Lithuania is a beautiful country. But it can feel a world away.
MDGs the Lithuanian way
In Lithuanian, the Millennium Development Goals are Tūkstantmečio Vystymosi Tikslai, or Tūkstantmečio Plėtros Tikslai. The middle word means either progress or expansion, and both can mean development, in their own way.
But to many people, these three words together mean nothing at all. Some distant stuff someone far away is for some weird reason busy with. We have problems of our own. Cheers!
Three things I noticed while hanging around my beautiful, romantic, nostalgic hometown Vilnius:
1. MDGs are explained and promoted very poorly. Most information appears on UN and EU sub-sites, some completely abandoned for years now. These are not the mainstream channels people visit as a matter of habit.
2. The very limited information that is out there is usually presented in a super mega dull way, in words which are meaningless to most people. Imagine having to read Terms&Conditions over and over again. Yes, it is that boring. The English versions are better, but they’re in English.
3. The MDGs are discarded and underestimated. Consider this text from a political party’s press release: “MDGs are fight against poverty and hunger, reduction of child mortality, availability of primary education, fight against diseases, etc.” ETC.?! Yeah, whatever?!
Aerial acrobatics
But Millennium Development Goals are, as they say in Lithuania, aerial acrobatics (meaning a very high, sophisticated level not achievable by an average human).
I identified three more concerns related to information about our planet:
1. From Lithuanian media’s point of view, the world itself does not really exist. Alright, OK, sometimes it does, a tiny little world outside Lithuania. One page of World News in the dailies is good practice, two might give the wrong impression that one is too lazy to find news stories from our own yard.
2. Due to lack of money, not many Lithuanian journalists report from abroad. Daily world news is usually copy-pasted from BBC, Reuters, or some foreign newspapers. Only very special events get eye-witness reporting. Journalists can travel to the Majority World for their own money, if they wish so, but not many do. After all, there is no guarantee your article would get published anyways (see point 1).
3. The financial crisis and terrible government’s decisions put newspapers on a diet. Those that used to be 24 or 36 pages fat are now happy to keep 16. But why, I ask, if you have only one page of World News, why on Earth would you dedicate it to the jail story of Lindsay-who-is-she-Lohan?
Not all is that bad, however. A very special friend gave me an insightful article about aid to Africa. It’s from a current affairs magazine, dated 2005. I also saw several development stories, kind of – one was about the situation in Sudan and the other about women raped in war zones. But I was purposely looking for them. That is extra effort which not everyone can afford, or, sadly, be bothered about.
Out of sight, out of mind. Out of mind, out completely.
Lithuania is a beautiful country. I wish it feels more part of the whole world and doesn’t suffocate in its own little vacuum.
Photo: me.
I think many of us know similar story from our countries and our media. But you put it in such a marvelous way
Thank you for your comment Larisa. Indeed, I don’t think Lithuania is an exception - the sad fact is that this situation is very much a reality in many places.
I see the vicious circle here: media doesn’t show, because it thinks that people don’t want to see it. When people don’t see it, they think they don’t have to.
Another worrying tendency I noticed: many people tend to think about the world only in terms of their next holiday. Should I go to Egypt or Turkey this year?
This is a very interesting post Giedre. In fact, I rarely hear about Lithuania from my end of the world here.
Giedre, it is a question of matters maybe? Maybe in Lithuania u do not hear about it that much because u do not have many MDG to accomplish as u might have good standards? I know this is not an excuse tho
And yes, itd be important to “make them fun”...at least interesting!
@Iris, thank you. Lithuania is so small (only ~3.4 million people) that it’s not very famous in the world
But I bet you’d like our seaside treasure, the place where the picture was taken!
@Andrea, fair enough, your point is very valid. Lithuania is not doing bad as far as the MDGs are concerned, but as you say, that doesn’t mean people should know nothing about them. Many people are very poor, even if living on more than $1 a day, so there’s always room for improvement.
In addition, Lithuania is helping countries such as Georgia and Ukraine in their development. It is also responsible for “rebuilding Afghanistan”, leading the operation in Ghor province. This global partnership (MDG#8)is very important, and information about it too. There was a story in Lithuanian media about soldiers planting oaks (kinda Lithuanian national tree)in Afghanistan where oaks have no will to grow…
I like the way you describe your country, and you tell us your story.. thanks!
I think all smaller countries face a similar problems. There are frequent campaigns run here on development topics, but few of them reach anyone more than the audience that are already passionate about these topics. Still, we soldier on
@Hussam, thanks! If you’re still in Poland, you should pay Lithuania a visit as it’s so close. Vilnius and the seaside are a must.
@Clare, in Lithuania they often compare it to Ireland - similar size, economy (not after the crisis, maybe). As Larisa said, there are many stories like this one and Lithuania is no exception, rather a rule. It still worries me where that country is going. I can understand people are busy with their own problems, especially when the government is overtly humiliating them and making fun of them every day. But, as you say, we soldier on. Can I please use this phrase elsewhere?
@ Giedre: You guys would be lucky not to have our economy. It’s a bit of a mess at the minute. Of course, you can use the phrase. I repeat it to myself sometimes when the problems seem overwhelming which is regularly I’m afraid. I’ve a few more posts on Being The Change to come though, so I’m hoping they’ll inspire me (and others).
@Giedre, thanks, I’m in Brussels now. However, in June I’ve been with some friends to Kaunas and Vilnius, and then we went also to Latvia. Very nice places
Wow! Nice post, Giedre.
Thanks a million for it. I can not help throwing Brazil into the same vacuum-perspective when digesting this you pointed:“why on Earth would you dedicate it to the jail story of Lindsay-who-is-she-Lohan?” It happens here quite frequently.
It up to us to change this
Linkėjimai iš Lietuvos! Kaip gyveni?
Čia vis dar gerai : )
Giedre, it’s a great post. As Larisa already said, the same issues we have in our small Balkan countries. Today in Oslobođenje (world newspapers of the year in 1992) on the last page you can read about some woman who made her baby alive, after cuddling him… Sometimes these news are reserved for Christiano Ronaldo, David and Victoria Beckham, etc. In the best case, they write about some catastrophe, such as floods, earthquakes, etc., but only with copy/paste system.
I know exactly what you mean, Mirza.. Seriously, there’s almost nothing to read back home! It’s depressing and also dangerous - what kind of new generation we’ll have if their daily news is restricted to Hello! and People’s magazine-style crap?
It’s a luck that we have internet, where some people could find more information. But, unfortunately, everyone doesn’t speak English. Here, in the Balkans, it’s the same everywhere, except maybe Croatia, where the newspapers still shapes the public opinion and informs the people properly, with lots of political discussions and info from abroad. But, in Serbia, if you want to read the newspapers with a morning coffee, you will find only propaganda and nothing important from abroad, eventually from ex Yugoslavia.
In Bosnia, there is a fight between political parties through the newspapers, but that’s it, there’s no news from outside the Balkans.