Friday, August 25, 2006

Daniel McAdams on Belorus

Imagine you are in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, setting up tents and loudspeakers without a permit to occupy the park with a group of several thousand protesters, guzzling beer and vodka. How long do you think it would be before the Secret Service or other uniformed local and federal officers moved in to disburse you? Five minutes?

Yet when less than one percent of the 500,000 Belarusians who voted for the political opposition were recently disbursed from October Square, one block from the presidential residence, the United States and the European Union (where member country France had been engaged in brutally beating youth protesting for more job security) announced a new round of sanctions against the country.

Aside from this absurd double standard is the fact that democracy itself is subverted in this new, revolutionary method of changing governments – all in the name of democracy, of course. Somehow in the new world of color-coded revolutions, a public display of only one percent of those who voted for the opposition – not of all voters, mind you, but just of those who voted for the opposition – is enough for the West to conclude that they represent the true will of the people. It is a new Bolshevism of the West in which a tiny minority is said to in fact be the majority. The media plays into this deception, with its breathless but highly selective reporting of such incidents. The Western media makes no effort to gain actual facts, preferring to rely on salacious but unverified tales of beatings and mass arrests made available in copious quantities by those who stand to benefit most by their dissemination.

Before going into the reasons for Alexander Lukashenko's victory, I should add a word on the outrageous lies told by the Western press before, during, and after the presidential elections in Belarus. How do I know? I was there. I was there standing in October Square on Wednesday afternoon watching the 150 or so protesters while the BBC reported "thousands." I took pictures of the beer bottles and coffee cups that littered the square as the foreign media reported that the police were not allowing any food or drink to the protesters.
On Wednesday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine reported that "they flew flags of denim" when there was not a single denim flag on the square. There were plenty of Georgian flags, however, which is strange considering the abysmal state of the "reformed" Georgian economy, where electricity and water are about as available as in Iraq. Lukashenko entered his press conference "drunk with victory," the German paper reported. I saw no such thing, but rather a politician who is not afraid to shoot back rhetorically at attacks from the U.S. administration. Accused by President Bush of selling weapons to other countries, Lukashenko retorted, "Coming from a man who has profited so much from war and oil, it is an accusation that doesn't deserve a response."

Heavy police presence, the press reported. We saw far fewer police than you would have seen at any gathering in the U.S. or any Western capitol. In fact, before authorities finally moved yesterday to disburse the makeshift tent city from the square, there was hardly a police officer to be seen. The list goes on.

Read more...

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's funny. I have some friends in Ukraine and they were telling me the same thing about Yushchenko's "Orange Revolution"

They were there when all the "protests/rallys" were going on, but they told a completely different story from what the US media was reporting. Here, they showed a huge crowd of people wearing orange in support of Yushchenko.

What they said was that "Americans" set up tents and were giving out free scarves, hats, gloves, shirts and other orange items. People weren't taking them to show support, but because they were FREE, and Ukraine isn't exactly the richest country in the world. On top of the free swag, there was free food and drinks. Now, anyone from any of the old Soviet Union knows that free food will draw a crowd of thousands anywhere. Again, people don't have money like that out there. So, they were just there for the free stuff, and weren't neccesarily supporters - but that's not how they made it look.

The Ranger said...

Say what ? I was there in Set 2004 for the elections. I was there in Nov 2004 for the elections. I went back in Mar 2006 for the elections. I saw the tents. I saw the Ukraine people handing out orange scarves, hats and what you call swag. What I did not see was a lot of Americans giving out anything.
Were Americans there? Yes. Were they handing out swag and free food. Not that I could see and I see pretty good. I hear very well and did not hear very much English being spoken. Were there American Media tents there? Yes. And most of the speaking was Ukrainian and Russian. I was there with my Ukrainian wife and Ukrainian children, oh they do speak English as well as Ukrainian, Russian and now that we are in the US they are learning Spanish as well.
Give the Ukrainian people the credit they deserve. As we say in the southern part of the USA, They done good.

La Russophobe said...

OK children, do you understand it all now?

America, the WHOLE of Europe and every human rights organization you can think of, together with dozens of blogs from people who live there, say Alexander Lukashenko is a maniacal dictator, but KONSTANTIN says he's not, but rather just a reasonable person trying to do a hard day's work.

And KONSTANTIN is right, and the WHOLE WORLD is wrong.

Well, not merely wrong, but they are a bunch of stupid morons, whereas KONSTANTIN is the only person with "real" intelligence on the face of the earth.

What's more, there is NO DIFFERENCE between the form of government in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the form in Belarus.

Well, there might be a bit of difference, in that Belarus is apparently more of a democracy than America is. After all, we all know that John Kerry was publicly hanged after daring to contest George Bush, whereas the Belarus opposition is merely in prison.

Konstantin is a card-carrying sociopath and a perfect explanation of why and how maniacs like Lukashenko come to and stay in power, because folks like Konstantin support it.

Anonymous said...

What do you think the WHOLE WORLD thinks of G.W.?

Anonymous said...

Bigger PR budget.

La Russophobe said...

The WHOLE WORLD obviously thinks Bush is much worse than Lukashenko, that is why America is facing a massive set of economic sanctions while Belarus is the proud partner of so many nations.

It is also why immigrants are flocking to Belarus by the millions while nobody at all wants to live in America.

Anonymous said...

I hate to even respond to anything LR says, as it's humiliating to be sucked in by a troll... but this post was not, in fact, written by Konstantin. The title says it all (to me, anyway, because I learned to read at an early age...): "Daniel McAdams on Belorus"

Konstantin obviously agrees with it, or he wouldn't have put it up here, but he didn't write it.

By the way, there was a typo in the original post that cracked me up when I read it - "disbursed" instead of "dispersed". "Paid", not "scattered".

La Russophobe said...

I didn't say he wrote it, you pathetic troll. If you're going to resort to crass personal abuse, at least you could get your facts right.

What's more, if you think it's clear who did write it, you must be more drunk than Konstantin. The post is typically irresponsible, unsourced dreck no matter who wrote it.

Anonymous said...

The WHOLE WORLD obviously thinks Bush is much worse than Lukashenko, that is why America is facing a massive set of economic sanctions while Belarus is the proud partner of so many nations.

It is also why immigrants are flocking to Belarus by the millions while nobody at all wants to live in America.


LR you are so correct, the only thing is missing -Belaruss has no such military and economic powers as USA, otherwise you would have been 100% on the money

Anonymous said...

Check out this clip of a russian mobster that wants to be on The Apprentice. LOL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azeXwYOxGhc

Anonymous said...

So Coen, what nationality are you?

Konstantin didn't write the above article.

Russians don't live as slaves. Are you saying that Russians don't in majority support Putin? And in Central Europe people are not that good of. There are many, I repeat many, who would have Belorussian system in their countries right away. Not that I am one of them. But just you go and look at the success of all reformed communist parties.

You know why I asked you the first question? Because like La Russophobe, from your few words, I sense you have some almost rasistic impulse in you.

Like this: 'Your beloved Russia is a corrupt, oligarchic kleptocracy led by a KGB-Godfather'

Did you want to insult someone? :)

Anonymous said...

coen van KOZEL,

you covered the election, prick? Than I'll find you.
Await piece of shit.

La Russophobe said...

This is really quite something. Somebody called ANONYMOUS is asking COEN what his nationality is and concerned that HE might be a racist! What a hoot!

Not only is anonymous the world's biggest hypocrite, he's the world's biggest moron. He doesn't understand the difference betweeen "race" and nationality" because, for him, there is no difference. The terms "Slavic" and "Russian" are the same, and he thinks it's anyone who disagrees that is the racist.

He asks "Are you saying that Russians don't in majority support Putin?" Another howler! Germans supported Hitler when he went through Russia like a hot knife through butter. Does that make Hitler fine and dandy?

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Clenbuterol said...

Double standards

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