Wu Wei

Reflections on 5 years since Lithuania's EU entry

Wonderland is writing on this here.

Five years ago, on the first of May, the country was supposed to be celebrating. Public transport was free that day, and there was a free concert in the old town. I was going to this concert with some friends, we were on one of the free buses running from Baltupiai to the old town. Suddenly a fight broke out among several people, and one of them hit another's head with a bottle of beer. It could have been the "Euro" beer - a popular cheap brand at the time.

Remembering this, I was thinking that this scene depicts what the EU has become in the mainstream Lithuanian imagination today. We ride somewhere on a bus, available to us because of the EU (which has repaired roads, schools, public transport and other infrastructure across the country), yet use its symbolics to hit each other on the head. Five years after the enthusiastic EU entry, public intellectuals are mumbling about the dictate of political correctness, threat to national sovereignty, and, most of all, the perceived attack against the "real values" by euro-homosexuals. The EU is now called not "Europe" (the heartland of individual freedom and refuge from the "Eastern neighbour"), but "Brussels" (the ivory tower of "rootless cosmopolitan" bureaucracy).

 I was there on the joyous 1st of May, I came back specially from Greece where I was working to celebrate the day with the Lithuanians. 

Hmmm. On the one hand, enthusiasm for the EU was never going to stay at the same level.  A dose of healthy Euroscepticism is normal, and some disillusionment would be expected.  And all member states direct their  complaints at Brussels, while reaffirming their support for Europe.

But what is this "rootless cosmopolitan" bureacracy?  And why is Wonderland using this term?  I was shocked to see it returning again.

I quote from Wikipedia:

Rootless cosmopolitan (Russian language: безродный космополит, "bezrodniy kosmopolit") was a Soviet euphemism introduced during Joseph Stalin's antisemitic campaign of 1949–1953, which culminated in the "exposure" of the alleged Doctors' plot. The term "rootless cosmopolitan" referred mostly (but not only) to Jewish intellectuals, as an accusation in their lack of patriotism, i.e., lack of full allegiance to the Soviet Union.

 So Lithuanian antisemitism now blames Jews in Brussels for their problems?  Time for Lithuanians to get real and solve their own 21st century problems without looking for scapegoats from the past.

Vilnius restaurants

I tried several over the last weekend.

Our trip to the Georgian restaurant Pas Ramazi is described here by Goodbye Lenin.  Not much to add: quite pleasant for an outdoor lunch but as the Michelin would say, "not worth a detour" and definitely not worth the price.  Still the tkemali (green plum) sauce was good, if thicker than most people make it.

For a change, I tried to persuade another friend we should give Sue's Indian Rajah another try.  I reviewed it negatively ("no balti in the Baltic States") here. Apparently Rajah noticed, as shortly afterwards he opined that I was "lacking attention".  The result seems to be that "Balti from Birmingham" is no longer from anywhere, it has disappeared from the menu.  The rest of the menu would not be out of place in the back streets of a northern English city, were it not for the specialities named after people who haven't been in Vilnius for a long time and did not impress me then, so I would not be impressed by their recommendation.  On this occasion my friend was a vegetarian, for whom an Indian restaurant is usually a good bet, but we were both disappointed.  We left after a look at the menu, before Rajah was available, with or without attention.  For the only Indian restaurant in Vilnius with an excellent location and decor, plus prices to match, its menu could do with more than a facelift.

So off we went to the Greek on Pilies (Spyros Metaxa), where I have only popped in for the Metaxa before, but my friend likes.  Here the menu was impressive, though the explanations were not.  I was rather excited to find hortapita on the menu, which I had never met before even in Greece.   As the world blogging expert on horta (this page is the most popular on my blog, due only to the absence of others I assume, as Google searches  for horta regularly land there, and there are more people wanting to know what is horta than you would think), I felt obliged to ask for hortapita, (horta pie) and to ask exactly what type of horta was in it  (assuming something more exotic than spinach).  The waitress explained that it was a type of "spice" pie,  (which it certainly isn't) so in the end I settled for moussaka, thinking that if Germans can make a more than acceptable moussaka in Tbilisi (visit Rainer's with the green door) surely Lithuanians can manage it too. 

The moussaka was not very warm (well this is typical of Greek food, so not really something you can complain about), had certainly not been sitting in the oven all day, stewing nicely, and came "garnished" with a whole tinned plum tomato, which is a new interpretation which suggests a lazy cook, in my opinion.

I also decided to indulge in a glass of retsina. The glass of white wine was suspiciously watery for a retsina so I asked to see the bottle.   The bottle came with the manager, who was Greek, and we discussed how many types of retsina there are, which bottled down to the oily piny resins I had drunk every time before in Greece and other countries,  and the thin white wines she claimed were another sort of retsina, from a bottle displaying genuine retsina labels, apparently made in the traditional way.  Still it was a friendly conversation, so I asked about hortapita.  This time we were talking about the same thing (a pie made from a green limp vegetable).  From her experience, Lithuanians did not like spinach (news to both of us) so she used something else, as yet unidentified. 

My friend's meal (baklazhan and yogurt), was less controversial, though the yogurt was not the thick Greek one we are still looking for without success in Lithuania.  At the end of the meal the manager came out again to apologise and offered us a 10% discount, so we left happy.

Finally after a hard evening comparing kitchen white boxes, with some other friends I went to Belmontas for coffee, where we sat by the lake with the black swans, huddled in blankets with an extra cognac for warmth.  Belmontas is such a fabulous place, a restored mill in a park with a weir and lake, which even when it is crowded, still seems peaceful.  A Polish wedding was being celebrated upstairs with traditional music and dancing.  One summer evening we saw boys jumping off a bridge, not quite so stylish as off the Mostar bridge  but fun for them.

Georgia in Vilnius (now with update)

Technorati tags: Lithuania, Georgia, Pirosmani, lavash, Big Mac, MacDonalds

European Capital of Culture 2009 in Vilnius started with a bang, even though not as planned. Austerity measures planned by the government proposed to cut the budget for the activities. Then artists complained too much money was going up in smoke with the New Year fireworks, which could have been spent on art (meaning them, the artists).  I missed the fireworks so I can't say. 

However, I did catch the excellent exhibition of 30 pictures by Pirosmani, the famous  Georgian painter.  Most I had seen before, either in Tbilisi or in Washington once, or in the film of his life.

True, they are paintings in the naive style (before it was "discovered") but they are full of life, especially the animals.  It was good to see places I recognised like the painting of Batumi.  And of course they are very evocative of Georgian life, though the ladies are generally thinner now.

The exhibition is on till May at the  Vilnius Picture Gallery-Lithuanian Art Museum which has a slideshow of the Pirosmani paintings.  I particularly like the painting of the bear by moonlight, even if it looks more like a fox: it is naive painting after all.

As if to celebrate this, we have just discovered Pas Ramazi, a new (to us) Georgian restaurant in Vilnius, but haven't yet tried it. Here's a review (in Lithuanian but with pictures). 

And God knows what fantasies the Lithuanians have about the women of the Caucasus with this McDonalds poster of a "Big Lavash".  I've never seen any woman with a veil, though perhaps there are some in Azerbaijan.

The IRA and Lithuania

The interesting snippet occurs in Edward Lucas*'s blog here:

Another interesting story on similar lines concerns a bunch of Irish republican extremists who were lured into a sting operation in Lithuania. Some leaders of the "Real IRA" had developed romantic attachments to Lithuanian women. Neat work by British officials and their Lithuanian colleagues created a few fake arms dealers—the basis for an elaborate sting operation in which the Irish gunmen found themselves, investigators say, caught red-handed trying to buy weapons to continue their terror campaign. Few details have come into the public domain yet. When they do, the story should help improve Lithuania's slightly threadbare image in Britain.

Time to re-evaluate some of the people I knew?

* Edward Lucas is the Economist's correspondent in Eastern Europe.

Ancestor worship

Sorry about the lack of news, I'm busy hunting for an apartment in Vilnius.  The difference between what you get in Tbilisi and Oxford is quite interesting, but more on that later, when hopefully I am successful.

Lithuania has the dubious claim to be the last country in Europe to become Christian in 1200 and something. It manages to incorporate the older pagan ceremonies into the "new".  So on 1st November (All Souls) everybody goes off for the "once a year" tidy up the family graves, bringing candles to light and leave on the graves. 

In our family ritual, since we don't have any ancestors in Vilnius, we just turn up when it's gone dark to admire the pretty lights and (this time) duck back into the car, as it was cold and wet. 

Neither of us had cameras we could use effectively, or perhaps we are just no good at photography at night.  Here's the best anyway.

We usually usually go to where there is a road between two cemeteries, both of which rise up a hill either side of the road.  So the hill is full of little lights. 

        


  Technorati Tags: All Souls, ancestor worship, Lithuania

An alternative to the new Ignalina?

It seems the problem of replacing Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is very much on the mind of Andris Piebalgs, the European Commissioner for energy.  Ignalina is  due to close its final unit at the end of 2009 but was recently the subject of a referendum during the election in Lithuania to delay its closure.  The closure was agreed around 2003, with the first unit already closed in 2005, so it is not as if the closure of the second unit comes with no warning.  The nuclear lobby in Lithuania is very keen to have a replacement, but unfortunately economics dictate that it must supply other countries as well and nobody else is keen to cough up with the rather uncertain costs of nuclear at the moment. 

Of course there are perfectly good alternatives available including an existing power plant running on gas, but when the gas comes from Russia, that doesn't seem a reliable solution.

But it was a bit of a surprise to read about alternative method of meeting Lithuania's electricity demand here.

At the meeting of the Ecodesign Regulatory Committee today, EU Member States endorsed the European Commission's proposal for a regulation aimed at improving the energy performance of external power supplies. The regulation is expected to cut the EU's electricity consumption of these devices by 30% by 2020, compared to a "business as usual" scenario.

This fourth measure under the Ecodesign Directive will drastically improve the energy performance of external power supplies, which everybody is using together with many household and office products. It is a concrete contribution to reach the EU's energy efficiency and climate protection targets, while saving citizens' money", said Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

An external power supply (EPS) is the device that converts power input from the mains power source into lower voltage output for household and office products such as mobile and cordless phones, notebook computers, modems etc. With the energy efficiency standards approved today, the electricity losses related to external power supplies will be reduced in the EU by 9 TWh, that is approximately 30%, by 2020, compared to a "business as usual" scenario. The savings are equal to Lithuania's yearly electricity consumption and would lead to approximately 3.2 Mt CO2 emission savings per year. Further savings are expected in other parts of the world as well as an indirect impact of this measure, since external power supplies are sold and used worldwide.

So other countries please note: remember to disconnect your chargers now (no need to wait for the new ones) and do your bit for Lithuania.


Technorati Tags: Lithuania, energy efficiency, Ignalina

Support for the Georgians in Vilnius

Of course everybody wanted to hear about the war and who I thought had started it.  Everyone understood how the Russians could be causing provocations.  The Lithuanians have had to cope with several oil pipeline stoppages, the last permanent, when Yukos's oil refinery at Mazeikiai was sold to the Poles in defiance of the Russians. But they are still dependent on Russian gas, and will become more so when the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant finally closes in 2009. 

So it was not surprising to see the Georgian flag with a black ribbon (a common combination in other places) outside the Research Centre for Genocide and Resistance on Didzioji St, near where the Jewish ghetto had been.

The plaque outside the Town Hall might have been  comforting once to Lithuania.  On the bottom panel it says:

Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy has also made an enemy of the United States of America.  George W Bush, President of the US, Vilnius City Hall, November 23rd, 2002

Will the US really go to the aid of small countries on the boundary of Russia?

Technorati tags: Lithuania, Georgia, USA

Trip to Vilnius

I had a very lazy time.  As my "niece" liked to sleep, we had a leisurely morning and then walked into town along the Antakalnis river bank road.  It's still very green in the city centre, with ducks in the river and old houses with cottage gardens, though some new blocks are appearing.  Lithuanian flags were everywhere because of the basket ball, though cars sometimes had Georgian flags as well.

 

This building near the British and Danish Embassies has been restored recently, and houses a literary museum.

The Danish Embassy was exhorting the Lithuanians to save energy. The first poster shows how much little renewable energy Lithuania uses compared with, errrr,  the Swedes, which was a bit strange. The second poster says: "by renovating our building our heating costs have reduced from 200Lt to 80Lt a month.  Over a year that is a whole 1440Lt". (420 Euros)  I must show these posters to our staff in Tbilisi.

          

After a 45 minute stroll, we were already in the city centre, so I stopped off in a cafe near my old office, opposite the Cathedral. The office, previously the Energy Efficiency Centre, was on the third floor of this newly decorated building, but now is the Ministry of Economy's Department for Bankrupt Companies.  Outside the kiosks and make-shift cafes have been smartened up, you can now sit and watch the special fountains for pigeon bathing or, as the little girl watches, an opportunity to freshen up your single rose to present to your lady friend.  All is not well however, as Literatu Svetaine, the famous Soviet era Writers' Salon, which continued its existence more recently as an excellent Scandinavian restaurant, has now turned into a bank, wasting a wonderful view of the Cathedral.  In fact, many shops are now turning into banks on Gedimino and other main streets. From every other shop being a shoe shop, now they are all banks.

   

Further up Gedimino, the main street, the municipality building has been turned into a smart shopping centre with Marks and Spencers.  However my friend pointed out that the clothes were too frumpy and expensive for the young.  The food stocks were odd too.  A lot of wine bottles and then things like organic lentils.  Why would anyone in the UK buy yellow lentils in Marks and Spencers.  In the end I bought some exotic muesli and some caramelised onion chutney which was very popular.

 

Also on Gedimino is the Lithuanian fur designer Nijole's shop.  On the left are the summer fur designs on offer and on the right (one day later) we had already moved onto the winter designs. And a tree seems to have appeared.  Can there be two shop windows? Everything else looks the same.

St Casimir's Church seems finally to have had a coat of paint. The new trolley buses are named after composers.  I spotted "Bachas"and  "Brahmsas" as well as the "Haidnas" pictured here.

  

Our final destination was to meet on the new balcony at the Shakespeare Hotel in the heart of the Old Town.   The Shakespeare is a favourite with everybody as the service is exceptional.  We had a 4 o'clock lunch here, pretending it was our own balcony (it's really small).

 

One of the reasons I don't like England is that it would be impossible to have a 4 o'clock lunch in most places.  Lunch is strictly 12-2pm. 

Then we met Dad (who still has to work unfortunately) and after some more cafes we drove home.    Lithuanian social security now provides maternity pay at 100% for the first year and 75% for the second, with the job held open, so not so many problems for mums, these days.

Technorati tags: Vilnius, Lithuania, maternity pay, trolley buses

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Basketball rules

Sorry for the lack of news. Having a rest in Lithuania this week and watching the basketball. Busy reading Edward Lucas' baook, The New Cold War. He's the Economist's Eastern European correspondent and he managed to predict the war. I didn't want to read it before as it seemed too gloomy, but now it's a terrible warning. Ignore it at your peril.

Greek myths and more

An interesting article from the always thoughtful Wilhelm Connander's blog here.

We're an intellectual lot in our project, so our conversation on the trip to Batumi turned to Greek myths, as a variation from the possibility of jokes about a Greek, a Georgian and a Brit and other less intellectual matters.

It's a long time since I read any Greek myths so I find it hard to relate them to places outside Greece. But here we are in the land of the Golden Fleece and Jason, who I have now learnt is called Yasson by Greeks and Georgians, (and probably everyone else but Brits, who manage to invent their own pronunciation rather than use that of the natives). I forgot to post the photo of the statue of Medea and the Golden Fleece on my posts about Batumi (here and here) so here it is now. (photo by sLENGfJES)



The fleece here looks more like it still has a lanb inside it. It doesn't look so happy hanging by its tail. It hasn't yet got as far as being used for filtering gold dust out of a stream, which is where the story of the golden fleece apparently has its origin. For more on that myth and Georgia see here. The ancient country of Colchis, home of the Golden Fleece, was located in Western Georgia.

But back to Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus, is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from the gods. As punishment he was chained to a rock in the Caucasus, with an eagle eating his always regenerating liver. (Is that the first artificial use of stem cells?)

However, finally getting to the point, I learnt from Wilhelm about another Prometheus:

The appealing Prometheus myth became the theme for the Ukrainian national poet's, Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), epos Kavkaz (1845). The father of Ukrainian literature wrote the work in memory of a close friend - Yakiv de Balman - who had fallen in Russian service in the Caucasus that year. Its edge is however not directed against the Chechens, who had killed his friend, but against the injustices of the Russian empire in denying oppressed peoples their freedom. What today is perceived as expressions of budding Ukrainian nationalism and a strive for independence from Russia, to the contrary encompasses a more general vision of liberty and justice to all nationalities set to carry the burden of the Tsarist yoke.

He explains how the myth has also been used in the Balkans for the liberation struggle against the Ottomans and in the interwar years with Pilsudski's (Polish) vision of an Intermarum, a federation of smaller states bent on containing Russia or the Soviet Union. The Intermarum was intended to stretch between the Baltic and the Black Seas. Looking backwards this obviously harks back to Greater Lithuania, which stretched between those two seas. At its greatest size, in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe.

Looking forwards, it seems this could be an ambitious aim of the European Neighbourhood Policy, currently encompassing those former Soviet countries wanting eventually to join the EU: Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and those new member states interested in the fate of their external neighbours: Poland, the Baltic States, Romania and Bulgaria.

Read the rest of Wilhelm's article for his prognosis.

Technorati Tags: Prometheus, Golden Fleece, Colchis, Intermarum, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine