...Belarus Belarus, officially known as the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country located in the north-east of Europe and has international borders with 5 countries: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The capital of Belarus is Minsk, a modern international city located in the centre of the country, it is considered modern because it has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times, most recently after World War 2, when it was almost completely destroyed, also because Belarus an important trade and transport route between Europe and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). The country of Belarus is divided into six administrative districts, each centred around a major city: Brest Region, Homel Region, Hrodna Region, Magileu Region, Minsk Region and Vitebsk Region. After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than have any of the other former Soviet republics. Alexander Lukashenko has been the country's president since 1994, the country is run through authoritarian means and a centralized economic system, the government also has restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion. Cultural trends - Religion: Religion in Belarus is considered a unifying factor since 80% of the population are Eastern Orthodox while only 20% are of other religions. But the Government restricts religious freedom both actively...
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...Social Injustice in Belarus Every 4th of July, millions of Americans celebrate the right of freedom they have enjoyed since this nation’s birth nearly 240 years ago. We enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the press and many more liberties that allow us to live our lives the way we see fit. We also have the freedom to choose who we elect to represent our individual communities on a national level as well as the person who speaks on behalf of our entire country. The freedoms we enjoy are so vital to our lives that it is impossible to imagine living without them. Unfortunately, as many Americans know, not all countries enjoy this same type of freedom. Most Americans know about countries like North Korea, Myanmar, and Iran as places where freedom is stifled and the government rules with an iron fist. However, most Americans don’t know that country that is supposedly part of the western world suffers under the same lack of freedom found in a country like Iran. That country is the Republic of Belarus. The citizens of Belarus live under an oppressive government regime that doesn’t think about the best interests of its people. This political and social injustice has lead to widespread poverty and human rights abuses. The roots of these modern injustices in Belarus go all the way to the days when the Soviet Union still dominated the country. Belarus became a constituent of the Soviet Union in the 1920’s and as such adopted is communist ideology. Immediately after...
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...Topic Paragraph The topic I am choosing for this paper is Belarus. More specifically I am going to focus on The Democratic Republic of Belarus. Belarus is considered a democratic republic, but I am going to focus on how it is a low-functioning Democratic- republic. I am going to use different types of government systems to explain how they relate more to the government system in Belarus. Belarus is more like a dictatorship and should be classified as one. Belarus is a small country located between Russia and Ukraine; it used to be part of the Soviet Union until 1990. Today, their government is republic in name only, led by President Alexander Lukashenko, although they are more like a dictatorship due to his harsh nature regarding his citizens fueled by his desire to control his country as a segment of the USSR. Belarus gives its people very few rights. Currently, Belarus has a low functioning Democratic republic due to the lack of rights and freedom offered by the government, causing them to be more like a dictatorship than a citizen-based nation which will result in low chances of Belarus becoming a full-functioning Democratic-Republic. Annotated Bibliography Levy, Patricia. Belarus. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1998. Print This is a written source that talks about the country of Belarus. This book has facts about the country of Belarus from past to present. The book described the past governments of Belarus and the current one. The president wanted to join with the USSR...
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...Iwański The countries of Eastern European and China have been increasingly interested in deepening bilateral contacts over the past few years. In the case of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova this has been caused by the bad economic situation which was in part caused by the consequences of the global economic crisis of 2008 and the desire to establish closer political relations with a country whose significance on the international arena is continually growing. Each of these countries has different expectations regarding the scale and the nature of co-operation with China. Chisinau wishes only to boost trade, whereas in Minsk and Kyiv, Beijing is also presented as a strategic partner whose investments may not only help the indebted economies recover but also strengthen the position of these countries in their dealings with the EU, and especially with Russia. Beijing sees co-operation with these countries in differently, and its offer is much more modest than Belarus and Ukraine are expecting. Eastern Europe is one of the last parts of the world with which China is activating its co-operation. This is not a priority region for Beijing. China wants to derive economic benefits and to diversify the markets on which it invests its financial surplus, and it does not intend to extend its political dialogue with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova beyond the framework which determines its economic interests. The main reason for this is the nature of relations between Russia and China. Beijing sees...
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...Minsk – the capital of Belarus. The city tour of Minsk Minsk – the capital of Belarus. The city tour around Minsk. Founded more than 900 years ago. Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Trinity Suburb - an example of Minsk urban architecture of the previous century, Independence Square with its Government Building and Red Roman Catholic Church, Victory Square with its 38-m obelisk and the Eternal Flame commemorating the heroes of World War II, parks and modern architectural ensembles. Minsk is the city where one can find the best of the Belarusian cultural heritage museums and exhibitions, theatres, world-famous Belarusian ballet. Minsk: Sights and Shopping In spite of the fact that Minsk is Belarus' largest city and Europe's 12 largest city, it is surprisingly calm and charming. Minsk does not have the hectic, chaotic feeling of Rome, Paris or Budapest, cities that are only slightly larger. While Minsk is lively and fast paced, it does not overwhelm you. Streets and buildings are in good repair, the train station and metro stations are modern parks are well groomed and public buildings and shops are more or less contemporary. There are no obvious signs of poverty, such as homeless people living on streets or people asking for spare change. Neither Belarus nor Minsk have the "third world" feeling that many westerners are led to expect. Salaries are low, but cost of living is also low, so many locals have a reasonably good quality of life. Of course...
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...What makes you a perfect candidate for FIT? Why are you interested in the major you are applying to? We'd like you to tell us in an essay. This is your chance to tell us more about your experiences, activities and accomplishments. (Non more than 750 words, please.) “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Coco Chanel While growing up in the Republic of Belarus I was I child with many dreams. Amongst my peers I was the only one who had several career goals. The world of professions is enormous: astronauts, police officers, bankers, teachers… But in all honesty it took me all of 10 and almost 11 years to finally decide on what it was I wanted to do in my life. My senior classes come to my mind when I think about my final choice. I've always been the "winner" of almost everything in life. That’s why I am very active, ambitious and high-motivated. I decided to study journalism at Belarusian State University and now I am doing my fifth year of studding. I finished 4-month courses of TV hosts at Belteleradiocompany. I took my educational practice in a hi-tech Television center of the Belarusian state university on the student's video channel "TV University". Now I am studying the course of Broadcasting Technology and Management in New York. I started my professional career in 2008 as a correspondent at information and entertaining portal of "Alpha...
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...Minsk actively collaborated with local Byelorussian Partisan Movement in resistance against Nazis, hence an incredible number of people were able to escape the fate in ghettos. Jewish population dropped from 90.000 in 1941 to 38.000 right after the War. The first and the only memorial of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union was erected in Minsk immediately after World War II. Nevertheless, the Soviet regime remained hostile to Jewry, unofficially promoting overt anti-Semitism and creating discriminatory conditions. When the gates were open, most Jews immigrated to Israel and the United States. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, around 10,000 Jews remained in Minsk according to census information. Contemporary Jewish organizations in Belarus estimate the Jewish population of Minsk to be around 20,000 people due to the fact that a lot of Jews felt comfortable to reveal their identity in a newly formed country. The history of Jewry in Minsk starts from the immigration of Mikhl Danilevich of Troki, a merchant, who leased the rights of custom duties in the city in 1489. More Jewish families moved after they were massively expelled from Lithuania in 1495. During this time Minsk was a part of Poland-Lithuania commonwealth. Jewry of Minsk for the...
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...Homeschooling is the education of children at home, typically by parents. There are a lot of reasons for homeschooling such as health problems (diseases or disabilities), distance to school, religious and family reasons, individual approach to advanced or slow children. Homeschooling is a very controversial issue and has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. Major advantage of homeschooling is a possibility of studying for children who can’t go to a regular school due to their health problems. And even if a child is healthy he still can catch a disease in a room full of other children. The individualized attention is another advantage of homeschooling. A parent can explain school subjects in a way that is the best for a child. Some children need more practice while others need more visual aids. Besides only a parent can know for sure what schedule is the best for his child, the speed of the explanation, the amount of studying material and other niceties. At home parents can protect their children from bad influence, unhealthy food in school canteens and unnecessary school activities. The possibility of learning different subjects and not being limited to a school curriculum can mark a child out of many others as he can learn a unique language or a specific science which can be a great help in future. While there are a lot of advantages of homeschooling, there certainly are some negative moments in it. The biggest disadvantage of homeschooling is a lack of social...
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...the Commonwealth of Independent States # 3-5 CIS Countries in the 21st Century # 5-9 Offshoring Strategies and Potential # 9-12 IT Infrastructure # 13-16 CIS Countries in the Future # 16-21 Appendix # 22 References # 23-25 Introduction to the Commonwealth of Independent States - Andrew Tate The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional area that includes countries from the eastern part of Europe as well as countries from the Middle East part of the world. These countries include: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Each of the countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States are former parts of the Soviet Republic, which broke up along with the former Soviet Union, with the official date of the CIS formation being marked as December 8, 1991. The “founding” countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States were the Republic of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, with eight other countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) joining the CIS 13 days after the formation(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Independent_States). According to 2008 statistics, the total population of the countries that make up the Commonwealth of Independent States is approximately 276,917,629 people. The Gross Domestic Product came in at an estimate of a total of $2,906,944,000, which equates to a per capital...
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...capital of our republic. In my opinion we must know much about other countries and we must know all about our own country, its history, its traditions and culture. There are many cities and towns in Belarus. No doubt Minsk is the most important and the largest city in our republic. It's the heart of our small and beautiful country. Minsk is neither as big as the world's famous capitals nor can it boast having as many respects it's a remarkable city and there are a lot of things to see and do in Minsk. As for me I have always been interested in the history of our capital and I have read a lot about it. In fact I even collect books about our republic, about the historic past of Minsk. More than 2,000 years ago on the banks of the Nemiga and Svisloch rivers came into extence the city of Minsk or Mensk as it was called before. There are several hypotheses as to the origin of the name. The name of the city is believed to be associated with the river Menka that flowed into Lake Ptych not far from the city. But the legends say that the city derives its from the word 'mena' as in the ancient times there was a barter market on the bank of the Svisloch. Mensk was first mentioned in a chronicle in 1067. It is common knowledge that in its long and difficult life Belarus has seen and experienced a great deal and the city of Minsk shared its fate. Now let me mention the most important facts from the long and rich history of our capital. In the12-th century Mensk...
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...DBQ Having lived in multi-national empires in Eastern and Southern Europe during the eighteenth century, the Slavic people began to think about having their own state. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, a movement called Pan-Slavism emerged, which was a movement pushing for just that. In 1848, the movement began to become mainstream and soon became a dominant movement. Many were opposed to Pan-Slavism, however, thus a debate arose which raised political and cultural issues. Those involved in this debate can be placed into four distinct groups: supporters of Pan-Slavic ideals, (Docs 3, 8) those against Pan-Slavism for Nationalist reasons, (Docs 4, 7, 9, 11) Supporters of Pan-Slavism for Imperial reasons, (Docs 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 13) and those against Pan-Slavism for Empirical reasons. (Docs 11, 14) A discernable change over time is that as time progressed people became more sympathetic to the Slavic people and support for Pan-Slavism increased. Those who identified themselves as Slavs in addition to those who felt that the Slavic people were being oppressed were supporters of Pan-Slavic ideals. (Docs 3, 8) Bronislaw Trentowski, a Polish philosopher, says in a lecture that if he were czar, he would create a Slavic empire and destroy the Ottoman and Austrian empires. (Doc 8) Jan Kollar, a Slovak poet and early advocate of Pan-Slavism, preaches that all Slavs should unite as one nation because that is their true identity. (Doc 3) This opinion is due to a personal bias as...
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...1. Identify all the economic entities involved in the development of Anacomp’s CIS software system. Anacomp, a limited partnership: RTS Associates - BANKSERV 10000, CEFT, CDA and CIBS, thirteen major banks including the National Bank of North America in New York, the Shawmut National Bank in Boston, Provident National Bank in Philadelphia and the First national Bank in Kansas City as advisory banks. 2. i. Describe the contractual arrangements between the economic entities involved in the CIS development. Anacomp would develop the CIS system on behalf of the partnership. In return, the four banks collectively contributed $6 million and 24 software development people for 2 years to the project. The same considerations were present in each of the four subsequent partnerships. Each partnership assumed development risks; except for BANKSERV 10000. Any product developed becomes the property of the partnership. Upon completion of the development of the CIS system, Anacomp agreed to market CIS for 5 years on a commission basis. Anacomp also had the option to acquire all rights to the CIS system at the greater of its appraised fair market value or RTS’s investment plus a fixed profit but is under no obligation to exercise this option. RTS had the right to extend Anacomp’s 5-year marketing agreement an additional 5 year or to cancel it if Anacomp did not use its best efforts to market CIS. If the CIS development expenses exceed $6 million, the RTS was required to pay further development...
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...Pan-Slavism was an effort to unite all Slavic peoples. Even though attempting to unify the Slavs was a noble one, there were still many concerns regarding people’s national and ethnic identity. There were two different approaches to political issues affecting Pan-Slavism. The first issue was the Eastern Europe as of 1871. The slavic people were spread all over and not merely contained to one region. Any desire to make a Slavic state would be almost impossible. Also to be considered were the populations of Central and Eastern Europe. Slavs were the minority in the German Empire and only in Russia did the Slavic population dominate the total population. Many countries saw this unification attempt as a way for Russia to take over during international rivalries that were taking place at the time. Many proponents of Pan-Slavism saw it as a way to gauge Russian influence. Many nations believed that Pan-Slavism was an “invitation for the Russians to create a universal monarchy” and to “absorb and destroy” nationalities. (Document 11) An Austrian editorial stated that “Austria must put itself at the head of the Slavs and promote their national development.” (Document 5) This would be sure to “destroy all illusions of a Russian Pan-Slavism” and bring favor to Austria. Many Polish people believed that forming a Pan-Slav Empire would “renew an independent Poland” and “destroy the Ottoman and Austrian empires.” (Document 8) Despite the author having Polish bias, it is evident that...
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...Oh Mother Russia, known for being very proud of their country throughout history, even attempting to conquer the world. “The Song of Igor’s Campaign” exemplifies the nationalist stereotypes of the Russian people through many lines of direct praise to the country of Russia, which is a strangely modern ideology. The poem is an epic song that sings of the conquests of Igor and his family, in which they attempt to take over pagan lands. Early on in the poem, it is stated that “O Russian land, you are already behind the culmen! (141-143).” Essentially this is saying that Russia is right at the top, only behind the actual beak of power of their swords. This is restated about 55 lines later, solidifying its representation of the power of Russia. A more obvious representation of their pride is stated even earlier, "Steeds neigh beyond the Sula; glory rings in Kiev; trumpets blare in Novgorod[-Seversk]; banners are raised in Putivl (73-74)." Though these are signs of celebration after successful military conquests, coupled with other ideas shown throughout the poem, they clearly seem to have a connection to nationalism: feeling superiority over other countries. The nationalist attitudes of the Russians portrayed in the epic poem also seemed to be tied to their filial relations, with Igor’s brother raising morale before they head off to battle by saying that their soldiers were essentially raised from birth in battle, “swaddled under war-horns, nursed under helmets, fed from the point...
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...Stalin: The Man of Steel Stalin became the leader of Russia through sly, deceitful, moves. He first became close to Lennon. He then rose up in the ranks and became general secretary under Lennon. Lennon then died which opened the leadership position to Stalin. He took the position as Lennon’s son or part of his family. Lennon’s widow then wrote a letter saying that Stalin is too harsh. The people chose Stalin over Trotsky, which they believed to be the lesser of two evils. Stalin then conciliated his power, becoming close to the leader of the other parties. Stalin got rid of those that opposed to him. He destroyed, exiled, or killed anyone that got in his way or had been a threat to him. It is absolutely terrible in my opinion what had happened under Stalin’s rule. There were families that starved, kids that suffered from dehydration, and they died. Parents had eaten their children; Russia’s people had gone insane. This had been a catastrophe beyond imagination. Also, he had killed his wife and had killed a man named Kier Off because he was one of his rivals. And Stalin has to get rid of anyone that was in his way. The children had almost worshiped Stalin. They thought of him as a good leader, but he had been an evil man. He had ordered innocent people to die just for no reason. Stalin was absolutely insane. All of these incidents are very similar to the incident of the Holocaust, in Germany. They had been transferred in Cattle cars just as Stalin had done. They’re...
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