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I clearly remember one of the questions from the exam in the History of Belarus: The Period of the Developement of the Belarusian State and Its Characteristics. This question must have been crossed out from the exzam list nowadays, since our Belarusian authorieties are against everything that makes people think self-conciously and independently.
The first main feature of a nation is having a specific geographical territory. Our population should be aware of the fact that our country borders with Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. And everything within these borders belongs to ua, we should be proud of that. Nevertheless, our president has different opinion. He insists that we are one family with Russia, that the United State is all we
need. Intelligent people would agree that we need an economic Union and cooperation. As for the creation of the United State, these changes will result in an unnecessary stress for people, and the odds of losing our independence are huge, and it equals to losing our history, our language, to becoming just an addition to the Great Empire.
Language... What nation and State can exist without its own language? To me it sounds more like a rethorical question. Doesn't the Belarusian language deserve to be independent? Doesn't it deserve to be existent? American and Italian people and many other nations are learning the Belarusian Language with devotion; some of them do it out of respect to their beloved wives, others do it out of quriousity, and it doesn't seem difficult to them. But if we take Belarusian authorities into consideration, we'll hardly find anyone who speaks Belarusian. And the president of Belarus himself was seized by a
terrible intention to limit everything Belarusian: the State Lyceum was closed, the books in Belarusian Literature and History are being rewritten to suit him. But does he have a moral right to do this?
The existence of political parties and movements that have rights and are known to people - that is the third feature of a State, because their subsistence is the proof of the freedom of expression and self-concsiousness in the country. Every human-being is equal in his rights - that's the basis of the Constitution and international human rights. But when a human-being is unable to express his thoughts and ideas, when it's impossible to start a political party to stand by your rights, the era of pressure begins, and once independent country becomes a crowd of prisoners. This is how they make us think like slaves and servers. A word against the president of Belarus is already a crime, the independent press is forbidden. The authorities have control over every sphere of life. The world is watching in terror on what is going on in Belarus. More and more often the question is heard: Why do Belarusians put up with this humiliation? Yes, we are a tolerant nation, but I do want the Belarusian people to wake up. If we agree to live under the rule and control of the present-day authorities, we will lose our language and independence, we will lose ourselves.
What will we tell our children? How will we explain to them the fact that we let our nation to be extinguished? We are Belarusians, and we have our own independence. So let's save it and let's do everything within our capabilities to make these vermines, who all of a sudden got the control of our lives, disappear forever. We'll do it for our sake, and it will be in honor of our amazing ancestors who were sacrifying their lives for the independence of Belarus for many centuries.
Irina Askirka. |
