Notice: Undefined variable: class in /var/www/solidari/data/www/focus.solidarityby.eu/head.php on line 129 OverviewFinalistsJudgesRulesArticlesHow to enterBelarus in Focus 2011 Rules'11Judges'11About winnersWinners articlesAll articles Winners articles 14 Nov Sam Knight (United Kingdom) Inside the Snow Globe I was early for Andrei, !fteen minutes at least. I could have called, but it would have been pointless. He refuses to use the phone these days. So I decided to kill time in Park Chelyuskintsev, across the road from his of!ce. It was snowing, of course. At the entrance to the park, which is one of the largest in Minsk and is named for a Soviet steamship that got trapped in polar ice in 1934, a large banner proclaimed Happy Holidays From Your Beloved City. 8 Nov Shaun Walker (United Kingdom) Theatre's act of defiance in Europe's last dictatorship On a quiet street strewn with weeds in the suburbs of Minsk, a few dozen people file into the knocked-through living room of a dilapidated bungalow. 14 Nov Polonca Frelih (Slovenia) Like Fish in an Aquarium that can Sense the Sea “If you really want to get to know our country, go to a cemetery. Fresh graves will mostly bear photographs of young people. In the lack of promise they take to drinking and drugs; suicides are many. This can’t get to me. I grew up in the Soviet Union and I’m used to suffering,” explains taxi driver Dima while taking me to the press conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held in Belorussia Hotel in Minsk after the Belorussian presidential election. 31 Oct Ángela Espinosa Ruiz (Spain) Spain-Belarus. Contrast of concerns. My name is A. E. I live in a city the name of which, as Cervantes did in his day, I shall ommit deliberately. It is irrelevant. It is located, that I will say, in the South of Spain. Yes, Spain! Flamenco dancer, toreador, paella! A holiday country amongst all the others within an inapetent Europe that is bored like a child and tired like a dying old man and learns nothing. 7 Nov Brendan McCall (Norway) When Theatre is 'Thoughtcrime' In 1958, Harold Pinter wrote that there are “no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.” (1) 15 Nov Kiryl Kascian (Belarus) Assisting a Little-known Nation "Without the history, language, art Without the wisdom of the science A nation will turn into a nameless land." Marek Grechuta, Fatherland. After twenty years of its independence, Belarus can hardly be characterized as a well-known country in the world. Indeed, many people do know that such a country exists, and many can name certain events, people or sport teams that are associated in their minds with Belarus. Probably the most internationally known Belarusian “brands” are Chornobyl and Lukašenka.

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