Rampant inflation!

The Baltic Course reports that from March public bus tickets (if pre-purchased) will rise to 2 litas per bus journey (if your journey involves more than 1 bus, you pay it for each bus). Only in December 2008 the cost had increased from 1.10 LT to 1.80 LT, after several years at that level. Shocking or what?

Meanwhile the same paper tells us that the government is now looking at establishing a new airline, in place of flyLAL which went bankrupt in January, with the state holding a share in it. At the moment the situation is rather chronic, with folk having to hop via all sorts of places to get to major capitals. I hope they get it up, soon - as long as the state does not take too much of a financial hit. Does not look like we could afford that!

Riots and change in Vilnius

Not only were there riots in Vilnius yesterday - not so that I would have noticed, living only 10 minutes from the parliament, but now also Lithuanian airlines, flyLAL has been grounded at the request of its creditors.

The New York Times reports that tear gas and rubber bullets were used - this seems to be right enough; here's
a video, from the Lietuvos Rytas website, of the events and it shows a chap with a rubber bullet in his
leg, as well as the teargas being used. The rioters were younger ones;
as I had mentioned before, most of the demonstrators were older people
- but there is also a flash of an old lady being manhandled. There was certainly no sign of people running around the streets in panic or anything else near where I live, so it must have been very confined.  A psychotherapist I know has her offices right next to the parliament; that must have made for some happy sessions.

It seems to have led to the resignation of the prime minister, Mr Kubilius, if I understand this article right.  He tells us, now, after rushing through a stringent economic emergency package hated by everyone, that he is not an economic expert (he was in office for about 3 months)....I never had that high an opinion of him, though I know people who do. Perhaps some other country governments, using tear gas and rubber bullets against their own people, could take a leaf out of his book.

Meantime, the courts have grounded Lithuanian airlines, or flyLAL. It has huge debts; there had already been danger of it not being allowed to fly to Riga over non-payment of debts (debt has since been paid); in September or so it offered itself to the state to be nationalised, at the cost of 1 Litas (about 30 Eurocents), at the beginning of the year there was a danger that it might not be allowed to use Vilnius airport over non-payment of other debts, but this was sorted, somehow, then it was sold to a Swiss company, and now, in the middle of January, it's been grounded at the request of its creditors.

At the same time I am not totally convinced about airbaltic's performance; they did sort our my flight very nicely last November, when heavy snow caused problems, but I see they no longer have a direct flight from Vilnius to Berlin, and I'm not sure how well is the partnership with SAS, who are supposed to own it (I thought). Travelling to Cologne next month will mean quite a complicated three-hop journey for me.

My tits are getting fat!

No, this is not a report of my body (where the opposite is the case, thanks for asking....), it's the black (coal?) tits I am talking about.

Since November I have been feeding them, with fine, homeproduced lard (still have not found any in the shops in Vilnius, but am beginning to ask myself if they dye it yellow here) and peanuts, in an empty Mamade tin. The last one lasted till about today.

Today another session of melting down the pork fat, and seeing it's Christmas, they had some raisins mixed into it as well. Aren't they just lucky?

They are beginning to look quite chubby now, and I wonder how much longer they will be able to swing themselves up to the fifth floor balcony....

Partial burial

Here is a story of 81-year-old Lithuanian Mr J. L. who a few weeks ago had to have a leg amputated due to diabetic complications, as happens far too often.

The hospital gave the leg to the family. The family was aghast and did not know what to do with it. So they went to the municipality who gave them permission to bury it in the family plot. 3 weeks later the owner died himself, and rejoined his leg.

Given that this story landed in the papers, one assumes that this is not how Lithuanian hospitals normally deal with these things. Or where they looking for a fee to dispose of the leg? What about then other body parts, appendices, breasts, tumours?

I suppose it's better than the incident in Scotland 8 or so years ago when a leg was found, chewed by foxes, under a bush in hospital grounds. That took a bit of explaining....

 

What Brits can't buy in Lithuania

Currants - or in Georgia; they are just not available; but raisins in various shades are. Black raisins can be substituted.
Marmalade - actually, you can get it at Marks and Spencer's, even in different varieties, thin and coarse-cut, and from blood oranges. Somehow I like to make my own marmalade; recently someone brought me over a tin of Mamade, the pulp and peel of Seville oranges.....
Lard - you'd think you would be able to buy this in a country whose diet is,er, not that easy on fat. But in fact you have to make your own. How do you do that? You buy some pig skins (with the fat on), stick them in a low oven for a few hours and the fat melts. Learnt that a long time ago in Scotland.
Mixed peel - you can get it in Goodwill in Georgia, but when you go there, you end up buying all sorts of stuff you don't need.....Here's a recipe for it; American, and typical in its large quantities.... a 'gallon bag' would almost fill my freezer. I bought a bag of oranges, drank the juice of 8 of them, made the mixed peel and probably have enough for the next year.
Bramble jam - a friend complains about that; also you have to make your own, if you find the brambles.
Baking powder - people tell me. The problem is that it comes in sachets, called 'kvepimo miltelai'. With a German background I know those sachets, from the Dr Oetker company, well. But it seems Lithuanians and Poles bake for larger families; the sachets we get here are for 1kg of flour; in Germany they are for 500g. So careful if you use them for a German recipe calling for one sachet! 'Levure Boulangere', which I bought at IKI the other day, delighted to find sachets for 500g, in fact contains dried yeast, as I discovered to my horror.....

Then again, you can buy all sorts of other lovely stuff, like zillions of sorts of mushrooms.

'Black assholes'

...is how the president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation described two of his players.  He was not referring to the colour of their hair. With friends like this....

The chaps in question did not know about this for a while seeing as they do not speak Lithuanian. A complaint went to the General Prosecutor's office who let him off on a technicality.

Meanwhile 80% of people in a Vilnius University survey said they could not work or communicate with 'different' people (on the grounds of ethnicity, sexual preference, language or religion). I wonder who they asked and where the survey was carried out. I knew Lithuania was 'differentphobic' but that the rate is so high is appalling. No?

Coffee in Vilnius

The Baltic Times writes a gushing article on coffee houses in Vilnius, and especially the chains we now have here, like Coffee Inn or Double Coffee, where you get 'a decent breakfast along with your morning coffee'.  If you have plenty of time, that is - the service in Double Coffee, whether you are in Kiev or Vilnius, is notoriously slow.  After one morning finding half the staff asleep on the benches in a Kiev branch open 24 hours a day, it kind of put me off a little.

But are these reports really neutral? Did I not hear the other day that journalists get paid by the subjects of the 'research' for writing nicely about them?

Skiing in Lithuania??

This article praises the slopes and infrastructure of Lithuania - for skiing!

Bit of a surprise there - Lithuania is essentially flat; the highest mountain is 957 feet (or 292 m above sea level). Would not think it is quite the thing for professionals....

Thank God for that!

Here it says that the referendum (why a referendum?) on delaying the closure of the Ignalina Power Station in Lithuania (an agreement condition on joining the EU) failed to have sufficient voters (50%) to make it valid (though those who did vote were nine to one for the delay).

Would have been embarassing to have achieved the planned delay. On the other hand, given that the planned new nuclear power station will not be ready until 2015 at the earliest, it also means that there will be an energy gap between 2009 (closure date) and the running of the new station, of 70% of electricity. This means though, apparently, an increased dependence on Russian oil or gas - not entirely a happy thought.

Lithuanian election

Once again the Lithuanian parliamentary elections have produced a bit of a mogre for the forthcoming parliament. The most successful party, the Christian Democrats, got 19.07% - the reigning Social Democratic Party was fourth with 11.84% (all after counting 1929 out of 2034 wards), with the National Revival Party and the Law and Order Party (the mind boggles) in between. I have a feeling the first three are all right-wing. Kubilius, the leader of the winning party, looks shockingly aged.

What sort of government will we get?

Within 10 feet of Greatness!

There I was, sitting in my favourite spot outside the Neringa Hotel, minding my own business, when the road cleared magically, and suddenly a cavalcade of government cars shot by. 't was Angela Merkel and Mr President Valdas Adamkus rushing along no doubt from the Parliament (and the currently very sensitive memorials of the 1991 events) to the President's Palace. Our President's feelings about Russia are well-known - at times his behaviour is rather petty (I can't believe that when the new Russian ambassador arrived [incidentally a military man with a Georgian surname] the president refused to see him for a fortnight, blaming a full diary). Their exchange of views will have been frank, I suspect.

Strangely, on the German news a few hours later, not a whisper was heard about Lithuania, only about Estonia where it seems she had also been on the same day. The Estonians expressed their feelings about Russia and the Russia language volubly (in English). They said, and they are probably right, that Russia was not a (rational) nation like Western states and should not be treated as such. Germany tends to have a policy of cautious approachment, not entirely in sync with most Western countries, and certainly not in sync with the Baltic states.

Cheap properties for rent!

Are you a Lithuanian government minister, or even vice minister or ministry secretary? Need a place to stay? Fancy a really, really nice location?

Well, just go to the Government's Chancellory Estates Department; they'll sort you out with a lovely flat in the most desirable location in Vilnius (Turniskes) for 180 lt per month. See here and here.

For comparison, a 12 square metre room in a [probably dingy] student hostel costs 170 lt per month, and you would not get much of a flat in the open market for less than 2000 lt.

Beneficiaries of the government's largesse currently include the deputy culture minister and composer Gintaras Sodeika (his own flat is being done up - aaah, the soul, he could not hear himself think, never mind compose in such an environment), various ministry secretaries (similar to vice ministers, but not - apparently - political appointments) and others. The Prime Minister is spitting blood and says if this is really the case, the guilty parties will be punished.

The head of the estates department says that they tried several times to correct the rental price for these flats, but a decision was not made, and they themselves cannot change anythings. 'Our hands are tied, guv'.

I would now urgently look for some other places to stay, if I were a tenant in those apartments - on the other hand, how long will it take to make a decision on these thing?

Sometimes I'm really embarrassed....

about the country I live in. Lithuania, anti-semitic? No, not a country that in its spring carnival has people dressing up as Jews (and Roma people), and where in some towns anti-semitism is almost encouraged (Siauliai)....

It seems now that one or two elderly Jews might be prosecuted for war crimes. I say 'might' because the story is from the Jewish Chronicle and it does not actually say a prosecution is pending. It 'just' says that the Lietuvos Aidas newspaper has called for Fania Branstovski to be put on trial for war crimes, on account that as an anti-Nazi partisan she committed crimes against Lithuanians (but what if those Lithuanians were Nazis? It's not unheard of in Lithuania, not even today.). Lietuvos Aidas is a bit of a funny newspaper, I think. Has an extremely basic website, and I could have sworn that one of its journalists, Sigitas Geda, has collaborated with the Jewish composer Anatolijus Senderovas over one or two pieces, quite some time ago.

Not sure how much of this is smoke without fire. The embassy in London has said that Ms Branstovsky may be invited as a witness in a case involving Soviet partisans alleged to have carried out a massacre in the village Kaniukai. Two other people, both of whom live abroad and may well have done so for many decades, are in fear of being prosecuted. One of these is the former chairman of Yad Vashem. Apparently he is reluctant now to return to his home town. But, given that many of his relatives may have been killed in this home town, what actual feeling would he have for it anyway.

I think I've met Ms Branstovsky. If anyone were to prosecute her I suspect it might cause quite a few political waves...Then again, the massacre....we don't let off concentration camp guards just because of age. I don't know - it's really difficult.

You cannot quite imagine this sort of thing happening in Germany, can you?

The bubble's bursting?

Headline in today's 'Lietuvos Rytas' newspaper suggests that Lithuanian house prices might fall by as much as 30% - already, it seems, newly built apartments are being sold with a 'discount' of 20%.

That was a problem waiting to happen. Prices had shot up in the last five years to a level which had no relation to people's incomes. Whole new neighbourhoods are mushrooming all over Vilnius - in a country where the population is shrinking. Or perhaps the population of Vilnius is growing?

Maybe now houseprices will connect a bit with reality. Bit of a pain for those of us who have mortgages attached to our homes; let's hope we get through this - eventually things will bottom out.

Does anyone do any work around here?

Came home to Vilnius on Monday. Discovered that Thursday, 1 May, was a public holiday (don't think it has always been that in recent years), which meant that Friday was automatically also a public holiday (people work off this bridging day on a designated Saturday). On Saturday discovered that Monday is a public holiday because Mother's Day, 4 May, fell on a Sunday.

A 5-day weekend! That's really irritating when you come back here to see people, and all you get is holidays (though the person I really needed to see gave up a bit of her Thursday for me, which was nice).

Mr Algirdas Sysas, the chairman of the social affairs committee of the Parliament, and a guy who I respect enormously (what vision!), apparently was not too bothered about this, saying that Lithuanians work almost the longest hours in Europe, so this is ok.

Not sure that everyone works the longest hours in Europe - the military police opposite my flat usually deserts its posts not much after 1pm on a 'working' Saturday.

Schengen

We've really made it! Arriving in Vilnius yesterday I was dismayed when I found myself on the wrong side of the bus to be the first to reach passport control at the airport - my regular sport on my journey home, and one in which I usually win.

Turns out that for Schengen flights there is no passport control any more.....which explains also why the flight left from a passport-free end of Vienna airport (after I had trundled through their passport control to get to the usual departure gate I then found I had to re-enter Austria to leave for Vilnius). Life's so easy now....

Tbilisi-Moscow

After about 18 months of embargo, direct flights have resumed between Moscow and Tbilisi.

One part of my mind says, why would any self-respecting Georgian want to fly to Moscow? Terrible, cold, corrupt place.

Reality is, however, that there is much work in Moscow, and those Georgians who already live in Moscow will be glad not to have to fly via Riga or Istanbul any more.

Will this have an impact on Istanbul-Tbilisi flights?

En passant, here in Lithuania I've been looking for Georgian wines - flying the flag and all that. Our government, of a country with a population of less than 3.5 million, 'stepped in ' when Russia started to boycott Georgian wines. Haven't had much success - I've seen some bottles of Georgian wine of varieties I don't know at all. Where are the Saperavis and Tsinandalis, those nice drinkable Georgian wines? I remember getting some in Vilnius just over a year ago....

Another Triumph for the Forces of Law and Order in Lithuania

This article states how the police in Vilnius charged two neo-nazis for marching in an unsanctioned march on 11 March (if you are still with me). You'll remember my blog of that day which I found my lunchtime nap rudely interrupted by chanting in the street below my house.

They charged 2. Impressive, no? I wonder how they chose them? When they passed my balcony there were about 200 of them, a police van behind them (which made me think it was sanctioned), and when I then skedaddled up the hill to take my photos of the then much diminished crowd, there must have been a good 15 or 20 policemen standing around. Maybe I should have chucked those eggs I had on me. But probably I would have been arrested.....

(The young lady in the picture looks like an innocent passer-by. Thought I ought to mention that). It's a shame I did not take pictures of them marching - would have been happy to help the police!

To misquote Heine 'Denk ich an Litauen in der Nacht, dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht' (though in this context the original 'Deutschland' in the place of 'Litauen' unfortunately can also remain, especially in Berlin).

From ecopoiesis to autopoiesis

You might realise that these are not my wurdzz......

Today was the first day of the International Conference on the European Year of International Dialogue, in Vilnius. You'll notice that the acronym EYID (try it as E-YID) is a little unfortunate. Shame.

Attendance was not so great, maybe 100 people in the first half, when no lunch was provided, a lot of people left, including that poor old Lithuanian man who comes to all conferences (has done so since I've been here) I suspect simply for a feed. We rather put him on the spot at ours 7 years ago (I did not know him then), when we went round the table in our seminar, introducing ourselves. Since then I have often seen him thrown out, but he gets full marks for persistence. I see he had a digital camera and shuffled up to take some photos....He's not so good at the walking now.

Anyway. There were a variety of speakers from different European and national organisations, NGOs, you name it...

After the usual opening speeches by the Culture Minister, and two ambassadors of EYID (a curator and a film-maker who said that economy divides people, culture unites - hmmmmm - and that culture was more important than money - he signs my song, but....) we got into the meat of the morning, with a wonderful, enthusiastic talk by Vladimir Sucha, the Slovakian Director for Culture, Communication and Multilingualism at the European Commission. What a job to have!
He had lots of sound bites like 'in earlier days the economy came first and culture last, now it's turning in the opposite direction', what with the ageing workforce and a need for millions of migrant workers in the EU, many of whom may not come from European backgrounds. Another one - 'earlier it was about integration of states, now it is about integration of people'. And that's why the EU now has a cultural agenda, too - yeah! He mentioned that usually it was thought that rational thought was the most important part, but now it is seen that the spiritual (and emotional?) is just as important (imagine the team member who is not a people person....). Apparently 2.6% of EU GDP is produced by culture, which is more than the car industry. How about that for a balance??? The website is www.dialogue2008.eu. Go there.

The Lithuanian UNESCO rep was impressive in that she spoke without notes, but alas, also with not too much enthusiasm (do you notice something here - my music reviewer part is thinking of performance). But this was generally the way of the Lithuanian presentations, even when they were done by former actors. Is it something to do with lack of self confidence? UNESCO, according to her focuses on dialogue between civilisations (and it seems they tried to put together a cadre of commentators who would give well-reasoned comments on events rather than inflammatory ones), also on pure culture (you value mine, I value yours, and do you value your own? - at this stage I wondered about Lithuania and the Uzgavenes festival [carnival], where people dress up as Jews and 'Gypsies'), and on addressing the vexed question of returning artefacts stolen from one nation and displayed in the museums and stately homes of other nations.

The Lithuanian equality ombudsman came next, saying that Lithuania (now 85% Lithuanian, and there are more Poles than Russians among the rest) is not good on tolerance, with people only accepting the mainstream Christian faiths. And as for the Roma population (0.1%), well, they look just so different, and the Lithuanians don't like people who look different. (In the translation the emphases on the words made it sound even worse!). Not sure what's actually being done about it. I wondered if you could complain to her about Uzgavenes....

Gianluca Solera, a Lombardy Italian working for the Ann Lindh foundation in Alexandria (not Scotland, Egypt) startled us all when he greeted everyone with 'Salaam Aleykum'. (It says in the programme that he carries the name of a Sephardic name of the 15th century...). He's an architect, has been an actor, and a Green politician....The Ann Lindh foundation works on dialogue between North and South, especially round the mediterranean, and it creates partnerships between institutions. He wants to get a critical mass going to develop a mass movement in favour of dialogue and understanding between nations. He would like to develop an annual or biennial (two yearly) barometer of feelings about the others among us, and apparently there are small grants available for this. At times he flew up into the ether of cultural theory and I suspect he slightly lost the translators. But the words in the title were not his. This is the foundation website.

Finally before lunch (the lunch break...) a rather interminable talk by Marie-Christine Lorang of the French Culture and Communication ministry about cooperation with Asia and Oceania. She had a written script, which made it hard to divert from if you try to cut time. She reminded us that there are three levels of intercultural dialogue, within a country, between EU states, and between EU members and third countries. In terms of the first she reminded us further of the basic right for people to participate in the social and cultural life of a country (social inclusion, a fantastic French invention, even if it rather spectacularly fails in France from time to time). Then she outlined all the Alliance Francaise centres, the French Cultural Centres (I know the ones in Tbilisi, Istanbul and Vilnius). Every now and again cultural politics comes up against real politics - this year Israel was [supposed to be?] the guest at the French Book Fair, and all Arab states boycotted it. Currently they are dealing with requests for human remains from native Australians and New Zealanders. As she said 'What was politically correct 100 years ago, may no longer be correct today'. Indeed.

Now, if you ever want to know anything about Slovenia and wonder who to ask for a presentation, go, beg, borrow, steal Sonja Kralj Bervar of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture. She is just wonderful. WONDERFUL! What a presenter! What a presentation! The presentation on what Slovenia had done for EYID described their progress from 'Mission Impossible' to 'Mission Possible' to 'Mission Remarkable', with sound effects and everything, and the way she was telling the story - wow! It was like 'Now children, let's sit down and I'll begin'. It was like telling a fairy tale, a surprise round every corner, hushed voice when it needed to be hushed, looking round the room making sure everyone was engaged. We were all hanging on her lips, smiling at her, willing her on. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.

This was followed by the presentation by the Portuguese cultural attache at the embassy. Seems like the Portuguese are doing much useful work here, like supporting the teaching of Portuguese at the University, cultural exchanges and so on. He described the cultural exchange of the spread of the Portuguese language (the ocean of cultures), referred to writers from all over the place - not sure that the conquest of Brazil and other colonial places should strictly speaking be described as a cultural dialogue, though. Some people might have a different understanding.

The Director of Vilnius Capital of Culture 2009 talked about the plans for the project, which has four components, one is the arts events etc, then there is the admin side, the information side and something else. Depressing if arts forms only part of it. I was a bit shocked to hear that the Seimas has changed the focus of the Capital of Culture to 'Vilnius - gateway to Lithuania'. It's seen as creating Lithuania's image since not many people know about Lithuania. The culture should involve everyone and should be a bit of a moving target, akin to Fluxus. Right. I see the LSO and Gergiev will be coming for this - she shot past the cultural slides so fast, I could not take notes. I worry. Boy, I am worried.

Sacha Kagan of the Lueneburg University gave a talk about dance and dialogue. Now he was the one with the words in the title, and much of his talk was at a similar level. The Lithuanian beside me, with fluent English, took my headphones from me, but then reported that the simultaneous translators were totally flummoxed. Basically it is about diversity (cultural, bio, you name it) being connected to sustainability. He suggested that dance, and dancing other people's dances, helps you to get under their skin, and an understanding of how things look through their eyes - kinaesthesia? That's one word he did not use. The sequence of developments then is 'monocultural dance' where you dance your own culture's dance, multicultural dance where groups get together dancing their own dances and others watch, intercultural dance where people learn each other's dances, and transcultural dance (or post-modern dance) where new dance forms emerge from all these dances - 'melting pot' comes to mind. Interesting! Thanks to Giannandrea whoever who gave those wonderful talks at the Edinburgh Festival, I know about post-modern dance.

This is ..... Lithuania!

This bunch of young ones, well, about twice as many, woke me from my afternoon reverie. I reckon they are neo-Nazis.

There were marching past my house, accompanied by the police, waving Lithuanian flags, waving their arms - hmm, shouting something....Doc Martin and other bootmakers must have done well out of them. Then ended somewhat listlessly outside the Moulin Rouge bar at the top of my hill.

Country to be proud of? For carnival they dress up as Jews and 'Gypsies', the Mayor of Vilnius bans any event remotely homosexual....

Oh boy, oh boy!