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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
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Uruguay: Application for the club of richest nationsUruguay is one of the most "boring" countries in the world. Not boring in a sense of uninteresting for locals and visitors. "Boring" in a sense of lacking extreme emotions we can find in so many other nations. In this sense being "boring" is quite a positive talent. It is exactly a country most international retirees are looking for. A country with standard of living similar to what they are familiar with. A country where real estate is relatively cheap compared to many first world nations. A country where property rights are relatively protected and, at least officially, foreigners feel like home. A country where people can walk without having a gun for protection. In a word, it's a splendid "boring" country. I looked for changes since our last review that might have disturbed this picture of quiet and peaceful country. Officially everything looked normal ever since; there were no revolutions or military coups, no nationalizations, no spectacular cases of kidnapped foreigners, no events that may be depicted as big natural disasters, even no serious outbreaks. Rich foreigners were using governmental programs to move to the country or to have a passport without citizenship. Economy was doing remarkably well, helped by the regional free trade block Mercosur and by some other international factors like low interest rates and capital outsourcing. With such high economic growth rates the country may "apply" for the club of richest nations, a club it was a member of some 100 years ago. On the flip side, the popular mentality in Uruguay seems more and more poisoned by radical socialist ideas. It's a sign of good manners in the country, as well as in the whole region, to look for American-inspired political plots around the world. What is even more spectacular is that this mentality is gradually covering the attitudes to all rich countries, including Europe and Far East. Recent economic prosperity in Uruguay didn't make people less radical, thus contradicting the common sense assumption that poverty causes left radicalism. If that were the case, the most intense anti-western and anti-American feelings would be found in Africa and in South Asia. On the other hand, nations like Canada or France would be expected to show only warm affection toward Washington. In the case of Latin America it seems as if the wealth doesn't play any role in the nature of these relations. 10-15 years ago many nations in the region experienced wave of pro-Americanism, now they have changed. Uruguay doesn't make an exception. I don't however expect any substantial shifts in the way Uruguay performs. It's far away from any strategic location so no international factors will force the country out of its normal track. Economically it's well above any critical threshold that allows some return to non-democratic political system. With no radical changes expected to occur Uruguay would remain a "boring" country no matter how radical the predominant mentality might be. * - Ideally speaking, there are two main economy-oriented mentalities in modern times, capitalist mentality or people thinking how to make more money, and socialist mentality or people thinking how to redistribute more money.
Country profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Uruguay.
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