It’s a pity so little is written on Belarus in English these days. No, I don’t mean blunt news translations published on a bunch of websites. I don’t mean analytical summaries printed by think tanks, RFE\RL, some foundations, etc. There are just a handful of English-language blogs focusing on this country. Very few are regularly updated. Blogs on Belarusian issues is what we badly lack. Wouldn’t it be great to read more personal stories, unspoiled by heavy analytical argot, party politics, etiquette prescriptions, etc. Bloggers, however unqualified, mediocre, amateurish they may be, are a great source to find out about the real state of things, because bloggers tend to write about the things they are personally involved with, worried about, agree or disagree with. Blogs are always fun.

That is exactly why we, at westki.info (a regional news project I work for), allow each and every user to have a blog on our Web site. Of course, there are some downsides of this. Once in a while, somebody registers and posts a slandering piece or something that only a KGB agent may write. Sometimes, the editors need to take it down or even block an abusive user’s account. But such cases are rare. Blogs have given our site the vibe of unpredictability and personal involvement of the people from our target audience.

In fact, blogs have become, I guess, the most vibrant part of the Belarusian Internet with users galore in both Belarusian and Russian on popular blogging platforms such as Livejournal.com and TUT.by. It’s a pity there are very few in English.

I’ve been running this blog for almost four years. It is now one of the oldest English-language blogs about Belarus. With so few colleagues I have, I feel a need to continue.