Worldwide revolts
against egocentric,
greedy leaders
- but not in Lithuania

2011 has been the year when people around the world began to speak up. Leaders in many countries, be it in politics, finance or other areas, have this year been forced to realize that it no longer is possible to deceive their citizens. In some countries the protests have evolved into revolts, often bloody, in which state leaders have been forced to abandon their posts.

But people in Lithuania have not reacted like that, despite the fact that the downturn and tightening measures they have been exposed to probably have been the worst and toughest in Europe.

Here in this country the elderly people sit in their small, dark apartments and suffer themselves quietly through catastrophic difficult time after their already minimal pensions were drastically cut, while prices for heating, electricity and food continue to rise.

Nor do the young take to the streets to protest against the injustice they are exposed to. Instead, they pack their suitcases and leave their home country. Many probably forever. 350 persons per day are now leaving, I have been told.

“Before they realized what is going on and who was robbing them, the Lithuanian people got clubbed 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,” wrote Dr. Val Samonis in an article here in VilNews last April, concluding that “the Greeks won, the Lithuanians lost!”

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