Lithuanian Liberty Summer
Seminar Draws Students from Ukraine, Belarus,
Romania
by Kevin Bjornsson
As Rick Steves of the Travels in
Europe US TV program has said, "Why not be part of the party,
instead of the tourist economy." You don't have to take part in an
archeological dig in Greece to have an educational and authentic
experience.
Every year since 1996,
advocates and students of liberty have met for a week-long summer
camp at Lietuva on the Baltic coast of Lithuania.
The purpose of this Liberty Camp is
to familiarize students with English, the language used at the Libertarian
conferences in Europe. An interesting ingredient of the training
procedure is to include libertarian texts as the basic reading
material (the libertarian philosophy is an eagerly-received novelty
in this formerly communist region).
We had for the first time, in the summer of 2002,
a significant number of University students and professors
from neighboring Belarus and the Ukraine (most of them on ISIL
scholarships).
The intellectual level of
libertarian discussion was quite high - and we enjoyed being right
on the Baltic coastline where we were able to use the camp's sauna,
and also walk 5 klicks into nearby Palanga (past the male and female
nude beaches).
Next year, we anticipate a
significantly larger number of scholarship students from East and
Central Europe, and may hold the seminar by on lake Trakai near Vilnius.
Serban of Romania attended with
help from the Horia Rusu foundation in Bucharest and will help us to
include more countries to make this a truly regional get-together.
On
this site you'll be able to peruse essays written by scholarship
applicants, and even ask questions about the essays. This way, those
wishing to make donations may provide input, if they wish, into the
selection of scholarship recipients.
Virgis Daukas of Vilnius
coordinates the program.
An ISIL rep and president of Club
Nuomone (the seminar co-sponsor), Virgis also hosts a weekly TV
political discussion program in Vilnius. His wife, Ilona, assists
companies affected by the upcoming admission of Lithuania into the
EU.
In 2002 , we had another
appearance by Ken Schoolland, Jonathan Gullible author, ISIL
director, and professor of economics at Hawaii Pacific University.
Ken is able to provide personal direction and participation in JG
skits.
Ken's recently-published third
edition of The
Adventures of Jonathan Gullible is even better, and
probably the best yet for introducing the ideas of liberty around
the world.
The presentation is jargon-free,
and harnesses the power of analogy. The JG plays allow those
unfamiliar with libertarian ideas to sympathize with, and
participate in, skits illustrating the ideas. The JG website is http://www.jonathangullible.com/.
Stephen Browne pioneered the idea
of promoting liberty through the teaching of English as a second
language - using libertarian texts - and has presided over numerous
of these events. He teaches English in Warsaw, and has authored many
articles in publications such as Liberty magazine. His wife, Monika,
teaches English to youngsters in Warsaw, and is mother to their
young son, Jerzy.
Long-time freedom activist Judith
Hatton (who lives near London) again regaled us with her poetry,
including an unpublished Kipling poem about Woodrow Wilson:
