The guest of the colloquium also discussed the criteria applied in the assessment of media transformation, recalling common complaint of CEE media scholars that the new post-Communist governments never formulated a full-fledged media policy: “In many countries, the officially avowed principle of freedom of speech and of the media has been honoured more in the breach than in the observance. Of course, general directions of systemic media policy, e.g. privatization of print media and establishment of dual broadcasting system combining public and commercial stations, has been pursued, but this hardly adds up to a full set of criteria by which to judge the progress of transformation”, the specialist noted.

Professor Peter Gross also drew attention to the fact that there are no unified standards in Western Europe for the CEE region to conform with, apart from a bit idealistic ones formulated by the Council of Europe and by the EU in general, but it would be hard to find a country whose media system is fully in line with them: “EU does make conformity with these standards a condition of admission for the CEE countries, but it is content with the pro forma transplantation of Western laws, institutions and regulations and turns a blind eye to the non-Western nature of their application and media and journalism practices that often fail to observe them. We need to answer which one of the many examples of Western European media and journalism are CEE countries to emulate and why do we assume that any of the Western types is truly adequate for a true democracy. Socially and technologically driven change in their media systems is so fast that trying to emulate them would be like trying to aim at a panoply of movable targets”, the scientist explained. He argued that there is no template to which post-Communist media systems could be compared to see how advanced in their transformation they are.

Historical Heritage of Ruin

According to Prof. Gross, CEE countries missed out on the Western European developments of the 19th century and thus are still burdened by the effects of autocratic regimes and their institutions. “To quote Robert Conquest, this “left a heritage of ruin not only in the economy, ecology, health, politics, but also, and above all, in the minds and psyches of its citizens”. With such a historical legacy, transformation cannot be over any time soon. Western transitologists simply err in their assumptions that the post-Communist process meant a quick progression to a free mass media and journalism”, professor claimed.

Quoting Karol Jakubowicz, the media researcher compared the transformations in the CEE countries with ontogenesis, i.e. the sequence of events in the development of an organism, which brings the desired results after a long period of time. “The easy answer is that the transformation has simply not lasted long enough to have produced such a stable situation. According to Harry Eckstein, a plan to democratize fully should probably cover some 25 years, more or less depending on local condition (60 years according to Ralf Dahrendorf). So there may still be both backsliding and moving forward, and the media is always the first to be effected by such change, for good or bad. To probe a little deeper, media systems in democratic CEE countries operate on at least two levels: that of democratic theory and that of not always democratic practices”, Peter Gross concluded before adding that CEE must retrace the path taken by the West and even repeat the same mistakes in order to successfully create a similar media system.

Issues Unsolved in 400 Years

At the end of his presentation, the guest concluded that we lack framework of reference and a set of criteria by which to judge whether the transformation is over, and that the democratic CEE countries’ media systems are close enough to Western European counterparts only in legal, institutional and market terms. For some, this is convincing enough that the media transformation is over.

“When one looks closer it becomes obvious that the general cultures and many of these laws and institutions are in fact empty shells, far from capable of performing their democratic leadership and supporting functions properly. Post-Communist societies now face a policy overload, in that they must simultaneously resolve four centuries worth of business their histories prevented them from dealing with at the right time, i.e. from the 17th century issues of freedom of speech to the 21st century’s issues of the information society. If that is true, then transformation has indeed a long way to go. Thus we must understand that a media system and journalism are but a way-station to a future obscured by the unknown vicissitudes that may befall them and by the insufficiently understood effects of the past that will not die for a long time, if ever. To quote William Faulkner, one of the most famous American novelists, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past”, Prof. Peter Gross said in closing.

Foreign Specialists Discussed Media Transformation Experiences

According to the colloquium’s organizer prof. Auksė Balčytienė, its speakers covered a broad spectrum of ideas related to ongoing changes and transformations as well as emerging challenges that contemporary journalism and media professionals, scholars, policy makers need to address in diverse political and cultural contexts. “In the colloquium, we sought to research the experiences of Central and Eastern European media transformations and encourage debates about the complex processes in our societies”, Prof. Auksė Balčytienė summarized the goal of the international event.
The topics discussed at the colloquium included media ownership change, changes in the business models of the media, changing journalistic professionalism requirements and continual attempts to meet media’s democratic performance requests, effects of cultural traditions, values and norms on journalism, declining trust of the audience in the media, growing use and adaptability of the Internet-inspired communicative practices in media and communications, etc.
Other speakers at the event were representatives of academic and media institutions in the USA, Poland, Romania, Belarus, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania, scholars, researchers and professionals who have gathered a wealth of experience which allows them to stand firm in the face of these transformations and look for possible solutions.
Video recordings of the colloquium’s speakers’ presentations, filmed and edited by Kristijonas Jakubsonas (k.jakubsonas@vkt.vdu.lt) are available on the website http://live.tvdu.lt.

According to the colloquium’s organizer, the speakers will cover a broad spectrum of ideas related to ongoing changes and transformations as well as emerging challenges that contemporary journalism and media professionals, scholars, policy makers need to address in diverse political and cultural contexts. “In the colloquium, we seek to research the experiences of Central and Eastern European media transformations and encourage debates about the complex processes in our societies”, Prof. Auksė Balčytienė summarized the goal of the international event.

The topics to be discussed at the colloquium include media ownership change as well as changes in the business models of the media, changing journalistic professionalism requirements and continual attempts to meet media’s democratic performance requests, effects of cultural traditions, values and norms on journalism, declining trust of the audience in the media, growing use and adaptability of the Internet-inspired communicative practices in media and communications, etc.

One of the most respectable guests of the colloquium is Prof. Peter Gross, Director and Professor at the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, College of Communication and Information, University of Tennessee, USA. He will present a retrospective on two decades of media transformation in the post-Communist world. “He is one of those Western European scientists who see Central Europe not as a region which needs to adopt Western standards, but rather as an opportunity for the West itself to change. Peter Gross’ research is not founded on the Western European tradition, instead for him it is just one of the many choices and models in the search for the ways for the regions of the Old Continent to understand each other. It is yet another voice which has to be heard”, the organizer of the colloquium described the coming guest.

Other speakers of the event are representatives of academic and media institutions in the USA, Poland, Romania, Belarus, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania, scholars, researchers and professionals who have gathered a wealth of experience which allows them to stand firm in the face of these transformations and look for possible solutions.

More information:
Prof. Auksė Balčytienė
Dept. of Public Communications
Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy
Vytautas Magnus University
E-mail: a.balcytiene@pmdf.vdu.lt
Phone: +370 37 228 696
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Vytautas Magnus University is an institution of higher education in Lithuania, renowned locally and internationally for its unique liberal study system and successful international relations with other universities all over the world. At VMU, traditions and innovations meet and complement each other in research as well as in studies, constantly developing as a community and cherishing values of personal dignity, individuality, tolerance and openness to various cultures and worldviews, relevancy to global challenges and promotion of inventive research and modern teaching. Great educational and cultural significance to Lithuanian history, dissemination of liberal thought and high quality of studies are what makes Vytautas Magnus University an exceptional institution.

For more information, please visit the website of the university: http://www.vdu.lt/en.

The journey following the road of the great author was just one of the international events on 26 June – 2 July in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šeteniai and Krasnogruda, dedicated to the commemoration of the 100th birth anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Literature Winner, VMU Honorary Doctor Czesław Miłosz. The Miłosz Road told audiences about the life, the works and the indelible contribution of the great Polish writer in the context of cultural life worldwide.

The Miłosz Road Was Interesting and Diverse

After 2011 was declared the Year of Czesław Miłosz, Prof. Avižienis started looking for ways and opportunities to hold events that would speak about this person who is so near and dear to Lithuania and Poland. “The program of events of The Miłosz Road was interesting and diverse: a conference took place, a visit was paid to Miłosz’s hometown, where a wood sculpture exhibition had been updated for the occasion, also a scientific study was prepared, analysing Miłosz’s journey in life and work. One exhibition was based on the study – the main stages of Miłosz’s life and features of his works were presented, paying the most attention to his Lithuanian origins and revealing his relation to the small homeland”, the first Rector of the re-established Vytautas Magnus University, Prof. Algirdas Avižienis, explained.

According to the President of the Pogranicze (Borderland) Foundation in Sejny and the Director of the Centre “Borderland of Arts, Cultures and Nations” Krzysztof Czyżewski, he and his Lithuanian colleagues organising the events of Miłosz’s birth centennial noticed that this year marks not one but two important dates: the 100th birthday of Czesław Miłosz and the beginning of Poland’s Presidency of the European Union. “We wanted very much to declare Czesław Miłosz as the sponsor of the latter event, and we successfully did so. While organising The Miłosz Road, we all had an idea that we would depart from Šeteniai to Krasnogruda. I first visited Miłosz’s homeland in 1992 with the poet himself. We were both in Šeteniai and went to Krasnogruda later. As we were walking together, I realized that Czesław Miłosz would like to rebuild everything here. You, Lithuanians, were much faster: you have rebuilt everything quicker than the Poles. The International Dialogue Center is opening its doors at the restored Krasnogruda Manor these days. The restored barn in Šeteniai and the Krasnogruda Manor, which belonged to Czesław Miłosz’s family before the war, will add a symbolic contribution to what Czesław Miłosz called the creation of a “connective tissue”, Krzysztof Czyżewski said.

A Meaningful Journey on the Miłosz Road

The program of The Miłosz Road began on 29 June, with the High Mass at the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica. Afterwards, the participants of the international conference Times and Places of Czesław Miłosz who have come here from the United States, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Israel travelled together with Lithuanians to Vandžiogala. The graves of Miłosz’s relatives were visited, as well as the nearby Holy Trinity Church in Vandžiogala characterised by folk architecture.

The pilgrimage of The Miłosz Road later proceeded to Kėdainiai – Czesław Miłosz was one of the first ones to be declared the Honorary Citizen of this town. At the Kėdainiai Regional Museum, guests from abroad together with Lithuanians got acquainted with the interesting history of this land and admired 4 to 5 meter high crosses made by Vincas Svirskis (1835–1916) from a thick trunk of an oak. The Director of the Kėdainiai Regional Museum Rimantas Žirgulis said that these crosses, now exhibits at the museum, must have been seen by Czesław Miłosz himself in his native land.

After visiting the Old Town in Kėdainiai, the Calvinist Church and the Radvila Mausoleum in its crypt, participants of The Miłosz Road arrived to Šventybrastis. Here, on the right bank of the river Nevėžis, by the mouth of its tributary Brasta, the ancestral graves of the Sirutis and Kunatas families were visited. The site, surrounded by 500-year-old oaks, fascinated the foreign guests as well as Lithuanians, some of whom were not first-time visitors. Another landmark visited during the stopover in Šventybrastis was the local Christ Transfiguration Church, the place where Czesław Miłosz was baptised. The church, built in 1774, is a wooden folk architecture structure with stone extensions.

Poet’s Anniversary Marked in His Hometown

The pilgrims’ last stop was Czesław Miłosz hometown Šeteniai. The poetry, music and folklore celebration commemorating the writer’s 100th birthday was held here, in Miłosz’s native town, next to the restored barn now turned into a conference center. “As fate would have it, the Ces zesław Miłosz Birthplace Foundation presented this place as a gift to Vytautas Magnus University. This is both a great responsibility and a great honour. Czesław Miłosz’s native town, its exceptional aura is important not just to our university but to everyone familiar with this individual. This place is open for holding discussions: meeting and talking about topics that Miłosz touched upon. And there is a multitude of those topics, and they are still very relevant”, Vytautas Magnus University Rector Prof. Zigmas Lydeka said.

Nijolė Naujokaitienė, the Kėdainiai Deputy Mayor, member of the working group of Kėdainiai District and the government that was tasked with the preparation of the marking of Nobel Prize in Literature Winner, Kėdainiai Honorary Citizen Czesław Miłosz’s 100th birthday anniversary, expressed joy that these very deep, very meaningful and properly organised events are taking place here, in the district of Kėdainiai, in Šeteniai. “It suits to celebrate a birthday in the place where the person was born. Today we are following the paths Czesław Miłosz walked on in his childhood, when his inner world was still forming. Images of this place were reflected in the works of this deep, spiritual person with a philosophical outlook on life, Czesław Miłosz”, Nijolė Naujokaitienė explained.

Meeting Place Under the Rustling Centenarian Limes

Greeting everyone that gathered in Šeteniai, the Mayor of the Kėdainiai District Municipality Rimantas Diliūnas noted that “the Polish poet, Nobel Prize Winner was born right here, in Šeteniai – no matter how and who is interpreting his biography, nobody is contesting this fact. Perhaps these centenarian limes still remember the touch of Czesław Miłosz’s bare feet and laughter as a child. We, the people of Kėdainiai district, know and remember Miłosz and his works: we appreciate them and are proud of them. We promised this year to name one of the streets in the Kėdainiai Old Town after Miłosz, and on 6th of August we will present the Czesław Miłosz Prize to one of the researchers of his works”.
Virginija Būdienė, the Chief Adviser to Her Excellency the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė, delivered the President’s bilingual dedication to the pilgrims of The Miłosz Road during the event: “Czesław Miłosz is a citizen of the world who connects the Lithuanian and Polish nations. He is particularly important for his unifying oeuvre which revealed how fruitful and close our nations’ collaboration can be”. By the request of Her Excellency the President Dalia Grybauskaitė, this dedication will remain in Šeteniai.

Oak Grove Grew Larger

An ever-growing oak grove in the town of Šeteniai also became larger during The Miłosz Road. Memorial nominal trees were planted by Krzysztof Czyżewski, Zigmas Lydeka, Aleksander Fiut and Rimantas Diliūnas with Nijolė Naujokaitienė next to the already growing ones that had emerged on other occasions. An oak tree marking the Czesław Miłosz centennial was planted next to the barn as well.

Prof. Aleksander Fiut from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland), a witness of the restoration works in the Czesław Miłosz’s hometown who had planted his own oak in the park, rejoiced: “Occasions such as the one today always lead either to pathos or to sentiments. I am very honoured to be one of the founders of the Czesław Miłosz Birthplace Foundation”, Alexander Fiut said, addressing the attending public not as Lithuanians or Poles but as friends of Czesław Miłosz.

Exhibitions Spoke About Miłosz’s Journey in Life and Works

The participants and guests of The Miłosz Road in Šeteniai were introduced to expositions telling of Czesław Miłosz’s life, its’ key stages and the most notable works of the writer. The attending public watched these expositions in a barn which has served as a conference centre since 1999, and in a park located nearby.

The Czesław Miłosz Library opened its doors during the event as well. “Books by and about Czesław Miłosz, published earlier and recently, are preserved in the library. The Polish Institute in Vilnius donated books authored by Miłosz as well as books written about him. We hope that it will keep growing, expanding and the published works will be collected in at least four languages: Lithuanian, Polish, English and French”, Janina Masalskienė, the founder of the Czesław Miłosz Library in the poet’s hometown, said.

The participants and guests of The Miłosz Road admired the updated exhibition of wood sculptures in Czesław Miłosz’s hometown. Sixteen objects in Šeteniai, at the intersections in Kėdainiai District (Cinkiškės, Vilainiai, Naciūnai, Aristava and Gimtinė) and at the Kėdainiai roundabout junction have been restored by the students and management of the Justinas Vienožinskis Faculty of Arts at the Kaunas University of Applied Sciences as part of the project Kūrybos Ir Bendravimo Džiaugsmas 2011 (The Joy of Creativity and Communication 2011) organised by the public enterprises Meninė Drožyba and the Lithuanians’ World Center on 6–17 June 2011.

“It is very important to perceive the value of an object, not to damage it during the restoration, pick the right methods and materials for the restoration. Every object has its story, its language of expression. One has to help reveal the beauty materialized by the master, protecting his work from possible further decay”, Bangutis Prapuolenis, one of the heads of the Youth Creative Restoration Practice Camp (Jaunimo Kūrybinės Restauravimo Praktikos Stovykla) and a lecturer at the Justinas Vienožinskis Faculty of Arts at the Kaunas University of Applied Sciences, explained.
The events marking the 100th birthday anniversary of Czesław Miłosz were organised by the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Institute, Vilnius University, Vytautas Magnus University, the Czesław Miłosz Birthplace Foundation, Kėdainiai District Municipality, the Lithuanian Art Museum and the Pogranicze Foundation in Sejny.
Program of Events
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Vytautas Magnus University is an institution of higher education in Lithuania, renowned locally and internationally for its unique liberal study system and successful international relations with other universities all over the world. At VMU, traditions and innovations meet and complement each other in research as well as in studies, constantly developing as a community and cherishing values of personal dignity, individuality, tolerance and openness to various cultures and worldviews, relevancy to global challenges and promotion of inventive research and modern teaching. Great educational and cultural significance to Lithuanian history, dissemination of liberal thought and high quality of studies are what makes Vytautas Magnus University an exceptional institution.

July 1st

Time:
18:15

The Government backs Christine Lagarde’s candidacy taking into account her wide work experience necessary for the position of the IMF head, active participation in handling European financial challenges, the contender’s outlined objectives and vision for the IMF post, as well as the support of many European countries.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has a vast experience and expertise both in the private (as an international lawyer at Baker & McKenzie) and in the public sectors (as France`s Trade Minister between 2005 and May 2007 and later – as Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries and the Minister of Economy, Industry and Finance since 2007). During the crucial time of the global crisis Christine Lagarde chaired the G20 summits of finance ministers and central bankers aimed at improving the regulation of the international financial system.

Christine Lagarde announced, if she is elected for the IMF job, her top priority would be to continue reforms at the IMF to reflect the current economic realities so that it remains responsive to change and cooperative institution. According to Lagarde, the IMF had a crucial role in tackling the crisis on public finances in Europe, therefore, it is important to ensure the IMF turns its attention to other regions to respond to problems in the developing countries, in particular, in the Middle East and North Africa. It is necessary to make use of all IMF’s financial instruments and cooperate with other international financial institutions. In order to avoid further crises, the IMF needs more efficient and consistent monitoring, particularly on a multilateral basis. The IMF needs to be the key institution in reforming the international monetary system. According to Christine Lagarde, it is also important to finish the IMF management reforms.

Following Dominique Strauss-Kahn resignation from the IMF managing director‘s post on 23 May 2011, the IMF opened the selection process for a new IMF leader who will be named by 10 June.

Distinguished Participants of the Parliamentary Sitting,

I am very much delighted to have the opportunity to once again address you.

I view the annual address, which is a moment of special importance to me, not only as a constitutional duty, but first and foremost as an opportunity for all us to take a moment, to pause in our daily routine of problems, conflicts and scandals, and to speak about the issues that can shape the environment for our today and our children’s tomorrow.

I am a supporter of constructive words. I speak so that we can translate words into actions and actions into results.

That is how I understand the purpose and meaning of the annual presidential address prescribed by the Constitution. Therefore, as I was preparing for our today’s meeting, I decided to take a short look back at the year 2010. So that together we evaluate the fruits of our last year’s meeting.

In my first State of the Nation address delivered exactly a year ago, I defined the most painful scourge of our society – dehumanization of the state. I spoke about the most compelling problems that arise from this. I proposed a way ahead – the unconditional superiority of the principle of the individual person as the highest value in all of our activities, planning and decision-making.

It was very pleasing to receive so many positive telephone calls, letters and messages from ordinary Lithuanians, state officials, politicians, and political observers. It confirmed that in our country we all feel the same, we perceive problems the same way, and we see the same solutions.

It means that we can work together for a common purpose: for the good of the state and the people. It is only if we agree on this ultimate priority that we will stop being undecided and will be able to define a clear direction of unified strategic thought.

We will also put the legislative process into proper order. We will make it more transparent, definite and effective. And we will make it work for the people, society and the state – not for some separate agency, a small grouping or an interest group.

How far have we made it on this path?

I will speak in facts.

During this past year, it was twelve times that I returned the laws adopted by the Seimas for reconsideration.

I did it because I had to stop alcohol lobbyists in their attempt to fill the pockets of alcohol magnates with a hundred million litas at the expense of the state budget. We, society and the state, would have lost these millions.

I also returned the Law on Land and the Law on Land Reform unsigned because I could not allow putting the wealth that belongs to all the people of Lithuania – the land – at risk.

Last week, I sent back amendments to the Law on Forests for reconsideration. I could not approve legalizing provisions which would have paved the way for an unpredictable and unmanageable devastation and urbanization of woodlands. So that people would be also deprived of forests, like it happened with Lithuania’s most beautiful lakesides and riversides.

It was twelve times – as I have already mentioned – that I had to deal with these and other similar cases of legislation. The Seimas did not overturn eleven of my vetoes, and I hope that the sound arguments submitted with respect to the amended Law on Forests will be heard as well.

I have come to the conclusion that if deficiencies are pointed out and rectifications presented, members of the Seimas do not ignore them. It means that cooperation is possible and that it was fruitful, although not always easy and time efficient.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I do not intend to only evaluate the situation, to regret the poor progress made or to condemn anonymous culprits. Whatever other areas, but with respect to legislation we cannot afford to wait for another year only to speak about it once again. Therefore, I will be consistent and determined in attaining the results we need – a new approach and a new quality of laws.

If a law presented to me for signature is adverse to the interests of society, I will veto it. I will offer constructive solutions which would make our life better and brighter, and would not push people into poverty and despair or force them to go to foreign countries in search of hope.

Each time I am presented with a piece of legislation which is custom-made for a particular interest group, which smells of corruption or of plain stupidity, I will personally request to investigate its origins. I will personally enquire in which chain of the legislation process the doubtful provisions were introduced.

They say that people need to know their heroes. But they also need to know the wrongdoers, the know-nothings and especially the hypocrites. So we can clean up the civil service. So we can expel those who have come not to serve, but to trade in laws, permits, decisions, and the worst of all, in the trust and confidence that people have in their state.

Yes, I am speaking about corruption once again.

I spoke about it a year ago – about this dreadful, deep rooted and hardest to treat disability of ours.

Let me remind you in a few words: I spoke about its scope and related impunity problems; I informed you that more than 700 pre-trial investigations into corruption were initiated. However, no one was convicted for bribes.
So what has changed since last June?

The first figure stands the same: more than 700 pre-trial investigations into corruption have been started. This time, however, 18 persons were convicted of corruption: 6 for bribe-taking and 12 for bribery.

Is this a victory? Of course, not.

First, those who are now in prison are not the only and the last offenders engaged in such activity. I respect the presumption of innocence, but I will nevertheless venture to say that there are more bribe-takers outside the bars than behind them: This is also confirmed by special service investigations and people who have the relevant experience in this area.

Second, our objective is to prevent wrongdoing, not to send to prison as many people as possible. I believe that over the year we have made substantial progress in this direction.

I would like to thank the Seimas for responding to my last year’s appeal, for supporting my efforts to start a consistent and systematic fight, for approving in principle all of my proposals aimed at creating an environment where it would be not only wrong, but also unprofitable to steal and cheat.

The prolonged limitation periods that I proposed and the Seimas adopted will help plug the loopholes to escape deserved punishment. In addition, they offset the delaying legal tactics.

I proposed to impose much heavier fines for economic offences, and amendments to this effect have already been passed.

We convinced the Seimas to approve my proposed amendments to the Penal Code introducing responsibility for unlawful enrichment and the possibility of extended confiscation of such assets.

These amendments have invalidated the shallow and myopic popular doctrine “Not a thief until caught red-handed”. The inability to catch the thief does not make the thief righteous. We therefore granted the state the right to investigate into the origin of unexplainable wealth.

The state now has the right to confiscate all of the unlawfully acquired assets, including those fraudulently held by other family members or accomplices.

These decisions will not only revaluate the profitability-and-risk ratio of criminal business. They will also offer – and have already offered – new and effective law enforcement instruments. We will soon be able to demand factual results.

We have thus sent a clear signal to those who even now are mocking society and the state, sometimes surreptitiously and sometimes quite openly and directly. We warned them: We are not only talking, we are acting this time! We will use all the powers of the state to protect national property and national dignity.

And we will place special focus on the ability and efficiency of those who fight crime and corruption: on their competence, professional qualities and, first and foremost, their integrity.

I have proposed to amend the Law on Civil Service, the Law on Prevention of Corruption and the Law on Operational Activities. We have made the safety net more stringent so that persons of poor competence and especially of doubtful reputation could not be recruited to those ministerial, municipal, law enforcement or state enterprise positions where proposals are developed and where decision are made.

I am convinced that the law enforcement and special services also need a wind of change. I would like therefore to thank the Seimas for supporting my initiative to introduce terms in office for those institutional positions. I believe that it will shake up the system and encourage the professional aspirations of talented and qualified specialists. I am certain that it will help us overcome what until now has seemed impossible to be overcome: the dangerous syndrome of longtime posts which is only a step away from almightiness, impunity and clan-based justice.

There is still work to do to make the civil service and the budget-funded sector more transparent, responsible and professional.

At this point, I would like to go back once again to my last year’s annual address: to that part where I spoke about the courts of law, about the stagnation, professional degradation and arrogance running in the system. About the immediate need to simplify judicial proceedings and to have society represented more widely in courts of law. I also spoke about the need to open the system to new faces, new approaches and new efforts.

I know that in the context of recent public scandals this will possibly sound unexpected, but as I look back at the events and the work of this past year I can say: The ice has broken!

The amended Law on Courts created preconditions for engaging society in the process of controlling the administrative activities of courts and judges. We now need to start applying this legal provision in real terms. So that public organizations make active use of controlling rights granted to them. Where necessary, I am ready to support their efforts to join the process of improving the performance of the judicial system.

Some time ago, at my own initiative, I signed a decree approving a new judge selection procedure. I know that it has already accelerated the selection process, brought new people of good repute to the judicial team and reduced the workload of judges.

Last week I also signed amendments to the Law on Courts similarly aimed at making the judicial system more flexible and at speeding up the judge transfer and selection procedures. It will allow to build a more rational network of judges and to distribute their workload more evenly. The general public will have the right not only to request more rapid but also better quality judicial procedures.

The recent wave of judge behavior scandals is shameful. However, it should not drive us to despair. These are old blisters that have been long shielded from public view by the judicial clan. Now they have come out into the open. It means that we are cleaning up. It adds weight to our arguments, not those propagating a closed-door system.

Bribes, power abuse and corruption are transactions that involve at least two parties. They can exist only as long as we – the society – tolerate them. The situation is going to change when social discontent reaches a critical point.

I am determined and I will do my best to make it happen as quickly as possible. I pledge to consistently support and encourage all civic initiatives targeted at this purpose. The turning point “either – or” is here and now, not tomorrow.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We live in a period of time when almost every life zone of the state and society is marked by critical points.

It applies to the economy too.

It has been some time that we heaved a sigh of relief that we managed to evade financial collapse. We curbed the crisis. We did it even better that some of the European old timers, members of the euro zone. That is good news.

Economic growth has considerably exceeded the projected level, reaching an index of almost seven percent – an impressive accomplishment. I strongly hope that everybody in Lithuania will be able to feel it soon.

But what is most important is not the record rates of growth, but its sources.

Last year our economy grew mostly because of exports, only because people in other countries started to live better and to buy more. This year we see a new tendency – domestic consumption is recovering. Economic expectations are improving. It means that economic optimism is here. Hope and faith are already present.

It is now that solidarity acquires a special meaning. So let us not forget those who are in the most difficult circumstances. Let us give our attention to the price of foods that are especially important in a modest consumer basket. Let us find out why they are increasing. It is here that competition regulators have to come in and do their work.

Let us have an honest discussion about the minimum wage. We have to be prudent, but not stubborn. We have to fulfill our promise to restore pensions to their previous level. The social system is waiting for real reforms, not paper concepts or guidelines.

Let’s support business, especially if it invests in the future, creates jobs and in this way helps the state to translate human expectations and economic development opportunities into reality.

I know that we cannot afford to provide either financial support or substantial tax reliefs. But let us do what we can. Let’s remember our plans and intentions: to eliminate senseless restrictions and bureaucratic constraints, to encourage and promote business. Regrettably, it has been a long time that we have heard about the work performed or at least the proposals initiated by the “bureaucracy sunset” and “business sunrise” architects. The economy is gaining momentum and it needs real support now, not in 2020 or 2030. I therefore urge all ministries, services and agencies to streamline their work, future plans, guidelines, and strategies towards this objective.

Let us finally fix the heating sector and start building a liquefied natural gas terminal. We have no time for idle talk. Things cannot be delayed anymore!

The public procurement process must finally become transparent, and this cannot be delayed either. The people and the state must know what is bought for their money, and why it is bought. I have therefore proposed legal amendments to implement an institutional reform of the Public Procurement Service, ensuring its actual independence and efficiency, and to put an arrangement for adequate publicity in place, which would not allow purchasing organizations to withhold information about the ongoing procurements.

It will reduce the possibilities of abuse and set the conditions to initiate administrative proceedings against any persons who have violated public procurement rules and to impose adequate legal sanctions. I hope to have the support of the Seimas in this matter.

As the economy recovers, optimism and faith should also emerge in other spheres: in culture, education and the non-governmental sector.

I said when I submitted the Guidelines on Changes in Lithuanian Cultural Policy to the Seimas, and I would like to repeat it once again: the state has yet a lot to do to improve the cultural environment, to create conditions for the people to better understand culture as a unifying phenomenon and to become its creators. Everybody must have the possibility to read books, visit museums, theaters, concerts, and watch movies. Culture is not an item of luxury; culture is the guarantor of our unity which is vital for our democracy, togetherness and for Lithuania.

I place a strong emphasis on the human element in education. The education system must not only offer knowledge, but it must also be sensitive to the needs and abilities of every individual. It must instill a feeling of self-confidence, togetherness and pride in the homeland. Each and every Lithuanian citizen must feel appreciated and capable of realizing own potential.

We will be able to attain the goals we have set only when economic wellbeing, social justice and respect for the human person become an integral and essential part of the strategic objectives and tactical decisions of every government.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year we mark the twentieth anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with many countries. For me, these are very significant anniversaries because I had the privilege of contributing personally to building the Lithuanian diplomatic service and to Lithuania’s first diplomatic steps.

The fact that Lithuania is a full member of the Euro-Atlantic community is the most important result of many years of our foreign policy and the guarantor of its continuity. These achievements are further enhanced by Lithuania’s chairmanship this year of two international organizations: the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Community of Democracies.

Membership in international organizations and all of the international forums should help us ensure an environment favorable to advancing Lithuania’s most important interests: security, economic wellbeing, energy independence, and good relations with neighboring countries.

I am delighted that Lithuania’s active position, which I strongly defended, in developing NATO’s new strategy resulted greater number and more specific security guarantees for the people of our country and for the entire Baltic States region. After seven years of our membership in NATO, we have contingency plans for the Baltic countries.

Our consistent efforts led to guarantees that Lithuania’s interests will not be violated in missile defense: NATO will continue its role in defending member states. Europe will not be divided into geographic sectors.

Pro-active EU membership is Lithuania’s continued priority. The key achievement of this past period is that by 2015 Lithuania and the other Baltic countries will be brought out of energy isolation from the rest of Europe. This is our ultimate goal which – due also to Lithuania’s active efforts – is now pursued by the whole of Europe. In order to translate it into reality, however, we need to implement vitally important interconnection projects which will link us with Sweden and Poland, and to build an LNG terminal at an earliest possible time.

With Lithuania’s active participation in Brussels, the European Union has set itself an objective of making all of the ongoing and planned nuclear power projects fully comply with the highest international standards. The future nuclear facilities in the European neighborhood, including the countries neighboring Lithuania, must also meet these safety standards. A significant number of EU member states are getting together behind this Lithuanian initiative.

European economic issues and energy independence are just a few of the areas where our interests match the interests of Nordic countries.

Strengthening the Baltic Sea Region remains a key direction in Lithuania’s foreign policy. We are an integral part of the Baltic Sea Region and we have reliable partners here with whom we share the same regional development goals. It is natural therefore that cooperation with Nordic countries in all spheres continues to be top priority.

A constructive and stable neighborhood is also greatly relevant to Lithuania’s security. Therefore, the implementation of strategic energy and security projects with Poland is greatly important.

Independent Belarus is Lithuania’s interest. I have always supported and will continue to support the path of dialogue and cooperation with neighbors. However, it does not mean that behavior directed against democratic values and human rights can be tolerated.

Openness, transparency and continuity are the invariable features of Lithuania’s foreign policy agenda. The Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe that we hold this year is based on these principles and they will be at the core of our preparations for Lithuania’s upcoming EU Presidency.

My Dear Fellow People of Lithuania,

We have embarked on the third decade of reestablished independence. We won freedom, but we forgot that we have to continue protecting it by consolidating democracy each and every day.

I firmly believe that we are on the right path; therefore I do not intend to leave it. I see the beginning of change and I will spare no effort to keep the process going.

The next year will be easier for the economy of Lithuania. But its political environment will be marked by parliamentary elections. I have strong hope that Lithuania is ready for change and will not give in to populism.

I therefore appeal to politicians: I invite you to fight not for power, but for the state – and for the people who are building it through every-day work.

So let us restore trust and confidence. Let us build a strong civil society that is resistant to corruption and intolerant to lies. A civil society that has real values and a strong spirit to protect them.

Let us create a homeland that nobody wants to leave. A homeland we long for when we are away and yearn to rejoin.

Thank you for your attention.

Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania

Kazys Varnelis, the Director of the Network Architecture Lab (NetLab) at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, began the lecture with a memory from the days when he was sitting in on classes at the University of Pennsylvania held by two professors who researched media history spanning thousands of years. They pointed out that the current change is unique because it is threefold: there has never before been a time in history when the way of writing or reading on a medium as well as its production all changed at once: “I thought they were going to tell me everything I knew was irrelevant, and it turned out they thought it was the most relevant change in the history of media so far”, Kazys Varnelis said.

Varnelis’ current project explores the phenomenon of network culture and the “wholesale transformation” our society is undergoing. As an example, the theorist noted that network is as important to our culture now as the machine was in modernism. The machine as a metaphor is argued to have been an integral part of communist, capitalist and even Nazi ideologies. Today networks have gained even greater significance: “Networks have become the culture’s dominant metaphor. It is the way many disciplines are looking at the world, e.g. sociologists are looking to networks more and more at every level as a way of understanding human civilization”, the scientist claimed, explaining that networks can solve problems in different fields and mathematical equations that define networks can even be used to map people’s relationships, as we have seen on Facebook, MySpace and other popular online social networks.

New Kind of Networks in Architecture

The guest then focused on the role of network culture in architecture, for instance, the building of the Sendai Mediatheque in Japan, a library which is “more about networks than about books” and not only contains many elements reminiscent of networks but is itself structured as a network: “It is a place in which you float between the physical and virtual realm”, Varnelis explained, referring to the library’s collections of digital media, computer workstations, etc. He contended that we are witnessing networks with a new kind of space and geometry, and spoke of French sociologist Henri Lefebvre’s theories on the production of space, which detailed how spaces are assigned social, historical or other value and become possible to be mapped scientifically or sub-divided. As an illustration of this, the scientist remembered the U.S. President Thomas Jefferson’s plan of structuring newly acquired lands of the USA in a grid.

NetLab itself, which is managed by Kazys Varnelis, is one of five labs at Columbia University that interact with each other and other academic entities in performance of various tasks: “It is something that is not only investigating networks but is itself a part of a network”, the scientist pointed out. Speaking of his own discovery of network culture, the theorist recalled that he received an e-mail from the University of Southern California offering him to study network publics in 2005: “It is the idea of how mass media is being replaced by a networked world in which a multiplicity of groups of multimedia consumers and producers are formed”, Varnelis explained the phenomenon he took on.

Worked on Urban and Suburban Issues

The later part of the lecture touched upon several other aspects, including the city of Los Angeles and how digital and network technologies were involved in helping to manage its traffic – for instance, magnetic loops that are placed on the ground and transmit information about cars that stop on them; a special center located underground collects this information and makes note of hotspots where traffic is heavy. Kazys Varnelis summed these ideas up as “augmented infrastructure”.

NetLab also used new technologies, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), to map the entire area of Long Island and look for ways to “rebuild this aging suburban community”. Some of the issues they tackled were the depletion of aquifer on the island and ways to preserve it, creation of suburban centers, densified inhabited areas and intense land use.
Kazys Varnelis talked about working on making suburban areas more diverse and creating separate communities differing in wealth, ethnicity, etc. by strategic integration: “It becomes a world where we revive the older idea of American ethnic neighbourhoods, i.e. the Lithuanian neighbourhood, the Italian neighbourhood”, the architecture historian explained.
As a response to the decline of newspapers due to the rise of the new media, Kazys Varnelis and Joseph Grima, the editor of Domus Magazine, created the paper the New City Reader that is hung on a wall and read in public. The scientist remembered that this tradition is traced back to the ancient China where wall newspapers were made for political reasons, and compared it to the current way we read in public – on cell phones: “These are increasingly private experiences. With the newspaper on the wall, we had hoped that it would stimulate people to be reading it and debate about it”, he said.

Addressed the Threats of the Changes

At the end of the lecture, the audience presented their questions to the guest. One of the audience’s members, referring to an earlier statement by the scientist, pointed out that the watch predates the cell phone as the technological gadget everyone was carrying. Kazys Varnelis agreed with this idea: “The clock and the watch – Karl Marx actually called it the first machine – were seen as regimenting people’s lives, creating a kind of compartmentalized, ordered sense of time. Marcel Proust and other writers reacted against that, talked of duration, memory and time becoming more complex. The clock was something that was imposing an inhuman order on humans, turning people themselves into automatons”, the scientist explained the significance of this gadget.

Another question attracted attention to the issue of excessive use of technologies that is antagonistic to the idea of communication and leads to seclusion. In his response, Kazys Varnelis agreed that this is a problem and that people were over-optimistic about the changes that were to come. He emphasised that the current process is not a creation of virtual space that was invoked fifteen years ago. There is a different kind of change that William Gibson, highly influential science fiction writer, wrote about in his novel Spook Country: “Gibson suggests that the idea that our bodies don’t matter and cyberspace is the place to go is over. There is a radical, but augmented transformation. We live in a more modulated world where we have relationships to each other and to various networks that vary depending on what we’re doing. There are immense changes in our society that we have to be careful about and not to think that it’s a kind of either/or condition. It is a condition of augmentation, slippage or sliding. Postmodernism rejected modernity, modernity rejected what came before, but network culture doesn’t do that, we don’t have that kind of break”, the scientist concluded.
The architecture historian and theorist Kazys Varnelis’ research priorities are contemporary architecture, late modernism, architecture and capitalism, and the impact of recent changes in telecommunications and demographics on the contemporary city. Currently, he is writing the book Life After Networks: A Critical History of Network Culture. His public lecture appealed to present and future specialists in various fields – architects, historians, artists, journalists, etc. Kazys Varnelis is the son of the artist Kazys Varnelis (1917–2010), who was a famous Lithuanian abstract painter.