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

I have a new BLOGSPOT. See: http://mywealthvirus.blogspot.com/

 [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.

[19] Harmony Centre & Its Geopolitical Uses (7)

Part 1.

Latvia’s human sacrifice: abandoned children neglected

http://www.apollo.lv/portal/news/articles/254993 

It is common among mythologists and anthropologists to see in sacrifices [made in what are called “foundation myths” (usually of and by “primitive” people)] as “foundational acts”. It is also common to refer to such foundational sacrifices as foundational violence.

A favorite scholar, literary critic and  philosopher of mine is Rene Girard. Professor Girard wrote some very thought provoking books about human sacrifice, especially about the role in human sacrifice of the “scapegoat”.

The scapegoat in mythology is the person whom the community selects—for whatever reasons of its own—to sacrifice when the tensions inter- or intra- a group has reached the breaking point, i.e., the community is threatened by the tensions with breaking up.

At such times, what ever it is that ails the community screams for a correction. The circumstance may be a physical provocation, an enemy, or it may simply be confusion. However, the expectation of violence becomes part of everyone’s subjective self. When subjective concensus unbeknownst to itself reaches a peak, yet remains unspoken, we may count on it that someone will speak up.

He/she may go to the temple and speak to the priest.

“Holy brother, I think it is So Andso who is creating all the trouble among us. I believe you should consider that we have him done away with, have him sacrificed. At least, let us chase him from our midst.”

To which the holy brother replies: “I see what You mean. I have for some time been thinking along those same lines, except that I do not think that So Andso is at fault, but that it is You. Temple guards, seize this man and lock him up. He looks starved. Fatten him up. Bring him every night a new village virgin for company.”

Imagine now that you are a young Latvian man who went to complain to the priest and received the above sentence. Would you leave the virgins untouched?

If you are a Latvian of today, surely not. You would take everyone of the virgins and give them a ride on the best horse You had. The priest would then call the villagers together and give them the news.

“That son-of-a-bitch should be castrated,” screamed an elderly woman. “Off with his head!” screamed a great number.

“We should not do this,” said the holy brother to the villagers. “Not today anyway. We had our foundational sacrifice many years ago. That event horriblis was terrible enough, but it brought us together. Which is why we have become a kinder and a more united people. Now we only sacrifice once a year to remind ourselves that we live not in a virtual but real world.”

“I agree,” seconded someone out of the group that had gathered at the temple. “That was a bloody event that should not be repeated often. Okay, give John another virgin for the night.”

“Good,” said the holy brother. “The next summer solstice, Johns Day, does not come until June. The temple will keep John supplied with virgins. When Johns Day comes, John will hang his head in shame, but die happy. And we all will breathe a sigh of relief”.

I agree with Professor Girard that the scape goats [likely called by proto- Latvians “Cross-Johns” (Krish-Jahnji/ Christ-ianity)] are among the first human scape goats who were allowed to voice a subjective self. This subjectivity was later described as the subjectivity of a holy man or woman, even God. The New Testament is one such subjective story.

As a consequence of the switch of who is or is not guilty of seeking and persecuting a scapegoat, scapegoating became a crime.

However, if violence (idealized as ‘sacrifice’) is necessary for the foundation of a community—is it not that any and all violent events may be looked at as foundational violence? Even suicide, surely a misbegotten foundation act, is a foundational act nonetheless. A suicide more than likely gives witness to the fact that there is no community or nation worthy the name.

Going by such myths, the question that arises is “What is the foundational act of Latvia in 1991? We know what the foundational events were in 1918. What was the foundational act of Latvia in 1991?”

[19] Harmony Centre & Its Geopolitical Uses (7)

Part 2.

We know that during the “Days of the Barricades” in Riga in 1991, the Omon, a specnaz group of the Soviet Union, let loose a barrage of bullets from the streets near the Ministry of the Interior http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y4wLPgTxwk and killed five people, a videoman/ filmmaker, among them.

One way that one may look at the death of the videoman is that he was filming the events of violence as part of the re-foundation ministrations begun by the Soviet Union.

As it happened, the Soviet Union did not survive, and a re-foundation of Latvia occurred instead. Still, the question remains—especially in the light of the corruption that followed—whether the deaths of said five was enough of a foundational sacrifice to become internalized in the body and blood of every Latvian?

The filmmaker was shot and died as one who documents an events. He recorded flashes of light from Omon’s guns firing. The camera also recorded the video camera falling in a dizzying whirl of its own motion, then coming to rest and pointing nowhere in particular. The filmmaker was struck by a bullet. His death was accidental in that he was part of the fifth estate (reporters) and did not face or fight the fire, but was moving away from it.  

In other words, the foundational violence of Second Latvia (1991) was not clearly defined. Sensing the vagueness, the uncertainty, Latvians prefer to “see” the Second Foundation of Latvia as “a singing Revolution”.

The re-foundational violence of Latvia’s was felt by many as unconvincing, and one man, Adolfs Bukhis, a tool and diemaker from Jelgava, tried a second foundational act in May of 1993. He shot himself in front of the Latvian Monument to Freedom in the centre of Riga. He died protesting corruption in Latvia’s government led by Latvians. Pervasive corruption had made Latvians feel that the re-foundation of Latvia had become a dismantling of Latvia.

It is of course difficult to say when re-foundational sacrifice is enough to begin exerting its influence on all who are witness to it. In the case of Latvia, all that can be said is that it did not suffice. A renewed Latvia was soon seized by interests that were able to neutralize emotions activated by such violence as had occurred in 1991. By 1993 the then Latvian government felt strong enough in its corruption to hide the notes found in Bukhis pocket, and there were few, perhaps no voices from the public that demanded that the notes be made public.

As for Mr. Bukhis, we do not know how he formulated his sacrifice. However, we may presume, that he viewed corruption in government as proof that government or elements in government were not part of the Latvian community, at least not of the kind of community that most everyone of the “singing revolution” had prayed for.

The re-founded Latvia that arose after surviving Soviet occupation was not a political entity structured horizontally, seeking an economic order working toward economic equivalency among its smaller communities. Instead, Latvia became a nation divided in those who dwelt on the “North Pole” and those who dwelt on the “South Pole”. This means that (an over simplification no doubt) that Latvians who live on the North Pole have beautiful smiles and shiny teeth, while Latvians living on the South Pole have rotten teeth and poor health.

The subjective thoughts of many Latvians on Foundation Day 2011 (commemorated on November 18) are restless and distrought. These thoughts are like cranes rising in air for a long journey, but yet circce in a circle of chaos. An order for flight has not yet emerged out of the whir.

The Latvian government (for practical purposes near broke) acts as if nothing is missing, that everything is in order.

The President and the Ministers of Latvia are working furiously to cut government expenses at the expense of poor Latvians. The poor Latvians have protested by leaving Latvia for a job abroad mosly. No one in government is thinking or suggesting ways of making money by way of analysis of the present and imagining untraditional niches that may be more compatible with the future.

The demogrophic of Latvia is in a Death Spiral. At least one government official thinks that Latvians test out dumber than Russians when it comes to critical thought. Foreign banks are happy that Latvians are cutting down their private forests, because it means Latvians are paying off their debt.

The optimists are saying that though Europe is falling apart, Latvia is either re-founding itself or founding something else. Founded on air blown by a joke perhaps?

[16] Harmony Centre &
Its Geopolitical Uses (4)

In the September 2011 elections, the Harmony Centre received 28+% of the total vote, which gave it 31 deputees at a Saeima consisting of 100. Excluded from participating in government by a coalition of the nationalist block, Harmony Centre now sits in opposition. From all signs, the party is for a loss of what to do next.

The lost look in the eyes of Harmony Party leadership (led by the Ushakovs-Urbanovich team) is nothing new. With its centre of power located in the municipal government of Riga, the party has never seriously projected for public consideration a geopolitical plan for either Riga or Latvia that is more than superficial.

Like the nationalist block [concentrated in the Union (Vienotība) Party)], Harmony Centre is a single issue gathering of jingoists. While Latvian nationalist jingoism expresses itself in a gnashing of teeth over whether the Latvian language will prevail as the language of Latvia, for Harmony Centre the issue is whether the Latvian government will relent and allow schools for Russian-speaking students teach their subject matter in Russian.

This one-issue conflict conflicts with the reason for the dismissal of the 10^th Saeima by now ex-President Zatlers, 
which reason was verified by a Referendum by the Latvian people. The issue at hand was and remains government corruption, the mismanagement of the Latvian economy and its collapse. However, when it came to the election of the 11^th Saeima, the successor to the dismissed 10^th—the issues brought to the debating table did not concern an economic-social-cultural vision of the fututre, but the divisive issue of who speaks Latvian, where, when, other.

No doubt there is considerable justification for the emotions indulged in by the Latvian nationalists when it comes to the Latvian language. The language has endured for thousands of years and, as I have often mentioned, projects great spiritual harisma by way of the ‘endearing word’, misnamed ‘diminutive’ by modern grammarians. Nevertheless, for a number of reasons the language may be dying. The following are some of the reasons:

1.     The Latvian people are in the middle of a demographic crisis engineered by Latvian politicians during the past twenty years. Up to 500,000 Latvians have become economic refugees to Ireland, England, and other countries.
2.     The demographic crisis creates a literary and cultural crisis. The number of ethnic Latvians hovers around the 1.2 million mark. If a century ago Latvia had one of the highest literacy rates in Europe, today the rate is among the lowest. Latvian publishing houses are not only being taxed by government out of business, but the decline in literary demographic has created a snake chasing its own tail situation: diminished literacy is threatening publishing with bancruptcy. The earnings of a writer of an original work, a book, does not justify the time spent to write a book in Latvian. It is almost certain that publishing business is kept in business by publishing books for Latvian schools. The other writers who can perhaps earn a living are translators of foreign literature.

3.     Points 1 and 2 (above) diminish the harisma of the Latvian language and put it on artificial life-suppor—the government. This makes the Latvian language less a real language than a virtual one. In other words, once the government collapses [and it is, arguably, in the process of collapsing (denied of course)], the language will face the ‘real world’, i.e. competition, unprepared.

4.     The Russian speaking Latvians, many of whom do speak Latvian, see the disadvantages of the Latvian language. Weakness is never persuasive, especially when it is surrounded by Latvians who create conditions that make the weak even weaker. Among the Latvian agents of weakness are Latvian Culture Ministers. Among the last four that come immediately to mind, there is not one who persuades that he-she understands the words “Latvian people” other than “Riga Latvians”. This results in a situation where lovers of opera and simphony music, who could easily travel to Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin, etc. to fill their cultural needs, receive more government support than the theatre. The theatre, the tool of mimesis-mime par excellance and the foremost teaching medium (from folk to high kitch to folk-metal) goes unnoticed. The theatre, mimicry, the art that transmits culture above all teaching aids, receives least government support and becomes culturally ineffective.

5.     Just a few days ago the President of Latvia, Andris Berzins, traveled to Daugavpils, the easternmost city in Latvia, and made a donation of a month of his salary to schools and “to keep local culture alive”. This act by the President makes “the act of pity for Latvia” the official way of how to deal with the current crisis of the economy and community. I.e., there is no direct action by the Latvian government on the public stage vis a vis the Brussels monster, Swedish bank repression of Latvian interests, or demand debt forgiveness as recommended by many economists. The establishment’s wolves in sheeps clothing do not get mentioned by government or the anally retentive Latvian media. Instead, the equally anally retentive Harmony Centre gets to enjoy all the nationalist blame.

The Harmony Centre—while claiming to be fully committed to Latvia’s interests, at the same time does all it can to keep alive Russian jingoism. It keeps a more expansive vision of Latvia’s future out of sight of Latvian-Russians lest they lose sight of Moscow. This myopic view is also witness to and cause of Riga’s disintegration.

These jingoists on behalf of their respective languages are well matched, and are one of the reason why this check-mate may not be resolved by arriving at a commonsensical solution. A radical mimesis is required instead.

I have argued for quite some time that we must visualize Riga as an object to be exchanged by Latvians for Jelgava as their national capital. As the nation debates, Latvian Latvians and Russian Latvians ought to explore the possibilities of renting Riga to the highest bidder for the next hundred years. If the rent offer raises realistic interest, a national referendum should be held. People may be surprised that the vote may agree that Riga is put up for bid.

In fact, renting Riga may be a great deal for Latvia if the monies received pay off the Latvian national debt, allow Latvians to get rid of the Latvian political lobby that works on behalf of self-interest, and not least on behalf of the interests of the half million Latvian economic refugees, who may get a chance to return to Latvia.

The Russian Latvians, too, will be happy, because no one (whether Paris, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, or Beijing) who rents Riga will do so for any other reason than making money. At least, such should be a precondition to any deal. The lingua franca of Riga of course will be English, the language of business.

PS A must read analysis by Stratfor of Russian geopolitical interests: click here.



Lake Burtnieki (Magicmaker) looking west I.

 [14] Harmony Centre & Its Geopolitical Uses (2)

The leadership of Harmony Centre, the party with the numerically largest number of voters in Latvia, was not included in the present government of Latvia by the Latvian nationalist wing.

As mentioned in the previous blog, the geopolitical orientation of the nationalist wing is currently playing on the populist sentiments of dedicated Latvian communitarians, which is a noble sentiment.

The Latvian communitarian sentiment however is knotted by several so-called “ties”, which like the Gordian knot will not untie and let breathe.

Lake Burtnieki (Magicmaker) looking west II.

The first of these ties is the Latvian language. The 1.9 million Latvians, minus some six hundred thousand Russian speaking inhabitants http://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/policy/4641/4642/Muznieks/ , are committed to their language, even though the lingua franca after nearly five decades of Soviet occupation was the Russian language. Russian still remains the lingua franca at the work place among many Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, etc. economic refugees in England and Ireland

While this writer does not dispute the importance of the Latvian language as a bond among Latvian communitarians, the practical aspects, never mind the negative ones, are hardly ever discussed due to the exploitation of populist jingoism by Latvian governments in office since 1991.

One of the practical aspects that profoundly affects the role of the Latvian language are the limitations imposed on it by demography and the nature of the vehicle by which language is communicated. Since the total number of allegedly ethnic Latvians is likely to hover just above one million mark, the practical effects have a marked influence on Latvian authorship on the materials being read.

Lake Burtnieki (Magicmaker) looking west III.

For example, this author experienced quite a shock, when a manuscript that he offered to a publisher received an offer of Ls 189 (about $350). Imagine such an offer being made to an established Latvian writer (not me)! Such monies amount to a one month salary for unskilled labor. No wonder that most books that appear these days in Latvian are translations of foreign authors, translation being a far quicker process than creating an original work, even as one may wonder about the quality of such translations. Of course, editing an original work is an expense that publishers cannot afford except at a superficial level.

As this writer has pointed out before, the spiritual aspects of the Latvian language, the notable spiritual role of the endearing word (misnamed ‘diminutive’) goes virtually unnoticed. Compare the role of the Latvian folk songs or dainas with the Japanese haiku. While the Japanese honor their haiku with an annual festival and even the emperor writes a haiku poem for the occasion, the Latvian daina is hardly noticed and for all practical purposes is dead.

The demographic handicap experienced by the Latvian language has been long exploited by the Harmony Centre Party through its many requests that Russian speaking Latvians (most of them of Russian descent) be allowed Russian language schools. This point of view has been best expressed by Igor Pimanov, a deputy from Harmony Centre at the Latvian Saeima. See http://rt.com/politics/latvia-russian-language-universities/ .

[This writer remains an anglophile in so far as the Latvian lingua franca of tomorrow is concerned. What language you and I speak at home is your and my personal business. When my English speaking relatives visit Latvia, I tend to speak in English with them, even as with my neighbors I speak Latvian, and with Russian speaking people, I communicate through a dictionary or by way of sign language.]

The second Gordean knot for Latvian communitarians comes within the jingoistic context is the Nationalist block’s (represented by the Unity Party) exclusive orientation to the West and represents the McCarthyite (an American Senator from Wisconsin in the 1950s) wing in European politics.

As understandable as an anti-Soviet stance among those once occupied by the Soviet Union may be, it is this near exclusively West orientation that has harmed Latvia’s economic development most.

The orientation West has caused the Latvian people to think of themselves as a border state of the West, and, therefore, the geopolitical thinking among Latvians remains limited to the West, even as a strong pro-NATO bias bolsters the jingoist stance against the East and Russia.

As a result, it is not surprising that the Latvian government has no forward looking economic program or “vision” for Latvia.

Admittedly, there is some ‘noise’ due to the economic pressures now facing the Latvian people about the Latvian government being more cooperative with Russia. However, this is likely to be an initiative of the Swedish banks, which ‘occupy’ Latvia by way of bank ownership, forcing Latvians debt, then forcing them to deforest their lands, then buying the land at a fraction of its real price when the owners have spent their money. As the  news item (in Latvian) shows, the Swedes top off their ‘victory’ by selling Latvians cheap Swedish potatoes http://www.apollo.lv/portal/news/articles/254154. 

Lake Burtnieki (Magicmaker) looking west IV.

It does not take much to realize that Swedish interests may be trying to force Russia to recognize the Swedish ‘occupation’ of Latvia as de facto. If so, the Harmony Centre Party, in so far as its membership also has Latvians aboard, may be the only vehicle of resistance to such an ‘occupation’, both, in the interest of Latvians and as possible check mate for Russia.

If you wish to keep Latvian land for Latvians, here is a ‘For Sale’ offer http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/ If you cut down the oaks on the land, you may well recover a part of your investment. The present owner refuses to destroy the 25 or so oak trees.

Highly recommended article by Michael Hudson and Jeffrey Sommers: Latvia and the disciples of 'internal devaluation'  To quote: "Latvia; a country that has imposed one of the world's most brutal austerity regimes on its people and whose policies have pushed it to near demographic collapse."