...for example, the popular initiative which called for a reduction in military spending and the use of the money for social purposes, was canceled. The government's argument was that the financing of the army and the financing of social affairs are two independent issues that cannot be conflated in one referendum.As always, rules for thee, not the gubbmint.
The argument sounds reasonable. But then one notices that some of the constitutional changes initiated by parliament are cheerfully mixing changes in various parts of the constitution. The system is unbalanced in this respect and the problem has not been solved yet.
In Eastern Europe and, I guess, in many other places, reporting to authorities is seen as morally wrong. There is a kind of stubborn popular solidarity in resistance to power. We may have inherited that attitude from the times when ratting on someone meant that men in leather trench coats arrived early next morning and dragged the victim to Gulag. (I've even heard a story about a small Slovak town where, shortly after World War II, people began reporting their personal enemies to the Russians, claiming that they were Nazi collaborators. Russians had no clue and incarcerated every reported person. The feud spiraled out of control and several hundred people ended up in jail.)The Swiss will be eaten alive when they get run over by the next Napoleon.
Swiss, on the other hand, don't perceive authorities as necessarily hostile. If a neighbor violates a rule (and people have quite likely voted for that rule or at least haven't objected when it was introduced) he should be warned first, and if that doesn't help, reporting him to the authorities is seen as fully justified. Nothing terrible is going to happen anyway. Most likely, the authorities are just going to ask the person in question to behave.
The Belarusian military is dramatically different from the Ukrainian military which had practically lost its combat readiness decades ago, which was then purged from all real patriots, and which was fantastically corrupt. In contrast, the comparatively small Belarusian military is, by all accounts, very well-trained, decently equipped and commanded by very competent officers.Given Luka's Severan response so far (feed the soldiers, live in peace), I doubt seriously the color revolution has a chance.
Consider the plight of this man: A few hours earlier he was walking quite happily down the street; now he is medicated, vaccinated, and isolated in a mental institution,detained against his will, and reliant on the institution to notify his legal representative that an involuntary admission order has been made against him. It could take a week or more to secure his release, assuming this is even possible. The provisions of the Health Emergency Measures Act could render him permanently detained in that location if the police officer concerned, or a registered medical practitioner, believes he may also be infected with the Covid-19 virus.As expected these "temporary" measures are turning out to be permanent.
While some interviewees seemed resigned to feeling they could do little to influence politics, others found it frustrating — almost as though political news coverage were rubbing their noses in issues over which they had no control. Many saw avoiding political news as part of a larger strategy for managing their emotions. Rather than engage with news that would leave them feeling sad about the state of the world and frustrated about their own impotence to change it, they chose to conserve their emotional energy to focus on their own problems.Anything that doesn't help you with your own problems is worthless to you. Most of this site is really just writing practice for me; which is why there are long stretches where I don't post here.
