The political reason for this is no mystery.rnBringing about the necessary structuralrnchanges will be painful for somerntime. It’s much like asking someone torngive up cocaine for the future rewards ofrna drug-free life; sacrificing the illusion ofrnthe free lunch of communism for thernmore realistic economic rewards tied directlyrnto individual work is not a sermonrnany politician wants to preach with hisrneye on an election one or two years away.rnBulgarians are justifiably cynical aboutrntheir politicians. I was told that a highrnpolice official drives a rare Mercedes thatrncosts over $500,000. Some staff car! Justrnbefore I left for Bulgaria (but after I hadrnbought my ticket), the former BSPrnPrime Minister, Audrey Lukanov, was assassinatedrnin front of his house. Severalrndays earlier he had announced that hernwas going to reveal widespread corruptionrnin the government run by his ownrnparty. While I was there, one of the investigatorsrnworking on the Orion scandalrnwas bombed, but he survived.rnSometimes, a dark humor helps Bulgariansrnget by. Two comedians ran forrnpresident, and their photographs appearedrnregularly in the newspapers. Onernof my favorites was of them appearingrnbefore the country’s main prison, sayingrnthat they wanted to see where theyrnwould be living after they were elected.rnThev drew, incidentally, one percent ofrnthe vote.rnOne of my great fortunes was to linkrnup with Bulgaria’s premier photojournalist,rnho Hadjimishev. He has worked forrninternational wire services, exhibited inrnnumerous international one-man shows,rnand currently is the photographic editorrnfor Sega, Bulgaria’s equivalent of Timernmagazine, which self-consciously followsrnTime’s layout. Ivo comes from a distinguishedrnfamily, his grandfather havingrnserved as ambassador to England, his fatherrnproducing operas all over the worldrnand films in Bulgaria. His wife’s father,rnValeri Petrov, is likewise a filmmaker andrna well-known poet.rnI mentioned an interest in the archaeologyrnof the country, specifically Thraeian,rnand it so happened that Ivo hadrnphotographed the famous Thracian collectionrnin Varna, on the Black Sea coast.rnThe curator of the collection was therncurrent Minister of Culture, Ivan Marazov,rnwho was the BSP candidate for president.rnFurther, Ivo was friends with thernarchaeologist Ivan Ivanov, who had excavatedrnthe entire necropolis, and so off tornVarna we went.rnRoman Amphitheater, Plovdi^rnIn antiquity the Thracians had occupiedrna region with east and west boundariesrnroughly corresponding to modernrnBulgaria, a northern one north of thernDanube in present-day Rumania, and finallyrnsouth to the Aegean, the Black Sea,rnand the Sea of Marmara. They spoke anrnIndo-European language, but had nornscript or literature of their own. Some ofrnwhat we know comes from Greek andrnRoman sources, which often are pejorative.rnHomer mentions the Thracians,rnand Herodotus describes them as morernnumerous than the people of Indiarnthough unwilling to unite and thus unablernto become the most powerful nation.rnThe Greeks often looked upon thernThracians as troublesome neighbors,rnwhich they no doubt were.rnThe Thracians inhabited this regionrneven before the earliest Greeksrn(Achaeans or Mycenaeans) made theirrnway south to what is now called Greece.rnThracians even preceded Greeks to importantrnislands in the northern Aegean,rne.g., Samothrace, Lemnos, Lesbos, andrnGhios. Early relations between Greeksrnand Thracians are evident in the Iliad,rnalthough they are fighting with each other.rnThe Thracians were on the side ofrnthe Trojans. Later, as the intrepid Greekrnmerchants and sailors made their wayrnalong the Thracian Black Sea coast, theyrnestablished several cities in what is nowrnBulgaria: Apollonia Pontica (today’srnSozopol), Mesambria (Nesebar), andrnOdessos (Varna). The relationship wasrnthen one of trade. The Greeks sold wine,rnolive oil, furniture, and weapons, and inrnreturn got slaves, farm produce, andrnhides.rnMichael Grant observes that one ofrnthe main aspects of the relationship wasrnthe diffusion of Thracian religious ideas.rnA goddess of the chase and fertility wasrnidentified with Artemis, a war-god withrnAres. More importantly, perhaps, therernis strong evidence that Dionysius hadrnThracian origins, although there is scholarlyrndebate about this. Orpheus, too, isrnthought to have had Thracian origins.rnVarna, a very pleasant coastal citv, hasrnhad inhabitants at least since paleolithicrntimes. Archaeological evidence revealsrnGreek, Roman, and Ottoman occupation.rnThe remains of the Roman bathsrnare still to be seen. At the archaeologicalrnmuseum, Ivan Ivano’ showed us around,rnand of course we spent plenty of timernlooking at the Thracian collection.rnScholars are having to rethink the beginningsrnof European civilization after thernexcavation of the necropolis, because radiocarbonrndating now places it at thernend of the Stone-Copper (Chalcolithic)rnAge—the fifth millennium B.C. The artifacts,rnespecially the golden scepters, reflectrna hierarchical, not a clas.sless, society,rnand a high degree of development.rnMetallurgy flourished, as did agriculturernand animal husbandry. Incidentally, arnThracian exhibit is coming to the Statesrnwithin a year or two.rnWhile wc were in Varna, we visitedrnwhat is known as Karin Dom, a facilityrnfor handicapped children which has justrnMARCH 1997/37rnrnrn