Events & NewsBOOK EVENTS 2015 November 23 - Naples, Fl. Welcome to Florida International Book Club November 12 - Berkshire Lakes, Naples, Fl. International Interest Group May 14 - Madison, NJ. Thursday Morning Club, "Wise, Wonderful Women" Luncheon and Lecture Series 2014 March 8 – Middletown, N.J. Library March 3 – Red Bank, N.J. AAUW Joint meeting January – Florida Gulf Coast 2013 December: Cayman Islands, Plantation Village November 3: Chicago, Illinois, Belarusian Orthodox Church November 2: Strongsville, Ohio, Belarusian-American Center September 13: Covington, WA. Book Club September 12: Kent, WA. Sunrise Haven September 7: Portland, OR. Belarus group September 1: Monroe, WA. Family Reunion May 28: Prague, Czech Rep., Rotary Club May 27: Munich, Germany May 26: Bologna, Italy, Business Showroom and Florence after-church event May 25: Florence, Italy, Academia Music School May 24: Florence, Italy, American International League May 23: Florence, Italy, Democrats Abroad May 16: Bialystok, Poland, Belarusian Culture Center May 14: Warsaw, Poland, Warsaw University and Belarus House May 11: Prague, Czech Rep. Belarus Cultural Club May 10: Prague, Czech Rep. Radio Free Europe Directors April 28: Official Book Launch at Monmouth Beach Cultural Center, N.J. April 20: Asbury Park Book-fest, N.J. March 10: Brooklyn, N.Y. February 24: Highland Park, N.J. January 31: Naples, Florida January 24: Miami, Florida January 22: Naples, Florida INTERVIEWS GIVEN in 2013 May 17: Warsaw, Poland, BelSat TV interview May 14: Bialystok, Poland, Radio Racja interviews May 10: Prague, Czech Rep. RFE/RL interviews to Ukraine and Belarus March 3: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, translated and broadcast in Belarusian to Belarus. End February: Radio Racja, Poland, beamed toward Bialystok and Belarus. |
NEWS FROM BELARUS Alexander Lukashenka was elected in October, 2015 to his 5th five-year term in another flawed election, making him the longest serving head of state in Europe. He claimed more than 83% of the votes. International observers questioned the validity of the election. Shortly before the election, a number of political prisoners were released, among them Mikalai Statkevich, an opposition candidate in the last election in 2010. This step and the peaceful conduct of the election caused the European Union to consider suspending their economic sanctions against Belarus. The economic situation in Belarus borders on disastrous. Major industrial enterprises are reducing their work schedules. The Belarusian currency is undergoing drastic devaluation, its value in the last 5 years dropped from 8,000 BR to 18,000 BR per US dollar. The hope to receive yet another IMF loan in order to pay off the prior loans is questionable. President Lukashenka nevertheless insists that no reforms are needed in Belarus. Due to the poor economic situation in Russia, it is not likely to again rescue the Belarusian economy. Russia' s President Putin issued a strongly worded decree calling on the Russian Defense Minister to urgently proceed with talks on placing a Russian airbase in Belarus. Lukashenka is resisting, calling instead on Russia to provide the Belarusian Air Force with the latest planes. This bleak picture was somewhat relieved by the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature awarded to Svetlana Alexievich, the first such award given to a Belarusian author. Her books have dealt with the effects of wars and others disasters, such as the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, on the population. NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC Indicating progress: The lowest number of criminal acts over the past 20 years was recorded in the Czech Republic last year, the Interior Ministry said in its report… "The number of robberies and dangerous threats saw the biggest decline," the report said, and the number of tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement cases increased. -- From The Prague Post, May 2, 2013. DO YOU KNOW SOME OF THESE NAMES? Larry King, Kirk Douglas, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Lisa Kudrow, Harrison Ford, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, Irving Berlin, Shimon Peres, Marc Chagall, Olga Korbut, Wayne Gretsky? THEY ALL HAVE BELARUSIAN ROOTS. |