All About Latvia

RIGA – It is perhaps one of the very few remaining Soviet holidays in Latvia. September 1 marks the Knowledge Day, the beginning of the Europe’s shortest academic year for more than 200,000 students in Latvia. Instituted in 1984 by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the Knowledge Day withstood the wind of change, Latvia’s drive for independence and its desire to shed Soviet heritage.

Students do little studying on September 1. Celebrations of the start of the academic year – official and otherwise – fill the cold Monday in the Latvian capital. Spiffed up students carry flowers to their teachers. Police and ambulances are out in full force. As a Diena commentator Laila Pakalniņa put it this morning, drunken students compete with the British boozers in the Old Town.

Statistically, 20 per cent of 13- and 14-year-olds use alcohol at least once a week. By the time they reach 17-18, almost half of students use alcohol, according to Pakalniņa comments. Alcohol industry seems to be the least impacted by the economic downturn.

But back to the drunk orgy, or Knowledge Day. In the Soviet days when I went to school, teachers were obligated to present the so-called the lesson of peace. A propaganda material that tells children that the Soviet Union was the bulwark of peace, in spite of the fact that its troops occupied Afghanistan at the time.

Nowadays, September 1 appears to be free of the Soviet propaganda. The concerns for peaceful coexistence gave way to concerns for Baltic brain drain. And worry about low salaries for teachers replaced fight for victory of the communist theory in the world.

And yet, times may change, but some things remain the same. Principals and teachers still get to know their students. Moms and dads still stand proud as their 6- or 7-year-old starts the first grade for the first time. And that is no doubt worth to celebrate. Even with a tad bit of alcohol for grownups.

Photo above taken from diena.lv

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RIGA – I went to listen to the president speak yesterday at the Saeima and I almost fell asleep. If leaders are supposed to be inspirational, Latvia’s President Valdis Zatlers was not. It is best to listen to his speech before you go to bed.

But the speech was good. Zatlers called on members of parliament to heed to call of the electorate (yeah, right!), following the Saturday’s political circus, or to put it the boringly, the Referendum on the Constitutional Amendments. More than 600,000 allegedly apathetic Latvians for a moment set a keg of beer aside and went to the polls to tell the government what they thought of it.

The government told them they were wrong and it knew better.

The zoo-elected president, Zatlers now has another chance to earn some political capital that may even carry him into the second term. The silver-haired doctor has a chance to heal the nation. To fix political crisis in our little kingdom, Zatlers can dissolve the parliament and, I believe, he would keep his job in a national referendum. The question is how long it will take him to make that decision.

The president appeared to give the parliament until Christmas to decide on constitutional amendments drafted by a group of legal experts that do indeed give voters a right to call snap elections but with harsher restrictions so not to destabilize the country.

Stability has been a token of dictatorship though and I find it very interesting that we find ourselves in a similar situation as back in May 1934, on the eve of the Murder of Democracy when Latvia’s Prime Minister Karlis Ulmanis dissolved the parliament and became a de facto dictator. A day before his coup d’etat, the parliament voted in second reading on amendments to allow voters a right to dissolve the assembly. The bill never went to the third reading as the parliament was dissolved under the pretext of re-writing the constitution.

Chances of a benevelent dictator stepping out of the shadows in the modern-day Latvia is unlikely. What is likely, however, is the continual denial of those in power that people just don’t know any better until it is too late. Add a good dose of the economic crisis and you’ve got a good political and economic climate for a revolution.

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RIGA – I’d lost all motivation to write about Latvia. This site – launched a way to stay in touch with my homeland when I was in the US – turned into a testament of Latvian pessimism.

Recent political events make it really difficult – down right impossible – to predict this country’s future. Cynicism of politicians toward those whom they are supposed to serve, lack of strong political leadership on all levels, jeopardize Latvia’s future as a European nation where democratic principles are upheld. I want to believe that this country will eventually manage to pull itself out of the Soviet swamp where it still seemed to have stuck, even after 18 years of independence. But I don’t hold much hope.

Watching history being made in the parliament on Sunday left a bad aftertaste for me. Not for me as a journalist, but as a citizen. The Saeima made three wrong decisions in one day. The competence was punished and the incompetence was rewarded. It was painful to watch how politicians justified why the Latvian Horse Minister Vinets Veldre should keep his job even though he has been obviously incompetent. Or how the ruling coalition tried to make the case to fire the head of the anti-corruption agency Aleksejs Loskutovs, failing to communicate a clear reason for the rush of his firing. It was even more painful to eavesdrop on MPs conversations during lunch talking about Loskutovs and several hundred people, who gathered outside to support him, with such a disdain.

Undoubtedly, the June 29 parliamentary session will enter history books as another sign that this country is at the crossroads. The question stands whether it will mark a day when politicians continue to be unaccountable for their actions, or a day when people start pay close attention and demand their public servants walk the line.

The next test will be the August 2 referendum, when Latvians decide for what they care more – their country or their summer holidays. For holiday-loving Latvians, it’ll be a tough choice to make. The referendum itself to allow people to dissolve the parliament is a scary one. A positive outcome could thwart the country into an era of constant signature-gathering referenda, stalling its progress. However given political elite’s cynicism, one has little choice but to support the measure.

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RIGA – Today marks the rebirth of the independent Latvia. Eighteen years ago the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a resolution restoring the Baltic nation’s independence after 50 years of Soviet occupation.

For some Latvians, the last 18 years have been disappointing.

Husbands leave their wives and children to make a living picking mushrooms in Ireland. Pensioners continue to struggle to get by on trifling pennies as they watch prices rise. Perception of government corruption continues to persist from almost every corner of the state apparatus. And most importantly, people feel left out of the important decision-making.

Latvia’s independence movement in late 1980s became known as the Third Atmoda, the Awakening. People were filled with hope for the rebirth of the nation, treasuring each moment of that freedom. After years of oppression and tyranny, ethnic Latvians were finally getting their country back. Certainly, no one woke up on May 5, 1990, realizing that they were living in a different country. The change came gradually - one by one.

The resolution established the basic principles that were to guide this country domestically and internationally.

The courageous move on the part of the de facto parliament back in 1990 could not have taken place in today’s Latvia. The current members of the Saeima in the ruling coalition are discipled to vote as their bosses – in Riga, not in Moscow – tell them, creating an atmosphere of political cynicism and public distrust. In 2007 Latvians celebrated the Fourth of May heading into a referendum on the confusing, revoked national security laws. It legally failed because voters tended their summer homes.

This year, the Fourth of May arrives at the time when two grass-root campaigns are before discontented Latvian public. As the International Monetary Fund observers said this week, the public trust in the current government is low.

Within weeks the parliament is set to consider a legislation - initiated by the Latvian Labor Unions - to give the voters the power to dissolve the parliament and call early elections. On the other hand, a group called “Society for different politics” (Sabiedrība citai politikai -SCP), led by former minister of economy Aigars Štokenbergs and former foreign minister Artis Pabriks, is urging people to sign up an initiative to amend the pensions laws. The signature drive concludes May 15. They already forced the government to raise pensions once in April, then another raises are coming up in June and October.

Regardless whether these two initiatives get approved or rejected, they have already sent a strong message to the cynical government. Will it listen? - that’s another question.

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