A Revolution Ignored by the World

Clearly, the world doesn't give a crap, nor does the board. The government of Bulgaria seems to have done a cynical calculation that as massive and long running as the street protests are, if they (the government) just lay low for long enough, the people will forget about it and get on with their lives.

There is a lot of unemployment, no regulation of employer behavior whatever, and prices which have increased so much for so long, that most citizens can now only live basic subsistence lives. They cannot afford even to heat their homes in the winter or cool them in the summer. The power company has a rampant practice of sending out fictitious bills, a hundred times bigger than the amount you have actually spent, and then starting to fine you for every day you don't pay. If you try to protest that the bill is fictitious, they say, "Well, we'll have a review in four months, come and appeal it then." Really the only ones who have anything are politicians and criminals, which are greatly overlapping groups. A recent rule declared that you cannot leave the country without paying every debt you owe. A law making its way through parliament at the moment forbids emergency rooms from helping anyone who doesn't have money or insurance.

So far, the protests, as massive as they have been, have been mostly peaceful, so the government just ignores them, and when the politicians leave the parliament building at night, the police clear a path for them through the protesters. The protesters often chant, "Mafia...mafia" outside the parliament, correctly assessing the government as corrupt.

Coverage in the media is rare, and when there is coverage, half the time the commentators get it wrong and refer to it as protests against "austerity measures," which it certainly isn't.

It's the revolution ignored by the world.