It is difficult to get any money in Bulgaria. It's not just the low wages. I recently spoke with a complete stranger, much younger than me, who told me the following: Bulgarians are used to working and not being given money (ok, to be given very little money for their labor).
It is not by chance that this derogatory expression exists here, the working poor, which, I am almost sure, do not exist in any other country in Europe, and in Bulgaria they are 65% of all working people.
Imagine 65% of working people coming home in the evening after 8 hours of work and not being able to satisfy their elementary, basic needs. And I'm sure that the basic needs here are not like the basic needs in other, normal, human countries. Here they are much less, at a much lower level, and yet they cannot be satisfied.
As they said a few weeks ago about a village with a permanent lack of water: the local people are already used to living without water, but the problem is, the local population is decreasing, and no outsider will come to live in these conditions. But the locals do. Because they are used to everything, they have come to terms with everything, they have accepted it as no one else in a normal and humane country could accept it.
But today I will not talk about wages again, but about something else that has struck me in recent days, although it has been clear for a long time. Because there has long been talk about the "Bulgarian way" of conducting quiz shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for example. Now there will be talk about how reality shows are conducted, in which cash prizes are included.
All these shows are Bulgarian, local versions of foreign shows, but the way they run here, I'm sure, is infinitely different from their original. As one person recently wrote about the Bulgarian version of Desafío: I wrote to Colombia to let them know what was happening in Bulgaria, lol 😅
Do they know what is happening with their production in Bulgaria? And do they even care? Should they care? I don't know. Maybe they shouldn't care as long as the rights and licenses are paid for, it's all about money after all.
Well yes, money. And speaking of money...
The Bulgarian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is called just Get Rich or Who Wants to Get Rich?
No one mentions millions in Bulgaria regarding this game, simply because in Bulgaria no one will give anyone a million, such prizes simply do not exist, it is too much. After all, a salary of 1000 euros net for a specialist was until recently excessive, and I had simply stopped saying during interviews what salary I expected, so as not to be disqualified in the first round.
Well, why give money to a people who are satisfied with little? Therefore, such awards do not exist here. But it's not just that.
The questions. The questions asked in the game, from the very beginning, are for people with at least three higher educations, doctoral and professorial titles, who have read all the encyclopedias. Yes, there are such people, indeed, but even if they happen to have such participants, they will again find the right topic and question to disqualify them in the initial stages of the show.
I'll quote Wikipedia on this, and I think it says it all:
In 23 years on the air, there has been no official winner of Get Rich.
There was only one person who won the grand prize of, note this - BGN 100 000 or 51 130.72 euros, or £42 185.80, against the £1 million in the original broadcast. But this guy had to return the money for breaking some rules lol.
From here, in fact, many questions arise - whose policy is to prevent the participants from winning a prize in every possible way - of the parent production in England or of the producers in Bulgaria? (I have been asking myself the same question for some time about Lidl too - who decided the prices of certain food products to be from 2 to 3 times more expensive in Bulgaria than in Germany? Are these decisions made in Germany or in Bulgaria?)
This year, a completely new reality show, Million Dollar Island, was presented in Bulgaria, which in its original version again has a prize fund of 1 million dollars, and for Bulgaria it is only 160 934.71 dollars.
In the end, however, of the last 3 finalists, one leaves the game with $12,874.78, and the other two only with $4,828.04 each, because such were the conditions and tricks of the game.😅
I have not watched this show and I have not followed what happened there, but I can imagine the disappointment of the participants who went there to win an already reduced in advance (as befits Bulgaria) prize. And in the end, even the winners were lied to and the money was left for the production itself (again, typical Bulgarian).
And then we come to my favorite show, favorite until this year in fact, in which they finally decided to show the difficult Bulgarian reality in its full glory in an otherwise good and interesting show.
Participants were humiliated. The prize fund of the game is BGN 100 000 or 51 130.72 euros, but what do the participants have to go through to get to it...
Sweat, blood and tears.
For the first time this year the games were so difficult, there were so many injuries and so many interventions of medical teams, it was literally disgusting to watch and for me it was a humiliation - to show the poor people that money is not easily earned, that sweat must flow from your forehead, blood from your feet and hands, that you must injure yourself to get anything in this life, even if you become permanently disabled.
Money is the most important thing, after all, and you have to be willing to do anything for it.
And amidst this terrible struggle, one boy was prioritized, favored, pushed forward because he was not the strongest player, he was always given the easier games, his opponents were always girls, and he always won, until in the end account received this prize of 51 130.72 euros. Unfair to all other participants.
Then word got around that this boy was the nephew of one of the game's producers, and that prize stayed in the house, ie. does not go to any stranger, etc.
Well, that's how money is made in Bulgaria. I think you already get the general idea of what I mean. 😃
| Thank you for your time! Copyright: | @soulsdetour |
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| Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you. |
Personally, I am a sensitive soul with a strong sense of justice.
Traveling and photography are my greatest passions.
Sounds trivial to you?
No, it's not trivial. Because I still love to travel to not so famous destinations.🗺️
Of course, the current situation does not allow me to do this, but I still find a way to satisfy my hunger for knowledge, new places, beauty and art.
Sometimes you can find the most amazing things even in the backyard of your house.😊🧐🧭|