Emma Mahony is Boycotting Bulgaria

So Bulgaria is guilty of state-sponsored child abuse. Therefore we must not go on holiday there.

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.

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.

I also wonder if Emma Mahony is boycotting Burma, or Cuba, or Russia or...

More Dogs

We at In Your Pocket have long been advocates of euthanasia programmes for the stray, wild dogs of Eastern Europe. Romania (where we have lost advertisers over the issue) and Bulgaria are particularly badly affected.

In January 2006 a Japanese man was killed in Bucharest by a stray dog. Still very little got done.

Those who continue to support the right to life of these beats might want to read this, hot from the newswires today.

Bulgaria: Train drivers pivot and pee

Bulgarian train drivers have been provided with swivel chairs so that they can pivot and pee out of the window without having to stop the train. Passengers who might like to stick their heads out of train windows should be warned of possible splash-back effects. Anyone who has been left alone in a small room with swivelling furniture might also like to consider the possible effects of very dizzy train drivers.

Source: The ever-reliable and amusing Jaunted, who presented the story with a little more polish than Ananova.

Sofia: Bus station soft porn

Waiting for a night bus at Sofia's bus station just got a whole lot more interesting. The screens that during the daytime are packed with titillating bus schedules flick to soft-porn mode at night. Don't worry - you'll still be informed about when the next bus is coming, but as there are so few arrivals and departures at night, the unused screen real-estate can be used to amuse and entertain passengers with scenes of frolicking flesh.

Of course, old ladies and the sorts of people who think the bus station in the middle of the night is the ideal venue for small children are not amused. There are also concerns that randy security guards are shirking-off and standing around watching porn instead of wandering around looking for trouble.

Sources : Ananova, Jaunted

Sofia: One-armed bandit arrested. Again

A one-armed bandit in Sofia has been collared and clinked by Bulgaria's finest for attempting to pinch a car. It's the seventeenth time he has been locked up for such one-armed robbery. (We're not sure if handcuffs were used. Probably not.)

Ananova reports that Rumen Dimitrov, 50, has clocked up 16 previous convictions for his light-fingered crimes dating back to 1973. A policeman is reported to have said "He's probably Bulgaria's worst criminal." Must be a safe country, then.