The Pledge Drive...

Victor, Sergei and Kolia, my partners who waited a year just to find out that there wouldn't be a bike business. These are amongst the people who have suffered the most

I hope everybody liked the April fools joke. Apparently they did because the Being Had Times broke yet another record for readers last night and as of the moment, and this is with six hours left in the Belarusian day, and six hours left in the American workday, It looks like I am going to be right back up around the same level today again.

That first piece was actually written in August of last year. I don't remember what had gotten into me at that time, except that Belarusian diplomats were having a shouting war with Poland. And of course the country itself still seemed at the time like a real country rather than the... what are they calling us now.... a transit zone, is some other evil phrase such as that.

This being de-statis-ized has finally begun to set in with me. All of the attention seems to get focused on Russia these days. They are the player and we are... I need to not do that. I have a habit of associating myself with Belarus. I need to say that BELARUS HAS sort of begun to crumble away and to start to feel as though it really isn't even a real country any more; like we just lost 50% of our identity. I wrote a comment on TOL Blogs article this week that talks about how all of the information on Belarus having been wiped off their servers.

Maybe what happened is that they deleted Belarus from the map and the Wiki just reflected that. Maybe the whole country simply no longer exists. I know it felt as if everything that ever meant anything here was going away; the culture, the ideology, personal relationships. Maybe it finally happened.

I know I meant this when I said it and, given a week to think things over, I guess I still do. It any case this has been an odd spring. Maybe Dom Pravlenya's fascism has had something to do with how this all feels, I don't know.

But to get down to brass tacks, the real point of toady's post is to announce the BEINGHAD PLEDGE DRIVE!

What is this all about?

I need money.

Tanya and a then six-year-old Egor. Don't you think that the stress of the situation had a detrimental effect on their lives?

OK, ok; I understand that there are many who would automatically begin to laugh at such an overly simple phrase. "Of course you need money", says the reader, "Everyone needs money. There is nothing special there." (And you might also throw in something like: "If you wanted money, why the hell do you live in Belarus?") Well true enough that.

But I am not speaking here about simple, everyday, pay the bills, put food on the table money; I am speaking here of the need to raise a real war chest! I am talking about building up a real fund to fight the real fight I have wanted to undertake for almost five years now: I am speaking of victory, I am speaking of setting the record straight and I am speaking of finally being able to put the whole BEINGHAD situation to rest once and for all.

For three years I have been pushing these keys in support of defending my case, supporting the book and trying to keep at least a modicum of pressure on the Polish Judicial system not to do to others what they did to me. I could on about what their slander and theft of a year of my life (there is also a good argument that says five), my name and credibility has done to me and to my people but you all know the story already, it's all here; all of it. And it has been such a travesty. It was all wrong. It was not the bad guys who did this. I wasn't robbed by the criminals; I was robbed by the good guys; the cops and the so-called Polish Justice System.

Folks, they have to pay.

So the next six week or so, and this is going to basically be the time leading up to May 15th, which will be the fifth anniversary of the day Zaremba started all of this with his lies, I need to raise as much money as I can.

Where is the money going to?

1. It's at first going towards setting up a legal fund to fight the civil case.

2. Said civil case needs to be made public and this requires advertising.

3. People need to be involved which means their needs need to be covered. And in addition, people who have already been involved need to be paid back.

My goal is to try and raise $25,000. Let's consider it a bounty. I have given myself a year to do it, but maybe I can get this done in the next six weeks. Why not? Who is to say that this is not possible?

So as a starter, for every donation of $100 or more, I will happily send an autographed first edition of the book BEING HAD. (Please allow a little time for delivery.) Or, if the book is not to your liking, I am sure we can find a suitable gift in appreciation for the generosity.

Donations can be made via the pay pal buttons on any of the Being Had pages. For further information, please contact me at:

beinghad_mail@yahoo.com

(Note: I am also taking in advertising on all of the pages and investment opportunities are available as well.)

So please my friends and readers, now is the time to really do something about this. Now is the time, once and for all, to put this thing away. By supporting the beinghad webspot you are saying NO! to police corruption, to under-the-table politics, to the suppression of human rights, suppression of freedom of speech, suppression of freedom of thought and suppression of freedom from assault by people who have been entrusted by the public with the responsibility to protect our communities. Folks, it needs to be done. This thing has to happen and it has to happen now.

Please give generously: This is righteous war which must be won!

More soon...