A total of 380 diaspora organizations will receive certificates of recognition for their work in maintaining and nurturing Latvian culture, language and tradition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Nov. 14 in Rīga.
Awarding of the certificates by Foreign Minister Māris Riekstiņš is tied to Latvia’s observation of the 90th anniversary of the nation’s Declaration of Independence. The organizations are being recognized as well for their “belief and relentless support for the idea of Latvian statehood,” a ministry spokesperson said in a press release.
The awards are going to associations, societies, Latvian schools, various congregations, media organizations, and fraternities and sororities.
Among those receiving certificates are the Dzintars Latvian Society of Krasnojarsk, Russia; the Boston Latvian School in the United States; in Australia, the Sydney Latvian Theater and the Jautrais pāris folk dance troupe of Sydney; the Latvian Society of Ireland; the Saulīte Latvian School in the Netherlands; the Ave Sol Latvian Society of Georgia; in Canada, the Latvian Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto and the Peace Latvian Ev.-Lutheran Church of Ottawa; the Latvian Association of Brazil; the Latvian PEN Club of Sweden; the newspaper Brīvā Latvija of Great Britain, and the Latvian Ev.-Lutheran Congregation of Būtingė, Lithuania.
Latvians Online also is to receive a certificate of recognition.
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Among the oranizations and individuals the author of the article on the following site also deserves recognition: Baltic Immigrants. When in 1975 the Australia’s Whitlam Labor government recognised the annexation de Jure of the Baltic States by the USSR, the Baltic communities in Hobart, Tasmania, organised themselves to found HELLP (Help Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian Peoples) Association and began lobbying members of Parliament to have this decision reversed. The subsequent Australia wide capaign is credited with helping the overthrow of the Labor Government and the election of the Liberal Coalition party under Fraser, who immediately reversed the previous Governments decision. Algimantas Taškunas deserves recognition for being one of the leading memebers of HELLP as well for starting the periodical “Baltic News” promoting Baltic independence right up until it actually happened in 1992.
I know little about HELP but based on what Talumnieks wrote, it certainly seems to me that their efforts would be more deserving of recognition than some of the other groups mentioned. I, and I imagine many others, can immediately think of many other groups for which this is also true. Why, for example, is one church or diaspora school worthy of mention but the plethora of other (apparently) not? The second point of interest is that this has received either no or so little coverage in Latvia that it has gone unnoticed. Living in close proximity to the Latvian government for the past 17 years may have made me overly cynical, but i can help the feeling that this is jut a bone tossed to them to keep them happy and quiet.