While some EU countries struggle with the concept of humanity (un)extended to the „other“ [those who arrive on our shores in capsizing boats, or those who run through barbed wire to expected safety, only to be locked in cages and thrown out of train stations with babies in their arms], the mayor of my country‘s capital hires an illegal Israeli settler-colonist as his public adviser.
On Friday, the 4th September Remigijus Šimašius, elected mayor of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, announced on his Facebook page that one Daniel Lupshitz – member of the Israeli army, illegal colonist in the occupied West Bank and a man who publicly declares his love of guns as well as his disappointment that Gaza was not levelled to the ground during the summer 2014 invasion – has been invited to advise the mayor of an EU capital city on matters that were not publicly declared.
Let me share with you some thoughts that have crept into my mind since. Spoiler alert: this isn’t about some alleged “global Jewish conspiracy” and it has nothing to do with the declared religion of any of the involved.
To note, the announcement of this appointment couldn’t have been done in a more undiplomatic manner; Mr Šimašius posted a photo (see below) of this new adviser geared in ultra-religious equipment and holding an automatic assault rifle most likely belonging to the self-proclaimed “most moral army in the world”. As if an army could ever be a moral compass.
We see in this photo an armed person who believes, according to his public statements, that God gave his nation the “Holy Land”, and who tells an EU capital that he will “do his best to make order [t]here”. How, exactly? By scowling with an assault rifle?
Vilnius mayor Mr Šimašius publicly presented his new adviser as “the knight of goodness“ and “the warrior of light”. As a friend of mine, an expert of Ancient Greece and the Greek language, wrote – “the Goodness“ and “the Light” are probably chocking at this presentation of them.
Now, you will rightly ask me, what does that have to do with the larger-scale serious issues?
Lithuania, an EU member state since 2004, has been refusing to accept any refugees whatsoever. None.
However following all sorts of naming-and-shaming as well as diplomatic means, our president Dalia Grybauskaitė finally “agreed” to take in 325 (not thousands!) refugees, mainly from Syria. They will be allowed to start arriving to this territory on the 1 January, 2016. Yes, you read it right. Yes, it’s September now.
Truth must be told: Lithuania does not have a good record of neither accepting refugees nor providing for their basic needs such as food and housing. On the other hand, perhaps, given Europe’s current refugee crisis, nobody here has a good record; yet some populations tend to have larger numbers of people in a good relationship with decency. Mine doesn’t. Especially when we talk about some “terrorist Muslims” who are coming to “occupy and destroy our pure white Catholic country”. Obviously, they have nothing better to do.
In such context, what do you think a person like the one in the picture would possibly advise our liberal smiley mayor regarding these refugees? As they say, when you think that it cannot get worse, always be ready for more.
It is no news that every place has its own characters who abuse public space and social media networks in order to be noticed, so they can continue to rabble-rouse hatred and disunity; we also know that for some of us such acts are extremely shameful and embarrassing. In Lithuanian we call it “an alien shame”: we feel and experience the shame on behalf of another and it hurts.
It hurts and I feel I owe an apology on behalf of the new mayor of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, whose newest adviser publicly accuses professors, journalists, experts, activists of being donkeys, idiots, liars, Russian fascists, dogs, clowns etc.
This new adviser also promises to advise his “rich fellow Israelis to throw their shekels [Israeli currency] to our city”. This remark was posted on the same day as the appointment and, I’m afraid, it clearly shows that we were sold.
I apologize. 
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