According to the philosopher, the crisis like a disease penetrated into all spheres of life in the country.

Uladzimir Matskevich, philosopher and methodologist summed up the results of 2016 in his interview with the EuroBelarus Information Service and mentioned that just as in case of physical illness, people get used to the state of crisis.

“Everything that happened in 2016 had adaptation to the chronic smoldering crisis in the background. Invalidization of social consciousness is only getting stronger. On the other hand, people searching for a way out, some means of treatment, or at least seeking ways to improve the quality of life in spite of the disease appear. And some pleasing news are connected to this part of the Belarusan society,” said Uladzimir Matskevich.

Among the main cultural phenomena of the year, the philosopher mentions the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Svetlana Aleksievich in 2015, “because it had a long effect on the Belarusan public consciousness.”

“I am glad that people are more and more involved in taking care of their cities, they try to solve their problems on their own instead of waiting for the authorities to do it.”

We organized the Year of Belarusan Thinking:

“All the innovations, all the events, inventions, actions that can change the world occur in small circles first, unevenly. Of course, the whole country cannot change immediately. Therefore, it seems to me the actions and activities, which were a part of the Year of Belarusan Thinking, have good prospects.”

Philosopher notes that in 2016 “the authorities themselves tried to find a way out, to find a solution to get out of this crisis.”

Regarding the “unfreezing” of relations between Belarus and the European Union, which continued in 2016, “it should be noted that the Belarusan situation is seen very differently from the outside and from the inside”:

“For example, the well-known story of Belsat TV channel: the Polish authorities intend to stop funding it, which shows that our Western partners are too believable about all sorts of declarations the Belarusan authorities make and the EU is ready to make some concessions in the negotiations. From the inside of the country we can see their excessive optimism and excessive credulity,” said Uladzimir Matskevich. At the same time, he stressed that “it is not just a Belarusan issue, it is an issue of information security in Europe.”

According to the expert, the European officials misunderstand the policy priorities and it can be seen most clearly in the Bologna implementation process in Belarus:

“Public Bologna Committee learned that those in charge of these issues in Europe simply do not work at a high political level. And if civil society can see all these details in the implementation of the Bologna process, we can only wonder about the implementation of other programs and projects,” said Uladzimir Matskevich.

The philosopher strongly believes the European politicians and the Belarusan civil society leaders in 2017 should focus on creating an ombudsman institution in Belarus, several ombudsmen even:

“For example, there is the fundamental question of the death penalty. But the death penalty can be abolished when civil society expresses its will to the state not at the level of local protests and petitions, but at the level of Ombudsman,” explained Uladzimir Matskevich. “Perhaps due to the peculiarities of our development it would be wise to have ombudsmen in several areas. It might be a general Ombudsman for the Human Rights, “green” Ombudsman, Ombudsman for socially disadvantaged groups.”