2010
03.09
RIGA – A proposal to cut the value-added tax for the tourism industry has been wobbling through the parliament. In spite of the objections by the party of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and contrary to the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund, the proposal was sent to the parliament for a vote. The opposition party, Latvia’s Way/Latvia’s First (LPP/LC) and the government heavyweight – though largely impotent – People’s Party (TP) laid their hands to move the proposal out of the committee, implying a closer cooperation between the two parties, representing the views of their respective founders.
Speaking to the press after the Monday coalition meeting, a high-ranking TP member Armands Vents Krauklis said that the lenders were not speaking in “a form of an ultimatum,” but that “through flowers” said that lowering VAT “would not be the best solution.” As conspiracy theories suggest, some Latvian officials expect an ultimatum from the international lenders because it is the only way to move forward.
The vote also raises questions about the stability of the government and the coalition’s commitment to the painful IMF-EU funded program, which foresees a combination of budget cuts and tax hikes in the amount of up 900 million lats. While it is a wide known fact that this current government is largely a marriage of convenience, it appears the People’s Party is playing for both teams. On one hand, it is one of the five parties in the coalition. On the other hand, it voted down against the prime minister in a crucial vote for the IMF-EU program to continue. It is no wonder that the Union of Farmers and Greens, aka the Green Peasants, had asked to meet Dombrovskis this afternoon to discuss the issue.
The supporters say that the move to cut the VAT from the current 21 percent to 10 percent for the tourism industry would stimulate the economy which is in the deepest recession since Latvia broke free from the Soviet Union almost 20 years ago. The estimates by the ministry of the economy show that cutting VAT would create 2,000 new work places, a drop in the bucket in the country where every fifth Latvian is officially unemployed. And it remains to be seen if the VAT cut would not affect the budget deficit.
It also raises questions: why tourism? What would prevent other industries, such as farming, dairy, food industries, to line up outside the parliament, demanding that the VAT be lowered for them also? Why not lower VAT for medicine? Education? Freelance journalists? Or why not lower the VAT across the board, assuming the government can raise revenue by taxing luxuries to bridge the yawning budget deficit down to 6 percent in 2011?
Category Parliament, Politics, The Dombrovskis government |
2010
02.20
RIGA – The following is the list of documents some teachers are required to submit to qualify for an EU stipend to improve their qualifications that this particular teacher has to collect in just one week’s time:
1. CV
2. A continuous education certificate
3. The organization of the learning process:
3.1 Study plans
3.2 Lessons evaluations
3.3 Lessons self-analisys
4. The organization of upbringing activities
4.1 Description of activities
5. Analysis of student achivement
5.1 Tests and test analysis
6. Support for students with special needs
6.1 Individual student development plan
7. Gaining experience and practice
7.1 Teaching tools – tables, schemes for the Russian language classes
7.2 Teaching tools – tests, exercises for literature classes
8. The use of information and communication technologies
8.1 The Russian language lesson presentation
9. The leading of the lesson by the methodology for the long-term ill students
Category Doesn't Fit Anywhere Else |
2010
02.19
RIGA – I talked to someone last night about the grand disillusionment in the ability of the people of Latvia to govern themselves. Before Latvia joined the EU, it adopted a series of reforms with a goal of joining the EU in mind, as opposed to evaluating whether policies are good for the people of this country. After Latvia joined the EU, she appeared to have decided to take a holiday from policy-making, creating havoc in the economy, which eventually overheated and stalled. Now she’s standing on the crutches supported by the EU and the IMF who will help her along the way to join the eurozone in a few years time. But after that, she’ll just surrender most of her independence to Frankfurt, Brussels, Washington and never learning to govern herself for the benefit of her own people.
Category Doesn't Fit Anywhere Else |
2010
02.18
RIGA – As far as local politics is concerned, the most interesting bit from the IMF announcement on disbursement of more than €200 million to the cash-strapped Latvia was this (emphasis mine):
Rigorous execution of the 2010 budget is the first step, and this entails refraining from tax cuts or spending increases, saving any windfall revenues, and using the spending flexibility allowed under the program to ensure a robust safety net for the most vulnerable.
I wonder if Mr. Budget-Deficit-Does-Not-Matter heard that.
Category Economy, Parliament |
2010
02.18
RIGA, Feb 17, BNS – Latvian President Valdis Zatlers, who met with Latvians living in Canada while attending the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in Canada, told them that after visiting many different countries he had reached a conclusion that Latvia was the best country in the world.
Category Valdis Zatlers |
2010
02.16
RIGA – My earliest memory as a child is the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. I was three years old, caring more about a giant mascot of the games, Misha the Bear, flying up into the sky at the Closing Ceremony then about the United States’ decision to boycott the games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Politics often takes over sporting events. Boycotts are in the past, but for a country like Latvia, the first hockey match against Russia in the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver is as much about politics as it is about the game of hockey. Hockey for Latvians is like a religion, though sometimes, we’re overcome by our religious zeal. People here still talk about a 2000 Russia-Latvia game at the Ice Hockey World Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ten years ago, the tiny Baltic country beat its former overlord and the all-star team.
“We are a small country, but we are tough. We have proven that over the centuries. We still exist.”
“I have the same feelings that I had 10 years ago when we stood on the barricades and pulled for independence. That was fantastic, and I think most people now have the same feelings,” people said at the time.
The inferiority complex would suffer a major blow if Latvia wins. Latvia’s victory over Russia could render Latvians incapacitated to mope in their own sorrow. Statistically speaking, Latvia is not doing too badly. The two teams met five times on major tournaments. Russia won 3 games; Latvia won two. In the last two games, Russia crushed Latvia with scores approaching double-digits. Most recently, Russia beat Latvia 6-1 at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Bern, Switzerland.
Now perhaps it could turn the same, if Latvia wins. If it doesn’t, Riga might turn into a loud chorus of “Rossiya, Rossiya.”
Category Hockey |
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 |
