I had a very interesting taxi ride from Minsk to Dudutki, a small village outside of the city. I was fortunate to meet a taxi driver who spoke English well. He told me some interesting stories on our 2-hour ride. A well-educated man, he had to quit teaching—a profession that he adored—because he did not earn enough to support his family.
He said that the Belarusian people were very obedient and respectful. He was proud of his country. “We don’t have any crime”, he said. When organized crime started to become a problem, Lukashenko, President of Belarus since 1994, (regarded as the last dictator of Europe) created a Special Forces squad to face them. He gave the squad unlimited powers. One by one, the crime bosses started to disappear. Sooner or later, they left the country completely –fleeing to the Ukraine and beyond.
There were other kinds of crime on the streets and highways. “You couldn’t stop to change your tire without getting robbed,” explained my taxi driver. So Lukashenko made another police squad to fix the problem. Again, the squad had unlimited rights, including the power to kill the criminals on the spot. Suddenly, all these crimes stopped. No one wanted to face the risk of getting slaughtered without a trial.
After hearing these stories, I decided to take a stroll to the Presidential Palace to see where Lukashenko lived. As I pulled the camera from my backpack, guards raced towards me and demanded that I put it away. Can you imagine not having the right to take photos of 10 Downing Street, Bellevue Palace, or the White House?
It is hard to believe that 10 million people live under such circumstances- under this degree of suppression in the modern world. But then again, think of all the countries, especially in Africa, that face similar peril. In many developed countries, we take our freedom for granted. We squander our right to vote, not realizing that in some countries it is a right so precious that people would easily give their lives for it. The people in Belarus, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, among many others, live in alternative realities with barely enough oxygen to breathe — starved of the basic right to decide their own destinies.
All this happens while the rest of the world continues on, largely oblivious to their plights. I met a young German man who said that he avoided travel to Belarus at all costs because it was a dictatorship. I would argue the reverse – that we shouldn’t leave the people there stranded in some strange alternative reality. Instead we should do everything in our power to build bridges from the outside-in and empower the people to build bridges from the inside-out.
If enough bridges are built, freedom can seep in. People can take control of their futures. They can influence and shape the societies in which they live. After all, isn’t this a basic human right?
The people of Belarus and other dictatorships around the world would benefit from employing the principles found in the book, Relational Diplomacy. They can learn ways to organize, create change from within, and transform their own societies.