25-04-2023 11:14
145 years after its establishment, with a collection of nearly 8.5 million documents, the National Library "St. St. Cyril and Methodius" has an important role as a guardian of cultural diversity. Thus the project "Unity in Diversity" was born with 8 events called "Ethnocafé" where intellectuals, writers and artists of Jewish, Armenian and Roma origin are presented.
Today we meet Georgi Georgiev - Gunter, who is currently working on a Postgraduate Degree in Ottoman Studies and is the man behind the Facebook group "Bulgarian Gypsy Community - Meritocracy".
He was born on 25.12.1972 in the "Gipsy quarter of Byala Slatina". His parents gave him the name Gunter, after the popular German football player Gunter Netzer, but the "Revival Process" brings for him the name Georgi. Years later Gunter returns, but as a nickname mainly used by our hero on the Internet. Until his 19th year Georgy lived in a relatively closed environment - "Until 1991, Sofia was a foreign country for me. Guests from Sofia were looked at with admiration, as if they were coming from abroad."
Military service and work in various fields followed, until he became part of the Bulgarian military forces in Iraq in 2004. Meeting his future future wife in 2010, further strengthened his desire to continue his education. Because, as Georgi says: "Tomorrow I may have nothing material, but no one can take away the knowledge in my head. Education and knowledge are power and no one can take them from a person." In 2015 the admission quota is not enough for him to enroll in New Bulgarian University to study "Ecology and Environmental Sciences", but after a few attempts Georgi is accepted at "St. Kliment Ohridski" University. Today he is already a Bachelor in History and a graduate student in the Bulgarian Revival Program.
Why does the Facebook group have in its name the not so popular word "meritocracy" (to evaluate a person on the basis of his/her abilities and talents)? "My goal is to share good practices within the group and by that to stimulate the desire for integration. For a Roma it's much easier to encapsulate, to go backwards the path of social inclusion."
For Gunter, it is very important to change the way the Roma view the world so that they start to care about what surrounds them. "The energy that is used to stay out of the system has to be reversed", he says. And even more: "I'm working to change attitudes about the education system. The focus of the integration effort should not be the child, but the entire family. That's where discrimination is formed."
"Learning is a lifelong experience," Gunner quotes a popular wisdom. He often works until 1-2 a.m. and is happy and excited to hold and translate an original Otoman Sultan's Decree as a part of his work. His dream of completing his PhD is about to be realised and we wish him to keep up his enthusiasm and perseverance.
The first participant in the Ethnocafé was the writer of Jewish origin Albert Benbasat. And the next one is already in the pipeline - coming up on the 10th of May at 6.30 with the writer of Armenian origin Eddie Rumian. He is the author of the short story collections "Marshmallow Banitsa" and "Last Chance".