Lithuania: If my dates are correct, on April 20, 1990, a delegation of Lithuanians visited the Institute for Humane Studies (I.H.S.), in Fairfax, Virginia. As most senior staff of I.H.S. were out, they asked me to host them. Atlas was located at I.H.S. and we shared our president (John Blundell). Helping me was Eduardo Marty, who later founded Junior Achievement in Argentina. I believe that Jeffrey Tucker, now at the Mises Institute, and Saul Anuzis, still a leader in the Republican Party of Michigan, were the ones who made the initial contact. The delegation was going to be composed by Filomena Jaseviciene, Kestutis Glaveckas, Kestutis Baltramitis, Algis Dobrovolskis, Vytenis Aleskaitis, Romaldus Visokavicius, Visvaldas Lacis (Latvia, tentative, ...) Kestutis Glaveckas, was professor of Elena Leontjeva, who grew the Lithuanian Free Market Institute to prominence. He was a co-founder of the institute. I had the privilege of meeting some of them again 20 years later in Vilnius. I will write more about both experiences, but I hope that some of the actors send me some memories as well. Kestutis Glaveckas heads the budget committee in today's congress (2011).  Eduardo Marty, remembers the meeting: "Impossible to forget! Beautiful people starving for freedom, desperate to make connections and support for their freedom cause. People irradiating energy and the joy of life living, but surviving in a dificult environment where not only freedom but food were absent. I still remember an incident during our meeting: We met in a fancy restaurant where we had invited our guests to talk to us about their experiences and their plans for the future . When food came , instead of eating the fancy food that was offered to them, they chose to eat the fresh legumes and fruits decorating it. We asked them why and the answer was : "the last time we had access to this fresh food was 10 years ago during a Russian celebration..... " That was indeed memorable. But the other memorable incident was that despite we kept the location of our dinner "secret," and 45 minutes out of town, during the middle of the dinner, the Russian, Soviet, consul arrived just to show that they knew we were there. He said hello (I imagine in Russian) and left . . . Eduardo then asked our Lithuanian heroes if they were not afraid. Their answer still rings fresh in my mind. [To be continued] | Also for Lithuania, in late 1992, thanks to the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation we were able to send a small donation of $1,000 to a budding think tank, Nuosavybes Santykiu Institutas? also in Vilnius. The effort was directed by Algirdas Degutis. Hope I spelled the name well |