Vladimir Mitev
The Bulgarian-Romanian blog “The Bridge of Friendship” was presented at the Autumn School of Journalism Apollo 20.50, which took place in Târgoviște and Fierbinți-Târg from 17 to 21 September 2024. In front of students from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Ethiopia, Vladimir Mitev made a presentation and gave details about the goals of his blog, its influence on social media, its partnership with other media from Bulgaria, Romania and the world, and other issues. Vladimir also shared some of the discoveries and lessons learned from the 9 years of the blog’s activity.
Bulgarians and Romanians still have relatively limited knowledge, curiosity and trust for each other. Their media and state elites tend to be nationally-centred, which means that the people of the two nations enter into relations with the other with certain baggage that they may have to unlearn if they want to realise a deeper engagement. In these conditions, there is an obvious need for bridges of friendship – people or organisations that can inspire confidence on both sides and add dynamism to bilateral and regional relations, while the two countries continue to have differences over their national interests and neither is prepared to sacrifice its core interests to please the other.
In front of the students, Vladimir explained that if Southeastern Europe were ever to assert itself in international relations, it would be through the creation of a dynamic identity between its citizens in different countries, in other words, through non-hegemonic communication and growth together and not to the detriment of each other. Such a synchronisation could happen if we were interested in understanding the other as he/she defines him/herself within his/her culture, rather than seeing him/her exclusively through our prism and projecting our deficits or complexes onto him/her. Thus, we need to move beyond thinking in terms of pros and cons and look for ”the enemy” within ourselves – in our static identity that steps on the trauma with which we are socialised within our nation. Change for the region would come from our individual ability to de-hegemonise ourselves, unlearning the accumulation of power over our beig via the static identity, which would allow new experiences from the region and the world to enrich us and be enriched by us. So we can grow out of our trauma and be part of the world to the extent that we can be dynamic in a dynamic world. The same goes for a person or organisation that tries to be a bridge – it has to be in constant self-reflection and learning from the world in order to be alive and dynamic, because the realities with which it is connected and in which it is immersed are also constantly changing.
The Autumn School of Journalism allowed a free exchange between young adults and students. For some of the latter, it was their first visit abroad. The students said that the various events that were part of the Autumn School broadened their horizons and gave them new knowledge and experiences. They also appreciated socialising with their peers from the region.
The event was organized by the NGO Balkan Development Support, which facilitates contacts between Romanians and the people of Western Balkans, especially those in Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria, in partnership with the Valahia University of Târgoviște and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Novi Sad. The autumn school was sponsored by Romanian Lottery and Urbio Romania.
The presentation given by Vladimir Mitev can be viewed here:
The programme of the Summer School can be found here:
Photo: Vladimir Mitev, speaking in the Valahia University of Târgoviște (source: Balkan Development Support)
Subscribe to the channel of the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” in YouTube, where a number of video and audio interviews are published! The blog can also be followed in Facebook and Twitter. Its Telegram channel is here. And here is its Substack account.
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