I think that spring is going to find us in Sofia sooner than later. Yesterday, it snowed. Today it's sunny but cold.

It's been a strange few months. After a series of protests in February, the government resigned resulting in the formation of a care-taker government and elections in May.

There have been an increasing number of self-immolation cases in Bulgaria in the past few months. This has been much more upsetting to me than the resignation of the government.

Foreign Policy ran a piece titled: <a href="http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/03/14/self_immolation_is_not_new_to_bulgaria" target="_blank">Self-immolation isn't as new as you think in Bulgaria</a>. This article outlined two things. Bulgaria is second only to the Netherlands in average cases of self-immolation each year in Europe but only 1/3 of Bulgaria's cases are related to mental illness and this is the lowest correlation in Europe. Thus most of Bulgaria's cases of self-immolation are a form of political protest.

Not to be left behind the Economist also ran <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21574034-desperate-demonstrations-against-ephemeral-government-poverty-protests?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/poverty_protests" target="_blank">an article on the intersection of poverty, protest and self-immolation in Bulgaria</a>. This piece led with the fact that:
<blockquote>Six people have set themselves on fire in Bulgaria in less than a month. Three have died.</blockquote>
I read this line a few times. It's hard for me to understand the kind of desperation, frustration and helplessness that leads to self-immolation.