Ig Nobel Prize-wining mayor of Vilnius has made a massive move to retain the award for second straight year after offering to help crisis-hit Greece by buying off one of its many islands.
Speaking at a business conference in the capital of Lithuania on Friday, the mayor and Ig Nobel laureate, Arturas Zuokas, called for buying a six- square- feet- Greek island in Mediterranean for an estimated €6.9 million, Itar-Tass news agency reports.
While Greece could use the money to help its troubled economy, the island would be registered as a property of the Lithuanian government and later be declared the 22nd district of Vilnius.
The move, Zuokas expects, would be a worldwide advertising promotion for Lithuania, whose citizens would then be able to spend their vacations on the island
“They could pour their vacation money not into Turkey or Egypt, but into their own country’s business, the taxes from which would then fuel our budget,” Zuokas said, explaining his business plan.
Dubbed ‘the mad mayor’, Zuokas is known for his unorthodox solutions to modern-day problems. Last week he was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize – annual awards that recognize "improbable research that makes people laugh and then think" – for smashing a Mercedes parked in a bicycle lane with an armored military vehicle.