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Toilet Type Shop

They are not only mean but also worthless.

Still, the life of the Minister of Internal Affairs Kubrakov is very interesting. On Friday, he celebrated the anniversary of the Mahiliou police institute with an afterparty. On Saturday, he came to participate in the Dynamo society centennial celebration with a life-sized riot police puppet and also an afterparty. On Tuesday, he discussed with Russian policemen the techniques for catching Belarusians in Russia and Russians in Belarus. I have no doubt there also was an afterparty. And on Thursday, he cut a red ribbon in front of a nondescript warehouse in a remote village. He opened a shop.

The opening of a shop that would sell goods produced by prisoners was as pompous as the opening of a public toilet in the Hrodna market or a flagpole in Homiel, which cost half a million dollars. Ribbons were cut there, and there were speeches. "Happy trails, toilet!". I'm not sure which of the officials said it, but it contains the whole essence of state absurdity. I think that pretty much describes the situation, I won't even try to put it better. There was another particularly important object that became the main news topic. It's very similar to the Hrodna market case - a public toilet in Homiel. They've paid a million dollars for its construction. I remember that journalists chased it furiously trying not to miss the opening. I even remember the victorious subheading in Komsomolskaya Pravda: “The correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda was the first to visit the new toilet." Yesterday, a shed in an open field became such breaking news. It sells goods produced by convicts.

This store was opened with the same fanfare as the toilet: they stuck red-green flags into the ground around, drove people in uniform and civilians, put a tribune with a coat of arms in front of the entrance, and they put the Minister of Internal Affairs there. He gave a solemn speech and then cut a red ribbon. By the way, the Belarusian security bodies and officials called this shed in the village of Riabinauka, only nine residents are living there, not just a store, but a showroom of the Department of Corrections. The Showroom of the Department of Corrections in Riabinauka sounds like the well-known names of outlets from the nineties: The Empire of Toilet Bowls or the Kingdom of Pillowcases.

It was clear that Kubrakov was very proud. He said that the location of the store is damn convenient (only 36 kilometers from the city, just to drop by after work), that you can buy everything there - from clothes to furniture - and, most importantly, that the need to open it is long overdue. Because citizens often asked where they could buy goods made by prisoners, and where they could see the goods with their own eyes and even touch them. So the ministry went to meet the wishes of the people.

I honestly tried to imagine a sane citizen of the Republic of Belarus, who requires the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to open a showroom of the Department of Corrections. I failed. My imagination failed. I tried to imagine Kubrakov tired after work and going home by a trolleybus. He thinks about what else to improve in the structure of the ministry, hangs on the handrail, looks out the window. Then a citizen of the Republic of Belarus comes up to him and says: “You do not respect the people, Kubrakov. The boys and I have already run off our feet in search of shoes made personally by Seviarynets. And they also saw a pretty girl on YouTube once - Andreeva, was her surname. So, they say that she sews body warmers. We’d like to buy it. It’s an omission, however!” Kubrakov thinks deeply and even misses his stop. But by morning he has a fresh idea: there will be a showroom. So, I can even imagine this scene. But the face of a citizen who urgently asks to open a store of goods from prisoners - I can’t. I have a white spot there. Because there is no such citizens in Belarus.

It's likely that the Operational Analytical Center, for example, thought out this citizen and now, at his insistent requests, they increase the retirement age, open stores with goods from prisoners, cancel army service postponement for students studying abroad, arrest 'troublemakers' and expand the application of the death penalty. This citizen has neither a face nor a name - only a function. This is like a jacket from Soviet times. An official hung it on the back of his chair when visiting a young lady or a steam bath in the middle of the working day, so that the employees could get it: a jacket on a chair means that the owner just went out for a minute, that is why the jacket is hanging. Fortunately, real people of Belarus with names and faces will not buy any goods made in prisons.

So, I'm not going to dissuade: "Do not go there, do not use the results of prisoners' forced labour, bypass this damn showroom." There is simply no need to say it. No one will go there anyway, except perhaps the employees of the Department of Corrections, and by order only. I strongly believe that this collective farm fair, this store, will soon close, repeating the fate of the Homiel million-dollar public toilet. This is the fate of all their projects. Because they are not only mean but also worthless.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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