Opinions

Dear Mr Kaminskas,

Thank you for a very prompt response and some very caring words.

All I can say is that Hope is a Big asset for the mankind and It is gratifying that in most hearts there is a trace of it-So I too hope for the Better for my adopted Country. Let Me Submit that India at one point of time was described by a World Famous Economist "India is a Rich Country-inhabitated by the Poor."-a saying which is sadly applicable to the Modern Lithuania now (rather than India which has made progress by leaps and bounds) with a young democracy and that reflects sadly on the Powers that be for it to happen. Let us pray that this Country will turn around to be one of the greatest even though small in size but they say Size Never matters.

Kind Regards and I remain,
Yours Truly,
Raj

Thanks for the rest of the story of Gintautas. I had written him a letter I suppose while his father was in hospital offering to meet if he was in Vilnius, but he said Kaunas had everything he wanted. Since I am rarely in Kaunas, we never did meet. But my experience in VIlnius has been day to his night. Last May I was a couple of days away from death from a gangrenous gall bladder. The care was fantastic. I paid no bribes and it cost me about 750 in all (self employed so I paid 600 for compulsory state health insurance and we had to buy medicines. I would probably be dead if I had been in the States as I would not have seen a doctor as soon and would have been hours instead of days from death when I would have sought help, which I could not afford. 7500 dollars would not have covered the bill. 20-30 thousand dollars would have been closer to the mark.

To live in this country, you have to network. Almost everything is word off mouth.

Yes, there is a lot of black economy, but if it works, then there is no reason to fight it. For example, police were allowed to collect brines for speeding. Everyone thought that was terrible, except me. The purpose of speeding tickets is to keep those idiots from ramming my car and killing me, and to keep me from doing the same to others. So they got rid of bribes and now there are very few tickets and lots of violations. I don't know how the motorcyclist survived. No one was moving and the light was red for him, so he gunned the engine. The bike ended up under a SUV and he flipped over it. Soon after theyy changed the light system so that yellow is not concurrent and there is a pause between them.

When I came here, lending was tight and building was sparse. Then the banks started lending to everyone, Western style, prices skyrocketed, and now we have a bad economic crisis. Even so had the industry switched in the last few years from building new units to renovating old ones, then they would still be employed because they would be receiving EU funds now instead of holding worthless mortgages. That was caused by Lithuanians not understanding Western practices. It is going to take a while until people here understand the Western world enough to protect themselves.

Arturas Bakanauskas
Vilnius

Dear Aage, dear Mr. Kaminskas,

I need to reply to the March 27 VilNews, as the very same reasons, which are driving Gintautas Kaminskas away from Lithuania, are keeping me drawn to Lithuania! I was born and raised in Finland, one of those wealthy Scandinavian countries Mr. Kaminskas keeps comparing to Lithuania. I am currently living in the US, in another well organized, wealthy society. However, my life in Lithuania is far more interesting and fullfilling than my lives in Finland and the US. That is because in Lithuania I have a chance to make things better.

Yes, hospitals in Lithuania can be scary places! So for five years now I have been part of International Charity Christmas Bazaar, a charity event, which for example in 2007 collected 100.000 lt for Vilnius University Children‘s hospital. I am part of the change for the better! When my children started schools, I realized that it might take some years for the government to improve the quality of education in Lithuania. So I started a school with my friends! Vilnius International School is now an example and inspiration for many government schools and teachers working in them. My favorite hobby, horse riding, is also still suffering from post-Soviet recession. I joined a private initiative riding association and started organizing competitions, fundraising events and seminars to raise the standards and make opportunities for young riders to dream about big competitions – who knows, maybe Olympics some day! Yes, any of these things I could do in Finland and in the US, but for sure the effect of my actions would not be so dramatic and concrete than in Lithuania. Sometimes the change is not about money. Sometimes I just need to smile and compliment an overworked, stressed government emloyee to get better service.

The quality of life in Lithuania is not about perfect order and wellfare. It‘s about relationships between people and being in control of your own situation, just the way life should be! When a traffice police stops me in Finland, they write me a ticket, wish me a good day and let me go. Everything is very well organized and polite. When a traffic police stops me in Lithuania, they first yell at me for whatever bad thing I was doing. Then they ask ask me where I am from. Then they want to know something about Finland. I might end up spending a good half an hour by the roadside chatting with the policeman. He learns about my life, I learn about his life. So who wants Lithuania to become an organized Scandinavian country? Not me!

No doubt a lot of corruption and robbery takes place in every day life in Lithuania. Well, I have read my 13th century Livonian Chronicles. Lithuanians appear in the pages of the chonicles as mysterious troops from the woods, riding their fast, little horses, spreading fear, stealing everything, killing everyone and again dissapearing into the deep woods. This is something unique! The way Lithuanians still know hundred and one ways to bend the rules has nothing to do with the Soviet era, in my opinion. It is almost 1000 years old tradition of mischievious entrepreneurship spirit!

So please stay in a country where people still matter!

Best regards,
Liisa Leitzinger
Florida, USA

I join the very large group of people, who admire your work and efforts to "spread the gospel" about wonderful Lithuania and your serious endeavours to induce Lithuanian decision makers to improve on the not-so-wonderful aspects of Lithuanian political and economic life.

Peter Modeen, Costa del Sol, Spain

Gediminas Rutkauskas
Vilnius OTRA

I regret having had limited time to respond and comment more often to your very good, most often relevant and timely, Lithuanian affaires put on the Lord's Daily Table.

Re. the Good/Evil theme I would like to point back towards the tragic but not less majestic history of my country:

Starting from the bloody indoctrination of Christianity (that also heavily violated many Cultures of the World),

then sequent wasting wars appeared due to fighting of different Euro-Asian ideologies and political powers, the Live Tree of Lithuania (as part/ edge of Europe) basically was bifurcated: two dominant parts of it became (and still remain) predominant:

1 - Positive and creative one (PC), that accumulated all the best brought to Lithuania by all the arrivals and invaders;

2 - The one driven by natural resistance and aggression that was developed due to natural needs (according to the German historian that investigated destiny Prussia).

Hence, the bifurcate Good/Evil is the very natural anthropological/Socio-psychological consequence inherited by our nation.

I do not worry about the equilibrium of those two as I believe both are driven by essentially human love and trust.

What I worry about is another Two:

1 – The mental sickness of our politicians (kind of mental-moral insufficiency): absence of fair, clear and really brave policies (corruption, myopia, lack of self-criticism/ analysis, open-mind-ness and, consequently, respect to the citizens - most of it fits perfectly to current Mr. Kubilius' government and back to even Mr. Brazauskas' one);
2 - Impotence of the political "leaders" - none of them have fair disciples or followers!!! (not even Landsbergis!).

And I presume this negative situation is not due to the specific Lithuanian Good/ Evil misbalance, but rather due to the fundamental negativisms of human nature that appears and are sustained as a socio-political consequence by global economic powers in their invisible battle fields - geopolitical cross-roads of Europe and Asia; US and Middle Asia, etc.

Yours friendly,
Gediminas Rutkauskas
Vilnius OTRA

Thank you so VERY much for sending on the VilNews... I found the text fascinating... hmmm... I would LOVE to receive more of the Lithuania newsletter, if possible.
Marcia Theriault, Canada

Thanks for the informative document.
Don Ellis (American)
PM Lithuanian Defense Transformation Program

Thank you for challenging readers of VilNews again and again. In your latest issue you invite readers to come up with ideas that would really mean a difference to Lithuania and people living here, whether Lithuanian or not. As we are about to celebrate a 20 year anniversary being a free nation perhaps it is time to put old animosities behind us and take advantage of what a rich history has taught us: being a small country you have to be pragmatic and benefit from the circumstances others put you in. To Lithuania this might be interpreted as taking advantage of a long-term destiny of being the country in the sandwich between east and west. On many occasions you have highlighted one of the great achievements of Lithuania: to be a tolerant society. So why not use the status as a tolerant society with a history equally divided between east and west to become the bridge between east and west. So many people in this country have got a good understanding of eastern and western mentalities and ways of thinking, that it would almost be a crime to local society if this is not used to the benefit of people living here. I would therefore urge readers to put aside old animosities and be constructive in developing a prosperous future for east and west through closer relationships. This could only be to the benefit of Lithuanians!
Hans Peter Hansen, Vilnius

Having been a regular reader of VilNews (thanks for including me in your mail list) for over a year, I feel it's high time I wrote a proper "thank-you" message.
I am truly amazed at how much a person can achieve if he has a passionate interest in what he is doing. Being quite a 'critical reader", I can not always agree with the way you present events and characters or interpret facts, but this is exactly the thing that makes VilNews so worthy. The good debate you advocate for is just what we need to combat indifference and kindle healthy interest in what is happening to us and the world around.
As a rule I try to abstain from breaking into people's private space, I mean forwarding lots of available e-reading stuff .... I have to confess: I've done it with VilNews!
Wishing good luck to you and your other initiatives.
Olga Medvedeva,
International project co-ordinator, Vilnius

Congratulations for the recent transformation of Vilnews. You have turned it into one of the most stimulating electronic publications on Lithuania. Well done indeed.
Yves Plasseraud, Writer, Paris - France

Many thanks. That is a beautiful piece of writing and a well laid out story perfectly befitting the January 13th. May I have permission to send this to the Lithuanian daily 'Draugas' for publication in Lithuanian and 'Bridges' for publication in English.
Stasys Backaitis, Washington dc – USA

Your Knowledge Fascinates me no end Aage, amazing but chilling stories.
Rajinder (Raj) Chaudhary

 
As an undergraduate student at Michigan State, I studied Asian Theatre History, and one of my favorite professors was C.C. Mehta, of the University of Baroda in Mumbai. We had to read the Mahabarata, a great epic poem, which had Varuna and Arjuna as characters. I remember thinking that this was the source of my brother’s name – Arunas. I also was intrigued by Hindu Aesthetic theory -Rasa- as one of mys sister’s has this name. These realizations have given me a strong sense of kinship to the Indian people.
Jurate Burns

 
Madhur Roy

First of all a VERY BIG THANK YOU. I never ever imagined in the wildest of my dreams, that you would allow space for me in the esteemed VilNews. I am overwhelmed! It’s been one of the best birthday gifts, I must say.

As far as the content is concerned, you have presented a wonderful overview of India. No doubt India is much more then one could comprehend, nevertheless, you have very articulately in a compact manner put forward India as a whole, which as per my perspective is enough to understand the magnanimity of the country.

It’s been an honour!!

Madhur Roy
Delhi, India

This is just so fascinating ! I have a love for India and the contrasts that I experienced there. It is a land like no other and one that no one can prepare you for when you land there.

The smells, taste and feel is and only belongs to India – a place I deeply respect. Whose people have an essence and a space in time that the West cannot imagine.

Thank you so much for sharing this. As a person with Lithuanian roots it makes me proud to have some kind of connection to the greater humanity called India.

Kim Feinberg
Johannesburg, South Africa

Thank you for this and many other marvellous articles. After perusing them, I take the liberty of sending them to over seventy friends all over the world.

Yours very sincerely,
Ambassador Algirdas Zemaitis
Rome - Vilnius