Sunset in Ruse and the dark side of politics

Storyline: Vidin to Ruse Bulgaria via Romania by train Jul – Aug, 2017

While waiting in a filthy bus station in Bucharest Alex said – I want to be in Favorit (this is our go-to hotel in Sofia). He’d had enough of Romania, or of Bucharest, to be more precise. As soon as we stepped out of the mini-bus in Ruse one could actually breathe, despite the extreme heat and much higher humidity here. The air was cleaner, and the bus station, while much busier than Bucharest’s Filaret station, clean and well maintained. Walking, then trudging the 40 minutes to the hotel just confirmed how much cleaner and fresher than Bucharest this small city is. Sure, it was easier to schlep our luggage along the mostly asphalt sidewalks in Bucharest than it was over the frost-heaved and spalled concrete tiles of Ruse, but we didn’t have to keep one eye on the ground for pigeon and dog droppings or above for dripping A/C condensate. We could actually see into shop windows that weren’t caked in dust and grime.

Our hotel – Riga – overlooks the Danube, and is a relic of Communist times, with a fresh coat of paint and some modern conveniences added. We were upgraded to a deluxe suite with a river view on a higher floor. There were fruits and water in the room waiting for our arrival in a very hot summer day.

Our view west along the Danube is gorgeous. We had an early dinner in the garden restaurant. And after complaining how heavy on meat the Romanian cuisine was, what did we order?

These huge skewers garnished with grilled vegetables of course. Yum!

We had a nice walk by the river in still steamy air after 9PM and took a few photos. We loved the sand sculptures by the river with participating artists from all over the world.

Ruse (or Rouse) is the fifth largest Bulgarian city on the right bank of Danube, across from the Romanian city of Giurgiu and some 75 km from Bucharest. I have a special connection with this city that took me back onto my memory lane to a dark period of its development some 30 years ago.

Back then (around 1980) the Romanian communist government built a large chemical factory in Giurgiu, just across the Danube, a stone’s throw from Ruse. The prevailing winds and air flow are such that all the chlorine pollution from this factory (called Verachim) was dumped over Ruse. The city was covered by a fog of chlorine and people could not breathe. They were wearing masks when out and about. Many suffered from asthma and other pulmonary diseases. It was a chlorine eco-disaster and both the Bulgarian and Romanian governments knew it. In the late 80s I was working in the Environmental Research and Information Center of the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment on a variety of modeling and data analysis projects, including projects related to the air pollution in Ruse. We had the data. It was ugly. The data of course was regularly sent to our Ministry and all the way up the political chain of command. However, our communist government had “friendly” relationship with Ceausescu government and wasn’t doing much of anything, despite the fact that our citizens were suffering. While writing this, I looked up the list of my publications. Crossing the oceans, I did not bring my articles and conference presentations with me, however I still keep a list of them. Three in this list are articles on the Ruse-Giurgiu air pollution subject. I remember presenting at a conference in Ruse in 1989, just a few months before the fall of our communist government. During the review of the presentation one of the graphs I had, with summarised data, was removed (censored so to say). There was to be a group of us including our director at that conference. However, he, not surprisingly, could not make it. I was happy to flip back to my graph showing the real situation…. Back in the office of course it didn’t go that well for me, however a few months later our communist government fell (this is for a book not a blog) and shortly after that, Ceausescu’s regime was overthrown too. A year or so later the factory ceased the pollution. But by that time many who could, had left the city. Others, who could not find a job, stayed and many suffered severe diseases. It wasn’t easy then to leave a city. We had a city citizenship, believe it or not, (again this is for a book not a blog) so relocation, even within the country, was difficult.

These days we think that fake news is a modern phenomenon, when truly it’s only the delivery media and the reach of the new media that are new. Lies, damn lies and statistics have always been bent to the will of those in power and probably always will. And it will always be those of us who the powerful seek to manipulate in order to increase their power, their wealth, or both. The only way out of such manipulation is to keep a healthy skepticism about the information we are fed, from wherever it originates. I’ve said many times that we knew and understood how we were being played under communism. Political and philosophical issues that otherwise would secure you a jail cell by the powers that be, were a main subject of discussions among friends at dinner time.

In the west, people are just as subject to being manipulated, and whether it’s commercial or political, they tend to be much less aware of the manipulation. After all, life is good. Well, isn’t it?

Ruse

An evening swim

Sand sculptures by the river

Sand sculptures by the river

Sand sculptures by the river

Sand sculptures by the river

Sunset

Sunset, from our window