Forum

Latvietis Esmu, Latvietis Biju, Varbut Busu

2008-02-24T09:22:24-08:00

Can’t remember anymore where who wrote what on this topic so starting a new thread about Latvian identity.
I guess for me it all crystalized in the exchange between Aleks and Ambersun (aka Amber) where Aleks (aka Rooski scum) came out of the closet by writing that he didn’t really have much affinity or in common with Latvian “culture”. Ambersun saw this as definitive proof Aleksejs’ anti-Latvian and pro-Rooskie agenda. I don’t see it that way. Part of the problem that in all my years of reading and commenting on this topic I’ve yet to see anyone define a clear cut Latvian identity or what it means to be a Latvian. I’ve been pondering JKS original question for a while now and to make a long internal dialogue short, I’ve always felt like a Latvian regardless of where I’ve lived. And this eventhought I believe, and always believe, that quite a few Latvians will never ever under any circumstance will accept me as a Latvian. Due to my father’s Jewishness I will always be suspect if not down right a member of the Other.
The question is not whether or not someone is a Latvian, but what does it mean to be a Latvian. The problem I see with Ambersun’s definition of a Latvian and a Latvian nation is that it seems exceptionally narrow for me (and I know that she’ll probably write that I am painting a picture which she didn’t mean to paint). My definition of a Latvian nation is fairly simple. It will have a clear cut Latvian linguistic identity in which the Latvian language will always have a special and protected status. That’s it. I think that’s not only a healthy model, but also one which can realisticly be attained and sustained. And that is the policy which thus far Latvia has pursued. And the simple fact is that its working.
I think Ambersun is still stuck in the trimda mindset and the gaisma pils model. Most Latvians (and remember that the majority of Latvians actually live in Latvia and not in the Trimda) no longer care about the issues which seem to haunt her. That doesn’t mean that those aren’t valid issues, but the debate took years ago and just to repeat again, the Latvians won. Most of Latvia’s Latvians no longer care about whether or not Aleks knows the words to Kur tu teci gailit man or whether or not he owns a tautas terps. That’s not important to them.
But back to the whole what it means to be a Latvian. I remember being in Garezers in 1977 and feeling completely and utterly like a fish out of water. I spoke Latvian better than most. I knew a bit about the history. I knew some of the songs and dances and rotalas. You’d think we’d have a lot in common (since Garezers was all about being a Latvian), but I felt like a fish out of water. This is not meant as a criticism, I think the same would have been true for Aussie Latvian or a Brit. To the Latvians in Garezers being a Latvian often also meant a fondness for Pabst Blue Ribbon, quoting lines from Monthy Python and the Rocky Horror picture show, playing volleyball, rooting for the Cubs, etc., etc. Eventually I overcome (not in Garezers) those obstacles, but what it meant to them to be a Latvian wasn’t what it meant to me to be a Latvian. We had very little shared history at that point and its the shared history which defines who we are and what we belong to. Thus this mean that they or I are better Latvians? No. Simply means that its very dangerous to expect everyone to be mirrors of who they themselves are. The national indentity has to be far more flexible and inclusive. I think that’s why that exchange between Aleks and Ambersun struck home. Sorry, but I too don’t much care for tautas dziesmas and Latvian “culture”. That doesn’t mean I think its bad. Its just not what Latvian means to me. Latvian to me might mean a love of solyanka, pelmeni, sashlinks, Pauls, Popov, Briliantnaya ruka, Citiri Tankisti i Sabaka ...
To me, as long as Aleksejs respects the right of Latvians to be Latvian and doesn’t expect any special treatment (and he does and he does not) he will always be a member of the Latvian nation even if he never claims to be or desires to be a Latvian.

Andrejs

Vaira Vike-Freiberga - extraordinary Latvian voice featured in “Extraordinary Voices” lecture series in SF May 14

2008-05-11T09:08:49-08:00

Extraordinary Voices, Extraordinary Change
The International Museum of Women (I.M.O.W.) is proud to offer a series of lectures by women from around the world who have made profound and unprecedented political, social and economic changes in the lives of women worldwide. These lectures highlight the roles they have played to show that women can and have made a difference nationally and internationally. Their compelling lectures offer deep insights into the different struggles they experienced inside governments, universities and International women’s groups.

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
May 14, 2008
In 2008, the popular I.M.O.W. Speaker Series program will complement our global online exhibition, Women, Power and Politics. We are excited to first feature Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga, President of the Republic of Latvia from 1999 to July 2007, on May 14.
Described as exhibiting a combination of strength, determination, vision and care in her leadership style, Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga has demonstrated that women can be both “tough” and “compassionate.” As President of the Republic of Latvia from 1999 to 2007, she worked to reduce corruption in Latvia, helped grow its market economy, secured Latvia’s membership in NATO and the European Union, improved relations amongst minority groups and increased Latvia’s standing as a dedicated democracy in the world.
Named Special Envoy on the Reform of the United Nations in 2005, Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga was an official candidate of the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania) for the position of Secretary-General in 2006. She has received many medals and awards, including the 2005 Hannah Arendt Prize for political thought, as well as 27 Orders of Merit and ten honorary doctorates.
Please save the evening of May 14th for this very special program. Reserve your seat now!
Purchase tickets here by May 11, 2008
VENUE
Omni San Francisco Hotel
500 California Street at Montgomery Street
San Francisco
REGISTRATION/RECEPTION 5:00 p.m.
PROGRAM 6:00 p.m.
General tickets $25
Museum Members $20
Students $15

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit: http://www.imow.org
Email: events at imow dot org or call: (415) 487-6447

Aida Niedra, G. Janovskis, Z. Maurina, Ansl. Eglitis, J.Klidzejs, J.Veselis, PLUS

2008-04-17T19:18:38-08:00

New Saulaine booklist of the above authors is out--- plus a few surprises--list is in Latvian, books are in Latvian , except for the surprises!

All books have been donated to Saulaine for sale! All donations support Saulaine.

Please email me for the list.

stivrins at hotmail dot com

http://www.campsaulaine.com

About Rezekne

2008-05-07T16:41:44-08:00

Rezekne is a most interesting town in eastern Latvia. For readers who might be interested - there is a book recently published in English by an Australian of Latvian descent entitled ‘Long Road to Rezekne: a Journey to Eastern Latvia’. Not as much is written about this part of Latvia as about other areas of the country. The book is about 100 pages with photos and may be of interest to some readers.
The relevant link is:
http://www.trafford.com/07-0922

Did the Soviet Story documentary premier yet?

2008-04-14T19:35:10-08:00

Just curious if it did premier on the 9th of this month - and if so - how was it received?

Latvian Birth Certificate

2008-05-05T21:36:54-08:00

G’day,

Wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction…

Am wanting to trace my grandfathers lineage. I have his name
and date of birth and nothing else. How would i obtain his
Latvian birth certificate?

His name was: JANIS KORZOVS, born 31st AUGUST 1929

Many thanks,
Skye in Australia

Happy May Day, fellow proletarians…………….

2008-05-01T06:44:37-08:00

We all got piled up in in big trucks and
paraded around the streets of Ogre.
Red scarves around our necks, red flags
in the air........Shiroka moya zemlya velika........or something like that.
The good old days.........

Inta’s Poems

2008-04-11T12:02:27-08:00

In 2005, Inta Miške Ezergailis died of cancer. She was a professor at Cornell, and well known in Latvian literary circles as a critic. She was a long-time contributing editor of Jaunā Gaita and the author of Nostalgia and Beyond, a review of women writers in 20’th century Latvian literature. It became known after she died that she had been writing poetry in English. This poetry has been published in three volumes to date, the third one just recently. Andrew Ezergailis, her husband, sent me some copies of her newest book, and I copied out of it (i.e. scanned) an essay by Astida Stahnke, which is a good introduction to her poetry to anyone who is interested. See it here:

http://zagarins.net/sveiks/2005/IntasPoems/Stahnke.htm

Juris Zagarins

Turning of the tide

2008-04-27T08:23:08-08:00

... or a temporary blip?

Andrejs

REZEKNE/LATVIA: Sergejs Cakss swerves his 2002 Volkswagen Golf around potholes in one of the poorest parts of the European Union (EU), near the Russian border.

Where he lives in eastern Latvia, jobs are scarce and infrastructure is in ruins. Thousands of Latvians packed their bags for a better life in Ireland and Britain after the Baltic nation joined the EU in 2004.

Four years later, some - like Sergejs - have returned while interest in jobs abroad had dropped. Others are watching the economy back home as eastern Europeans weigh the region’s strong growth and rising wages against the advantages of working in the West.

Judging from the number of registered working residents from eastern Europe in Britain and Ireland, about 2.5 percent of Latvia’s 2.3 million people have moved to work there, the second highest level among the newcomers that joined the 27-nation bloc nearly four years ago.

People from Lithuania, Latvia’s Baltic neighbour, have been the quickest to leave, with 3.3 percent of the population now working in Britain and Ireland. Slovakia is third and Poland fourth. Experts say the actual number of migrant workers who left is probably higher.

Sergejs, his wife, Jana, and their 19-year-old son, Vladimirs, all have separately worked abroad, but never planned to emigrate. “These trips are just to make a little bit more money to last us for the rest of the year,” Sergejs said in his home in the Latvian village of Audrini, where a monthly wage of 300 lats (427 euros or about $668) is considered a well-paid job.

He worked at a Royal Mail post office in London for three months, making more money than in a whole year in his current job as a fuel station attendant in the nearby town of Rezekne. His wife, a kindergarten teacher, helped tend gardens in Italy for “some Russian oligarch” last summer.

Language problems abroad, homesickness and proximity to the rest of the family are main reasons why they decided to return to Audrini. Mass emigration from eastern Europe splashed in the international media, such as when Polish future prime minister Donald Tusk campaigned for Polish votes in England.

In recent months, though, the exodus has subsided. “It’s the beginning of the return,” Janis Laucis, an assistant director at the state-run placement agency in the Latvian capital, Riga, told DPA recently.

“Some do come back. Most, though, come, look around, if they see that there’s nothing here for them, they leave,” he said. In the next three to four years, some workers will return to live in Latvia permanently, he predicts.
Although no official numbers exist, anecdotal evidence suggests more Poles are returning home because of an improving domestic economy and limited career opportunities in Britain, where most Poles emigrated after labour markets opened in 2004.

Polish officials believe more citizens will come back as wages rise. Marek Okolski, a migration expert at Warsaw University, predicts that the emigration wave will stop around 2010. Once ubiquitous ads offering help in finding a job abroad have almost disappeared and anecdotal evidence suggests that eastern Europeans are calling family and friends to check on opportunities back home.

“I have been talking to my schoolmates and monitoring wages and jobs available, but so far the money is not good enough to give me the standard of living I like,” said Lenka Blaskova, a Slovak, who has worked in Ireland since 2005 as a payroll clerk for a German company.

Making a living in Ireland, she’d be able to pay off her mortgage in Slovakia in three to five years, compared to 30 years if she had stayed there. “The wages would really have to go up at least 100 percent for me to decide to return for good,” she said, adding she plans to stay in Ireland for two years to pay off her mortgage before returning to Slovakia for good.

But wages are pushing up across Eastern Europe. In Slovakia, a post-communist hub of the auto industry, the average wage rose 7.2 percent in 2007 as the economy grew by a hot 11.6 percent. Labour markets in the Baltics are tightening. In Latvia as well as Romania, one of the EU’s poorest nations, wages have shot up by about 30 percent annually.

Despite an expected slowdown this year, economic growth in the former communist countries remains faster than Western Europe’s. Eight of the 10 eastern EU members posted growth of more than six percent last year.
Meanwhile, the Irish economy is forecast to slow down as well after years of “Celtic Tiger” growth that pulled in eastern migrants.

Regardless, some are always on the lookout for greener pastures. “Now we get ads to go further,” a Latvian woman named Zane said in a recent newspaper article. “The inbox is filled with job offers from Canada, Australia.”

There is no need for Republic of Latvia whatsoever

2008-04-28T15:51:50-08:00

There is no need for Republic of Latvia whatsoever. Repent. Return to russian fold, and in a short time Latvia will be again (euro)pean province. Russian bolshies are on the run of economic supremacy and it will soon accept the degenerate (euro)nations back into its fold. At about next energy crash generated by arbuz people aping berkely-brownies , bolshies will unite the Europe under the banner of Moscow. And everybody will be provided with goodies from cradle till grave. Sounds good. I think that there still are Letts remembering those good old days.

For the few of us whom consider that we belong to our tribe, and not to the trash of the world, the solution is fairly simple.

1. Redefine Latvia as ethnic Latvian Republic.
2. Limit Saima to ethnic Latvians and only in advisory capacity
3. Install “Saimnieks” and let him run the farm
4. Restrict citizenship to permanent residents of the country.
5. Provide and create in-land economic balance before allowing foreign investment.
6. Build four atomic power plants
7. Go to church on Sunday, sing dainas, drink beer, and make true Latvian babies.

So there - - -

Mr. L. L.