Something’s Wrong in the Air Today :: Charter'97 :: News

“Any coincidence of the book’s heroes with real persons, either living or dead, is unintentional and totally accidental”. For these people themselves are the result of the accidental coincidence of circumstances,
Kurt Vonnegut, “Time-quake”

I always used to feel as if something went wrong in this country. Everything in this world appears, lives in this way or another and disappears from scene… But either the country now goes the wrong way or in a wrong manner. It’s really tough to grasp it, for all attributes look just fine, but at the end it turns out wrong anyway.

You follow me still? I doubt you do… It’s so awful to be misunderstood and, meeting you in the street, hear the whisper from the back: “That’s the one, who speaks some nonsense”.

Let’s start with the airport first. Why on earth do we need it? Why do we need “Minsk-2” airport if nobody flies to the “Minsk-1”? Nobody. If so, how about we turn it into a barn for retailers? Or make something huge out of it? The biggest toilet in the world or, say, the news agent’s kiosk. Then the tourist would flock here to see with their own eyes our great achievements.

When you travel back from the airport, you get strange impressions from shining sun and dazzling snow. So you drive the car and think – there’s something wrong in this charming beauty and the absence of advertisement billboards. To put it in plain language: where are the commercial stands, guys? May be over there in the city? Once you enter the city you see few of them. Something’s definitely going wrong here.

And those ads, which I saw, stroke me by their awkwardness. One of them portrays a girl in a strange pose with the words “your favorite number”. I wonder whether they mean the size of her clothes or phone number at which I can call her. And something’s wrong in the way she dresses: jeans and evening shoes. The last time I saw a young woman dressed this way was in a village club many years ago. It’s fine for the villagers, but not for the city dwellers. Something goes wrong.

Another thing astonishes me too. In order to buy a phone from this lady or sports shoes for her, one needs more and more money. I mean real money with the US presidents on the banknotes. In other words, why does ruble’s cost remain still, while everything gets more expensive? Somehow it contradicts the very laws of economy.

Or take economy as an example: where did they hide the kiosks, in which they sold vegetables? Who opened Orthodox stores in every other shop? Why is the Belarusian beer so disgusting to the taste? Why is the Orthodox church the main supplier of spirits in the country? Who stole all money? I feel that these issues are interrelated. My heart realizes that something goes wrong but my mind can’t explain all things.

Or take sport, for instance. Recently the whole country went on skiing, but do you know who won? Lukashenko. Why? Because he started the race two hours before the rest. So what? Couldn’t our renowned skiers and biathlon athletes overrun him? Something’s wrong with their longing for the victory.

Not so long ago I saw him play the game of hockey – he scored 14 goals to our best goaltender. I immediately realized that something was wrong with his scoring capacity. If there had been no goalie in the net, he must have scored 100. But if there had been one – then none. So it turns out that either our goalkeeper is amateurish or the scorer had armed bodyguards accompanying him on ice.

Or take the covered soccer field, which they built on the money of honest tax-payers. Not so long ago they purchased 200 table tennis sets there. Now they are going to play tennis there instead of soccer and play soccer in the Palace of tennis, I guess. Something strange is going on. I mean, they built something wrong. They wanted to build one thing, but built quite another instead.

Politics is a tricky affair. Recently our president signed another treaty with Putin on future intentions. However, the essence of the document is pretty vague. One can really be driven crazy from all these treaties. At first we signed 27 of them with Eltsin every three months and now we agree with Putin on further cooperation. Something’s wrong, let me tell you. Either they aren’t really sincere or we don’t really know what they sign, or may be the guys simply like photographing with each other.

And how about the common ruble? I can’t really get whether or not they will introduce it? It sounds all weird to me. If they do introduce it, then why shout about preservation of sovereignty. And if they don’t – why should they make all that noise in vain? See, they are cunning. That’s a foul play on their behalf.

Another thing, which I fail to grasp, is our foreign policy. Against whom do we make friends with Iraq? Recently the Baghdad mayor paid visit to Minsk. Seems like they wanted to make a living shield out of us. I wonder who let him turn up here, drawing the fire to us? As for me, I’m not gonna shed my blood for the Iraqi dictator. Our home-grown one sucks it well enough, so why hide from the bombings because of an alien one? I’m sick and tired of such exotics in politics. I’m no racist or chauvinist but will any other guests, apart from those in pajamas and turbans, come to visit us one day? Somebody in nice suit and with decent proposals? Otherwise, it won’t do us no good.

I suspect that it all comes down to the government. There’s definitely something wrong with it. See for yourself: they came for no more than 8 years but continue to rule for the ninth now. I was waiting for them to give up on their own when the term expires, but they never did. Why? May be they should be helped? Otherwise the whole life would flow down the wrong way.

Yesterday I took a walk around the downtown and, when crossing the bridge over Svisloch river, I noticed an excavator bulldozing the river. Something is definitely wrong, when they drive excavators in the river. Instead, I’d prefer a white ship with music, beautiful ladies and delicious beer… Then everything would return back to its proper places. Oh, how I long for that day.

nnnnn