Lukashenka Is a Spammer

Why should we discuss the utter rubbish he is saying?

Do you still discuss salaries of $750 next year? It is almost a week economists provide comments, political scientists predict, general experts analyze. Actually, this is what Lukashenka always strives for.

All these dollar figures - 500, 1000, 750 - are always pulled out of a hat. But they are voiced so confidently that they are discussed. Not crisis, debts, miserable salaries, the unemployment, but just randomly taken figures. Sometimes it is recalled about promised salaries of $500 in 2010, and the ruble then immediately depreciated threefold and an average salary turned into $150. And then, remember, he promised $1000 by 2015, and before the New Year being pale but the recovering ruble was 30% cheaper in the blink of the eye. And there were two exact dates when the average salary finally reached $500. And not it turns out it will be $750 at once next year? As once Mongolia, as taught in Soviet schools, "bypassing capitalism went from feudalism to socialism." Here is the same plan: to make it through to a bright communist future.

$750. Is it better than once promised $500? This is what Lukashenka strives for. This is called publicity. Figures that everyone will discuss. One word makes people fall asleep before the screen. Let citizens now have sweet dreams.

And it often works. Let's imagine an ordinary husband comes home. His wife wonders:

- How much have you earned, Petya?

- 300 rubles.

- What a fool! People say that they earn 1500 rubles!

"Where?"

- It is written and said on TV and the Internet.

And the family will discuss mythical 1500rubles in the evening. To dream about the way they can spend it. It can be three thousand if two salaries are summed up. There is something to dream about. And debts, inability to pay for education become an afterthought. It's always better to have dreams.

This is how Lukashenka makes people focus on large figures having no relation with the reality. Let them better discuss abstract figures and mythical future purchases rather than current situation and Lukashenka himself. He knows what citizens think about him: not the things economist and political scientists say, but what one can hear in queues, on social networks and in buses. And these words, sometimes swear, ironic or often derogative (the intonation one usually has when spitting on asphalt) make Lukashenka furious and scared. Be the scorn to entire country - what can be worse? He still has enough batons, what if once he misses them?

Well, it is better to add some figures to fire. With zeros. The rounder amount, the better. Still the fire burns, there is a point to speak kindly and to dream about a bright future. What if? Then ot is possible to come up with the next figure, for example, $5000 as an average salary by 2020. And here all starts again - some burst into dreaming, others - analyze or draw infographics. He is waiting for it. May people not come to the Square and wait for salaries? Bite the bullet, recess purses and wait. They waited for salaries of $500, then $1000, again $500, and now $750. What else can be invented?

This is called junk. Lukashenka just pitches topics for discussion distracting people from their own unsolvable problems: an incredible future salaries, "take a shovel and rush to work", Kolya and his lack of sheep. Just recall the way the entire country discussed Kolya Lukashenka in May. He does not want to go to school at 8 am. The topic about his father and million of Belarusians was hushed up. And it happens all the time - "Belarus is a space power", "we still have nuclear weapons", "not Chyzh but Chyzhman". And we discuss this utter rubbish although we just need to block this junk and do what we should do. And let him later tell about Kolya, salaries, Chyzh. Everything will be recorded and taken into account when delivering a sentence.

Iryna Khalip for Charter97.org