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Lithuania is democratic republic, which has a president and is governed by elected representatives. The Lithunian political system is paliamentary democracy. Parliament elections are held every four years and presidential elections are held every five years. A presidential candidate must be at least 40 years old. The same person can be a president just for ten years. President`s job includes suggesting laws to Seimas, vetoing and changing laws. The President is also Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces.Laws are made by Parliament or Seimas In Lithuania. It consists of 141 members and has more power than President. It is legislative power of Lithuania. We have almost forgotten all these long political speeches and debates on the radio and TV, all the agitation for one or the other candidate. But parliament elections are going to be in this autmn and this marathon will start again. The Conservatives, as always, will be hoping to convince the nation, that if people vote for them, they will defeat such evils as inflation, unemployment and crises. The Labour Party will be introducing radical new measures includingn nationalization of private industry in an effort to rescue Lithuania from threatening economic problems. The socialists, the Center Coalition Party, the Liberal Democrats and the other will be trying to persuade the voters that Lithuania can achieve economical stability and industrial prosperity only under their leadership. As a matter of fact the Liberal Democrats are very popular now, because ex Prime Minister R. Paksas joined a party. The opinion polls shows that R. Paksas is the most popular politic in Lithuania.My family always goes to vote, we belong to Dainava constituency. From early morning till evening people go to polling stations and put their ballots into ballot boxes. I think, that nowadays people are disappointed with the Government, because they see how one party changes other, but situation in Lithuania doesn’t change. I think, that members of Parliament must work and try to do their best – to make life easier for their electors, but not themselves and then maybe the political situation will achieve stability.
Nowadays our life isn’t safe. It seems that neither police, nor government can’t guarantee public safety. Statistics shows that violent crimes at present have been increased. So no one can live in peace and feel save even in his own home. This situation in Lithuania is getting hopeless. A lot of dangerous criminals are allowed to escape and live free. There are more and more burglars, kidnappers, murders and killers, who commit crimes and succeed in escaping penalties by engaging good lawyers. People can’t trust even banks, which most of them bankrupt. Only few of these bank workers were convicted of being guilty and sentenced to imprisonment. Others were acquited and now they are free. Meanwhile lots of people lost their savings. I don’t believe, that criminals, who commit serious crimes, such as arson, murder or terrorism can be reformed in the prison. Some people robbing, committing crimes, because of hunger or poverty. But the worst thing is that, then you are poor and can’t afford to have a good lawyer, you can be convicted of murder and imprisoned even being completely innocent. Sometimes it’s not use in locking for the truth and justice, because there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. One of the most pressing things in Lithuania`s and in other Baltic states life is admission to NATO. NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It’s a military alliance of Western nations for the purpose of collective defense. It was established in 1949. It consists of 18 members. Poland and Czech were admitted last year.There are lots of different opinions on what is better for a small country: to be a member of a military organization or to be a neutral country. There are various advantages and disadvantages of both. It’s said, that preparation of Lithuania to join NATO requires from 8 to 10 mln. Litas. The opponents of “Lithuania in NATO” consider, that Lithuania should seek to be a neutral country. And the others suggest that joining NATO would confirm the stability of Lithuania. Lithuania is tiny country and the enemies can be too strong and powerful to fight with. So, NATO could help in case in the threat of war. I want to talk about social affairs in my living town Kaunas. Kaunas is an industrial town. There are a lot of companies, factories and enterprises in Kaunas, but they pollute our rivers with watewater and make air dirty. In a lot of countries there are laws limiting the amount of smoke which factories can produce. I didn`t hear that ther is the same law in Lithuania. As Kaunas is a big town, here are a lot of cars, buses, and they pollute our environment too. Air polliutions causes forest decline, increase of radation, erosion of soil. People, working in these factories, sometimes suffer from ill and die of various diseases, but they don’t complain, because they are afraid to lose their jobs. They have to support their families and money is very important for them. Nowadays prices go up and are high and wages are low in Lithuania. There are many unemployed, poor people. There are a lot of children, who beg for money or food. These days the life is really difficult in our country. People have a lot of problems, they have lost hope to live better. It’s the worst thing that could happen. Thousands of people can’t afford to buy even food. Today in Lithuania there are a lot of homeless families, sick and disable people, thousands of lonely, helpless old people, who can’t support themselves only living on their pensions, they can’t afford to pay heavy taxes for a flat, electricity, central heating and gas. But I think after new elections situation may change and everything would go better.