Sept. 26 brought a smile to many Latvians as the long wait for the new iPhone 3G was finally over. At several LMT (Latvijas Mobilais Telefons) and Capital stores in the centre of Rīga, queues were up to 10 deep, but nothing like the frenzy experienced in the United States several months earlier. In some locations users had to wait up to two hours while staff were still learning the new in-store activation process, but four weeks later I was able to waltz straight into the LMT store near the corner of Brīvības and Ģertrūdes and get my new phone activated in less than 10 minutes.

Depending upon which of the three iStyle plans you choose, you can get yourself an iPhone for as little as LVL 1, but be prepared for a hefty LVL 60 per month for the next 24 months. This option, also called iStyle 3, includes 1,000 minutes, 1,000 text messages and unlimited data every month.

On the other end of the scale, if you pay around LVL 110 up front for the phone, then you pay only LVL 20 per month for 100 minutes, 100 messages and up to 100Mb of data for the iStyle 1 plan.

Another less known option for business customers (or for that fact anyone who has at least three mobile services on the one account) is that for a slightly higher up-front fee you can keep your existing Formula 8, 18 or 28 plan and add the HSDPA 5 (30Mb for LVL 5) or HSDPA 15 (200Mb for LVL 15) data plans. If you are a light user, for example Formula 8 and HSDPA 5, this becomes quite an affordable solution—LVL 13 per month.

The iPhone 3G has the further advantage that it will automatically seek and connect to any open WiFi services before switching to the more costly 3G or Edge service. This is good news especially for Estonia, where free public WiFi spots seems to be the norm. If you have broadband Internet at home, make sure to install a wireless router (no more than LVL 40) so that you can enjoy free and unlimited Internet connections via your iPhone 3G.

Be careful when travelling outside of Latvia, because none of the above mentioned plans include data calls overseas and costs could vary greatly from LVL 2 up to a whopping LVL 10 per 1Mb depending on the selected overseas carrier. If you don’t like the idea of locking yourself into a 24-month contract with LMT, then on your next visit to Italy you can grab an unlocked iPhone 3G for about EUR 400-500 that can then be used with any of the mobile operators in Latvia or the rest of the world for that matter.

About the same time as the iPhone 3G appeared in the Baltics, Apple released the iPhone 2.1 software update that for the first time allowed the easy input of Latvian letters. Up until then it was possible to view Latvian text (all of the current iPod models support the display of Unicode text), but there was no way of entering the special letters directly into these devices.

To enable Latvian text input go to Settings -> General -> International -> Keyboards and switch on the Latvian option. Estonian and Lithuanian languages are available as well. Using the iPhone “keyboard” hold down the letter key you wish to modify. A popup menu will appear showing the possible modified symbols. For example, if you want “ā” hold down the “a” key and choose “ā” from the popup menu. Latvian language purists may be disappointed since neither “ō” (o-macron) or “ŗ” (palatalised-r) are offered as modified letters, however both will display correctly. Surprisingly this feature of inputting Latvian text is not documented anywhere, not in the translated iPhone documentation, not on the LMT Web site.

The software update also offers “Riga, Latvia”, “Vilnius, Lithuania” and “Tallinn, Estonia” as a time zone option. Previously we had to settle with the closest city in the same time zone such as “Helsinki, Finland.”

The iPhone 2.2 software update released last month introduced even more Baltic friendly features. In the Settings -> General -> International -> Region Format, all three Baltic languages have been added to allow the display of localised date formats. Applications such as Calendar, Mail and Weather will now show the day and month names in Latvian. A few glitches, however, still need to be addressed. On the welcome screen the year is missing (for example, “otrdiena,.gada 2. decembris”) and the short form date displayed in Mail messages follows the U.S. format YY.D.MM rather than YY.M.D. Another much requested feature was the ability to switch off auto-correction, which proved to be a nuisance when texting and sending e-mail in any of the Baltic languages because of the lack of dictionary and spellchecking support.

Although Apple is gradually introducing more Baltic support with every new software update, for those who can’t wait for a complete Latvian user interface there is an unofficial Latvian localisation produced by Andris Ludriks and available on his Sadzīviskas figņas blog. However, to install the “LV interface pack 2.0” software requires “jailbreaking” your telephone, a process that is not supported by Apple and that could result in data loss.

The iPhone excels as a Web browsing device as well. Tilt the screen for portrait or landscape mode, double tap on images or text blocks to zoom in or use finger actions—pinching together, spreading apart or a simple swipe—to easily navigate through sections of your favourite online Latvian newspaper. No wonder Google is reporting that the iPhone generates 50 times more Web based search requests than any other mobile device. Some Latvian companies with a strong online presence haven’t wasted any time providing iPhone friendly versions of their Web sites, including directory and information service 1188, Swedbank (formerly Hansabank) and social network draugiem.lv. Draugiem.lv has been bold enough to charge users 50 santīms per week for this privilege, which then appears on their next mobile phone bill.

The GPS features also seem to work well. Using the Google Maps application, the iPhone was able to determine my location in central Rīga accurate to within a block. As you move out of Rīga a lot of detail is lost, but using the satellite view and the real time tracking blip on the screen we were able to navigate to a fairly remote destination on the banks of the Bullupe river.

On the application front development has been slower since the iTunes Store is not yet available for any of the Baltic countries. The iTunes Store is the mechanism for distributing third party applications, but you need to provide a registered credit card from a supported country (the U.S., Canada, Australia and others). This hasn’t deterred a Lithuanian software developer, Marius Kazemekaitis, from getting his balsas.lt Lithuanian news reader published among the many thousands of applications now available from the AppStore. For those lucky enough to get themselves an iTunes store account you can also purchase and download Latvian music to your iPhone. The selection is not large, but you can find artists such Iļģi, Prāta Vētra, Pēteris Vasks, Tribes of the City, The Hobos and others. For Latvian videos and films your only option at the moment is to get hold of the original DVD and rip to MP4 format. Our 5-year-old son regularly watches Gardēdis, Vāģi, Ledus laikmets and Avārijas brigāde on the 3.5-inch (9cm) screen.

With Latvian language support, reasonably priced LMT data plans and one of the best user interfaces on the planet, the iPhone 3G is sure to have an impact on the mobile phone market in the Baltics as well.

During the next two weeks, a traveling exhibition on the 90-year history of Latvia’s security police will be on display in the port city of Ventspils. It’s too bad the security police is now using tactics that are best left for the history books.

The security police on Nov. 21 detained and held for two days Dmitrijs Smirnovs, an economics lecturer from Ventspils Augstskola (Ventspils University College). His apparent crime: Saying things that could destabilize the country’s financial system, supposedly a violation of Section 194 of the criminal code.

Instead, the arrest of Smirnovs is a clear violation of Latvia’s constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.

In an early October roundtable discussion published by the daily newspaper Ventas Balss, Smirnovs answered a journalist’s question about Latvia’s financial situation by saying, “The only thing I can suggest is, first, don’t save money in banks, second, don’t save money in lats, because right now that is very dangerous” (“Vienīgais, ko varu ieteikt: pirmkārt, neglabāt naudu bankās, otrkārt, neglabāt naudu latos, jo tagad tas ir ļoti bīstami”).

According to the criminal code, it is against the law to disseminate “untrue data or information orally, written or in other ways regarding the condition of the finance system of the Republic of Latvia.” A person convicted under Section 194 could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 80 times the minimal monthly wage.

I don’t necessarily agree with Smirnovs, but are Latvian security officials really so silly to think that a little-known college lecturer’s statement in a regional newspaper could bring Latvia’s banks to their knees?

Actually, they are even sillier. Officials also have interviewed pop singer Valters Frīdenbergs of the ensemble Putnu balle. During a Nov. 9 concert in Jelgava, according to the newspaper Diena, Frīdenbergs joked during a pause in the performance that audience members would rush to automatic teller machines (in Latvian, bankomāti) to withdraw money, but he urged them to wait until after the concert. The newspaper cited a security police spokeswoman who said an investigation was started after a bank complained about Frīdenbergs’ statement.

That security officials are taking such extraordinary measures seems to suggest only that the financial system in Latvia really is in trouble. What’s next? Posting officers at bankomāti to make note of who is withdrawing cash?

Latvian-American journalist Juris Kaža, who works for the LETA news service in Rīga, has started a blog to address the situation, freespeechlatvia.blogspot.com. Kaža has some strong words for the security police—and Latvian officials in general.

Aleks Tapinsh, who blogs from Rīga on All About Latvia, suggested tongue-in-cheek in a Nov. 23 post that there are a few more folks who should be talked to by the security police, including well-known journalist Edward Lucas, a Danske Bank researcher and People’s Party (Tautas partija) leader Gundars Bērziņš. For kicks, throw in the guy who designed the commemmorative 1-lat coin honoring the 90th anniversary of Latvia’s declaration of independence—I just don’t like it.

In recent international assessments of freedom of expression, Latvia has fared relatively well. It is ironic that as the nation this month was celebrating its freedom, it also took a step backward.

The Russian invasion of Georgia has cast a pall over European politics, not least for the Baltic states. As members of the NATO defense alliance and the European Union, they have been looking with alarm at the reckoning that Russia handed out to Georgia for daring to attempt to reclaim its two disputed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russia’s formal declaration of recognition of these two breakaway provinces as newly independent countries is a provocation to all countries on Russia’s borders, may have consequences for other potential breakaway provinces with the Russian Federation itself, and above all is an instruction to the United States and the EU that Russia has its interests and neither America nor Europe can do anything about them. The largely muted responses by Europe (trying always to broker a peace and asking “both sides” to be reasonable) and the empty campaign-related rhetoric of the United States against the invasion point to the difficulty of affecting the situation in any way. While the Baltic states along with all of Eastern Europe condemned the attack, it was not possible to persuade the EU to adopt a stronger response.

Two broad lines of interpretation arise from this situation. The first is that whatever immediate gains militarily and diplomatically Russia may have made, and however quiet the present response from the EU and U.S., this will negatively affect Russian relations with the world in the medium to longer term. It will first of all expunge the last of the fantasy that Russia is, if slowly, becoming a democratic state and that one will be able to deal with it as a “normal” country. Secondly, it will make all Western governments and businesses more wary of economic contacts with Russia. Already there has been a massive withdrawal of Western investment. And thirdly it will make all countries look much more seriously at whatever ways they are dependant on Russia, particularly in energy and specifically gas supplies to Europe, and seek alternatives at an accelerated rate.

A second line is more pessimistic. It points to the strategic strength of Russia in capitalising on U.S. and European weaknesses. The U.S. is overextended in the Middle East and in no position to challenge Russia in the Caucasus. Moreover, the U.S. needs Russian help in its dealing with Iran, Syria and others, or face increasing Russian arms sales and strategic help to these countries. The U.S. needs Russia more than Russia needs the U.S. Europe has too many vulnerabilities. It has dismantled much of its old energy infrastructure in exchange for easy Russian gas. History shows that individual European countries will often try to make friendly deals with Russia rather than oppose them. Germany’s ex-Chancellor Gerhart Schröder’s and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi’s open love affairs with Russia are telling examples. Recent moves, such as Poland’s hasty signing off on a deal to house strategic NATO units in response to the Georgian invasion, will be an endless bone of contention with Russia. We may not be at the beginning of another cold war.

Meanwhile, there have been hasty reassurances from NATO leaders that security commitments to their new members in Eastern Europe—including the Baltic states—are still sound.

For all its potentially critical consequences, the Georgian situation has arisen at a time when the Latvian government is in continuing deep trouble both politically and economically on the home front. It has been a very active summer in Latvian politics indeed, with two referendums, marked signs of an economic downturn amid still high inflation, and a number of politically sensitive positions to be filled, including the head of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs).

The Aug. 2 referendum was on a constitutional amendment to give the electorate the power to dismiss the Saeima, and though the referendum did not get the numbers, it was another important warning to a universally unpopular parliament.

The referendum was initiated by the trade union federation, covering mostly educational, medical and transport workers, as an attempt to rectify the situation where currently only the president can move to dismiss the Saeima. This provision has never been used by any president. The trade unions’ proposal was to allow the public the initiative to propose dismissing the parliament.

About 600,000 people voted, but this was short of the required 750,000 votes—half of all eligible voters, a stiff demand for a constitutional change. Yet it does show that more than 600,000 people were motivated enough to vote, maintaining the anger that has characterised Latvian attitudes to the Saeima and government now for over a year.

The second referendum on Aug. 23 was on a change to the state pension law. The referendum required a smaller number of voters to succeed. But it also failed, with about 300,000 people voting where some 450,000 were required. The proposal was to immediately increase pensions, and make adjustments to categories and ratios of entitlements that would better reflect years of work. It was proposed by a number of pensioner groups and the new political association A Different Politics (Savienība citai politikai), formed by breakaway politicians from the People’s Party (Tautas partija). The referendum was bitterly opposed by the government, which accused the proposal of being financial vandalism. The government ran a relentless scare campaign, arguing that the new rates of payment would exhaust the social security budget in a few years.

Seeing off the two referendums no doubt gave the government a brief relief, and in both cases the strategy of encouraging voters not to participate—a more than unusual response in a democratic country—was a seemingly successful strategy. Yet potential disasters loom for the government both economically and politically.

Economically, the “fat years” of former Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis’ reign have come to a halt, with slower growth figures but still double-digit inflation affecting families and businesses. This has presented the government with a seemingly impossible budget situation, and responses to this have alternated between the comic and the tragic. A freeze on all public sector wages has been proposed, an extremely unpopular move in the light of still rising prices. Meanwhile, examples of rampant spending on luxury items by government departments and ministries (particularly on some handsome furniture) have hardly helped the cause. A proposed 5 percent cut in the budget of every ministry and department led to a symphony of special pleading and excuses.

Politically, after the manipulated dismissal of the former head of the anti-corruption bureau, the position still needs to be filled. This is an issue that has already brought down one prime minister and will be closely watched in Latvia as well as internationally.