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:

Belarusian realities

There is one thing I can not anderstand, in this country there are so many educated and interligent people, but it is still a dictatorship. Why?

Kazulin, the ex-candidate for the president post in 2006, the one who was sentenced to stay in jail for 5.5 years term, has just burried his wife. He was allowed to join his family only for 3 days and now despite the international and national calls to the "president" he has to return to jail. Is there any justice? Is there any court? Who are the judges?


Photo by NN.BY photographer Julia Darashkevich.

Political prisoners

Meanwhile, some terrible things happen in Belarus. Two wellknown people died last weekend. One is the wife of Alaksand Kazulin (http://kozylin.com/), Kazulin was one of the candidates in the presidential elections 2006. Now he is imprisoned and not allowed to say good bye to his wife... It's really sad.

KP journalist was found dead in the forest, it's not clear what happened there. Few weeks ago there was another journalist found dead of the main "independent" info agency Belapan. For me, it's a bit weird. And of course it's really sad...

Lukashenka interview

Here is the "commercial" I was looking for. This interview was given by Lukashenka to Russian RIA Novosti and Russia Today. It's rather long (about 25 min), but I guess it's worth to see how propaganda works:) There you go:

The ghosts of the WWII

Some people say that the WWII is over, others use it the speeches and ideological rhetoric. Both are wrong. It's is over, but it's impact is not. It still causes many deep unconscious difficulties in communication between nations (read states) and withing the nations. I remember how much I was surprised when people in Germany told me that they still feel guilty for the WWII and Hitler. Well, they should be aware what happened but people of my generation have nothing to do with it, they should be free from this gilt as it is not helping, it is an extra obstacle on the way of the intercultural dialogue.

I've just read in the news that a Nazi criminal was extradited from Canada to Italy, 60 years later... And I feed sad, sad that in the first place he could escape and sad because it is not changing anything now. Now he is an old man, who lived his life and to imprison him is probably the right thing to do, but it's just weird.

I saw a monument to the Soviet soldier in Vienna today. Every time I see it I think of those people who though they would liberate Europe, but instead they imprisoned themselves in the Soviet era for the rest of their lives. It's sad, it was not for nothing, but it was for so little appreciation. Nowadays, politicians in the EU and esp. in the countries who were on the other side tend to blame the Soviet for occupation of Europe, but they don't take into consideration those solders, each of them, who being a little part of the Soviet system still were human beings. My God, when I think of the 20th century, I am less enthusiastic about politicians. People have to remember that the world and human life are fragile and have to be appreciated...

Boris Tadić - the president of Serbia

I've head a very wise idea today about the Serbian elections. One doesn't need any observers there since no side claims that the other side falcified the elections. And I have to agree with that. If everyone is happy, why outside observers would be needed. But then I have another question, how many people in Serbia are not happy about the outcome? and will Kosovo declare independence?
I was looking for Boris Tadić on YouTube and found this video:

eBay

Why do I love eBay? It makes my days and it realises my dreams:))) Well, it's fun also, here is the last "pearl" I've read: "PHILIPS mini keychain digital camera. I am not sure how it works or if it does so I sell it as is." LOL!

Top Model of the World

Hmm, I am surprised to find out that a Belarusian girl got a second place in Top Model of the World in Egipt. It's nice of course, just a certain point one starts to get used to it and to expect more from Belarusian girls :D Here are some photos of Alena Aladka:

All photos are taken from etoday.ru.

Few words about tombola

Tombola is a word I've leaned in Austria, as it is an integral part of any Viennese ball:) It's should be also a part of ours. So what is it? Basically, this is a lottery among the people who bought special tickets. And in order to make it fun and successful every ball committee has to prepare nice prices.

What can it be? whatever people would love to have, even small things but still nice ones. Yesterday we made our first effort to find some presents. The strategy was simple, we just went from store to store asking for things. Before this adventure local people told me that every third (!) shop would give us sth. I thougt, wow, it would be nice.

The first I thing 10 stores were not fun at all, with the exception of one where woman told us not just that she has nothing for us, but also that her 3 daughters need her money all the time... In fact, she was strange. Then we found finally one shop where we got stuff! hmmm, a mirrow, a small bag, some cosmetics... Well, guys, despite the fact what we didn't really do it well, I am still optimistic as always:) We got lots of phone numbers of bosses of different stores and even one guy was really nice and promised to help! So, wish us good luck and I hope it will be fun!

The old camera died, long live the new second-hand camera?

I was really sad last two days, as my camera, after I dropped it, is not workin any more. I took thousands of pics with it, it's almost part of me, but... I had to spend few hours on ebay looking for a new and I hope to get it soon. So, guys, keep you fingers crossed for me.

To see or not to see?

Sometimes I look around and I think that I am really lucky to live in these times. There are so many things which did not exist, lets say, 50 years ago! I am speaking about Internet here, but also about contact lenses for instance! However, from time to time I still prefer to wear glasses and it is not that easy to find nice ones and cheap at the same time. And here is my great discovery: www.ZenniOptical.com, they sell nice glasses for 8$ with a very low delivery fee in the US. I haven't known this brand ZENNI before, but who knows, maybe new technologies will bring them lots of customers and success?

This post is written thanks to ZENNI!

latest news

Well, it's a new year indeed. I have to say that the beginning was nice, so I hope the whole year will be too! I haven't been writing much as I had nice holidays:)

Actually, I have some good news, according to PPP my Google PageRank is 2 now! I am happy, it took me some two year to achieve this:)

Next good news, this month two of my friends got babies (actually there were even 4 babies over the last month), but this two are special as they were born on my birthday!

Well, I am back to my friends, my studies and my internship. And I have to start looking for a job, seriously! :)