Scanlan: Beauty and truth stay forever, censorship – doesn’t

25/08/2011 - 10:08

Gathering creative people for an information happening is the annual tradition that has been kept by the U.S. Embassy for 6 years. However, the meetings used to be organized in the residence of the U.S. Ambassador in Raubichy and were called “Ambasovishcha”. The residence in Raubichy does not belong to the Embassy anymore – the Embassy refused to rent the building due to the absence of a permanent U.S. Ambassador to Belarus – nobody would have lived there.

However, it was decided to keep the tradition of “Ambasovishcha”. However, it will be a cut version of the event – not a festival but a reception. The goal will remain the same: to recognize Belarusians’ freedom of creative self-expression. Michael Scanlan, Chargé d' Affaires ad interim of the United States in Belarus, stressed that Belarus had a lot of problems with it.

Michael Scanlan: “The possibility of expressing your views with the help of art, poetry and prose is the basis of the society and personalities. They need to be able to develop and grow. Numerous competitive ideas are able to make us be more critical as regards ourselves and the society. Or it can simply give us a change to adore beauty. However, it should be up to the person to decide what to read and what to listen to. It should not be decided by the government – everyone understands beauty in their own way. Attacks on the freedom of creative expression only make the society poorer. Furthermore, they reveal the authorities’ fear and distrust to the people. Beauty and truth stay forever while censorship doesn’t. Unwritten bans, restrictions, forbidding performances at the last moment contradict to the spirit of creativity the way you, artists, understand it. Let the sad events become only a footnote on the pages of a history book soon”.