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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Catalonia and the 'Babel' syndromeRemember the Tower of Babel story? It was a common human project to reach the heavens. At some point God divided the common language people spoke so they couldn't communicate with each other anymore. The lesson is more than clear; if we want to be humanity in singular again our means of communication, the language being the first among them, must converge to some common ground, and not diverge. Thousands of artificially preserved languages that some call a cultural treasure, are in fact a treasure only for those who are assigned the task to keep them alive. They are very good in convincing many that it's in their best interest too to maintain this confusion. A look to the history shows that in fact the lack of clear communication has brought only death and suffering. The Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia (Cataluna) is just one case, not the first and unfortunately not the last one, of the 'Babel' syndrome. An ethnic elite, unable to compete economically nationally or internationally, uses some linguistic differences, sometimes very insignificant, to foster nationalist unity at detriment of what unites us as human species. A successful referendum on greater autonomy that took place on 16 June 2006 only increased the split between this region and the rest of Spain. The hopes in both Madrid and Barcelona that this will definitively undermine separatist feelings in Catalonia will fade soon. Once this new deeper autonomy is institutionalized it will lead to more demands, and ultimately to definitive separation. In the context of the European Union (EU) however any separation is only relative, the two parts still being part of the larger political, economic and custom union. This is the reason why Brussels don't fear ethnic separatist movements within the union. They only undermine the power of the constituent nation-states and thus increase the power of the supranational authorities. If Catalonia separates, many others may follow its example soon, think about Scotland, Basque country, Belgium with its communities. Many of their separatist movements will use the language to prove their separate ethnic identity, and therefore their right to be independent within the EU context. Who benefit from such project(s) of national atomization? Besides the EU that gains additional power, there are many other winners. Ethnic economic and political elites would take much more power, like medieval aristocracy did in late Middle Ages. The need to constantly foster national identity and uniqueness will provide enough food to large cohorts of ethnic writers and other people of arts and culture. The need to keep the spirit of nationalism alive will divert large amount of public money to projects with suspicious values other than making people 'remember' whom they are. A large and ever growing mass of civil servants will drain public resources to keep themselves busy once the narrow nationalism starts making local economies uncompetitive and obsolete. Ethnic nationalism is a trap without easy exit strategies. Once a given population starts believing in its uniqueness, it's very difficult to try to dissuade it, because this will be considered as treason. Giving people money and power that they otherwise couldn't get is much easier than taking all these benefits back and allowing the market distribute them according to people's skills only. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why so many ethnic nationalists hate market globalization. Therefore the easiest way to tackle the problems that ethnic nationalisms inevitably produce is perpetuating ethnic myths and increasing the human isolation from the outside world. I will dare making prediction regarding the European Union as a breeding ground for ethnic nationalisms. If the EU still exists in 20-30 years, there will be more countries within the union and some of them will result from a split within existing nations. The EU official languages will increase from today's 20, thus making the project even less manageable. The need to remain competitive on the global scale will lead to backlash against minuscule nationalisms. A new common European language will be imposed on fragmented populations in need of common ground for communication. At least three languages have their chances and may play this role in the European context, English, French and German. The public authority that will help imposing this language will in fact be the next European authority.
Catalonia (Cataluna) autonomous community profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Catalonia.
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