Ukraine takes “active steps” to win the sympathy of Germany
Hopes to have an initial EU Agreement signed at the 28-29 November Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius

Ukraine is taking “active steps” to win the sympathy of Germany, the country most strongly opposed to the signature of a landmark association agreement with the EU in the absence of a solution to the imprisonment of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, diplomats told EurActiv this week.

As part of Ukraine’s campaign to win Germany’s sympathies, the country’s deputy Prime Minister Alexander Vilkul visited Berlin on 22-23 May, meeting with senior German officials in an attempt to highlight economic benefits the Association Agreement will bring to Germany and the European Union as a whole.

The association agreement, totalling more than 1,000 pages, was initiated more than a year ago but its signature is awaiting progress on conditions imposed by the EU, including the release from prison of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Ukraine hopes to have the Association Agreement signed at the 28-29 November Eastern Partnership summit, held in Vilnius under the Lithuanian EU Presidency.

Lithuania, Estonia and other EU countries favour the signature of the agreement, in spite of the imprisonment of Tymoshenko, arguing that the Union should not lose Ukraine over the fate of one person.

She did it! Lithuanian climber Edita Nichols conquers Mount Everest

One and a half months of acclimatization, training, uneventful waiting at the Base Camp, and freezing weather – all for a fleering moment on the world's highest peak. In the early morning of Wednesday, May 22, Edita Uksaitė Nichols finally did it – she reached the top of Mount Everest. Having left the last camp on Wednesday night, Edita's team went on the summit push on the more challenging northern side.

"I did it, I did it, I did it!" Edita called and told her partner right after safely descending to Camp 3. "It was so technical and so scary, it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life."

"You know what the best thing about it is?" she asked and, after a moment's pause, confided: "I will never have to do that again!"

According to Edita's blog, the group reached the summit at 8 AM. Due to challenging weather, only four people of the group of ten climbers made it to the top.

Read more...

U.S.- Lithuanian
Leland H. Ruth receives U.S. cooperative community’s
highest honor

American-Lithuanian Leland H. “Lee” Ruth received the U.S. cooperative community’s highest honor on May 8, 2013 when he was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. The Cooperative Hall of Fame award was established by the National Cooperative Business Association to honor individuals who have performed outstanding service in advancement of cooperatives as a business model.

His professional career focused on service to agricultural cooperatives, including 33 years with the Agricultural Council of California. His leadership helped establish the Center for Cooperatives at the University of California and the California Center for Cooperative Development. As co-chair of the National Rural Cooperative Development Task Force, he was instrumental in creating the Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program a USDA source of funding that now supports the work of 29 Cooperative Development Centers across the country.

Ruth is of Lithuanian heritage, with the family surname originally being Rutkauskas. In 1999 he served as a co-founder of the Auksuciai Foundation. This non-profit organizations' mission is to help small scale Lithuanian farmers succeed. It funds the Auksuciai Farm & Forestry Center near Kursenai, Lithuania. The Center conducts a year long program of research on new crops, improvement of existing crops and improved farming practices. This year marks the 14th year of service with a Farmers’ Field Day set at the farm on May 24, 2013.

Vanda and Vytautas Sliupas.

Lithuanian officials were courteous to me, until yesterday

See also the below
comments to this post

After the reestablishment of Independence I alone, or occasionally with my wife Vanda, have visited Lithuania 37 times. Until now I was happy to say that everyplace I went, Lithuanian officials were courteous to me, always managed to see me even on short notice, and were respectful. This was until yesterday when I experienced my very first intentional snubbing in Lithuania by Kestutis Kurselis, the relatively new Director of Vytautas War Museum in Kaunas.

As you had written in the 2010 VilNews, during the 600 year anniversary of Zalgiris Battle, my wife and I donated our own work, very large gobellin of the battle, on which we had worked for 15 years.

The Zalgiris Battle (1410)
The previous Director of the Museum, dr. Gintautas Surgailis came personally from Kaunas to accept this gift. Subsequently it was displayed for several weeks at the Seimas (Parliament) Building in Vilnius, it was taken on an international tour and finally was properly and respectfully placed in the War Museum. That was when dr. Gintautas Surgailis was the Director.

Lately I was informed by several Lithuanian-American friends that our gift gobellin was no longer being displayed at the Museum. While traveling through Kaunas yesterday I stopped to inquire. As normal to me, I went to see the Director Kestutis Kurselis but his secretary came out twice to inform me that Director will not see me. I was surprised, to say the least, that a mere director of a public museum felt he could brush me off, even though his secretary informed that he was in his office alone.

This was a first brushoff to me in over 20 years of continuous visits to Lithuania. I guess the new generation of government officials have no longer the customary respects. My father, dr. Jonas Sliupas is a three-time recipient of Honorary Doctarate Degrees from the Vytautas Magnus University, located next door to the Museum. This honor is not bestowed upon any other person (even dr. J. Basanavicius is a recipient of only 2 such honors). For the good works performed for Lithuania I have received many '' Thank You's'' from Pres. Valdas Adamkus, dr. Vytautas Landsbergis and many other Ministers of State, and the Siauliai University recently made me an Honorary Member of the Senate. Thus, I was really surprised being treated as a third rank persona-non-grata.

Needless to say, our gift gobellin is now in the Museums storage and there was no assurance given by a Deputy Director as to when, or if, it would be displayed again.

Vytautas Sliupas, P.E.
Burlingame, California
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Comments:

Rachel Croucher "... Mere director of a public museum"

"Mere" director? Not exactly a respectful attitude to have towards directors of museums all across the country. Nevertheless, although he might have been in his office it is possible he could have been busy on a conference call or many other things. Did you enquire as to why he was unable to meet you?


Aage Myhre "Sending e-mail to Lithuania is like sending it to the black hole of the universe." This was a phrase from a post in VilNews two years ago... http://vilnews.com/?p=5009



Rachel Croucher Last time I was in Lithuania I do recall there being telephones in the country, but nevertheless I have no idea how your link answers any of my questions. So I guess I will just have to assume that no subsequent attempt to confirm whether or not the director actually was busy was made. Not to mention you did not address the use of the offensive term "mere" director.


Arunas Teiserskis if you want to see a "black hole" attitude towards emails, go to Ireland or the UK. There is almost zero possibility somebody from public office, especially at the lower level, i.e., museums, schools, hospitals, etc., will answer your emails. Even companies quite often give no answer at all. The only fail-safe way to communicate there is to call by phone - and in no way you may come in person unscheduled, you'll be dismissed straight away. In this aspect I remember Lithuania as a heaven. On other issues I support Rachel's opinion, that people might be occupied, so if Mr. Sliupas gives no proof that he persistently was snubbed, I would find it quite difficult to believe that this was made deliberately.


Aage Myhre Arunas Teiserskis, bureaucrats and public officials certainly have a tendency, worldwide, to make themselves relatively inaccessible. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when I some days sent an email to a public office in my home country Norway. An automatic reply came immediately up, saying that I would get reply from an executive officer within five days. After four days I got a good and detailed answer 


Lina Petrauske But Aage this is the reason why you are moving back to your home country Norway, isn't it? There is no better place than your home place, right? There is no reason to compare with anything else.


Aage Myhre Well Lina Petrauske, I do in fact not have many reasons to complain about Lithuanian bureaucracy either. Except from those terrible days in the 1990s when I had to apply for visas, waiting in Soviet corridors for hours, and when finally being let into the office of the right clerk to know I was lacking one document and had to return next day, as the rules again had changed (there were new rules every year) 


Lina Petrauske Then I am sorry I misunderstood you. I have got it a little bit in a different way when reading this post...


Lina Petrauske 
Arunas Teiserskis last month i have got an e-mail answer from Cork Revenue office  it took them 2 months to answer but still the progress is obvious- they started to do it 


Ida Hardy I read the original article but when I went back to re-read it, the link does not take me to it. Can someone please look at that? 
Also, if there is some way to prevent your local government workers from turning into cold, uncaring offices with directors who have names but no faces you should do it. 

In the US the postal service is known for this attitude, but in my little town there is one post office that has people working there who actually display an attitude of wanting to provide good customer service. 

It makes a huge difference! It is the only one Ive been to in any country anywhere that the people actually act like they care about a line getting longer, or that a little old man can't quite lift the package his picking up. I haven't seen that anywhere else.


Rachel Croucher PS that we are not talking about a post office or government office as such your, we are talking about and Museum. There has been no confirmation that the person concerned actually WAS busy with a prearranged appointment of some sort. Let's not jump to conclusions without the facts just because of a tiny little column of barely a few hundred words in this news portal.


Ida Hardy Isn't that museum publicly funded?


Felicia Dalia Prekeris Brown Fact is, NOBODY should receive a "brush-off" from any employee of any public institution, and least of all, should disrespect be shown to a donor. Makes me ashamed of having this bozo countryman acting like a Soviet era muzhik in a supposedly cultured Lithuania. Fire him!


Jon Platakis Unfortunately, this bureaucratic problem exists worldwide. Lietuva is not immune to this problem, just as many other countries. Lietuva is making incremental strides towards the positive. So, let's not make a mountain out of a molehill:)

"Lithuania's austerity was too harsh and too sudden"

>From Baltic Business News:
Aage Myhre, 60, is the Norwegian architect, journalist and publisher whose community building skills have made him a small expat phenomenon in Vilnius. He is about to return to his home country after twenty two years in Vilnius, taking along his Lithuanian spouse and two daughters, but leaving his other object of admiration, Vilnius' Old Town, behind. 

news2biz met Aage to ask him to reflect on his Lithuanian stay that lasted much longer than he expected.
Q: In Norway, Lithuanians last year became the second biggest immigrant community. How do you feel about it?
What I don't like about Norwegian authorities is that they are discussing only what advantages (low-cost skilled labour) or disadvantages (crime) the Lithuanian immigrants create for Norway. I never heard somebody say, 'This is so bad for Lithuania that we take their best brains'. If this issue was discussed from both sides early on, the authorities could have become more focused on it and could probably come up with some solutions.
Obviously, many Lithuanians wouldn't have left their country if it wasn't for the Andrius Kubilius' Conservative government's austerity policy that started in 2008. It was like putting brakes on in a car that was already standing still. 
I personally urged Kubilius to write to Scandinavian prime ministers to seek some kind of assistance. For instance, to a country like Norway to support Lithuania would have cost very little. 
Later I met Norway's Conservative Party leader and asked if Kubilius ever asked for help and support to deal with the crisis or the energy prices pushed up by Russia. She said, no, never.
Read the whole interview HERE...
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Related articles:
Opinion: JP
Hochbaum, Chicago
The austerity
trap of the
Eurozone

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The economic argument is over, 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.
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Greeks won, Lithuanians lost!
By Val Samonis

Before they realized what is going on and who was robbing them, the Lithuanian people got clubbered by PM Kubilius’ ambitious austerity policy and the younger ones started emigrating in catastrophic numbers, seeing no future in the country whose GDP was reduced (from a low post-Soviet level) by some 20% by the combination of the old nomenklatura rent-seeking policies and the global Great Recession. Lithuania is hollowing out, unfortunately.

Read more…
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A far too bright picture of the present reality
By Aage Myhre, Editor-in-Chief

The above post from Val Samonis, where he compares “crisis-hit” Greece and a Lithuania supposed to be quickly recovering from the 2008 crisis, internationally praised for its austerity measures, calls for reflection.

The difference is that while the people of Greece protest and angrily demonstrate in the streets of Athens, people here only become more and more bitter, emigrate, begets crime in other countries, etc. 

Lithuania's elderly and disadvantaged people who have seen their minimum pensions drastically cut, and mothers seeing that the child benefits are completely removed as concept, they bow their necks and become even more active in growing potatoes on their garden spots outside the city instead of standing up against the government’s unfair measures against them... 

This country's politicians claim they have been the smartest in...
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What is this country going to live on 20 years from now?

Palle Gravesen Jensen.
A Danish expat to Lithuania, owner of two manufacturing companies, Electronic House and Metalco Baltic. Member of the board of the Danish Chamber of Commerce (DCC) in Lithuania. His family was one of the three families founding the Vilnius International School.
There are a number of issues to discuss with regards to Lithuania of today, the country I made my own 16 years ago, moving from my homeland Denmark.

One particular question, however, comes to my mind again and again: What is this country going to live on 20 years from now. It is a big question. My concern is there will not be much at all if nothing is done immediately.

Vilnius and Venice
are my favourite
European citites!
Dear VilNews Readers,

I hope you find interest in my 'travel reports' from around Europe, which I now present in VilNews. The letters and photos are based on my 40 years of travelling around in 'My Europe', always with camera and notepad ready…

As an architect, it is natural for me to focus on architecture as a backdrop for my letters, but for some places architecture is the very main thing, as is the case for my two favourite cities, Vilnius and Venice...

You can read more about Venice in my travel report at
http://vilnews.com/?p=19259 
and about my dear Vilnius at 
http://vilnews.com/?p=12117
Kind Regards,
Aage Myhre, Editor-in-Chief
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Comments from our:
Facebook
Forum


Vijole Arbas 
I am simply surprised you have left out Kaunas -- the architecture there surpasses all.


Aage Myhre 
The architecture of Kaunas is much, much younger than the one in Vilnius, Vijole. Nevertheless, someone should write about the interwar architecture in Kaunas. Lithuanian functionalism as seen only in the Laisves Avenue ...


Vijole Arbas 
True, Aage. I just had to put in a word for my beloved city. I always believed architecture reflected how people live day in and day out, how their thinking patterns are affected, how the people worship (or don't) God. Well -- it is a discussion on its own.


Aage Myhre 
Well said, Vijole Arbas


Wyman Brent 
Aage, I do indded like your travel posts. I look forward to the day when we can meet again and discuss travel and architecture.


Susan Lucas Kazenas 
I have enjoyed your travel reports....thank you for sharing!

Egidijus Aleksandravičius
(b. 1956) - Lithuanian historian, assistant Ph.D., professor.

New association for Lithuanians living here and abroad?
Dalia Cidzikaite
Too many things that concern us, Lithuanian citizens, are decided not by us but by Lithuanian government, says Egidijus Aleksandravičius. That is why he is proposing to establish an association which will try to know better Lithuanians living abroad. The idea was presented during the seminar at VMU Lithuanian Emigration Institute on May 17, 2013. I am sure we will hear about it more in the future.
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Comments from our:
Facebook
Forum


Linas Johansonas Don't we already have an "association" that represents Lithuanians abroad: World Lithuanian Community (Pasaulio Lietuviu Bendruomene)?


Dalia Cidzikaite As far as I can tell, the goal of a new association would be not to represent Lithuanians living abroad, but to know them better.


Vijole Arbas as it is the World Community does not pay taxes to Lithuania, thereby crippling the country. Do we really need to know more?


Linas Johansonas Vijole Arbas: while the world community doesn't pay taxes to Lithuania, it does give Lithuania lots of money via: visiting Lithuania, sending money to family, financially supporting various charity organizations, buying Lithuanian products ....etc.


Jon Platakis Vijole Arbas, I have no idea why you are so divisive when it comes to the world Lithuanian community. As Linas Johansonas so succinctly mentioned, take away our tourism, the money we send, and support of charitable organizations, and Lithuania would re...See More


Algimantė Danilaitė Vijole, some lithuanians in Lithuania does not pay taxes too. I don't care if some of lithuanians lives abroad, it's their personal choice. I really appreciate all the efforts to make Lithuania better country. Jon Platakis well said about working together. Sometimes I feel that some of lithuanians really likes to bite each other.


Vijole Arbas I am weary of the increasing burden. More responsible citizens lightens the load for everyone. I do get angry about that. The World Community demands privileges but does not carry any burden of responsibility.


Boris Bakunas Scolding people is an ineffective way of encouraging them to do what you want. Strong people resent being told what they must do. I believe Lithuanians have proved that during their centuries-long fight for freedom.

Lithuania has signed many conventions with other countries banning double taxation. They are readily available on the internet for anyone wishing to take the trouble of googling the key words "Double Taxation Lithuania."

And why should anybody pay taxes to a government rife with corrupt politicians? 

Almost all the Lithuanians I know have been sending money to their Lithuanian relatives since Krushchev allowed correspondence between Lithuanians at home and their families abroad. We thought of many ingenious ways of concealing the money so that it would not be stolen by corrupt postal officials. I won't reveal the methods used, because even today such theft occurs.

Instead of complaining, why not praise the work done by such organizations as Lithuanian Mercy Lift. Praise is a much better teacher than blame.

http://www.lithuanianmercylift.org/

VilNews must be one of the absolutely better magazines in Europe, well written and with excellent photos. Be proud!
Ivar Enoksen, Norway

Ivar Enoksen has many years experience of working in the Norwegian press, television and movie industry. He got the Norwegian Amanda Award for the series manuscript ‘Nattseilere’ (Night sailors). Enoksen has done extensive historical research related to the Arctic areas. He is represented with fiction in several anthologies, and has in recent years also worked as a teacher of film dramaturgy. In 2007 Enoksen published the book  'Tusen glemte menn og historien om den virkelige James Bond' ' (Thousand forgotten men and the story of the real James Bond).