School lessons in Lukashenko’s Belarus just don’t add up.
According to the autumn edition of the Belarusian Review (volume 17, No. 3), a re-published 12 year old textbook used in middle school revision classes in that country includes ‘sums’ such as Nato + US = War, and Nato + Go Home = Peace!
The maths textbook was written at the time when Clinton and co. were bombing Serbs during the war in the Balkans. President Lukashenko is well known for his belief that the US, the EU, and a whole host of other acronyms are plotting the downfall of his regime. Are Belarusian school kids being taught to hate the US while learning their logarithms?
But Yaushen Barabatau, one of the book’s authors, told RFE/RE: “I don’t think these rebuses have any political or ideological underpinning.”
So can we expect more sums in the next edition having a go at Bush and Blair’s disastrous little jaunts into Iraq, or even Iran? Maybe they could include something like: US + UK + Iraq – WMD = 100.000 casualties 4 Zero?
Apparently not: “Serbia is an Orthodox country, dear to us,” said Barabatau, “ Our brothers live there. We perceive that a war against them is a war against us. But Iraq – it is not so painful for us.”
Well, that’s OK then.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Fuzzy math
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"President Lukashenko is well known for his belief that the US, the EU, and a whole host of other acronyms are plotting the downfall of his regime."
If only they were! Instead the acronyms just sort of hope that the citizens of Belarus decide to oust this clown, while giving some nominal aid to the cause. We should remember that Lukashenko was originally VOTED into power, he is not there because of a coup.
Has anyone ever looked at the guy, who I ask, would vote for a guy that looks like him!?
I agree...who could vote for Charlie Chaplin...and what you say is bang on - Belarusians did vote for him, although in circumstances that were not exactly 'free and fair'(the media is controlled, etc). But I do hope that EU/US etc DO leave the people of Belarus to it...when foreign powers start meddling then disaster is usually just around the corner.
Post a Comment