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.....

Georgian Prime Minister Resigns

it says here, on health grounds, after 3 months in the job. He seems to have a kidney condition which requires intensive treatment. Poor soul.

He was Saakashvili's fourth prime minister; the previous one had lasted for about 9 months.

Saakashvili is under pressure from the opposition to resign, over the war last August. Finally it is becoming clear to the Georgian population what happened there. But will he resign? Will he heck!

Air Baltic laying off staff

Here it says that Air Baltic is now laying off 112 staff in Vilnius. That's scary, very very scary.

You would have thought that with one major competitor out of the way (flyLAL), they would have had more business.  In fact I've recently noticed that they cut the direct flight to Berlin; now I have to fly via Riga. To fly to Cologne next month I need to do a three-hop trip, changing airline in the middle, whereas before they had nice links via the SAS system.

If they were to go out of business, too, then we we would be almost cut off here, and totally dependent on western airlines.

Corrections - oops

1) Seems the Tbilisi premier did not go to hospital because he was punched on the nose by the President, but because he has a kidney condition. Went to Germany, then back to Tbilisi into hospital, now he's going back to Germany to check up on the Tbilisi treatment. And he's only 35!  I bet he wishes he were still ambassador to Turkey where the healthcare is probably better.

2) Mr Kubilius, Lithuanian premier, did not resign over the riots and his handling of the economic crisis. Bizarre. I am sure I read a resignation speech in the paper - was it a spoof?  Someone said he'll never resign, he's 'always right'.

3) It seems that Lithuanian airways, or flyLAL, was not sold after all to the Swiss investors; the sale fell through at the last moment, and then the creditors pulled the plug. Hence the closure.

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.

Not so dead Gedimino Prospektas

Today, about minutes after I whinged about it, the street was not dead. Major demonstration about the economic crisis. Seemed a bit disorganised, though - but I think I have now worked out what happened.

When I went to buy an opera ticket, people were streaming down towards the parliament. I thought it was over. But some people were also walking towards the (former) municipality square where the rally was to be held. I suspect that the first lot was heading to join the demo at the start (the parliament). But still, there was not exactly a surging front row, and there seemed to be no banner or no-one getting people to do choral shouting.

Most of the demonstrators were over 40, it seemed. Not many young men or women in business suits. I suppose it's the slightly older group that is likely to be hit most by the recession.

The Blue Sky

This is a book by Galsang Tschinag, an author from Mongolia who writes in German....as one does....My mother had mentioned him.

It's a wonderful book, an autobiographical account of his early childhood in the steppes of Mongolia, living in a yurta with his parents, his brother and sister, his adopted grandmother (who appears to have wandered into the family one day and stayed with them), and his much-loved dog, Arsylang. 

It seems to be a very spiritual life, with gods represented by rivers and mountains, eg mother-river Ak-Hem. The realities of life are beautifully described; the day-to-day life, the different work of the different seasons, the challenges they meet - one winter is very cold indeed, much livestock is lost and they sing to the sheep mothers songs about the beauty of their lambs so they will keep providing milk for them. As time goes on the older children go to boarding school in the city, but young Galsan, even though he is not yet at school, is already in charge of his own flock of sheep. Then other things happen, too.

Looking at it psychoanalytically (as one does when one is studying it), the little boy certainly starts out life with a delightful sense of omnipotence, but reality creeps in, rather harshly, at the end.

It really is a wonderful, wonderful book - I cannot wait to read more of his (this is part of an autobiographical trilogy; I suspect the subsequent books will not be quite as idyllic).