thin. "Do they ever leave their beds? Do you take them outside?" I ask. The sanitary worker gives me a sad smile: "Usually I am alone here with 30 women. There’s no time."
Another place where care is provided for some and not others is Mocrea psychiatric hospital in western Romania. 70 out of its 160 patients are chronically ill. The institution has recently been renovated. However, about half of the patients are effectively prisoners, locked in their rooms, only allowed out under supervision for 30 minutes at lunch and 40 minutes for a walk. The resident psychiatrist explains that some "might run away", and that others are "very aggressive".
In another Romanian institution, Gura Vaii, there is not even consistent access to running water. The 56 patients shower once a week.
Despite numerous promises, the Romanian health ministry never answered a series of questions about the conditions in Mocrea and Gura Vaii.
At Gura Vaii, the lack of care is complete. The two day rooms are locked and unused.
"Is anything else going on here apart from medication?" I ask.
"Well, the music outside," the manager answers, referring to the loud sound of the radio blaring in the yard. Equally shocking is the manager’s statement that most of the patients in the chronic psychiatric ward are not mentally ill but intellectually disabled, suffering from dementia or simply homeless. In the yard, they rock back and forth or stare into space. By the time I leave, even the music outside has stopped.
Getting away with murder?
"The European Commission is fully aware of the current problems in Bulgarian and Romanian institutions," the European Commission said in response to my questions. "There is always a possibility of payments being suspended under the European Social Fund in certain cases," it added.
Although many experts think the EU should require better track records on human rights from candidate countries, the Commission has refused to comment on this assertion.
"Bulgaria and Romania were quite literally getting away with murder," Oliver Lewis, of international rights organisation Mental Disability Advocacy Center, says. "People were, and are still, often subject to the most grotesque neglect and abuse."
Laura Parker, who worked as social policy advisor for the European Commission in Sofia before Bulgaria joined the EU, says: "It is clear the decisions about enlarging the EU were primarily political [and] human rights are simply not an EU priority."
She and her colleagues "tried to reflect the reality…but, by the time various European Commission officials had edited them, the final Regular Reports did not accurately represent the situation".
Far from the eyes of Brussels and the minds of national governments, institutions housing the most vulnerable citizens in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia remain no better than dumping grounds for forgotten people.
The graveyard of Radovets is a metaphor for this state of neglect. For about half a century, the institution has had its own plot and dozens of former residents lie beneath this overgrown field. However, there are only a couple of tombstones. Anonymity in death is a logical end to a life spent without rights or identity.
* This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation, in co-operation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN
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It seems to me that almost every commenter on this story - with the exception of John Mulligan - has used the extraordinarily sad report simply to voice his/her violent opinions. We should all be concerned with the horrific circumstances and, Bulgarian or foreigner, try to do something for change.
Thank you, John Mulligan, for information and your efforts.
Let's now just stop all the spitefulness and "I'm better than you" remarks.
"The people of Romania and Bulgaria deserve better, but until they learn to vote out the more corrupt politicians at local and national level, and dig in their heels and refuse to pay bribes to officials,..."
I am actually glad to see a "westerner" being as confused, as most Bulgarians.
Let me get this straight:
Service sucks - rudeness everywhere.
Doctors aren't really doctors.
Cops are corrupt.
Workers are lazy and unreliable.
Pensioners are ex-commie hags that keep voting our ex-tormentors back in power.
Taxi divers are cheaters.
I can keep going on... excuse me, who exactly are those "nice Bulgarian people" who deserve better, if only they demand their rights and vote in better politicians? The same people who dumped their relatives in those hellish institutions, or the 95% of us, who would avoid taxes at any cost?
This is what a narrow mind would miss in the big picture - THE big picture. It's everyones fault, yet it's nobody's fault because we didn't ask to be dragged through 5 decades of socialism and forced to deal with this horrible legacy of social decay and arbitrary rule. Only incorporation in the EU structure and institution, imperfect and wasteful as it may have been, holds any hope for improvement - something you would've shot down, if it was up to you.
Putting it squarely on the politicians, is intellectually lazy and confirms my personal stereotype about the average person that becomes activist ...
"Describing people with disabilities as "retards" is insulting and boorish, comment grounded in gross ignorance."
Would you have me sued/fired for my speech/expressions, in your perfect world?
I'm not sure who "Valeri" is, since she doesn't have the courage to put her name to these contributions. Neither am I going to waste my breath getting into a debate with her, since people like this are so self-centered as to be unreachable. Describing people with disabilities as "retards" is insulting and boorish, comment grounded in gross ignorance. There is little point in engaging in debate with someone with such a narrow view of the world.
The lobbying work that I and others were involved in before the accession of Romania/Bulgaria to the Eu did have some effects in Romania, with changes made to socila policy, closure of some institutions and the initiation of some projects to return many victims to community living. In Bulgaria, there were fewer successes, probably because the country was very badly governed and suffered from more serious corruption than even Romania. It is impossible to have government for the benefit of all the people when corruption has such a stranglehold.
It is still my view, and indeed a view that is shared widely in Brussels, that these two countries were not ready for entry to the EU, and subsequent events have proved this to be the case. The wasting of structural funds and adhesion funds has benefited the corrupt people at the centre, to the detriment of the population at large, including people in institutions. The people of Romania and Bulgaria deserve better, but until they learn to vote out the more corrupt politicians at local and national level, and dig in their heels and refuse to pay bribes to officials, their countries will continue to wallow in the mire of poverty. It is in their hands however, nobody can do it for them, but it is often a lesson that is slow learned.
People like Valeri are not typical of Bulgarian people thankfully; humanity will win out in the end and this kind of cruelty will stop. These changes will come too late though for the current lot of prisoners in these camps.
P.S.
If anyone needs more prove that activism isn't necessarily the solution, here's an example:
John Mullings:
"This military dynamic was much stronger than the small voices in support of human rights, and the latter issue was trampled in the rush to bring in two countries that clearly were not ready for membership, as subsequent events have shown."
So if it was up to this person, we'd out of the EU. You can imagine the untold additional suffering and lawlessness that would've resulted in, right? So blinded by the his fix-idea of reforming mental care in BG and RO, that he is utterly clueless about the actual situation on the ground. Imagining that "shaming" the country, or applying "carrot and sticks" are the magic pills, is typical do-gooder lack of realism.
In a country controlled by gangsters, as was BG in the 90's, we surely would have "taken care" of the retards, so that we can join the EU - in your dreams - you think they care?
Steady pressure, and involvement in the EU structures, as well as the indispensable economic revival, is the only realistic way to remedy the situation. The rest is feel good emotional, you know what, that leads nowhere...
Until then I'm afraid you'll keep living in your bubble of selfish ignorance and oblivion. . 'Why should I care about some retards in some village?' you ask. How about because we are human? Or aren't you?"
You are not judgmental or anything are you?
Look, people attempting to grow the economy in BG do more, realistically, than most activists do "rhetorically". I could care less about cheap emotional garbage, designed to make some journalist's career. "Waking up" is something we can all use a bit more of, especially the types, obviously more susceptible to emotional manipulation, as illustrated by those British "documentaries"
Valeri, you are obviously a self-centered person who would never understand what it is all about. You could never fathom it possible and so think it is strange 'mentality' that someone would actually care about the fate of the disadvantaged. Anywhere in the world. You think it is just normal (or excuse it with the so-called 'transition') that there are people languishing in conditions similar to a concentration camp in the 21 century, EU-member country, just because they have some sort of disability? That's a disgraceful fact for any state that is supposed to TAKE CARE of these people and instead kills them slowly with neglect. 'Why should I care about some retards in some village?' you ask. How about because we are human? Or aren't you? I just wish you have a first-hand experience of these so-called 'homes' for the disabled. Then maybe you'll find the answer to your rhetorical question. Until then I'm afraid you'll keep living in your bubble of selfish ignorance and oblivion. Wake up and grow up, please!
"I'm just happy if there is this kind of people; here, there or everywhere"
That's your prerogative.
I am indifferent because I am not sure if they do more harm or good in the aggregate. BG needs higher level of affluence - good business climate and more knowhow, everything else will fall in place from that.
Rushing things we are not ready for, just because of some emotional baggage, is of doubtful value at best. I am a business person, not a doctor, but to tell you the truth, I feel as if BG has exactly the health care it should have, unless of course someone else offers to pay for more. The general level of pay in a given country, is not based on how greedy businesses are, but on the average level of education and real knowledge of the population. The same goes to everything connected, like various services, healthcare included.
BG will be able to sustain world class services, when the average Bulgarian's skills and education, reach world class themselves. Not yet. There are many sharp and clever folks in BG, as there are everywhere else, and they do get much better of everything, but they are not as large % of the population - yet.
There's this slightly "off" American here "Stefcho", who keeps going on about the length of the BG doctor's education, - again completely out of context, comparing it with that liability quack-mire that is the US healthcare, as if anyone in BG will ever spend 12 years in med school for the money our economy and population can afford to pay them.
Actually Stefcho, I am in the process of researching the possibility of investing in the medical field in BG on the side. Me and my little investment group (we have a doctor among us), are looking into starting a lab for blood and drug tests, but right now we are only trying to do the home work and add numbers to see if it makes sense. It probably wouldn't be worth it, unless we manage to secure bigger companies as clients - or at least identify them with a degree of certainty.
Will keep you posted;).
”So?”
You seem to be quite curious why somebody in UK should be interested in Bulgarian matters and why not about something else, like kids in Iraq... That was just some kind of answer to that. You can't save the whole world but with some passion to something you can maybe help a small piece of it... I'm just happy if there is this kind of people; here, there or everywhere
"And maybe you - Valeri - are answering to your own question."
A rhetorical one.
"People in voluntary works and other this kind of positions have different kind of interests and passions."
So?
We have those people in BG too - every one has a mission. I am only countering the blanket inditements of counties, which is supremely stupid.
(I am a proud member of the "Hypochondriac dog lover's association of the World";) Shhh - don't tell anyone;)
And maybe you - Valeri - are answering to your own question. In this transition maybe people don't have resources to take care of weak ones, but when your own things are ok you have energy to think of other people's probs too. I bet even in UK there is people who are considered also about Iraqian kids. People in voluntary works and other this kind of positions have different kind of interests and passions. Somebody is taking clothes to Karelian kids, other is talking on behalf of Bulgarian disabled, third is thinking about rights of women in Yemen.
well, I'm not anglo more than you are ;)
MM:
"If people are willing to leave their relatives to live in this kind of places of horror there is something wrong in the society."
You think?
How many times do I have to spell it for you people? We are going through a transition and there is major displacement going on. Societies with much displacement tend to be less patient with those in need. Accept that as the price of transition. Without the transition, things were only going to get worse, so it's necessary. Refer to all such historical instances and it's the same - including the Industrial Revolution in your own "proud" UK, where you guys marked a new low in social mistreatment of children and the less fortunate.
Even today - how could you possibly not feel guilty about the death of so many children in Iraq, by your bombs? Is this some sort of cultural thing with the Anglos?
Oh, I forgot! You folks respond ti images better;)
http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/_/images_4/us_terror_state__/iraq_children_injured_by_us_bombing.jpe
John,
I still don't get it - sorry.
What do you care about Romania and disables? I have instinctive distrust for people with unlikely missions in life. They are usually the ones that cause more trouble than possible good they can bring.
You are saying that until we "fix" all of our social problems, we should've been kept out of the EU? It is true that the road to hell is paved with good intention - that would've a major postponement of any progress in my country. If we had to address every little activist's pet substitutes for lives, we'd still be languishing in lawlessness.
BTW what are you if not British? Irish? American? Is there much difference?
Cosmos is just some UK.... that BG seems to be overflowing with these days...
European Union could put pressure on these cases but the main problem is somewhere deep in the society. If people are willing to leave their relatives to live in this kind of places of horror there is something wrong in the society. I don't know if it's some cultural thing, same is happening in Russia, or could it be fixed with time, but anyway people need some serious attitude training.
I agree with Joseph; This excellent article could have formed the basis for constructive debate on the sidelinig of whole sections of society because they were unlucky enough to be born with a disability, or to have acquired one. Instead, we have ranting and jingoism about the merits of one race or group over another -- the kind of unthinking reaction that causes these social problems in the first place.
It's a pity that this forum has been cluttered by such nonsense, and that little useful debate has emerged from the article. The reality however, regardless of whose fault it is, is that tens of thousands of EU citizens languish in prison camps in Bulgaria and Romania for the "crime" of having a disability, and the EU is happy with that.
Do you know, for instance, that EU structural funding is being used to renovate these concentration camps, further compounding the injustice? Once money has been spent on these renovations, the political will to close them will not exist. Not only that, but the same funding can not be spent on humane solutions such as the provision of homes in the community. Crazy? Of course it is, but it reflects an attitude that permeates all levels of society including the stratum of uncaring decision-makers in Brussels. If society in general is happy to lock up our disabled citizens, then the EU will reflect this.
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All of you are missing the point of the entire article. These people have the same rights and need to live as other people in Bulgaria.
Get out of your bubble, stop bitching, and do something about this problem. Lie, excuses, and putting blame on others does nothing to change the fate of these people.
If you people spent 1% of the time you use to attack each other, the mentally and physically disabled would have much better conditions. Turn your venom on the people who can change this, not each other.
I am British but not proud to be that is for sure. We are a country of people who preace democracy and that others should follow our example but actually we do not practice it. Our we the ones to critise the care of the elderly or disabled or down trodden. The elderly in Britain are neglected the forgotten race. The homes for those with mental health issues closed down many years ago and left only a few. Now the people in need are cared for by private companys making money from the council and barely using any of the given funds for the people in need. Are we not the people who have just elected the BNP to the EU. So who in Britain cares about the minority. Did Britian not go to war for oil and distroyed a country and its people. If we care why does Britain stand back and let the Palestinians be killed. There are many excuses for war but the reality is it is always for a countrys own good. America started it and Britains like the lap dog it is to the US followed.
Britain should clean up its own mess then start the "we are the champions" bit
Cosmos, while I disagree with some of the things Valeri has mentioned here, I must say your point of view is extremely arrogant.
You say, "Thank goodness i am not a Bulgarian, thank god i am English", that says all I need to know about you, ignorant fool. You did not even write "I" with a capital letter, for sure you know you do not deserve one. And if you refer to God, then show some respect, or else shut up.
Luckily all Bulgarians who I know are totally different than this Valeri guy.
Valeri has some big problems in deciding what he wants. In Roma issue he wants European Union to take care of them, they are not Bulgarian problem. In this "retarded people" issue it's Bulgaria's own problem and nobody should say a word. It seems what is out sight is out of his mind. The truth is that these both are Bulgaria's own problems in which it most probably needs help from other countries too.
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Valeri,
I'm not sure where you are coming from with the comments about British colonialism, but since I'm not British I can't give you a British perspective on that.
I have been involved in Romania since 1991, as one of the people who responded to the collapse of society at that time and who wanted to help the victims of institutionalisation there. I have contineud to fight for the rights of disabled persons since then, with particular emphasis on the area that I came to know best -- the tens of thousands of forgotten citizens of europe who languish in what are little better than concentration camps for the disabled in Romania and Bulgaria.
I do agree with you that Britain was part of the problem in resolving this issue. A major dynamic in the entry of Romania/Bulgaria to the EU was the need for the USA to relocate its forces from the Rhine to somewhere in europe that was willing to accept them, and Blair was the US mouthpiece in Europe during those years. This military dynamic was much stronger than the small voices in support of human rights, and the latter issue was trampled in the rush to bring in two countries that clearly were not ready for membership, as subsequent events have shown.
P.S.
you understand my fascination with the topic, right?
I mean if you think about it, UK helped the US cause the violent deaths of about 100,000 children (not to mention the countless orphans) in Iraq in the last few years, but it's that inner sense of right to judge, that drives them to straighten out matters with some disable children in some village in Bulgaria, of all places.
How does that feel Cosmos?
"... keeping all this a secret now its in the open i bet you feel ashamed of yourself."
Not really. I personally couldn't care less about some retards in some village.
Being ashamed or being proud of ones country, is something only a stupid person would contemplate. Countries are too complex for such a housewife's qualifications.
As a typical Bulgarian I am too consumed with myself, and as you know, people who mind their personal business only, start no wars;)
I accept that Bulgaria will never outlaw all suffering or erase all injustice in Africa, for example, so what's the point in trying.
How does an English mind works, - that's an interesting case study... You must feel some inner call to remake the world, don't you?
Your formally colonial heritage, bulges up inside, every time you run into something that would shake up your ingrained sense of right and wrong, and fill you with the urge to set it straight, doesn't it?
I am I close?
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John:
"I was one of the people who lobbied ahead of Romania and Bulgaria's accession for human rights solutions to be made a condition of EU membership..."
Help me understand this:
Why John? Why do you care?
It's an interesting topic for me, because as a Bulgarian I am not used to thinking like that, and have always been intrigued by the mentality.. The idea that I have a say on what's going on in a country 1000 miles from BG is naturally foreign to me, as is the idea that I shouldn't accept perceived injustices in far away places.
Seriously, what is it like to be British, and to wake up every morning thinking about the grave responsibilities your race carries for the rest of the world?
Female genital mutilation, civil wars, human rights, genocide, treatment of retards... the list goes on and on.... it must be hard to be Brit...
There we go with another case of colonial activism.
This situation exists because the rest of Europe has decided that it is acceptable. I was one of the people who lobbied ahead of Romania and Bulgaria's accession for human rights solutions to be made a condition of EU membership, but Europe deliberately chose to ignore these concerns. There was full knowledge of these abuses within the Enlargement Commission, but they did absolutely nothing to put pressure on these countries to end these apalling scandals. If anything, they concealed the true extent of the problem from the European Parliament. The stated view of the Commission was that EU membership would solve this problems, but it clearly has not done so. In fact, in the case of Romania, improvements have slowed down since accession. Where is the Commission in all of this now? Are these victims somehow lesser citizens of Europe? Unbelievably, the EU is now providing funding to renovate institutions at the expense of community living, thus further compounding the wrong done to these men and women. IThis disgraceful approach is a matter of great shame on all of the people of Europe.
Well done to the Blewitt BBC story i rest my case.