What's Next?

Let's ask ourselves this question.

Do you know what hope is? No, it's not the expectation that the world will become perfect, exceptionally good and idyllically beautiful. Hope is a magnified version of curiosity.

This is the definition that I read in the book "The Gift" by Edith Eva Eger, a prominent American clinical psychologist and former prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp. It was the question "What's next?" that helped 16-year-old Edith to survive the death of her parents, to endure the monstrous, inhuman torture in the camp and the abuse of executioner Josef Mengele.

Yes, it was a difficult year. The war continued in Ukraine, started in Israel, the dictatorship was rampaging in Belarus. It is difficult to tally the results in such a situation. For it was another year of struggle. And this struggle was specific for everyone: for Belarusians, for Ukrainians, for Israelis, for citizens of other countries of the world.

The things that are happening in our countries today are the processes from which there is no hiding and no escape. After 2020, a lot of my acquaintances fled from Belarus to Ukraine, and many others to Israel. The war caught them up anyway. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians, who have fled to all countries of the world, remain closely connected with their homeland, because they have relatives, close friends there.

We, Belarusians, are like communicating vessels, pouring our pain and our strength to each other. And no matter how difficult it is, no matter how disappointed we may be from the lack of quick results, we should not give up, isolate ourselves, close our eyes to what is happening around us, because the whole life support system will get disrupted. No one can ever be happy on his own.

Heroes continue to die in our countries: soldiers, volunteers and civilians - in Ukraine and Israel, political prisoners - in Belarus. Their lives and deaths deserve to mean a lot for humanity and must not go up in smoke.

And this is our task - the one of those who have managed to survive. We must do everything in our power to help the living and preserve the memory of the dead, to achieve the goals we have set together - the freedom and independence of our countries, democracy, a safe home, a better future for our children.

I believe that hope and the curiosity-filled question of "What's next?" will help us do this. If we decide that everything is futile or impossible, so be it. But if we act, who knows what will come of it?

I'm sure that next there will come plenty of good, happy, and joyful moments, too. For if we get a fire to burn, the light will definitely overcome the darkness.

Natallia Radzina, Charter97.org Editor-in-Chief

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