[LINK] "West of Eden"

[rfmcdonald]

Boyko Vassilev's Transitions Online essay made me think about the sorts of relative rankings of countries described here.

Being somebody’s West means that you lead – and the other follows. The essence of “leading” is concentrated in the standard of living, freedom of movement, and the quality of public administration. The perception of being behind or out in front is often all about mass culture. You consume your neighbor’s soft power; therefore you acknowledge he is “ahead” of you.

Before 1989 Romanians watched Bulgarian television. Some Romanians above the age of 40 still remember the opening chords of the youth shows and domestic (but also imported) crime series on Bulgarian TV. Ceausescu’s state lacked such programming.

If you think, however, that Bulgarians watched only their own TV channels, you would be gravely mistaken. While Romanians learned some Bulgarian to watch Bulgarian TV, the Bulgarians in the west of the country learned Serbo-Croat. People pushed their technical skills to the maximum in order to receive broadcasts from Belgrade and if possible, the other radio and TV stations of the former Yugoslavia. Entire villages spoke the neighboring country’s language, even using the right cases (Bulgarian does not have them). The source of this education was TV, radio, and Serbian turbo-folk, with beautiful singer Lepa Brena at the top of the list.

In this way, Bulgarian viewers got what they lacked: a vibrant rock, pop, and folk culture; news from the world; American movies; and sometimes even some erotic scenes on TV. That was their way to acknowledge that Yugoslav citizens enjoyed a higher standard of living. Additionally Bulgarians noticed that their neighbors had easy access to jeans and sneakers – and could travel freely with their passports, while they needed to undergo painful procedures to acquire an exit visa. If you had asked who the West was for Romanians or Russians, they could say “Bulgaria.” But if you had asked Bulgarians themselves, they would point to Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and first and foremost to Yugoslavia.

The dissolution of Yugoslavia, and the later prosperity of Bulgaria and Romania and European Union membership, made this all whole. Albania as Bosnia-Herzegovina's west, Romania and Bulgaria disputing their relative statuses or using them as clubs to condemn countrymen for backwardsness--the comparisons go on.

Go, read the essay.