Wu Wei

Thatcher's handbag meets her match?

Financial Times

Observer - Europe
Published: May 25 2005 21:19
Gunning for Europe's money

Europe's foreign ministers be warned: do not test the patience of Dalia Grybauskaite, the budget commissioner. The 25 member states seem intent on thwarting the Commission's spending plans.

But Grybauskaite, who as Observer noted last week, has a black belt in martial arts, has an ace up her sleeve: a gun.

Observer's linguist has unearthed a candid interview in a lifestyle magazine with the woman dubbed the "Iron Lady of Lithuania" for her similarity to ex-British premier Margaret Thatcher. On becoming finance minister a couple of years ago she was approached by shadowy groups offering bribes. She refused but they persisted, she said.

"I reacted aggressively. I understood that having a gun would be useful. A personal gun was given to me as a present by the prime minister.

"I made sure information that I was armed reached certain groups and that I would react to bribe attempts. There were no more attempts. I will not tolerate physical or moral pressure."

Grybauskaite has not brought the gun, which has a fetching inscription, to Brussels.

So Jack Straw, the British foreign minister bleating about the 35 per cent budget rise, should refuse any invitations to Vilnius.

Brazaukas (PM in Lithuania) apparently said that Grybauskaite kept the whole cabinet of ministers in line. Now we know how she did it.

What chance of the British rebate surviving now? Who are the next shadowy groups?

Logistics of living

Life without work and the problems of getting back to work:

Me:
It’s the problem of how to finance an education for Bee for the next 4 years, so she has some stability. All the jobs in countries with good schools (eg Vienna and Copenhagen) aren’t paying school fees, so it looks like a move back to the UK and packing her off to boarding school at vast expense while I travel. And then I “forgot” to get the cat’s rabies injections up to date, so the cat can’t go back till November, so will have to have a “holiday” in Ljubljana with my sister. And now I have to have a gall bladder operation before the summer!

Just coping with problems one day at a time is enough to fill the day!

J:
It's the logistics of living that are such a pain. The cat, the school, the move, the health, the hair coloring, the annuals into the flower boxes, yatta yatta yatta. We can manage the EU, but these small things can fell any good woman.

Me:
I finally fixed the hair colour last week. No annuals this year as waste of money if moving. All my balcony plants revived once I realised the cleaning lady carefully turned the water off each week, and the computerised automatic watering system couldn’t turn the water on again. Stupid thing.

Now just been despairing with the internet and wireless connection (end of the world). Set it up all on my own!!! Finally we got DSL just before we leave. Not perfect (needs resetting when I reboot the computer but I try not to reboot). One day I will fix it. But magically it started working again.

After the gall bladder op I have to have holiday then pack up and move somewhere soon after the op. Doc has okayed the holiday, but not sure he heard my mention moving as he gave me instructions not to do any weiightlifting.

J:
If it's of any comfort, I also have a fear of not having enough money. My husband (who, to put things in perspective, was born and raised in a Serbian village) looks at me in amazement and wonders, "How much is enought? No amount is enough for you." Probably right, but I have a number in mind that would make me feel secure. At least I think. Which probably means it will shift upward forever.

Me:
I know about the money. Seven years ago we lived for a year on 1000 GBP a month and were quite happy. Now we are into private education (which I was always politically against) and private health care (ditto), all because of my job moving us round so much. Sloph’s boyfriend (whose parents were poor but got left lots of money recently) used to consider us as high powered and rich. I think he was shocked when my job disappeared. But I had had continuous employment at a great salary for seven years so couldn't complain about a gap. Especially now the gap has ended, hopefully. Just no pension, so have to keep working till I drop.

Kids have a choice of university education now (no loan) and pay for me in grand style in my old age. Or have a loan now .... and hope I don't live too long. Sloph has worked out it's better to take the loan anyway, since you can put it in the bank and get interest on it whether you use it or not.

Rereading this, I'm sure there will be not much sympathy for me and my "troubles". Everyone in new Europe has the same problems of how to get their kids a good education and how to save for their pension. Only in old Europe can you rely on the state, and probably not for much longer.

Another definition of culture

While browsing MosNews.com as suggested by Siberian Light I was diverted by this headline:

2500 Eggs Fried in Russian Baltic Enclave.

It was a celebration of Lithuanian culture (what no cepelinai?)

Dangerous reading

Brad DeLong points to an enlightening list at Human Events Online -- the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. As voted on by leading conservative thinkers!

The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels
Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler
Quotations from Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong
The Kinsey Report, Alfred Kinsey
Democracy and Education, John Dewey
Das Kapital, Karl Marx
The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
The Course of Positive Philosophy, August Comte
Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche
General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, John Maynard Keynes

More here

All courtesy of 3quarksdaily which always has something interesting.

Now which should I take with me to Kosovo?

Spread the Comment Cheer

The site of the day: the person above you and then you. How to play:

Leave a comment here that says hello.
Now, go visit the person who commented above you and say Hello, Varske sent me.
Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play as often as you wish. As you already know, that kind of thing is encouraged.

And please also visit Michelle, where I found this idea.

Suggestions please!

What should I take with me to Pristina to while away the evenings not spent working? Hardly any restaurants and don't know many people to sit in cafes with.

No guarantee of internet, so will have to blog at work. I will have to finally get an MP3 player to listen to music without turning on the laptop.

And books. Will have to put in an Amazon order for the summer, but it won't come in time for next week.

Will have to raid the bookshelves for the books I have but have somehow never read.

BG finally made me love Athens better when she pointed out that I could not rely on culture in Kosovo, so I had better make the best of it in Athens.

How to get to Pristina?

Earlier my travel agent offered flights via Vienna which I had used before, or via Istanbul which was cheaper. Now I can look forward to stopovers in Istanbul which I have never visited yet! But two flights each way is a terrible waste of time.

But now I am wondering whether I can drive to Pristina, which would make it easier to take trips to Sarajevo or (possibly) Belgrade for the weekend. Though probably there are buses to get there.

I looked up the routes on a road map but it's hard to judge the quality of the road and the time it would take to drive. Then there is the black spot on the motorway from Athens to Thessaloniki to think about.

Maybe it makes sense to fly to Skopje and get a taxi to Pristina. But everyone coming from Skopje to Athens always drove to Thessaloniki.

Unfortunately the InYourPocket guides are out of date for the Balkans. In fact I just checked and they have disappeared from the website. There is no hard information on travel possibilities overland.

I guess it is better just to go via Vienna the first time and see what the advice is when I get there.

Must also remember to ask if they have ATMs now. Last time I forgot to take wads of cash with me, and ran short. Had to borrow some cash from UNMIK to pay my hotel bill. Not the best way to behave at interviews, but I had finally cured myself of walking round in Kiev with 500 USD in my purse to cover any difficulties, and forgot that Kosovo might be the same.

Work at last!

Finally at the end of the week, some answers to the question of the future!

I shall be working two weeks out of four in Kosovo from June to April. The rest is unresolved, but at least we have money over the summer and can have a holiday.

And I have an interview for Interim Director. I assumed they weren't bothering to interview me as the deadline had passed, but it seems at least they are going through the motions.

Plus opportunities to bid for another Kosovo job, a job in Russia and one in Ukraine, all possibly 2 years. Panic at the thought I shall probably choose the wrong one to bid for.

Still leaves Denmark and two jobs in Sakhalin, and a very vague possibility in Turkey. But who knows.

And now I shall have something more interesting to blog about.