facts of life: about Belarus...

We're currently being hosted at the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius. For those of you who suck at Geography, Vilnius is not in Belarus.

We have, in the Campus Europae network, a Belarusian Higher Education Institution called European Humanities University (EHU), based in Vilnius. Again, not in Belarus.

EHU was founded in Minsk back in 1992, then shut down by the government in 2004. They dared oppose the government. EHU was re-established in Vilnius in 2005 and survives thanks to the support of a wide range of international institutions. Several students and professors at EHU took part in the protests against the rigged presidencial election in 2010. Some of them are imprisoned in Belarus.

Political repression is extremely violent in Belarus. Human Rights violations are all too common. Needless to say, organizations like the Human Rights House Network are not welcome there as long as Lukashenko is in charge.

Although this topic seems to go unnoticed in most of Western Europe (the mass media nearly ignored the Minsk Metro bombing in April - that alone would deserve a longer essay), the fact remains: our colleagues, our neighbours, our friends are forced to live under an oppressive regime that has no place in Europe or anywhere else in the world.

For how long will the rest of Europe pretend to ignore this?

facts of life: about Auschwitz...

In times of crisis, one can find fertile grounds for the appearance of populists and self-proclaimed saviours.

They take people's fears and uncertainties and amplify them as much as possible, and the people feel even more helpless.

Then they present themselves as the only ones who can get rid of these uncertainties, and the people rally around them.

Then they hide the roots of all the problems and just arbitrarily blame a minority, and the people always love a scapegoat.

Then they dehumanize the minority, and the people completely dettach themselves from that minority.

Then they start abusing the minority, breaching their Human Rights, and the people turn a blind eye.

Then they take advantage of the general apathy and start breaching everyone's Human Rights, and the people actually give away their rights and freedom.

Then, when it is too late to go back, things get out of control.

From fear to hate, from hate to dettachment, from dettachment to apathy, from apathy to cynicism, from cynicism to pure madness.

Visiting the Museum at Auschwitz is highly recommendable, as it opens one's eyes to the horror that may come from things getting out of control. There are enough, in fact too many examples of History repeating itself while people look the other way.

It is everyone's responsibility to remember the lessons of the past and to stand firmly against all abuse, against all Human Rights violations, against racist rethoric and nationalist tendencies.

As Human beings, when difficult times come, being neutral is not an option.