I first encountered anti-Bulgarian sentiment in George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, with the wealthy but uncouth Bulgarian nouveau riche who made Terrance Aubrey Boyce look like Dr. Frasier Crane.
Now I see Borzou Daraghi, the Financial Times MENA correspondent is pushing this even further with a recent brainfart tweet:
Like so much anti-Bulgarianism, this is impervious to logic. Bulgarians, as we all know, already are financially well-off and seek no more. It is ostentatious displays of what their wealth can buy – such as single shelf’d ‘libraries’ – which they seek. Thus, what Israel should have done was offer to sell Sofia some bling.
Daraghi has since tweeted, “Sincere apologies and regret for ill-conceived Tweet yesterday about Israel and Bulgaria”. Not nearly enough. There was nothing ill-conceived about it… the thoughts were well articulated and there for all to see.