the word starts with "C"

2008 ended with it and 2009 has had it all over, so far!

What is the word? CRISIS! CREDIT CRUNCH! CRASH! CATASTROPHE! etc. etc. etc.

Recently, I was reading a new book of Fareed Zakaria "Post-American World", where author rightly points out that while we scream and shout about contracting economies and free fall of our markets in fact it all is a matter of perspective. Truly. Zakaria and I trust he is right, points out that on the world scale economy grows with an impressive percentage, which I accept might shrink now, but it will not decline.

C words have put number of countries into C mode and number of governments into deep C. Latvia is on the verge of bancrupcy, Lithuania struggles on by installing strictest fiscal discipline. EU seems to be slowly plunging into nationalistic rhetoric and protectionism is back heralds "The Economist". I might greatly underestimate the scale of the situation. But I think the other C should be more prominent on the agenda!

Sorry to all those that rightly speak of the C societies, but we do need to CONSUME more. Consume for the sake of greater cash turnovers in the financial markets, consume in order to restore confidence, consume in order to boost industry and production.

Happy "C" year!

Feed the world or Jingle bells in Lithuania

Its Christmas time and most of you would be enjoying warmth of people at its best and memorable family reunions, for sure I do. Christmas indeed a magical time for those that can afford some magic.

In Lithuania Christmas Eve and Christmas are special. These festivities hold some clues to our identity, where we can express our nationhood and be on our own with things we believe in and we all share.

We share a few... Soup with poppy seeds, untranslatable little thingy made of daw that is called "kuciukai", 12 dishes that should not contain meat or fat of any sort, often a prayer and god's bread that is shared among family members. Beautiful moments to be cherrished and remembered and repeated every year.
On another more observatory note. I was having a meal in one Lithuanian chain restaurant, that boasts to have diamonds of Lithuanian cuisine on its menu. In the village type of atmosphere, Lithuanian music was playing loud. At some point beautiful Lithuanian voice was singing the following lyrics: "Jingle bells, Jingle bells it goes with the bell, Christmas time is so great magical indeed". Would seem absolutely harmless... Only trick is that this unnamed band was singing a parody of the famous Band Aid song "Do they know its Christmas time at all"....
There is no ignorance to the needs of those that are poor, but there is little that one can do against the selfdestructive and reinventing pop culture. I thought it was puzzling at least, but on the other hand, most of the people in the restaurant at the time, did not even know that instead of calling for bells to ring...rhyme should have called to feed the hungry...
Differences in tradition or lost in translation.

Calm as Belgian

Lithuanian language might not be too well know for internationally acknowledged proverbs, but one fits perfectly into the list of nota bene international folklore!

"Calm as Belgian"

My Belgian friends, there is nothing negative in it, just the way "stupid" foreigners that happen to "occupy" your country perceive you from the distance.

The reason I decided to share with you this piece of wisdom is related to incredible "special" way post services or delivery systems operate in this lovely country.

I have been expecting a package sent from US. It apparently has reached Belgium and gentlemen from Taxipost has kindly tried to deliver it at working hours yesterday. Surely during the working hours, ordinary citizens are at work, so experienced courier left a note, informing me that the package has arrived and that I need to call in to arrange for another appointment for delivery. I was grateful for this small note and immediately called to arrange for another delivery time, but here comes the funny part.

a) phone service, no one speaks English (which I do not think is the case in Lithuania, but my country does not happen to be the headquarters for most international organisations in Europe)

b) they could deliver it only on Wednesday (at the time of phone call it was Friday)

c) they can only deliver it to the address initially identified on the package

d) they can not provide precise time of delivery (so 9 to 12 should do for you...)

Of course kind gentlemen at the end of the line informed me that I can always go and pick it up myself at their station in Anderlecht, which I will have to do, but what sort of service is that, I still can not comprehend.

For the sake of fairness, I need to tell you that the same applies for DHL. I guess one simply needs to learn from Belgians and be calm about these things. Just breath in and breath out!

No lights in the elevator

It is worth an entry in the blog.

This morning arriving at the office, I took my usual path that led me through security to the elevators that are secretly hidden in the sacred corridors of the European institution. I pressed up and the elevator doors opened in front of me to reveal the blinking light in dark confined space. Being a brave heart as I am, I stepped in and proceeded to 5 1/2 floor of my office. It was totally dark and only changing digital numbers in the elevator screen confirmed to me that we are going in the right direction in the secure pace, one floor at a time. I stepped out of the elevator and forgot the story at once, but given the proximity of my offices to this fascinating human invention, I had the chance to observe a social experiment in the making.

Social experiment 1

Elevator doors open and my colleague comes out laughing hysterically. Then she enters my office and tells me a story.

She took an elevator with her office colleague. The door opened in front of them and both of them stepped into the dark elevator, but at once the office colleague stepped out while the doors of the elevator shut down and the movement proceeded as demanded.

Dark elevator can be a good check for ability to react rapidly to an anticipated threat, so it could disclose the strengths of collegiality.

Social experiment 2

Two colleagues discuss lively there weekend slowly approach the elevator, button is pressed, door opens to the dark elevator in front of them.

Frenzy laugh of a female colleague is followed by words:

- Its dark...Hmm... should we try?

Male colleague responds in kind:

- Sure, it should be safe.

As the door closes, I can hear from my office a laugh of both colleagues that descends in the elevator and safety and intimacy of darkness provided and mutually accepted.

Dark elevator can strengthen relationship and trust can be reassured by facing dangerous circumstances together.

To my regret, the lighting of the elevator was quickly fixed and therefore I was not able to observe more of the experiences Live!, but I can and I suppose you can imagine what sort of other happenings can take place in the dark elevator.

Its Friday!

waiting and waiting

Last week I was privilegged to be in New York. One of the most breathtaking cities in the world. For once I was also rather lucky with the weather, which did not seem like a possibility upon arrival. Plane from Frankfurt has been circling around JFK for an hour or so due to thunderstorms in the area, plane fuel levels were shrinking and finaly captain took a decision to go for Newark. Once we landed in Newark, the plan was to refuel and fly back to JFK once the weather improves. So the entire packed 747 was seated in the plane on US soil waiting as we were explained for necessary flight transfer of 15 minutes to the airport of the final destination. It took a while for the ground staff to find free re-fuelling equipment and after one hour and a half we were refuelling. The moment our reservoirs were filled we could not push back from the gate were we parked as another plane was blocking the exit. So another 30 minutes passed quickly and then ironicaly thunderstorms have reached Newark. It was raining cats and dogs with occassional lightnings scattering the sky of New Jersey. So it took another half an hour for the captain to state that we will be disembarking in Newark and the place wont fly to JFK afterall. This squezzed quite a few laughs of despair from annoyed passengers and then it took antoher 30 minutes for the ground staff to connect us to the terminal and start deboarding. Overall 3 hours in a plane after 8 hours in a transatlantic flight was not a promising start for the journey. But as an experienced frequent traveller would say: "shit happens".

But this is not the story about delayed and frustrated air passenger it is a post about marketing and tallest building in the NYC. Its observation platform on the 86 floor gathers a total of 3.5 million visitors per year. So an entire Lithuania visits ESB once per annum. It happened so that throughout all of my previous visits to NYC, I never had the chance to visit ESB, so one evening, I decided that the sky is clear and no specific plans on the agenda would allow for this memorable moment to happen. So I took my camera and headed direction of the ESB. Courteous staff of the ESB was greeting visitors outside the building and inviting them kindly to run for a swift tour. Many did, so did I. And thats how it started...
30 minutes later I have seen with my own eyes that this visit will be anything bu swift, while standing in the queue that was snaked in numerous barely visible turns, I was in the midst of the crowd of tourists like me waiting to see the miracle that ESB clearly is. After an hour we reached the ticketing desk, where for modest 19 USD you could buy yourself a ticket to view the world. I thought this is it, in the next 5 minutes will see the top, take few pics and off with it. Well... not quite yet... after passing the ticketing office we have succesfully realised that around the corner there is another queue that is formed throughout a longish hall towards an unknown destination... but now we all have the ticket so it is sort of embarassing to step out... so you turtle on in a tiny tourist steps... next 30 minutes led us to the organised photo service experience, where if you wish you could take a pic in the background of beautifully lit up picture of ESB... I thought, right, this is the last corner to cut and then I am in an elevator up up up! Well, dear reader, it was not to be... Queue continued throughout another long corridor and finally we reached an elevator and it took us only 30 minutes more... At this moment "queue people" started to see those lucky ones that were going down after the visit to the top. I got very worried then. Faces of young and old tourists alile were not overly happy or excited, they all looked annoyed and tired... one naturally started to doubt whether one should continue to stand in this endless queue to get this faciall expression after the visit... The trick was that once we finally got to the elevator it took us to the 80 floor, not to the 86 where Observatory is located... and guess what we found upon exiting the elevator.... well of course another queue. In all fairness I must say that it took me just another 30 minutes to get to the other elevator which finally brought us to the destination... where the view of Manhattan was impressive and memorable, but the observatory was overcrowded and after those 2 and a half hours of waiting the facial expression I managed to squeeze out of myself on my way down with the second elevator was equally desperate, so fellow tourists still waiting in the queue surely were puzzled what is the matter...

So what is the morale of this story... not much really, but while you wait dont get too anxious and it is so great to have someone to talk to or at least an iPOD which has a functioning battery...

THE CHANGERS

Yesterday, May 21st 2008, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe launched "www.theChangers.eu " as part of the campaign to encourage everyone to take action to reduce their environmental impact.

The Changers campaign is multi-channel, including an interactive website "http://www.thechangers.eu/", a European on-line bannering campaign and a wide range of offline posters and promotional material to highlight the simple yet effective actions every citizen can take to reduce their energy consumption and thus contribute to reducing global warming.The story behind the website www.theChangers.eu is a virtual reflection of the real world. In this virtual world there are people who are already aware of the risks of climate change and are adapting their behaviour to combat climate change and others who harm the environment and eco-systems around them through their unconscious actions. By engaging in games and community activities to restore and maintain healthy eco-systems, the ‘Changers’ counter the damage caused by the behaviour of others and actively encourage them to take action by joining the Changers themselves.

how does "busy" sound like

"Busy" can sound BZ, BEEZEE, BUZY and many other things, but what it means...

I have been busy lately, plenty of things on the table many of those things at the same time... for me busy in the past weeks meant not being able to go to the gym, attending meetings that I never wanted to attend, not being able to blogg, talking to the people I might not wish to talk, entertaining self importance, making sacrifices for your relatives, thinking forward, making plans, driving for long hours (yummy), discovering other places, helping friends, making contacts and finally and probably the most importantly finding out things about myself...

I learned that strollers are more complicated than bicycles or beds... I learned what price one might wish to pay for a hand made bed (area of 5 zeros)... I learned more about desperation of housewiwes (in the middle of the 2nd season)... I learned some more of French language (c`est tres complique! vraiment!)...

Next week is expected to be pleasant and not too busy, but as usual "on verra"!

About journeys in space and time

Last week was colourful and full of travels. Starting last weekend, I managed to go to Holland, Lithuania, France and currently I am on my way to Iceland. It is when you travel to different places in such a short time span that you manage to realise the difference or indifference where you are in Europe. Its all too easy to simplify, or to say, that Europe becomes one bubble, it is not that simple and not that straight forward, but you can get fairly similar experience of night life wherever you are, you see the same brands, shops and of course Europeans as diverse as they are still the same.

I truly love my country, but I guess, I am becoming one of those hypocrits that have learned to love it from the distance and in small dozes. The ideal picture of a visit from my point of view would be... you land in the evening, drive to Siauliai, spend there a night, talk and listen to your parents, be a good son for an afternoon and then head to Vilnius, where you spend a night and a day with you friends. That is enough. More would become repetetive, tiring and annoying. I start to realise that house does not make a home and home is not related to your passport, but to your feeling of belonging to someone and not to something. I belong to the person I love and to the life that is breathing through her. I do not need more and I could defenitely take less of melancholic and sentimental statments that bring me to my childhood or remind me of my cravings as a baby, or allocating memories to houses, streets, fountains etc. etc. etc.

Holland, Keukenhof... blossoming, slightly cold, but very pleasant experience. It is amazing how much efforts people that work there put in order to make it different every year you come. My mother in law was there for the fourth time and she loved it again...

Weather in Lithuania was beautiful, people were still upset and quite a few of them wasted. Somehow my contryment (probably, I am as well) are such incredible moaners... and of course if you care for your country's future dare not to turn on the TV or radio, there you will hear circus of worst kind that does not inspire and clearly is not going to advance my country forward at least not at any time soon...

I have discovered for the first time probably different France, different from the usual locations like hectic and overcrowded Paris, parlamentary Strasbourg... Valley of Loire was beautiful, fresh and somehow endearing. All the chateaus and sunny weather made a difference, but it is also the people that I was able to relate somehow probably one of the first times... it clearly shows that I am taking French classes...

Iceland is starting now and I am about to board my first flight towards my favourite destination...

Metro Petillon

Yesterday renovation works on the Petillon metro station have been partially completed! Partially means that the main entrance has been opened, while the rest of the station still looks like a blast from the past - glorious Belgian '60s.

When we moved to Brussels and found our current appartment, I have managed to use the main entrance of the metro only once and that was in February 2006. Now in March 2008 the metro station main entrance was reopened. It took them two years and one month, to do something that in my view was do-able in the worst case scenario in 9 months. But this is how employment is being generated and that is how you are introduced into pecularities of Belgian working culture (if there is such a thing).

I have raised a glass today for this beautiful occassion, not that it was particularly important in a personal or professional life, but it signifies a period of my life, where I was settling in Brussels, whereas now I feel that I am somewhat fully accustomed to the idea of living here and being part of a European bubble!

Anniversaries that matter

16th of February 1918, a small country on the Baltic coast became independent and was embraced in its attempt to statehood by the international community.
It would seem only appropriate to celebrate this occassion on a grand scale in Lithuania and abroad. This surely has happened, but...
Historic anniversaries tend to become somewhat more formalistic and commemorative, rather than festive and that talks of our mentality and culture, but lets leave Lithuanian mentality aside...
It is fair to mention that the festivity that is only 18 years old, even if it celebrates events of 1918 do not move crowds and generations that have not heard of this occassion, neither they can associate themselves with it. Naturally there are only a few surviving witnesses of the proclamation of declaration of independence. The latter fact doesnt help eiter. So here we are it would seem at an important anniversary, but feeling somehow distant to the sensation of happiness and excitement.

In all this, the most dissapointing element of 90th Anniversary was that Lithuanian representation to the EU and Lithuanian embassy in Belgium have decided to host the event on Monday 18th of February and to my great dissapointment European Parliament members did not seem to be interested in taking any initiatives on this while in Strasbourg.

Majority of Europeans (I am making a blunt assumption here) would not be able to tell whether Lithuania has first appeared in the map in 1009, 1918 or 1990, I would guess they would say 1990, since recent memory serves us better than history lessons...
In these circumstances ignorance and self-isolation would not help our communication strategy or would not build greater awareness. So here you go, we are celebrating an important anniversary for Lithuania as a country and for Lithuanians as its citizens, but all we do is cry in the corners of our snowy streets or cramped halls, remembering the past and predicting the turbulent future ahead. So much for the ability to go beyond the notion that Lithuania is a centre of gravity of the world we know.

It is just a pitty. For those of you that have managed to read this entry until this very spot, I am offering a short presentation of the 1918 events in the following
links.
My previous entry in the blog on it
http://rundudundu.blogspot.com/2007/02/16th-of-february-lithuanian-day-of.html
Wi-Ki explanation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Independence_of_Lithuania

stroll in Brussels on Saturday

Another good idea...

Following the path of many good ideas that are out there...
Reading today FT supplement "How to spend it", I have discovered a new way of discovering Paris. A different type of hotel :) It is not on the ground, not on water and while it is in the sky it is not on a plane... :) Amazing isnt't it. I can already see this stylish hotel room hanging in the air in New York, Rio or Rome. It is a very interesting idea.

Finding beautiful ideas

When does inspiration strike you?
Late at night? Early in the morning? Some time between your first cup of coffee and lunch?
Is there one particular way of how to build ideas or most importantly how to make them come true?

I was watching BBC and I was facinated by the project few determined young lads decided to pursue. Have a look.

TRIBE WANTED

Tribewanted is a unique community tourism project that is simultaneously based on Vorovoro Island, Fiji and online.

On-island
Starting in September 2006 and running for 3 years, Tribewanted is living alongside the small indigenous Mali community on Vorovoro to build a simple, sustainable village. Visiting tribe members participate in island life during their one to twelve week stay. At the end of the project it will be the Fijian chief and landowner, Tui Mali’s, decision as to the future of Vorovoro.

On-line
Starting in April 2006, over 1300 members from 35 countries have now joined Tribewanted.com. Members have debated and voted on how the on-line and on-island communities should be structured. Each month a tribe member is elected to be the online tribe’s chief on Vorovoro. The chief works alongside the team on Vorovoro to make sure the project progresses.

I will keep on recording them as the year goes by. I think its worth it.

Warmest

New Years resolutions

It appears to be that I am a person of New Years resolutions. It is somehow easier for me to make a promise on certain occassion and then keep it for an entire year. Last year, I stopped smoking with the first year of 2007 and since then not a single cigarette has entered my mouth for fun or pleasure.
This year it will be much more complicated. I made a promise which is quite difficul to keep, but as one friend said it is about trying to give yourself a present.

Talking about presents, this year we did not have much luck. After arriving in Lithuania I fell sick and right after Neringa followed me. For this reason both Christmas and run up to New Year we spent on medication and in bed. Not that nice considering that we do not have too much hollidays a year, but on the other hand, I dont remember when I have spent so much time in bed.

My hopes are tall for this year! I wish to be part of all those dreams coming true!

Happy New Year!

what role for the future

Yesterday in the course of a pleasant dinner in a lovely company a conversation took off that lead us in various directions, but one of the few interesting points that we touched upon is the global politics and what future Europeans can see for US.

Mixed opinions emerged:

- some said that US is going to implode and disintegrate and this is visible due to the trends in foreign policy as well as appaling inequality in the country
- some suggested that a could shake up would do US only good. US should and could be a bit more modest, a bit more domestic policy oriented and willing, reliable partner in multilateral institutions

To my mind these are very valid observations and they might suggest a possible scenario for the future, but I am quite concerned whether world can afford to have weak US. I do think that the fact that US is a global power (the only one, unfortunately) allows it to act as a deterrent in some foreign policy situations. If someone can put its weight behind peace it is the US that can actually pressure for it. Sure, Iraq has been a huge mistake of current administration that America will suffer from for quite a while in the future, but on the other hand there were moments were fist on the table by the US was more effective than disperssed message of the UN or unclear voices from the EU.

My hope for the future and the role of US is a strong US, committed an reliable to multilateral institutions, determined follower of its own preachings for liberty and democracy and brotherly partner to the European Union.

Chinese proverb says: May you live at interesting times.

I am sure we will and its clear we do.

stumbling over ones consciousness

Who like ignorance and hypocricy? Not me, not you. Though, no one is surprised that it exists and it can hurt people.
One can not LIKE being in charge of the others, it is a responsibility and if you manage it well, you are able to sleep at night and seem to be a decent person, while if you do not manage it well and you are still in charge, this can be highly frustrating for all. Problem is that sometimes leader can believe that all is well, while followers are of the opposite opinion. How do you check, where do you stand? Is it measaruble by the smiles you receive, or responsivness of your staff to the invitations you offer them for lunch, coffee or missions?

I bid for consciousness. I am sure there is not many that would do that. But this is one unique thing that everyone has, no matter if it does not look like it.

It would not be such a bad idea to have an international day of bad consciousness, a day to reflect on what type of person you are and whether you are ready to admit and learn from your mistakes.

We might not succeed, but it is worth trying...

Vilnius in autumn

I love my town. Vilnius is so beautiful in different seasons. Perfect stroll along Vilnia river in the Sereikiskiu park in the sunny day in autumn. Mosaic of colours playing in the wind. Smiling faces of friends helping you remember that you are home.

Apart from enjoying the wonderful moments in my city I did some work and attended a establishing conference of the new European youth political movement - Young Democrats for Europe. This structure will be a youth wing of European Democratic Party. Organisation while not yet includes numerous organisations, it currently gathers French, Italian, Lithuanian, Cypriot, Czech and San Marino organisations.
http://www.youngdemocrats.eu/ is their new internet site. Organisation has adopted their statutes, elected their leadership and after all put themselves on the path of developing youth civil society structure in Europe.

On the other side of town, emotions were running wild and democracy has shown its face, however it was rather a grimace, but one does not get to choose... Assembly voted the new President of LiJOT, voted two candidates and after vote count it became apparent that result was equal. One could think of voting again, but number of delegates have left and one political youth organisation protested all happenings of the Assembly due to the fact that vote was given to the organisation that has not paid their membership fee. They have protested all decisions of the assembly and requested to call for new extraordinary General Assembly in one month. Eventually after long and painful debate this became the case. LIJOT will have its president, but rather later and I am convinced that the whole process will still be painful, but without doubt I can say it will be democratic.

After all those important meetings, evening was great, I saw Miros and Asta, we spent lots of time together and shared quite some wonderful moments.

On the road

Month of September, was overwhelmingly busy for me. Extencive travel with no stops and breaks. So a lot to share and a lot to think of... I will post few impressions one after another in the blog in order to offer you an expose to all this travel accomoplished and things learned...

Septmeber
EP Strasbourg session I
ALDE ad-hoc delegation to the United States
LiJOT General Assembly
EP Strasbourg session II
Visit to Odessa

October
EP delegation visit to Chisinau
NATO PA meeting in Reykjavik

Back from hollidays for good

It has been quite a while now that I have not posted anything on my blog. Well the summer is over in all senses and I am back to my online habits and therefore I am back to rundudundu... ;)

Hollidays...always too short and most often most memorable, it was a great period in many ways...lots of relaxation, discoveries and personal calmness while being with the person you love...

In few words...

New York...as always shining and hypnotizing..city of the cities... bought lots of books to read and moments to long for...Weather though was lousy, we kept struggling with raincoats and sweaters at the end of August...of course shopping lots of it...the RENT musical on Broadway...

Washington...Smithsonian museums, beautiful collections of art, long walks across the memorials of various sorts... find out that Jefferson memorial has a mistake on the ceiling of engraving that was quite turisticly amusing to see...

Los Angeles...finally warm and sunny...unimpressive Hollywood, Beverly Hills, pleasant walk in Santa Monica...long drive to San Simeon...

Los Angeles - San Francisco en route...fantastic scenery... Hearst Castle, pompous american dream expressed by the castle over the ocean...vineyards of Robert Mondavi...

San Francisco... windy, but sunny...lasting expression of the city with style...trams of the 70's, carrieges and constant chase of hillsides... beautiful...

Las Vegas... Stomp out loud musical in Hollywood planet, great thing to do...Impressive casinos like in the movies... old lady with the can of oxygen in her nosdrills playing on a slot mashine...

Grand Canyon... early wake up, small propeller plane over the magnificent canyon... stunning scenery, lots of pictures... encounter with amishes...

Denver...meet the relatives... good laugh, nice rocks all over the place... lovely grandma, 98 and still keeping up in the best family traditions...

New York...flight home...

Overall a lovely holliday to recommend...US is definitely worth exploring!