Jab Club

Today I've started my day with music of my friends! Apparentlly, my friend Yauhen Valoshyn, who I knew was singing, has a new song which he recorded with his friends. The name of the band is Jab Club. You can listen to this song here. Photo from music.fromby.net.

Latest events

These days I am posting many videos, because videos say a lot, people talk to you directly with their messages. That's is why, today I will post a video of an activist of Austrian Student Union, which is going to protest against the participation of Mr. Shimov, the rector of Belarusian State Economic University, in the conference about Belarus, here in Vienna. The reason is simple, he was expelling students for political reasons, so he should not be surprised that he is not welcome by politically active Austrian students. There you go:

Video by Tatsiana Khoma for Generation.by.

There is one more event I want to blog about. My friend, a photographer of Nasha Niva, an independent newpaper, was arrested on March 25, 2008 during the demonstration on the Independence Day. It's another story. Here is his interview, today in the court, he spent one day in jail, yesterday he was released and another meeting in the court for today was scheduled. But today, it took only 1.5 min for the trial. His case is sent back to Police "for investigation", normaly he should have being released immediately. Andrei Liankevich (in Belarusian):

Video by NN.by.

March 25, 1918 - 90 years after

Today is the Day of Independence for many Belarusian, it's the 90th anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1918. That's why today, I will post the words by Ivonka Survilla, current president of The BNR Rada in exile. This statement was made in Prague, on March 22 at the conference "Past, Present and Future of the Belarusian Statehood":

"The proclamation of independence of the Belarusian Democratic Republic on March, 25 1918 is maybe the most important event in modern Belarusian history. Without the proclamation of independence the BSSR would not be allowed to exist and there would not be an independent republic of Belarus now. In fact, there would not be many Belarusians left after 90 years of russification. But despite the importance of BNR is also one of the well kept secrets of Europe, it has been particularly well-kept in Belarus, for obvious reasons. Even after 90 years the very mention of the BNR looks dangerous for the dictatorship in power. In exile, however, the BNR has kept idea of March 25, 1918 to this day. […]

This is why, it is so important to celebrate this day for every Belarusian in the world. I wish you all a beautiful celebration. "

And here comes her call to Belarusian young people (in Belarusian):

Video by Tatsiana Khoma for Generation.by

My heart sings with Danchyk!

I came back from Prague where I met many interesting people, amazing people, those who change the story of my Belarus;) Danchyk is one of them, he was singing for the first time after 12 years of no concerts... And here is video of "Moj rodny kut" by Danchyk:

Budget airlines

I am really disappointed with SkyEurope today, I got an email saying that 3 reservations I had for this summer have beed cancelled. They basically cancelled whole destination Vienna-Warsaw. I guess this is one more reasone to move away from Vienna, eh? Well, I have to say that an operator I talked to was really nice and promised to send me money back in two weeks time... But now I have a trouble to look for new solutions.

Rap music

I was never a fun of rap music, but I was told to have a look at this site. The site is primary and only about rap, you can see every (in my opinion) rap artist and the ranking of them. I was a bit confused in the beginning as Google ads are just under the navigation menue and it had "a link to mps" (I already thought: I would listen to some rap music), but it was just an ad. Well, site it interesting, I guess those who like rap will find there useful information and news. So, good luck to the site to develop as they are just in the beginning of their road.

P.S. This post is brought to you thanks to RapArtists.com.

Lord Bell and Belarus

Quote from Times:

"— Lord Bell, the PR guru, has been in Belarus looking at how it might improve its image. Not an easy task in a country where the President once said: “Not everything connected with Hitler was bad.” “I’ve just stepped off a plane,” says Bell, when we call to confirm. From Belarus? “From Geneva,” he quips. “That’s where I stashed the money.” "

Well, nothing else to add at the moment, there are just rumours.

Belarus at Eurovision 2008

Since the Eurovision Song Contest is approaching I will post here a clip by Ruslan Alehno, who represents Belarus this year. Hasta la vista!

Belarusian week in the EP

Here is a news block from today (in Belarusian), the EP part starts from 1.42:

Here "citizens of BieloRUSSIA belong to the european family" accroding to the EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering. My God, this guy should really know the name of the country he speaks about...
P.S. Today was a day of freedom in Internet...

Kiss by Chagall and Ko

A short cartoon about the KISS, using the motives of Chagall work.

Photography

I've came across some photos of a guy from my high school. He works in Paris and therefore I have chosen Paris photos to post here. His name is Sasha (Aliaksandr) Paskanoi. Check out his website: www.paskanoi.com.

French style?

Today I found out something new. Now I know what are French Beds! No jokes, I am serious. Before I had no clue and now I've seen so many of them online. I guess, the main idea is to have something romantic in the design. Beds in general, it a touchy issue for me, every time I see some nice and comfortable beds I thing about two things: First, one day I will have one; and second, I still do not have one. Yeah, I know, the eternal consumption trend, but not only this. It is so important to sleep well if we have to sleep 1/3 of our life. Ok, some people sleep less, but there are those who sleep even more! So no doubt, it is extremelly important and also romantic...

Meanwhile I am still browsing through that website. I've picked up one I like! (Dreams, dreams!) Right, it is nothing extraordinary, it big, white and very nice. The name is a bit odd for me though - french belgravia, does it actually mean something? I must be really bad in Western names;) Althoug, for such a bed I would need a huge room, definitely not the one I have now:D Well, again and again, one day...

P.S. This post is brought thanks to Time4Sleep.

Marriage stats

Continuing the topic of population growth. I've just read some statistics about marriages of Belarusian citizens to foreigners in 2007. The total number is 4588 marriages registered in Belarus. I guess there are others registered outside the country. It makes every 20th marriage, hmm, this sounds more impressive:D And then the ranking, Belarusian girls choose (every 20th one):

1. Russians - 1019
2. Ukrainians - 385
3. Other CIS countries - 386
I guess the main factors here were language (most of them can still speak Russian) and freedom of movement.
4. Germans - 133. For me it an interesting figure, I am not quite sure if it is a result of different agencies work, or just people to people contact.
5. Israeli - 65. My guess is that many immigrants from Belarus to Israel come back to marry:)
6. Polish - 44. Again, language is similar and country is close.
7. American (US) - 33.
8. Canadian - 17.
Well, number is not that big after all, but one more argument for the statement that borders do not matter.
9. Turkish - 15.
10. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania together brought 110 Baltic men to those marriages. Again, neighbours!

For Belarusian men stats are a bit different, less of them marry foreigners. There you go, countries where they wives come from:
1. Russia - 1020. Almost 0 balance in comparison with Russian men above.
2. Ukraine - 362.
3. Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) - 80.
So Belarusian men are less eager to go far away to search for future wives:)

I have to admit that the picture is quite interesting. I would be fun to see statistics next year.

Modern world of economics

I had an interesting seminar on migration today. We spoke about European trends, population aging and costs of it. We even discussed Slovakian case study, well a bit. But it is actually quite true that one of the problems of the aging is in social security. Every citizen of every state expects its government to provide certain level of social security including the period of your life when you can not do it yourself. Some systems are better, others are worse. For over a decade in my country there is a debate if an insurance can be substitute to pension. Some people opt for it, but again the problem is that you have to think about those things before it happens, so in case of aging - when you are still young.

In fact, it is amazing how important the whole insurance market became for most of us. From my birth my parents were worried about my insurance (even or especially in the old times!). Human beings are ready to pay every month a bit in order to ensure that in a trouble situation there is a way out. I think it was a brilliant idea to creat this market. Just look around: health insurance, house insurance, travel insurance, car insurance, courier insurance, commercial insurance after all. There is huge, just immense market. Every economist knows that demand is a driving force of any market economy, so it means that people need it. Why? It is easier, it helps, it brings money when you need it, it is secure and this is the only thing we have. As simple or complex as it is. After all, insurance have more advantages than disadvantages. There is no doubt that insurance is good as long as you can efford it:)

At the same time, I still find it a bit weird that most of the rational actions are driven by economic interest. Behind the politics are economic interests. All around, almost no exeptions. I know I have studied it in so many courses, but it still strikes.

P.S. This post is brought to you thanks to Autonetinsurance.

Defiance

A film with this title is currently in the postproduction and will be presented to the public at the end of 2008. Film director is Edward Zwick. Here is the description of the IMDB:

"Three Jewish brothers (Craig, Schreiber and Bell) escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger."

This movie was filmed in Lithuania (I bet they even did not try to do it in Belarus:)). And people in Belarusian blogs have already started discussion about this story. The contraversion of the story is so called MASSACRE IN NALIBOKI (May 8-9, 1943). The problem with all partisans is that the whole truth is somethere inbetween. Yes, some of them were heroic and brave, but there were also those who were cruel and hostile towards paisants. I googled this title and found a website with quite resonable explanation of the situation and desription of Bielski brothers as well. According to this source:

"On 8 May 1943, two months before the Nazis obliterated the town, the Soviet partisans massacred 128 gentile men of Naliboki in a surprise night attack. They were members of the local self-defense force. Many of them also participated in the Polish underground Home Army"

It does not link Bielski to this massacre though in this source, but speaks about other murders by them.

I don't want to take any side here. To find the truth, if there is any, is the task of historians. I just know that any idea, like the idea of this film, should be taken in a critical manner.
For now, I will just post a trailer here: