Just an observation, the Latvian language test—at least the sample I’ve run through—is not that difficult. The most challenging part is the part of the test where you have to compose some narrative about a particular situation.

Sveiks Pēter!

I don’t think that this strawman language nonsense has ever really been about the ease or difficulty of passing the Latvian language test.

Many Latvians are corrupt and many Russians have done a stellar job in out-corrupting the corrupt Letts quite regularly.

The language lightning rod is convenient for both sides to focus on, so that no one spends too much time focusing on corruption,

The regular posters on LOL are more than willing to oblige that sentiment, as well.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming numbers of respectworthy Letts and Russians in Latvia are probably just plain too busy trying to get along and eke out a living, so that they don’t have to move out of the country to achieve that.

The enduring take home message is that the Latvian media is a limp bunch of dittoheads who outdo their readers in “adaptability”. Methinks that the media adaptability has more to do with $$$, but I could be wrong.

It’s sad to me that topics like this are not actively discussed on these pages and most certainly not in the mainstream Latvian media.

Perhaps, it’s just a lot more fun to engage in the same-ole, same-ole Dan Akroyd/Jane Curtin SNL “You ignorant slut….” wars that we regularly are blessed with here on LOL.

I don’t see how this addresses any of the real issues that plague Latvia and those chronic issues that don’t seem to be going away, but I guess that it’s less entertaining to address elephants in the room if the elephants’ pockets are stuffed with cash.

Visu uzpriecinošu,

Alberts

Well, it’s as I’ve maintained since my first trip to Latvia just after independence—and the first time my mother saw her family since they were deported to Siberia. (My mother was the assistant postmaster in Talsi and was told by one of the phone operators who overheard something to not go home—the next morning, the Soviets came knocking at the door).

There are Latvians and Russians who make great Latvian citizens, and Latvians and Russians who make lousy Latvian citizens. That was true then, and more than two decades later, still true now.

Garais, there is so much that is going on in the world and in Latvia and it just amazes me that you and many others here on LOL can’t find much to inspire your LOL participation beyond dropping in to criticize the posts of others or to pass some judgment.  What is your interest in Latvia and Latvian issues?  You read The Case for Latvia and every single chapter begs to launch further serious discussion or applies to current LOL topics that you could have initiated: The Case vs Kantor’s “new” history, The Case and the citizenship language test and upcoming language vote, The Case and Russia’s new smear campaign of Latvians as “fascists,” etc.  This forum may not be the most appropriate place to discuss Bob Dylan, Saturday Night Live, Steve Jobs, etc. as you seem to prefer.  Your post, read too early in the morning, probably struck me wrong and I’ve since toned down.  However, I do want to add that I think you are wasting your intelligence and talents limiting yourself to the self-appointed role of “camp counselor” or “hall monitor” or whatever role you’re channeling with your incessant parental chiding of other adults to play nice in the sandbox. 

Anyway, I edited the comment to Andrejs since you obviously were not following the “language exam” reference being for the U.S. so that the poor Sunday students of Latvian would have additional incentive to learn Latvian with a possible reward in college. That actually could be a serious project but who am I to offer this since I already met my language requirement. 

Right now I’m not wasting all my time posting on LOL but also watching Fareed Zakaria discussing Russia, Putin, Syria, etc.  Lots going on in this world of ours that “many” of us are observing.  While some LOL participants can’t stop beating “the dead horses” of Latvian history and jump in to cannibalize dead Ulmanis and give undue publicity to the faux history of some obscure “historian” the likes of Kantor writing to re-publicize typical Soviet disinformation - against the real research and evidence from Latvia’s own eminent historians -that “many locals” i.e. “Latvians” should be smeared without real evidence, no vibrant analysis in the full context of yesterday or of the relevance to today gets generated. Meanwhile, “many” here and even “many” more elsewhere no doubt watch real-time blood flow in Syria with the slaughter by “many locals” of “many locals” that Kantor’s Russia sanctions as one of the last remaining supporters of the bloody Assad of the bloody Syria.  What?  Nothing to say?  No connections to make?  Nothing learned from yesterday’s political tragedies and human carnage that would motivate “many” to intervene today?  Where are all of today’s “neighbors” to save “neighbors” or was that just for yesterday?  Putin has “destroyed democracy” in front of the eyes of “many” LOLers and the token russkie munchkin with 20/20 vision that sees Latvian history with such magnification but no one among them to offer even a peep in support of the brave Russians demonstrating in sub-freezing to get rid of their dictator Putin, far worse today than old Ulmanis ever was yesterday. 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/10/INO91N44KN.DTL

I suspect that those brave Russians demonstrating against dictator Putin are as much taken in as those brave Latvians and Balts holding hands across their borders in 1990. While the liberal neo-capitalist order that seized Latvia after all that holding of hands has served well a closed and corrupt political system, I believe Alberts to be correct that the “language issue” serves only to distract from more dire realities.

Incidentally, all during the longwinded “debates” on Latvian television whether one should vote FOR or AGAINST, no station has yet invited Latvian publishers and writers to discuss the language issue from their perspective or the role of ‘populism’ in putting butter on an author’s and publisher’s bread. No one discusses the importance of writers in maintaining a language alive. From where I sit, it seems that the Latvian government has accomplished the dubious miracle of doing most Latvian writers quite dead.

ambersun - 12 February 2012 09:09 AM

it just amazes me that you and many others here on LOL can’t find much to inspire your LOL participation beyond dropping in to criticize the posts of others or to pass some judgment.

Oh, that Latvian sense of humor! The (iron) pot is offended by all us black kettles!

Well, I for one will go out right now and scrape the “I (heart) Putin & Assad” bumper stickers off my car.

Peter K. I’d call that the perfect example.  Hey, got any Syrian or world “neighbors” you watched being killed on your 60” TV screen today?  Maybe you can find time to write a synopsis of current world history and the “many locals” you saw in Syria and Sudan murdering “many” kids.  With instant viewing and modern methods, I’ll bet we can even count the “many” millions killling and being killed.  That (heart) Putin, some dictator, huh? standing firm in the face of protests from his own people and virtually alone against world opinion in supporting that (heart) butcher Assad.  What say, could Stalin have done better than either?  We could talk more about these inconsequentials but you obviously prefer to talk about important stuff like pots and kettles and such.  Love that sense of humor of yours, for sure.  I bet a jokester mensch like you even has a (heart) swastika emblem baseball cap to wear on some days and a (heart) hammer-and-sickle t-shirt to wear on others, maybe some days together.  So funny.

Have I or anyone else on this forum ever defended Putin or Assad’s regime? Of course not.  What normal human being would act as though I had? Nobody. More evidence to support the Iron Trimdie theory.

And the pot-and-kettle remark was about someone accusing others of being judgmental, who regularly calls others stupid, ignorant, sexist, etc.. Have you really not noticed that most of the other forum participants manage to disagree without throwing tantrums? I feel sorry for you that normal give-and-take isn’t in your repertoire.

Even if you’ve scraped off the bumper stickers, vārdabrāl—you could always get one of these!

Visu gaišu,
/P

Peteris Cedrins - 13 February 2012 07:09 AM

Even if you’ve scraped off the bumper stickers, vārdabrāl—you could always get one of these!

Wow, those are beautiful. And you can even get a Zhirinovsky!  I wonder if they superimpose concentric dartboard patterns for customers in the ‘near abroad’?

Peter K.
You could have said your bumper sticker humor was in poor taste, insensitive, and unintentionally injurious to families of dead Russian journalists murdered by Putin or the families of dead Syrians (includining “many” children) butchered by Assad.

No one has accused you of having an underdevelped sensitivity gene as you race around the threads proudly displaying your blindly selective sensitivity - but that’s a thought to entertain.

A lack of a sense of black humor could mebbe define, or circumscribe, klaida latviešus who’ve lost it?

/P

Let’s just say that black humor can be humor in the eye of certain beholders and not guffaw-worthy to others.  Imagine a “black humor” bumper sticker like “I (heart) Hitler” on Peter K’s car driving around in Jerusalem.  Or how about Peter K’s car with “I (heart) Stalin” parked in front of Latvian Hall.  Then again, he could probably drive his car with “I (heart) Putin” all around Riga.  Are you laughing?

Are you laughing?

Yes.

Latviešu valodu apdraud vāja, nabadzīga valsts un zems intelekts.