Oct 08
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RIGA – I’ve been debating the issue of non-citizens, Russians, Russophones, Soviets in this small Baltic country. It’s been fun and interesting, especially considering neither one of us takes the hardliner position. Go. Read.
Oct 05
RIGA – That’s all for this week. Like most Latvians, including our highly-esteemed president, I only think about politics between 8 a.m. Monday morning and 5 p.m. Friday evening. The rest of the time I spend like Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis on this video.
Have a good weekend!
Oct 05
RIGA – Baltic News Service has just reported:
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are going to jointly buy ammunition for anti-armour guns Carl Gustaf from the Swedish manufacturer Saab Bofors AB.
The jointly procured munitions will be delivered to the Baltic states in 2007-11, a spokesman for the Estonian Defense Ministry said. Joint procurements allow to harmonize weaponry and, due to involving larger quantities, probably get a better price, he added.
What other products can three Baltic countries buy in bulk? (I hope comments function still works!)
Update: So far, here are the suggestions:
1. Toilet paper
2. Business cards
3. Office supplies in general and Post-It notes in particular
Oct 05
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RIGA – I’ve attended a press conference in a seaside town of Jurmala earlier this week. Foreign ministers of small EU countries also attended the same press conference.
They were invited to sit at the head table.
The wonderful press service of our beloved nation’s foreign office scheduled 30 minutes for the whole event.
And rightly so.
Unless they’re really pissed, rarely do reserved quasi-Nordic Latvians ask questions about what’s going on in their country. Or in any other country, especially if it’s not Russia.
Same goes for local journalists. They feel that asking questions gets in the way of their reporting.
Among questions about bastardized Constitution, sticking-it-to-Russia energy policy, I’ve made a list of other questions that I didn’t have time to ask.
1. Question to Estonia’s foreign minister Urmas Paet, when is Estonia planning to invade Russia? Will it be before the EU-Russia summit later this month?
2. How do fascist countries like Estonia and Latvia get to join the glorious exclusive club of democratic nations?
3. Why does Lithuanian foreign minister Petras Vaitiekunas speak English with a Russian accent?
4. Maybe Estonia should pick on someone its own size instead of feeble Russia. Say, Belgium, for example. Belgium, how do you respond?
5. Where is Lichtenstein in all of this?
Photo: Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet answering questions that never were asked. Photo courtesy of Baltic Features.
Oct 04
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RIGA – I’ve explained it once, but it’s getting tiring.
So the only thing I have to say in response to these comments is this:
Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity. Latvian citizenship law is not based on ethnicity.
Oct 04
RIGA – It finally happened. The First Official Latvian Google Bomb.
Go to the Latvian version of Google and type “Cuka,” a Latvian word for “a pig.” Click “Es ticu veiksmei,” or “I’m feeling lucky” and see what happens.
Here.
Oct 04
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RIGA – Fascinating and disturbing read about the spread of hate and intolerance in this country.
The New Generation theology Ledyaev preaches borrows heavily from R.J. Rushdoony, the late founding thinker of Christian Reconstruction. Pastor Ledyaev’s 2002 book, New World Order, calls for evangelical Christians around the world to influence the wealthy and powerful in their home countries to implement biblical law in order to stave off a supposed alliance of gays and Muslims hell-bent on destroying Christianity. “The first devastating wave of homosexuality makes a way for the second and more dangerous wave of islamization [sic],” writes Ledyaev.
….
At 56, Ledyaev is still youth-oriented enough to promote his vision of global theocracy through elaborate, large-scale Christian rock operas that Ledyaev writes, directs and stars in, and which are replete with lasers, smoke machines, and spandex-clad actors in ghoulish makeup. One of the rock operas, which young Russian-speaking anti-gay activists promote on video-sharing websites, features a hero character wearing a tuxedo battling men in black tights armed with tiki torches. Over heavy-metal guitar riffs, a military-like chorus sings of “victory over the gays.”
Also read On Exporting Excrement.
Oct 04
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JURMALA – A common energy policy for the European Union seemed to have become a buzz phrase in recent months, especially here in the Baltics.
It seems like a month doesn’t go by that a conference isn’t being held somewhere in the Baltic region honing in on the future of the energy supply for the EU’s 27 countries, largely targeted at our Eastern neighbor.
Right now, it appears utterly futile to unite 27 different national priorities and interests into one single policy. Too many different voices produce too little solidarity.
“In general, we, in the European Union, should deal with energy security and energy supplies for the future,” Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen told journalists following a meeting in Jurmala among foreign ministers from the Netherlands and Luxembourg, a representative from Belgium and foreign ministers from the three Baltic states.
However, addressing issues particularly related to Nord Stream, a gas pipeline connecting Russia with Germany and bypassing the Baltics, Verhagen became somewhat contradictory.
“I‘m not against the Nord Stream line, but I‘m in favour of energy solidarity and energy security for all the member states,” he said.
‘Energy solidarity’ is especially important for the three Baltic states, who joined this club in 2004. However, Germany’s national interests in the Russian pipe dream, for example, prevent it from standing up for fellow EU member when Russia unsuccessfully bullies poor “fascist” Estonia into agreement to research its seabed as a possible route for Nord Stream.
So much for solidarity.
The next energy conference – in Vilnius next week – plans to address the issues related to global energy security challenges and the future guidelines for the EU external energy policy.
And right now, it looks as though the unity in the united Europe is just a pipe dream.
The map of Nord Stream gas pipeline taken from the Baltic Times.
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