The Belarusian regime resisted. It resisted until normalization of relations with the West has become a major factor to save the tormented Belarusian economy battered by the crisis and tensions with Russia. Shamefully, Zeltser’s incarceration was sort of a joker card the Belarusian president kept in his pocket knowing he can use it when necessary. The situation required, so he used it. I am wondering how different this is from what terrorists do when they kidnap Americans or Europeans for ransom. Zeltser case is just another sad indication that the Belarusian court system serves political needs of the ruler.

Yet, I agree with Melyantsov (Belarusian political expert, BISS) that the United States should use the release of Zeltser as a starting point to normalize relations with Minsk. The more Lukashenko’s government opens up to the West, the sooner it crumbles.

Last week, Narodnaya Volya published an article by Mikhail Podolyak titled “Bleacher M.” In this opus, Milinkevich was accused of being part of a secret plot between him, Lukashenka, and some European political forces. Podolyak claimed there was a European plan “Solana/Lukashenka.” According to this plan, Milinkevich would be given a post inside the Belarusian government and Lukashenka would get another legitimized presidential term. In their turn, Europeans would win favorable conditions for business in Belarus.

Podolyak unveiled that, during the next presidential elections, Milinkevich would become a “technical” candidate, supported by Europe, he would get some 20-25% votes and would be offered a post of the vice president in the next Lukashenka’s cabinet. The latter would most certainly win the vote with triumph, wrote Podolyak.

This article first appeared in March on a tabloid website kompromatby.com. Then it went unnoticed. But last week, when Narodnaya Volya reprinted it, Milinkevich responded with an angry letter to Iosif Syaredzich, the editor of the newspaper. Milinkevich claimed that the article was libelous and demanded to publish his response to Podolyak’s accusations.

Both Syaredzich and Milinkevich were interviewed by RFE\RL after the incident. Narodnaya Volya editor surely refuted the libel claim saying that only court could decide whether it was libel or not. Syredzich is well familiar with the Belarusian legal system. His newspaper was brought to court on multiple occasions. But not by an opposition leader. If Milinkevich filed a lawsuit against an independent newspaper, well, that would really mean his political death. I am sure he is not that stupid. But then, what exactly is Syaredzich doing?

Podolyak is a well-known scooper whose articles often lack proper fact-checking. Many of his stories are off any limits crossing the boundary between journalism and, well, story-telling, pun intended. The libelous nature of “Bleacher M” is very explicit.

Syaredzich, as an editor, is known for his terminator-style journalism. But in this case, I am wondering what he thought of the journalistic ethics? Does he really care about such thing? Remember Belarus is the country where courts do not properly work and the state-run media will be glad to use this opportunity to mock at another feud within the opposition ranks. How about the ethics when there are just two independent newspapers – Narodnaya Volya and Nasha Niva – allowed back into the state-run distribution system? Are we entitled to publish whatever we like?

Following Belarusian blogs through my Livejournal friends’ feed, I am subjected to a never-ending culture war between diverse socio-political groups and subcultures. Identities, worldviews clash nonstop, no ceasefire here.

And it’s normal. The more our society opens up the more discussions arise, the more battles will be fought on the virtual front. When our society opens up even more, the battleground is bound to move from the virtual sphere to the real world. It’s the Belarusian authoritarianism that makes this ongoing debate almost solely confined within the Worldwide Web.

These intellectual skirmishes are nothing alien to any country’s intellectual community. However, the Belarusian case is a bit more complicated since the Belarusian identity is underdeveloped and malformed. There are several identity projects vying between one another. Belarusian nativism (national-democratism), creole patriotism, litwinism, kryvian idea… The list can be continued. Each has historical arguments and claims to prevail over others.

In a way, what we see is a virtual culture war, or rather an indefinite number of wars, fought by the Belarusian bloggers. Most of them, as it seems, oppose the regime, but they have very different ideas what Belarus should be after the regime crumbles.

Once I have written about a Livejournal phenomenon in Belarus. Now the blogging frenzy has subsided a little giving way to social networking on sites like vkontakte.ru, odnoklassniki.ru, and Facebook. But there is no place both online and offline where you can see so much lively discussion between the intellectuals and random public. On Livejounal, you can find well-known names such as Aleksandr Feduta, Vitali Silitski, Lavon Volski, Vladimir Matskevich, Dzyanis Melyantsou and many others. And you can find a random guy from the block passionately arguing about the past, present, and future of his country.

Do you know that the Belarusian population of Livejournal is bigger than that of a mid-sized regional town? Oh, yeah, there are MANY of us out there. And we do like to argue. Flipping through my Livejournal friends’ feed is so much akin to following news from the trenches. Clinging to the radio, you even don’t lower your head every time you hear a burst of fire. In some cases, these fights are pretty bad. They can get personal and offensive. The intellectual feud is more subtle than some drunken brawl, of course. But well, in some cases, I guess, some would use their fists if they were in one room. By virtue of the virtual reality, pun intended, they have to resort to using their fingertips. These culture wars are ongoing. They are fun to follow. I think many of these folks would join their hands at some big post-election rally, but as soon as the regime was toppled, they’d go back to fighting. But then these culture wars would cross over to the real world. So be it as long as no one gets hurt.

Belsat TV – set up by the Polish government and public television in Poland - symbolizes freedom for Belarusians, and Romaszewska-Guzy was a modernizer who sought to develop and foster free media in Belarus, writes Polskieradio.pl.

In solidarity with Romaszewska, Paval Mazheika, a popular talk show host on Belsat, announced his resignation from the channel.

Polska (Times) claims that the firing of the director of Belsat television, Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, proves that the new president of TVP public television in Poland supports President Aleksander Lukashenko, and is a major blow to free media initiatives in Belarus.

The president of TVP Piotr Farfal, who was recently appointed to the position, is described by the Polish media as “a former editor of a Polish neo-Nazi magazine.” Check out his bio, you’ll be surprised. Farfal was reportedly a skinhead and a radical Polish nationalist.

Gazeta.pl quotes Piotr Farfal as saying “I don’t see why TVP (Polish Television) should finance Belsat TV. [Polish] television does not have a spare dime for Belsat. If the government wants this channel, let them cover the full cost of its maintenance.” Farfał underscored that “In accordance with its bylaws, TVP is not an institution obliged to produce a channel broadcasting in a foreign language to non-Polish people.”

“The transmission is carried out first and foremost for Poles. Hence I agree to the need for additional financing of TVP Polonia, which is produced for Polish expatriates, but why should TVP produce television for Belarusians for our money – that I do not understand,” said Mr. Farfal.

I understand the economic crisis is the time when it is hard to justify maintaining a satellite channel for a foreign country (especially, if you have a rightwing point of view at the world around you). But how can a rightwing politician (with such credentials) or how, actually, any politician whatsoever be appointed to preside over the public television institution in a democratic country? That I do not understand.

It is so hard to see through this rain what’s at stake
When there’s nothing to give and too little to take
All is washed away, all goes down the drain
But you’re proud of your nation, proud of your chain

Like a dog on a leash, you are strapped to a place
You’re disguising your pain with a smile on your face
It’s the morning in Minsk, the nation wakes up
Shakes off all its stilts but fails to get up

They shenanigan us with those history books
We are under control of political crooks
We have slurred ourselves more than enough
But we can’t take a stand, we just cannot get up

In Belarus, independent newspapers do not turn profit; it’s even dubious to say there’s a media market in Belarus. The state-owned media are financially bolstered by the state, while few surviving independent newspapers are hampered by various unfair regulations, taxation policies, economic and legal obstacles making it impossible for them to succeed. But would they? Would the Belarusian press become successful if all the impediments were dropped?

Of course, once the regime collapses, there will be a short period of media boom in the country. Probably, during that time a certain number of fresh big players will come forth. Many formerly state-owned newspapers will be bought by some large businesses. Yeah, I’d project a few bright years for the Belarusian newspapers.

But together with the collapse of the Belarusian regime, we will see demonopolization of the broadband access market, as a result Internet prices will fall, the number of Internet users will grow exponentially. I’d predict that the newspaper boom will last for a short period of time. The real big deal will be the rising Internet market. That’s what we need to prepare ourselves for. Some Belarusian media are still in the Stone Age as it comes to familiarity with the latest technologies. Today computer literacy in the newsroom is a must, but we need much more of the Internet literacy. We, as the Belarusian journalists, need to accoutre ourselves with the vision of what we can achieve online in the current conditions and how we can do it efficiently. We also need to think about the future, not just grind into the gloom of today.

One way of looking into the future is by considering a proper CMS (a content management system) for your website. Choosing a right CMS is challenging. You need to consider many things. One is which CMS is best for handling a newsroom workflow. Second, you’d probably need a pretty expandable system where you can easily implement some additional features you may not need in the beginning. Third, consider a CMS’s community. If the community of developers and users is large, vibrant and responsive, you will very unlikely run into a dilemma when you don’t know what to do with some bug in your code.

Some independent sites in Belarus have chosen to go with Campsite, a CMS built from the ground-up for use by online newspapers. A few are still shopping for a proper system. I think Campsite is a good CMS. It is a good choice, but is it the best one? I played with it for a while. I also used WordPress, Joomla, Mambo, Nuke, Postnuke, XOOPS, Sapid, and a number of other CMS’s. And you know what, of all the systems my thumbs up go to Drupal. This is the system I’d strongly recommend to any serious media company.

In fact, Westki.info, where I work, is using Drupal. Being a devoted Drupaler, I am tempted to say that my CMS will beat your CMS’s ass. And here’s why. Just look at the various online media sites implemented with Drupal. In Belarus, there are few Drupal media sites. I hope much more are going to appear in the near future. Drupal is the way to go. Last week there was a large Drupal Conference in Washington, D.C. If interested, you can find videos from it at this location. Here’s one on the use of Drupal in the newsroom.

By the way, if you are in Vilnius, today is the final day of the fair. Don’t miss it!

I chose to write “Kaziuki” because I encountered this form solely in the Belarusian language. Nobody whom I know would say “Kaziuk.” There is a similar annual fair called “Kaziuki” in Hrodna, Belarus. Many Belarusians I have met call Vilnius fair “Kaziuki,” as well. By the way, many Poles say “Kaziuki Wilenskie,” too. Not “Kaziuk Wilenski.”

I must acknowledge the publicist’s reproach is fair enough. It is more correct to say “Kaziuk,” keeping in mind that “Kaziukas” is translated as “Kaziuk,” not “Kaziuki.” The plural form can be used as a reference to a series of such fairs or the Kaziukas tradition in general. In such case, a single fair would legitimately be interpreted as “Kaziuk.”

But then how should we go about the actual tradition of using the form “Kaziuki”in Belarusian? Should we correct ourselves and start saying one Kaziuk instead of one Kaziuki fair? Maybe, the Belarusian tradition is wrong. The guys in Hrodna messed up. They should have called their fair “Kaziuk.” But how about a number of “Kazuiki” fairs in Poland?

Maybe, he is right. We need to adapt our translation to the original. But I strongly doubt the name of this fair originated in the Lithuanophone circles in the first place.

According to Wikipedia, Saint Casimir Jagiellon (October 3, 1458 - March 4, 1484), was a Polish-Lithuanian prince from the Jagiellon dynasty who became a patron saint of Poland, Lithuania, and youth. A member of the Jagiellon dynasty, Casimir was born at Wawel, the royal palace in Kraków, and died in Hrodna.

The tradition of celebrating Kaziukas Fair spread around Rzecz Pospolita. It is still celebrated in a number of towns and cities across the former two-nation state. The tradition is centuries-old not just for the present-day Lithuanian state; it’s just as old for present-day Belarusians and Poles, as well, who shared one state with Lithuanians in the past.

Over the centuries, the use of Lithuanian language was retained to the northwestern part of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, rivaled by the Ruthenian (Old Belarusian) to the East and South. And then Polish dominance came. I contend that the term Kaziuki Fair originated in predominantly Polish language environment wherefrom it migrated to Belarusian and Lithuanian popular usage.

In the Belarusian popular usage, it has become known as Kaziuki.

I might be dead wrong in my judgments. If some linguists read my blog, you are welcome to challenge my profane assumptions.

I agree with Dzyanis Melyantsov that the economic liberalization is unavoidable as it is the only way for the Belarusian regime to survive the economic downturn. But the political liberalization of 2008, I think, is, or rather was, a makeshift set-up to mend some bridges on the Western front.

With the presidential election of 2011 looming in the distance, Lukashenka’s apparatus will be tempted to employ the usual techniques. And it does so already.

Traveling lately across the northwestern fringe of Belarus, I saw nothing but apathy about the politics. The folks in the country are preoccupied with their daily routine, breadwinning, families. Yes, most of the people I saw were so called Creoles (the electorate of Lukashenka as denoted by Grigory Ioffe), but I saw similar apathy among the Nativists and Muscovite liberals alike (again, the terms employed by G. Ioffe).

In contrast to the peripheral tranquility, Minsk was recently a place to be to see the birth of a new political force. The Constituent Assembly of the Belarusian Christian Democratic Party (BChD) convened in the capital city. Even if you followed the buzz about the creation of this new rightwing party in Belarus, I guess you might be unaware that the registration of this wannabe party is still a big question. According to the Belarusian law, a party needs 1,000 member signatures to apply for the official registration. As far as I know from the insider sources, just a few days before the convention, the BChD was short of the required signatures. I guess, by now, they have gathered the necessary number, but the new perspective party is still to grow some muscles and gain some weight before it is considered a real force. To be fair, all Belarusian parties are quite miniscule in size.

Similarly to the formation of For Freedom Movement of Milinkevich, the Belarusian Christian Democracy was not just appealing to nonpartisans, it lured a number of members from other political forces. Some old players felt tired of the Belarusian stagnant partisanry, others were lured by the personal charisma of Paval Sieviaryniec. Many chose to join ranks of this party for its traditionalist Christian ideals (think about Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh).

I don’t feel like lampooning the new party of Paval Sieviaryniec. I have known him personally for quite a while, many of my friends have joined the BChD. Sieviaryniec is charismatic, devout believer. He could have been a great televangelist, had he not chosen to become a politician. He is also a great author whose books are thought-provoking and entertaining. However, his stance is somewhat troubling; his views are too reminiscent of Christian fundamentalism, too intertwined with religious rhetoric. He is an outspoken traditionalist culture warrior, waging his war against the liberal decadence. On many issues, I agree to disagree with him. Not being against his personal religiosity, I think that his prolific usage of religious rhetoric in public turns many Belarusians against him. According to some data I have seen, Belarus is one of the least religious countries in Europe. Well, maybe that is why Sieviaryniec is undertaking this religious-political crusade. To Christianize Belarusians. Will he succeed? I doubt that.

This poster in Dublin International Airport explains passengers of which destinations are eligible to buy goods at a local duty free shop.

But wait… Have a closer look. On this poster, the capital of Belarus, Minsk, is attributed to Russia.

OK, guys, very cute. Maybe, I should suggest that the Belarusian Airport comes up with something similarly insulting. How about hanging a map of Europe with Ireland marked as part of the United Kingdom?

The discrepant poster was spotted by a Belarusian traveler and a well-known blogger barilotti.