Lietuva in brief - 2011-04-28

  • 2011-04-27

On April 19, the Lithuanian Embassy in Poland hosted an event to pay tribute to the memory of Lithuanian residents who became victims of the Holocaust, reports ELTA. Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University Professor Sarunas Liekis and the U.S. Millersville University Professor Saulius Suziedelis took part in the event. Lithuanian Ambassador to Poland Loreta Zakareviciene greeted the participants. She noted that the Seimas of Lithuania announced 2011 as the Year of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania and associated events take place not only in Lithuania, but all around the world, including Poland. According to Suziedelis, despite considerable progress, awareness of the Holocaust in the historical memory of the Lithuanian population demands that Jewish life and culture be recognized as an integral part of Lithuanian history and culture. Understanding of the tragedy of Lithuanian Jews, who became victims of the Holocaust, he says, should become a central part of the modern Lithuania’s history, including the Lithuanian population’s behavior at the time of mass killings of Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators.

A Lithuanian company said on April 20 it had frozen publication of the local version of The Simpsons comic after it was fined for advertising Duff beer, the fictional favorite of anti-hero Homer Simpson, reports AFP. “The fine led the company to take the decision to temporarily suspend publication,” Indre Pavilonyte of Media Incognito said. Lithuania’s advertising watchdog slapped a penalty of 10,000 litas (2,890 euros) on the company. In both the original cartoon show and the comic, hapless Simpson family father Homer can rarely resist his beloved Duff. Pavilonyte confirmed a report in the Lithuanian daily Verslo Zinios that the fine came after the watchdog ruled that actual Duff beer was sold in Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The spin-off Duff is reportedly not licensed by U.S. cartoonist and Simpson creator, Matt Groening. However, U.S. company Bongo Comics, which licenses local versions of the comic, does not allow content changes. The monthly Lithuanian version, Simpsonai, had a circulation of 10,000.