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

In the communist world, you have human and civil rights, but only on paper.

In Eastern Europe, as in fantasy, many things need additional explanation because ordinary people from anywhere else could not understand what is happening in reality. Let's take, for example, the attitudes toward foreigners, especially rich foreigners. On one hand, they become objects of veneration because of their money, which is pretty much normal in societies where to be a middle class means simply to survive. On the other hand, local people hate foreigners, especially rich ones; primarily because of their money. You may say that this is a contradiction and isn't a normal way of thinking. Of course you will be right, but not here, not in the wonderful world of Eastern European.

During the communist period it was not considered appropriate for people to move and relocate. Communist governments preferred to know where exactly men and women lived because in this way they could monitor suspect persons easier. There was a special system designed to prevent people from moving freely, the so-called "living permission". If you wanted to relocate from town A to town B, you had to get a permit. It sounds very easy in theory but it isn't. If you want to get a permit, you first have to get a job in place B. If you want to get a job... that's right... you need to have a living permit! In the communist world, you have human and civil rights (right to move), but only on paper.

You will say that this was possible in the dark communist ages, but that today the things are quite different. Different, yes, but not quite different enough. In many Russian cities the system of living permits still exists. Here we don't mean the closed cities working for the national defense where even the Russian citizens can't enter without visa (just think about asking for visa for traveling in your own country!). The capital city of Moscow, the second biggest Russian city of Saint Petersburg and many others don't allow outsiders to settle freely. These restrictive measures are particularly popular within these elite reservations. Furthermore, almost the half of the people in Moscow consider it appropriate to expel from the city any Russian citizen who hasn't a living permit . For the sake of accuracy we have to mention that these restrictions still exist not only in Russia, but also in Slovenia (more precisely for the capital city of Ljubljana).

When you live mostly in one and the same community, and most East Europeans do live in the same places as 10-20 years ago, you develop a suspicion toward anything new and any newcomer. S/he becomes like a wrong drawing in the picture, like false note in the song. You can love him or you can hate him, it depends on your instant impressions but you will hardly accept him as a normal and equal human being.

When it comes to foreign investment, East Europeans more or less accept its importance for the social prosperity. The problems emerge when the foreign investments really begin to pour in. Public opinion opposes selling arable land; it also opposes selling defense companies; it also opposes selling land whatsoever in the border regions; it also opposes selling infrastructures like roads and utilities. There is broadly shared assumption that every foreign investor wants to destroy the national economy (every western tourist during communism was considered to be a CIA agent). They buy factories and later they sell them abroad as a scrap - this is common reaction you will find if you speak with the people anywhere in Eastern Europe.

Even in more liberal countries in the region you will have to get several permits before going to the real estate market and trying to buy land or building lots. "Why do you need it?" is a common question that local people can't answer. They can't believe you have come to forge a profitable farm (during communism all farms were subsidized). Maybe you have some hidden thoughts, maybe this is part of a plot to buy all the cultivable land and later make people starve. No? Then maybe you are a Mafia boss and you plan to build a hideout for drugs and weapons. Wrong? So you maybe are some close collaborator to the former communist dignitaries and you are trying to privatize the economy with the money they have stolen from the people? There could be many questions like this one and the ordinary people will never believe that you may just be a businessman, that you have nothing in common with the Mafia and that you aren't interested in politics.

Here we come to a vicious circle - the more restricted the real estate market is for foreigners, the less expensive is the land. The less expensive land means bigger fears among local people that foreigners could buy all the land and thus diminish the national sovereignty. The bigger these fears are, the more likely is that the restrictions on the real estate market will hold longer.

Only the huge and constant political pressure from outside can break this vicious circle. This pressure could come from the European Union which consider the liberalization of the land markets in the candidate states as a condition for full membership. Even if the restrictions for foreigners are lifted, this won't be a result of the internal social development, but of the external pressure. Ironically this will only stress further the general impression by Eastern Europeans that they have become targets of some western plot the aim of which they can't understand.

Only the next generation in the region, which won't remember communism and which will be living with the global issues, only it will overcome completely the present fears. My dreams are associated with this new generation. It wants to live the life of their western friends. If the present Eastern European governments don't want to see it going westward, they have to create economic conditions equal to these already existing in Western Europe or in North America. One of these conditions is to treat people not by their skin, ethnic or national origin, but by their skills and by their individual contribution to the common prosperity.

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

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