Recently I agreed to complete an online survey about an innovative online product that was about to be launched to the marketplace. The 40 questions took about 10 minutes to complete. By the end of it I was feeling frustrated because nowhere in the survey did I have the chance to express what I believed was very important for the planned service. The online survey was very mechanical, as surveys tend to be, and simply did not cater for general user comments and feedback. Was the survey successful? It all depends upon the original purpose of the survey.

The purpose of our recent Latvians Online Survey 2003 was to get your feedback on what is and isn’t working and to confirm that Latvians Online is travelling in the right direction. One thing that we had learnt from our 2001 survey was to significantly reduce the number of questions, from about 100 down to 10 questions. The reasons were twofold. First, most online users today are time-poor and will not even attempt to begin what might seem to be a 10-15 minute exercise. Some may argue differently as this time represents only a small percentage they spend on Latvians Online. The other reason is that we ourselves experienced significant data-overload from the last survey. It resulted in a mammoth task in collating and cross-referencing the data and it wasn’t always clear how we could make best use of this information.

In this survey, besides collecting the usual demographic data (age, gender, country of residence, Latvian language ability) and getting a tally of which sections are most favoured, we decided to focus our analysis on the two open-ended questions: “How can we further improve Latvians Online?” and “Any other comments or feedback?”

Although the survey was not scientific, we were able to pick out common threads and clearly categorise answers into areas that required more attention. In all, we received responses from 567 readers.

The results overwhelmingly show that Latvians Online is a service that continues to grow from your referrals. Nearly 70 percent of respondents have found out about Latvians Online through a friend or relative. Google remains the top search engine and we marvel how often it sends its Googlebot (search robot) to dig for new content on latviansonline.com. Yahoo! and the other popular search engines are a distant second.

Our most popular sections are News (26 percent), Latvian Links (17 percent), Columns (14 percent), Reviews (11 percent) and the Online Store (10 percent), sending a clear message that we should continue to focus on the content that so many readers seem to enjoy.

Not surprisingly, the issue of language occasionally popped up. Although we do carry some articles in Latvian, most of the Web site is in English, consistent with our motto of “Bringing Latvians together worldwide” or “Katram latvietiem pasaulē.”

Our readship is mainly aged between 31 and 65+, the largest group 46-65 (45 percent) being the baby-boomers, the smallest group (10 percent) the under 30s in whom we hold much promise as we see a resurgence of Latvian youth activities worldwide.

The Latvians Online Update e-mail newsletter is sent out to more than 11,000 readers worldwide in more than 50 countries including the United States and Canada (80 percent of subscribers), Australia (15 percent), the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and most other European countries. We even have friends in Japan, China, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Iceland and South Africa. Our latest Web site statistics for December 2003 is at an impressive average of 2,400 visitors per day or nearly 75,000 visits (25,000 unique visitors) for the month.

We are very grateful that so many of you took the time to express your opinions as well as suggest future improvements for Latvians Online. Your feedback from the Latvians Online Survey 2003 has allowed us to set some clear goals for 2004 and beyond. Many exciting new ideas have been raised. Just how much can be achieved will depend upon available resources in time, human effort and finances, the three main factors that control any project. We would love to hear from volunteers who would like to help and become a part of the worldwide Latvians Online community.

I should like to start by expressing my deep appreciation to Prime Minister Göran Persson and to the Swedish government for taking this important initiative in addressing the question of genocide—a particularly devastating form of mass murder that continues to haunt humanity to this very day.

Although many countries in the world today have the good fortune of being governed by democratic and pluralistic political regimes that respect the basic rights of human life and freedom, to this very day the outbreak of mass killings based on hatred, revenge, territorial expansion, greed or just plain convenience remains a fact of life on our planet.

That is why it is so important to educate the public everywhere in the world, through such forums as this one, with the initiatives that will arise out of its proceedings, to educate human beings the world over about what genocide is, about the various forms which it can take, about the devastating consequences that result from it, and to propose and develop mechanisms on an international scale, mechanisms of intervention what will ensure that it will not continue occuring in the future.

Current, recent and not-so-recent examples of history indicate compellingly that genocide occurs in places where dehumanisation and extremism have been practiced and encouraged by the authorities in power. Extremism is typically based on national, ethnic, linguistic, racial, ideological or religious grounds, on social class differences, or on various combinations of the above.

Extremism starts out by the basic ploy of categorizing human beings into two opposing camps: “us” and “them.” Dehumanization of course is the extreme form of it: “We are human, and they are not.” The excuse for this is to claim that we are the victims who have been unfairly wronged: disappointed, hampered, oppressed, threatened and they—the ones on the other side—are the ones who are responsible for all our wrongs. But instead of trying to right any wrongs and working out any differences, the solution is simply to eliminate one’s opponents. Scapegoating then becomes a first step in this process. The solution, once you have found the scapegoat, is to eliminate them. In the immortal words of Joseph Stalin: “You have a person, you have a problem. You take away the person, you take away the problem.” It doesn’t matter if they are young or old, or it doesn’t matter whether entire nations, tribes or populations are involved. If you have a group and you have a problem, destroying the group becomes a way of eliminating the supposed problem.

Less than a decade ago, in Kosovo, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in other parts of the former Yugoslavia (and that’s right here on the continent of Europe) hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were murdered solely because they happened to be born into the supposedly “wrong” ethnic or religious group. Similarly in Rwanda in 1994, an estimated 800,000 people perished in large-scale massacres.

One of the most blatantly cynical examples of mass dehumanisation and genocide took place on this continent during the Second World War. The racist ideology and extreme xenophobia of the Nazi German Reich culminated in the mass murders of the Holocaust, leading to the near annihilation of the Jewish and Roma communities in many countries, including my own.

Between 1940 and 1991, my country, Latvia, and her Baltic neighbours have experienced an unprecedented loss of human life under the Nazi and Soviet Russian occupations. During Stalin’s reign of terror, tens of thousands of Latvians as well as hundreds of thousands and millions of other nationalities were repressed, imprisoned, deported and allowed to die a slow and painful death in forced labour camps in Siberia. Genocide can happen through many forms of execution. It can be executed by means of a gun, a knife or a machete, it can take place in a gas chamber, but it can also be brought about through a slow death on a Siberian plain from hunger, from cold and the exhaustion of forced labour. The result is the same: death on a massive, genocided scale.

Latvia believes that the implementation of the U.N. Convention on Genocide, which requires those countries that signed it to intervene in cases of genocide, should be far more vigorous than it has been to date. We must not and we cannot sit back passively when crimes against humanity are committed. In Kosovo, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in Rwanda, the international community did far too little, and far too late. Similarly, in preceding decades, it stood idly by while the Soviet regime killed hundreds and thousands and millions of Eastern and Central Europeans as well as so many their own people. The international community responded far too late to the threat of an increasingly belligerent and xenophobic Nazi regime.

We simply must find ways for the international community to react faster and more effectively in the future. There are a number of ways in which this can be done. I hope that this conference will truly succeed in finding practical ways in which we can intervene effectively in the future. Latvia stands ready to participate. Latvia stands ready to do what it can. Latvia supported the resolution on anti-Semitism proposed by Ireland at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2003. Latvia has assigned one of its most respected judges to sit on the International Court in the Hague. Latvia stands ready to do more if required.

Latvia also fully supports the initiative by deputies of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, which foresees the establishment of an international commission that would objectively investigate the wrongdoings committed by communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. Without a clear understanding and unequivocal condemnation of such crimes, Europe risks remaining to be burdened by its history. There is no room for racism, intolerance, discrimination and xenophobia in the Europe of today and of tomorrow. Only by remaining vigilant and principled in its stand against these social ills can Europe become truly democratic, prosperous, stable and secure.

We need to educate our future generations, so that they can learn to espouse the values of tolerance, of compassion, of mutual respect. We need to build a Europe that is united in its diversity, we need to build a world that is united in its humanity. We must find ways of making people understand that the deliberate killing of any human being is an attack on humanity as whole, that the disparition of any group on earth is an irreversible loss to humanity as a whole. It is a loss not just to the people concerned, it is a loss to as all. Genocide is a crime, genocide is a failure of civilization. We cannot stand idly by while genocide is being committed. We cannot turn our backs on it, nor is it enough to stand there and wring our hands about it. We must find ways of putting an end to it. We must find ways of intervening, and intervening effectively, wherever and whenever it happens on this earth.

Latvia’s image abroad may be shaped by the people of Latvia, but it is conveyed for the most part by non-Latvians.

Although no hard data are available, my guess is that 90 percent of the people in the world who know something about Latvia today learned about it from a non-Latvian. Apart from those who actually visit Latvia, most people in the world have heard, read or seen something about Latvia that was written, produced, edited, published or broadcast by the international media. Now that Latvia is joining the European Union and the NATO defense alliance, the amount of material produced by non-Latvians in the international press or on TV and radio is increasing by leaps and bounds.

That’s one of the reasons why during the first five years of its existence, the Latvian Institute (LI) has focused on developing relations with the foreign media as one of its strategic priorities. Limited funding is another. If you don’t have the money to make your own films, videos, news programs, commercials or magazines that will reach millions of viewers and readers, you have to work with those who do.

The institute was established by the Latvian government in 1998 to promote Latvia’s image abroad. But before you can “promote” an image, you have to establish an information base that people can access and understand. When Latvia restored its independence in 1991, there was very little information available about Latvia in English, or any other language, other than that which the Soviets had provided to encyclopaedias and the international news media for 50 years.

The first task of the LI was to begin building a new information base, in English, about all the various aspects of Latvian life that foreigners could be interested in. Although the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economics had begun producing some materials for their specialized audiences, there was very little about Latvian culture, history, society or nature that was of interest to a broader public.

Over the last five years the LI has developed an Internet home page and a series of brochures, booklets and fact sheets to fill this gap. While these materials do reach some foreigners directly, they are just one part of a strategy designed to reach a much broader audience. The LI also assists Latvian ministries, government agencies and the private sector in the development and organization of conferences, seminars and other events targeted at international audiences.

The audiences at international events consist of specialists who, like journalists, take information they have received and pass it on. They write articles, reports and books that reach an even wider audience. They also make policy, convey opinions, initiate programs and develop projects that people in Latvia could never dream of undertaking.

We live in an information age, where those who have the resources, money, skills and talent to make information interesting and relevant can reach billions. Our goal at the LI is to inform the informers about Latvia. As we enter our sixth year of operation, the LI has established contacts with thousands of the “information elite”—journalists, editors, producers, publishers, researchers, academicians and promoters. Most have produced print and multi-media materials about Latvia based on our contacts with them. We arrange interviews and briefings, organize tours or simply answers questions. Many are return customers who come to rely on the LI for reliable and useful information about Latvia’s past, present and future.

The LI recently introduced a new law to the Latvian government that would expand the role and resources of the institute in coordinating the way government ministries and agencies provide information about Latvia. The initial goal is to review what is already being done, and do it better.

Until now, we have simply tried to fill the knowledge gap and provide useful information to those around the world who are interested in this country called Latvia. Informing about Latvia is one thing. Promoting it is something else altogether. Toward this end we have begun research on the prospect of “branding” Latvia, i.e. developing a targeted marketing concept, strategy and campaign to promote tourism, foreign investment and export sales. But that will take time, money and considerable coordination.

For now, the Latvian Institute remains Latvia’s only “one-stop shopping” source for any and all information about Latvia. We collect it, we convert it, we convey it and we share it. Finally, after a half century of silence, the word is getting out.