Patriarchal wines of the Serbian Church

The Church Fathers also understood salvation as salvation primarily from sins. “Our Christ,” says St. Justin the Martyr, “redeemed us, immersed in the gravest sins committed by us, through His crucifixion on a tree and through the sanctification of us with water, and made us a house of prayer and worship.” “We,” says St. Justin, “while still being given over to fornication and to every vile deed in general, have drawn within ourselves the grace bestowed by our Jesus according to the will of His Father, all the unclean and evil things in which we have been clothed. The devil rises up against us, always acting against us and wishing to draw everyone to himself, but the Angel of God, i.e. the power of God sent down to us through Jesus Christ, forbids him, and he withdraws from us. sins, and from the torment and flame that the devil and all his servants are preparing for us, and from which again Jesus the Son of God delivers us. Thus, St. Justin does not forget the consequences of sin, but deliverance from them appears to him as a consequence of salvation, and not his essence and main goal (“saves again”). The essence of salvation lies in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us the power by which we overcome the attacks of the devil attacking us and remain free from our former passions.

“I,” says St. Ephraim the Syrian, “saved from many debts, from a legion of sins, from the heavy bonds of iniquity and from the nets of sin, I was saved from evil deeds, from secret iniquities, from the filth of corruption, from the abomination of delusions. I arose from this mud, came out of this pit, came out of this darkness; heal, O Lord, according to Your unfaithful promise, all the infirmities that you see in me. In these words, Rev. Ephraim not only expresses the essence of salvation from the point of view of its content, but also makes it possible to understand its very form, the way in which it is accomplished: it is not some external judicial or magical action, but a development gradually taking place in a person by the action of God’s grace, so that there may be degrees of redemption. “The perfect Christian,” the Holy Father expresses the same thought, “produces every virtue and every perfect fruit of the spirit that surpasses our nature … with delight and spiritual pleasure, as natural and ordinary, already without fatigue and easily, no longer struggling with sinful passions, as one who has been completely redeemed by the Lord.”

The same thought can be found in a very clear form in St. Athanasius of Alexandria, “Because,” he says, “human nature, having undergone a change, left the truth and loved iniquity, then the Only Begotten became a man in order to correct this in Himself, to inspire human nature to love the truth and hate lawlessness.”

Christ “is called, according to St. Gregory the Theologian, “Deliverance” (1 Corinthians 1:30), as he frees us who are held under sin, as he gave himself for us as a ransom, as a cleansing sacrifice for the world.”

The Essence of Salvation

So, from the Orthodox point of view, the essence, meaning and final goal of a person’s salvation is to deliver him from sin and to give him eternal holy life in communion with God. The Orthodox does not forget about the consequences of sin, death, suffering and other things, is ungrateful for deliverance from them to God – but this deliverance is not for him the main joy, as it is in the legal understanding of life. Like the Apostle Paul, the Orthodox lament not so much that he is threatened with punishment for sin, from which (sin) he cannot be freed in any way, but that he cannot “get rid of this body of death,” in which lives “other law who opposes the “law of the mind” that pleases him (Rom. 7:22-25). Not fear for oneself, but the desire for holiness, life according to God, makes the true ascetic of piety grieve.

If this is the essence of salvation, then the very method of it becomes certain for us.

If one thinks only of delivering a person from suffering, then it makes absolutely no difference whether this deliverance is free or not free on the part of a person. But if a person needs to be made righteous, it is necessary to be freed precisely from sin, then it is not at all indifferent whether a person will be only a suffering subject for the action of supernatural power, or whether he himself will participate in his deliverance.

Salvation is accomplished without fail with the participation of human consciousness and freedom; it is a moral matter, not a mechanical one.

That is why, in the Holy Scriptures and in the works of the Fathers of the Church, there is a constant desire to convince a person to work out his own salvation, because no one can be saved without his own efforts. Holiness, if it is an involuntary property of nature, will lose its moral character and turn into an indifferent state. “You can’t be kind out of necessity” (I. Chrysostom).

Therefore, it is equally wrong to conceive of salvation as a deed both externally sane to a person and occurring in a person apart from the participation of his freedom. In both cases, a person would turn out to be only a weak-willed subject of someone else’s influence, and the holiness received by him in this way would not differ in any way from innate holiness, which has no moral dignity, and, therefore, not at all the highest good that he seeks. human. “I,” says St. I. Chrysostom, “I heard many who said: “Why did God create me autocratic in virtue?” But how to raise you to heaven, dozing, sleeping, betrayed by vices, luxury, gluttony? You are there too would not lag behind vices? “A person would not accept the holiness forcibly imposed on him and would remain the same. Therefore, although the grace of God does a lot in saving a person, although everything can be attributed to her, however, she “also needs a believer, like a writing cane or an arrow in an active one” ( Cyril of Jerusalem.) “Man’s salvation is prepared not by violence and arbitrariness, but by persuasion and good nature. Therefore, everyone is sovereign in his own salvation “(Isidore Pelusiot). And this is not only in the sense that he passively perceives the impact of grace, so to speak, gives himself to grace, but in the fact that he meets the salvation offered to him with the most ardent desire that he “zealously directs his eyes to the light” (of God) (Irenaeus of Lyons). Ephraim the Sirin, – is always ready to give you His right hand, and raise you from the fall. For as soon as you are the first to stretch out your hand to Him, He will give you His right hand to raise you up.” only his own salvation, but “helps the grace that works in him.” Every good thing that happens in a person, every moral growth, every change that happens in his soul, necessarily does not take place outside consciousness and freedom, so that not someone else, but “man himself changes himself, from the old turning into the new.” Salvation cannot be some external judicial or physical event, but must be a moral act, and, as such, it necessarily presupposes as an inevitable condition and law that a person he himself performs this action, although with the help of grace. Grace, although it acts, although it does everything, is without fail within freedom and consciousness. This is the basic Orthodox principle, and it must not be forgotten in order to understand the teaching of the Orthodox Church about the very method of human salvation.

Source: with abbreviations that do not distort the meaning, from the work of Archbishop (Finland) Sergius: “The Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation”. Ed. 4. St. Petersburg. 1910 (pp. 140-155, 161-191, 195-206, 216-241) – in Russian.

Photo by Maria Orlova:

Why is Moses depicted with horns?

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23 August 2022

An image in the German edition of Jacob de Teramo’s book The Consolation of Sinners, or the Trial of Lucifer against Jesus Christ (Jacobi de Ancharano (alias de Teramo): Litigatio Christi cum Belial), shows an imaginary court presided over by King Solomon. Lucifer started a case against Jesus Christ because he illegally entered his domain – the underworld. The prophet Moses is Christ’s defender at the trial, and the demon Belial represents the prosecution. But on the heads of the opponents – Moses and Belial – identical small horns are depicted. How is it that the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, who led the Jewish people out of Egyptian slavery and received the tablets of God’s ten commandments, looks so much like Lucifer’s lawyer?

This is not an artist’s fault or some quirk. On the famous statue of Moses, created by Michelangelo Buonarroti around 1513-1515 as part of the tombstone of Julius II in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, two strange “bumps” are also visible on the prophet’s head, and in the Middle Ages the horned “portraits “they had no respect for Moses at all.

According to the most common version, the horns on his head appeared in Christian iconography as a result of a mistake made by Jerome of Stridon (345–420) when translating the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin. According to the book of Exodus, Moses climbed Mount Sinai twice. The first time God gave him two tablets with commandments. But coming down, the prophet found that his people had fallen into idolatry and began to worship the Golden Calf. “And when he drew near to the camp, he saw the calf and the games; and Moses’ anger was kindled, so he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them under the mountain” (32:19). After that, at God’s command, he himself made two stone tablets and with them ascended Sinai for the second time, where God again dictated to him the commandments that the people of Israel were to follow.

If we open “Exodus”, we will read that “while Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai and holding the two tablets of revelation in his hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face was shining, because he had talked with God” ( 34:29). But in the Latin translation (Vulgate) made by Jerome, this place looks quite different: there it is written that Moses did not know that his face had become “cornuta”. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the so-called The Septuagint (3rd century BC), from which the Church Slavonic translation was later made, no longer has horns. Jerome was certainly familiar with the Greek translation of the book of Exodus. How then could he have made such a strange mistake? Many believe that he confused the similar words “radiance” and “horns”. In the Hebrew text, the verb “qāran” stands in this place (based on the root, קָ֫רֶן‎ qeren, which often means “horn”); which is now interpreted to mean “shining” or “radiating”). But there is another point – the “horn” was one of the ancient metaphors for earthly and divine power, which in the biblical text refers not only to different kingdoms, but also to the Lord himself. The influential theologian and encyclopedist Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) compared two parts of Scripture—the Old and New Testaments—to two horns. The Old Testament Book of the prophet Daniel (8:3-22) describes his vision: a ram with two horns of different sizes and a goat with a single one above the eyes appeared on the bank of the river. The goat broke both of the ram’s horns, but after the victory, his own huge horn turned into four smaller ones.

Archangel Gabriel explained to Daniel the meaning of his revelation. The large horn of the ram denoted the Persian kingdom, and the small horn denoted the Median. “The wild goat is the Greek king; and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. And where he crumbled and four came forth in his stead, it means that four kings will arise from that people, but not with power like his” (8: 21-22). The first images of Moses with horns appeared only in the 11th century – 600 years after the death of Jerome. Previously, Christian masters did not separate the first and second ascent of Sinai and did not try in any special way to depict the transfiguration that took place there with the prophet. According to the American historian Ruth Melinkoff, the oldest example of the horns of Moses appeared in England – in the illustrations to one of the manuscripts of the Hexagram by the learned monk Aelfric the Grammaticus. Starting from the Latin text of the Vulgate, he, following Jerome, wrote that Moses returned the second time from Sinai “horned”, and the miniaturist who illustrated his story painted the prophet.

From the twelfth century, the horns became a standard attribute of Moses, which was reproduced in thousands of images. Although around the same time Satan and demons were also increasingly depicted as horned, the similarity between the mark of the chosen and the mark of the rejected was clearly in the order of things, and none of the clergy raised much objection to this. However, this did not exclude confusion. The situation began to change only at the end of the Middle Ages, when artists, trying to correct the “mistake” of Jerome, sometimes began to depict the horns as rays or tried to “rationalize” them.

Moses was not the only holy man depicted with horns in the Middle Ages. Miniatures are known in which they appear in the Old Testament ancestors Noah and Abraham. It’s not clear exactly why. Probably, after the horns became a symbol of the chosenness of Moses, to whom God himself addressed on Mount Sinai, the same sign began to be sometimes applied to other characters of the Old Testament who were worthy of communion with the Lord. However, there is also a more prosaic explanation – a mistake: it is possible that medieval masters, confusing such scenes, depicted Noah or Abraham as Moses.

Photo: A woodcut of Belial and some of his followers from a German edition of Consolatio peccatorum, seu Processus Luciferi contra Jesum Christum (1473) / Public Domain

Germans occupied Bulgarian SPA resorts, they don’t pay anything

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23 August 2022

Six medical and SPA centers in the country welcome tourists from Germany, whose restorative and rehabilitation procedures in Bulgaria are paid for by the German health insurance funds. Among the tourists there are Bulgarian citizens who work and secure themselves in Germany. Mitko Vassilev, chief manager of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, announced this on August 21 for the “Horizon” program on the Bulgarian National Radio.

In September 2019, the German National Association of Health Insurance Funds expanded the list of 14 countries in which it recognizes the provision of medical and outpatient services for prevention. Now there is a need for a targeted campaign to popularize information about prevention opportunities in Bulgaria, stressed Mitko Vasilev:

“Germany has 16 federal states and it takes a lot of effort to spread this information, especially since there are 109 funds there, some of which are state funds, some of which are private funds, and our task is as much as possible to cover them and convince them that they can send their patients to Bulgaria”.

There are enough modern centers in our country that meet the requirements. On the lines of the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and Spa Tourism and the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, consultations and training are offered to the sites in our country in order to increase their chances of receiving tourists from Germany. Together with the Ministry of Tourism, high-level meetings were held to promote the possibilities of Bulgarian medical and spa centers. Bulgaria’s competitive advantages are related to climate and nature, emphasized Mitko Vasilev.

Photo by Curtis Adams:

Yakov Djerassi: The EU owes us Bulgaria Day because of the rescue of the Jews

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23 August 2022

Paola Husein’s interview with Yakov Djerasi for 24chasa.bg (06.11.2021)

Our country can definitely teach the “enlightened” European society what human behavior and tolerance mean, says the chairman of the International Foundation “Bulgaria”.

While the whole of Europe during the Second World War handed over its Jews for quick extermination, we Bulgarians managed to stop both of our forced deportations to the death camps

The best choice I have made in my life is to come to Bulgaria

A few days ago, Yakov Djerassi sent a letter to Katarina von Schnurbein, the new EU coordinator for efforts to combat anti-Semitism, in which he proposed that the European Commission declare Bulgaria Day for saving the Jews.

– Mr. Djerassi, you suggest that the European Commission declare Bulgaria Day to honor the merits of our country for the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. You made your proposal in a letter to Katharina von Schnurbein, the new EU coordinator for efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Why should there be such a day?

– I know that ultranationalists and devoted communists will hardly agree with me, as well as all other people who believe that Bulgaria is responsible for the evil fate of the Macedonian (Yugoslav) and Thracian (Greek) Jews, but nevertheless we as Bulgarians must let’s be honest with ourselves because it’s time for Cheshbon hanefesh. This biblical term literally means “reckoning of the soul.” In the Jewish calendar, Cheshbon hanefesh is done every year because if one doesn’t take stock, how can one know what needs to be changed.

In this line of thinking, we must admit that apart from the unique Bulgarian folklore, the savory and the historical “moment” of saving our entire Jewish community

during World War II, we as a nation did not give Europe great philosophers, scientists, sculptors or athletes. We had some, but they didn’t want to be associated with their homeland. Take the late laureate Elias Canetti for example. Fleeing his Bulgarian roots, he preferred his British citizenship, although he was born in Ruse, Bulgaria. Or the world-famous artist Hristo Yavashev – shortly after his death, his long-awaited wish to pack the Arc de Triomphe in Paris came true. And when years ago he was politely asked to join world names in support of Sofia University, he refused with the sharp statement that he did not want any association with his homeland.

While the whole of Europe during the Second World War handed over its Jews for quick extermination, we Bulgarians managed to stop both of our forced deportations to the death camps. In the second attempt, the king hid in the mountains so that he would not be available in case he was forced to sign deportation papers. Where in Europe would a head of state flee the capital just to avoid betraying his Jews? They were the cheapest and most insignificant human resource in those years. Their lives were worth nothing except in Bulgaria.

Take Hungary – 12,000 Jews a day were sent to the Nazi extermination machine. Or the largest death camp in the Balkans, just hours away from Sofia – Jasenovac, Croatia, where almost 400,000 Gypsies were brutally murdered.

I remember attending a seminar about the Holocaust in Athens some time ago. There I witnessed a Greek Jewish survivor of the Holocaust state bluntly, “I was betrayed by my own Greek neighbors,” he did not even mention the Germans.

– How did Bulgaria manage to save its Jews?

– Bulgaria has acted differently. I base my statement on the personal experience of my own family living in the country during those years. But you can hear similar experiences from the families of all 45,000 Bulgarian Jews who preferred Israel to living in communist Bulgaria.

Let me make some clarifications about this historical period.

Yes, there was a curfew. Yes, the Jews wore the yellow star to set them apart from everyone else. The Jews of Sofia, for example, were asked to move to the countryside.

Yes, there was a Law for the Protection of the Nation and mass mobilization of Bulgarian Jewish men to build unnecessary roads in labor camps, but these formations were not of a strict regime. Do you know where during World War II Jews organized and participated in camp operas and operettas? Zico Graziani, probably the most famous Israeli-Bulgarian of all time with a street named after him in Sofia, could answer this question for you with: “Here in Bulgaria”. Jews could come and go. On weekends, they were even allowed to visit their families. In what other European camps did something like this happen? Indeed, it was no “picnic”, but nevertheless every Polish Jew would like to be in the place of the Bulgarians

And this is understandable, because where during World War II in Europe were Jews allowed to attend universities for example? The Law for the Protection of the Nation forbade their access to higher education institutions!

– In your letter to Katarina von Schnurbein, you convince her that declaring Bulgaria Day has an educational and moral value. Why?

– Do we realize that after World War II, the Bulgarian Jews who immigrated to Israel in 1949 laid the foundation of the medical corps there?! During those years, 60% of the medics in the newly formed country were of Bulgarian origin. Do we realize what a great contribution Bulgaria has made to the creation of the new Jewish state?! This was hardly consistent with the Defense of the Nation Act.

Also, I should mention that my parents, their peers, and me as the second generation were decidedly unaffected by the Holocaust complex.

Who else in Europe during World War II, except perhaps Monsignor Roncalli, the Vatican’s representative in Turkey, stood up for the Jews as did the entire Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church?

In which other European country did pro-German MPs sign a petition against the deportation of the Jews? Where in Europe has the entire society, from the simple farmer who could not even write his name to the head of state, stood so boldly behind its Jewish citizens?

Did you know that fleeing Jews from other European countries, reaching the borders of Bulgaria, were welcomed and escorted by the Bulgarian Red Cross? Tell me in which other country something like this has happened.

It’s a shame because after all these years, we haven’t learned to recognize the good. Or as they say in Israel – Le’hakir et Hatov (“Recognize the good”). We weep and commemorate the evil, but we must also remember and repeat the good.

Everything has its time: “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to rejoice,” Ecclesiastes.

Yes,

Bulgaria represents this WELL

and it can definitely teach the “enlightened” European society what human behavior and tolerance mean. That is why I think that the EU owes us Bulgaria Day!

– How did the idea of proposing the creation of Bulgaria Day come about?

– My whole life has been spent in support and defense of this historical truth. So such an idea should not surprise anyone.

People by nature have the innate handicap of judging each other, especially in difficult times, and we Bulgarians have proven to the world that we are a different “breed”. I am proud to be Bulgarian. My friends in Israel even formed an association “I am Bulgarian first”. Imagine, Israeli Jews – the soldiers of the Israeli army, who cannot even read and write in Bulgarian, are proud of their heritage, brought by their grandmothers with Bulgarian roots. Check out their Facebook page if you don’t believe me.

– Do you already have an answer from Mrs. Schnurbein, how did she take your proposal?

– In truth, I don’t expect an answer. I think I “excited” her more than necessary.

But here is the moment to say that it is time for our MEPs to show unity and attitude at least on this topic. I will not hide the fact that I hope that the Bulgarian Commissioner Mrs. Maria Gabriel will also show interest. It also depends on the way our head of state looks at the subject, and I believe he can do wonders.

– There is already an International Day of Remembrance to honor the memory of the Jews who died in the Holocaust. Why will the Day of Bulgaria be different?

– I mentioned the biblical book of Ecclesiastes. There is time for everything. There is time for the world to understand that we are different. I’m sure the EU will want to honor Denmark if such a day is created. But I don’t believe that she deserves it as much as Bulgaria. See, we have not sent our Jews to another country, as the Danes did, nor have we required them to pay with their most valuable possessions to be taken away in fishing boats quietly in the dark of night. The Danes have simply transferred the “problem” elsewhere, away from their country, so that their king will not feel either the sense of responsibility or the discomfort of a burgeoning conflict of interest in making a firm decision in defense of his Jews, as ours did Tsar. And let’s also not forget that they “turned” over to the Gestapo every Jew who tried to cross into Denmark. There was no Danish Red Cross at the borders.

– Just a month ago – on October 5, the European Commission adopted the first ever EU strategy to combat anti-Semitism and promote Jewish life. The reasons are that anti-Semitism is on the disturbing rise in Europe and beyond. Do you see manifestations of anti-Semitism in our country?

– Although some Bulgarian Jews loyal to the communist system of the past would use the term “monarcho-fascism”, my parents spoke only of the deep love and respect they received from their Bulgarian neighbors and ordinary citizens, especially after the introduction of the yellow star.

I will return again to Zico Graziani, the famous Israeli-Bulgarian musician, born in Ruse and a graduate of the Music Academy “Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia. He said that when he showed up to his class with the yellow star, all his classmates put yellow stars on their coats in solidarity

I don’t believe that filling out surveys about the degree of anti-Semitism in Bulgaria, containing ridiculous questions like: “Are Jews more loyal to Israel than the country they live in?” or “Do Jews have influence on the world’s financial institutions?” can to give accurate statistics on the rate of anti-Semitism today. It’s just frivolous. Such type of questions are not only misleading and meaningless, but are the main reason for the creation of conspiracy theories with a very negative and quite dangerous flavor in the first place.

Not every swastika is a sign of anti-Semitism. Some of “my people” fuel this type of incident which only widens the gap in understanding.

Yes, there is a rise in anti-Semitism in many European countries. In my opinion, its percentage increase is directly related to the uneasy and unpredictable relations between Israel and Palestine, as well as the rest of the Arab world.

I am a member of a closed society, the Jewish people are by nature a closed group of people in which others have no place. I think the Jewish communities need to open up more and become the “light of the nations” again. Invite others to share in our success and traditions.

And yes, I have been in Bulgaria for almost thirty years. Just imagine – I came supposedly for only six months. In my entire life I have never experienced any form of anti-Semitism exercised upon me.

Exactly the opposite. I admit that probably because of my Jewish background I even received more attention and love. That’s how six months turned into 30 years and it was the best choice I’ve made in my life – to come to Bulgaria.

– Israel is one of the first countries in the world to successfully fight the coronavirus. How far did they go, did they take off their masks? What can we learn from their experience?

– Israel was probably among the first countries whose citizens were thoroughly “educated” on the importance of the vaccine. It’s really not hard to explain to Israelis how essential it is to their health.

The reality in Bulgaria is radically different. Even the doctors here are against the vaccine. In my opinion, mainly because of all the rumors and half-truths that roam the media and public space. And our doctors very often like to play the role of God. Time to take action against this type of medical staff.

Photo by Paraskeva Georgieva: At the reception of His Majesty Tsar Simeon II at Vrana Palace – Sofia for the winners of the annual essay competition on the topic of tolerance, organized by the Israeli-Bulgarian Institute of Yakov Djerassi. The young people write their essays inspired by Michael Bar-Zohar’s book “Beyond Hitler’s Grip”, which tells about the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War.

The Bulgarian-Macedonian dispute is transferred to Albania also

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23 August 2022

The Bulgarian-Macedonian dispute is also being carried over to Albania, BNT reported. Another misunderstanding arises over the possible separation of two regions in Albania – Golo Burdo and Gora, into separate municipalities. The Bulgarian minority, recognized by the Parliament in Tirana in 2017, is concentrated in these areas. However, organizations close to Skopje claim that the population in these areas is Macedonian. Bulgarians there demanded an urgent meeting with the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev.

The Bulgarian-Macedonian dispute is also being carried over to Albania, BNT reported. Another misunderstanding arises over the possible separation of two regions in Albania – Golo Burdo and Gora, into separate municipalities. The Bulgarian minority, recognized by the Parliament in Tirana in 2017, is concentrated in these areas. However, organizations close to Skopje claim that the population in these areas is Macedonian. The Bulgarians from Albania requested an urgent meeting with President Rumen Radev.

The Bulgarian community in Albania lives in the regions of Mala Prespa, Golo Burdo and Kukushka Gora. They number several tens of thousands and were officially recognized as a minority by the Albanian Parliament in 2017. According to experts, our compatriots have been living there for centuries.

Now the areas of Golo Burdo and Gora are expected to be separated again into separate municipalities, which will allow the compact Bulgarian population there to more easily attract investments, prove their Bulgarian origin and seek Bulgaria’s help.

“Our territory – all the roads are dirt roads, we don’t have a single road with asphalt. It is very difficult to enter our territories. We don’t have a single deputy. And in the municipalities we don’t have a single person from our people.”, dissatisfied Hadji Pirushi from a company “Prosperity” in Golo Burdo, Albania.

Apart from the lack of representatives in power, no official Albanian document indicates where our community lives. And it is becoming more and more difficult for our compatriots to prove their origin on the basis of their birth certificate.

“In the past, Golo Burdo was an independent municipality, that is, in the birth certificate it was written that the person was born there, and since it is a compact Bulgarian population, that is, there are no other people there besides Bulgarians, it was very easy to establish the Bulgarian origin of the candidate in question. These days, when these municipalities have been liquidated, we lose all traces purely administratively,” says Associate Professor Spas Tashev from the Institute for Population and Human Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

“Many problems, documents are delayed, 3-4 years. There are people who give up. Why?” asks Hadji Pirushi from Golo Burdo.

In October, a census is coming up in Albania and the parallel movement with the issue of the separation of municipalities is, however, threatened by the organizations of the Macedonians there, who have their own MP.

Vasil Sterovski is the man who claims that there are only Macedonians and not Bulgarians in Albania, and that Sofia is Bulgarianizing Tirana. Sterovski wants to make it clear that the municipalities of Golo Burdo and Gora have a Macedonian population.

“Bulgaria’s efforts, abusing its membership in the EU, for the negation and assimilation of Macedonians in Albania with the aim of creating a Bulgarian minority in the places where Macedonians live, are unacceptable to us. Today, Bulgaria is committing aggression with the aim of assimilating Macedonians in Albania.” says Sterovski in a post posted on his social media account.

The Bulgarians in Albania respond to all this with an ironic sneer.

“Please, don’t bother with these people who say it. Our Constitution says that every person should tell himself who he is. And what kind of nation he is. Sterovski doesn’t need these Macedonians – we have nothing to do with them,” said Hadji Pirushi. .

In Mala Prespa, Golo Burdo and Kukus, however, Macedonian propaganda has been active for years, according to experts. And Bulgaria should do more for its minority there.

“Bulgarians need support – especially for Bulgarian schools. We have several thousand Bulgarians from Albania who completed their higher education in Bulgaria. These people can be a bridge of cooperation. There are many options, but someone has to coordinate this activity so that Bulgaria can protect its compatriots,” says Prof. Spas Tashev, Institute for Population and Human Research – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The Bulgarians in Albania requested an urgent meeting with the President Rumen Radev via the Bulgarian National Television.

Photo: Press Office of the President R. Radev

Kyiv Metropolitan Onuphrius met with Russian prisoners of war

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23 August 2022

Metropolitan Onuphrius of Kyiv (UPC) met with Russian prisoners of war at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra at their request. The meeting was organized by journalist Vladimir Zolkin, known for his interviews with Russian prisoners of war, and Boryspil Metropolitan Antony (Pakanich). After serving a prayer service, Metropolitan Onuphrius addressed the prisoners of war with the words:

“I would like to wish God to bring you back to your homeland, to your families. To see your mothers, sisters, wives, children, brothers, friends. I would like you to say the following words to them: “We don’t want a war like the one going on in Ukraine right now.” We do not want our cities and villages to be destroyed, we do not want our people and your people to perish. We do not want mothers in either Ukraine or Russia to meet their dead sons and weep over them with bitter, inconsolable tears. This must be stopped, it can be stopped.”

“We must find a word of love that will silence the guns, stop the rockets. We want there to be peace. Our Ukrainian Orthodox Church did everything so that the Russian and Ukrainian people could live in peace, understanding and love. However, it happened as it did. But even if evil has happened, it must be stopped! May God give our rulers courage, reason and wisdom to find the word of love that stops all evil. I wish God to protect you and all the people who are on the battlefield. War is not the way to achieve unity between nations, families, people. Violence does not create unity, unity is created by love. And love is God. If one prays and obeys the commandments of God, he is a man of God. May God bless our lands with peace.”

Metropolitan Onuphrius did not bless the Russian soldiers with the cross, but invited them to his office for an informal conversation. There he said:

“I don’t know if you understand or not, but it doesn’t have to be this way. You should not kill each other. Death brings no benefit to anyone, only sorrow to every home. It is a shame that the peoples who came out of the same baptismal font are at war with each other. And we must do everything to put an end to this madness,” he concluded.

Probably, the meeting of Metropolitan Onufriy with the captured Russian soldiers has the character of an intercession to the Kyiv authorities for their exchange with Ukrainian prisoners of war.

“It is a shame that the peoples who came out of the single baptismal font fight each other. And we must do everything to stop this madness,” concluded Onufriy.

In conclusion, he distributed a prayer book, an icon and a chocolate bar to the occupiersand at the prayer service all the prisoners present were named by name sang “many summers”. After a short divine service and an informal conversation in the office, Onufriy personally, face to face, talked with each occupier.

Archbishop Evstratiy, spokesman for the OCU paid attention on the three main theses expressed by Onufrio at the meeting.

1. “It turned out the way it turned out”– these words of the head of the church of the Moscow Patriarchate, says the archbishop, sound “like an excuse to those who came to take us captive.”

2. “I want to wish that God will protect you, all the people who are on the battlefield.”

“Not a word about the evil they brought. Not a word of a call to repent for the murders and destruction. Well, really: if everything happened by itself, then these prisoners of war, like the Russian soldiers, were “taken to the battlefield”, their colleagues are “not guilty “, thinks Eustratius.

3. “It is a shame that the peoples who came out of the single font of Baptism fought with each other.”

The spokesman of the OCU is certain: such words are factual the civil war formula and the Kremlin narrative. In fact, it was Russia that attacked Ukraine and occupied part of our territory.

Source: TSN

What is the actual shelf life of a car fire extinguisher?

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23 August 2022

Many drivers acquire a car first aid kit and fire extinguisher just to pass a MOT. And then they carry them with them without replacing them with new ones. However, this is fundamentally wrong. The same fire extinguisher can last the life of your vehicle and not be needed. However, there may be an accident on the road where a standing fire extinguisher will come in handy. And a fire extinguisher that doesn’t work will result in the total loss of a car or someone’s life. What is the shelf life of the car fire extinguisher, we tell you now.

The shelf life of a fire extinguisher is equal in importance to a first aid kit. The requirements for car fire extinguishers are determined by the ZDP. According to these documents, a fire extinguisher for a car must weigh at least 2 kg and have a volume of at least 2 liters.

For freight transport, the norms are higher – 5 kg, 5 liters. At the same time, each fire extinguisher must contain an active substance that effectively fights the fire and the spread of the fire. As a rule, fire extinguishers are powder or carbon dioxide. There are also aerosol ones, but more often drivers have one of the first two with them.

You should know that powder fire extinguishers are further divided into several types. They are divided according to the types of pressure created, due to which the powder mixture comes out: “pumping”, with a high-pressure cylinder and fire extinguishers that generate gas. The foam from such creates a powerful layer on the source of ignition, which does not allow the passage of oxygen, which is necessary to maintain combustion. And they have one minus – the foam film is very difficult to wash.

Carbon dioxide fire extinguishers work differently. They release a stream of carbon dioxide over the flame, preventing scorching. Extinguishing is not very effective, in addition, there are peculiarities in use – improper handling can lead to gas poisoning and even burns. At the same time, regardless of the type of fire extinguisher, they all have a certain expiration date that must be monitored.

It is scary to imagine a situation where a driver runs with a fire extinguisher to save another from a fire, and when he activates his fire extinguisher, it turns out that it does not work. And sometimes in such situations every second is precious. That’s why you need to know exactly the expiration date of the fire extinguisher that you carry in your luggage compartment.

However, the resource of the fire extinguisher is quite high. If you are guided by the regulatory framework, then the shelf life of the powder fire extinguisher is 10 years for the cylinder and 5 years for its contents. In principle, cylinders can be charged throughout their entire service life. But after its expiration, the fire extinguisher must be replaced with a new one.

Gas fire extinguishers last longer – 15 years. But this is subject to such assistant passing an annual test. It also needs to be recharged every five years. The aerosol type of fire extinguisher lasts as long as the powder type. It doesn’t require reloading, but it’s also good to check.

Spontaneous ignition is considered one of the main problems of electric cars. Tesla CEO Elon Musk regularly reminds that cars with traditional internal combustion engines (ICE) catch fire much more often, but few people believe him. However, you cannot argue with the official statistics.

Authorities in the USA have published official statistics on car fires, and the first 4 times in this negative ranking are for models with internal combustion engines. The data is from the American insurance agency AutoInsuranceEZ, which also used the statistics for recalled vehicles due to fire hazards.

In first place is the Hyundai Elantra, where there was a risk of ignition in 430,000 units. They are followed by Kia Cadenza and Sportage – 308,000 cars, Honda Odissey – 250,000 and Hyundai Genesis and Genesis G80 – 95,000. Only in fifth position is the electric Hyundai Kona – 82,000 units, and in sixth is the Chevrolet Bolt – 70,000 units.

Hybrid versions of the Chrysler Pacifica minivan (27,600 units) and BMW and Mini hybrid models (4,500) followed in the rankings, all of which were models found to be a potential fire hazard. In 2021, Chevrolet, for example, recalled over 140,000 units of the Bolt, but the actual number of ignitions was only 16.

When it comes to the number of car fires, statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) show that hybrids are the most at risk, with 3,500 cases per 100,000 vehicles, while the total number of these incidents last year was 16,051.

In second place are cars with an internal combustion engine – 1,500 per 100,000 vehicles (199,533 fires for 2021), while electric cars practically do not burn – 25 cases per 100,000 cars (52 fires for 2021).

Japan urges young people to drink more alcohol, the reason will surprise you

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23 August 2022

The younger generation is drinking less alcohol than their parents, a move that has affected taxes on drinks such as rice wine sake. The national tax agency therefore entered into a national competition for ideas to reverse the trend.

The campaign “Sake viva!” hopes to come up with a plan to make drinking more attractive and boost the industry. The competition invites young people aged 20 to 39 to share their business ideas to boost demand among their peers, whether it’s Japanese sake, shochu, whisky, beer or wine.

The group that runs the contest claims that new habits – partly formed during the covid pandemic and an aging population – have led to a drop in alcohol sales, the BBC reported. She wants contestants to come up with promotions, branding and even cutting-edge plans involving artificial intelligence.

Japanese media say the reaction has been mixed, with some criticizing the proposal for promoting an unhealthy habit. But others have posted strange ideas online — such as famous actresses “playing” as virtual reality hostesses in virtual clubs.

Participants must submit their ideas by the end of September. The best plans will then be developed with the help of experts. Final proposals to be presented in November.

The campaign’s website says Japan’s alcohol market is shrinking, helped by the country’s aging demographics – along with a declining birth rate. The latest figures from the tax agency show that people drank less in 2020 than in 1995, with the number falling from 100g a week to 75g.

Tax revenue from alcohol taxation has also shrunk over the years. According to The Japan Times newspaper, in 1980 they accounted for 5% of total revenue, and in 2020 they are only 1.7%. The World Bank estimates that almost a third (29%) of Japan’s population is aged 65 and over, the highest proportion in the world.

Concerns about the future of sake are not the only problem facing the Japanese economy – there are concerns about the supply of younger workers for certain types of work, as well as about caring for the elderly in the future.

Photo by Servet photograph / pexels

Peppers have many miraculous benefits that we did not even suspect

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23 August 2022