Archived Articles

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
News Index

Directories
  Int'l Realty
  US Realty

Three years ago a major undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused rare tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands people in many countries from Southeast Asia to Africa. Three years later the main lesson from this tragedy, not to concentrate densely populated areas near zones of potential natural disasters, isn't learned. The zones that suffered mostly from the 'Christmas' tsunami of 2004 are again offering paradise winter packages and residential developments for 'snow birds' from Europe and North America. This is a recipe for new 'natural' disasters, now quite natural given their preventable nature.

When three years ago a giant tsunami killed hundreds of thousands of people from Southeast Asia to as far as Africa it was really the time of reckoning. Can we, as humans, keep going the same way? Is it possible not to figure out that some of the worst disasters, if not manmade, are at least man-influenced? Building a house on a mudslide hill doesn't make a lot of sense. Is building a house on the waterfront highly exposed to the elements less senseless? To be honest, it does make some sense to attack the nature, and the logic of this sense is financial. An empty beach (and no value) becomes a waterfront development (and lots of value); and deforestation in the mountains becomes ski resort. How many orange tree orchards in Southern California were destroyed to give place to residential developments that provide living amid orange orchards? In a similar vein, how many vineyards in France were destroyed to give place to residential developments that provide living amid vineyards?

Nobody is calling for a Malthusian solution that eliminates part of humanity in order to provide better living for those that remain alive. But nobody seems seeing that the sea will finally wash away the beaches; the mountains will finally destroy the ski resorts with avalanches; the destroyed orange orchards and vineyards will take revenge and the unnatural residential developments will burn down. It isn't the nature vs. the humans. Our shortsightedness doesn't only destroy the nature; it also makes our lives more endangered. We turn ourselves into endangered species. The answer shouldn't be elimination of parts of humanity; the real answer should be to start living in harmony with the nature, well, perhaps not in real harmony, but at least not in full confrontation with it.

Talking solutions, two seem obvious, building for living and working higher in the skies and deeper under the surface. Thus we'll save a lot of the earth surface for the natural habitats, and in fact, we'll save it for ourselves, for our pleasure pastimes and for our viewing pleasure. The other solutions require much more sophistication, building within the nature without leaving everywhere our 'fingerprints'. And finally, we must face the fact that there will be no hundreds of millions of exotic waterfronts with romantic sunsets. It may be within our human nature to like it, but there will be no enough space on the earth for everybody to enjoy it. And even if it's possible, let's ask ourselves: is it worth having a pleasure of seeing such sunsets for 10 or more years and make us the last generation of humans walking on the earth?

--------------------

See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Indonesia and Thailand.