Living in Eurozone

Lithuania’s small ethnic Ukrainian community, centered in Kaunas, awoke to the need to do something in early December, when a plaque dedicated to Yevhen Konovalets, the first OUN leader, was officially unveiled, with all military honors, with a military parade, including three Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Czech paramilitary squads, latter-day Sich Riflemen, marching on the thoroughfare of the first Lithuanian capital city (Kaunas was one after 1918 and before the war).

The plaque was unveiled with fanfare. Oleh Pankevych, head of Lviv’s regional state administration, attended the ceremony and said that it was a historic event, that “for the first time during the years of Ukrainian national independence, such tribute is being paid abroad to one of its national heroes, an outstanding military leader.”

Yevhen Konovalets was UPA colonel killed by a bomb in the form of a box of chocolates in Rotterdam (Holland). Even then the investigators knew the assassin’s name [NKVD officer by the name of Pavel Sudoplatov], yet the authorities pretended to miss the presence of the Moscow hand. The mystery of his death was revealed 30 years later.

Lithuaniahad to suffer the Soviet totalitarian regime for 50 years, with anti-Soviet guerilla resistance in the 1940s-1950s. Resistance moods remained, as evidenced by Romas Kalanta’s self-immolation in front of the Soviet Mayor’s Office of Kaunas, in May 1972. Now the place is marked by a memorial sign.

Back in the 1970s, the self-immolation of a 19-year-old fellow gave rise to the largest postwar anti-Soviet riots in Kaunas, Vilnius, and other Lithuanian cities. The KGB and militia left most rioters unpunished (with few arrested for hooliganism). Soviet propaganda pronounced Romas Kalanta mentally retarded.

In January 1990, the rebellious Baltic republics launched a campaign aimed at seceding from the Soviet Union. The Kremlin responded by sending tanks to Lithuania and its closest neighbors. At the time history could repeat itself. Lithuania has since been an adequate member of the European Union.

GOOD WAGES AND EXPENSIVE BREAD

In February 2011, A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index read that there was good progress in the Baltic states during the two years since the previous study, mostly due to competitive costs, transferring Latvia from the 22nd to 13th ratings spot, placing Lithuania 14th (compared to its previous 21st spot). McKinsey & Company, another trusted advisor and counselor to many of the world’s most influential businesses and institutions, says the Ukrainian market is the most vulnerable one in Eastern Europe because of high risks, problems with loans, and its dependence on foreign capital. The World Bank’s annual list of the best places in the world to start and run a business (totaling 183 countries) ranks Lithuania in 23rd place, three rungs up the ratings ladder compared to past year. Good progress, considering that the UK is placed seventh. Another prestigious source, Legatum Prosperity Index (2011) places Lithuania 44th. Lithuania is still lagging behind the developed EU countries but the authors of the findings believe that main obstacle is the Lithuanian people’s overstated pessimism. Under this Index, Lithuania’s living standard is next to the last one on a list of 110 countries. In other words, Lithuanians believe their living conditions are worse than those in the poverty-stricken countries of Africa, [Latin] America or Asia.

Lithuania’s communications infrastructures are actually better than those in a hundred of other countries, whereas its Internet providers and their networks win this country top ratings.

So much for official statistics. My personal impressions are that Lithuanian foodstuffs are sold at reasonable prices. Meat and meat products are less expensive than those in Ukraine by 20-30 percent. Practically the rest of the food basket is available at prices similar to those in Ukraine, except Lithuanian fruit and vegetables, alcoholic drinks, and cigarettes. These products sell much lower in Ukraine. Their public transport fares are three, even four times higher compared to ours. They have to pay rent and municipal bills two or three times higher than we do in Ukraine. Natural gas bills are also big, probably the biggest in Europe, as a result of Russia’s rigid discriminatory policy of gas supplies to Lithuania – a former totalitarian empire taking revenge on a small freedom-loving country, once a part of it?

INCONSPICUOUS COPS AND DISCIPLINED CITIZENS

Most of these problems, including soaring consumer prices, appear to be compensated by comparatively higher wages. A Lithuanian national who earns less than 400 euros a month is placed in the lowest wage ratings spot. Physicians, school/college teachers, office workers, those engaged in the cultural sphere are paid an average of 600 euros a month.

There is capital construction underway in Lithuania, with old buildings being restored. I saw highways being built, matching US standards. There are other indices of well-being, like the presence of limos parked on its streets, in front of expensive apartment buildings, so one has a hard time parking one’s car during the night. What helps traffic jams is the presence of a well-managed public transport network. Despite the exorbitant fares (with the passenger having to pay three or more times compared to Ukraine), all traffic is under control, with the passengers maintaining discipline, entering the vehicle through the front door and exiting through the rear one, with all tickets being e-cards, with no conductors. All routes are closely followed and all transgressions are punishable, come what may, so all vehicles must keep their schedule. Fixed route taxis stop when signaled by passengers, the way you flag down a cab. Why such simple things are impossible in Ukraine?

Another thing that makes Lithuania a member of the Eurozone. Visiting this small country, one is unaware of cops – well, you can see a couple of them, now and then. During my six-month stay in that country I never spotted a traffic patrol car with a couple of traffic cops waiting in ambush, trying to catch a speeding driver, using that special device. Yes, I heard about police operations involving such techniques in Lithuania. Only once did I witness a patrol car, with flashers burning, chasing a BMW for speeding (10 km above set speed limit). The speeding driver was spotted immediately, and from what I learned, he would suffer a harsh legal punishment.

URBAN COMFORT AND ROADS

Transport and urban roads appear to be having problems similar to those we’re having in Ukraine. Juozas Bublys, senior specialist with the Municipal Department of the Kaunas Self-Administration (Kaunas Mayor’s Office), told me: “We are disastrously short of budget funds – I mean that we need to repair our sidewalks and the driveways/paths leading to our homes and apartment houses. Out of the six million litas [20 million hryvnias. – Ed.] that must be appropriated for the repair of these municipal facilities, not a sent has been given us in the past three years.

Bublys said the situation in Vilnius was a little better.

He complained that the bridges are in need of repair, that this situation can deprive the residents of urban comfort, that this is very bad. Bridge repair estimates in 2012 pointed to three million litas, while all they got was 100,000 litas.

Bublys is a battle-hardened veteran in his field. He keeps the situation under control after having dedicated 33 years to this business (I am reminded of Ukraine’s DRBU) and seven years in the administration. He is convinced that his country has accumulated its debt to the transport workers, by increasing it by 50 million litas a year, and that if such budget appropriations were timely provided, the city roads would be as good as new.

In my opinion, the Lithuanian intercity highways are great. They meet every European standard.