8 Goals: 8 Insights...
— 96 —
T
his makes things more complicated because young people experience primarily the
emotional world of their parents and the environment they live in.
Y
oung people see “partnership” as opportunities to establish contacts for work, business,
projects, travel, learn from foreign experience, and partnership between Bulgarian and western
companies. Often children convey the negative experience of their parents who found it diffi-
cult to adapt to life in a foreign culture. This does not weaken their interest in the world. It
rather confirms the belief that it is better to set yourself up in your home country and seek
development there. For this to happen, however, Bulgaria must become an attractive place to
invest. Globalization is as big a challenge for small cultures as it is for the big ones. The chal-
lenge consists in the uncertainty whether you will be able to express yourself in a universally
understood language. At this stage, as the Report on the Millennium Development Goals shows,
the distribution of foreign companies in the country is very uneven. According to data from the
National Institute of Statistics until 2001, the total direct foreign investments in the non-finan-
cial sector in the regions of Montana, Yambol, Kurdjali, Kyustendil, Silistra, Turgovishte, Vidin,
Pazardjik and Pernik were 2.5% of the total for the country. The share of Sofia is around 50%.
This is why in addition to external competition, Bulgaria will also come under internal pressure
for a balanced regional distribution of the limited foreign investments. The interesting thing is
that on a national level Bulgaria will probably replicate the model of the new tension between
“the periphery” and “the centre”. This process will be governed by the principle of globaliza-
tion: the winners are those who succeed in expressing themselves in a universally accessible
and understandable language.
T
his is why, once again, one of the strategies which could encourage young people as
they try to find their place is support for “individual optimistic theories”, for individual creativ-
ity in all areas, which is “the surest and most direct method for the peripheral cultures to gain
access to the global field and overcome isolation” ( Prof. Ivailo Znepolski, “Cultural policies in
the age of globalization”, 2003, Soros Centre for Cultural Policies/