Raman Jakauleuski

When the leader of neighboring Belarus appeared in September in Vilnius and met the president of Lithuania, it became, after all, an event and a sensation of local significance. After awhile, in different mass media the speculations appeared that Warsaw might become the next objective for the Belarusian ruler. How the current relations between Belarus and Poland and their real prospects may contribute to Lukashenka’s appearance in Poland and the continuation of the dialogue between Belarus and the European Union?

Frants Charnyshevich

A national opinion poll conducted in September by the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS) attested rather an unexpected fact: the number of partisans of the European integration surpassed the number of enthusiasts of the incorporation into Russia. The ratio between the latter and the former is 44% to 32%. Belarusian sociologists and journalists started at once looking for possible versions of these changes in the geopolitical consciousness but, thank God, refrained from deep-routed conclusions and long-term predictions, noting correctly that it would be better to wait at least till winter.

Paviel Usau

One can ponder over and debate at length the reasons for stability of the non-democratic regime in Belarus. However, the main source of its strength and negative energy is the Belarusian society itself, or rather, the absence of such phenomenon as the Belarusian society. Any dictatorial regime, even the bloodiest one, is built not on the public support, but on the destruction of those social links which, out of individuals, form the society and its ability to stand against the dictatorship. How often we hear about the mass support for a leader, a chief, or a president, but we almost never hear about the mass support for an individual who we are not aware of and who is persecuted by the State for his political position. And the individual is helpless in front of the State without support from others, and nothing is able to save him or her from the State.

Khviedar Skrajnovich

The European soccer championship is being prepared inch by inch in offices of an impressive skyscraper not far away from the Warszawa-Centralna train station. The big surfaces and the number of their inhabitants (a bit over twenty) allow modeling not only organizational matters but some meetings in the framework of the future competition as well.
I will remind that in 2012 the sports feast with the biggest fan audience in Europe will take place in two countries: Poland and Ukraine.

Dennis O’Harlem

It is safe to say that all post-Soviet space is incredibly tired of its isolation from the outer world, whose primary (in not the only) cause is the visa barrier between the CIS countries and the overwhelming majority of other countries. The need to obtain permission to enter the foreign territory is humiliating in itself, whoever would say whatever about the economic and political need in visas. Together with the need to get a visa a headache comes because of the lottery “will they give or will they not” and the necessity to compile a variety of relevant papers.

Lina Novik

I couldn’t help laughing, when I heard about “the perspectives of Belarusian tourism” before. I thought reasonably that no one would come to us, as, on the one hand, Belarus couldn’t boast of having a sea or mountains and on the other hand having such competitive neighbours as Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine, Belarus had no chances to win the market at all. Initially, I was quite sceptical as for the development of the so-called agro-tourism in Belarus as well. However, some smart people explained me one day that the Belarusians also had a need to relax at least once in a while.

Juras Kalasouski

Situated between the East and the West, the North and the South, for centuries long Belarus was at the junction of cultures and creeds, in unique conditions of multinational contacts at the crossroads of the Eastern and Western civilizations. And today’s realities confirm it: after more than ten years of the isolation policy Europe invites Belarus to work together, seeking to pull it out of Russia’s sphere of influence.

Frants Charnyshevich

The historical experience of a nation is an interesting thing. It is impossible to build the national identity and to comprehend your place and purpose in space and time without it. At the same time this experience may become a source of many phobias which can significantly limit nation’s opportunities for further development. Belarusians are not an exception to the rule in this case.

Jury Drakakhrust

What Were Poles Afraid of before Joining It and What Happened?

There was a big fear that the opening of the market and the abolishment of the customs border would lead the Polish agriculture to a disaster, the country would be inundated with cheap Western European products, Germans would buy up the land and there would be the end of the Polish farming. And these apprehensions had a distinctively political dimension. One of the leaders of the Peasants’ Party Jarosław Kamiński told us how much his party lost at that time when it defended the accession to the European Union going against the general attitude of its electorate.

Paviel Bielavus

What is soccer? It is a strange question, and funny enough, funs and lovers of this game in different countries will have different answers to it. For Belarusians lately the word “soccer” is used mostly alongside with the word BATE and hopes that our national team is about to win the Ukrainians first and the Croats later and get into at least some championship, but these are still dreams.