The Belarusian people are confused
The Lord had mercy: rain extinguished the fire in the Chernobyl zone, in the immediate vicinity of radioactive waste storage facilities. Belarus avoided disaster. How can one not recall Lukashenko’s famous pearl: “You wanted rain, I gave you rain.”
There is something devilishly symbolic in the fact that this fire started in April, on the eve of the next anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy...
Then, in 1986, as we remember, the greatest damage was inflicted on Belarusian soil. Spring winds brought down the lion's share of radiation contamination on Soviet Belarus. More than 1,6 million citizens of our republic found themselves in the zone of infection and danger.
The consequences are colossal!
A powerful blow was dealt to the economy of the Belarusian SSR. Radiation covered the most fertile agricultural lands of the BSSR, sharply reducing the main, strategic crop areas of the republic. The number of livestock has decreased alarmingly. More than 60 collective farms, state farms, and processing plants from the most significant part of the agro-industrial complex of the BSSR were closed, fruit-bearing orchards were abandoned, and people were resettled.
A quarter of the forests of Belarus were contaminated: timber harvesting was reduced by almost a third. 22 mineral deposits were taken out of use. This means that the republic has lost construction sand, clay for brick production, chalk, peat, etc. This has affected the construction industry. The accident caused irreparable damage to 340 industrial enterprises...
The accident dealt an unimaginable blow to the population, to the social, consumer, and medical spheres, to the agro-industrial complex, to the construction and industrial sectors of Belarus. Independent Belarus is still dealing with the consequences of the man-made disaster 34 years ago. According to the most rough estimates, the damage over the past period is estimated at $235 billion, which is equal to 32 budgets of the BSSR in 1985.
But! Then, on April 26, 1986, a great power with a powerful economy and enormous resources - the Soviet Union - took part in eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl accident.
Now let’s imagine for a moment if something like this happened now - what could happen to the economy of modern, independent, but small Belarus?
As they say, God forbid! But many experts suggest that such a socio-economic crisis would inevitably collapse the country's highly dependent and vulnerable economy. This would inevitably lead to a disruption of economic and monetary ties, to the impoverishment of a significant part of the population, to a jump in crime, and, as a consequence, to the weakening of society, to the rampant nationalism. Some experts believe that in a situation of unpredictability, the centers of political attention would shift, which would raise the question of state formation...
But these are just experts' assumptions. We are observing how the state apparatus behaves now, in the context of the spread of the viral threat. Alas, extremely inconsistent.
First, the president of the country makes strange statements about hockey, vodka, tractors and other unconventional methods of fighting viruses. Which leaves the population, to put it mildly, bewildered. It seems like everything is not serious. This, coupled with the information vacuum, gives rise to unimaginable rumors, speculation and outright falsehoods. Then, as if waking up, realizing that the information work has failed, the state apparatus hastily points out the danger, reports on the measures taken, provides statistics, etc. The President rhetorically asks: “What are we going to eat?” And no one jokes anymore.
However, the indicated untimeliness and information slowness gave rise to many questions for the nomenclature.
The population is confused. People have lost clear guidelines. The crisis is only gaining momentum. Children are sitting at home: kindergartens are empty, school holidays have once again been extended. If now, when the peak of the danger has not passed, some able-bodied citizens find themselves in limbo, without work, without money and faith in the future, without state help, then what will happen in the fall? Who will take responsibility for the consequences of the crisis? Who was not ready for such a turn of events? Who will answer?
The Belarusian people are at a loss.