19 March 2024, Tuesday, 11:36
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It's Hard To Be Idiot

71
It's Hard To Be Idiot
IRYNA KHALIP

There is such a work – to watch out for a statue round-the-clock.

Whilst the Belarusian people at large are parasitizing and infuriating the authorities ("what the hell are they going to do on May 1 – it is intended solely for the workfolk masses!"), the security officials are working themselves to death. Two additional proofs were provided yesterday – in case someone doubted their diligence and readiness for the service rigors.

Internal troops and the police representatives witnessed at the trial of Viachaslau Kasinerau, who had thrown a rope over the monument to the policeman near the Interior Ministry building. And you know what? The witnesses declared expressly that they had been ordered by the higher-ups to watch out for the policemen. And to prevent possible desecration of the shrine. (However, in regards to the shrine – that were not the Kasinerau’s case militiamen: the statue was called so by head of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Minsk Barsukou).

In other words, watching for the idol around the clock comes within police duties. People get their salary plus bonuses for doing that. And those, who give such orders, get not just a salary for doing that, but a huge salary – contrasted with the average Belarusian’s earnings.

At that, an investigator was sweating over the idol’s case, thoughtfully writing the indictment for a long time; the prosecutor, who announced that Kasinerau had opposed himself to the public (I wonder when this prosecutor saw the public last); the judge, who found the activist guilty. Yes, getting a fine instead of a term became a common joy due to Viachaslau’s liberation. But, it turns out that he is guilty. The huge state machine had been rotting all its rusty gears for a month and a half to protect the good name of the iron statue, and salaries were regularly transferred to the cards of those gears. "There is a statue in the rays of sunset" ... There was such a hooligan poem with an obscene continuation. Probably, now one might get arrested and judged for it, too, if to quote it with regard to the policeman – this large, able-bodied army of useless hulks is to be provided with the token work.

However, as it has turned out, the KGB offices don't lag behind the internal troops and militia in diligence. They were busy threatening the activists, who have been imprisoned under the White Legion Case. The Young Front activist Siarhei Palcheuski told yesterday how they were pressing on him trying to force him to sign an agreement to cooperate with the KGB. There was no investigation, about which the state propaganda tells, no search for armed formations or weapons caches – only blunt intimidation: we will expose your private life on TV, we will send you to a fag zone in prison. And all that started on the first day after the detention. Actually, that was why they detained him. Well, thanks for the clarity: we received an additional confirmation of what the empty-eyed and mush-mouthed KGB men are doing. This concerns not only the detainees on the White Legion case - actually this is the only thing that the KGB men are busy with. And they get big salaries for these threats, blackmail and knocking out signatures on papers.

By the way, concerning the salaries. Do you remember last year, when two KGB men were appointed to the "parliament" they had to declare their incomes to the CEC? One of them had an official salary of 28 million non-denominated Belarusian rubles a month, the second had a salary of 24 million. And those were only legal amounts, according to the salary slips (and it's even hard to imagine the scale of what is beyond them). As for the police, you can check the list of vacancies on any job site. According to them, one doesn't need to have any education, work experience, knowledge or skills to work in the police. For example, in the riot police troops they offer a starting salary of 720 rubles. Also paying of their housing rent, putting them on the list of those waiting for their own housing, vacations of up to one and a half months. Besides, they get additional payments for rank, additional vacations for the special character of the service, pension after 20 years of service, bonuses on each holiday (seems, they don't get bonuses only on the day of the Paris Commune) and after crackdown of every rally. Most likely they get extra pay for watching the idol as well – the service is both dangerous and difficult. They have to not only stare at the statue of a policeman with their peepers, but also prevent abuses. And it costs a lot of money.

Just imagine – it rains heavily, it's cold and the weather is horrible, but brave Belarusian Red Army men in raincoat-tents guard the peace of the idol-policeman with their lives, blazing with bayonets. And in the morning, Barsukou leads the personnel of all the security agencies through the cold mist to worship the relic idol of a policeman, to pray to it, to wipe it with a rag and sweep humbly the dog's shit off its iron boot and pigeon shit from its head. They do it in any weather - in cold and frosts, during blizzard and wind, in heat and drought, in sickness and health, in sorrow and in joy.

You really take care of yourself, our dear freeloaders. Otherwise, you will have to retire not for long service, but for health reasons. We cannot cope with pigeon droppings without you.

Iryna Khalip for Charter97.org

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