Don't mess with the crows

One of Vilnius symbols could be the crow. There are a big number of them flying and croaking above the capitale. Beware, the crows are always watching you...

Vilnius: 1st day of spring!

Today, we could really feel spring coming. We went for a long walk along the Neris, then climbed to the castle. Here is a general view of the Vilnius upper castle, built during the 14th century. This time, bricks were used instead of wood too easily burned by the enemy: The Teutonic Order.

Below, a close-up of the Gedimino castle. Inside, you will find a museum. It was much higher before, but you can still catch a superb view of Vilnius from its top.

Then, we went down hill and reached the cathedral square: The cathedral tower is our "little Pise"


A few step away from here, the passing Pilies gatve (Castle street), with all its small craft shops and welcoming cafe.



(Love is in the air...)

The Slaves of Dubai

I should have done this a long time ago as it is not new. Dubai is the richest of the emirats of the UAE. The city of Dubai is famous for its luxurious hotel and its wealthy economy based on petrol ressources. Dubai is trying to diversify its economy by developping tourism and becoming a business pole in the region. New developments are emerging everywhere in the city: Amongst them, skyscrappers lodging offices, 5 to 7 stars hotels and apartments, but also sports palace, artificial islands, private residence etc etc...

A couple of months ago, I watched on TV5 Monde a french documentary about the building site workers in Dubai. Today, I read on BBC news that those workers have started a strike to complain about their working conditions and salaries. Please visit the BBC website.

Dubai: One of the richest place in the world is underpaying those who build it. They are so rich, everybody is closing their eyes on all their slavery activities.

This Emirat is importing labour forces mainly from China, India and Pakistan, attracting them with good contracts, the building companies are even advancing the money for their trip to Dubai. These offers are hard to refuse for those poor people who lives with less than a dollar a day. Some hope to come back after a couple of years with their savings for a fresh start in their native country; Other dont have enough money to support their family, they also accept to go to work in Dubai.

Their dreams dont last long. At their arrival in Dubai, their passeport is immediately confiscated. The new contracts they are forced to sign at their arrivals have changed. Less money, more working hours, no over time paid. They have only the right to shut up. The labourers can't go back as their employers only advanced the money for a single trip, the return ticket is too expensive for them to pay. Stuck, they are forced to work in awfull working conditions. A minimum of 12 working hours per day but it is often more, under extremly high temperatures. Living conditions are mot acceptable either. The workers are packed into prefab building and camps outside the city If a worker injures himself on the building site, companies are not responsible for their medical cares. If a worker dies on the building site...these companies are wiping their hands too. When a worker commit suicide, he is accused of being alcoholic or junky. It is impossible to track records of all the casualities as the figures are hidden or modified to an acceptable but untrue rates.

Example of salaries paid by companies implanted in Dubai, mainly run by locals but also by foreign companies.
Skilled carpenter: from US$7.60 per day.
Labourers: $4 per day.
Millions of labourers have migrated to the Dubai emirat.
(Source are BBC news)

Those facts and others are ignored by most of us in the western world. Going to Dubai, or promoting it is the same as supporting a state which violates daily human rights. Boycott Dubay!
Feel free to check the links below. Thanks for reading my blog.

Links:
The wikipedia: Dubai
Human trafficking and modern-day slavery
BCC: Migrants' woes in Dubai worker camps
BCC: Strike halts work at Dubai tower

Short Snow Storm in Vilnius

It's when you think the spring is coming soon, and you are just about to celebrate that the winter strikes back hard. For an hour, the snow, carried by raging guts of wind, fell on the city. Fortunately, we were not outside but keeping ourselves busy in our cosy flat. Locals are maybe used to such weather, nevertheless it was an impressive snow storm. At some point, we saw a electric flash in the sky followed by a cracking noise: First time ever I witnessed a lightning during a snow fall. This pix was taken from the balcony of our appartement tonight. A surreal atmosphere, that was.

Eurovision 2006: The Lithuanian Submission

Love it or hate it, after a tough competition (as you can imagine in Lithuania) between contestants for the Eurovision 2006, the band LT United will go to Eurovision to sing (shout) their " We are the winner" song. The band has been created a few days only before the contest, they thought the whole thing as a joke and never expected to be selected. Surprisingly, they still got chosen by the Lithuanians people. According to the Eurovision website, the song has received 32699 votes, but many other sources mentioned 8061 votes only. Anyway, whatever the figures are, they won by far the national contest.
The lyrics badly written in english, countain even a few words in french, but no lithuanian which is known as the oldest language in Europe. The song itself could be easily sung in a football stadium, or maybe more in a basketball hall, as Lithuanians are more fond of the orange bouncing ball. It has received some harsh critics and William Butt , a.k.a. "Billy", bitterly descriebes the song as "probably one of the worst and most crazy songs from the history of the Eurovision Song Contest." He, in fact, is the writer of the last lithuanian entry for Eurovision 2005 "Little by little", a song that finished at the last place of the semi final... Will LT United do better? Far from uniting lithuanians, they've definitly left their shyness in the drawer, showing a more ambitious way of doing things.

LT UniteD: "We are the winner of the Eurovision."
Lyrics

We are the winners
We are the winners
(We are, we are)
We are the winners
(We are, we are)
Go

We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are, we are, we are, we are)
We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are, we are, we are, we are)

So you gotta vote (vote), vote (vote)
Vote for the winners
Vote (vote), vote (vote)
Vote for the winners
Oh...

We are the winners of Eurovision
De Vilnius et ici à Paris, LT united see
We are the winners of Eurovision
Chanson, la meilleure chanson, yeah
'Cause we got it going on

Everyday, you hear us on the radio (Radio)
And everyday, you see us on the news (That's right)
It doesn't matter, in mono or in stereo (It's better in stereo)
'Cause we are here to represent the truth

We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are, we are, we are, we are)
We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are, we are, we are, we are)

We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are, we are, we are, we are)
We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are, we are, we are, we are)

We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are the winners of Eurovision)
We are the winners of Eurovision
(We are the winners of Eurovision)

So you gotta vote (vote), vote (vote)
Vote for the winners
Vote (vote), vote (vote)
Vote for the winners

'Cause we are the winners of Eurovision
Vote!

You can watch their performance here and have your say: http://www.keithm.utvinternet.ie/videos/Lithuania06.wmv

LT United has also bought a web domain name but the site has still to be built (Thanks to Ana for the info):
http://www.winnerofeurovision.com/

A simplified "Spore-like": Flow (Flash)

This morning, I spent some time to play this little Flash Animation game called Flow.
You will incarnate a micro organism living in a liquid environment. You can control its direction and its speed by left clicking. Make him grow and evolve by eating all what's floating around. Other creatures are evolving too and are becoming as big as you. A really interesting concept, very similar to Spore, the game currently being developped by Will Wright.

You start like this:

After a while, you become this...

Make your own experience, the link is below. Enjoy.
http://jenovachen.com/flowingames/implementations/flowing/core.html

Lithuanian trolleybus(as)

Lithuanian trolleybuses are usually old and slow. In winter, the ice often covers the windows inside, appart from the front window obviously. Its a bit like sitting in a fridge or in the cave of an iceberg. As you can't see outside, its sometimes hard to locate yourself, you have to scratch the ice until you create a small patch of clear area and peek out, or wait for the vehicule to stop and open its doors.
The best place is on the right side of the trolley, 2nd seat behind the middle door. Why? because there is a little electric heater on the floor which, when it works (rarely actually), keeps your legs warm. It can be as cold inside as outside, especially when the driver forgets to close the doors when driving which happens often on the line 13.

This pix has been taken today, on my way back from work. Yeah, its old, but has its charms...You can also notice that I am sitting at the best place, just above the heater. Each stop is announced by a recorded women voice: Kita stotele...Saltinielis.... The first time I heard this voice, I nearly jumped wondering what it was. First, You dont expect these old trolleybuses to have such system, and second, the strange voice seems to be coming from "outerspace", like if suddenly you were in an old sci fi movie.
There is now a new model of trolleybus running as well, much faster, but they are not many and they do break down as often as the old ones. Here is below an outside view of an old model:

You may have noticed the electric cables hanging above the street, (top left), and the yellow "antennas" sticking out of the roof. When the trolleybus turns and get too far from this cable, the antennas get detached from them, and the vehicule simply stops where it is, then the driver has to get out and play with some ropes at the back to reposition the sticks. And beleive me, nobody is happy when it happens.

Yes, if you ever come to Vilnius, you will quickly see one of these fat and slow bugs. You will also find normal buses, slightly faster but as old as the trolleybuses, and the minibus, very fast, but using them to commute is at your own risks, they crash a lot.

Time to relax, Vilnius, Lithuania, -10 C outside. 10 cm of snow.

After an other very boring day at work (that's me speaking), Daiva and I went to the Intro visiting our friend and local DJ Jonathan. That evening, he was playing some reggae to a buzzing audience. I have to say this kind of music is not really my cup of tea as I am more fond of Heavy Metal. However the atmosphere was relax and welcoming, which confirms that the Lithuanian University students are not so scary after all ;-). Also important to say about the Intro: the beer, despite it is served in plastic cups, is fresh and tasty.
Jonathan keeps on repeating that Lithuania is the best place to live in the world...(and he travels a lot). If the beer remains always nice, I will believe in him.

Note: Today was also the Women's day...Hey, here is a cute one passing by! Meet Daiva, my beloved girl friend. Sweet and wild creature to meet when the moon is full, isn't she?

Daiva and I cannot wait to see the longer and warmer days coming back. We are in march (time flies here), but the Neris is still covered with a thick layer of ice and snow. It seems that the Winter wants to mark deeply the land and the people before withdrawing reluctantly.