I am all for putting things in proper perspective, but am generally against bundling different problems into a messed up package, wrapping them rhetorically well, and labelling them with a bombastic title that “sells.”

The following three things are true: 1) Bulgaria has enormous problems with corruption 2) Bulgaria has big problems with coping with crime cartels 3) Bulgaria has problems with international crime networks and traffic of drugs, people and God knows what else.

It is also true, that these three problems may be connected and sometimes reinforce each other. But they are not
connected in the way described in this blog entry. Or, to be more precise, the problem is that there is no analysis of how these problems are connected.

Just and example: corruption at the highest levels (such as the case with road construction projects) is generally not related to the drug traffic through the country and the people involved in it.

Even more annoying is the title of the entry. The title corresponds to reality to the extent statements that German, French or American drug traffickers fund Islamic terrorists do. It seems to me that this extent is generally sustained by rhetorical agility and logical laxity.

The thing about international crime networks is that they are interested in all sorts of criminal projects and have no allegiances. Hey, there was even an instance of criminal cooperation between Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs in oil smuggling from Serbia to Kosovo recently (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=416169).

To the extent that a certain criminal group (based in a certain country) is not purposefully giving money to a certain Islamic terrorist group with the knowledge that this money is going to be used to sustain the existence or activity of the latter, it is an exaggeration to speak of funding.
In international criminal networks (terrorist groups being part of them) money flows left and right. Namely for this reason, international crime needs international cooperation the same way environmental problems do.

Bulgaria has a long way to go before it practically rises to the safety, law enforcement and transparency standards of the EU. In fact, the adoption of unprecedented “penalty measures” towards it is quite probable and much necessary.
However, if awareness is needed on such issues, it seems to me a better idea such awareness to be raised by clear analysis, not by arbitrary selection of examples.

Lucy - What report or article did the map at the top come from? I see it's from BUMAD, but not the specific report. It would make for fascniating reading and probably a good travel guide at that.