Update from Belarus
1) Vincuk Viachorka, a prominent Belarusan activist from the united opposition that works together with Alexander Milinkevich, was arrested today. That happened after Milinkevich’s people had a big meeting with the voters near “Biarescie” cinema today. Since they were denied entry inside the building (which was a designated place for campaigning), they had to have the meeting outside. There were more than 1000 people present. Police considered this an “unsanction protest” and arrested Viachorka together with four other activists, after the meeting. They also confiscated their audio equipment (loud-speakers, microphones, speaker units…)
2) George Bush mentioned those two Belarusian women again, during his March 8 “women’s rights speech.” I guess he might have a crush on one of them. Or he really hates Lukashenka. Or both.
3) The Amnesty International project — hitch-hiking from Amsterdam to Belarus’ borders — is under way (I mentioned it in my blog earlier). Now they even have their own blog. But I won’t give a link. Because Dutch people are nasty, they call our country “wit-rusland” and “white russia”. When you explain to them that it’s incorrect in all respects, they still call it “wit-rusland”. So I’ll be nasty too and won’t link to their blog. ;)
Sign: a vicious blogger from near White Holland.
March 9th, 2006 at 8:14 am
The same for the nasty Latvians: Baltkrievija = the White Russia.
March 9th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Ritvars Eglājs: Yea, I know.
But at least for our ears it doesn’t sound so bad because Kriwi is our ancient tribe:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryvian
(In fact, the Latvian word for Russians is probably related to that tribe name, which makes it yet another case of historical confusion in our region ;)).
March 9th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Ritvars Eglājs: The problem with Dutch is that at least in Latvian it’s one word “Baltkrievija” (or even in German it’s one word “Weissrussland”, and besides they use “Belarus” more and more), but in Dutch they put it as two separate words: “Wit-Rusland”.
March 9th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
In Czech, it’s Belorusko (as you probably know).
March 10th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
And of course in “Klieneslitauen” (i.e. Lietuva, i.e. Lithuania) they call it “Baltarusija” (i.e. White Russia, i.e. Weissrussland). Just to confuse matters further.
OTOH they aren’t fond of Lukashenka; you should what they call _him_. So maybe they cancel each other out.
March 10th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
anon: I know. How about the word Gudja (Gudia?) in Lithuanian? Anyone uses it?
March 10th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
In Finnish we are nasty as well. We call your country Valko-Venäjä. Russia is Venäjä. And Valko-Venäjä is like White Russia. Belarus sounds somewhat weird for us and it is hard word for our grammar. Nobody uses it. Maybe it should be Pelarussi or something like that. So we could be able pronounce it. BTW, that was the first time I heard that the word wouldn’t be correct.
But yes, we are weird:
Germany = Saksa
Estonia = Viro
Sweden = Ruotsi
Russia = Venäjä
Austria = Itävalta
Belarus = Valko-Venäjä
Denmark = Tanska
Netherland = Alankomaat
USA = Yhdysvallat
France = Ranska
Poland = Puola
Finland = Suomi
and
Daugava = Väinä
St Petersburg = Pietari
Kiev = Kiova
Stockholm = Tukholma
Copenhagen = Kööpenhamina
Vilnius = Vilna
Pskov = Pihkova
March 10th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Riku: Thank you for your comment! :)
> BTW, that was the first time I heard that the word wouldn’t be correct.
There are two names:
1) Historical Rus’ == Ruthenia (as it’s called in Latin or in modern English)
2) Muscovy == Modern Russia
Historical Rus’ (Ruthenia) is what is today mostly Ukraine (Kievan Rus), Belarus (White and Black Rus), some parts of Poland and Slovakia with Ruthenian history, …and very-very small part of modern Russia.
Modern Russia is what grew out of Muscovy and it has almost nothing to do with the Old Rus’.
March 10th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
In Dutch Wikipedia there’s a good explanation that Wit-Rusland is not really a correct term, a historical misunderstanding:
“De benaming Belarus, met de klemtoon op de laatste lettergreep, is afkomstig van de Russische woorden Белая (Bjelaja, dat wit betekent) en Русь (Roes’, Roethenië), een oude historische benaming voor het gebied waar Oost-Slaven woonden. Dit gebied werd traditioneel onderverdeeld in Wit-Roethenië (grotendeels het huidige Wit-Rusland), Zwart-Roethenië (een gebied in het zuidwesten van Wit-Rusland), en Rood-Roethenië (een gebied in Polen en Oekraïne). Later werd de naam Roethenië beperkt tot het huidige gebied Transkarpatië in Oekraïne, terwijl Roes’ meer als synoniem voor (Groot-)Rusland werd genomen. De Nederlandse benaming Wit-Rusland is derhalve een letterlijke (zij het historisch gezien niet geheel correcte) vertaling van Belarus. In officiële teksten wordt in het Nederlands de naam Belarus gebruikt.
Sommige Belarussische nationalisten maken echter bezwaar tegen het gebruik van de term Wit-Rusland als vertaling van Белая Русь, omdat dit in hun ogen een associatie heeft met het imperialisme van Rusland in de tsarentijd en het Sovjettijdperk, terwijl het eigenlijk betrekking op Wit-Roethenië zou moeten hebben.”
So, at least, Dutch people who work on Wikipedia, are aware of the stuff that is being “lost in translation.” It’s good to know that.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks for sharing
February 7th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:
March 24th, 2008 at 3:52 am
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well.