Latvian folk art. Hi there! Are you a Latvian? I am at the Īgums Crossroad, Valmiera region, Latvia.

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 [21] November 18, 1918 – November 18, 2011

Ninety-three years have gone by since Latvians declared themselves to be an independent country, Latvia.

Technically speaking, after all these years Latvia still exists. After losing independence in 1940 to the Soviet Union, Latvia reemerged as an independent country in 1991 again.

The question today is whether the twenty years of government since regaining independence have justified the hopes of those Latvians who waited to see their country independent again.

The answer, if based on the state of Latvia’s economy and culture is—no. The hopes and expectations of Latvians have not been justified.

It is not however a question of democratic elections that decided the answer, but an understanding of history, the times, a sense of where the future lies, and the availability of men and women with a perspective on the world sufficiently embracing and sure of itself to lead confidently. Unfortunately, Latvians do not have a sufficient number of such people, and those who do have a perspective are repressed by a media also repressed and delusional every time it projects an advertisement.

The reason for the shortage of Latvians with intelligence of breadth is not the fault of Latvians, but the result of most everyone in the world having been absorbed by the illusion that the prevailing political economic system is faultless. As long as the system put money in the pockets of a sufficiently large number of people to persuade the media that happiness is the state of most of the system’s inhabitants, there were but few critical minds that thought and said otherwise.

Some economists, generally academics, blamed the working economists for not perceiving that the reason why the system was dysfunctional was not to be sought with this or that nation or bookkeeping error, but that the dysfunction had reached a pandemic http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pandemic stage and was systems wide. The system(s) is generally understood as that particular enlightened order that can be stuffed under the heading of neo-liberal capitalism or liberal neo-capitalism (actually interchangeable terms) and was brought into the world (princes having been outlived) by past wealthy oligarchs, who, naturally, are more enlightened than the rest of men and women. Another name the system is known by is a “self-regulating market economy”.

It is the self-regulating system that today so regulates that a good portion of Latvia’s own have become economic refugees. Under the self-regulating market, a half a million Latvians have left Latvia (some say only 350,000), while my countryside neighbor insists that it is actually a million who have left. While I know of no factual basis for agreeing with “a million” figure, I assume that it is nevertheless an honest reflection of what it feels like to be a countryman when one compares the Latvian countryside of twenty years ago with that of today.

In short, Latvia under the present government (that strange griffon that has impressed Latvians into the neo-liberal self-regulating capitalist system) has not, come November 18, 2011, justified itself to those of us who hoped to see it recover and stand on its own feet. Indeed, many of us (those who had some critical perspective on the delusional West) had never had any desire to see “Latvia go West”, but would have been happier seeing Latvia participate in the ‘game’ of real politic. Latvia’s geographical location indeed allows it its own geopolitical strategy.

Having allowed themselves to be stuffed into the sack of the EU and NATO, those of today’s Latvian government increasingly appear to be chameleons rather than griffons http://latgola.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/500px-coat_of_arms_of_latvia-svg.png  . As a chameleon the government increasingly looks like a leech on the body of the Latvian community by now nearly exhausted by its many misfortunes. The next misfortune of immigrants replacing missing natives is at our door.

Given the failure of the leadership of the Latvian state, it would be significant if from within the inner circles of the leadership there came a voice and, too, says NO! I have suggested in the past that the voice belong to Latvia’s President. I still believe so. The nation, too, will be grateful if the President takes advantage of November 18, and presents the West, the East, and Latvians themselves with a reverse “shock”— resigns from office.

The shocked will be awed at the vistas of geopolitical potential that opens the moment Latvians cut for themselves a new door.