28 March 2024, Thursday, 21:21
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The Plot of the Indifferent

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The Plot of the Indifferent
Iryna Khalip

We got a political boycott under the belt, but not a human one.

Last weekend Miss World on a wheelchair Aliaksandra Chichikova was not allowed to a bar on Zybitskaya Street. The girl shared her story on social networks and also addressed to the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which sent the request to the Prosecutor's Office to deliver a legal assessment of the incident. The bar was silent for five days, then it began to justify itself. They say, they were to blame, they were drunk, and it was more than four o'clock in the morning. Fans of Zybitskaya Street rushed to defend the administration of the bar and offered her to stay at home. But the story is not about owners of the bar and those who believe that disabled persons must stay at home. It's about us.

The reaction of normal people was as follows: to boycott this bar and to spend money somewhere else. But nothing will change. Because after having got political solidarity under the belt, we consider a social one not so significant. Not as significant as to participate in a picket, to join a rally, or to write a letter to a political prisoner. We are fond of fighting the regime, but not the self-interest. However, it is the core of any authoritarian regime.

Do you remember Dozari club, which three years ago held "It's cool to be a Russian" parties with the image of Putin, Matryoshka, the Kremlin and machine guns on posters? It was a real massacre in the east of Ukraine then, meanwhile posters with Putin invited people to the club in Minsk. The art director of the club asked journalists to speak Russian, because he did not understand Belarusian. Then the boycott of the club was unquestionable. People swore they would never put their foot over the threshold of the club even on the verdict of the court.

Logic suggests that the club should have gone bankrupt and closed down. No way, it still shines. There is nothing surprising. We have got the political boycott under the belt. But not a human one. Our city is not as big, if we compare it to megalopolises. And all these visitors of such places either we ourselves or our relatives, acquaintances, and friends. They are neither aliens nor green men, but real citizens. Indifferent ones.

Once I read the story of one Belgian village with two bakeries in it. They still exist. But over the last seventy years only one has been popular among villagers. They boycott another. During World War II owners of the second bakery supported the Nazis. And villagers decided to ignore it. Decades have passed, and already their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren still ignore it. Do you think we can do the same? You're right.

As well as owners of such places who think that a conscious person will ignore them, but a dozen cheerful boozers will not, because they do not care. So their future is safe. Today a disabled person will not be let in, tomorrow it may be a Jew or a bicyclist, and everything will remain the same.

By the way, about bicyclists. After a journey of a disabled Sasha Avdevich by handbike all over Europe, I asked him to tell me about the greatest moments of his journey. The moment when you realize that it all was worth all those risky efforts for a disabled person to see this. You know when people say, I took to the road, saw a cart with a horse, the mist was covering the valley and sheep were there. Birds were singing, and I realized that that view was worth those thousands miles.

Sasha spoke briefly: "I just wanted to see the ocean." I will always remember his words. Because we should serf sites and look for low costs, look through schedules, and travel from Vilnius and Warsaw to see the ocean. To see the ocean was of the highest rank of complexity for Sasha Avdevich. To go to a bar is as easy as pie for us. And it's a real challenge for Sasha Chichikova.

We got tired of this bloody regime. But self-interest and indifference, things this regime is based on, are bothering us even more.

Iryna Khalip specially for Charter97.org

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