Чикаго Трибюн злепоставя България

Уважаема Редакция,

Прочетох статията на Теомира-Десислава Петкова "В Чикаго Трибюн злепоставят България" и направо ме засърбяха ръцете да отговоря. Имах възможността да прочета и статията на Тим Джоунс и мога с ръка на сърцето да кажа, че изпитах огромно удоволствие от прочетеното. И не можах да разбера в какви точно смъртни грехове авторката обвинява клетия г-н Джоунс. Човекът решил с жена си да посетят сина си, който от една година живее и преподава в София. И очарован ("charmed") от видяното решил да напише статия за страната ни.

Обаче се оказва, че е посетил сина си в нашето мило отечество недостатъчно подготвен. Как може да не е чел "История Славянобългарска"? Да не знае, моля ти се, че сме дали "на вси словени книги да четат". Че още през 917 г. сме имали Царство и Патриаршия. Или пък думите на другаря Геори Димитров: "Много преди времето, когато германският император Карл V е говорел на немски само с конете си, равноапостолът Константин-Кирил е сътворил славянската писменост". И т.н. и т.н.

Въпреки, че "лошия" г-н Джоунс съвсем обективно е посъветвал сънародниците си: "Не ходете в България, ако очаквате лъскава европейска елегантност. Но отидете там ако искате да видите и чуете шумът от тектоничните размествания на един комунистически сателит в прехода му към където и да води този преход. Елате да видите Стария свят преди да си е отишъл." Как да не му стиснеш ръката на този "лош" журналист. Освен педантичното описание на хотелите, коли под наем, какво да се види ("magnificent churches"), какво да се яде, какво да се купи от България ("Керамиката е изящна") е цитирал и най-полезните книги за американския турист, например Роберт Каплан "Балкански призраци: едно пътешествие през историята".

Та думата ми е, че по-малко патетика хич няма да ни навреди.

Севделин Панев

Mr. Jones,
 
My family and I recently read your article in the Chicago Tribune on travel in Bulgaria, and as Bulgarian citizens living in Chicago, were very disappointed and offended by your misrepresentation of the country.  Bulgaria is not a very large country and is generally little-known here in America, therefore very few pieces of information about it manage to be released to the public- in contrast with such famous tourist destinations as France or Italy or even Greece, a close neighbor.  On seeing such a long article in a popular and respected Chicago newspaper, we were excited to know that our country was getting some of the attention that it deserved and that maybe the author could educate Chicagoans on the beauty of the nation that we hold dear- beauty such as majestic mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, picturesque towns, glorious churches, and proud monuments.  Our country is one of great history and has much to offer along with a wide spectrum of interesting people who love and cherish it.  You seemed not to notice any of this.  You wrote of obituary notices, slow waiters, McDonalds restaurants, donkey carts (which are very rarely seen on the streets of Sofia unlike you noted in the photo which must have been one of the very rare occasions), ketchup on pizza, commercial billboards (present everywhere and unnecessarily described as a huge part of the culture), and other such insignificant details and exceptions which you noticed on one street in one city- which doesn't even begin to represent the beauty of the whole country.  As I proceeded to read through your article, I saw false facts, incorrect generalizations, and a narrow-minded disrespectful slander against a whole nation and its people, unfit to be published in a venerable newspaper such as the Chicago Tribune. 

I don't mean to be rude, but you sir were rude- and not only that, you offended a whole people with your disrespect, and having the chance to showcase the many beautiful aspects of an often forgotten and overlooked nation you instead took up two pages worth of valuable space with jokes at Bulgaria's expense, stereotypes, wrong information, misunderstandings of the truth, a one sided view of the big picture, and leaving an impression on the reader that if anyone should choose to go to Bulgaria it would be for the cheap exchange rate and the salad.  I understand that you may have had good intentions and wrote about what stood out in your mind, but as a reporter you have the responsibility to research your subject- and if that subject is a country then at least see more than one part of a single city to get a feel for all that that country has to offer.

Of course there is some truth to many of the things you wrote of, but I am sure they were not the only things you saw and were not nearly important enough to be all you chose to tell the people of Chicago about.  Bulgaria is full of traditions and interesting architecture, and a brilliant treasure of natural beauty which you didn't mention at all, and if you did it was a few scattered words lost beneath the ugly picture you painted of our country.  I don't know what your goal was in writing your article- it surely wasn't to get people to go there because I would never choose to visit it if I only used your piece for reference.  And the goal couldn't have been to inform people of what Bulgaria is like because I don't remember reading anything of complete unbiased accuracy or any account of the true culture or a description of the land.

I am disappointed, Mr. Jones, in your article because it has leap-frogged over the beautiful and has centered on the ugly (ugly which is present in every country and faults that are not the definition of it).  There are many great things to see in Bulgaria and I am sorry you couldn't see them, and by extension of you, that Chicagoans could not see them.  Please note that as your article is on the internet, people all over Bulgaria are also reading it and your words will be passed among them in anger and discussion long after the physical newspapers here in America have been tossed away.  I ask you to consider revisiting and rewriting your article because what you left out of it this time is of the utmost significance and without its inclusion, this piece is mistaken and incomplete.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please watch the wonderfully made video I have attached to this letter- it may show you some of the things in Bulgaria that you failed to notice.
 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=odBjWkQ030Y
 
Tayana Panova, 16 yrs., Bulgarian/American citizen