A BBC report on Belarus, giving you an almost completely fantasised view of european politics but based in truth.
Belarus is indeed authoritarian and bizarrely clinging to soviet memories, the people are either struggling or very rich, freedom of speech is pretty much nonexistent, students are not encouraged to actually do anything, and if you don't know the right people then you better keep your mouth shut.
On the other hand, university in lithuania is very poorly funded, students are not always encouraged to criticise (mostly by oldskool exsoviet lecturers), they don't have books, and students live in crumbling dorms with fungus on the walls.
Unlike this "journalist" (apparently) I have been to Belarus a few times, filmed openly in the street without any trouble, they have unrestricted internet access, and the parties are really good (if you are rich). The only time we were at risk of being arrested was for making noise all night in a sleeper car, and quite right too.
If the BBC was a news organisation they might have mentioned some of this stuff, but basically there's a big incentive for western businesses to get in there and make money, so they call Belarus a dictatorship, show pictures of riot police, and that's that.
of course, there's no riot police or rigged elections in the West, are there?
18 Comments
rougyVery interesting. Thanks for the insight.
And you're right - Bush calls himself "The Decider" and he uses "executive privilege" as an excuse to cover his misdeeds.
Political protestors have been arrested illegally many, many times, only to be released later on. They've been shot at close range with rubber and wooden bullets, and bludgeoned without cause. They've been corralled in "free speech zones." They've had their organizations infiltrated by undercover agents working for the government, who often times proved to be agent provocateurs. All this happened in America under Bush’s rule.
I can't say I'd want to live in Belarus - but I will say I wish that America would stop looking so much like it.
legacy0100How did they become a country anyway? Haven't heard of them at all during medieval ages. Then BOOM! They appear out of nowhere! WHOA!!!
MINKbelarus was part of lithuania (or lithuania was part of belarus, depending on your bias haha don't start a flame war about that on youtube i warn you)
http://www.belarusguide.com/cities/castles/Belarusian_Knighthood.html
i also wouldn't choose belarus as a regime to live under, i just don't have such rose tinted spectacles about the european union as this journalist does. this clip looks like something out of the forties.
MINK"searched at the border" they say.
lol... as if i am not searched in vilnius airport.
there's serious problems in all countries, i just don't like the flavour of this clip.
rougy"Searched at the border." True.
From what I've heard, it's no picnic getting into the UK, either.
MINKHere's the joke:
My girl's passport is quite old, not british, and when she tried to get into the UK they stopped her, made a phonecall and said "your government does not recognise you", made her shit her pants for 15 minutes while i was not allowed to talk to her, then said "oh go on then, off you go!" and let her through. WTF?
On the way back out of the UK they make you give up all your liquids (including my beloved peanut butter) and pack everything into one item of hand luggage only, carry your beauty products in a transparent bag and queue for ages while all this happens. I expect it's stopped, oh, 0.000045 terrorist attacks?
And when I go through to Belarus the border guards are normally either coldly efficient or very friendly. Never seem to be on a power trip. Only the Lithuanian guards get cocky and give me hassle for having a heavy record bag or whatever. The most "authoritarian" thing that happened to me on the border was the lithuanian guards stopping our coach 5 minutes before lunch, lining us up to check our luggage, and then literally going to lunch and leaving us for 45 minutes.
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choggienow bump a dem MINK so he can get a dem gold....and let's all get to Belarus to party like it's 1984!!
MINKawwwwwww how nice.
choggieNice???!! You nust want yer ass kicked!!!!
MINKwas that an offer?
MINKomg i saw zifnab viewing this and not upvoting! denied! i could just go fix a dead but this is more fun to watch.
8275Some of the stuff coming out of BBC lately is rather disappointingfor lack of a better word. Belarus was much more open even a few years ago until all this talk of "last dictatorship" started to appear from EU and US. We've been though this before, pink, rose, orange revolutions of so called dictatorships and there’s no wonder the Belarus government is clamping down on NGOs and "rights groups". All Europe needs is another country with forced market capitalism to throw its population into egregious poverty.
MINKare you suggesting that most belarussians are not living in egregious poverty?
8275Well lets define poverty. There is no question that Belarus had been spared the plundering of its natural resource, the complete and utter collapse of its social and economic system to the extent that was seen in Russia and almost all other counties of the former USSR. So the overall standard of living has been maintained, where as it dropped 10 fold in other breakaway republics and hasn't recovered since for the most part. So poverty is rather relative!
MINK^ how would you know all that? do you live there? interesting.
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