петък, 21 декември 2012 г.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PEACE CORPS DIRECTOR

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PEACE CORPS DIRECTOR

Xenia Kisselincheva
“Ask not what your country can do for you,
but what you can do for your country”

Do you know that these words belong to the legendary John Kennedy who uttered them when initiating the Peace Corps way back in 1961. They were addressed to its thousands of volunteers who were ready to selflessly serve another country in need, no matter what the risks, the inconveniences or the hardships were. They were promptly recruited upon the country’s request: “Send us engineers”, “Send us nurses or...send us teachers” and off they went to a completely unknown spot at the other end of the world. They are of all ages and walks of life, but what unites them all is their dedication to the values of the Peace Corps, funded by the Congress but independent of foreign policy and interacting with NGO’s. These values have stood the test of time and they seem particularly pertinent in the global village of today, torn by local conflicts and sectarian divisions. What do these values imply? The better you know another culture, the better you understand the people who belong to it. The more you are prone to share the common humanity with them and the less you are prone to be in conflict with them.

 Here I am at the new headquarters of the Peace Corps in Sofia, a stately late Baroque house in Tzar Assen street, with a spacious inner yard and gates, finely decorated with wrought-iron patterns. Here I am at the office of Mrs Perdita Huston, who has been PC director for the last six months. A journalist and a social worker by vocation, she is the author of a number of books, dealing with issues of social justice. More specifically, as far back as the 70’s, she has been passionately involved with women’s rights in less developed countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through her keen and moving interviews with ordinary women, she makes their authentic voices be heard by the American public at large. She reveals how they perceive the changes, taking place in their lives, what are the things to be done.

Perdita is tall and vivacious, charmingly spontaneous and warm, brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. She is distinctively American and, at the same time, she is definitely “a citizen of the world”. At the age of nineteen, she chose to do her university studies in Paris, where life is “an immovable feast”, where everybody takes great delight in arguing and disputing about things big and small,  where she met a medical student who later became her husband.  Soon after their marriage, he was drafted as a young doctor in the French army during the Algerian war. Still quite young, Perdita had a brush with the raw horror of war at the field hospital... Or she struggled to put together the shattered lives of refugees at the resettlement center where she was working as a social worker. She learned about life the hard way, but the experience and insights helped her tremendously later on, when she worked for the UN, for various NGO’s like Amnesty International and as a regional director for the Peace Corps under the Carter administration. In between jobs, she has been writing and publishing her books. Her books came to the attention of the Peace Corps people, they thought she had a special touch with people from various cultures in times of trials and tribulations. That’s how she was offered her latest assignment in Sofia.

 Once more far from home, far from her family. Her three grown up children, two daughters and a son, are presently living  in the US, she keeps continually in touch with them through e-mail and phone. Her eldest daughter, a TV producer for European networks is currently working for “Project 2000”, in which Bulgaria is also takingart. It involves a 24-hour satellite coverage of the celebrations across the globe, as the century turns and the new millennium dawns. Perdita tells me she has “a special weakness” for her son and she is expecting him to come over for Christmas. He is quite happy with his acting career with the Denver Center Theater Company. Like Perdita, he adores skiing, so they hope to have a go on the Vitosha ski runs. Holidays come and go, but most of the time she is religiously dedicated to the Peace Corps mission, traveling around the country, meeting the volunteers, sharing their experience at the grass root level.

 “The Peace Corps” has been working in Bulgaria since 1990. The volunteers spend the first three months, staying with Bulgarian families. Learning the language and culture in their natural context helps them better integrate into the communities where they are expected to stay for two years. Here, we have been requested so far to offer assistance in three main sectors-environment and tourism, business opportunities and know-how at municipality level and English language teaching. This is our largest program, there are over 60 volunteers, teaching English in the school system throughout the country at primary or secondary school level. Our ‘can do’ mentality, which is historically grounded, helps the local people deal better with the numerous challenges of a fast-changing environment. When they go back, they are the best “ambassadors” of your country, they open the eyes of Americans to the idiosyncrasies of the local culture and customs, to the great potential of the people and of the natural resources. In 10 years’ time, Bulgaria will be well-known on the tourist circuit and I hope our ecologists will contribute to better preserving the natural beauty, which is striking in its variety. I also hope you will treasure and preserve your rich cultural and artistic traditions, another asset of yours which could attract foreign visitors in the future...”

Perdita shows me some pictures of a gathering of former volunteers in Mali, who called her and wanted to share with her their insights and concerns” when she was named the director of Mali. There were people of all walks of life - doctors, lawyers, engineers - they stayed together and loved to tell of their unusual and powerful African experience. Among the 180 000 ex-PC “missionaries” who had lived in towns and villages throughout the world, there are some very influential people in high places, some of them members of Congress or the Senate. They all contribute in their way to the better understanding of inscrutable foreign cultures, washing down prejudice and hostility.

A lot has been accomplished but there is a lot more to do. Mrs. Huston has to guide the volunteers in their whole-hearted efforts to fulfill their primary assignment, whether it be a project in one of the national reservations or starting a small business, producing peanut butter. But her ambition is to keep them as busy, creative and fruitful as possible. Very often, they find something completely different to do in their spare time- perhaps working with an orphanage, a women’s center or some other NGO. For instance, the intensive training of mayors in English, which was such a side-line initiative turned out to be very successful. It was a creative response of some volunteers to the specific needs of the community.

 “Imagine all the people, sharing all the world...” I can hear John Lennon’s song, quietly sounding on the radio in the secretary’s office next door. Suddenly the bard’s words strike me as prophetic and yet strangely utopian in the troubled reality of today’s world. Still, I realize that thanks to the unfailing and selfless efforts of such organizations as the American Peace Corps, we all can get an inch closer to turning the bard’s dream into reality, we all can follow its example and try to serve our community in a creative and distinctly individual way.    
                  
Sofia Western News monthly, 1999


A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FILM DIRECTOR

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FILM DIRECTOR
Xenia Kisselincheva
“The new millennium might give birth to a new world religion which will save mankind as a whole”

With true friendship time does not seem to count. It may be a platitude, but it happens to you, only once in a while, and you see it as God’s gift. You meet an old friend, you haven’t seen for years but you have the feeling you parted only yesterday. There is the same alchemy in your very special communion, where telepathy and insight helps you tune to the same wavelength with the other person and, then, it is like a jazz improvization you both intensely enjoy. That’s what happened to me when I bumped into Zlatina into the street, after we haven’t been in touch for more than 10 years. We just felt as close to each other, as if we only parted the previous day. I instantly knew I wanted to write about her and she instantly agreed before I had shown her the magazine I contributed to. When we met the next time at my place, she said  she had no problems getting to my house, she “sniffed” her way, as unmistakenly a lost cat finds her way back home. She brought me a scarlet dahlia, she remembered it was the flower I adored. Luckily, I hit on the right kind of white Traminer wine which she loved to sip in the good old days, that is, in the mid-80ies. And, as of old, we did not notice how time passed, how it was well after midnight, and still there were so many things to share and discuss... oh, let me just play this CD of Mike Stern’s before you go!

1986 was an auspicious year for my friend Zlatina Rousseva, the director of several documentary films, branded by the film board as “scandalous”, so they were banned. But, in 1986, she  was awarded a prize at the prestigious festival of Oberhausen, Germany, as well as  at a festival  in Spain. Her film “A Century or a Day”, based on E. Tomova’s book “God Forsaken” was highly acclaimed. This gave her the chance to leave Bulgaria and, like some other colleagues of hers, to try and work under different conditions, unrestrained by political and ideological censorship.

It has not been an easy choice. When Zlatina left the country, together with her husband Ljubo, they had to leave their two-year old son behind. All they had there, beyond the Iron Curtain, was Marion, a good old friend in Brussels. She was helpful and understanding but... she could be that way only for some time. Then, they had to fend for themselves in a totally new and hostile environment, where they were “les emmigres de L’Europe D’Est”. Ljubo had to look for odd jobs on construction sites, though he had just graduated from the Law department in Sofia. Zlatina had to struggle to get any job in the film industry, just to be in her “natural” environment. Her foreign colleagues refused to treat her as one of them, irrespective of the fact that she had already made five or six documentaries, a TV production on Harold Pinter’s “The Dumb Waiter”among them. Irrespective of the fact that her latest film “God Forsaken” had won her international recognition, she had to put up with that fate for more than three years, she had to be patient and ... not give up hoping. At the same time, she had to fight to keep her family together in the face of so many adversities. Her infant son David finally joined them, god bless the Red Cross for that, but it took them more than two years to achieve.  They had to change odd jobs, to change accommodation, they had to work long hours, very often ten or twelve hours.  Most of the other Bulgarians, who came to Belgium around the same time, found the strain too much to cope with. Most families fell apart, and very few of them succeeded in sticking to their professional vocation.

After years of waiting and struggling, finally Zlatina’s persistence was rewarded. As she put it, “she broke the ice with her head”! There came an offer from a Belgian colleague to work with him on a film: a documentary film about Hindu funeral rites in Indonesia. For Hindus, the ceremony of cremation is not tinged with the least sadness, it is rather a solemn and ecstatic act. They believe that by burning the body on the pyre, the soul gets rid of its envelope, and it is finally liberated! They are very particular about carefully collecting the ashes afterwards and dispersing them over the waters of the ocean. Air, fire and water, all three elements set the soul free. Now it can roam and wander until it finds another bodily receptacle and ... is reborn. The inhabitants of Bali observe all the funeral rituals to the minutest detail, they take it as a rare chance of paying homage to  the world beyond where the souls’ true abode is, after their transient earthly reincarnations. The topic of the film was very much in tune with Zlatina’s mystical sensibility and it inspired her to display the best of her creativity. The film was a huge success and it was bought by the Solveig. ??? Several offers for commercials followed.  This was the start of a new era for both Zlatina and Ljubo, they were able to set up their own film company and to buy a nice house in central Brussels. The next film was their own production, it was made in collaboration with RTBF, Belgian TV and the Russian Mosfilm. It was a most curious version of the Russian revolution of 1917, as it was reflected in the diary of Zinaida Gyppius. She was known among the intelligentsia as the eccentric lady in white, nicknamed as “the Cassandra of Petersburg”. She kept a diary and faithfully recorded her observations, as the chaotic events unrolled. Through the appearances, she shrewdly saw the ominous historical implications of the Bolshevik coup d’etat. She also presented the attitude of some intellectuals, such as Alexander Blok who chose to identify their utopian dreams with the so called revolution. Zinaida saw it clearly for what it was - a brutal, bloody putsch, depending largely on mass terror and shameless abuse of all human rights. The film was, as Zlatina said, an attempt to show the interrelation between objective necessity and chance in the revolution, as seen through the mental “lens” of an extraordinary personality, Zinaida Gyppius. She pointed out the fact that, even the West was somewhat deceived by the “grandiloquence of the Bolsheviks” which was all “a pack of lies”. The author of “the black notebook” did not spare the intelligentsia either, especially its irresponsible myopic attitude, amounting to the fall of Kerensky’s government. “It was not a revolution, but a civil war ... she writes, ... destruction of moral values, a lapse into barbarity. Great Russia is sinking into a dark bottomless pit.” And at the other pole, she reveals the tragic deception of some of Russia’s best men. “Behind the unpleasant grimaces of the Revolution, you cannot fail to see its magnificence!” Those were the words of Zinaida’s former friend, the tender Alexander Blok, one of Russia’s greatest poets.
Zlatina’s next documentary was dedicated to another great Russian, Vissotsky, the dissident bard whose songs were a kind of forbidden folklore in repressive Soviet times. People of all generations sang them at private gatherings, usually with their fists clenched, as if threatening the authorities. Singing his rebellious songs was dangerous but liberating. They gave a sense of catharsis to a great nation, whose soul was angrily stirring in the chains. Vissotsky is definitely Russia’s martyr and saint. The scenes in the film, shot at his graveside in the Novodevichie??? cemetery make you poignantly aware of this. Zlatina talks to various people, managing to catch them off guard. It is one of the most sacred place for Russians, and there you can get a feel of the peculiar Russian religious fervor, undergoing a mighty revival nowadays. Each flower petal at Vissotsky’s grave stands for the love and adoration of millions Russians and the place is all flowers. It is not quiet there at all, his songs never cease sounding, sung by admirers of his. An never-ending concert in memoriam of Russia’s modern saint.  Vissotsky sang with so much compassion and anger about the darkest side of Soviet Russia, about the prisoners in the labor camps, who were deprived of personal identity, whose suffering was mute and beyond human imagination. The film takes us on a journey to Siberia in the company of three former survivors from “the camps” and we relive their personal drama on this symbolic journey which takes us as far as the Magadan camp, “hell’s ninth circle”. All three survivors strike us as extraordinary personalities, they look as larger-than-life figures who endured the unendurable. And surprisingly, as Zlatina remarks, they remained human. They tell their horror stories with so much humor and self-irony, but they don’t belong to the past. They look forward into the future, they are full of ideas how to make money, they are Russia’s new entrepreneurs. They took advantage of their hard-won knowledge of Siberia and they were quick to succeed. One of them is the owner of a helicopter transport company, the second one is into gold digging, the third one has privatized a plant, putting it back on its feet. This is a film which has the touch of authenticity of a good documentary, but at the same time, it is empathic like a feature film. This film gives you insights which no historical book can give. Ever since, my friend Zlatina has been very busy. At the risk of her life, she shot a few heart-rending films about the civil wars in Africa, about Liberia, Angola, etc.

Of late, since the beginning of this year, she has been making a series of broadcasts for Channel 1 of the Bulgarian TV, implementing a project, financed by the Program for Development to the United Nations. The first serial broadcast, called “Paradise Garden” was dedicated to giving practical advice to the private farm, the private hothouse or garden.  It has already had 13 editions and provoked a lively interest in the audience. The second serial broadcast is called “For You, Consumers” and is intended to raise the awareness of consumers and teach them how to defend their rights in practice. There are various aspects of the broadcast: teaching us how to do shopping and avoid being cheated, how to recognize fake goods, how to deal with bureaucracy in the area of consumer services. The broadcast is shown every other Tuesday at 6 p.m. and has a high rating among spectators, judging by their letters and phone calls. Zlatina is an open-minded person and she likes to hear some intelligent criticism, because she wants to improve each following edition of the broadcast, to make it more relevant to people’s needs. When she gets back from a long working day, she likes to have a sip of Suhindol wine with a friend, or have a long chat with her husband and son in Brussels. Both of them came over for a week in early November. It was a happy family reunion, while enjoying the pleasures which the Velingrad spa had to offer. Sometimes, Zlatina preferred to stay in the hotel room on her own and to listen to the jazz CD’s, her son David recently gave her. Or reread sci-fi books of Lem and Azimov, discovering amazing insights about the information and high-tech age and reminding us of the inevitable dangers and time bombs that go with the sweeping changes and new opportunities. 

Sofia Western News monthly, 1999

петък, 14 декември 2012 г.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A METEOROLOGIST

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A METEOROLOGIST
Dr. Xenia Kisselincheva

“In the accuracy of weather forecasts, the new technologies are only complementary to the power of the human mind”

I knew her first from the TV screen, standing in front of the ever-changing synoptic map, reminding me of my geography teacher. A smile twinkled in her eyes, her voice undulated with a persuasive pitch, telling us about cyclones and anti-cyclones, raging at more than 5000 meters up in the atmosphere. “What will be, will be...” as the song goes. Isn’t the weather only one of the many factors well beyond our control, humbling us into respecting Mother Nature’s laws? Weather and climate have had such a tremendous impact on the specific character of cultures and civilizations, on their rise and fall, on their unique sensibility and outlook.

This time I met her, on a quiet and warm September evening, at her office at the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology in Mladost I. It was one of her regular night shifts  -  she was all on her own, surrounded by colorful maps, computers, all sorts of ticking measuring gadgets and... a full moon, framed in the open window.

“How do the new technologies affect the accuracy of weathercasting?” I was eager to ask, remembering an old joke about synopticians, suggesting that you should carry an umbrella, if they predict clear skies and sunshine. Ljuba liked the joke and did not seem to take it as a professional offense, she lit a “Victory” cigarette and explained to me in her emphatic manner: “The new technologies - computer networks, radars and satellites made a revolution in our field, like in many other fields, but they are only complementary to the human mind.”  In the final analysis, the reading and the interpretation of the multiple data has to be done by the synoptician. She opened a green tin box and tipped some Georgian tea into the pot with hot water, then pushed it aside to let it brew for a while. “This tea was given to us by a Russian colleague of ours. She used to come on business trips in the old days at least twice a year. This time, she came as an interpreter for some businessmen.” Ljuba went on to say that Nadia  learnt how to speak Bulgarian quite well. She loved everything here - the monasteries, the scenery, the food and ,most of all, her colleagues at the Institute. Ljuba, in her turn, was a lover of the Russian language and she preferred to read Tolstoy and Turgenev in the original. She was thrilled when Anton, her fifteen year old son, came home one day and announced that he would take Russian as a second foreign language. Maybe, one day, he would like to pick up some of her favorite volumes off the shelf? Actually, it all goes back in time.... when Ljuba was at high school, she was “the pride” of her literature teacher, who secretly hoped her brilliant student would apply at the Philology Department. But, instead, Ljuba entered the Physics Department - she was so fascinated with the unfathomable horizons,opening up with the epoch-making discoveries of the first half of the 20th century. To penetrate into the workings of invisible micro-particles, the ultimate building blocks of the universe, where perhaps its mysteries are locked ...

By the third year, she had changed her mind -she gave up nuclear physics for geophysics and meteorology. After her graduation, she immediately got a job at the Institute, and she had been working here ever since. In spite of “all  turns and twists of fortune”, she thinks she has been quite lucky in  two ways - her extended family and her work. She loves to speak of her beloved ones. To begin with, on her mother’s side, her grandfather was a devout Evangelical pastor who had been persecuted and tortured as a “Western spy”. He escaped imprisonment only thanks to his blindness-when he used a flashlight to grope his way, he was accused of giving “secret signs” to his conspirers! But he never gave up his faith and passed it on to his daughter, Ljuba’s mother. Last Saturday, the family had a double celebration - the parents’ golden anniversary and Ljuba’s sister’s birthday. They all got round the dining room table among the lavish greenery of Ljuba’s private “botanical garden” - the parents, their three “children” with their spouses, all the grandchildren and pets. “My parents got married very young, against the will of their parents, and they are still remembered as the Romeo and Juliet of Assenovgrad.” It is a romantic town at the foot of the Rhodopa mountain, nearby the Bachkovo monastery, where they were secretly wedded. We were suddenly interrupted by the flashing on the computer screens-new data were flooding in, coming from all points of the world, mainly from the regional centers in Bracknell, England, Offenbach, Germany, Quebeck in the US....??? The satelites are constantly registering variations in temperature, pressure, humidity, strength and direction of the wind. After she promptly took down the new data, for a while, we pored over the geophysical map - she gave me a brief lecture on how the relief affected the weather, in a significant way. I immediately thought of all those picturesque towns, nestling in the valleys at the foot of the Balkan mountains where the Bulgarian revival spirit sparkled at its brightest in the 19th century, where crafts and trade flourished, where the rose and the lavender grew rank due to an unique blend of soil and climate. I was tempted to inquire what Ljuba thought about the dramatic effect of global warming on climate, in the last decade or two. Ljuba said climatology was a separate discipline in itself. It took 150-200 years of observation to draw more definite conclusions. But, as a layman, I am prone to believe that the towering number of natural disasters, happening worldwide - draughts, floods and earthquakes in the 90’s strikes an alarming bell in one’s mind - haven’t human beings gone too far in their interference with natural order? Ljuba recently watched on a large screen in the next room the stupifying sight of hurricane Floyd, evolving over the Bahamas, storming past Florida, dashing to North and South Carolina. It was gathering speed at a neck-breaking speed, dashing and crashing everything on its way. But thanks to the timely warning of the synoptians, 2 000 000 people had been evacuated and saved from a devastating death!

 How about the presentation of the weather forecast on our TV? Ljuba is reluctant to comment on this,  since “not many good things could be said.” It is not enough to give the weather forecast for the next day or two, it is important to explain what the underlying reasons, the map should be seen more clearly by the spectators to better follow the dynamics of the various factors. Also, information should be given not just for the following day, but for the next couple of days. All these things were taken into consideration at the time Ljuba was doing the weather forecast news on TV. Unlike countries like Poland or the Czech republic, this part of the news has always been neglected by TV bureaucrats, though it is often of vital importance for farmers or sportsmen.

How about the research department to the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology? How have they been affected by the painful period of transition?

 “Naturally, the research team has been adapting to the new situation, they are making only computer programs demanded on the market. But, there are certain projects which are of wider practical value, taking advantage of the use of computers and mathematical modelling. For instance, there is one project, dealing with the Black sea motion. “When the cold season sets in, it is essential to get a timely warning, if a cold front is advancing from the north-east. It usually implies adverse weather conditions  - heavy snow, cable and conductors’ damage, blockage of mountain passes or roads and a dangerously rough sea. There are a lot of prevention measures to be taken to avoid serious disruptions and losses.” Something like a recurring Y2K problem, I thought, but on a minor scale, humbling us into our uneven battle with the elements...

Ljuba admits that she finds it harder to be very optimistic in today’s confused world but her unfailing passion for reading books is a secret source of spiritual strength she taps on, whenever she can. At home, when everybody has gone to bed, on the bus to the Institute, during the breaks when she is on night shift. She is a John Steinbeck woman, she loves his delicate sense of humor and his concern with moral subtleties. She loves to find in his writings some of the principles and values she has adopted from her deeply religious mother. Though Ljuba has not adopted the Evangelical faith in the strict sense, she loves to go to church from time to time - she loves to hear the hymns, to meet the young members of the congregation, to hear an interpretation of some Biblical text. It is a way  to  reaffirm her faith in the ultimate goodness and wisdom of mankind which will eventually prevail in the new millenium...        
                       
Sofia Western News monthly, 1999



   



A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WRITER

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WRITER

Dr. Xenia Kisselincheva

“The idea is to get to a safe place where you can find your own voice, your own tune”

These words referred to the creative writing course, Atima Srivastava was doing with third year students from Sofia University. Because, as I dared to argue, you don’t turn into a writer, a Mr Salmon Rushdie, by taking a crash course.   “No,certainly you don’t”, her mysterous Indian eyes twinkled in an expressive way, “but, at least, you can get to a safe place where you can read your writing out to others, get an immediate response from them, get a bit of confidence which you need to go on.”

At first, you are like a kid fumbling at the keyboard, scrambling through the miandering notes of a new music score which seems to give no guiding signs as to which way it is going. Then, slowly and painstakingly, you start extricating, out of the welter of words, something close to a melody ... Finally you can hear your distinctive individual voice, soaring and chiming throughout the enchanted silence of the room. Packed with your “fellow-writers”, sitting there,  listless and absorbed by your performance. When your voice dies down, there is an another instant of enchanted silence, before Atima, the leader of the writing class, bursts out into a flutter of artistic and articulate comment, kindling the discussion... Each and every person of the group is quite keen on voicing his views and feelings about the piece of writing, just read out.

So, writing, which is universally known to be a very solitary activity, where it’s just you and the blank page, turns into a healthy experience of sharing, where you can use each other as a resource, as an yardstick, you can stimulate each other through constructive criticism. For instance, one of the exercises they were doing, when I popped into the room, was learning how to build a narrative around an object on a picture card they picked out among a stack of cards. The idea of Ms Srivastava was to guide them to choose the one which especially stirred up their imagination and spin a story round it, tapping on memories or weaving patterns of associations.  This was the first ever creative writing course in this country, put together by the British Council and, mind you, when I spoke to the students in the break, I realized it was a real success, they all enjoyed it immensely and found it very useful. “What were the impressions of my new friend Atima, the budding star of  British fiction who was conducting the course? Were they intimidated by having to do writing in a foreign language?”

 “As a matter of fact,I would say no, they show no signs of intimidation whatsoever. I find them very responsive and truly inventive. They are quite willing to read out their writing, to take part in the discussion and to explain their reasons for using one device or another. When I asked them to write about a memory, some of them came up with strikingly vivid accounts of experiences they have not shared with anybody - like,for example, a childhood memory of being afraid...They found the whole process most interesting - calling a memory back, focusing on it, articulating it into words. What you can do next is to put it into a character or into a plot.” However, Atima makes sure that it is clear that the course has nothing to do with psychotherapy or the assumption that you can magically turn into a James Joyce or a Julian Barnes. The point is to give you a chance to find your own voice and to learn how to articulate it. From that you may either go on to writing professionally or you may go on writing for sheer pleasure. After this course you have learnt something about self-expression and you have gained more self-confidence about exposing your writing to public scrutiny. “How about talent, inspiration, the impact of your individual fate?” Atima wrinkled her nose and snapped: “This is highbrow rubbish, you know, I never discuss it in my classes. Writing is like any other activity, the more you do it, the better you get. Talent and inspiration do matter, but they are not enough.”

“How will creative writing be affected by the new technologies? Will publishing or the book form disappear?”

“Books on the Internet are not the same as a book in your hand. For me, personally, this is a unique thing. More natural, more personal, more sacred. I won’t have it substituted with surfing through the net.”

Though, Atima appears cautious or a bit reserved about the impact of some innovations and discoveries of life in the 21st century, she loves to keep in pace with fast changing lifestyle on the brink of the new millenium. She is passionately convinced that writers have to bear in mind they are competing with CD ROM, video and Internet. Apart from this, Ms Srivastava does not think that there is a strict barrier between popular culture and highbrow culture, she rather thinks they interact and influence each other. Furthermore, she believes that the family in its various versions will evolve and change but it will ultimately survive. Because the family makes society viable and self-procreative. However, she is reserved about the possibilities of genetic engineering, she thinks things might easily get out of control and we might be threatened by Frankensteins of our own making. She is a blithe spirit, she loves and enjoys life every minute of it, she enjoys life as a fast flowing river, where each day is new and different, where she sometimes loves sailing without previous planning. But, all the same, as soon as she gulps down her espresso in the morning, she immediately takes to writing, which is very much like sailing, only you must know which way you are going...

Atima is a generous and dynamic person, she has a sharp eye for telling detail, she displays an exuberant inventivenes when it comes to recreating the tragicomedy of modern life or the ambiguity of her double identity. Her creative talent feeds off the soil of modern multicultural Britain, it gets empowered by the richness of both cultural traditions which she blend charmingly both in her personality and the best of her writing. She taps on the ambiguous love-and-hate relationship with her Indian heritage as an unending source of humour, irony and farce. At the same time, she is unmistakeably British both in small and big ways, she is infatuated with the fast tempo and cultural diversity of cosmopolitan London, her shrewd insider knowledge of the world of media, TV and film making. It is a tough and ruthless world, straining human relations to the utmost by the schizophrenic tensions between living in both the actual reality and virtual reality, between the public demands and the private commitments. As the Indian poet Kabir says
“The body dies again and again
 The mind does not
Nor does Maya
Illusion lives on
mind lives on
Kabir says, hopes and desires don’t die”                                                                    

Sofia Western News monthly, 1999

петък, 7 декември 2012 г.

EDUCATION IS CENTRAL TO MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE

“EDUCATION IS CENTRAL TO MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE” Dr. Ksenia Kisselincheva Athanase Vantchev de Thracy is undoubtedly one of the greatest contemporary poets of France. His CV is quite impressive in many ways. Twenty nine collections of poetry, written in classical and blank verse, comprising all forms of poetical expression, ranging from sonnets to hymns. A number of treatises and a doctoral dissertation on Paul Verlaine. These are only few among many works of a brilliant and prolific author. An outstanding erudite and polyglot, one of the best global messengers of Bulgarian culture. Honorary laureate of many national and international literary awards. I met him at the international conference “Bulgaria-a Crossroad of civilizations and cultures” at the NDK on “The Day of Buditelite”, an auspicious date in our history. My first impression was that he is one of “a special breed”- a creative man of outstanding talents who does not put on a show of a living legend. On the contrary, he is natural and spontaneous, full of humor and self-irony. He has “the joie de vivre” of a child prodigy, speaking about serious matters with a tongue in the cheek. Here is what he had to say on the occasion of Buditelite, a special spiritual holiday for Bulgarians: “This is one of the greatest holidays of Bulgaria. Education is central to making the world a better place. I’m worried about the younger generations. They seem not to know enough about the best of their national heritage and they are mostly keen on “the shady part” of Western culture, I would dare say the so called “subculture”. What’s the mission of Buditelite today? I think their mission is to awaken people for a more meaningful life, to boost their awareness to society, both locally and globally...” He was a truly generous soul, he gave me so much of his precious time- he deliberated aloud, interspersing his talking with bits of poetry in various languages. In the course of our chat, I reminded him of a good Bulgarian tradition in the spirit of Buditelite. After our liberation from Turkish occupation, many young people were sent by their parents to study university abroad to imbibe the best of West European culture. But, most of them, came back and served their country in the best possible way. They contributed a great deal to the “retarded accelerated development” of Bulgaria. My companion got truly agitated when we hit on this topic. “Yes, that’s right. The young Bulgarians who study and work abroad should be reminded of this Revival period tradition. And they should come back and share their Western experience to help Bulgaria turn into a first-rate EU country.” I don’t try to avoid hard talk, i.e. sticky problems. I mention the decline in our educational system as a whole, point out some worrying trends like corruption and cheating in general. De Thracy responded to my words vehemently: “This is not the practice in the West, both at school and university. There are rich values and traditions in education and they are strictly kept, both by teachers and students. But, sometimes, there are isolated negative cases. Like that one, in a university in the South France where they traced a Chinese channel for buying diplomas. They were found out very fast and duly punished.” Then de Thracy swerved back to the topic of Bulgarian traditions in education, to education as a national value since the times of the Revival period. “You know, when I got a fellowship and arrived in Paris in the 7O’s???, I had the best command of French among all foreign students, which speaks of itself about the quality of Bulgarian education. Later, I was capable of using French creatively, writing my own poetry and translating the best Bulgarian poets, both classical and modern. I would like to single out particularly one among the modern poets, Radko Radkov, who passed away recently. He is a sparklingly bright star in the constellations in the skies of the world poetry. His love sonnets can be compared with those of Shakespeare and Petrarka. His verse historical dramas like “Theofano” can be compared with those of T.S. Eliot and they deserve to be produced in the best theaters of Europe. I have translated a lot of his works and he already belongs to the Pantheon of the Great Poets. So, he is there to live forever.” It was time o go back to one of the conference halls – de Thracy had to read his essay, dedicated to the image of the rose in the history of world poetry. It suddenly occurred to me to ask him in a frivolous manner: “Could you name a dream, yet to be fulfilled?” “Certainly, I have such a dream!”he exclaimed and laughed like a mischievous boy, his eyes acquiring a roguish sparkle. “I dream of having a Temple built, a Temple of World Poetry, provided with all the latest multimedia/state of the art/ equipment. I’m sure it will make a difference in the souls of those, who make their pilgrimage there. And this will make the world a better place, won’t it?” Sofia Echo weekly, 2009

A NEW UNIVERSITY FOR A NEW WORLD

A NEW UNIVERSITY FOR A NEW WORLD Dr. Ksenia Kisselincheva At first, it was the daunting dream of a few inspired intellectuals. They fully realized the need for a new educational institution which will offer a new strategy to education in the world after the fall of the Berlin wall. The new institution was conceived to radically modernize Bulgarian higher education and bring it up to scratch to the best standards of leading universities worldwide. The Association for a new Bulgarian university was set up on May 3 1990. It has been asserted in its Statutes that the new institution is to be politically independent and autonomous of any state structures. The major goal of the Association at the time was to set up a fund for financing of an alternative type of university along the lines of a private foundation. It had to promote a flexible and open-minded strategy, in opposition to the rigid and outdated strategy of the existing educational system in the country. Initially, the Association relied mainly on financing through donations, sponsorship and international sources, as well as revenues from a wide range of relevant courses. To achieve its high-minded goal, it established contacts with a number of international educational and academic institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations, churches, political parties and other public and private entities, both in, and outside Bulgaria. Another major goal of the Association for a New Bulgarian University was to work out and implement alternative approaches to knowledge and devise new syllabuses. It certainly implied the setting up of an adequate library stock to serve the major purposes of the Association. As a result of the intensive and creatively inspired activity of a number of eminent figures in the humanities, law and economics, the NBU was given the status of a higher education institution by a Decision of the Seventh Grand National Assembly of September 18,1991. The following ten years were pivotal in the implementation of its educational philosophy which is based on the liberal idea of education, relating acquisition of knowledge and professional specialization to general spiritual development. This was a difficult period of growth and assertion, a trial period for the viability of the new goals and strategies of the NBU which had to compete with a number of state and private universities. But, it evolved and flourished, mostly because it combined in a selective manner the good elements of the traditional education with radically new concepts and approaches. As Prof. Bogdan Bogdanov says “…we perfect, add and redo endlessly. Some have left us due to this perseverance. Yes, but for most students and faculty members it is a positive aspect, and the remarkable positive mood in NBU is felt immediately by newcomers…” It is a highlight in NBU history when, it received institutional accreditation on July 2001– a watershed not only in its own development but a new era in our national history of education. This was the public recognition of a new vision of higher education, in harmony with the most vibrant trends in education, both in the EU and worldwide. …I finally got off the route taxi with relief- the experience is close to an off- road ride in Africa- and I was eager to enter this oasis of civilization which reminds me of a modern version of a campus. I was taken on a half hour tour of the complex by a young lady from the PR Department, who acted like a guide, paid by the hour. She was prepared to answer any question and to make any possible remark, as we galloped through endless corridors. Some of them were decorated with portrait pictures of persons who have been awarded the honorable title of Doctor Honoris Causa. It’s already a long list of illustrious names who have made a mark in science, art and culture. Among them there are a few Bulgarians - Raina Kabaivanska, Milcho Leviev and Prof. Vera Mutafchieva whose creative achievement trespasses national boundaries. Most of them are world-famous scholars, politicians and artists whose virtual presence gives an awsome aura to the ambience of the institution and contributes to its fast rising reputation. “NBU consists of two large corpuses- says the young lady, while discreetly muttering into her mobile-there is an aula, a library and Artes restaurant and a few cafeteria. Altogether, there are 80 lecture halls with a capacity of over 2200 seats.” At some point, she decided to switch off her phone, her voice suddenly acquiring a solemn ringing note, “The halls, as you can see, are well equipped with multimedia and interactive technologies and the aula is fully equipped with the most up-to-date audio-visual technology, simultaneous translation cabins, an organ and a grand piano.” This seemed to be the highlight of her presentation and she rushed me into a café, bustling with to share a coffee with me, while putting her mobile again into full swing. I was ticked off her agenda, so I could look around in a relaxed manner and take in the lively atmosphere of the place. On the spur of the moment, I decided to hop over to a neighboring table and try to interview someone out of the blue. My “victim’ name was Biliana, a plump blond girl who was a forth year sociology student. At first, she was reluctant to respond, but on second thought, she found it exotic to be quoted in an English newspaper. When asked how she felt, being educated at the NBU, that’s what she had to say: “I think that if you know what you want, you can definitely find it here, there is such a variety of courses and modes of education. At first, this might be confusing because you have to make difficult decisions on your own. But in the process of doing this, you turn more mature and independent, so it’s good preparation for your future life.” On leaving the campus, I felt a bit envious of all those young people who had the opportunity to take advantage of this new approach to higher education. NBU is the first university in Bulgaria which introduced the credit system as a measure of the workload of students. In this way, the students combine specialization in a certain area with broad basic education and interdisciplinary programs. NBU is also a pioneer in offering distance learning, continuing education and internal and external mobility, that is a transfer in NBU programs and studying abroad. And, last but not least, the diplomas students end up with, are recognized not only in the EU, but worldwide. In this way, they are well equipped to compete on the international labor market and to enjoy the status of citizens of the global village who have a good chance of choosing the right place for their professional and personal fulfillment. Sofia Echo weekly, 2010

събота, 1 декември 2012 г.

“ I REMAIN BULGARIAN IN A VERY FUNDAMENTAL WAY”


“ I REMAIN BULGARIAN IN A VERY FUNDAMENTAL WAY”

Dr. Ksenia Kisselincheva

I had so many questions, swarming in my head after I saw the documentary about his life. Dr
Lubomir Kanov was one of the many political prisoners during the repressive totalitarian
regime, who after his release from prison had the determination to look for a better life in the
West and found a way out to do so. In the winter of 1984 he arrived in Montreal where his
brother lived after he “immigrated” to Canada 13 years earlier. I asked him about his first
impressions of this other forbidden world which we could only see on films and dream about.
He answered with his typical wry smile: “First I was dazzled by the unusual for me
brightness. There were so many bright lights everywhere-on the streets, shopping malls, cars,
decorations everywhere. Secondly, I was confused by the abundance of merchandise; I found
it hard to make my choice.” So, at first, he felt stunned and helpless. He was 40 years old and
he had no idea about how Western societies worked. He had been through a lot of hell way
back in his native country, but who was he now? He was a man with no country, he was
nobody, a middle aged man with no money, no friends! He had a very basic knowledge of
English-he didn’t know about the language courses for immigrants, so he had to learn the
language all by himself. This was one real feat, but the next challenge was even bigger – he
had to try and take the qualifying exam for Foreign Medical Graduates. The exam covered the
whole field of medicine, i.e 20,000 pages of dense medical texts. While studying for the
exam, he had to work as a nursing aid for a minimum wage. He had no choice but to learn at
night up to the point where his head got dizzy and his eyes were itchy. He pored over the
heavy books until dawn, until the doves in Esplanade Street of Montreal would start calling
each other in the maple trees. Lubo is in a reminiscent mood, but he states firmly: “There was
no option to surrender. No way to betray all the suffering and sacrifice and not to succeed.”
His voice quivers for a few seconds while he is telling me about the agony of leaving their
widowed mother in the hands of the State Security.
“Did you have any serious problems with learning the language so fast and all by yourself?”
“Definitely I had to grapple with a huge problem in this respect. But, since my entire future as
a professional was heavily in doubt, I made a gigantic effort and managed to make the
impossible happen. I was able to pass all the exams in about a year and a half, while learning
English at the same time all by myself.” I was greatly impressed by his achievement at the
time and I thought of the unlimited resources of will power and intellectual capacity that some
persons show under extreme pressure. People like Lubo could serve as an example and
inspiration to others who are prone to be negative and to give up too quickly. Also, I realized
he had to achieve a very sophisticated level of English in order to practice as a psychiatrist.
But the trials and tribulations did not come to an end at that point. After passing the horrific
exams, Quebec created additional obstacles to Lubo in practicing his beloved profession.
They required additional training in the hospitals to learn the system which was a
precondition to passing another exam for the Provincial Board in order to be certified as a
doctor of medicine. Dr Kanov had to wait for another 11 years before he could be licensed.
That’s when he decided to move to the US. Another very difficult decision because it meant a
second painful separation from his brother!
“Were people in the US aware of the atrocities of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe?
Did you try to share with some of them your traumatic experience?”
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“I was amazed and shocked by how ignorant they were about the recent history of this part of
Europe. Once I even tried to give a lecture to some college students but their ignorance was
astounding. They knew a lot more about Hitler and were much more concerned about the
nuclear bombs of the USSR.”
“How has the Bulgarian community in New York evolved for the last 20 years? Are the
people getting together to keep their national traditions and to help each other out?”
“The Bulgarian community abroad is struggling to survive and socializing is also limited by
the huge distances in US and Canada. People have very little spare time. Not just Bulgarians,
but everybody is very busy, trying to provide for their families. Socializing is a luxury which
not everybody can afford. The Bulgarian church in NY is supposed to function as a social
club but it has something of the neglect and sadness of the churches in Bulgaria which, I
think, is not compatible with the Hope we expect from our Savior. In general, they help each
other out, but the number of cheaters is significant, because the moral decay of communism
does not stop at the border. This makes the majority of Bulgarians who are hard-working to
be very careful when dealing with compatriots they don’t know quite well.”
I was curious to know how he saw his native land after so many years of absence. Wasn’t the
transition period going on for too long?
“Bulgaria has changed significantly but it does not have a clear image yet. The young are very
similar to the young everywhere in the world –they are smart, goal-oriented and very good at
the IT. But, then, you have the Roma community, the retired people, the farmers who work
under hard conditions and unbearable uncertainty. So, the picture is very scattered, the values
and social structures, leading to a normal civilized way of life have not been established yet.”
Lubo is convinced that “the grotesque transition” to free market and democracy is to be
accounted for by the leading role of the ex secret services and the gangs from the sports
schools. In his opinion, they have been manipulating the social processes in the country at the
expense of millions of ordinary people who attended with so much entusiasm the marches and
the meetings of the early 90’s.
“Do you think, as a psychiatrist, all these negative trends seriously affect the mental health of
the nation?”
“Unfortunately they do. The sense of uncertainty makes more and more people depressed and
neurotic since they don’t feel they are in control of their lives. Today people contact less with
nature, with their fellow beings, they are afraid of sharing their emotions.”
“How did you change as a person in the last twenty years?
“Yes, I changed a lot and yet I didn’t change. I simply built new extensions over the old
foundations. I think all the time both in English and Bulgarian. I am an American, yet I
remain Bulgarian in a very fundamental way. I think my experience of life was most
enriching, because I came to know two diametrically opposite social systems.”
So, Dr Kanov went through a lot of suffering and sadness, but he rose above it all and could
feel the joy of achievements, otherwise unthinkable. His turbulent personal destiny is another
striking example of the indomitable human spirit, or as William Faulkner said in his Nobel
Prize speech, “Man will not only endure, he will prevail.”
Sofia Echo weekly, 2009

SYLFIDA WITH A HEART

SYLFIDA WITH A HEART
Masha Ilieva is a prima ballerina at the National Opera. She studied and
graduated at the Leningrad Ballet School. She describes her stay there as a
crucial period of professional education and as a time of an important character
building. Today she still thinks that her proper place is there. Because the ballet
in Sankt Petersburg has always been of a top class, difficult to achieve. She is a
laureate of the International Competition in Varna and later she was selected by
Yuri Grigorovich for his masterpiece of a production of the “Nutcracker” in
1988. This breakthrough is followed by memorable interpretations of Odette-
Odylia, Juliet, Aurora, Margaritta Gautier etc. Having established herself as a
Prima under the conditions of fierce competition among the ballerinas of
different generations, she asserts herself as an astute administrator- Director of
the Sofia House for Opera and Ballet and also as a dedicated pedagogue who
sets up her own Ballet school for children from 3 to 10 years of age.
We met at the “Entre” bistro, opposite the Opera House. That’s where many of
the artists from the opera have a quick lunch and a chat with colleagues or
friends. When she arrived, her mobile went on a ringing spree. She apologized
and switched it off. She had just come back from a rehearsal of the children’s
ballet “The Flowers of Little Ida”, whose premiere was in two days’ time at a
chamber hall of the opera. And she started telling me how hard it was for her to
start this private ballet school at the House of Culture, opposite the Zaimov
gardens. At first, she started with eight girls, but by the end of the year, they
grew to sixteen. Then she realized that there was no teaching manual for very
young children. All manuals were for children over 10 years of age. She
compiled a course of exercises which suited this very early age in 2000. Then
she did a Master’s in Ballet Pedagogic and she was invited to teach at the
Musical Academy where she has been teaching for nine years Ballet Classical
Heritage and pedagogic. And because there was a gap in teaching literature for
very young children, Masha published two well-illustrated books for children.
After she defended her PhD degree in the same domain, she published her
dissertation as a book in over 1000 copies.
But, don’t get the wrong impression that her rise to the status of prima ballerina
has been a smooth one!
“What happened when you came back from Russia?”
“It was a painful and bumpy ride. When I came back, I was the youngest. There
were the great Primas like Bogoeva, Koldamova, Krasteva. I was never sent to
ballet competitions because there was a group of older graduates from
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Leningrad. And when we were finally sent to Moscow, it was a perfect failure as
soon as the first round. Then, I won at the competition in Dobrich and this was
some kind of encouragement, which boosted my competitive edge. A year later,
I won second prize at the International Ballet Competition in Varna- 1986.”
Later when Yurii Grigorovich came to Sofia, he definitely singled her out for the
role of “The Nutcracker” - it was not only for her extraordinary technique, but
for her powerful stage presence as an actress, as a performer.
“When can you expect to become a prima?” “It all depends. There are cases
when they appoint you as a Prima, after a brilliant performance in one of the
cameo roles like Giselle or Carmen. But, I, personally, had to do all major roles,
before I achieved the cherished status of a Prima. And most of all, to give them
my own unique touch. My preference has always been for the dramatic and
heroic strain in the character of my heroine.” And yet, she is more than versatile
– she touched the heart of the audience with her reincarnation of Giselle, Marie
and Sylfida. With her, there is no simple technical perfection of detail. There is
full “immersion” into the character of the heroine, bringing out new nuances in
it, a fresh look at a well known artistic creation.
In theatrical circles, Masha is known as “the bad girl” of Bulgarian ballet.
Because she is very straight-forward truth-seeking - she fights for what she
believes in, without being afraid of those who pull the strings. All the hypocrisy
and sycophancy, thriving in abundance backstage, are completely alien to her
nature. And, when she has to stand off her ground on the professional field, she
is a vehement and untiring fighter, making life difficult for the yes-men or
women. It takes a great talent to succeed with such a character of integrity.
“The sublime instant is when I dance, merging with the music…” Behind the
exquisite beauty, there is lots of blood, sweat and tears. Behind the dedication to
your art, there is sacrifice and, even resilience. Masha Ilieva proved it during her
marathon tour abroad- Germany, Switzerland, Austria, when le corps de ballet
covered no less than 12,500 km. And Masha had to dance in ‘Swan Lake” in
seven successive nights. And today, after her elegant benefice farewell in
Sylfida, she never stops serving in the altar of her art, this time as a pedagogue.
She tells me of her student, a young girl, who got ill of cancer and who wanted
to dance to the very last moment. Ever since, the dancers from Masha’s school
give charity concerts for cancer-ill children every year. The hostel, next to the
ward in “Saint Joanna” hospital is fully equipped by “Angelia’ foundation. Like
the fairy from “Sylfida’, Masha brings all kinds of toys for the sick children.
Computers with games, racing cars…And plush bears and dogs to cuddle with,
before going to sleep. So, she perfectly deserves her name of “Sylfida with a
heart”.
Sofia Echo weekly, July 1
st 2010