tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070662686486639930.post-38272360974809560252007-12-17T11:56:00.000+02:002007-12-17T12:08:38.123+02:00<a href="http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/article3034304.ece"><br />So Bulgaria is guilty of state-sponsored child abuse.</a> Therefore we must not go on holiday there.<br /><br />The mistake here is not to condemn the Bulgarian state's treatment of children. It is clearly rotten and we should be offended to the point of ensuring some kind of action is taken: protests to MPs, letters to ambassadors. There are a number of ways.<br /><br />But to state that "I will not holiday in Bulgaria because of its treatment of these children" is to at once suggest a link between the two things: that Brits holidaying in Bulgaria are in some, however indirect, way responsible for these awful things. And to do that is wrong, for there is no connection. It also removes attention form the real reasons for the treatment of these children: grinding poverty, under development and - most of all - under trained, underpaid and and uncaring staff. <br /><br />I also wonder if Emma Mahony is boycotting Burma, or Cuba, or Russia or...Craig Turpnoreply@blogger.com