Bj”rn Forsstr”m (2:203/614.61) wrote to Steven Horn at 09:46 on 22 Sep 2004:

 BF> About the same as here then.

It looks like it although the USD amount is only one variable.  What you
can buy with it is another.

 BF> In Bulgaria they only make about $180 per month.

That's probably higher than it was in the Communist days.:-) 

 BF> I'm back now and it was very interesting in Bulgaria.
 BF> We lived in a "tourist complex" guarded by a police without any
 BF> authority. The only
 BF> thing they did was to stop cars randomly to take a bribe. The whole
 BF> country is built on bribes and ruined by the mafia. The big boys
 BF> drove around in Mercedes 600 and the local farmers ride donkeys. If
 BF> he was lucky he had a horse. The Bulgarians don't like the gipsys
 BF> since they steal so much. They had to live in tents on the field
 BF> when the crop is ready to harvest to protect it from beeing
 BF> stolen by the gipsys. And then I had to protect myself from being
 BF> robed by the Bulgarians.....

 BF> Had to hire a safety depositbox to keep the passport, laptop and
 BF> money in, otherewise
 BF> it was gone the next day. Talk about double standads.
 BF> Bulgaria have had 12 governments in the past 14 years since they
 BF> became free from
 BF> the communists and who can make a difference in one year?

Do politicians make much of a difference at all?

 BF> Of the about 8 million in Bulgaria, 1 million are unemployed and
 BF> after 6 months they
 BF> get nothing so to survive so they have to steal.
 BF> The funny thing is that they spend 80% of their wages on cloths and
 BF> all looked very
 BF> chic but not a dime on repairing or maintenance on their houses.
 BF> If a window was
 BF> broken they just moved to another room.

At least they had another room to move to.

 BF> I have so much to tell but perhaps you are not interested.

As interesting as it can be, it's not exactly about the North, is it?  But
we'll give it some sort of "northern flavour" so it passes.

Incidentally, an abbatoir is a slaughterhouse with Government inspectors. 
I also corrected some spelling mistakes in your long note.

Take care,

Steven Horn (steven.horn{at}gmail.com)
Moderator, ALASKA_CHAT 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+