Ask Dubauets. What can be done for Belarusians in Belarus, why does Lukashenka have a second nuclear power plant and how to explain mass support for Hamas

2023-11-04 09:00:00

– The study of the Belarusian language was canceled at Kyiv University. Who is it for?

– This is a wrong decision. The Belarusian language is as much a weapon against Russian imperialism as the Ukrainian language. Our totalitarian regime is 100% Russian-speaking. And the decision of the Kyiv University directly coincides with the closing of Lithuanian and Polish schools in Belarus and their translation into Russian, with many facts of persecution for the Belarusian language. Apparently, Kiev does not know about this and, wanting to symbolically punish Lukashenka, on the contrary, they played along with him in his anti-Belarusian policy.

– There must have been some reason to shoot Belarusian poets and academics in 1937?

– Reason is eternal, like the world, and primitive, like an arrow. Poets and academics are generally free people. And the slaves who seized power hate freedom and white people more than anything in the world. From the same reason, even today we have thousands of police prisoners, hundreds of thousands expelled from the country. And just as today the truth about political prisoners is hidden in prisons, so back then they wrote “died” in encyclopedias about those who were shot. Slavery is always based on lies. When free people come to power, they do not shoot anyone and do not hide the truth.

– There is a lot of debate about whether Belarusians should watch the Russian blogger Dudz. And what do you think?

– The question is no longer about who to watch, but who is watching, in which media and mental field he lives. It’s hard for me to imagine Lithuanians, Poles, or Czechs discussing Russian bloggers en masse. It’s just not interesting, a different texture, nuances, tonality… For example, if Dudz presents his interlocutors in such a way that “everyone’s stupidity is visible”, then in the Belarusian context and for a Belarusian blogger, such a task cannot be done. It’s not interesting. Only regime propaganda works like that in our country, but all of it is a continuation of the Russian media and mental field.

– How to explain the mass support of Hamas, especially in the West?

– The reason is profound and at the same time typical. The point is that the other side of the medal of freedom is shared responsibility with no one, first of all for yourself. And responsibility is always effort, daily work. This is the essence of democracy. To live with dignity, one cannot be a dependent and an infantile. Authoritarianism or tyranny, on the contrary, does not give freedom, but does not require responsibility either. That’s why people who fled authoritarian or tyrannical states to the West often get tired of this work and go on the most destructive protests. But back, to authoritarianism, they never return.

– What can be done today for Belarusians in Belarus itself?

– Speak Belarusian at home, as well as outside the home, if you feel that your language will not cause aggression. Buy Belarusian books and other products in Belarusian. Give preference to goods and services that are designed in Belarusian. The most thorough, but also costly mission is to revise the inscriptions on the monuments of your deceased relatives and, if they are in Russian, rewrite them in Belarusian. No matter how strange it is, today it is precisely the monuments that best testify about us as a separate people, or about the fact that such a people does not exist.

– Why does Lukashenka need another nuclear power plant?

– A colleague aptly compared the NPP and BNR. They say, the Belarusian Belarusians have the BNR – the nation’s greatest energy shift towards its statehood. For the “also Russian” Lukashenka, BNR is foreign and incomprehensible, moreover, he found himself in the place of the leader and is looking for something to oppose it. It did not work with the BSSR, because it is a cardboard state. And since he recognizes only physical strength, he took up the nuclear power plant in his hands. But he failed again, confused soft with green. And the BNR lives, and the nuclear power plant does not defeat it. And there are no other ideas, so let’s build a second (or even a third) nuclear power plant. Instead of the still-unfound national idea.

– Do Belarusians really feel related to Russians?

– This is a purely propaganda formula that has nothing to do with real relations. The destinies, ideas about themselves and orientations in the world are too different for the two peoples. Belarusians stand facing Russia, because otherwise it is dangerous, but their heads are turned to the West… For example, we have many popular second-hand shops throughout the country, where clothes from Europe, from Germany, from Italy are advertised… But I have never met a used clothing store from Russia and I can’t imagine it. Like those who would go to such a store.

The opinions expressed in the author’s columns represent the views of the authors and do not reflect the position of the editors.

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