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February 4, 2005 -- From Radost

Скъпи ми другари и приятели от младостта!

Ще пиша това есе на български, защото така ви чувствам. Езикът е съществена част от определението за нация, а  за мен е много важно, че сме българи. Това, заедно с всичко друго, което ни свързва, ме кара да ви чувствам близки както в гимназията. И странно – след години раздяла да се надявам, че се разбираме по всичко съществено.

Моят живот и бизнес ме свързва с хора от различни националности. Всъщност всички хора имат общи черти. Но стигнем ли до съществените подробности, предпочитам свои сънародници, а между тях особено близки чувствам съучениците от гимназията. Радвам се, когато срещам имената ви по спирките на своя живот – на изложения и бизнес срещи /Радулов, Семерджиев Венци, Геш, Андро, Мишо, Иван/, в разговори за гимназията и образование /Ирина Васева, Роберт, Аспарух в СУ, Радка в Училище Европа/, на гости във Вашингтон чувам за Емил Янлъзов в посолството, по Алеята на славата в Лос Анжелис търся стъпките на Винси и Сашо Стайков, винаги мога да звънна на приятелката си Галя Манова – сега Цветкова, дори мога да посетя кафето и ресторанта на Петко Дренков или да гледам по телевизията Вальо Кънев по въпросите на петрола в Черно море. Дано не се налага, но в Пирогов е Жоро Григоров – известен добър хирург. В кардиологията на Медицинска Академия работи Мони Димитров – кардиолог, с животоспасяващи лекарства го зарежда фирмата на Боби Конев, а нашата фирма изгради операционни в същата клиника с антисептични стъклотапети и бои. Мишо и Андрей са на телекомуникационния фронт, където всичко се развива с темповете на научната фантастика. Горда съм с Йоли, която работи за умиротворителни сили в съседни страни /не съм очаквала толкова мъжественост от нея!/ и с Мариана – пионер в организиране работата с малцинствата в България. Интернет пространството за мен е свързано с Наско Енчев, когото сега чувствам по-близък от всякога. Минко беше дипломат в Норвегия, а моят бизнес често ме води в Скандинавия. Чувствам близки професионално Митко Аничкин – преподавател във ВИАС и Алеко – виден архитект. Строителството е бранш, който изисква европейска култура, законодателство и материали, и всички ние го облагородяваме. Хубаво е, че навсякъде сме мост от най-доброто създадено в света към България. Емоционално, финансово, данъчно, физически всеки от нас следва да присъства максимално тук, в Родината. Защото тя сега има нужда от нас за икономическото си развитие. Къде и какво физически работим е въпрос на късмет, квалификация, донякъде избор. Добре е, че възрастта ни кара да се вълнуваме от всички браншове на развитие. На последната ни среща Николов – преподавателят ни по история се интересуваше предимно от медицинския и гробищен бизнес. Той си остана прагматичен. Ефремова – биоложката, която също поканихме на последната среща на випуска ни, потвърди увереността ми, че човек не се променя значително с възрастта. Често си мисля за добрите ни учители, за другарката Стоева – защото работя с химически продукти и за шанса който съм имала да уча заедно - например химия с хора като Спас и Пешо Карадаков или математика с Чипчаков, или физика с Мишо...

Скоро “малката” Анелия от нашия клас много ясно формулира щастието: здраве + професионална реализация + семейство и приятели.  За себе си в тази формула се самооценявам като 5+ по шестобална система. Последната единица на щастието е “warm gun” – не можеш дълго да я задържиш в ръце, както установи Джон Ленън. Но все я търсиш...

Аз се считам щастлив човек в исторически план. Получих много добро образование при социализма: гимназията, английска филология в СУ, МИО в икономическия. Имах много добри работни места в министерство и ВТО, после започнах частен бизнес в началото на българския капитализъм с приятел – съдружник, разделихме се приятелски и превърнах бизнеса се в семеен. Не знам до колко тава е поносим вариант, но бизнесът иска жертви, а и преоткриваш човека да себе си (www.limexco.com)

Обичам да пътувам и да живея интензивно. Българският преход ни прави твърди и с чувство на непобедимост. Не знам забелязали ли сте колко интересно и уникално нещо е пост-социалистическият човек?! Мечтая за времето, когато в докладите ми на международни срещи с партньори средната работна заплата в България ще бъде по-напред в класацията на Централно и Източно Европейските страни. За сега сме още на последно, рядко на пред последно място, но развитието се чувства. Учим се на всичко – демокрация, политика /има много жертви, ето днес – един от най-интелигентните ни политици проф. Огнян Герджиков бе свален от поста си/, икономика. Някои не успяват и тогава – всичко е черно. Възрастните ни родители имат остра нужда от субсидии с усмивка, без натякване. А не лесния живот повече от всякога се нуждае от оптимисти. Ето това най-много харесвам в бизнеса /истинския/– вечния му стремеж към успех и усъвършенстване, и нужда от оптимизъм и риск. 

Дано и света се стабилизира с помощта на нашето поколение – политически – без груби свръх сили и икономически – без груби контрасти на богатство и бедност, емоционално – с превес на добротата и културата над пошлото и посредствеността Дано няма тероризъм, който ни отне Еми от Е-клас в Москва!!!

Дано всички успеят да прочетат страничката ми на кирилица. Ако не – ще я преведа на език, който Наско Енчев определи. Идеята ти, Наско, за този сайт е страхотна!

С много обич: РАДОСТ 

January 13, 2005 -- From Svetlana

For those, who dared to leave...

For those, who dared to stay...

For those, who dare to live

Here and far away;

For you, for me, for us -

children of anonymous class.

Dear friends,

I have been thinking a lot about The Choice - actually about choices: big, fundamental, existential choices, which turn our life all around (whom to love, whom to leave and with whom and where to live...); and small everyday choices (what to buy, how to pay the bills…) – not so crucial issues but still indispensable... Of course, we all know dialectics, which insists that our big choices and our small choices are somehow interconnected.

And would you agree with me that there is no 100% absolute choice - every choice means at the same a denial of its alternatives; it supposes not only advantages, but consciously taken risks and eventual damages and even losses. Sometimes it is a matter of good calculation, sometimes this is a matter of good education, and sometimes... there is simply no choice. Sometimes, we just play the game of our culture - with all its rules and regulations. We just try to excuse our timidity or hesitation with some basic principles and moral laws... Just as Claude-Levi Strauss puts it, we try to turn the necessity into a virtue. But do we believe to ourselves then? And sometimes we breake rules and escape from relations, just in order to be ourselves. But are we the same any more?

Anyway, I cannot tell you that you were right when you left. It was your personal choice and if you feel happy now, it means that you were right. But it doesn't mean - if you are not happy where you are you - that you were wrong. You just don't know how would you feel if you had decided to stay. And the same about us - those, who didn't chose the emigration.

Let us say so: the globe is getting smaller and smaller, we can reach any part of the world in few hours (more or less); and besides that there is the opportunity of the net... If you miss your roots - this is the price of your choice. On the other hand, those of us who decided to stay where we have been born, probably will survive through the departure of our children who don't want to stay where they have been born... And all this is normal, after all, and God thanks - we can chose! This is the era not only of post-socialism, but of post-modernity, after all!..

This spring I will represent in our University the fourth book of Bozhidar Checkov, a Bulgarian emigrant in Paris. He is so concerned with Bulgaria as many Bulgarians living here are not at all. It seems he is thinking about our country every instance of his (actually well-established) life. While at the same time so many young Bulgarians are dreaming every instance just about leaving this place... I will arrange a meeting between a prosperous emigrant who would probably say how important is to stay here and change the country little by little, and young students, most of whom are not thinking of anything else but how to change their own life situations. Can we blame him? Can we blame them? Not at all!

What about me? Am I happy where I am? I believe no normal person can be happy in a country with so many beggars on the streets, with so many people keeping an eye on the litter-bins, so many youngsters dreaming about anything but not here, and not this life... Probably this general feeling of national ill-being reduced the sensitivity of some Bulgarians so much, that when our compatriots returned from their Christmas holidays in the recently stricken by tsunami South-Asia region, they seemed completely happy and didn’t try to show even a minimum of politically correct  sympathy to those who were suffering there…

But shall it be too much to tell you that nevertheless I am grateful to God for the past 20 years, for the love and devotion in my family, for our growing daughter, who knows the world but who still cherishes our common dream to make this little corner a better place, and for the happiness to share with our parents the most joyful and most difficult moments of their/our lives... This is also a choice...

Last year I had the opportunity to visit Lille, which was a cultural capital of Europe in 2004. There were organized a lot of events, among which a concert of the Beethoven's 9th Symphony, carried out about 30 klms away from Lille. It was played in a strange place on the background of a big catholic church - all in ruins, situated in the centre of a vast graveyard. Chilly evening, the voices of the chorus – numb with cold and therefore - a little bit false at the beginning. What a  joke - the Ode of Joy, symbol of United Europe, in a false tune. What a meaningful symbol, if we know that this was not an ordinary graveyard, but a place where thousands of French soldiers from the WW I have been buried.There were German generals among the VIP-s of the concert. What striking metaphor of our life: the dream of the united Europe on the graveyard of the dead soldiers from the World Wars; our dream of prosperous Bulgaria - paying the price of empty homes...

But I am still a dreamer…

January 12, 2005 -- From Bora

Dear Friends,

Naso is a persistent person – he kept on asking me to write something till I finally gave up resisting. You know, if I were a great writer, I would never have become an engineer. Well, I have overcome my resilience to write this time.

Currently I live in California. A country of diversity. Also, a country of immigrants. It is only natural to meet people here with their English being a second language. So is mine. On the other hand, my kids have Bulgarian as a second language – at least I managed to do this much. I wish it was the other way. So, typing this in English was not my first choice, but I guess it is all right, is it?

There was a point in my life when I started thinking where exactly I was standing and where should I head to. I am sure everybody has such moments. I was flying back from one of my assignments in Taiwan when the lady that was sitting next to me commented that I must be a happy guy. This comment came after a 2-3 hour chat – the flight from Taipei back to San Francisco took about 12 hours. So I thought: well, if a successful businesswoman from Singapore thinks so, it has to be true. At least, this is what most of the people would think of me. It must have been the quest for happiness that has taken me to the other side of the World. It has taken me to a nice but not perfect place. To a presumably free but not quite free country. To a place from where in moments I wish to move, but there are not many better places to go to on this planet. I would rather be an artist, but I am somewhat stuck living the intense life of a structural engineer in California. I would rather spend more time with my kids, but I am often stuck staring at the computer screen. I would rather be close to my friends than being thousands of miles away. So I started looking for some specific definition of happiness – that would be my clue for understanding life – mine, and in general.

Allow me to try a definition: a man is happier in proportion to the chances of survival of his gene. This includes in step-down order himself and children, relatives and friends, nation, humanity. I do believe that this is a general rule to explaining and understanding all human activity. I would love to see your comments. From what I have seen so far on this site, I should think that many of you are in the “happy category”, too. So your input will be very valuable. 

To sum it up: I have a nice family and a relatively stable job that pays the bills in a high-standard country. I have traveled a lot – in Europe, Asia, North and South America. I have seen disasters with my own eyes – post-earthquake walkdowns and inspections are part of my job. I have seen wellbeing for comparison. On a “happiness scale” from 1 to 4, mine is probably 3. I have reached so far and I hope that there is more to go. The quest for perfection shall never end. Where to? Hard to tell. I have never imagined say 10 years ago that I would be sitting at the San Francisco bay one day and would be typing a message to my friends all around the World. I am reaching out to you. Please make me think you are close. This will make me very happy.

Yours,

Vincent

P.S. I love guests. California is a very interesting place to see. Please do not hesitate to call me if you have a chance to come by.

January 11, 2005 -- From Spas

Dear Friends,

It has been quite some time since I promised Nasko to submit an ‘essay’ to ELS Alumni Worldwide and now it's my pleasure to deliver it. I thought that it would give me the opportunity to share with you some memories of my nomadic life since graduating from our school in 1976. This is something I wish I could have done at the ELS reunion meetings in 1997 and 2002, but unfortunately I was unable to be present.

I graduated from the University of Sofia (Chemistry) in 1982 and in 1983 I started my PhD at the Technical University of Budapest. I spent the next 4.5 years in Budapest enjoying the friendship of Mitko Uzunov and Vesko Kutzev (D class?), who at the time were completing their undergraduate studies in international commerce. After spending a year at the University of Sofia and two months at the University of Cordoba in Spain in 1989 and 1990, I joined the University of Twente in the Netherlands as a Research Fellow. The next 2.5 years were filled with interesting research, exciting trips to other European countries and frequent visits to Bulgaria, where I returned for 3 years in 1992. During this time I continued teaching analytical chemistry at the University of Sofia and kept travelling for conferences and short-term visits to foreign universities, predominantly in the Netherlands and Australia.

In 1995 I was offered a research position at La Trobe University in Melbourne. When accepting it, initially for 1 year, I did not expect that this step would change my life so dramatically. However, the excellent conditions for conducting research, and the friendliness and hospitality of my Australian colleagues and friends, kept me at La Trobe University for the next 5 years. A few years ago, after much hesitation, I resigned from my permanent position at the University of Sofia, and in 2002 I accepted a continuing lectureship at the University of Melbourne.

Since my arrival in Australia in 1996 I have attempted to visit Bulgaria on a regular basis, though, due to work related commitments, this has become more difficult in recent years. I hope to visit Sofia in the not too distant future and to catch up with as many of you as possible.

In the meantime I would like to wish all of you a wonderful and prosperous 2005!

With very best wishes,

Spas

July 27, 2004 -- From Emil

Dear friends,