Rene Descartes says “My freedom ends where the freedom of another begins”. These words are extremely appropriate to describe the situation of a complete lockdown in the last 2 years. A time when our freedom was taken away in the name of saving lives. A time when the freedom of each citizen was restricted literally to the extent of that of the other. Fear for the health, fear for your workplace, for your loved ones, fear of challenges or failure took over our agenda.
As a result of bad policies and bad discipline, Bulgaria was almost always at the top of the mortality and morbidity rankings. To imagine the numbers, we can say that there is almost no family in which someone is not seriously injured or lost his life or a relatives lifeduring the pandemic. Although there were measures, they were widely disregarded not only by citizens but also by law enforcement and fines authorities.We have a very suitable word for such kind of situations in Bulgaria, which has no translation into other language – SVOBODIYA. It means to turn your freedom info anarchy and chaos and many people did that during this hard time. Young people, as well as their parents, acted irresponsibly in a number of situations during the pandemic and had to find it difficult to understand that absolute freedom in relation to the human person living in society does not exist.
Covid had an extremely bad impact on young people. Young people who attended school, university, various additional training to improve their skills, had to stop these practices. They didn’t have a chance to go to concerts, theatre, cinema and to improve their social contacts, which led to depression, social phobia, anxietyand directly sent many of them to the NEETs group. When it comes to entrepreneurship, Covid-19 wasn’t more merciful. Many entrepreneurs had to freeze their businesses, many of them went bankrupt or lost theiremployees, with tourism businesses suffering the most. In such a context, starting your own business was reckless. However, a famous Bulgarian author says “The crazy, crazyones, they to bealive!” and many had the courage to try.
In critical moments, living beings, including man, react in 3 ways:
- Run!
- Fight!
- Stupor.
History has shown that the third choice is always the most unsuccessful, so extreme conditions and difficult circumstances often push individuals to develop. Yes, the world will probably never be the same and “normal” will have different meaning from now but it is our duty toreap all the benefits of this crisis. And they may be more than they seem!
The pandemic has allowed many young Bulgarians living, studying and working abroad to return to their native places. Now they bring their know how and ambition in the country and many of them returned home with business ideas. Many young people from the NEETs group in the country now have the chance to communicate with their peers from abroad, to share visions and ideas and combine their skills to develop new reality for our future.
During the pandemic and the closure of universities, there was another migration from large cities to small and rural areas. Never before in the last 30 years has the province of Bulgaria had so many young and educated people with potential for development. Many of them decided to engage in farming or train pupils in their native places, some moved to a village because they appreciate tranquility and spaciousness and although they work at 8-10 hours on their digital devices, they prefer to spend the rest of the day among the nature. It is a matter of state and municipal policy from now on to use the full potential of all these people for the maximum development of rural areas in order to make the trend sustainable and to make industries such as agriculture and animal husbandry attractive again. Unfortunately, local government is still not adapting. It has committed itself to a long-standing model of corruption and still does not support the initiative of local young people.
And this can happen through digitalization and innovation. During the lockdown, a number of companies achieved a digital revolution as they had to transfer their business entirely online. Many funds have been and continue to be invested in revolutionary discoveries. For example, artificial intelligence can be used to study the composition of the soil in different plantations and to assess different needs. New, more sustainable and fertile crops are being developed, as well as pesticides. The pandemic has allowed us to develop and improve a number of technologies that can make life easier for each of us.
Thanks to all of them, we have the freedom to choose what to be from now on. What will be the new normal world after the disease? Should it continue to exist as before it or with more focus on the local, on nature, life, the earth? Are young people ready to meet this challenge?
Sigmund Freud said, “Most people don’t really want freedom because it implies responsibility, and people are afraid of it.”
Fortes fortuna adiuvat!
