(dear reader or readers, sergei neverin had a very critical comment to my previous article, so i decided that my response to him should actually be an entire blog article. i will always attempt to give similar courtesy to any persons in the future that would like to disagree or agree with what i have written)
Dear Sergei,
Firstly, I would like to thank you for reading my blog and for taking the time to respond in such depth to my article. I am not a professional writer and so I do not have all of the technical and support resources available to me that many large blogs or web pages do. However, I do endeavor to speak from the heart and compose lucid arguments and essays.
You said you are typical Belarusian, but 86% of your countrymen voted for Lukashenka in the election. Perhaps your political preferences are "typical" for only 14% of your countrymen.
Your English language skills are also very good. Perhaps typical Belarusians are fluent in American English and have regular enough access to the internet to be current in the English Language Blog world.
Sergei, small businesses in America have a giant failure rate. The business climate for the little guy is very difficult here. You will have to be more specific about your complaints over persecution of small businesses. As I didn't reference small business issues, I don't know whether to agree or disagree with you.
I take GREAT OFFENSE and OBJECTION to ANYONE stealing the peoples assets. Do you have proof of your accusations against Lukashenka?
I am sure that Lukashenka has a budget of between 5-10 million USD to manage his entourage of media and security and support staff. He proably also enjoys some luxuries not common to the population.
But by "modern" or "current" global presidential standards, amounts like this are modest and don't meet the benchmarks of modern state theft or excess.
The Union-State has taken a long time, and this is proably because there are many fluid points to be negotiated during the process. I am not an expert.
I am happy that you conceed that Lukashenka was elected three times based on promises he made to the people. Your acknowlegment of his election negates many of his detractors accusations of his being a dictator, because we both agree dictators don't hold elections.
Russia's "pulling the Gazprom strings" as you say is not a result of Lukashenka's "empty promises" to Russia as you suggest. I believe that Gazproms decision raise prices is simply an incorrect decision made with the motivation of a variety of reasons from helping the Russian people, to corporate greed. As I said in my article, there is no ONE bottom line in this matter.
Perhaps during Soviet times such a decision would not have been taken against the people of Belarus.
The premise of my article is that the Union-State should move forward regardless of the Gazprom price hike. I do not propose that my opinion is synonmous with the Belarusian popular opinion, rather I believe this is what SHOULD happen for the good of both Russia and Belarus. I am not on the ground in Minsk as you are, but I do have my opinion.
It is my opinion that the Lukashenka administration is not the only party in the Union-State negotiation process so they are not the only ones responsible for the timely completion of the project. But, where Lukashenka has slowed the process, I believe he has done it for the good of the People of Belarus and he has very likely been correct in his methods.
Gazprom didn't raise prices because of Lukashenka. Lukashenka might have stalled the Union-State over Gazprom however. This would be reasonable for him to do.
I saw an old Soviet era propaganda poster (maybe circa 1936) that was advertising caviar and trains and factories and the poster said " SOVIET MEANS QUALITY" To me this was a clever and somewhat accurate catchphrase. I am impressed with Soviet items of quality, planes, machines, cars, weapons, education, foreign aid to needy countries to be a few.
I am sorry you do not think that Soviet means quality. Many people in the world would disagree with you.
Sergei, you have a nice command of English, were you trained in Belarus? If so, then you demonstrate the results of a quality Soviet education, and regardless of your like or dislike of Lukashenka, you are obviously worldly and well spoken. Are these traits not still promoted in modern Belarusian education? Is this not evidence that SOVIET MEANS QUALITY?
Belarus is not Romania, but it would be interesting to take a poll of all Belarusians and all Romanians and ask them if they would like to trade countries.
Morover Sergei, if you are so interested in democracy and liberty, maybe you should know that sometimes democracy deteriorates the overall quality of life for the general population. It is almost a maxim in the mind of most english speakers that Democracy equals a high quality of life, but this is not actually true in all cases.
English speakers would be more precise to consider Democracy as a tool to POTENTIALLY and MAYBE achieve a high quality of life as oppossed to fantasizing it is some mythical Valhalla to be achieved at all costs, including the destruction of valuable assets and systems that are operational and producing good results.
For example, how many Russians today would prefer life in the USSR to their current conditions?
Democracy and Liberty are just words, frequently misused for evil purposes.
I am sorry you don't like my article Sergei, however I would like to ask you a question about Belarus. What % of the Belarusian population can fluently understand written Belarusian? If one can read written Russian, then can one also fluently understand written Belarusian?
You are welcome to submit an article or essay to my blog. You may submit an Anti-Lukashenka article or essay if you wish, but I must warn you that I will harshly critique your essay in my next posting.
Mikes Vacation is about freedom of expression and debate and new ideas. I would hope that submissions to my blog are pro-Lukashenka, but they don't have to be.
Again Sergei, I encourage an essay from you- but if it is Anti-Lukashenka, I will attempt to harshly confront it in my next essay. Also, I will not headline all of your comments, but I will try to publish your essays for the purpose of logiclly defeating anti-Lukashenka positions and thus helping the common people of Belarus pursue happiness and prosperity.
Very Sincerely Yours,
Michael Miller
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2 comments:
You tell 'em Mike. I am also pretty tired of these self-rightious western suck-ups. You are right that they have not a clue what they are speaking of other than endlessly regurgitating their mantra: Lukashenka bad, Lukashenka bad, Lukashenka bad, Lukashenka bad, Lukashenka bad...
I think the elctions were 83% and chenge though.
But you know what? I think this Never in guy was the one writing me insulting comments too. The English sounds the same.
Michael,
I have some serious problems about your arguements. For the most part, they use information either erronous or not viewed critically.
Absolutely Lukashenka 'won' a massive victory in an election... that was proclaimed neither free nor fair by nearly every country (Russia being the exception). For example, how free were the Russian elections when the media ONLY promoted United Russia (and I've been studying this at a post-grad level for two years - don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about)? Or elections in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo?? They have Democratic in their name... does that make them a democracy?? Dictators always hold elections - it gives them legitimacy. They are NOT free elections nor are they fair.
Soviet means quality. Absolutely, as long as you are talking about Kalishnikovs or their education system - which was great. You are absolutely right, MILLIONS of people around the world agree that AK-47s mean quality, they are probably one of the, if not the, most effective weapons ever created. However, there were significant problems with your argument. Why did Chernobyl explode?? Was that built properly? What about Soviet environmental policies - were those quality?? The Soviet Union mass-produced goods that had very poor quality. If you are not sure about this, check out Stephen Kotkin's book 'Magnetic Mountain.' If I may ask, have you ever been to any ex-Soviet state?? Not that you need to have been there in order to argue a point, but you would see that many things created under the Soviet Union are NOT quality.
Regarding stealing assets from local businesses, I have a feeling there will be another comment that properly addresses that one. Although he definately HAS crushed local businesses in promotion of state interests, I have neither proof nor the desire to find you some that is mome legitimate than wikipedia or something similar.
Perhaps during Soviet times such a decision would not have been taken against the people of Belarus?? WHAT?!?!?! Do you realize that whole populations were shipped off to Siberia and imprisioned for years under Stalin? What about the famine?? What about Brezhnev's linguistic policies in Ukraine?? The Soviet Union was NOT some utopia that fell for no reason - the country was divided?? Where are the Estonian intelligentsia from the 1930s and 40s? BURIED IN SIBERIA. Entire cultural groups (Dagestani) were moved into internal exile.
What do you mean by 'ask Belarusians and Romanians if they want to trade countries?' Where are you going with that? Is one country better than the other?? Neither country (Romania's EU membership aside) is really jumping for the future.
How can you say that 'Mikes Vacation is about freedom of expression and debate and new ideas?' Lukashenka is against ALL OF THOSE!! Where is the freedom of expression where journalists get beaten and thrown in jail for taking pictures of riots (http://www.cjfe.org/releases/2006/28032006belarus.html)?? If this happens to foreigners, what happens to those who don't have probably the best passport in the world to hide behind? Or people assembling peacefully get attacked by police with rubber hoses? THOSE THINGS HAPPENED IN BELARUS.
About Lukashenka, I am mixed. I think he's a horrible person. End of story. People have disappeared under his regime and he used force to subjugate others. Speaking with a Belarusian BORN there, LIVING there (studying in Moscow) - he hated Lukashenka. He said if he had the chance, he would have killed him (he said this in Moscow, quietly behind a closed door, NOT in Minsk). However, to say there were no benefits to his rule ignores the fact that an authoritarian government (such as the one that Belarus has) promotes law and order; Belarus did not experience the same period of chaos the other Soviet successor states had in he 90s. People still get paid on time and there is food on the table; these did not happen in Russia during the 1990s. That being said, I hope that justice catches up with him and removes him from office and he is forced to stand trial for the crimes he committed.
Please be more critical in how you take propaganda (Soviet propaganda posters, pre-determined election results) in the future. Using those as sources is not, and will never be, acceptable in terms of developing an argument. What you have written here is insulting to the victims of Lukashenka and his oppression.
Being Had, what on earth are you saying??
Alex
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