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Mon, 20th May, 2013 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Two new
VilNews editors!
We are pleased to announce that VilNews has got two new skilled Associate Editors, Dalia Cidzikaite and Daiva Repečkaitė. We can say with certainty that they are going to mean a lot for our worldwide, online e-publication and the accompanying wonderful network of global readers with Lithuania in their hearts. Please welcome them! See also our Section 2 and Section 3.
Eugene Rangayah
Welcome! Looking forward to some great editorials!
Vytenis Folkmanas
welcome !!!
Dalia Cidzikaite
Thank you! We will do our best!
Algis Ruksenas
Sveikinu nuosirdziai ir linkiu visakeriopos sekmes!
Ingrida Bublys
Silciausi sveikinimai!
Teresa Boguta
sveikinimai Dalia ! Sekmes ir kurybingu metu!
Ben Kordell
Sveikinu Dalia. Viskas bus okee dokee.
Kestutis Stanciauskas
Sveikinu!!!
Dalia Cidzikaite
Ačiū visiems už sveikinimus.
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Wed, 15th May, 2013 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Healing the heart and
soul of Lithuania
By Ida Hardy, Texas, USA
Lithuania is my mother’s country. She escaped with her mother and sisters as a young child and at one point in her life she wanted to return. It seemed to me that she heard the whispers from the wind in the forests and they were calling her home. My mother taught us a little about the folk tales and the music. She taught us to meditate and a little bit about yoga and I wanted to learn more about her childhood home. But the Soviets were still reigning and it was impossible for us to go. Later, as we cried on the phone on that day in 1991 I asked her if she would like to return and she said, “You can never go back. Things are changed so much.”
Her message was about more than the structure of her home and the murder of her father. She was really talking about the broken spirits of all the people who were victims, those who were aggressors, and those who were both. There is no going back. No one can undo the evil that has taken place anywhere on the planet throughout time.
is.
Read more...
Gordon Ross So... The Soviets are gone.... Why are you still in Texas?
Aage Myhre Ida Hardy, I think
Gordon Ross (from Scotland but already half Lithuanian), has a good point
Ida Hardy I think it's a good question...not sure I have a good answer.
Virginia Shimkute warmer in Texas is a good reason !
Ida Hardy One year I should go in July or August when it is too warm here.
Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown I also escaped from the Soviets arriving in Lithuania (for the second time) in 1944, and I also dreamt of forests and streams from my childhood. Luckily, I've gone back over and over since we regained independence: mostly because nowhere can I get the real CEPELINAI except in Lithuania! Something about the potatoes from that black soil!
Ida Hardy Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown have you written your story? I want to know what your life was like and what happened to you - and if you have a nice recipe for cepelinai?
Boris Bakunas @Gordon Ross. I have a good answer. Because in the free world, people have the right to live where they want. Let us remember that our wishes are not commands that others must obey.
Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown Ida - I actually have written down the story of our family's existence under Soviets and Nazis (1939-1945), our harrowing escape from Lithuania with the Soviets at our heels, life in the DP camps... It's at the publisher's now and should be coming out this summer: called "God, Give Us Wings." I see that many of us in sunset years are setting down the history we lived before it all fades into oblivion.
Boris Bakunas @Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown. Yes, we are. It's so important for our children and children to know what our families endured. It can be a source of strength in times of hardship. Whenever something unfortunate happens to me, I automatically say, "This is nothing compared to WWII."
Ida Hardy I will read it. I think it was too difficult to talk about and my mother didn't give too many details. She was maybe 9 when they fled. So much suffering and for so long. I don't blame her for avoiding the subject.
Boris Bakunas My family rarely spoke about the events of World War II as well. It took a lot of research to find out even the little I have learned. Some memories are so painful that people want to bury them. I believe, however, that we are better off if we face time. In time, they cease to have a hold on us. How else can we become free?
Bernard Terway We can go back a lot further than WW2 to find Lithuanians who left but were still afraid to talk about where they came from. To this day, I have no idea where my grandparents came from n Lithuania. They wold not talk about it for fear of being sent back and forced into the Russian army, I suspect.
Ida Hardy Yes, facing your fears is important but I think so many people need help in order to do it in a productive way so that they move through the difficulty instead if getting caught up in the resentment, anger, fear and stopping there. Long-held and tightly-held anger is a burden.
Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown Ah those difficult memories! I was lucky: I TAPED my parents reminiscing about the years from 39 to 45, and they also wrote down some things to give me a good timeline. I was 7 in 1945 and remembered events but not the sequence. I also had many documents and letters: thank God my father had the soul of an archivist! Thus I had a stack of materials to guide me.
Ida Hardy And thank God your father lived to tell! God bless you for doing the work.
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Sun, 12th May, 2013 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Boris went to Siauliai to see his
grandmother’s sister before she died.
Can good come
from selfishness?
By Boris Vytautas Bakunas
I want to tell you a true story. During a trip to Lithuania a few years ago, I drove to the city of Siauliai to see my grandmother’s sister before she died. At 97 she was the oldest surviving member of my family.
My reason for visiting her was not only selfish, but it was based on an illusion…
Read more...
Rimgaudas Vidziunas great story...lesson learned 'do for others as you would have them do to you'. Now I learned that somewhere. Oh Yes, the 'Ten Commandments'
Irena Kenneley
Synchronicity/meaningful coincidence--how awesome is the fact that you were able to take a step back, connect the dots so that they include your inner and outer world, surroundings, emotional state, and motivations to come full circle and realize the deep implications of your visit and its effects on yourself and those around you! If it's one thing I've learned over the years is that taking care of oneself is not selfish! I admire your writing style! Great story....
Eugene Rangayah Heartfelt Boris! I don't even have the words! Family and connections are so important to maintain!
Sandra Abramovich A wonderful story!
Vijole Arbas death is something like taking a long trip
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Fri, 10th May, 2013 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Lithuanian President Dalia
Grybauskaitė with Iceland’s
Ambassador Elin Flygenring.
How can Lithuania
learn from Iceland?
The Icelandic government failed to convince its own citizens in the elections this weekend, and the conservative opposition claimed poll win as voters returned parties that ruled over 2008 financial collapse back to power.
But the present Icelandic government has, nevertheless, something important to teach the eurozone, according to an Icelandic economics professor.
While droves of businesses have had to close its doors in Euro cities like Rome and Athens, the business community in Reykjavik avoided mass death. But it could have gone differently, says economics professor Thórólfur Matthíasson at the University of Iceland.
Read more...
Response from
Eythor Edvardsson
Eythor Edvardsson Well, the fact is that we read more in foreign media about the success and progress of the leaving government than in the Icelandic ones. Government failed to protect the homes from the collapse, home loans have increased 40-50% since 2008 which has in many cases exceeded home values. People who owned f.o.e. 50% equity before crisis have nothing now. But the ones who had savings in banks, government protected.
Elections now were won mainly by the party who made a promise to correct the home loan situation. Whether they will manage or not will be interesting to see but they are mainly looking towards finding the money to do so by taxing the funds and investors who took over the fallen banks in Iceland who already are making billions ISK profit.
Government who fell 2008 was blamed for collapse, crisis and whatever went wrong. However, after a research and being taken to court as PM of that government had to face, nothing came out of it and he only guilty of not informing his fellow ministers good enough in the roughest times.
Our welfare party who claims they did great in the last four years got 56.000 votes in election 2009. Now, they got 26.000 votes. Tells alot about how the people see the great work the world believes they did...
learn from Iceland
is hard to see
Eythor Edvardsson What Lithuania can learn from it is hard to see. Iceland has its own currency that lost a great value helping our export greatly. Iceland's economy stands on several pollars. Fish industry, Energy industry, great hugely growing tourism, agriculture, IT etc.
Our population with only 320. 000 people ( with Lithuanians as our third nation in Iceland) gives flexibility.
I believe that Lithuania did great already in the recession with the "Inner devaluation". With a currency pegged to the EURO, it's hands were tightened. But with dealing with the situation by "tightening the belt by two holes" for the Lithuanian nation, they will
come out of the crisis stronger. Until, the LT economy might not be so "sexy" but will make the country more attractive for investors around the world.
LT should use these times and emphasise on increasing the quality of education in LT. After all, LT does have two times more of people with higher education than the average European country does.
Education and Culture are the key words for LT from my point of view into the future.
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Sat, 4th May, 2013 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Sorry to disappoint!
What happened is only a blip on the screen:)Who cares about the blips:) Actually, they only mislead people!
I TOLD YOU SO LONG AGO!
But I hope for a miracle as everybody does, good luck to us:)
But seriously, contrary to Prof. Prof. Reinhart & Rogoff (both at Harvard, now they admit that their econometric model was wrong!), government deficit spending, pursued judiciously, remains the single most effective tool societies have to fight against mass unemployment caused by severe recessions (60% youth unemployed in Europe in 2013!).
Too deep austerity in the EU imposed horrible costs on the societies (esp. middle class) and will actually substantially increase the public debt of deep austerity countries (like LT) because, as a result of austerity, the output has dropped horrendously (some 22-25%) and now growing in some countries (e.g. LT) only very slowly, compared to similar development level countries (China, other Asia).
The GDP will take more than a decade to return to the pre-austerity level (sic!).
I TOLD YOU SO LONG AGO!
Seeing that, young, entrepreneurial and productive people have been emigrating in droves, very big loss to LT!
Valdas Samonis, PhD, CPC
The Web Professor of Global Management(SM)
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Sun, 28th April, 2013 - Posted by - (0) Comment
The economic argument is over -
Paul Krugman won
Lithuania’s former prime minister, Andrius Kubilius (left) is a staunch austerity advocate - for those who want to cut spending to reduce deficits and "restore confidence."
"Stimulus" spending, Paul Krugman (right) argues, would help reduce unemployment and prop up economic growth until the private sector heals itself and begins to spend again.
Read more...
To read comments to this article, go to:
VilNews ForumFor opinions and discussions
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Thu, 25th April, 2013 - Posted by - (0) Comment
The land I
lead you to is
Lithuania
SMALL IS THIS LAND,
But great is its truths. To be. To survive. To testify by itself to the abundance and variety of the world’s nations, to the value of man’s life in freedom in his homeland.
PAINFUL IS THIS LAND,
Each blade of grass here sprouts from a drop of blood or a tear.
Read more...
__________________________
Gail VanWart
Beautiful!
__________________________
Randy Jackson
My future country. Understanding the people and their history is something I'm working on. Thanks for this poem.
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OPINIONS
Have your say. Send to:
editor@VilNews.com
Two new
VilNews editors!
We are pleased to announce that VilNews has got two new skilled Associate Editors, Dalia Cidzikaite and Daiva Repečkaitė. We can say with certainty that they are going to mean a lot for our worldwide, online e-publication and the accompanying wonderful network of global readers with Lithuania in their hearts. Please welcome them! See also our Section 2 and Section 3.
__________________________
Eugene Rangayah
Welcome! Looking forward to some great editorials!
Vytenis Folkmanas
welcome !!!
Dalia Cidzikaite
Thank you! We will do our best!
Algis Ruksenas
Sveikinu nuosirdziai ir linkiu visakeriopos sekmes!
Ingrida Bublys
Silciausi sveikinimai!
Teresa Boguta
sveikinimai Dalia ! Sekmes ir kurybingu metu!
Ben Kordell
Sveikinu Dalia. Viskas bus okee dokee.
Kestutis Stanciauskas
Sveikinu!!!
Dalia Cidzikaite
Ačiū visiems už sveikinimus.
Healing the heart and soul of Lithuania
By Ida Hardy, Texas, USA
Lithuania is my mother’s country. She escaped with her mother and sisters as a young child and at one point in her life she wanted to return. It seemed to me that she heard the whispers from the wind in the forests and they were calling her home. My mother taught us a little about the folk tales and the music. She taught us to meditate and a little bit about yoga and I wanted to learn more about her childhood home. But the Soviets were still reigning and it was impossible for us to go. Later, as we cried on the phone on that day in 1991 I asked her if she would like to return and she said, “You can never go back. Things are changed so much.”
Her message was about more than the structure of her home and the murder of her father. She was really talking about the broken spirits of all the people who were victims, those who were aggressors, and those who were both. There is no going back. No one can undo the evil that has taken place anywhere on the planet throughout time.
is.
Read more...
__________________________
Gordon Ross So... The Soviets are gone.... Why are you still in Texas?
Aage Myhre Ida Hardy, I think
Gordon Ross (from Scotland but already half Lithuanian), has a good point
Ida Hardy I think it's a good question...not sure I have a good answer.
Virginia Shimkute warmer in Texas is a good reason !
Ida Hardy One year I should go in July or August when it is too warm here.
Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown I also escaped from the Soviets arriving in Lithuania (for the second time) in 1944, and I also dreamt of forests and streams from my childhood. Luckily, I've gone back over and over since we regained independence: mostly because nowhere can I get the real CEPELINAI except in Lithuania! Something about the potatoes from that black soil!
Ida Hardy Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown have you written your story? I want to know what your life was like and what happened to you - and if you have a nice recipe for cepelinai?
Boris Bakunas @Gordon Ross. I have a good answer. Because in the free world, people have the right to live where they want. Let us remember that our wishes are not commands that others must obey.
Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown Ida - I actually have written down the story of our family's existence under Soviets and Nazis (1939-1945), our harrowing escape from Lithuania with the Soviets at our heels, life in the DP camps... It's at the publisher's now and should be coming out this summer: called "God, Give Us Wings." I see that many of us in sunset years are setting down the history we lived before it all fades into oblivion.
Boris Bakunas @Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown. Yes, we are. It's so important for our children and children to know what our families endured. It can be a source of strength in times of hardship. Whenever something unfortunate happens to me, I automatically say, "This is nothing compared to WWII."
Ida Hardy I will read it. I think it was too difficult to talk about and my mother didn't give too many details. She was maybe 9 when they fled. So much suffering and for so long. I don't blame her for avoiding the subject.
Boris Bakunas My family rarely spoke about the events of World War II as well. It took a lot of research to find out even the little I have learned. Some memories are so painful that people want to bury them. I believe, however, that we are better off if we face time. In time, they cease to have a hold on us. How else can we become free?
Bernard Terway We can go back a lot further than WW2 to find Lithuanians who left but were still afraid to talk about where they came from. To this day, I have no idea where my grandparents came from n Lithuania. They wold not talk about it for fear of being sent back and forced into the Russian army, I suspect.
Ida Hardy Yes, facing your fears is important but I think so many people need help in order to do it in a productive way so that they move through the difficulty instead if getting caught up in the resentment, anger, fear and stopping there. Long-held and tightly-held anger is a burden.
Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown Ah those difficult memories! I was lucky: I TAPED my parents reminiscing about the years from 39 to 45, and they also wrote down some things to give me a good timeline. I was 7 in 1945 and remembered events but not the sequence. I also had many documents and letters: thank God my father had the soul of an archivist! Thus I had a stack of materials to guide me.
Ida Hardy And thank God your father lived to tell! God bless you for doing the work.
Boris went to Siauliai to see
his grandmother’s sister
before she died.
Can good come
from selfishness?
By Boris Vytautas Bakunas I want to tell you a true story. During a trip to Lithuania a few years ago, I drove to the city of Siauliai to see my grandmother’s sister before she died. At 97 she was the oldest surviving member of my family.
My reason for visiting her was not only selfish, but it was based on an illusion…
Read more...
__________________________
Rimgaudas Vidziunas great story...lesson learned 'do for others as you would have them do to you'. Now I learned that somewhere. Oh Yes, the 'Ten Commandments'
__________________________
Irena Kenneley
Synchronicity/meaningful coincidence--how awesome is the fact that you were able to take a step back, connect the dots so that they include your inner and outer world, surroundings, emotional state, and motivations to come full circle and realize the deep implications of your visit and its effects on yourself and those around you! If it's one thing I've learned over the years is that taking care of oneself is not selfish! I admire your writing style! Great story....
__________________________
Eugene Rangayah Heartfelt Boris! I don't even have the words! Family and connections are so important to maintain!
__________________________
Sandra Abramovich A wonderful story!
__________________________
Vijole Arbas death is something like taking a long trip
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