You Have 30 Minutes To Save Lithuania

This morning I knew it would be the last full day with p. Simenas. Tomorrow he leaves for the port city of Klaipeda. Therefore, we planned 30 minutes for us to review the last two weeks. This morning, I was dreaming that I would inspire him in those 30 minutes to stand up for the Lithuanian people and to reform Seimas, therefore saving Lithuania. Of course, none of this will happen because the interview did not happen as planned. I'm still keeping the title because that was today's plan.

I feel better about Seimas after today. I did not feel good about Seimas until about noon when I was approached by Kristina, one of the secretaries. We talked about Seimas as a whole and my thoughts, which sshe agreed with some, then after a while she brought up one of her projects. It is nothing significant, just a piece of legislation that will provide rules for building homes that will house more than two families. Today, this project which she had worked hard on was going to be voted on. She got a call saying there will be a meeting about some of the specifics at 2 and that there was going to be a vote at 3 allowing her to move on with the legislation. At the meeting, she kept everyone straight, and kept making sure everyone stayed on topic. At Seimas, most politicians say what they want to say, but she kept things straightforward. She got more done in that meeting than most meetings I was in. During the vote, I could tell that every single narys that was under the age of 35 helped Kristina with her legislation. By the way, I'm pretty sure Kristina is in her mid-twenties. While the legislation was not that important, I was proud to see all the youth on all parts of the aisle working together for this one piece of legislation. There was a bit of celebration from the "youth" after the vote passed 77 yay, 0 nay, and 6 'i don't know'. This gave me hope that when these members are older and in control of Seimas, Seimas will be better.

Then I had the interview with p. Simenas. I brought up the fact that 350,000 Lithuanians moved out of Lithuania in the last 10 years, and 60% of high school seniors are going to college outside of Lithuania. I told him that I've been told that Seimas is being blamed. He said the issue is completely economic. Seimas has no money, and a lot of money is being given out for energy to foreign countries. If Lithuania could provide energy and make money from energy, there would be more jobs and more money for better education. I see where p. Simenas is coming from, but there was one issue I brought up: it would cost 14 billion Litai to purchase new energy, and the new energy will provide 19 billion litai. This sounds great, but it would take atleast 10 years not reach that point. In my opinion, that's another 300,000 lost Lithuanians. (1990-2001, 300,000 Lithuanians emigrated). Tomorrow will be a summary of the impressions of the last two weeks, and without hurting anyone's feelings, I will try to be as honest as possible without leaving out too many details.