Archived Articles

Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

Global Real Estate Project
News Index

Directories
  Int'l Realty
  US Realty

People in Europe usually go south in the summer time. If you see tens of thousands of cars heading to the Mediterranean Sea you even may not ask what season of the year it is. Millions would-be tourists are doing exactly the same things which have been done by the others 10 years, 20 years, 30 years ago - going to the beach, lying there all day long etc. I suppose that nobody so far has calculated how many millions (or billions) of days have gone in vain during this complete inactivity only because the main form of vacation in Europe is considered to be "far' niente" (doing nothing).

No, I'm not against the notion of vacation itself. Far from that. Simply I think that: 1) Lying on the beach is not exactly what we are made for; 2) Complete inactivity doesn't help us recover from the whole year of hard work; 3) Doing nothing doesn't stimulate the local economy, etc.

In Europe there are two main trends concerning the way of living - the "North" and "South" traditions. The North model is based on the assumption that the work is everything and the laziness is a sin. People from the North thought that the only decent thing they could do in their life it to work. This model has some inconveniences - people don't have a time to meet each other, fathers don't have enough time to pass with their children (mothers are also occupied). In other words the society isn't functioning very properly.

People need some break in their work and this break they call vacation. The vacation must be the opposite of the normal life. Instead of work - laziness, instead of going here and there - complete inactivity, lying on the beach.

The South model is based on different assumption. The work isn't everything. The life in itself is everything and the work is only the mean of accumulating enough resources for living. The life means going to the pub in the evening, discussing sport and politics with different people etc. There isn't a hard work and people don't need the opposite - complete laziness. As far as I can see, the North model is taking over the South.

Let's return to the Northern model of work-vacation. The first result of the 4-weeks long laziness (in Europe most people have right to be completely inactive 1 full month, usually in August) is that they temporarily lose their working habits. Given the fact that for the rest of the year the work for them is everything this may cause a big havoc in their professional lives. In this respect the complete inactivity is also very danger as is the hard all day long work.

Second, complete inactivity doesn't help us recover from the whole year of hard work. If we think that one month of taking care of our children is enough to compensate 11 months of lack of interest towards them, we are completely wrong. The God and the nature made from us to be active people so any attempt against that will only harm us, not heal.

Let me ask you a question - why do you think in Europe with its population of almost half a billion there aren't so many parks of attractions like in the USA with less than 300 million. And most of these parks (in Europe) are not doing but losing money every year? For me the answer is simple, because people in my continent don't have a real understanding that the real vacation means not "lying on the beach" but changing the monotone activity with something new, something interesting for you and your children. Thus you will recover from your hard work without losing your sense of activity. And if you begin to live with that idea you will try to use every single moment of your life to move between your weekly work and your little weekend vacation - going in your city parks, local attractions or natural beauties.

Consider also that making your vacation meaningful instead of simply "lying on the beach" will contribute to the local economy and that will give you a feeling that you make something important for the society even during your holidays.

--------------------

See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Europe.