According to the departments of statistics, Baltic regional tourism is down 20 to 26 % with the exception of Belarus, whose tourism is up 23%. Experts attribute the rise mainly to cheap hookers but also credit the dig-your-own-amber campaign developed by President Lukashenko himself.
Lukashenko has modeled his scheme on kibbutz-style labor programs and advertised it in upscale western magazines as a "tough-love program for overconfident youth." Thousands of upper-middle class youth are sent to Belarus by their parents each week, where they toil alongside the Belarusian criminal class in the mines. "I met a murderer this morning!" said David Jones, child of an American gynecologist from Cincinnati, Ohio. "And I found that aside from him having killed his entire family, the two of us really weren't that different."
Belarus, who campaigns in international corridors as the "fourth Baltic state," is more and more taking the lead in progressive tourism development. Watch the LC for frequent updates.
Monday, November 30, 2009
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Please post a link to this work program. I want to send my neighbor's kid.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent program which many other nations could model. Iran, for example. I would love to send my whiney teenager to Tehran to live for a year just to wipe the smile of his face. Lukashenko sounds too kind for my kid.
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