Hi Friends,
my last week was again what one would
call ‘routine’ by now apart from a very enjoyable dinner with Vladimir Dedioul,
giving me some more insights into the Belarussian history and its present
situation.
Without going into details I can
summarize that during the 6 weeks I enjoyed here I have yet to encounter any
sign of opposition. This doesn’t mean that I deny it exists. All I’m saying is,
that I didn’t see any open expression of it, not in Minsk and not in the country and I did
several excursions. Also there was no unusual presence of police/militia. I
only got checked twice, once at the May 9th celebration (and there
my passport wasn’t even opened) and once for speeding (see last week’s blog).
At the 9th May event I saw a lot of plain clothes security but since
then, I couldn’t notice any (you’ll say, of course). The system might not be
democratic but until it supports the majority of the population to an extent
that most of the people I spoke to are more afraid of a change than the
perpetuation of the system. The majority of the population doesn’t have
experience with any ‘western’ system but only sees the developments in Russia
over the last years and those are definitely not what they would like to see.
One of the problems in changing the
system may be the unwillingness of the political forces to encourage a
generation of entrepreneurs. The system
still favors conformism and independent thinking is potentially dangerous.
While there is a small business culture emerging, really independent mid-size companies
(like e.g. in Poland or Austria or Germany) in private hands appear to
be rare. Now what I don’t yet understand, however, is what are the ladies and
gentlemen doing for a living that I see driving Porsche Carreras, Panameras, Cayennes, Lamborghinis, Maseratis,
large new BMWs, Mercedes and any other luxury brand that comes to your mind?
And these vehicles I see more frequently than in Vienna… The only shortage I noticed so far is
with respect to textiles. It is noticeable when looking at the length of skirts
and dresses which are considerably shorter than in Vienna… but admittedly, in general, it
doesn’t look unattractive…
Friday night I was invited at Ivan’s
for dinner. His wife Marina cooked heavenly and would that have happened more
often during my stay it would have ended in disaster… Ivan also invited his
previous English teacher, a delightful lady who gave me a break by speaking
English. Unfortunately also this week didn’t bring the great ‘break through’,
as expected, but every little bit of progress helps and from this week on there
will definitely be less opportunity to ‘escape’ to English…
During this week I also did some
planning of my journey onwards and found an internet address to contact for
information re camping possibilities in BY. I didn’t get much information but
an invitation to attend a festival (‘Fest’ in Russian) in Ivyanets a
town/village about 70 kms from Minsk.
The family consists of a lady who is a private teacher for Polish, English and
French, her husband and 3 kids (about 2, 5, 8 years old). Her husband raises
chicken and you could call them a family of the ‘New Belorussians’. Their house
is quite modest but soon will be rebuilt with a government backed BYR loan that
of which in fact only 25% has to be paid back and the interest rate is about
1%. This apparently is part of the support system for families which have at
least 3 kids….How long such programs will be financeable is the big question… I
had to, again, ‘endure’ BY hospitality which meant cheese Dranikis (a kind
of ‘Hamburger’ made from cheese, flower,
egg and whatever…) quite tasty… and then was taken for a tour through town
which has a really nice and recently renovated baroque church with attached
Franciscan monastery which was returned to the church and indeed has a
population of some Polish and Belorussian monks… The real attraction though
(and reason for my excursion) was the Fest, sponsored by a local sweets
factory. The whole town, I got the impression, was in costumes and performed a
play which moved through town to the festival place about 2 kms away. I didn’t
understand anything but quite obviously it was dealing with history of a few
hundred years back and at one time the fights looked quite authentic…
As it happens the founder of the KGB
Dzershinsky was born and raised near Ivenez and, of course, I had to be shown
his birth place and a big monument which now houses a museum (which was
closed). An almost identical monument stands opposite the local KGB in Minsk. His parents were
upper Polish aristocrats, however without much money, and the guy developed into Stalin’s worst
henchmen and rumor has it that he even killed his sister. The next larger town
near Minsk now
also carries his name (Dzyarzhynsk
or Dzerzhinsk; formerly Koydanava) Pse also refer to the links:
Interesting in this context I also
found that he apparently spoke Hebrew in addition to Polish and Russian. The
former synagogue in Ivyanets (the only wooden one in BY) recently was returned
to the Jewish community which, however, is very small after the murders during
WW II (see above link about Dzyarzhinsk).
Friday afternoon also my computer
went on the blink and it took Ivan’s friend more than a day to get it back up
again…. what will I do in the coming months without him?...
A last remark for those that might be
interested in what I recently read (the Odessa
file, also thanks to Ivan) and now am reading: The Black Swan, The Impact of
the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I can highly recommend it,
especially to bankers. I downloaded it on my Kindle which I got as farewell
present from my staff and which I really start to highly appreciate…
So till next week again… if you are
still interested…hopefully from Kaliningrad…
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