2010
02.08
RIGA – In the aftermath of the heavy snowfall that blanketed Latvia last week, the city’s Ušakovs-Šlesers tandem had struggled to cope with tons of white fluffy stuff that fell out of the sky. Cleaning streets whose total length could bridge Riga with Prague is no easy task. But Mr. Bulldozer that task tried to complete the best he could. In the sleeping areas of the city with the population of 900,000, the snow remains not cleared and people had a reason to complain. In the town center, however, complaining about the snow took on a political and inter-ethnic conflict – much like a lot of things do in Latvia ahead of the October elections.
The former flagship newspaper Diena reacted to a complaint from a resident that a monument to the Russian general Barclay de Tolly stood snow-free, while a nearby monument to Oskars Kalpaks was covered in snow – in the words of the woman who complained – “up to his mustache.” While for some, it may that the evil city council, chaired by an ethnic Russian, purposefully ignored the Commander of the 1st Latvian battalion. While no one would deny that it’s a responsibility of the city to clean up monuments, first and foremost should probably come people who are still alive than those who left monuments behind.
Never mind a few non-historic factors about the two monuments. One stands closer to a pedestrian pathway. Another one is a somewhat poorly designed because it stands on a kind of square whose small portion near the main road serves as a sidewalk. One is a vertical statue. Another one is a form of a ship, collecting much snow.
We’re too eager to resort to our old self-preservation habits. We’re too quick to think that Russians are evil that they purposefully neglect Latvians’ monuments. We’re too comfortable thinking that someone somewhere is trying to get us. We rely on history for that irrational fear. We’re so comfortable, in fact, that when someone is not trying to get us, we feel at odds with ourselves, we feel out of our national comfort zone unable to move.
Category National Minorities |
2009
08.25
Historic photograph of the Baltic way taken near the border between Latvia and Lithuania
RIGA – When Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way, I couldn’t help but think about the puzzle that is the Baltic mentality.
Looking at sheer numbers, Latvia should have had a revolution a long time ago. The economy is expected to contract by the record-breaking 18 percent this year. The unemployment has reached 17 percent in the second three-month period. The only positive factor – the inflation – dropped to 2.5 percent last month from 17 percent last May. In hopes of getting a lifesaving loan from the international lenders, the government was forced to slash spending, lay off workers, close hospitals, schools, cut the police. It is performing the kind of tasks that does not make one Mr. Popular or get you re-elected. If this were France or Greece, thousands of angry people would have stormed palaces, rolled over vehicles, set anyone working for the government aflame.
Yet, it’s all quiet on the Baltic front. People go to their summer houses, eat barbecues, farm their their kitchen gardens, go fishing, go about their business. They appear to be disconnected from the slasher-government and apathetic. Of course, there was the January riot when several hundred people, angry at the government, hurled rocks and turned over police cars in the protest. Yet, that was under the previous government whose anthem of ineptitude and incompetence can be summed up in the phrase “Nasing Spešal“.
Whether the unemployed and bitter Latvians are capable to huddle together and withstand the cold and – very likely – expensive winter remains to be seen. However, judging by the few summer protests – against the closure of the Riga First Hospital, for example – it seems people in general feel distant from the government and apathetic about their future. Everyone cares about his or her own little corner of the universe, his own little fiefdom – nevermind the whole country.
The First City Hospital employees protested the closure of their hospital, fearing they would lose their jobs. Yet, no one protested against low quality and considerably high cost of health care in this country. We protest against closure of our schools, but we don’t demand schools produce smart, capable young people that are able to move this country forward.
We’re capable to be united against a foreign enemy, but we’re incapable of uniting for the sake of our country. The unity that fostered the Baltic independence 20 years ago has dissipated – not only among Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, but also among Latvians themselves. We lack vision and unity where we should take our country into the future, even though the current crisis provides many opportunities for sweeping and necessary reforms. Divided among ourselves, we’re bound to fall and be left behind as the backwater of the European Union.
Category Economy, The Dombrovskis government, The Godmanis government |
2009
05.14
RIGA – Two young Russian men climbed aboard a bus that I was taking back home from a busy work day. Both are in the late 20s – one was carrying around a one-year-old boy. The two guys spoke loudly to each other, which is an abnormality in the country where everyone is trying to keep to themselves, especially on public transportation.
On the next stop, three young girls boarded the bus. They were probably around 15 or 16. Their faces soiled with heavy makeup. They spoke Russian.
“Hey, girls,” said the man with the child.
The girls ignored him and suddenly switched to Latvian. The man left them alone. When the two guys left, the girls switched back to Russian.
True story.
Category Uncategorized |
2009
05.13
RIGA – In the heat of the 2007 municipal reform aimed at redrawing lines of local governments, Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis (left) received a gift – the globe of Latvia. Across the two continents, the word “Latvia” spreads from China to Great Britain.
In a way, it represents the Latvian worldview. One could not find a better illustration of a mentality of the imperial wannabes. For centuries, Latvians have been ruled over – by Germans, Russians, Swedes (and not necessarily in that order). Twenty years after it regained independence, the young nation is still struggling to create citizen-friendly elite that is capable of governing wisely. But often it is based on weak national self-esteem which paradoxically transforms into the visions of grandeur.
The pride stands in the way of, for example, considering an option of devaluation as a way to recover from the crisis. The pride stands in the way, as anecdotal evidence suggests, to ask for help in handling matters of importance, like construction of the national library, or preparing the economic recovery. Someone had suggested that Latvia could hire a consultant from outside to teach Latvians to govern themselves. Egos and pride stand in the way of prosperity in this country.
It is surprising that folks in a mostly-unknown country of 2.3 million people – let’s face it, a speck on the world arena – has large egos that could fill the whole of Canada.
Latvians like to tell a story about the New World conquest, the Courland Colonization. Only if Brits would talk about their world domination with an apology, Latvians would talk about it with pride. Perhaps, it’s an attempt to compensate for national complexes and the seeming lack of lengthy history of self-rule. Our neighbors to the south are celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of the crime record that mentions them by name. Latvian history – as in the history of Latvia – starts much later.
Category Society |
2009
05.08
The rocket. The young friendly Russian who speaks fluent Latvian. The Soviet-educated former corruption fighter.
These people are on the menu for the local elections less than a month away. The June 6 contest is about personalities more than about party platforms or programs. A giant Ainars Šlesers overlooks fast-moving crowds near the central train station in Rīga (as pictured above). Seeing the party ad from afar invokes warm images of The Dear Leader who would take care of his people at a time of the most severe economic crisis even before you can get close enough to read the money quote: “I won’t teach you how to save, I will help you make money.”
Šlesers stays true to his slogan. Since 2004, the state budget has not run a single surplus, spending more than it was raking in. The finance ministry’s data shows a 1.0 percent deficit in 2004, 0.8 percent deficit in 2005, 0.5 percent deficit in 2006, 1.3 percent deficit in 2007. Šlesers was not in charge of the state coffers, but his 2004 editorial certainly set the tone for spending, which brought Latvia on the verge of financial collapse.
“The Latvia’s First Party is not afraid to say that the deficit-free budget is not the end in itself,” he said. “The budget ought to serve the development of the country, not as an answer to the World Bank.(…) We are not afraid to take on a risk to say that in the Latvian situation one should quit warning about some kind of economic overheating, we ought to push the pedal to the metal.”
We know how that turned out. But now, Šlesers is trying to use the same principle to win this elections. And it seems to be working. The popularity of the Latvia’s First Party has more than doubled in April compared to the month earlier. Almost every fourth citizen in Rīga is willing to vote for Šlesers as the mayor of Riga, according to a survey published this morning.
And yet, voters don’t get to elect the mayor. Mayor gets elected by the city council. And a party that wins most seats on the city council gets to order the tune.
For the most part though, individual personalities are driving the vote in this election.
Category Elections 2009, Politics |
2009
05.02
French goalkeeper Fabrice Lhenry looks dejected after his team lost at the end of his Group E qualification round game versus Latvia at the 2009 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships on May 2, 2009 in Bern. Latvia won 7-1. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI
Category Hockey, Sports |
2009
05.02
RIGA – Morten Hansen tells it how it is:
[T]his simple analysis explains why the country is still poor in an EU sense: It is on average poorly equipped with skills, possibly poorly equipped with physical capital and most likely equipped with a burdensome public sector – and that’s why it deals with scrap metal and not wind turbines.
Category Economy, European Union |
2009
04.29
RIGA – This morning I got a call from a friend who works as a teacher. She sounded upset over the news reports that the government plans to slash up to 8,000 teacher jobs in the fall. That’s one-sixth of all the teachers in the country. I tried to calm her down, but at the same time pointed out that it appears the government has no other choice.
“They want riots?” my friend asked. A legitimate question following the teacher protest.
The friend works several jobs, trying to support herself, her daughter and the unemployed son-in-law. The son-in-law used to work in construction. The little jobs he gets now don’t pay well or on time. She tries to make ends meet by offering private lessons, but that means working six days a week with little relief or rest.
Now the government has announced it will cut jobs, following an audit. Diena this morning said that there’s one teacher for every seven students in Latvia. It’s definitely too many in a country where the population has been shrinking. At the same time, little is known about what criteria the government will be using to slash teacher’s jobs. What’s a good teacher – is the question of the day.
Category Society, The Dombrovskis government |
2009
04.29
Screen shot of the EU Profiler results
These results of my
EU Profiler political affiliation test have surprised me. I didn’t think that the Civic Union (PS) would rank this high on my list.
Category Politics |
