Rapscallion Magazine Diary: the horrors of Lukashenko’s police state of Belarus continues but it reminds me of a joke from Soviet Russia’s secret police

The horrors of Lukashenko’s police state of Belarus continues with more arrests and detentions in the East European state. The only light is shone by the work of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who won the last election but lives in exile in Poland. She highlighted the numbers of female political prisoners in her country held there simply for demanding democracy in a demo or as trivial as holding up a blank piece of paper as a protest.
Yes a blank piece of paper with nothing on it. It reminded me of the joke eminating from Stalin’s Russia and the thought police of 1984. Two secret policement are observing a dissident in their flat making an anti Stalin poster. One says to the other: “Are you thinking what I’m thinkin?” The other one says: “Yes.” “In that case,” says the first policeman, “I’ll have to arrest you.”
The madness continues.