[10] Darkness Seen Through Tiresias’ Eyes (7)

The enemy is a straw doll with a chainsaw between its legs.

As this blogger has pointed out through a series of earlier blogs, the real dilemma of Latvia is not the Harmony Centre (Saskaņas centrs) and its alleged tilt toward Russia, especially Moscow and its premier politician, Vladimir Putin, but that The Great Northern War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_War is being fought surreptitiously all over again.

The current political horsetrading is said to be a matter of a coalition of Latvian nationalist parties entering their coalition in order to oppose the Harmony Centre. It has been amazing to watch how these “Latvian nationalists” are surrendering themselves to the West, which is lead by the capital of a not so certain European Union—Brussels.

The chief leaders of the “Latvian nationalist” drang nach West is yet another coalition called “Vienotība” (Solidarity). A fractitious group, Vienotība (V) has sought to ally itself with a number of political parties, the chief of which is led by a former President of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers. It is Zatlers who precipitated the dismissal of the 10^th Saeima by a People’s Referendum sanctioned by the Latvian Constitution.

The Zatlers’ Reform Party has just been demolished by six of its elected members (the so-called Olšteina Reform Group) abandoning the party and demanding from the “Latvian nationalist” coalition two ministerial posts to assure the nationalist coalition a majority vote in the Saeima. [One may presume that the ORG will—if successful—attempt to play the same role that the Likud plays in Israel.]

What are the “goodies” that are to accrue to the “Latvian nationalists West” for drumming and trumpeting the West?

The resurrection of Black John and the greening of Latvia.

Upon closer examination, we will discover that the West is a far more complex picture, more a collage than a picture. The reason for this is that in the case of Latvia, the real power of the West is possessed by and  expressed through Swedish banks.

Whether the Swedish banks operate in the interests of the Swedish goveranment is a question that cannot be answered without assigning it the role of “hidden hand”. This is not something this writer has the resources to answer in a definitive way. However, it is highly unlikely that the Swedish banks precipitated the handout of easy credit to the Latvians out of the purity and goodness of their hearts.

One may say that it was the great misfortune of Latvians, who having just (1991) escaped Soviet bondage and having no experience in capitalist markets, took the credit all too trustingly, believing it was all above board. Alas!

The “Latvian nationalists”—at least the current coalition-right, which likes to call itself such—make no mention of the actual powers that the West represents. There are no doubt many reasons why the “Latvian nationalists” are so secretive.

One recent reason for the secretiveness of the Latvian right wing coalition is that the truth might provoke a Latvian version of OWA or Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. In Latvia it could metamorphose into a movement called “Occupy Swedish Banks in Latvia” (OSBL), at the same time asking specifically for the resignation of the President of Latvia, Andris Berzins, who as a former bank president cannot escape the suspicion of being a lobbyist of Swedish bank interests.

[This writer wonders why the somewhat in your face news gathering organization that calls itself “Pietiek kampt” http://www.pietiek.com/ has not provided the Latvian public with research into the subject of Swedish banks.]

The chief point in making the above points is that there are two major interest groups (not one) contesting their influence over Latvia. One is the East through its affiliate, the Harmony Centre; the other is the West and Swedish (Scandinavian) banks through their affiliate the “Latvian nationalist block”.

Is it possible that the real interests of the Latvian people is actually not either of these direction signals, one that orientes them not with an arrow (>), but a sign that says here (X)?

If the Latvian people (this writer envisages them as an English language speaking equivalency that cultivates the language of its origins at home on the basis of free choice), chose an X or here location, then an altogether different geopolitical orientation emerges.

We have arisen, we are here, we are the X of Johns.

This is the reason why this blogger presents the argument that allows for the possibility of Riga becoming the future capital of Europe, replacing Brussels and the EU (European Union) with a United Europe (UE) as the geopolitical structure that the Latvians strive for. Such a United Europe would necessarily include what is now called the East and West. In other words, Latvia would then no longer be at the margins of the West as defined by Brussels, but at the centre of now and future geopolitical events.

P.S. About the photos: On October 15, 2011, "The Temple of Black Johns in Remembrance of Destroyed Forests" in Braslavas pagasts, Latvia, celebrated a "Remembrance Day for Trees". Major benefactors of the deforestation of Latvia are Swedish banks, because to cut down forests is the only way that most Latvian people can repay their debt to the banks and the oligarchs behind them.

[9] Darkness As Seen Through Tiresias’ Eyes (6)

Tiresias' eye over Tiresias' house.

The perfect Latvian lobby for Swedish bank interests:

Latvian President Andris Berzins

Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis

Latvian Speaker of the Saeima Valdis Zatlers

Latvia Bank President Ilmars Rimševics

Latvian Finance Minister Andris Vilks

Latvian Economic Minister Vjaceslav Dombrovskis; utt.

The above lobby is the dream team of Swedish banks. The qualifications of said as lobbyists have been written about in previous blogs.

The readers should also note that the above mentioned have their local headquarters in Riga. Their ‘far abroad’ headquarters are likely in Stockholm, Brussels, London, Washington, and not surprisingly other places, among which surprising other is Tallin, Estonia.

Tiresias in his car.

The latter emerged during the past week, when Tomass Ilvess, the newly elected President of Estonia, arrived in Riga for a visit with the Latvian President Andris Berzins a bare seventeen hours after he was elected for the second term to the office.

While the Estonian President insisted that he did not mess in Latvian internal politics, the themes that he brought up for discussion in the press proved anti-populist in the extreme http://www.diena.lv/diena-tv/politika/ilvess-velas-lai-latvijas-valdiba-stradatu-ar-skatu-uz-eiropu-13908597. In other words, I love the Latvian government and want to make sure it loves me, but only on the condition that the Latvian government does not play populist footsee with its people [which maybe contrary to the interests of the Estonian elite].

For one, President Ilvess told the Latvian President and the Latvian people (via the media) that the Estonians had the European Union and NATO dear to their hearts, and would be unpleasantly surprised if the Latvians were to begin to think otherwise http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/ilvess-igaunijas-intereses-ir-latvijas-sadarbiba-ar-es.d?id=41122153 .

Ilvess also came to lobby for the Rail Baltic line, making no mention on the Riga-Moscow line http://bizness.delfi.lv/biznesa_vide/levitins-riga-maskava-projekts-nav-politisks-tam-ir-ekonomisks-pamatojums.d?id=37875151 , the latter which—an East-West orientation—is of greater economic importance for Latvia http://bizness.delfi.lv/biznesa_vide/igaunijas-prezidents-apliecina-rail-baltica-svarigumu-un-mudina-latviju-iesaistities-aktivak.d?id=41197953 .

Tiresias is not completely blind I.

While the Estonian President did not present himself as a messenger of Swedish interests in a direct manner, the message was clear in his elitist and  overtly anti-populist http://ltvzinas.lv/?n=video&id=5452 stance. In short, if the Latvian government does not follow his point of view, which is likely the Swedish point of view, then the Latvian government ought take an as anti-populist stance as his own.

At issue is of course the fact that an improved (fast) Riga-Moscow railway link is more important to the Latvian people than providing the Stockholm-Helsinki-Tallin trail an extension through Riga to Warsaw and the rest of Europe. At the expense of being crude: Surely the state of the Latvian peoples pocketbooks comes before that of Tallin.

The Latvian and Estonian, not to mention Swedish, elitist interest inroads into the interests of the populists of Latvia is what the current coalition forming among political parties is all  about.

President Ilvess of Estonia has many Latvian friends in the Latvian government and media in that they also are anti-populists in extreme.

Let me make a note here about the meaning of “populism”.

Tiresias is not completely blind II.

According to some political experts, the word ‘populism’ is fuzzy in the extreme in most circumstances (the Latvian politicians and media being a case in point in which the word takes on its ‘fuzzy’ meaning). On the other hand, the word takes on a precise meaning the moment its underlying fuzzy meaning connects with a budding or mature antagonism among various groups that may or may not make alliances among themselves as political equivalencies. These political equivalencies may be either right or left leaning. 

In the Latvian case, the establishmentarian anti-populist orientation is based on a fear of populism-left, while it is paradoxically bolstered by accusations of being populist-right by groups that are not ‘native’ to the land for anymore than two generations. Ipso facto, ‘populism’ becomes a word beat upon by the Latvian ‘elites’ rather than the ‘elites’ being criticised and opposed by Latvian populists.

Thus, the 1% of Latvian elites are able to repress 99% of Latvians, so to speak, without much trouble. One reason is that the majority of the 99% continues to identify with the ‘the natives’ who have inhabited Latvia for three generations or more.

Tiresias alive and murdered.

However, suddenly, there comes one President Tomass Ilvess of Estonia to tell the Latvian populists that Estonian-Swedish interests come before theirs; moreover, the Latvian government agrees with the Estonian President because it is oriented much like him. For proof, go to the beginning of the blog and read the list of direct and indirect Swedish lobyists in the Latvian government.

What in the world do the Latvian people do now? Are they not between a rock and a hard place? If they now turn from the ‘right’ where they are accused of being, do they not run into the no less false ‘left’ that has been assigned to the people who are in Latvia two generations or less?

May not the interests of the Latvian people demand an altogether different orientation than the one being pushed on them by Riga, Tallin, Stockholm, not to mention Brussels et al? And what about the pressures from Moscow?

The Destroyer of Forests on the rack.

Incidentally, Latvia has lost about 500,000 inhabitants since it became an independent country. The government’s policy in not encouraging motherhood, is not only a direct cause of suffering to mothers and their children today, but is a guarantee that the number of Latvians, whether right or left, whether one two or more generations in Latvia, will become 1.2 million in the next decade.

The house with the rainbow again.

Caught between the East and the West, must Latvians necessarily lean West? If the terminology keeps insisting in giving the “right” and “left” a traditional economic-sociological meaning, might not the Latvian populists find their own “left”, because at stake is not sociology but the survival of Latvians as a people, a culture?

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Riga, presently a bordertown of Europe, could become the capital city of Europe tomorrow. Brussels is not the only city to make the claim to be the leading city of Europe, even if it is Europe's capital at present.

A panoramic view of Riga.

[1] This blog is about Riga fighting its way from bordertown status to become one of the leading cities of Europe.
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The vision of Riga as painted by the Harmony Party and other political parties of Latvia (the Latvian mindset not excluding) is nearsighted. It does not enter the political mindset of the present leaders of Riga that Riga could be tomorrow's capital city of Europe. The party that will present Riga in its full potential has not yet been founded.

If a political party promoting Riga is formed, it's name is likely to be Riga Capital, or RC when abriviated. The initials rhyme with Royal Crown (of Europe). Perhaps this is not as profound as Riga Jerusalem, which Bishop Albert envisioned in the 13th century, but it is close enough in terms of elevation over present realities.

Brussels the frog.

At this time, the politicians of Riga and Latvia are diverting the minds of Latvians from taking a step into the future by trying to focus everyone's mind on the Latvian/Russian divide. The result is myopia, a perception of Riga as exclusively a major airport and/or a major shipping port. One of the results is a shrinking city in population as well as in wealth.

Riga of today has no geopolitical vision of itself. No one apparently has thought of renting Riga out to the Chinese--as the Chinese rented out Hongkong to the Brits--except for this blogger. If this is "way out in the left field", then this is what this blogger will attempt to right, and bring to the centre of attention. This blog will not exclude the Swedes, or Germans, or English, or Russians from upping the Chinese bid when it is made. Nor will the blogger evade the question of transferring the capital city of Latvia from Riga to Jelgava, a city that serves as shrinking Riga's bedroom not far to the south of it.

At the time of the writing (20th of September, 2011), a  few days after the election of the 11th Saeima of Latvia, a body politic of "the same old parliamentary crabs" is taking seats at the Parliament Building of Latvia. Presiding over the crab filled building is a President deeply compromised to the banking industry. Not far from the Parliament and the President is the Harmony Party, pretending to be a rooster with its legs in a honey pot, even as its nose is in an adjacent hole in the wall  http://www.officialpsds.com/images/thumbs/Hole-On-The-Wall-psd41797.png .