As announced on Youtube in the first day of 2024, every year between Christmas and into January we take a hard look on how we do things here at Sofa HQ and try to improve when and where it is possible, incrementally, with a view to avoid rocking the boat too much but to also make our work better.

Last year we announced multiple technical changes. Some of them panned out, some not so much. Those that worked are now being built upon while those that didn’t will be shelved and maybe tried again several years from now, at best.

This year’s changes are more in the realm of procedure rather than technical. A procedure is an official and/or established way of doing things. For many things that we do we continue to hold no procedure. This allows for fast adaptability (or agility as the corpo lingo these days calls it). However, as anticipated in years prior, some things can no longer be done without a procedure. Or they can be done but at an increasingly unsustainable cost.

So… without further ado…

Services.freedomalternative.com

The most important change comes by opening up (partially) our secondary server. Throughout 2023 we tested it for various tasks and modified a free version of a ticketing system to suit the needs of our operation.

In 2024 we are opening it up to the public. We don’t know what form it will take after public testing. Maybe excessive abuse will force us to revise this procedure to introduce a log in. Or maybe not.

Still, regardless of how it will evolve, most announcements will no longer be on this website but there. As a virtual “sticky note”. Still public, but not boosted. Only for those interested.

All announcements, including this one next year, will be there. The threshold for “major announcement” that warrants presence here will be raised very high.

No more DMs. Open a ticket!

The year 2023 saw a 200% rise in DMs (mainly on Telegram) on our staff compared to 2022. And in 2020-22 the number of DMS increased by further 300% compared to 2019. This is unsustainable and distracts us from our mission. Not only it has become impossible to reply to everyone, but even attempting to reply to half of the messages is a drain on mental resources. Not to mention that a significant proportion of the messages are repetitive.

As such, throughout 2024 we will work to answer to as few of them as possible and instead direct you to read the FAQ and fix your problems alone. And if that still doesn’t work, then you will be encouraged to open a ticket and wait. The response time will be increased to 72 hours at first and then increased even more.

With the exception of the Donors’ Circle, our DMs should be presumed closed. All tags on Telegram will also be unceremoniously ignored. The three people working closely on this have 400 unread messages or more every day. This cannot go on and will not go on.

Anyone who doesn’t follow the procedure will see his/her request ignored. All tickets whose answer is already available in the FAQ will be instantly closed with prejudice. Same goes with tickets with incomplete information or who don’t follow procedure.

While we understand that some of you prefer e-mail, some of you prefer Telegram, some of you prefer this or that… we are few and you are many. And we’d rather use the time to do the work that we have to do, rather than run around in circles for your messages.

The transition will be slow, but firm. Speaking of which…

FAQ page

The FAQ page right now only contains the really frequently asked questions. The ones that eat 50% or more of our overall time with communications.

In time we will add new questions that tend to be repeated. The objective is to decrease the amount of time spent with communications by at least 90% outside of the Donors’ Circle. While this may sound radical, it is simply a return to the 2019 policy but adapted for the current realities. In 2019 we’d prioritize messages differently but the outcome was quite similar to the objective pursued now.

2024 is already a very busy year. We know we won’t have time for communications. So the next best thing is to equip y’all with the tools to no longer need that much communication. Of course, we mean electronic communication, not in person coffee ☕ . That remains as holy as it has always been.

New wishlist

The old wishlist was, at least in spirit, fulfilled. Also, some of its elements were already pasée. So we came up with a new one – that addresses the production needs in accordance with the current inventory. Please review it and see if you can help.

As always, any funding that doesn’t have an immediate or attached purpose goes towards the inventory, including the Wishlist.

Miscellaneous

Over time we will expand the use of and access to the ticketing system even more – in accordance to our general philosophy of controlling our own data and relying as little as possible on third-party corporations.

Generally, we will continue to strive to avoid contributing cluttering crisis. More than 70% of the people have at least three online accounts that they don’t even remember creating and at least five more that they can no longer access but can’t delete either. Managing online accounts is tedious business and is a drain on people’s mental health. As a result, we will try our best to accommodate those who don’t want more online accounts. This is one of the reason our paywalls are more permissive and have so many side-options.

Of course, this is also because we despise GDPR with a passion and because managing people’s private data is a headache in itself even without the burdensome regulation by the EU.

Speaking of paywalls, we are currently toying with an option to add paywalls to some articles. It is still unclear whether it’s worth the effort. But, should we decide to introduce it, the implementation will resemble the podcast paywall: as wide and as many options as possible and no requirement of signing up with yet another account with this website.

In previous years, we’d dedicate the first three weeks of January for tinkering with the tech and with the procedures. But, this year is busy. So this concludes the bulk of the yearly evaluation. All other minor changes will be announced on Services if need be.

And with that, we’ll get back to the regular work.

The time has come for the South-East Asia Communism Tour. In fact, when you’re reading this I’m already in a train somewhere between in Hungary trying to reach Budapest. Since I devised the plan for this, MÁV Start decided to become worse. But that won’t be enough to change the plans fundamentally.

Every time I do these trips, there’s trade-offs associated. Should I spend limited time editing and attempting to upload videos on the fly or is it better to hoard as much footage as humanly possible and then slowly deliver them upon return? There are arguments in favor of both practices and usually some balance between them is preferable.

This time around, however, the choice has been made for me: The Internet connection in both countries is far from ideal, the roaming fees are straight-up criminal and the local networks aren’t to be trusted with sensitive data, due to the proximity to the CCP. As such, we’ll go with the auto-pilot option for the channel and minimal communications.

Tomorrow, the first episode from the new season of Beciul Propagandei comes up. The first three episodes (as well as episodes 15 and 16) of the new season are in English. After that, comes a new episode from the Central Asia Featured Series which, unfortunately, couldn’t get to finish in the original timeline. One of the reasons is explained exactly in that episode. Though, again, slower release is not tragedy.

Similarly, on the Romanian channel I have scheduled content for publication. This Sunday the podcast slot will be replaced by a video on a political scandal that adds new information that the press forgot to mention, and then, in due order, episodes 4, 5 and 6 from Beciul Propagandei will be coming weekly every Thursday.

Ways of contact

Nearly all of the senior staff is busy in the next 70 days or so, therefore contact will be limited. Certainly no Telegram (I mean, you can try, but no answer will be default).

Even so, I have dedicated a ticket for periodical internal announcements and emergency comms. If my direct attention will be required and can’t be postponed, the internal IRC server is also an option.

Anything that can wait, should be forwarded via e-mail or the Contact page.

So, with that, hopefully, see y’all in a month.

Let’s explore!

During the 207th episode of the Romanian-language podcast, right after switching to paywall-only content, I have announced the death of the “background” camera. It is the same background camera we used during the World Sofa Report series and the first episodes of Occasional Podcast. It’s also the same camera with which I did the 2016 Ukrainian tour and the 2017 Sweden tour. It also accompanied me in 2018 during the Albania and Israel-Jordan tours as secondary camera, before retiring it to studio-only.

Since then, it served as front-camera for nearly all of the Sofa videos from 2018 till 2023.

In short: This camera worked a lot. And its impending demise is, in a way, an emotional moment.

Background

I bought it from the first large donation in January 2016 (7 months after the début of the English language channel) and it replaced the webcams used in the early days.

I said in the podcast that it cost $1000. To be more precise, it was $860 but once adding the first semi-pro tripod, backup batteries and other accessories, the final cost was indeed around $1000 – a big price for today’s standard some would say, but just slightly above average for those times and also in line with my practice since 2003 when I started working with video: Buy more expensive and more durable because you’re too poor to afford cheap stuff.

In principle, this camera lived its days. Even today this model is quoted by Sony RO for 1400 lei (~$300), even though it’s a camera launched in 2015 and considered rather pasée for the current year. The reason is simple: It’s a resilient device, built not to impress, but to last.

In the time that passed since the videotaping, I took a closer look at it. The defects are multiple and systemic: mechanical (the card reader and the mechanism that moves the lenses), software-related (I already edited its software three times in order prolong its life; I’ll try it for the 4th time but I’m not optimistic), and processor-wise (even when the software and the mechanics don’t fail, the electronic command is delayed causing the whole ensemble to freeze and only hard reset unfreezes it).

With this in mind, now that I know its new(er) defects, I am confident that I can suck more life from it for another podcast (next week) and maybe another 2-3 podcasts just enough to wrap up 2023.

Either way, given that I am soon leaving to Asia for the Killing Fields Tour, there’s not enough time to find a physical store to replace it and it’s risky to order one because any “minor” delay means I’m not getting it in time and get myself into further troubles (getting refunds or paying extra for storage for a month until I come back, yadda, yadda, yadda).

Solutions at hand

Solution #1: the fastest solution is to do nothing and then buy one of the same class but cheaper upon return (cost: about $200)

Solution #2: Try to find one of the exact same model and get to status quo ante as soon as possible (cost: about $350, realistically)

Solution #3: Turn January 2024 in a new jump in quality and technology on the Sofa

Basically, what I have in mind is a Sony Handycam FDR-AX53 BOSS or something similar.

The FDR class has things that I’m missing now such as:

• proper night-mode (excellent for protests, campaign events, etc.)
• camera with microphone port (meaning to be able to plug the mic/lavallier straight into the camera and start filming – this would also reduce editing time for street videos/interviews; not to mention the preparation time at least for some of the videos)
• headphones ability – this would lead to reducing loss of sound and other impurities you and I sometimes had to bear with to zero. If I’m able to detect problems while I’m videotaping, I can fix them on the spot and prevent disappointments from occurring in the first place, let alone them making their way into the final cut.

Solution #3 would not fix all of the problems that plague the video workflow, but it will solve some of them (especially some of the very visible ones, given that the 2024 elections in Romania will probably make international news and we’ll need to provide quality coverage).

Besides, this exact camera has been on the Wishlist for 4 years and, in fact, it has gotten more expensive (almost 50% more expensive today than 4 years ago even though inflation wasn’t that high).

Realistic cost: $900 (+/- $40 depending on how lucky I will be at the moment when I place the order)

While it is, in the end, up to me, I am putting this message here, instead of the internal system because I want to collect slightly wider feedback than just the Donors’ Circle. At its extreme, I could simply drain the whole emergency budget and top it off from my pocket and just get over it.

But it is not an emergency, although I will want this issue settled by the end of January 2024 and, if it’s not obvious, I do prefer the 3rd solution, because it’s been almost 4 years since we haven’t implemented a visible change.

This is not a proposed change to bring more bling (as it was made clear to me by y’all that you don’t insist on 4K@60fps videos) – but a change to streamline the processes behind the scenes and open up new opportunities for coverage in the year(s) to come.

So with that, I submit to you this proposal. And yes, please do consider contributing if you like the idea.

In 2016 we went to Ukraine. In 2017 we went to Georgia and Armenia. In 2018 to Jordan and Israel. In 2019 to Zimbabwe, in 2021 to Moldova and in 2022 to Central Asia. All have in common a recent history of having been influenced (or outright conquered) by the Soviet Union. Additionally, over the years, we also went to Albania (2018), Germany (2019), Sweden (2020) and Bulgaria (2021) without making a fundraiser for it – but those places were also chosen for their totalitarian recent past.

So in keeping with this tradition of gathering knowledge and wisdom and then delivering it to you as stories, we submit to y’all the proposal for a South East Asia Tour dubbed as either ”The Khmer Empire Tour of 2023” in order to avoid algorithmic suppression on social media or, more honestly, the ”Killing Fields Tour 2023” since what we’ll really study is the brutal totalitarian past of Cambodia and Laos.

The video above goes a bit into the itinerary and the minimum things to expect from this tour.

This article is focused on the financial details. Not all expenses are thoroughly detailed – only those funded through the fundraiser.

So, without further ado…

For consistency, all expenses are converted in USD at the median exchange rate for the period between February 1 and February 15, 2023. This is also because all donations are converted to USD as it’s the working currency for almost all operations of this Network.

In places where there is price variation (e.g. flights and trains within Cambodia and Laos) – the maximal option is listed. The rest of the list represents the median/most likely costs.

1. Cluj Napoca – Viena (round trip)

Train: $100
Housing in Vienna: $70 [2 nights]
Food in Vienna: $50

2. Vienna – Phnom Penh

Flight: $1000 (round trip, all fares included)

3. Visa costs

$30 per entry. $90 in total, since one will have to enter Cambodia twice.

4. Housing and transport in Asia

~$20/night on average, no more than 30 nights, no less than 26 nights [to be decided depending on flight availability if the first goal is reached in time]

As such, budget for housing: $600
Phnom Penh – Vientiane – $350 (return flight)
Phnom Penh – Siem Reap train – $40 (return ticket)
Vientiane – Luang Prabang train – $60 (return ticket)

5. Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Video fees: $50
Books: $50
Food: $100
Coffee: $50
Transport within the city: $40

6. Siem Reap, Cambodia

Video fees: $50
Food: $70
Coffee: $30

7. Vientiane, Laos

Video fees: $20
Food: $70
Coffee: $20
Transport within the city: $30

8. Luang Prabang, Laos

Transport around the city: $40
Food: $50
Coffee: $15

9. Other

Health insurance: $45
Equipment insurance: $30
On-the-fly consumables (batteries, memory cards, etc): $80
Exchange rate fees: $100 (maximum)
Unexpected expenses: $450 (minimum)

Total: $3,750

This number represents the optimal in order for the tour to take place. The total cost may be higher, but not by much. The upper threshold will be placed at $4000.

Any excess will be redirected towards fulfilling the wishlist or towards funding another project in 2024.

Minimums and deadlines

The tour is due to take place sometime between in the month November and December and it will last no more than 35 days [including the 4 days needed to get from Cluj Napoca to Phnom Penh and back]. This means that plane tickets should be purchased no later than July 1, 2022. Update: All good ✅

As such, if the fundraiser doesn’t reach to at least $1500 by May 25, 2022, the tour is cancelled and all collected funds redirected to other projects.

If the fundraiser doesn’t reach at least $2000 by June 25, 2022, the tour is cancelled and all collected funds redirected to other projects. Of course, if it will be $1890 on June 25, it will be fine. But too much leeway downwards will lead to cancellation – because by June 25, The expensive flights must be paid for already. Update: All good. The plan proceeds as promised.

Anything beyond $4000, as well as any remaining shekel after the tour, will be redirected towards other projects or to fulfilling the wishlist.

The state of the fundraiser will be updated regularly on the main page of the website and semi-regularly on the Youtube channels.

If this convinces you, head over to the Donate page and pitch in. Every dollar counts!

Following the announcement earlier this month and the subsequent consultation, we continued to implement new changes in the way things are done around here, all with a view to make the workflow easier as our teams grow and the backlog of things to do also grows.

Resources page

Following both practical necessity and strategic demand for increased transparency (to make delegation easier and also to simply keep track on things) we made a few changes around here.

For starters, we added the Resources page which documents the resources available for the public much better and also chronicles the resources developing for the benefit of those who choose to join the Donors’ Circle.

With this occasion we also cleaned up the site’s menu and removed some legacy pages whose relevance was deprecated.

Expanding the News Feed team

The News Feed that we’ve been maintaining on Telegram for over four years now has attracted a more diverse audience than we expected.

Initially, the Feed was made more or less for internal use so we can keep track on what’s going on and maybe pick up links to then use in podcasts/videos. However, it turns out there was a need for a curated news feed for others as well, attracting quite a bit of praise, including from people who generally disagree with us.

While we appreciate the positive feedback, the fact remains that the Feed was largely run by a team of four,… more or less. We are already underway to changing that by expanding the team and also opening up applications for new members.

As such, we published the first version of the guidelines for the Feed, making a step we stayed clear from for years: towards quasi-institutionalization.

We’re hoping to improve the quality of the news feed during 2023 and increase the status of the Feed as a reference point for relevance on politics.

Other less visible technical changes

In the background, we started managing our activities (or at least trying 😅) through a ticketing system that we’ve also made transparent (for the most part) to our donors. The same system will now be used for some internal communications.

The system is not (yet?) ready for public consumption and we’re still unsure on whether such a resource should be public to begin with. The risk of spam is much higher than the potential benefits.

The idea is to remove critical dependency from services we don’t control and we have limited trust in (e.g. Telegram). Social media (including Discord, Telegram, etc.) is great for growth and some coordination, but far from great when it comes to non-public conversations or, even worse, hinging a group’s very existence on one of them. Many good projects died as a result of their group being wiped out from social media.

While we are under no danger of that happening to us anytime soon, it is better to be prepared in advance. Besides, it simply is good practice to own your internal affairs, rather than outsource them on an opaque third party that doesn’t have your best interests in mind.

Also, we moved both torrent folders (for public and DC) on the same server.

Speaking of torrent, we’re still testing webapps for that. If we end up implementing one of them, it will not be announced on the website.

Still no consensus over the forum so the issue will thus be kicked down the road again.

As January draws to an end, so does the talk about change.

That’s it. Time to work more.

Every year between December 20 and January 15-ish we change some things around. Some changes are recurrent (such as the Christmas hat on our logo in the videos), some changes are not visible (like the behind-the-scenes clean-ups and upkeep) and some changes are on the policy level and on the way we do things. It is this latter category that this short note is about.

Censorship-resistant

To be fair, over the last 8 years, we had minimal troubles on this front – with the exception of Faceberg. Fortunately, Faceberg’s importance in the milieus we’re interested in has been steadily declining for 4 years in a row now so, overall, there was no serious issue. In fact, our effective reach increased after our already-throttled Faceberg page was finally shitcanned.

With that said, one of the reasons we didn’t have big issues is because we stayed ahead (or sometimes behind) the curve by implementing measures meant to absorb potential blows without compromising on what we need to say. Measures such as:

• Moving to Telegram in 2017 (the rest of the world learned either in 2020 or in 2022 that moving to Telegram is a good idea).
• Implementing our own IRC server for quick discrete chats in 2015
• Big shoutout to the Discord moderation team who’ve been running our Discord server diligently and cleanly since 2018, entering in the 5th year without any major incident and keeping a much-needed balance between shitposting and serious chats
• Getting a discrete (but consistent) presence on alt-tech [Gab, MeWe, Bitchute, Odysee]
• Opening up this website in 2018 [using partners with a proven trackrecord of standing firmly for freedom of expression in the face of great adversity]
• Acquiring a parallel physical infrastructure for backups-of-backups to make sure that if we are taken down, we’d be back within 72 hours
• Implementing an internal sharing procedure and the Donors’ Circle in 2020

All of these (and others less visible) have made it very difficult to effectively censor us.

Going forward (with the approval of the Donors’ Circle) we are taking another two steps in the direction of both resilience and censorship-resistant infrastructure. As the Internet (re)Balkanizes, the opportunities present themselves.

As of this year, all of our public files and some of the internal ones shall be distributed using the BitTorrent protocol. This may seem like a step backward technologically (and it may indeed be) but the fact remains that distributing 7+GB files in an efficient manner and cross-platform compatible cannot be done more effectively and cheaper than the torrent protocol.

Sometime in the next 18 months (subjected to the Donors’ Circle opinion and technological constraints) we will try our luck with a semi-open forum. Open in the same way our Discord server is open, but also with reserved sections. The experience with the Discord server is encouraging enough to consider such an option – even though there are multiple reservations and concerns (not least in relation to privacy).

A heterodox approach to tech is the way forward and, just like we were right to switch to Telegram years before everyone else, we will very likely be proven right to set up the infrastructure for the rebalkanization of the Internet before it fully happens (mentally, it already happened).

Financially stable

The Network is not meant to turn a profit but activities costs money. And 2022 was a surprisingly good year in this department. So good that we still have a hard time believing it. In 2021 it could’ve been “blamed” on the exceptionally low-expense year of 2020. But last year exceeded the optimistic expectations. For the first time, there were no significant financial concerns.

We intend to work harder in 2023 to build upon this status quo. This will likely involve some legal changes too, though a lot of factors are beyond our control so no ironclad promises can be made in public. Suffice to say though that with a bit of luck, by 2025 we might be looking back at January 2023 as “late dark ages” in terms of the Network’s abilities to sustain itself financially.

Delegation

Throughout 2022 we managed to delegate more and more tasks and activities away from the core without any noticeable difference in quality. We are very proud for that achievement and for the work done by those who were willing to take on the tasks.

Regardless of financial results in the near future, we intend to delegate even more in order to both increase the output from the core (by freeing up time now still spent on activities that can be delegated) and also to strengthen the Freedom Alternative community. More people than we imagined 6 years ago ended up coming for the videos and staying for the community. And we want to reward that.

The decision-making process is intentionally slow, in accordance with our general philosophy and because oftentimes no policy may indeed be better than a rushed/spontaneous/spur-of-the-moment policy or action. That’s why we roll out new things slowly – much to the annoyance of some.

We know we can’t please everyone and we’re okay with that. We also know that we’re all inherently flawed so the best that can be done is to strive to do better whilst keeping in mind that perfect is the enemy of good.

To all those who’ve been with us through various parts of this magnificent journey, we humbly thank you and we hope you stay with us for new heights.

Let’s explore!

In 2016 we went to Ukraine. In 2017 we went to Georgia and Armenia. In 2018 to Jordan and Israel. And in 2019 to Zimbabwe. All have in common a recent history of having been influenced (or outright conquered) by the Soviet Union.

This tour should have taken place in 2020 but then the Wuhan Flu hit and both the donors and the public voted for a trip to Sweden instead after being presented the arguments. So that’s how the Coronachan 2020 Sweden Tour happened.

Throughout 2021, Kazakhstan has kept several objectives on the list closed and the last one opened in January 2022. With that said, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have essentially dropped the panic by August 2020 and have been operating as normal ever since.

In the meantime, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have been through profound transformations, as a result of popular uprising and other tectonic shifts in their societies – which makes them even more interesting politically today, than in 2020.

So in keeping with this tradition of gathering knowledge and wisdom and then delivering it to you as stories, we submit to y’all the proposal for a Central Asia Tour. The video above (made in 2019) goes into the details about the itinerary and the minimum things we expect to get from the tour. The only thing changed in the plan is the route. There is no direct flight from Hungary to Kazakhstan anymore so I’ll go via Istanbul.

This article is focused on the financial details. Not all expenses are thoroughly detailed – only those funded through the fundraiser. I have updated the prices to account for inflation and other changes that can be documented.

The biggest changes are in transport (fuel prices going up and inflation), in visa costs (now all down to $0) and unexpected expences (pandemic BS, basically – PCR tests etc., which in that area of the world are simply bribes).

Also, to please the donors who voted for this tour in 2020, I have decided to start the fundraising from the amount proportionate to those who voted in that direction back then.

So, without further ado…

For consistency, all expenses are converted in USD at the median exchange rate for the period between March 15 and March 21, 2022. This is also because all donations are converted to USD as it’s the working currency for almost all operations of this Network.

In places where there is price variation (e.g. trains in Central Asia) – the maximal option is listed. The list represents the minimum costs.

1. Cluj Napoca – Budapest (round trip)

Train: $40

Housing: $70

Food: $30

2. Budapest – Nur Sultan

Flight: $515 (round trip, all fares included)

Visa cost Kazakhstan: $0

3. Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan

Housing: $70

Food: $50

Transport in the city: $15

4. Karaganda, Kazakhstan

Nur Sultan – Karaganda Train: $30

Housing: $75

Transport around the area: $65

Museum and other fees: $10

Food: $40

Books and newspapers: $50

5. Almaty, Kazakhstan

Karaganda – Almaty train: $30

Ancient cities tour: $60

Big Lake tour: $35

Housing: $60

Food: $30

6. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Almaty-Bishkek transport: $100 (round-trip)

Kyrgyzstan visa: $0

Ala-Archa national park: $15

Books and newspapers: $50 (minimum)

Museum and other fees: $20

Food: $30

Housing: $70

7. Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan visa: $0

Transport Almaty-Tashkent: $75

Museums and other fees: $20

Housing: $60

Food: $40

8. Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Train from Tashkent to Samarkand: $30

Museums and other fees: $20

Housing: $80

Food: $40

Books: $30

9. Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Samarkand – Bukhara train: $30

Museum fees: $10

Housing: $80

10. Other

Trains from Samarkand to Nur-Sultan: $120

Health insurance: $40

Equipment insurance: $30

On-the-fly consumables (batteries, memory cards, etc): $80

Exchange rate fees: $100 (maximum)

Unexpected expenses: $450 (minimum)

Total: $2,895

This number represents the absolute minimum in order for the tour to take place. The total cost will be somewhere in the vicinity of $4500 which will serve as the maximal threshold for this fundraiser.

Given past experience, even in worst case scenarios, the cost goes somewhere between the two extremes. Any excess will be redirected towards fulfilling the wishlist or towards funding another project in 2022 (possibly the Independence March in Poland in November).

Minimums and deadlines

The tour is due to take place sometime between in the month of August and it will last 25 days. This means that plane tickets should be purchased no later than May 15, 2022. Update: This has happened. ✅

As such, if the fundraiser doesn’t reach to at least $1500 by May 10, 2022, the tour is cancelled and all collected funds redirected to other projects.

If the fundraiser doesn’t reach at least $2900 by July 15, 2022, the tour is cancelled and all collected funds redirected to other projects. Of course, if it will be $2790 on July 15, it will be fine. But too much leeway downwards will lead to cancellation – because by July 20, most of the housing should be booked and paid for already.

Anything beyond $4000, as well as any remaining shekel after the tour, will be redirected towards other projects or to fulfilling the wishlist.

The state of the fundraiser will be updated regularly on the main page of the website and semi-regularly on the Youtube channels.

If this convinces you, head over to the Donate page and pitch in. Every dollar counts!

So far we have raised $[Value missing on settings page] towards our $[Value missing on settings page] goal! That’s unknown% of the total!

Bulgaria will hold presidential elections AND Parliamentary elections on November 14, 2021. The presidential election is due (the incumbent’s term expires and he is up for reelection).

However, it is the third time in 2021 that Bulgaria holds a general/parliamentary election. That’s extraordinary even by Europe’s standards – where fragmented Parliaments, minority governments, votes of no confidence, government resignations and snap elections are very common. And are getting increasingly common.

In June, for instance, for the first time ever, a vote of no confidence passed through the Swedish Parliament. In October, the chancellor of Austria resigned (after having been ousted through a vote of no confidence before – in May 2019). Also in October the government of Romania collapsed through a vote of no confidence and Romania is heading (insh’Allah) slowly towards snap elections.

The point being that this kind of instability is growing in more countries of Europe – and Bulgaria is just at the forefront (further down the curve than the rest of Europe).

As such, we want to go there and observe just a bit. And also gather some information from the field in the energy sector (hopefully with some on-camera discussions too) – as Bulgaria is likely to be the worst affected state by the ‘green’ policies of the Европейски съюз.

It will be a quick(er) trip than the Moldova one since we only intend to cover two cities (Sofia and Plovdiv) and the Maritsa Iztok Complex (the largest one in Southeastern Europe – and the sticking point of the growing anti-EU sentiment). If time will allow, we’ll also take a quick trip to the Bulgarian UFO. But no guarantee on that.

While we’re there, we’ll also be able to tell how Bulgaria really deals with the Wuhan Virus – since the country has been in the international news lately since their people refuse the miraculous serum that makes you immortal more than anyone else in the Европейски съюз.

We shall travel by car. Here are the expenses.

Nr. crt.	Element	Amount	Obs.
	TOTAL	$715
1	Housing	$115	In Sofia for 6 nights.
2	Fuel	$250	About 1800km round trip Cluj-Napoca - Sofia plus Sofia-Plovdiv-Mritsa Iztok plus road taxes
3	Food	$150
4	Coffee	$50
5	Supplies and Misc.	$50	Batteries, cables, memory cards, exchange rate fees, communications, etc.
6	Emergency funds	$100	Medicine, unpredictable expenses, accidents, etc.

So far we have raised $[Value missing on settings page] towards our $[Value missing on settings page] target! That’s unknown% of the total!

Since the response has been positive to the idea of having both Romanian and English-language coverage of the Romanian elections, at the request of the regular donors, here’s some financial and logistical details.

We will be traveling entirely by car. So that’s 1200km (Cluj-Chișinău-Cluj) just to get there. And another (at least) 500km inside the country. A very generous donor has offered to cover the trip part entirely in exchange to access to knowledge. While we are very grateful for that, we hope we can offset some of that burden.

Cost of living in Moldova is not wildly different from the one in Romania and the costs presented here are for 15 days for two people.

The currency in Moldova is the Moldovan Leu (international symbol: MDL). All expenses are expressed in USD at a rate of $1 = 18 MDL and $1 = 4,1 RON.

Nr. crt.	Item	Cost per day or per person	Total
		TOTAL:	1660
1	Housing	-	310
2	Fuel	-	250
3	Food, coffee, et. al.	$25/day/person	750
4	Consumables (batteries, SIM-cards)	-	30
5	Health expenses (compliance with cough19 bs, health insurance, etc.)	35/person	70
6	Emergency fund (in case compost hits the ventilator)	-	250

These represent the maximum values. For instance, if we’re lucky, health expenses and emergency expenses could be zero. But, if we’re unlucky, health expenses could be twice or thrice of the shown amount (hence the need for an emergency fund).

It is quite impossible to spend more than $1700 in two people in 15 days, but it is also unlikely that we can get away with less than $1200 considering the unavoidable expenses.