Teh Baltic Correspondent

Again, it is here, the neighbor voting competition. One horrible song after another, badly written speeches --- and in the end it is even better humor than Nasha Russia!
The first semifinal was full of great surprises, and I liked the fact that this year quite a few countries did perform at least to some extent using their language. The voting result was the most exciting, and seems like the whole Europe just loves the Eastern European sound. Or then the people in these regions are more nationalistic (meaning: their citizens vote from abroad or via skype), or the west just does not care...
Anyway, that does not really matter! Today, at ... whatever PM, the first performer of the show will be InCulto from Lithuania. The band will play a song called East European Funk, which should - if the Europe really loves the East as much as on Tuesday - go to the finals. Sure, the song is not anyhow Eastern in sound, and the guys are easy to imagine wearing a sombrero while playing (or then I am just sick) - still, the simple, political and yet somehow funny song may be just about what you should have seen coming.
Finland was about to send Eläkeläiset, but it seems Lithuania sent the only real humor band - unless that Serbian guy is not counted as such (and I saw also a lot of humor in the Polish show, but it might be just me).
Thus, where ever you are, vote for the band that marginally lost to "Vote for the Winners" gig in 2005.

Nordic Walking, the Finnish invention from Vierumäen Urheiluopisto and later commercialized by Exel, has been rather slowly spreading in the Eastern Europe. For sure, it looks ridiculous, like demented people skiing during the summer, but the health impact in undeniable - as is with any regular excercise.

Today, the Finnish Ambassador - whose name I cannot remember - was in the morning news show marketing the sports.She emphasized greatly the research behind this sports, the health effects and the popularity. Below, a few claims she made:

1 million Finns do nordic walking
Nordic Walking is called Nordic Walking because it is not called Finnish Walking
Some people in Finland nordic walk to work, where they dress to their suits
She used to play tennis and run - until doctor recommended nordic walking

She also donated the host a pair of walking sticks wrapped in cellophane (and thus making quite a squeek while being opened) and advertised the embassy's event today, where people will be instructed on the sport. Over 100 people had already accepted the invitation!
Well, good luck.

Last weekend, it took place: Gay Pride Vilnius 2010.
The marketing of the event was wide: all the carneval pictures from theGerman parade were shown in TV, and of course people were given an image that it would be exactly like this also here. The resistance became stronger.
The anti-rainbow league began to from: right wing politicians, church, facists and those boys who just are looking for trouble decided to defend the decency of their home country. They did not see it in the way that two men loving each other would mean more women for the rest of the men - no! These gays walking in the capital were foreign conquerors who wanted to change the structure of the society! In Lithuania, women are either sexual objects or the "people who cook and clean", and gay might mix this up: there would be suddenly drinking women driving sportscars and men washing the dishes. That would be totally unacceptable.
Then the D-Day is approaching, and as a very straight and considerate man, the general prosecutor decided the void the permit for the march. He is joined by the vice-mayor of Kaunas, who just cannot explain to his kids, what two men do in bed. In other countries, he would be crying for the responsibility of the educative system to teach the kids, but not here - here, children are not allowed to hear a word on gay people in schools - that is, if I am not totally wrong, banned by a law. A few discussion shows later, the Gay Pride will still take its place.
From early morning, the anti-rainbow league has been collecting its troops, and they are heading to Vilnius. Due to bad earlier experience, some of the Kaunas extremists decide to take minibuses and use minor roads - that was perhaps smart, because the police was waiting for them on the highway. The morning in Vilnius begins with a prayer, where Monsignor and other people not tolerating such non-catholic act pray for God to cure the gays of their disease. It must have been the flu season.
Tension builds up. Police, armed from toes to teeth take their places and start the Segway patrolling of the area. People line up behind the metal fences, and then the first egg flies. The opposers are about to fight among themselves. However, some of them separate their leaders - the men have forgotten that this is exactly what those invaders want! They must keep strong and straight to oppose the real threat for their unity.
The march begins. Around 100 people dressed blatantly normally are walking with a few banderolls and a big rainbow flag. The 20000 people opposing this march are waiting them on the other side of the bridge.
Then it happens: A group of the boys who just are looking for trouble decided to break the fence. This stopped the parade and froze the development. Also, a politician runs through the fence and ends up in a fight with a police officer. Lithuanians have shown that the spirit of independence still flows strong in their veins and they truly can fight the oppressors and oppose the officials if it is for the good of the country.
The parade turns. The Lithuanians have won! Liberality and Equality have been crushed like an enemy of the society should be! But at what price the victory came? All those police and people buying bus tickets to gather to Vilnius, not to mention that openly gay people were actually let to step on the Fathers' Land. Also, it showed how un united the country is: the mayor of Vilnius is again showing that the true leaders of the people live in Kaunas - also, there were politicians in support of the occupation.
 It will take centuries to erase the horrors of this day from the mind of the nation.

Labas,
Just returned from Finland, and have again a lot to tell. Surely, plenty has happened, from the death of a murderer who became modern Joan D'Arc to a less restrictive law on double nationality being planned.

However, I thought today to write a bit on service, that is, I will nag.
Yesterday, a nice day that is was with a temperature close to +15, I went for a walk with my wife, and we ended up to the idea of having a simple piquenique. Well, not to make it anyhow too complicated, it was supposed to mean some oh so greasy KFC hamburger meals. Thus, we walk all the way to the closest restaurant, and give our order.
The whole day had been quite funny, as in nothing works the way it is supposed to, and the same trend continued. When I am offering my credit card, the cashier apologized that she in fact did just hit the cash payment button. First of all, it took quite a long time to get what she wanted to tell me, and finally when i got it, she was asking if I would have any cash. I checked, and found 3 litas, total we has 23 - and the order was for 30. I ask whether the order could then be changed, and she says, no it is not possible, and tells that the closest ATM is downstairs ( the restaurant is on 3rd floor of a mall). Well, that unfortunately was not my ATM, and I ask once more (hmmm... or did I? I guess I did) that whether it would be possible to anyhow pay by the card. No it was not, so the whole situation turns to the point that we cancel the order.
Wait a second. Cancelling the order was possible! And if cancelling the order is possible, then how could it be impossible to cancel the order and the remake it? Ahh... sometimes things just do not work out the way you expect they would.
Thus, we did what every respectable Finn would do in the situation: we headed to Hesburger for Garlic Burgers and to R-Kiosk for some Pepsi.
The whole day ended nicely when while walking home, we encountered some street players. "Would you like to support musicians?" the boy with a cannabis-figured scarf asked? "No", I answered. Later, I regretted. I should have said "Yes", and continue walking. That should have caused some confusion.

Universities in Lithuania have it hard: salaries are dropping for the workers, and at the same time, the fees for studies go up. No one is happy and quality of studies is eroding. However, now one Kaunas-based university has found a solution to make money quick with little effort: selling of diplomas.
First, they tried to sell a diploma to a girl living in France: she wanted to be master of political science, because she was from a diplomatic family, as I heard. She had no previous studies in politics, and the university did not teach the subject in English, but as enough money was put on table, there suddenly was no problems. However, when too many professors were requiring her participating in exams, it suddenly was too much for her, and she quit the studies.
Still, the university had opened the Pandora's Box, and it took only a few months until they were trying again this new financial planning. This time, a doctoral degree was for sale.
Lithuanian students studying for a PhD pay 12000 ltl for the studies, unless they get a scholarship. However, now a Dutch writer wanted to get the degree due to his book on his life in Soviet Union. Memoirs worth a degree, as they had agreed with the earlier dean.
This of course caused some turmoil among the staff, as first of all, he was not qualified, the book was not political nor scientific and third, he wanted to be given the degree without him showing any effort. Resolution: some people agreed to write him passing courses required for the PhD studies, and everything was prepared. However, the money became an issue: as Netherlands is a poor country, 3500 euros was an obstacle too big for the writer - he had been given the impression that it would cost only around 1200 euros. - this was solved, and he got the studies with a third of the price of the local students.
No outsiders were informed on the decisions taken, and the local students still have to study for the degree and pay the regular price totally unknowing of the new discounted degree.
Thus, if you ever see a foreigner who studied a PhD in Lithuania, ask to see the dissertation. It may be that he just paid a pittance for the title. However, the local students still have to work for their paper.
If you would like to use the abovementioned opportunity and get yourself a qualification to work in the scientific community as well as an expert on about anything, run to Kaunas with your master's - it may be just enough for a foreigner!

That was the title of the runners-up song of Inculto at Lithuanian national Eurovision final in 2005. Partly I can agree with the message, but there are some issues in it, that is, sex tourism.

There's something wrong with the country's marketing: First, they cannot decide whether they want to market Lithuania as a country of honey, beer or as a crossroad to Russia, and then when everyone is having their own campaigns, what lives on is the sign near Vilnius airport, where a Lithuanian naked girl lying down on a hotel bed hopes you come back soon.

This ad did not really disturb me, before the I went to look for opening hours for Kaunas restaurants (I am pretty much behind the Finnish version of wikitravel guide for Kaunas - the English is most likely made by local tourism information centre). There are three sources for collective info: meniu.lt, restoranai.lt and einam.lt. The second presents only member restaurants that give a price reduction with their card, the first one is rather good, and the last one, decided somehow that all I need is to see naked Lithuanian girls. Sure I needed, on my work computer. Lithuania is not acountry of feminists, and a Scandinavian male can feel easily extremely progressive here.

Then there is this Olialia -thing going on in the country: suddenly it is cool and great to be blonde, stupid and having kilos of plastic as an airbag. They have a credit card from SEB (Wallenbergs' found a Sex Endowment Bank?), they run Pizzeria, sell cola (which got a bigger bottle after two of the olialia models got silicones), computers (as female nerds need the fastest there is with Swarovski - I always thought the longer the better, but these IT people just cannot wait)... and now even music. Please surf the web for Olialia Pupytes to find these wonderful ballades on hard knock life... ... that is playing with boys and spreading the legs.


A bit on an anti-prostitution campaign: http://www.lygus.lt/ITC/news.php?id=773

A quick look to the index published today shows that it's all Europe. But where are the Baltics? Going though the ranks one can see that while Latvia is doing just great, Lithuanian and Estonian performance lags behind the region on average.


However, I thought the ranking is very partial and does not give even slightest support for developing countries to keep on doing the good work with environment. On the other hand, it does not take anyhow into consideration how industrial countries have countless methods they could use to curb the emissions and health the world - that is money - and how the smaller ones cannot perhaps afford all the latest environmental technology, if they are even short of the basics like food and water.


Thus, A quick recalculation: EPI/log10(gdpcap07). Let's "standardize" the result of efforts to availability of methods, so to say. I removed Serbia/Montenegro due to missing data.

New results:  old result in parenthesis

New top:
Nepal 1 (38)
Costa Rica 2 (3)
Congo DR 3 (106)
Zimbabwe 4 (127)
Iceland5 (1)

Norway 43 (5)

Brunei -62
Australia -59
Denmark -58

Baltic Sea Region
Sweden 11 (4)
Latvia 45 (21)
Finland 57 (12)
Belarus  64 (52)
Germany 70  (17)
Lithuania 72 (36)
Denmark 89 (31)
Poland 93 (62)
Estonia 100 (56)
Russia 103 (68)

The new ranks show the countries with lot of money but little relative effort, as well as the poor ones that showing some effort. Of the BSR, One can notice how it was earlier practically divided by West-East division (as the whole EPI). The new calculation, where the ability (assuming GDP per capita is more relevant that GDP itself - GDP per capita tells relatively the amount of usable money per person, while GDP just shows a lump sum) comes in, seems that only a few countries do what they really could do.  Baltics kept their order even in the new calculation, and seems the majority of Baltic Sea Region countries still are on the plus side (above rank 81) in the world. Just shame on Denmark!

Original EPI: http://epi.yale.edu/