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!

Imbrasas is out!

The Vilnius city Mayor, Juozas Imbrasas, who I never cared for that much, has finally been voted out, in a vote of no confidence, it says here. Thank goodness for that. He was kind of unknown before he became mayor and people saw him as Rolandas Paksas' puppet (Paksas was the president who was impeached a few years ago). The vote of no confidence was based on the suggestion that Imbrasas managed the city in the interests of his political party.

But, in true old Soviet fashion, he is going to appeal to the courts over this; meanwhile it seems he has no intention of vacating his seat. Not sure what the courts have to do with a democratic process.....

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.

Dead Gedimino Prospektas

This article comments on the deadness of Gedimino prospektas in Vilnius. And quite right they are, too. This part of Vilnius is the deadest main street of any capital city I have ever been to. Quiet in the evenings, quiet on weekends - I don't know what is the matter with Vilnius in this respect. No-one strolls of an evening, whether it's summer or winter. I don't think it has anything to do with the presence or absence of young people, as the article suggests....it may be that people find shopping centres, of which there are now many in Vilnius, more congenial and traffic free, particularly with children (this does not apply to the Gedimino 9 shopping centre which has nothing for children). There are few restaurants, only coffee shops, and nothing much happens. It's a shame....

New erections in Vilnius

Some new things have appeared near the crossroads outside my flat, and near some other crossroads. On about 4m high poles (not Poles), about 60 m before the traffic lights, sticking out across the street, are what appears to be little cameras. Near at least one traffic light the camera is nestling nicely in a very dense tree - I am sure that whoever looks at the camera will get a lovely blur of green.

Next to the pedestrian crossings there are also little poles sticking up from the pavement to about hand height, but their purpose is not yet known - they look a bit unfinished. At least the traffic lights near me are not beeping any more.

But what are the cameras for? For speeding? There is certainly a lot of racing along my road at night. In the UK, last time I looked, the speed cameras were big chunky things, not dainty little globes. But what with digital technology and maybe online viewing of things this is much easier. Or are they for making the traffic lights intelligent, so that, as a lone car approaches, they will turn green? Not that there are many lone cars in my road, except at night. More usually, the traffic viscosity is close to that of setting jam. Strange!

New vehicles for Vilnius police

Vilnius bobbies don't have it easy - it's really difficult getting round the old town to scenes of crime fast, what with the roads often blocked with traffic, or crowds of often elderly tourists slowly shlepping round the town.

Already they have those BMW covered motorbikes (though I have not seen one recently - but then they were often sitting opposite a flat in which I don't now live), push bikes, and horses. Now they have a new toy to play with - two Segways costing 20,000 LT each (6,000 Euros), travelling at a speed of up to 20 km per hour. (Photo from Lietuvos Rytas).

As a Vilnius taxpayer I wonder whether this is the best use of my resource...They could have bought 10 good push bikes for that, and got their force fit in passing! Certainly one of the lads on the photie could do with using a bike instead. A few days ago I saw one in action just outside my house - together with a bobby on a bike, more or less dawdling along - but then bobbies spend much of their time just being visible. I wonder if Segways are safer on icy pavements in winter than bikes?

Vilnius, 25 March 2008

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.

Innocents abroad

They'd been all over Europe, this quartet of young, sparkling clean, friendly, noisy Irish lads were telling us, when they arrived for dinner at Sue's Indian Raja tonight. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

We rescued the poor Indian chef who they discussed their choices with for a long time, before settling for chicken tikka masala. Some other Indians in the restaurant were rolling their eyes.

They said they were from Limerick, but then said they had lived in England all their lives. According to their accents, English education had not touched the sides. According to their knowledge of geography.....

'Which is the country with LV on the number plate?' We told them. Seemed that it was not clear to them which country they were in, the one with LT or the one with LV.

'Is Belarus in Europe?' We knew what they meant. If they try to go there, they'll soon bounce back at the border. That's the trouble with Schengen; people don't know which country they are visiting any more.

'Is that country with LV anywhere near Italia (sic)?' We told them.

So when they said 'all over Europe' what exactly did they mean?

Makes you proud.....

Definitely not a good buy!

Bit unfortunate that this restaurant in Vokieciu 24 is called 'Zemaiciu smukle', 'zemas' meaning 'low' in Lithuanian.

It used to be great for food and atmosphere. Never one great on access for the disabled, or speed of service, but the food and their home-brewed beer were great.

Alas, no longer. Friends and I, who always meet at Sue's Indian Raja, fancied a change (I fancied a change) and so we went to Zemaiciu where years ago we had had many pleasant evenings.

We had a small problem - my friends were a bit late, I did not have a watch and thought they were very late indeed, or in the wrong place, and so I had ordered. Which meant that my food arrived before their's - though they might have waited with my main course....

My starter was ok; kind of a herring thing with dinky little mushrooms and nice potatoes - but what can go wrong with boiled potatoes? Can't remember what starters my friends had. The main courses - disaster. One friend had something in a skillet, involving croquette potatoes (clearly frozen), some vegetables and some meat. I would have thought that it would have been cooked in a metal skillet. But no, the skillet was cold and so was the food - looked pretty, though. My other friend had a steak requested to be very well done; but he did not seem to mind the slightly pink bit in the middle. His plate was cold, and his food mildly warmer. My turkey (stew?) on a bed of potato and celery mash, apart from being cool, lacked the celery, and the turkey was very far from being a stew - not a drop of liquid near it. Instead there were lots of hard little cubes of turkey ham covered in something - you could have used them as pebbles.

They did a nice cappucino, though. Speed of service was better but not so thoughtful. The prices were high compared to Sue's, and even higher compared to the quality of their offerings. Shame!

The Irish Ambassador's Residence

It should be said that the current Irish ambassador, if he is still the same one who started up the embassy, is actually a very good guy - he goes to lots of concerts and supports the arts greatly. He also shows great taste in his dress sense and the make of his glasses.

I wonder, then, what he thinks of the architectural merit of his residence, located in a very rural-seeming neighbourhood with low-rise, often wooden individual houses. What would Prince Charles say? (Then again, what does he know about modern architecture?). This building sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. It screams 'nouveau riche' - which I suppose Ireland is, nowadays on the backs of many Lithuanian workers. The Irish coat of arms above the door, which unfortunately has a strong resemblance to a Guiness advert, does not improve the tone of the place either. Thankfully the guard at the gate should resolve any misunderstandings.

We have good architects in Lithuania, who can design some very interesting, sometimes daring buildings (not sure about the one in Filaretu gatve that has the shape of a grand piano). But this? It's Russian Baroque meets the 21rst century in a fishtank.