Quick summary of the development of Bulgaria after democracy (or how we all learned to love money)…In other words, some background information

After the fall of communism, Bulgaria served as a role model of what would be later called “transitional democracies“. Translating this term into common language- people’s expectations of quick welfare and building up of a functioning market economy weren’t met. Quite the contrary, Bulgaria plunged itself in a 10 year period during which entrepreneurs stole what they could via the means of privatization of national property. Those same entrepreneurs formed the Bulgarian mafia, which dominated not only all of the business areas at that time but also was perceived as the high-class of the “society”. Here precisely hides the link to the situation of our youth. The life of the gangsters in the 90s was associated with the driving of fast and expensive cars, visiting trendy places and last but not least a specific music genre developed for their tastes-chalga. The latter praised all the above mentioned qualities and was the emanation of what the lifestyles and values of Mafia members were at that time. The problem is that even though nowadays, the situation has changed and gangsters do not dominate and show off that much, chalga music and the lifestyle it looks up to are still trendy. Not only that but they have affected the youth of Sofia and twisted their values and understandings of the world, downgrading them to one simple word that drives them forward to the night clubs, bars, restaurants etc. Money.