About two weeks ago, two days of a strong and steady wind blew away most of the snow cover. The uncovered ground revealed the fields below criss-crossed by hundreds if not thousands of tunnels thrust up by moles, mice, and what the local village people call “water rats” (ūdens žurkas).

The deep snow this past winter never allowed the ground below to freeze though there were a number of days with temperatures of over -30C. In spite of such low temperatures, there was a winter paradise for some life forms below the snow.

My mother cat has been bringing me home two or three said water rats, ordinary mice from what I can see, and through such giving makes a significant contribution in spirit to the upkeep of my small household.

I have looked out my kitchen window and seen foxes in the field on the other side of the ditch hunt for mice. I like to watch them make the tell-tale jump in the air and the pounce that follows. The hawks, too, need barely make an effort for their next meal.

Only the forests round about me keep disappearing as people try cope with the hardships brought them by their government, which for all practical purposes does not serve them, but serves as a lobby for foreign banking interests.

Top that off with the sowing and ruin of ill advised European grains last fall, and it is for certain that even more trees will be cut, and the people of old forest and farming stock will be barely surviving. Many have left Latvia, and many more think of doing so, certainly most of the young high school graduates. Not that it is easy work abroad.

I know of one young woman who gets up at 3 a.m. to drive her stepfather to work on an English farm, while she then returns to work in a meat packing factory at 5 a.m., where work is available for only three out of five days. The family is concerned over its future, still it is better to live and work in England than life in a state run by a corrupt and/or a gutless “sovereign” government bent to turning Latvia not into a nation, but an administrative center (welfare state sort) of the European Union.

The Director of State Customs Criminal Oversight Committee one Marjans Burijs http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/vid-muitas-kriminalparvaldes-prieksnieks-pastavot-kontrabandai-daudzi-nav-nomirusi-bada.d?id=38082893 in an interview (in Latvian) for “Practical Day” (Lietišķā Diena) stated that contraband (the black market, etc.) has its economic advantages. Said Burijs: “….thanks to contraband, many people [Latvians] have not starved to death. I cannot say this as a director of juridical institution [of the state], but as a resident of Latvia, I understand it very well. If the state has difficulties and cannot secure [its people] work and income, the people do [what they can] to survive for themselves.”

I was in Riga yesterday. The ducks that congregate in the winter alongside the canal across the street from the Latvia University are gone. One assumes that they are making their nests somewhere among the reeds in more hidden coves.

As for Riga itself, a poll allegedly shows its do-little major has never been more popular. Yet Riga is no meca for jobs and many people are leaving. As the bus drives into Riga, one sees vacant offices line the shores of Daugava. The Financial Havoc and Damage Team (FHDT aka IFM, ECB) from Brussels came, bent the arms of their Latvian ministers’ lobby, and then left Latvia happy and satisfied.

At this point in history, the future capital of Europe looks attractive to Wormelings (Vurmīši), one of whom I photographed at the entrance of Riga White House (pils) http://the4thawakening.blogspot.com/.

Incidentally, for those who think that I propagate “negative news”, let me remind them that I believe (search for ‘esoschronicles’) that Jesus has for some time been back on Earth as John (Jānis), the name he had before he was sent up to sit on his hands in fantasy land. There may be quite a few Johns about in Latvia and the world, except in Latvia they keep on being called “populists” and the rest of the world is subject to a barrage of government propaganda singing “happy days are here again”. Happy Easter!

Eiropas galvas pilsēta ir Rīga. Rīga atrodas Latvijā.

Latvieši Rīgā ienāk ar labo kāju, iziet ar kreiso. Valdība stāsta, ka tik mierīgi ļaudis reti kur redzēti.

Jau tā sauktos treknos gados bija šausminoši skatīties, ka Latvijas lauki iztukšojās un cilvēki aizbrauc uz ārzemēm strādāt. Rīga palika kā liecība par izceļojošo latviešu cerību uz šo valsti atgriezties, bet Rīga pati redzami slīdēja uz nabadzību, īpaši kad runa ir par latviešu skaitli Rīgā.

Es nevēlos uzsvērt etniskumu kā laicīgu tēmu, bet tikai tāpēc, ka šis izceļojošo skaitlis lielāko tiesu sastāv no latviešu valodu runājušiem Latvijas iedzīvotājiem. Izceļotāji ir arī etniskie krievi, poļi, gruzīni, u.t.t., bet cik Latvijā ir tā sauktā pamat-kultūra, tik daudz vairāk Latvija ir zaudētājos, kad Latviju atstāj kāds latviešu valodu runājošs iedzīvotājs.

Rīgā izceļotājus reti vairs aizstās laucinieki, ja vien tāpēc, ka laucinieku vairs nav vai tepat kā nav.

Vakaros var atpūsties televīzija ekrāna priekšā un skatīties pavirši pasniegtās ziņās. Visam kam ziņas jau pieskaras, un Domburs urbjas valsts nekārtību kaudzē līdz kaudze viļņos veļas. Bet reti kāds paskatās ar ieskatu mūsu politiskā sistēmā. Vai tad Latvijas latvieši nav tie, kas ir visvairāk atbildīgi par latviešu etnocīdu Latvijā?

Ne jau es te par verdzību vai nežēlību, bet par dzīvi, kas dara lielam latviešu valodu runājošu cilvēku skaitlim latviešu dzīvi Latvijā neiespējamu. Pat šodien jau Latvijas Ārlietu Ministrs Kristovskis sāk skaidrot http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/kristovskis-latvijai-bus-jaizverte-iespejas-uznemt-beglus-ja-es-skars-masveida-beglu-piepludums.d?id=38198431 , ka viesstrādnieki iebrauks uz pēdām tikko padzītiem lauciniekiem.

Ja neizskatītos tik nevainīgi kā izskatās un tāpēc aizdomīgi, varētu teikt, ka notiek Latvijas „modernizācija” un viss ir „normāli”.

Pa piemērām, Prezidents Zatlers tikko norunāja http://www.delfi.lv/news/comment/comment/valdis-zatlers-gudra-un-strategiska-valsts-latvijas-nakotnes-redzejums.d?id=38193597 Latvijas Universitātē garu runu, kurā ne ko ievērojamu nepateica, bet kā četrus gadus atpakaļ viņš ir dabūjis kādu labu mācību, sevi slavēja un teica, ka Latviju mīl. Ovācijas runai nesekoja.

Saprotams ir svarīgi mīlēt dzimteni. Jautājums ir par to, vai mēs palaižam dzimteni mākoņu un ūdeņu mutuļos, kamēr gudrākie kāp uz plostiem, un pārējie ar X Express airlainē kur kurais.

Latvijas Saeimā sēž stratēģiski novietots kovāržu koris latviešu izloksnēm, kas nesen aprunāja un kaunināja kādu krievu izcelsmes deputātu, kuram negāja ar latviešu valodu labāk kā man pēc piecdesmit ārpus Latvijas pavadītiem gadiem.

Kamēr latviešu skolās gāju līdz sešpadsmit, gan Latvijā, gan bēgļu nometnēs Vācijā, es labprātāk rakstu angļu valodā. Man tas nav patriotisma jautājums. Domāju, ka daudz kas no latviešu valodas un vides ir pārnesams uz angļu valodas kultūras fona. Tikai to vajadzētu mēģināt ar latviešiem joprojām nepieejamiem savu senču Jāņiem, pie kuru svētku durvīm joprojām zīme, uz kuras rakstīts: „Te domāt nedrīkst”. 

Jāņus ir iespējams pārnest uz angļu valodas fona, ja mūsdienu cilvēks varētu izprast, ka Jānis latviešiem ir vārds tagad jau aizmirsts, bet tomēr īpaši svarīgs vārds. Vārds ir tas pats Jēzus, kuru pasaules prinči padzina uz debesīm, lai uz zemes nemaisās valsts vīriem pa kājām. Latviešu Jānis nekad nedevās debesīs, bet metās slēpties uz mežu, kad briesmas draudēja. Citādi sludināja apmēram to pašu ko Jēzus, ja ieskatāmies Jāņu līgo dziesmās un latviešu valodā, kur mīlināmie vārdi ir visur.

Šobrīd ar Latvijas valsts iestāžu vienaldzīgo acīm debesīs skatoties, meži krīt, un Ziemeļvidzemes dabas protektorātā, mūsu apkaimes pārpalikušiem aļņiem drīz vairs var nebūs kur slēpties.

Pēc Prezidenta runas iesākuma, Latvijas Prezidents iesākumu nobeidza ar vārdiem: „...un, visbeidzot, nepieciešamību risināt demogrāfiskās situācijas radītās problēmas….”

Par šīm demogrāfiskajām problēmām Prezidents teica, ka „Es ticu, ka mēs varam pārlauzt negatīvo demogrāfijas tendenci, panākot, ka Latvijā ir vairāk dzimušo, nevis aizbraukušo vai mirušo.”

Paliek spēkā arī Latvijas Ārlietu Ministrijas risinājuma variants: taisiet vien durvis vaļā.

Latvija aizstāv cilvēktiesības.

With the elections of the President of Latvia by the Saeima near, a number of candidates are beginning to be mentioned as choices. One obvious candidate—who for all that ought to be a non-candidate—is the current President Valdis Zatlers.

As attorney Andris Grutups in an interview in the magazine “Kapitals” http://www.kapitals.lv/raksti/kapitala-maija-numura-spilgtako-vaditaju-top9-saruna-ar-aivi-roni-vaskevics-un-nelegalas-degvielas-tirgus points out, President Zatlers has serious problems being coherent. Attorney Grutups, a long-time proponent of direct elections of the Latvian President, mentions the President’s inability to follow up his own question: “What is the sense of life?” with any better answer than: “To live sensibly”, which according to the attorney compares well with the Soviet General-secretary Brezhnev’s statement that “the purpose of the economy is to practice economy”.

Another possible candidate for Latvian President is the former President Vaira Viķe-Freiberga, who during her term in office stood out as person able to act as a properly middle-class looking Latvian person, who was otherwise rather distant from Latvians as a people. The latter was most likely due to the fact that VVF left Latvia as a very young child and never had the opportunity to absorb a sense of the Latvian grassroots. More recently the former president’s distance from the folk was noticeable during the presentation of her third volume of books regarding the Sun. The Sun, the Latvian equivalent of God in feminine gender (the role fits also the Goddess Laima and Mara), is discussed by VVF in this volume as a meteorological phenomenon.

The post-Soviet Latvian statesmen and women do not wish to remember that the legitimacy of Latvia as a nation in its early days was based on its folk songs.  It was the latter, so it was then argued, which showed that the Latvians had their own culture, which was a source of the moral and spiritual qualities of the Latvians as a distinct people.

Today the Presidential candidates cultivate fundamentalist (or what this blogger calls neo-) Christian Christians. Utilizing the forgetfulness legitimized by the Soviet occupation, the post-Soviet Latvian government with deliberate oversight ignores the old layer of Latvian-based Christianity that centered on the Children of Johns (Jāņu bērni).

The deliberate dismissal of the moral and spiritual values of Latvia’s own is also being furthered by the former Latvian diplomat (to the U.S.) Aivis Ronis. In an interview in the magazine “Kapitals” (already mentioned above), Ronis does not so much as mention Latvia’s forebears, but goes straight for the vote of Christian fundamentalists by proposing that support of the poor ought to be entrusted to the neo-Christian churches: “…which would not only disburse the resources better, but would add sense [to the disbursements] by adding value to them in terms of emotion and sense of self-worth”. (My translation.) In other words, exploit the poor Latvians by bringing to them a fundamentalist evangel. Never mind that Latvians not only have their own (repressed) Christianity, but that the repression is now so nakedly expressed.
…………………………….
To those who have never heard of Latvia’s own arch-Christians: The neo-Christians usurped their arch-Christian brethren by doing service to Western secular princes. The process was finalized in Latvia in 1209, when Bishop Albert of Riga destroyed the proto-Latvian kingdom of the arch-Christians (Jāņu bērni) Jersika. The difference between the two Christianities was as slight as it was devastating to the old believers: John, the arch-Christian, was removed by resurrection to heaven in the figure of Jesus, whence he could no longer interfere in the affairs of humankind.

The current crop of Latvian politicians (indeed no exceptions are to be found) bemoan the loss of Latvian self-worth, while at the same time, they repress it for whatever personal benefit this brings them. Corruption in Latvia today reigns as much in the spiritual as secular realm.

If the Latvians wish to see Riga become the capital city of Europe, they may wish to consider making it safe for one of their own: John, Jahnis. While the meaning of John (Jahnis) has been lost to most Latvians (as it has been to most Europeans), it was still present at the time the first church for Latvians, the Johns Church (Jāņu baznīca) in Riga http://www.latvia.travel/lv/jana-baznica  was established by Bishop Albert after his crusaders destroyed Jersika. Henceforth, the arch-Christian John was to be a neo-Christian. Alas! http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/ for Latvians.

(Riga as the future capital city of Europe is a topic that allows even such a seemingly off the track blogs as the one below.)

The monopolization of Christianity by neo-Christians through the use of such methods as used by the Inquisition, gradually liquidated the human brain as residence of the bi- or multi-polar mind.

Over the centuries—beginning with about the 9th or 10th centuries of our era (according to Anatoly Fomenko’s reconstruction of history)—multi-dimensional thought became not only a monolithic monopol, but came into the virtual physical possession of certain political groups. The successor groups to neo-Christianity (to the extent that monopolistic power allowed the concept of division of power) continued to consolidate further, even as the groups refined and sugared dogmatism to such an extent that its sour core was no longer suspect.

With time, neo-Christianity, though never losing its monopolarized mindset, nevertheless retreated in deference to power concepts even more ferocious and focused on monopolistic practices than it had been.

Paradoxically, one of the first next steps (after neo-Christian consolidation of their victory) was the Magna Charta, one of the so-called precursors of modern democracy. The process of concentrating and consolidating uni- or monopolar thought, did not end there, however.

Like the neo-Christian bishops, the princes who reduced the King to a fiction were in turn metamorphosed into bankers, and the bankers were perfected by the military.

The recent past of history shows that within the monopolar mindset there is possible (at least in its beginning) a monopol that is opposed to the princes and bankers without actually being their opponent. This virtual and unreal opposite pole of the monopole, was known as Communism. The state of the Soviet Union was most certainly a post-neo-Christian phenomenon. Interestingly, Communism dissolved before the stronger unipolar power as had neo-Christianity itself.

The clear victor and possessor of unipolar thought is what we generally know as Western thought or, to narrow it down, Western democracy. Western democracy, the monopol of Western power, resides in a slightly tortured, nevertheless, accurate sum of words, re: “free market human rights”. No ands or buts, all one word.*

In Latvia the possessor of the “free market human rights” privilege resides in the parliament of Latvia or Saeima. This privilege is guarded—
among the several authorities guarding its well-being—by the Voting Committee. This committee allows “democracy” to be defined by the above mentioned four magic words only. No other words will do. In short, the Latvian government does not recognize the legitimacy of a ‘not-vote’ (casting a blank) counting as a vote against its monopolistic concept of democracy.

As a consequence, it is easy for the Latvian democracy to exclude what the members of its Saeima and public Medias call “populists”. Populists—those who are “them” vs “We”—belong therefore outside the walls of the Latvian Monopolist Democracy.

Interestingly, the polarization of the Latvian government on one end and the Latvian populists (virtually everyone not in government) on the other end has almost perfectly aligned itself along the axis of Monopolist Post-political Thought vs Multi-Threaded Thought Renewed. The Multi-Threaded reality, dismissed as “populism” and excluded from politics by the “law” of the Voting Committee, is the “enemy” rather than honorable
opposition to the current Latvian government.

All Latvians know that the “enemy” has chosen to vote against the government with its feet by leaving the country. Not surprisingly, perhaps for the first time since the tenth century, unipolar thought is threatened with extinction through the simple expedient of a demographic crash.

This presents one with the thought that Riga may become the future capital of Europe at the expense of the Latvian people. Or may Riga become the first capital city of a multi-polarized and populist Europe?

*I owe some of the thoughts here expressed to a rereading of Chantal Mouffe on populism.

Neo-Christianity instilled fear of bipolar thinking to the degree that it became impossible to think certain thoughts. One of these “certain” unthinkable thoughts is to think opposite of whatever the government thinks.

In Latvia the guardian of thoughts-not-to-be-thought or the Latvian mono-polar government is centered about the Central Election Committee. An example of mono-polar thought is illustrated by this simple motor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ_TB-3py1Q , which is opposed to the far more complex idea behind this polarized “saw” song of the Eskimos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoBNx06jm6E&feature=related .

Multi-polar thought sans community is an altogether different baby. Here we have Mozart’s “Dissonance” http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dissonance&aq=f  (with dissent in a communal setting, I may add), while here is dissonance without dissent or dysfunctional democracy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdYwAXZh0ME&feature=related as agreed to and/or resigned to by the Latvian government currently in office. Noam Chomsky could probably agree that this why it is important for governments (the Latvian one including) to perpetuate corruption; it keeps the people confused and in a state of disbelief.

The demoralization of the Latvians by the Latvian government (21 years is more than enough time for the technique http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ZQbJHagx4&feature=related to take effect) is now expressed by the Latvian media in a Zen koan: We have never seen a people as patient as the Latvians; just look at what the Greeks are doing.

That the koan—in its Zen fashion—speaks true is attested to by the sacrifice of one Adolfs Buķis from Jelgava in 1993. When the tool and dye maker shot himself in the head before the Freedom Monument (Brīvības piemineklis) in Riga in 1993, the “Singing Revolution” was only three years into the program of melding the Latvians into a nonentity called the European Union; according to the U.S. model of monopolar or post-political concensus government. 

In 1993 there were still people who could see that our planet had at least two poles, possibly more if one ad the human dimension. A Latvian working man perceived what was happening, while the intelligentsia did not. The latter let the man die without discussing his act, because it was perceived by them as an embarrassment to their monopolar intelligence. Alas, it is the elite, not the people who think and do as monopoles.

From the political perspective, the human dimension of yesterday, has today been replaced by one dimension—the dimension of the elites. We are back to the old slavery days, except this time it is not a matter of rising up from them, but sinking back into them. This is most probably the reason why it is not yet perceivable to the public at large.

The Latvian intelligentsia is particularly susceptible to gullibility. It is unlikely that it would openly have worked itself into a lather about eliminating the nation and people as a sovereign entities, if it itself was not the “dummy” elites who were doing their own kind of populist thinking. They sure did and continue to do their best to designate the people as being the dumb ones. The koan for this phenomenon says that the people get who they deserve, because they elect them.

Today the elite, whether it is of Latvian or Russian origin, sits in Riga and on its hands. Will it break the spell that has been cast over it by the West?

Will Riga ever become tomorrow’s capital of Europe with such a meme stuck in the mind of its elites?

PS Incidentally, the Latvian populist war on elitist monopolar government has another face at http://the4thawakening.blogspot.com/ .

We can tell when the Latvian elite are in a happy mood, because they are then sitting around as a group, and are boring each other with ever more inventive speeches of how it thinks just like the rest of the world’s elite.

The Latvian intelligentsia, too, makes no objections to this happy state of things, but is happy to second the happy mood by agreeing to stay mute.

The net result is destruction of interest on the part of the public to participate in politics. The net net result is a self-inflating monopolar balloon with an ever thinning skin separating its air from nothing. To put it another way: Politics is dead as much in Latvia as elsewhere.

There are scientists in Canada (see, for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QCaMlV2AJM ) who know or think they know that our civilization is facing a monster catastrophe, but that it is unable to do anything about it until the catastrophe blows up into a supernova.

It is true that these scientists are mostly concerned about climate changes. Still, their conclusion and the actions or non-actions arising from them may be applied to the powers of thought on our entire planet. Surely we are part of an event that has slipped past the 0 mark and is in minus (-) territory.

The climate of thought that has been created out of the rot of previous climates of thought is a rot of the intellect of colossal proportions with no beyond in sight. This is what the poet T.S. Eliot meant when he wrote that the world ends “not with a bang, but a whimper” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hollow_Men .

This blogger believes that the power of self-perception among our intellectuals has been deliberately so turned that these can bend reality only to the extent that they are able to draw up plans of what to do when we are well into the post-catastrophe phase of our civilization.

On the other hand, the time is here to think of the future not as repetition of the past, but a challenge to every Latvian’s (or Europeans, or Americans) ability for self-sacrifice.

Here the Latvians may be a step ahead of the rest of the world, because in one of the foundation tales of Latvia the poet writes: “…the Shiny One (Spīdola) will go help you, Bear Slayer (Lāčplēsi)” as she jumps into Daugava River, where her hero has fallen and has drowned. No literary critic yet has pointed out that Spidola is jumping into the fray too late to be of any help to her lover. The poet (Rainis) who wrote the lines surely knew this, and every one who has read or seen the play has wondered whether Spidola is not simply committing suttee by drowning.

What is ahead of Latvia and the rest of the world does not necessarily resemble the one or two hundred years behind us, the ones that raised us from slavery to our present heights of self delusion. I believe that we already are zooming down the mountain—no matter how often we are assured that the euro will replace the lats in 2016.

I mean, we are zooming back into slavery. However, it may be under surprisingly different conditions.

The trouble for the future slave is that while in the past he-she had a forest to run to and a swamp therein to hide, this time around the slave turns into a parched monkey on an endless dessert floor. No more forest or bush today. The International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank (and of course other banks) have forced the people to quite gnaw the land down to where only moss is fit to grow any longer. The desertification of the land, whether in Libya or Latvia is the result of overworking it.

In a previous blog, I mentioned how the princes of Europe started the parcelling of democracy with the Magna Charta (remember, when the majority of human beings lived in the forest, democracy was a given), and have by now parcelled authority to but one lobe of our bi-cameral brain. Moreover, the location of this one lobe can be instantly discovered by a locator in our mobile phone.

When will the not-dominant lobe of our brain kick in and suggest that the time has come to let the land go fallow and re-grow its forests gone?

It is unlikely that the link to the scientist above or like will provide us with a cure. The question is as hopeless as it is to find out how we slow down the burst of a bursting balloon.

In social terms, a cure means to reduce the Earth’s population from the present seven billion to two billion inhabitants and prevent ourselves from blasting into space at the count of twelve billion in the near future.

The temptations to remain inert are tremendous. From the point of view of a monopolar-beacon-of-thought to find one’s self in a political and intellectual rut is like having sex.

I am exaggerating of course. Or am I?

It is unusual for a blogger to ask the reader to first read another blog before he goes on with the one he-she has just clicked on. But this is one of those instances.

Please read Stratfor’s paper http://www.stratfor.com/print/194594 entitled “Visegrad: A New European Military Force”, an event that involves a significant element of Europe, namely Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

It is important to read Stratfor’s paper not only for the intelligence it presents, but also because this writer will henceforth in the argument below presume the reader to be familiar with its content as well as its implicit perspective. When all is said and done, this writer sees Stratfor’s perspective as that of NATO under the control of the United States. The closer to reality situation is that of a diminishment to the time of the American Civil War days. All things considered, the latter ought to be welcome to

This writer welcomes the Visegrad Group, but not without reservations.

For some time it has been apparent to any intelligent observer living in Latvia, that the rush to the West by the most recently empowered “political” coalition “Vienotība” (Union) is a concoction not of native Latvians, but of Latvians under the influence of the West, the latter largely also under the control of the West.

If the native or a Latvian populist were asked what policy direction he-she supports, the answer is not likely to be an unqualified “West”, but mixed in with seeing that the Latvian capital city, Riga, becomes the future capital city of Europe. This of course can become real only if it involves both the “West and the East”.

Thus, the Visegrad Group should not presume itself in any way to be of the “West” alone, if the “East” expresses a desire to see a unified Europe along the lines of the United States of America (in the far future no doubt). I am speaking of a European Union that includes all of Europe, i.e., present Russia including.

To achieve a True European Union (TEU), we need to see happen and do extensive work—political, practical, and painful work. For example, in an exchange for Russia breaking down into its regional segments, Europe would allow the same to happen in the European “West”.

This writer would also suggest that the underlying current that moves a yet politically evolving Europe is based on an ultimate reforestation of Europe.

The banks of the European “West” are currently controlling the sovereignty of Latvia. It is in the name of the banks cashing in the debt they have so deliberately sown among the Latvians that Latvia is being deforested by Latvians out of a need to eat. [This is one reason why I have built a Temple to forests gone, re Melnays Jānis / Black John on my property in Latvia.]

With the geopolitical significance of Riga being so dramatically reduced in the name of running after a gracious “West”, I can imagine at least one populist becoming angered. Does either the present national government of Latvia or the Riga Dome know what they are about and doing? Is becoming the capital of TEU not worth the effort to clean out a bed of ideals gone corrupt?

Latvians ought not to submit their de jure rights, but use them aggressively to demand back what a corrupt government has permitted to happen with but this one excuse: sovereignty still exists, if only de jure.

Almost all Western nations consist of regions which believe that they would, for one or another reason, be better off by not being so involved with being part of a nation. It would be more fruitful to work toward a different geopolitical landscape than the aggressive model before our eyes. It is likely to be more rewarding to work toward a new infrastructure though it is yet in the future—because it is possible.

As the future capital city of Europe, Riga is given a goal that is achievable only with all Latvians unite. By staying disunited and following the flag of “Vienotība” (Unity) into the West, the presently divided community is and stays the loser. There is no reward for running after the “West”, when the East is so real, and most of us know that the West will not be spinning the Earth east.

In any event, the questions raised by the emergence of the Visegrad Group are important for Latvians to answer.

And the answer is not necessarily “West”. By looking “West and East”, the Latvians would likely have the Germans as allies, which in days of hard times is helpful. There are implicit common interests, perhaps strong enough to suggest to the Visegrad Group that a military force favoring the “West” only may not be in the interest of Latvians (if not yet the Germans).

Last, but not least, let us not forget that Russia, too, is hard squeezed by our times.

In the previous blog, I suggested that if the Visegrad Group favored the “West” exclusively, it is unlikely to be in the interests of Latvia. Latvians who tilt toward scepticism may, moreover, have—because of German interests—German sympathy.

In the following link http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/20/us-imf-germany-minister-idUSTRE74J19P20110520 , I note that the Germans hope that the just resigned Chief of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn, is replaced with a European.  At this time the forerunner for the new head of the office is French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

Why is it important to the Germans that the head at the IMF is a European, and why may a French Finance Minister be a block to a Unified European Union?

The answer to the questions is in the wish of the Americans to put as head of the IMF one of their own. This is a legitimate enough wish. However, the wars in the Mediterranean region show that the French and English have aligned with the Americans, while the Germans are notably reserved with regard to military activities. In other words, a French Finance Minister as head of the IMF will suit the American neo-capitalists, but not necessarily the Germans or Latvians. The reason is because aggressive behavior on the part of NATO blocks the realization of a Unified European Union by substituting it with a Trojan horse known as the European Union.

To return to the scandal involving Strauss-Kahn. As Professor Chossudovsky in his link above implies, the former IMF Chief was framed (though it can be plausibly denied http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_deniability ) through the effort of the French and American neo-capitalist interests.

For the French right wing, the fall of Strauss-Kahn is a convenient way to be rid of a socialist opponent in upcoming presidential election campaign. As for the Americans, they have in recent years provided the world with a number of plausibly deniable missions of their own and in collaboration with NATO. These missions are in spite of meeting all the criteria of plausible deniability, because the patterns of events have by now settled into the consciousness of the public as alternative interpretations to what is happening in the real, rather than the world of advertised reality.

There is a power struggle going on between the United States on one side, and on the other China and Russia. Europe—through the good offices of NATO—is intimately involved with the West of the West, the United States of America. But not everyone in Europe shares in the views of NATO, which may be one of the reasons why the Visegrad Group has become active. Who knows what the group’s future is—perhaps it is as a real, perhaps only as seeming independent front of the monolithic geopolitical block that the “West” pretends to be.

Whatever the end result, the Visegrad Group heralds a European led alignment of nations in the quest of a United European Union (UEU), the geopolitical borders of which have a potential reach from Portugal to the Kamchatka Islands.

Such a United European Union is achievable, but will happen sooner if the UEU moves forward by aligning with the need of our planet to let the land go fallow, reforest it, decelerate a hyperactive society, and bring into reality a sustainable civilization. To realize a sustainable Europe—as much a sustainable world—is a formidable order. Who will “do it”?

The well meaning urbanite Greens, for all of their being an essential part to the contest, are not existentially challenged and, therefore, are not likely to be sufficiently passionate in bringing to bear not-violent terror that is needed to save the world from unchecked “growth” syndrome now poisoning the atmosphere.

Strange as it may appear, the flag bearer of the movement toward a saner world could become the demographically crashing state of Latvia.

Because the demographic crash of Latvia is no ordinary crash, but a death spiral that is irreversible, the Latvians may be motivated to do all that is necessary to survive. In short, the populace and the leadership must seek ways to prevent the vacuum left behind by a diminished native population from being filled my immigrants from lands unknown. Can this be accomplished by declaring the whole of Latvia an extended environmental biosphere?

(Next: Latvian soil as an extended biosphere; Riga as the future capital city of a United European Union.)

A Blog Poem / Of Elections in Latvia

The current campaign to elect the next Latvian president illustrates the death that stalks the Latvian leadership and through it the Latvian peoples themselves.

Both candidates put forth at this time by the partidocracies (parties representing clusters of economic interests) that rule Latvia— …

… president Valdis Zatlers and a former bank president Andris Berzins representing the best collection of (democratic?) choices—have nothing to say about Latvia’s or Riga’s future.

Both candidates speak of the community of Latvia as if it were a continuum of peasant folk dancers of ancient times singing folk songs and dancing their way into our times.

Alas, coming in contact with our times, the Latvian merry makers …

… run up against the banks (money lending institutions), which have taken the place of government (it having privatized everything) and are determined to stop the dancers by forcing them to recognize themselves as debtors.

As the Latvian dancers, exhausted by debt, fall to the floor, a hungry wolf hangs around their necks a sign that reads “bank slave”.

Since the Latvians have no collateral against their debts, but their forests, the banks are now overseeing the deforestation of Latvia on a grand scale.

To put it another way, the future president of Latvia will be a living dead man walking into the future, but as if backward into “good” economic times—the future seen as that of slaves (child slaves including) toiling to Washington and Brussels to pay off debt.

Like the mayor of Riga, who presently is kept in an artificial coma in a hospital to be better cured from the ill effects of a marathon run, the office of the Latvian Presidency offers a perfect illustration of how to successfully lead a state with one’s brain virtually lobotomized http://www.neurotechnology.neu.edu/images/lobot1.jpeg , ...

yet it being no hindrance to success, because it allegedly so perfectly imitates the needs of the Latvian people.

Not that Latvian people lack people that would awaken the rest of the Latvians from a nightmare kept alive by a leadership attuned to a monopolar mindset.

However, for all the messages urging citizens not to surrender to the effects of a lobotomy http://www.apollo.lv/portal/news/articles/238833?ref=news-btm-op-s , apparently the lobotomy has been successful, and the effects of a successful lobotomy are irreversible http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KlE4PNnEzUk/R1rsh6Cu5xI/AAAAAAAAArI/7Yos5bCNQeI/s400/jail+bars.jpg .

As the author of the link above (see ‘apollo’) states (my translation):

“Every week appear new restrictions, denials of support [to who protest], and the Prime Minister’s (Dombrovskis) monotonous timbre puts (the would be) alert to sleep”. [Katru nedēļu tikai jauni ierobežojumi, pabalstu apcirpšanas un Dombrovska monotonais, modrību iemidzinošais tembrs…]

While the death wish as exemplified by candidates Zatlers and Berziņš is a matter of absence of brain power (because—if past is precedent—it has anchored itself to the wish to retire to a government-paid apartment with a fireplace large enough to burn oak logs), …

…, another supporter of partidocratic politics, Aivars Lembergs, is advocating a fast forward for large scale integration http://www.morning.lv/zinas/lembergs-valsts-prioritate-ir-izstradat-latvijas-attistibas-planu-no-2014-lidz-2020-gadam.d?id=38663477 in NATO military projects. He would solicit an increased share in container shipments of military supplies to Afghanistan, and if offered the opportunity would likely build bombs, too.

For anyone who has been a witness or subject to the victimization of Latvians by the cruel death projects of Hitler and Stalin, …

… it seems surprising that the virtual Latvian leadership continues to be amused to be part to a real war …

…and entertains the role of ricochet of death, a real circus with real mirrors, and soft bullets for emigrating Latvians in even greater numbers than at any time before.

The Latvian President’s speech last evening calling for the dismissal of the Latvian Saeima,  http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/zatlers-nolemj-rosinat-saeimas-atlaisanu.d?id=38755691 , a constitutionally sanctioned conclave of elected officials (deputies) who for twenty years have denied democracy a populist base, is a major step in an attempt to rescue Latvia from business interests turning the state into their private fiefdom.

At this time (judging from the public’s overall response on a number of internet forums) the President’s move has met with undisguised and enthusiastic approval. It remains to be seen how this approval translates itself in the coming weeks and months in public debate and actions.

As this blogger has often pointed out, the cause of the crisis in Latvian government—past and current—has a number of sources. It has roots, both, in the distant and near past.

A major cause that has been inherited from the distant past and disgruntles the “inner” citizen in us is the loss of the spiritual inheritance (call it religion), traceable to the dissolution of proto-Latvian arch-Christian roots in the 11th to 13th centuries. The Crusade by neo-Christians (so-called Catholics at the time) against the kingdom of Jersika in 1209 serves as an early nodal point for Latvians as a people of whose rooms we still have the smell in our noses.

Coinciding with the crusade against the Cathars in Languedoc (France), the crusade against Jersika repressed the proto-Latvian branch of a nigh universal religious orientation. Its basis was all forms of sacrifice designed to create and hold a community. Self-sacrifice played a major role in our societies’ creation, because it is an essential to it.

Unfortunately, while both arch- and neo-Christianity share in a message of love and non-violence, neo-Christianity used and continues to use the support of secular princes. These then used overwhelming violence against the Children of Johns and their leadership (Johns) in order to replace the people who constituted the proto-Latvians or Children of Johns activism with people who accepted their entombment (for all that an embodiment) among the so-called pa-gans.

While modern scholarship has a number of theories whence the name ‘pagan’, it most likely derives from the time when Latvia (and other parts of Europe) was deforested, and the forest dwellers were turned into pa-yans, re, lesser Johns, in due course to become ‘pagans’.

The demoralization of the Johns, their repression, and therewith transformation into payans (peasants), gradually reduced the Children of Johns (Jāņubērni) to serfdom and de facto slavery.

The ‘religion’ of Johns and their children, embedded in the endearing word of the Latvian language, has by today been reduced to a version of pseudo Latvian. The latter is the language of government, media, all ‘public’ life turned against the ‘privateness’ of Latvians living as an intimate and more or less homogeneous community. This separation of public and private has caused great havoc in the Latvian community by creating a perpetual ‘them’ as government and ‘us’, the invisible, the private, the ‘legally’ disemboweled people. “They” make all the laws, including such that serve them only, while “we” lose our former rights to use the word as lawmakers. Not surprisingly, “we” became apathetic.

As a result of President Zatler’s call for the dismissal of the Saeima, we—the ‘us’ of ‘them’—now are in the turbulent regions of what Freud called “the internal foreign territory”. The government (successive governments including) that has long violated the internal foreign territory of the “inner” Latvian, even to the extent of driving him-her unconscious of him-herself, is, suddenly, challenged by one as if of itself, the President.

There is no guarantee that the President’s move to dismiss the Saeima will in and of itself awaken the populist in Latvians. However, it necessarily creates the opportunity for the awakening of not only outrage at the surface of the deeps, but reach levels of repressed memories where the homogeneous community dwells.

What will the homogeneous Latvian community of tomorrow look like?

We cannot discount the possibility that Latvia is the very soil where the lowly worm raises his head and becomes the King of Snakes by remaining a lowly worm. A major revolution in Latvian self-consciousness would do great wonders to revive a chicken plucked bare in Latvia and the world over. Here’s one for the feathered one.

(to be continued…)

(…continued from previous)

[Latvians have a new president. I will not say much about the choice at this time. However, there is a context within which the choice is almost a given. Let me continue the blog that I did not finish the last time around.]

Another cause of the Latvian crisis inherited from the distant and near distant past is the “segmented Latvian”.

If we begin the count of Latvian history with 1209, when neo-Christians destroyed the arch-Christian Children of Johns (Jāņubērni) as a legitimate community, we see a branch broken in numerous pieces, yet connected by a thin sliver of fibre or bark. 

My personal sequencing of Latvian segmentation begins the first fragment with 1209 and ends it in 1729, when nearly twenty years after the devastating Great Northern War the northern Baltics are visited by the first Herrnhuter to begin heal the walking wounded.

Beginning with the second quarter of the 18th century, the Herrnhuters rejuvenated these wounded arch-Christians by acting somewhat as mediators between the old and former and the new and hence to be. They themselves had undergone the process of accepting the new under the threat of death. Like the East, they accepted the neo-Christian dogma that John-Jesus had no predecessors but one John and that Jesus. Perhaps they imagined that they could work around the fact that Jesus, his middle name become his first, was removed from an activist’s role on Earth to a passivist role in heaven.

Rebel Catholics all, the early Protestants, were likely constituted by the leftover body of arch-Christians in western Europe . Far enough removed from the scene of their forebears’ murder, they believed that they could resist the secularist pressures on the populist elements of society. Severed from the self-sacrificial commitment of the Johns and their replacement with Jesus turned Christ removed to Heaven, the Herrnhuters (an offshoot of the Hessites, who again are the offshoots of ….) continued to honor the arch-Christian tradition of one’s word being one’s oath sans an oath.

The second part of the broken branch begins with the removal of the Herrnhuter’s about the 1860s by the Lutherans, a branch of the great Protestant gathering that had made a 2nd compromise with the secular branch and begun the third broken piece. The third piece—from skin to bone, though not the bone itself—spoke German and did not integrate with then Children of Johns reborn as neo-Christians by Herrnhuter example.

The third piece of the broken branch began with the first Latvian Choir Festival at Dikli in 1873. The choirs, instituted by the Herrnhuters, helped oil the transition from an oral tradition to a written and legalistic one. The Herrnhuters brought Latvians not only their choirs, but reading, writing,  the Bible, and—at the close of the era—Latvian Lutheran ministers. The latter continued the process of melding the arch-Christian traditions with the secular tradition turning into a mercantile one. We might remember this is the time we identify with the beginnings of industrial capitalism and with the rise of populist reactionism by way of the rise of Communism and the Soviet Union. Latvians were among the leaders of the movement.

The fourth piece of the broken branch begins with the Russian-Latvian revolution still basing its legitimacy on an arch-Christian meme of equality. The history of egalitarianism among Latvians was best illustrated by the Johns Festival, one of the festivals of Europe where the Johns (long murdered and their remnants dispersed) were still remembered by their name. The Latvian branch of the revolution was defeated by a segment of Latvian society sympathetic to western capitalism, which is why the fourth piece of the broken branch of Latvian history is in effect broken in yet another part, thus, consisting of communism and capitalism. The capitalist segment became militant with the authoritarian government of Karlis Ulmanis (1933-1940). In terms of the self-consciousness of Latvians, this was a period when Johns Day was celebrated as the “most important Latvian festival”, but with no one remembering its historical roots.

The fifth segment of the branch began with the occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union. With the Latvian communists being the losers in their sphere of the communist revolution, they were forced to submit to Soviet terms, the latter having come under the authority of Joseph Stalin. The Latvian middle-class in the countryside and the city was effectively eliminated by Stalin and substituted with party apparatchiks, most being clandestine capitalists under a communist flag. Latvian arch-self-consciousness suffered further deconstruction. At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the apparatchiks had no problems turning turn-coat communists and becoming capitalists with a vengeance, re all would be oligarchs or failing it corrupt officials.

The sixth segment “sang” itself into existence as a state on the basis of the lobbying efforts of exile Latvians in the “West”. As we know, twenty years into the sixth segment of the broken branch, we have just experienced a flash-over (as in almost unexpected) parliamentary election. The Latvians have a new president, one Andris Berzins, thanks to the oligarchs and their clandestine helpmates.

(to be continued…)

Rīga—no pašreizējās nomales pilsētas, kādu to izveidojusi SC un pārējās Latvijas politiskās partijas, nemaz nerunājot par pašu latviešu tuvredzību—nākotnē varētu pretendēt uz Eiropas galvas pilsētas lomu.

Tādu lomu tomēr Rīgai nenesīs ne Saskaņas Centrs (SC) krievi un latvieši, ne Zatlera Reformas partija, ne citas partijas. To var panākt tikai Rīgas Neatkarības (RN) partija,kura vēl nav dibināta. Tā tad, tāda priekšā nākotnē.

Rīgas Neatkarības partiju varēs dibināt, kad Rīgu nomā pārņems Eiropas Apvienība (EA), kas aizstās tagadējo Eiropas Savienību (ES). Tad EA maksās Latvijai labu nomas maksu, par kuru latvieši pārcels savu galvas pilsētu uz Jelgavu un atbrīvosies no ielikteņu radītiem parādiem. Pensionāri un māmiņas varēs saņemt pieklājīgu atbalstu.

Variants: RN partija varētu Rīgu uz 100 gadiem iznomāt Ķīnai—ja tā būs augstākā solītāja. Tāds gadījiens varētu patikt un būt izdevīgs latviešiem, bet nepatikt ne zviedriem, ne krieviem—ja tie nespēj ķīniešus pārspēt solijumā.

[2] A Letter to Elaine at
http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/germany-cant-bail-out-all-eu-banking-problems/

I agree with every pessimist concerning world finances and economy at this time starting with myself and going all the way to the edge of the horizon. On the other hand, I wonder if the fall from grace by liberal neo-capitalism and its eternal growth philosophy does not also signal the arrival of the age of shrink the overweight down to an affordable size.

I suppose everyone’s thinking cap hides one’s own favorite recepe for downsizing. Mine is as follows (I live in Latvia):

1. Rent out the capital city Riga to the Chinese, thus giving them a major port and airport in Europe whence to give globalization another significant leg forward. This step will also prevent the Latvians from being overly worried by a reoccupation of their country by Russia.

2. Since the demographics of Latvia (due to the country’s leaders listening to and taking the advice of the ‘Harvard boys’ in the early 1990s) will reduce the population in the next ten years from the present 1.9 million to 1.2 million, a large part of the rest of Latvia (all of its east and north parts) can be let go fallow and return to forests.

3. Have Greenpeace and other “greeņ” orgs do studies of how to have urban people return to life in the forest. After all, one need meet in the city no more than twice every two weeks, while communications via computer can readily transmit signals over treetops.

4. Turn cities into high science and birthing centers via bringing cloning to humans, which will at last eliminate the greedy beast known as the ‘family’ and have society return to the household as its basic unit of society. Indeed, this was the basic social unit among proto-Latvians in the age of Livonia.

5. While my plan may seem “fantastic” to some (admittedly it needs a lot of adjusting), the forests will give the deforested parts of the country protection (a blanket) from the ice age expected to arrive with the next eruption of the gigantic calderas at Yellowstone and elsewhere by Elaine Suplis, the originator of “emsnews”.

6. Euthanasia or ‘easy death’ will be legalized at all urban centers of the world and help accelerate the end of chaos about to errupt. Human rights groups will oversee that human rights are respected and observed.
Pine trees will again grow for 350 years and oak trees will again grow to become giants.

It will be interesting for future historians to note that the reforestation of our planet began with people cast aside by the high and mighty of our day. This post from http://rigacapital.blogspot.com/

[3] Into the Tunnel without A Light; or
The Liberal Neo-capitalist Destruction of Latvia

It is unlikely that the political leadership of Latvia is unaware that its actions are destroying Latvia, because the destruction is occurring very visibly, not to say painfully, with lack of food causing ill health and often death being the logical result among all age groups, especially among the young and old.

This morning (Sunday) this email via my mobile phone:

“Good morning, Mr. A…. May I ask you for help? Can you lend me Ls 20 for food, because K. cannot at this time send me money? I also would like to know whether you are driving to V. on Thursday. I have to be at the court, and would like to go with you. In July, I submitted papers to have the father of my child provide support money. I will wait for your answer. Have a nice day (Jauku Jums dieniņu).”

[Text cut. For the complete blog go to http://rigacapital.blogspot.com/ .]

Be that as it may, after seventeen years in Latvia (after 46 in America), I am near broke, too. Living on a fixed income (SS from America) and a reserve from old family property sold during the ‘fat years’, the reserves have just about been depleted, due to some investments having turned ‘bad’ as a result of the financial and economic fiasco in America and elsewhere and due to the great need among so-called lower economic classes in Latvia even during those ‘fat years’. I still have my shirt on and enough to find Ls 20 for the mother (if only because I know the family’s circumstances well), but this does not mean that I sleep easy and wear a smile on my face for TV, the Latvian news programs alleged to be documentaries.

Needy families are in every corner of the Latvian countryside. The mother above is not the only one I know. Just a few weeks ago, I called and received help from a television program (“Without Tabu”) to monitor the progress of the renovation of a couple of mildewed rooms that a municipal government of a small town has assigned a poor (trūcīga) mother and her three children (1.5, 4, & 8 years).

The circle of people whom I help is a private and subjective one, but includes such mothers and children as above, alcoholics (believed by me to be rehabitable), not to mention occasional trips to take some kid to the hospital, and of course encouragement.

Why do I write about this?

Some readers of my blogs may recall that I have called for the resignation of the President of Latvia Andris Berzins, one who receives the highest pension of anyone in Latvia, and one whose arrival to the office of the Presidency may be judged to be wholly illegal if one uses wholly honest (godigus) standards.

The way I see it: when the former President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers called for the dismissal of the Latvian Saeima on grounds of corruption, that same Saeima did not, as was to be expected, reelect Zatlers, but pulled out of the high hat of corruption one Andris Berzins. The Latvian people endorsed Zatlers’ judgment in a Referendum vote. However, the corrupt Saeima had already successfully projected itself forward through Berzins, a former bank president, who, though suspect of being a proxy of Swedish banks, is not questioned about it by the timid and the extreme right wing (i.e., almost the entire) Latvian media.

Among the people for whose resignation I have called is also the Minister of Finance Andris Vilks, another proxy of Swedish Banks. There are others who, given their liberal neo-capitalist views, should be resigning. The President of the Bank of Latvia Ilmārs Rimšēvičs should be given the boot. He is the first line enforcer of the “internal devaluation” program, which makes the Latvian lats an increasingly worthless piece of paper, not to say tool for pauperizing the Latvian people and facilitating the takeover of Latvia by Swedish/Scandinavian banks. At least one Norwegian politician has been caught using Riga as his house of prostitution.

An article in the Latvian newspaper “Diena” [(23.9.11) re ‘Latvijas veiksmes stāsts’ by Sandris Točs] brought my attention to an article in The Guardian by the economists Jeffrey Sommers and Michael Hudson. Titled “Latvia and the disciples of ‘internal devaluation’”, the article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/16/latvia-anders-aslund-austerity bring to our attention the implicit complicity in the destruction of Latvia by PM Valdis Dombrovskis, who in collaboration with the liberal neo-capitalist Swedish ideologue Anders Aslund has authored a book called “How Latvia Came through the Political Crisis”. [Read the link to whiff the stink.]

In some respects Latvija is not all that different from Greece.
See STRATFOR report http://www.youtube.com/user/STRATFORvideo#p/u/0/zDINQ6k9jYQ
Complete text of post at http://rigacapital.blogspot.com/