Alena Anisim Council Chairperson of NGO
Municipal organization
"BLS named after F.Skaryna",
Vice-Chairperson of NGO
"BLS named after F.Skaryna"

TECHNOLOGY OF BELARUSIANNESS IN BELARUS

    The primary function of each language is to be vehicle for communication and perception of the world. In modern informational society it is the native language by means of which a person can feel his/her presence in this world, his/her connection with these or those events. On the other hand, only through his/her own native language and its full value functioning a person can feel interest to his/her personality from one particular society and the world in general. That is why the primary issue of our round-table discussion "On the national unity of the language in commercials and marketing" was to find out to what extent the needs of the Belarusian-speaking people are satisfied through the Belarusian language in the sphere of economics and information. The second point was to find out the reasons, which coursed such situation. And the last issue was to decide what to do in order to widen the use of the Belarusian language in the sphere of commercials and marketing.
    The preparatory work for the round-table was not easy and took much time. Sometimes it seemed that nobody (except for BLS) was interested in this discussion. Still on the 29th of April there was held the sincere discussion on many important questions. All participants stated the unsatisfactory use of Belarusian in the sphere of commercials and marketing. It can be clearly seen if we compare the number of Belarusian-language commercials and the number of people for whom Belarusian is a mother tongue, according to the census of 1999. In fact, the native speakers of Belarusian are deprived of the information about the goods and things of daily use. They are excluded from the international economic area. The absence of the Belarusian language on the goods labels, commercial posters and price-lists prove that these products and goods are not addressed to people who speak Belarusian. And this is already the fact of discrimination.
    Several reasons were named as the factors which led to such negative situation. First, the language of the state government cabinets is Russian. So the manufacturers and advertisers get the wrong conception of the one - language use in the country. Second, the Commercials Act doesn't take into account the real situation in the country and it ignores the results of the census of 1999 and what is very important, it doesn't regulate the use of both state languages.
    During the discussion there appeared a lot of useful and interesting proposals, remarks and wishes. For example, the visual decoration of the capital could be only in Belarusian - which is the language of the title nation. Information as well as commercials should be in proportion 80:20, where 80 is the percentage of Belarusian, according to the results of census 1999. One of the requests is to stimulate manufacturers and advertisers who use Belarusian.
    Summing up the discussion the Committee Chairman on Business of UNESCO in Belarus Mr.Shchasny proposed to BLS together with Belarusian Writers Union to join the House of Representatives with the initiative of supplement and changes to the Commercials Act.
    Let me say a few worlds about some disappointing things about the discussion. First, unfortunately there were no representatives of Ministry of Economics of Belarus. Meanwhile they could have made some useful remarks and listened to the requests of the others. Second, though the member of the House of the Representatives Mrs. N. Tsyrkun was present, she didn't seem to pay any attention to the discussion's issues as she tried to follow her own mercantile aims. She came with the private cameraman who filmed only her speech, which, by the way, wasn't to the point of the discussion. Third, the National Radio and TV Company didn't provide the public with full accurate information about the problems, which had been discussed at numerous round-tables in the framework of the preparation for this symposium. That is why there is only the minimal hope that some concrete actions will be taken for improving the situation. Nevertheless I apply to the members of the House of Representatives who are present here with the public request tî bring for consideration of the session the issue of the unsatisfactory use of the Belarusian language in the economic and informational areas and to initiate the changes in the legislation (Commercials Act and Languages Act) so that they reflect practically the language situation and regulate the use of the state Belarusian language according to the census of 1999.
    The international community show interest and concern about the perseverance of all languages existing today in the world. The evidence for this is our symposium. It is time for all state and non-state organs of government to consider the public opinion and make the concrete steps for defending the right for information of the native Belarusian speakers. BLS is open for cooperation with the state organs and deputy body and with all who are interested for providing the language of the title nation with the full value functioning in all spheres of our lif