Can Dr. Mani’s wisdom enable Riga, Latvia to outwit Monopoly oppression?

Please remember, Monopoly is just a game.

Having said that, why couldn’t Riga, Latvia win the Monopoly World Edition Contest?
Haven’t we earned at least 5th place?
Shouldn’t we make sure we are not “cheated” out of that 5th place?
Remember, not long ago, we were 3rd.
The third most popular city in the world – as far as Monopoly is concerned.

To help Riga, TheLatvianChannel.com was fortunate, on short notice to hire the services
of Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian – better known as Dr. Mani –
internationally renowned pediatric heart surgeon and Internet entrepreneur.

Dr. Mani drafted a proposed strategy available at:
Dr. Mani Helps Riga

Please take a look, there are a number of items that could interest those who frequent LatviansOnline.com.

You know who you are.

Many won’t care.
For them, Monopoly is just a child’s game.
For others, who care about the symbolism that could help Riga’s tourism, self-esteem and international stature,
it’s a ticket to a better future.

Isn’t a better future worth fighting for?
And maybe, just maybe, we could win.

After all, we are Latvians.

For others, who care about the symbolism that could help Riga’s tourism, self-esteem and international stature, it’s a ticket to a better future.

Really? I think it’s one of the many tickets to turning all Latvians into morons, which is exactly the strategy we’ve been pursuing for a while. A failed strategy if there ever was one. Finding our place (oops, not our place—the place of Rīga according to Simon Anholt or whatever) in a square in an American board game is going to raise our self-esteem, or our international stature?

Vysu lobu,
/P

Perhaps by getting on a Monopoly board, Latvia will finally feel like a real country. Oh, wait. Scratch that.

Finding our place (oops, not our place—the place of Rīga according to Simon Anholt or whatever) in a square in an American board game is going to raise our self-esteem, or our international stature?

Come come Peter - you know the real answer…

Improving the quality of life in Riga and Latvia will raise our self-esteem. We all have opinions about what the government is or isn’t doing to improve the quality of life. One of several ways to improve the quality of life in a city or country (but clearly not the only one) is to expand their international contacts and then make strategic use of those contacts in order to promote our civic and national interests.

Putting Riga on one of the world’s most popular board games will no doubt raise the self-esteem of many Riga residents but that’s not the point. (Although, it’s not a bad thing either.) It will also raise awareness of Riga among the millions who play the game. The mere fact that Riga is competing with the likes of Paris, New York, Berlin and Istanbul has already raised awareness of Riga in the international press.

Raising international awareness of a city increases its leverage in a globalized world. Pick your priority: tourism? foreign direct investment? more export sales? internationalization of the higher educational system? Whichever goal you seek becomes more attainable when your target audience is aware of you. If you can turn that awareness into interest, and convert that interest into something useful, palpable and beneficial, then you move closer to achieving your goal.

Whether we like it or not, Riga is already better known in the world than Latvia. The city has been around for 8 centuries, while the country is still ten years shy of its first century. The challenge is in taking a natural advantage - a city like Riga - and turning it to the advantage of the country as a whole. We don’t promote Riga in lieu of Latvia. We promote Riga in order to bring greater attention to Latvia.

Riga’s presence in an internationally popular game like Monopoly works at a subconscious level, and its greatest impact will be on young people. But as awareness of this city and country gradually builds, we have to make sure they have the qualities we can be proud of and want others to see. If you have opinions about the future of this country and how it should be shaped, I urge you get involved in the Regional Development of Municipal Affairs Ministry (RAPLM) Long Term Development Strategy. Check out their home page, sign up for a discussion and share your views. If your ideas are great and you can convince the government to use them, you will raise the international stature of our country.

But getting Riga onto the board of the new Global Monopoly game won’t hurt either.

I and my tuvineki vote every day, Ojār! That’s pretty harmless. As constructive as Ulmanis when he got into Dale Carnegie. How do your beloved international contacts feel when they look into the economy? How do they react to Latvian politics? Can you tell us how you feel about the invasion of Iraq and your ferocious support for it on national TV, in retrospect? Can you tell us how you feel about your support for Kalvītis, the “guarantor of stability”?

Vysu lobu,
/P

Which international contacts do you mean? Their opinions are as varied as ours. Some see our economy as an area of opportunity. Some as a problem to be solved. As for Latvian politics, well, it’s got its ups and downs, just like any other country in the world. As for Iraq, the other allies who joined us in supporting the US on this (the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, etc) don’t blame us for taking the same risk that they took. I have worked for every Latvian government since 1991, both as ambassador and Latvian Institute director, always with a goal of trying to help in whatever way I can, even if I didn’t always agree with every policy pursued by the prime minister in power. Where I could change things, I tried. In my case I try to serve the State and the nation, and look for ways I can be helpful, even if I don’t always agree with the politicians in power. Politicians come and go. I’m focusing on long term interests.

PS This has to be the first time in my 58 years that someone has described anything I do as ‘ferocious’. Were you trying to flatter me?

PPS To Peteris - thanks for voting!

Sveiks atkal,

No—I was personally offended by your lies on the TV. You told us to trust the US, because the US never lies. The next day, I asked you about the Gulf of Tonkin. Remember?

You held forth on the TV about something you know nothing about (and probably now wish to know nothing about).

This can get all slīpēts in any way you wish, Ojār—but you advocated the invasion of Iraq and Latvia’s wholehearted and even extreme endorsement of that invasion, in public, and vehemently.

You were proven wrong. Dead wrong. Can you face up to that, or not?

At least tens of thousands of people are dead, and you endorsed that from the bottom of your articulate heart—not that your heart isn’t pure. You were a spokesman for the Coalition of the Willing from the beginning, no?

What are our long-term interests? More of the same, I suspect. Latvia endorses most everything the US does. Recognize Kosovo? Davai!

So what are the long-term interests, really? Not a rhetorical question. They obviously have nothing to do with principles—or? Playing kissy-kissy with Central Asian dictatorships to renew the Silk Road is long-term? How much do these long-term interests have to do with the so-called tauta? Why do you think most everybody in Latvia has no faith in what you’ve produced? We’s just sourpusses?

Do you have principles? Are there principles? Is there such a thing at all? Oh, okay, a Monopoly square.

/The tin boot, or the racecar

Just to make sure you get what I’m saying, I’ll change the terms. You can blithely support the restructuring of other countries by force, it seems. We did that last week in re Kosovo. In Macedonia, there was a precedent—Albanians took up arms, NATO flew in, and the country was declared bilingual. If that happens tomorrow in Maskačka, the Purčiks and Daugavpils—what will you say? By golly, we ought to balance those Russkies and those Letts? I tried to ask you a salient question once—how many of the young, fervent, self-sacrificing folk you lauded at your Institute are not ethnic Latvians? I took your silence as the answer. Was I wrong, Ojār?

Ambersun had a bit of trouble with my mention of an Israeli letter—hey, Ambersun, do you realize that Arabic is co-official with Hebrew in Israel? That Israel is a democracy in the best sense of the word and idea, and realizes that it has to be if it is to survive?

Vysu lobu,
/P

Peteris,
You don’t have the definitive word on Israel.  I suggest doing some simple on-line research to see the complexity of the problem and the variety of opinions.  http://www.haaretz.com is a good place to start for some differing Israeli opinions.  Also, as much as it irritates you to have Frank Gordon summoned at the mention of Israel, he did have an excellent article in LAIKS a while ago comparing the needs of the Jewish Democracy of Israel and Latvia.  I have a copy if you can’t find it.  For another opinion, try searching Tony Judt, a Jewish historian with well-publicized views on Israel.  That should be a good start.  Of course, there are also the complex Palestinian and Arab views.  I have more suggestions if you need them.

Just as I’m not a “historian,” Ambersun—I don’t have the definitive word on anything, believe me. I have been to Israel though, briefly. I have subscribed to Haaretz for many years, and also to the Jerusalem Post. I am not a Likudista perhaps— Andrejs, the notorious Israeli citizen, can attest to that. Above—I was, as I try to now and then, referring to a concrete fact: the official languages in Israel are Hebrew and Arabic, Franks Gordons be damned. Personally, I think Franks’ comparisons between Latvia and Israel are unutterably absurd. Though you in Santa Clara County seem to experience Russian attacks on a daily basis, I have never encountered a suicide bomber here in Dvinsk. This is probably due to my lack of patriotism.

I have heard Latvian called a “dog language” many times—by Latvians talking about how they think Russophones perceive the language.

Shalom,
/P

Before anyone gets too excited one way or the other ... let’s remember that Israel also has a large Jewish population whose native tongue was arabic. Ironically enough, on the other hand, Russian is also the native tongue of a large portion of Israel’s population. And no one has yet, or will, suggested to make Russian an official language.
But yes, in theory even if not always on paper or in reality Israel recognizes both Jews and non-Jews as equal partners in the nation. In practice… not so much.

Andrejs

“As for Iraq, the other allies who joined us in supporting the US on this (the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, etc) ...”

Canada did not support the US on the war in Irak.

Pierre

Why do supporters of Jerusalem, Israel consider “Riga: A Lesson in Freedom”
and owning a square on the Monopoly board important?

Since there never has been a single suicide bombing in Tallahassee, Florida,
I needed to contact my friend, who has ties to Jerusalem, Israel.
Sadly to say, they have extensive experience with suicide bombings.

Here is what she said, Boker tov:

Roll over, cave in and kiss up

…You go to Sort By: Countries.
But Jerusalem isn’t there.
Because Jerusalem has no country.
As of yesterday evening.

And of course it is the only city without a country.
No one questions that Dublin is in Ireland
or that Paris is in France.
Fans of Riga, LATVIA
don’t have to worry
that all of a sudden
their favorite city
will be divorced from its country,
that they’ll wake up one day
and Riga will be just Riga,
no Latvia.

It is only the status of the Jewish city
in the Jewish state
that is ever questioned –
or as in this case, denied…

Is Monopoly just a game?

Is Monopoly just a game?
Is a Danish cartoon just a cartoon?
Is it anybody’s business what name is given to a teddy bear?

Increasingly our world becomes less rational,
because increasingly, the irrational opinions of Arab Muslims hold sway.
If they don’t want a teddy bear to be named Mohammed,
they threaten to kill people.
If they don’t like a particular cartoon,
they DO kill people.
If they don’t want a gameboard to read,
Jerusalem Israel,
then they get their way…
one way or another.

Never mind that everybody suffers,
that as a result,
Paris can’t be said to be in France
any more than Jerusalem
can be said to be in Israel.

At its heart,
this Monopoly business is quite serious,
potentially deadly serious.

Just because the “Arab street” –
which now stretches around the world
and into the halls of governments –
happens to think
that “Israel is wrong” to even exist,
an American toymaker
revises his business promotions accordingly…

Okay. Let’s lighten up a bit.

Back to Monopoly.

Now that the verbal fisticuffs
in this forum kerfuffle
have settled down a bit,
has anyone had a chance
to read the insightful suggestions of Dr. Mani?

Dr. Mani’s Letter to Help Riga, Latvia in the World Monopoly Contest