Thie Week's NATIONAL ETIQUETTE AWARD goes to...Belarus!

Belarus Page in Wikipedia

World Factbook: Belarus

WWW Belarus

The Virtual Guide to Belarus

I hereby grant the National Etiquette Award to Belarus, because it is the custom in that country to remove shoes when entering homes.

Informed readers will realise that my choice of Belarus was inspired by this weekend's election.

It is a great disappointment that president Lukashenko has been re-elected into office with a landslide majority. It is higly likely that the result was rigged. Though there are demonstrations against the result and the opposition leader has refused to recognise it, there does not seem to be the energy of the Orange Revolution that occurred in Ukraine just yet.

Lukashenko is arguably the last dictator of Europe. He has domminated the country and prevented democracy for years. Soviet totalitarianism is alive and well in Belarus.