My kid only cares that Heroes is not dubbed on tv6! He thinks that LV doesn’t make sense for that show.

The Latvian diaspora is greatest in Latvia itself. This is because Latvia takes 2nd place among least patriotic countries in a Forbes magazine survey
http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/02/world-national-pride-oped-cx_sp_0701patriot_slide2_10.html?thisSpeed=20000  Not only are Latvians the least patriotic, but they are also among the least cohesive communities in the world. Most of Latvia’s problems stem from these factors.

The government of Latvia has not contributed a thing to Latvia becoming a proud and cohesive community, because there is no one in government who would die for Latvia. The drum the Latvian Institute beats is a death rattle. After hundreds of thousands of Latvians died fighting for their liberty and in Soviet gulags and Nazi concentration camps, the current leaders are leaders only because they want to be the first in line to steal the last of what little hope remains.

As for communicating in English, there are many reasons for doing so. Among the first reasons are the reasons why the Scandinavian countries made the decision to be so proficient in English. In a few words: practicality, business opportunities, a better quality of life. The Latvian Security Police (Drošibas Policija) would never have arrested the pop singer for mentioning the word “deflation” with regard to the Latvian lats if anyone in its ranks could read English and read the information available on sites that deal with business and finance. The deflation of the lats was and continues to be a matter of serious discussion. One reason can be inferred from the following FT interview. http://www.ft.com/cms/893ac9c8-757e-11dc-b7cb-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=1041029089&fromSearch=n

The above (and other) are the reason why I am interested in the revival of Johns Day traditions and why I am willing to entertain and discuss ALL means of accumulating capital. It is not only Johns Grass. Latvia has lots of clay beneath the top soil. Either we do more than talk about survival or we die as a community and let the Matrix of illusionary individualism take over. http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:5NQAnL6YvVQJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix+the+story+of+Matrix&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&lr=lang_en

A major tragedy of the Latvian diaspora following WW2 was the fact that the exiles (trimdinieki) had little or no opportunity of returning to Latvia, thus continuing their ties with the home country and giving their input with regard to its development. The perspective that evolved from this circumstance condemned most descendants of the exiles to become estranged from Latvia. Thus, the wall built by the Soviets succeeded in furthering the aims of Latvia’s occupants—making Latvians rootless in their own country and assimilating them to the Great Motherland, at the same time as those living abroad drifted away to be never heard from again.

The current diaspora, an estimated 90,000 since 1989, offer an opportunity for a different sort of diaspora, one where the ties are less sentimental and more direct. However, if this “direct” connection is to realize itself, there has to be something about the motherland (dzimtene) that clearly distinguishes it from the newly chosen country of domicile. That potential exists in the Latvian holy day called Johns Day if that day is allowed to revive as a day of religious significance. Without such a revival for Johns Day,  the new country of domicile has more to offer than “dzimtene”, if only because it offers one a job and a future to look forward to, while “dzimtene” offers in fact nothing but a short-term memory of itself.

At this juncture a Latvia without a distinct face of its own faces eurocratization, that is, it will become an administrative area (rajons) of the European Union and will not be able to resist the bureaucracy of Bruessels anymore than it is able to resist the bureaucracy that rules over it today. Such differences as there are—when without roots in native religion (Johns)—become passing and will disappear within a generation. Indeed, the eighteen years of independence of the 2nd Latvian republic have shown its inhabitants as eager to assimilate to any culture that has anything to do with “money”. While reactionism (on behalf of being a “real” Latvian) remains strong, anyone capable of a long-term perspective can see that it is not destined to be lasting.

Which is why healing Johns Day grass—its reactivization as something more than poetic rhetoric (“tumša nakts, zaļa zāle”)—is essential for the revival of Johns Day as a holy day in order for it not to remain just another unproductive official holidays that Latvians have so many of.

The only problem is that Latvia is not Mexico, and cannot grow kanepes year round.  Unless of course you are talking about hydroponic farming.  Question #1:  But if you negate hydroponic farming, where on earth would the Latvians get their kanepes in the Winter?
Question #2:  If kanepes is John’s Grass, then what do you call Saint John’s Wort in Latvian?  Saint John’s Wort is a herb that has anti-depressant properties (I give it to my mother), but is totally un-related to John’s grass.  Perhaps there are too many Johns around.
Question #3:  Hypothetically, If Latvians would get their kanepes from Mexico in the winter, would they then be supporting the Mexican crimelords and their killings.  They killed over 7,000 people last year.  I would have no problem with kanepes, but I don’t want to support Mexican killings.  US gets some marijuana from Mexico (probably a lot).

Taomant: The only problem is that Latvia is not Mexico, and cannot grow kanepes year round.  Unless of course you are talking about hydroponic farming.

Question #1:  But if you negate hydroponic farming, where on earth would the Latvians get their kanepes in the Winter?

Answer: Latvians have no need of reaching to Mexico for their Johns Grass (Jāņu zāles) seeds. The Netherlands has a well developed cannabis industry, both for domestic consumption (in Amsterdam coffee shops, for example), as well as growing it for medicinal purposes. You will have to do more of your own research on the internet for details, but I distinctly remember that the Netherlands hired a Canadian expert in cannabis cultivation to develop their medicinal crop. Incidentally, the expert had served several years in jail in Canada as a result of his personal efforts to become an expert in cannabis horticulture. Be that as it may, there are a number of seed varieties that produce early blooms, and while Latvia’s climate is good for only one crop, this ought to be sufficient to produce enough of the plant for milk tea or perhaps cannabis cream liquor. If the growing of the plant were legalized, we can count on the ingenuity of the people to take over.

Question #2:  If kanepes is John’s Grass, then what do you call Saint John’s Wort in Latvian?  Saint John’s Wort is a herb that has anti-depressant properties (I give it to my mother), but is totally un-related to John’s grass.  Perhaps there are too many Johns around.

Answer: John’s Wort or herb most likely has the same root as Johns Grass (Jāņu zāle) and it is not a coincidence that it is used as an anti-depressant. Johns Grass is an anti-depressant as well. This is clearly evidenced in the giggles it evokes in first-time users, because it tends to remove the scales from the eyes and makes apparent the negative effects of the Matrix the orthodox establishment encases every one of us from the time of childhood on. My reasons for replacing the word cannabis (kaņepes) with Johns Grass are several. #1 The name Johns Grass in Latvia, while still in occasional use, as a result of neo-Christian campaigns to eradicate native Latvian culture, now is often replaced by the word “grass”, re Johns Eve as Grass Eve (Zāļu vakars, Zāļu svētki). #2 The displacement by neo-Christians of the very name Jāņi (Johns) with Midsummer’s Eve, Summer Fest, Līgo svētki, Family Picnic Day, etc. #3 By calling cannabis Johns Grass removes the negative connotations that the establishment has worked for so long and hard to establish over this medicinal plant. #4 Let John’s Wort compete with Johns Grass for the attentions of your mother. She may well prefer Johns Grass Dietetic Cream Bonbons.

Question #3:  Hypothetically, If Latvians would get their kanepes from Mexico in the winter, would they then be supporting the Mexican crimelords and their killings.  They killed over 7,000 people last year.  I would have no problem with kanepes, but I don’t want to support Mexican killings.  US gets some marijuana from Mexico (probably a lot).

Answer: The failure of the U.S. government to decriminalize Johns Grass has created a crime industry that now threatens to engulf Mexico in a civil war and spill over the borders into the U.S. itself. The reason for such a terrifying situation is the extraordinary high price that Johns Grass brings due to the government turning its possession into a crime. If legalized, all the Johns Grass consumed in America could be grown domestically. I understand that about $4 billion worth is already grown in the U.S. itself. In any case, Latvians need not go to Mexico for their seeds.

Question #4 (my own): Would not other drugs enter the country under the cover of Johns Grass?

The answer is an emphatic NO. The question is an orthodox establishment propaganda ploy. It also reflects a failure to police laws written to check the risks. There are a number of reasons why policing may fail:
#a. total ban, which makes transgression inevitable;
#b. failure to educate;
#c. failure to limit as to place and space;
#d. too high a level of taxation;
#e. pietistic religion (neo-Christianity) that makes a state of drowsiness preferable;
#f. the need for government without charismatic authority to establish an “enemy of the people”.

Latvians need domestically produced Johns Grass as a pheromone that will attract to Riga and its hinterland tourism that is about to disappear due to world wide economic recession.

Jandzs,

You seem a very intelligible person.  Zinatnisks.  I agree there needs to be decriminalization of John’s grass, but it needs to be a controlled decriminalization, so that there would be certain amounts one can have say in a day, a week, a month, etcetera.  This would also boost Tourism in Latvia.  But, why not also not in America?  More people have died in Alcohol-related accidents in America than in the whole time in Vietnam, when we were supposedly fighting Communism.  The truth being told in America it’s doubtful it will be legalized, unless we get a Green president, and not a Black one (pun intended).  And, remember the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) cannot really patent John’s Grass, since it’s natural, and so companies cannot make a profit on it, since they cannot own it, except Nutritional companies.  One nice thing about Capitalism- actually that’s an ugly thing.  They are disbelievers in Natural remedies.  But on the other hand, there does lie some hope in this, that is if Obama’s Universal Healthcare Solution comes into effect, it will be found that Natural remedies, including vitamins, herbs, acupuncture, reflexology are more effective in preventing and treating diseases than many prescription drugs are, and without the unpleasant side-effects.

Thank you.

You shouln’t regulate amounts of pot used, once legal.
Have you ever tried to OD on ganja. Not possible.
Shouldn’t drive and smoke.

Holistic approach:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns

http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/

http://www.transitiontowns.org/

The movement that we can losely describe as “back to Earth” has a long history. We can certainly trace it back to Tolstoy and his praise of peasant life. No doubt, it has even earlier precedents going back to Roman times (whether East or West, I am not sure). The movement got a strong boost in the U.S. during the 1960s and the so-called Beat (Hippy) Movement. Most of what is left of the movement as a political force moved to the state of Oregon, where they tried to and still do survive growing Johns Grass. I refer to this movement in another post about the 20,000 or so Johns Grass farms in western Canada. As far as I am concerned, more power to them. I only wish they had more of an outreach program, perhaps a sort of news service center.

I can also trace “back to Earth” back to my self, which is to say, in my youth I lived on a farm and did a child’s chores there, and I am again living in the countryside and my neighbors are farmers and many demoralized country people.

At this time, I emphasize the word “demoralized”. Having gone the full cycle rural-to-urban-and-back-again, I put a heavy responsibility of the mess our planet is in (and of course individual countries like Latvia along with it) on unchecked urbanization and what another writer calls “servile idealism”, “peevish aristocracy”, and the like descriptions of the urban sickness. This is not to say that there is no need of the city, but there is certainly a need to bring it to its knees. This is apparently beginning to occur not due to human reason, but because nature itself is fighting back with climate change and by letting greed obsessed psyche overreach and cause the present spectacular collapse of the financial world.

Unfortunately, while there is likely to occur a die-off of overextended cities, the people who suffer the most are the oppressed, the neglected, the shit on, the uneducated, the drunk, the whoring, the children abandoning mothers, the AIDS carrying, the mind polluted (by city produced soaps) country folk, looking to the lies from the city to become the vehicle of their personal salvation in city slums.

In Latvia, at this time, the facilitator of community demoralization is the government. The just recently resigned minister of agriculture (zemkopība), whose hobby was nude photography, adequately illustrates the purile nature of the indifference. http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:m-CMbNPnGB4J:ministrs.zm.gov.lv/?q=node/8+Zemkopības+ministrs+Mārtiņš+Roze+hobbijs&hl=lv&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=nl&lr=lang_en  Perhaps the minister can be persuaded to see the beauty in hemp flowers as the Japanse kimono industry does.
http://www.marubeni.com/dbps_data/_material_/maruco_en/data/gallery/kimono/images/kim_ph021_1.jpg

http://uncleweed.net/words/essays/hempjapan/pics/miasa.jpg

When you click open the below one, click on “image galery” therein.

Struggling states in the U.S. propose unorthodox ways to raise income. The first hint of a small ripple in the bigger wave to come.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/us/01sin.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Dear jandžs,

I don’t know about the others on LOL, but I find it very hard to read your posts, presumably because
you insert exceedingly long URLs. Might I suggest you go to http://www.tinyurl.com to create much
shorter URLs that will link to the pages you want. For example, instead of the 444 character long URL
you posted for that “image gallery”, the following tiny URL will do the job just fine:

http://tinyurl.com/crcy4a

Pierre

Atis Lejiņš, a political candidate for one of the parties in the upcoming elections, has just published at Delphi an article that calls for the cultivation of

“...daudzgadīga graudzāļu dzimtas lakstauga miežabrāļa. Enerģētiskās vērtības ziņā miežabrāļa granulas ir līdzvērtīgas koksnes granulām, taču ja kokam, lai izaugtu vajag 20-30 gadus, tad miežabrālis granulu ražošanai ir gatavs gada laikā.”

This is the first time that I have heard kaņepe called “graudzāļu dzimtas lakstaugs miežabrālis”. Of course, if the author of the article does indeed have in mind, but avoids using the word “cannabis”, it only illustrates the straight-jacket that the Latvian government has placed over creative thinking or thinking at all.

I continue to prefer calling this wonderful biomass as Jāņu zāle, but completely agree with Atis Lejiņš that it is past time renewing its manufacture—as biofuel, as binding material in concrete or construction boards, and a tourist attractant to the Latvian countryside.

The new candidate for minister of Agriculture—of an administration not yet confirmed—states that he intends to support only the “productive” elements of agriculture. This may mean not supporting the small farmers and stopping social payments to 30,000 families living in the countryside of Latvia. This on tonight’s Dombur’s show “Kas notiek Latvijā”. Again Latvia’s political leadership is behind the 8 ball by supporting a future that is already in the past. The future is not V, or U, but L shaped, which means the future is no longer with the city. But go tell it to the Latvian political leadership. It thinks for the short-term. Meanwhile, one hears of preparations being made by the government against possible violence come next August, when the unemployment payments to the currently unemployed expire.

For those who are so convinced that our forebears knew nothing about the health effects of “kaņepīte” (cannabis), here are some links that suggest that they knew about it well enough:

from Wikipedia, which refers the following info from Richard Rudgley and The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances (1998): “The most famous users of cannabis were the ancient Hindus of India and Nepal. The herb was called ganjika in Sanscrit….” To borrow a from my posts on Jānis-John, the name of John is derived from “gans”, herder, with the G sliding to J as, for example, Gion to Yon or, of course, from J to G. In any case, ganjika translates to yanika or Johns Grass. This suggests that the first users of Johns Grass were shepherds/ goatherds or Johns/gani.

Another item mentions that the Scythian and Thracian/Dacian shamans (native priests) burned cannebis flowers to induce a state of trance. These shamans were known as “kapnobatai” (those who walk on smoke/clouds), which I translate into Latvian as “kalnā kāpēji”. We surely remember the Latvian folk song or Jāņu dziema which tells us about John sitting on top of the mountain, re Jānīts sēž kalniņā. The kapnobatai are referenced to Barry W. Cunliffe and The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe (2001).

jandžs et al.,

No one in Europa, let alone Latvia, smoked a pipe before the introduction of tobacco.

In the temple to your “god John” do not forget to depict him smoking a pipe.  It will bring in more visitors

Visu labu,