Culture and Ethnicity Essay

Belarus has a diverse culture and ethnicity. Statistics from the 1989 population census revealed that the Belarusian in soviet union were majority making up over 77% of the total population, the Russians cover 13. 2%, the poles 4. 1% Ukrainians 2. 9% and others who include Tatars, Lithuanians and Latvians cover 2. 9%. I am a Belarusian, a community that makes up the large majority of the people (Mongabay 2009). The Belarusian language is east Slavic tongue which is intimately related to Ukrainian and Russian. The language is the soul of the nation and an important aspect of culture a part from being a means of communication. The Belarusian, have diverse religious affiliations. I am a Russian orthodox Christian though other religions also exist in the region; the Protestants, roman Catholics, Jewish and Muslims (Mongabay 2009). Family and community history describe the current multi-culture as a product of millennium development with several external influence like physical surroundings; merger of Slavic and Baltic natives, paganism, orthodox religion interaction with literary customs, lack of natural borders and a diversity of religions. Education in Belarus region is compulsory for all the age groups seven to seventeen years especially in the primary school and secondary school. During the communist reign, teaching was chiefly done in Russian with no Belarusian but this was changed in 1992 when Belarusian was made the national language and to be used in schools. The healthcare services have failed to meet the requirements of the large population, the staffs is poorly trained and substandard technology cannot conform to new changes (Mongabay 2009). The human service organizations have created some centers like the republic centre on AIDS to help manage the national problem. Reference Mongabay. com (2009) Belarus Society: Country Studies. Federal Research Division retrieved on 20th January 2009 from http://www. mongabay. com/reference/country_studies/belarus/SOCIETY. html