Antons Benjamiņš varbūt balsos PAR!


A Moment For Remembering the First Latvian Woman Playright. Ramava.

Harmony centre (Saskaņās centrs) has issued a call http://www.apollo.lv/portal/news/articles/259012 for all Latvians to participate in the Referendum on the “”language issue—ragardless of what one’s conviction is, whether it is FOR or AGAINST enabling Russian to become the 2^nd official language of Latvia.

In effect, this writer is considering the possibility of voting AGAINST Latvian as the only official language in Latvia, and FOR Russian as a 2^nd language.

Considering how one may vote in a Referendum (before the Referendum takes place by discussing it) there is NO HEDGING the discussion, especially if a date for the vote is not yet set., But it does cause one to pause, the PAUSE coinciding with giving thought to the possibility of voting FOR, demands arguments that support doing so, thinking things through not necessarily in a linear fashion only.

Therefore, the following is a list of some of this writer’s reasons for imagining that the Latvian language has not served Latvians in a way that it is supposed to serve in the public spheres of politics, business, economic development, education, video, and so forth. The following is an informative blog on the state of NATO: http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/nato-banking-mess-creates-global-insurrections-and-wars/#more-13582

In effect: This blogger, Antons Benjamiņš aka Jaņdžs, varbūt balsos (may vote FOR) PAR!

NoHedge, re: The ‘Varbūt’ (maybe will) stands for "will ponder for sure".

I In fact, there are two Latvian languages. The first is the one assured ‘eternal’ existence by the Latvian Constitution. This language is the Latvian that evolved in Riga, Latvia’s capital city. The centre of most Latvian urbanism, starting on the cusp of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Riga contained all the elements of a society slated to become consumers consuming everything (newspapers including).

When the Latvian localisms were smoothed out of the-Latvian-language-at-large this Latvian (along with its own mannerisms) became what we know as the Latvian language today. The one region in Latvia that had a very noted idiomatic manner of expressing itself was Latgale. It was not long, before Latgalian Latvian was begun to be looked down on, a presumption of Latvian lawgivers in the Saeima to this day. The second Latvian language is the one spoken at home, whether in Latgale, or anywhere else. What distinguishes this second Latvian language from the first, is its informality and frequent use of the ‘endearing word’ (John=Johnny). The latter inflections almost never appears in documents or the public media in Latvia.

II The call FOR but one language in Latvian schools, does not free one of the yoke of pretentions projected by the first Latvian language (see above; which this writer speaks before he turns to English) against the second Latvian language. Indeed, the Chairwoman of the Latvian Saeima recently denigrated Latgalian on a very official occasion, when she rejected the Latgalian idiom of a Saeima deputy during his swearing-in ceremony.

III The attitude of the Latvian government with regard to  above I & II points, has not improved or come to greater self-consciousness, but appears to preserve the class prejudice that was at the basis of the discrimination between the two Latvian languages during the first half of Latvia’s existence (1918-1939). While many today dismiss class prejudice as a matter of another day, in Latvia the prejudice has continued to progress in a number of ways.

Students and teachers; a Moment For Remembering the First Latvian Woman Playright,
Marija Pekšēna, Ramava, 2011.

IV The consequences of snobbism in Latvia have been disastrous to Latvia in numbers of ways.

a)     The Latvian political and bureaucratic circles, the media including, reject all matters relating to populism as unmentionables. There is—to this writer’s experience—not one Latvia of the above mentioned stripes, who will acknowledge populism as a valid political orientation.

b)    Though accusing Latvians of intra-ethnic conflict may not be very nice with regard to all who hold the prejudice, the “not so nice” tag has its roots in related mindset, re ‘prestige’ http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prestige/articles/  The ‘prestige comes with being an urbanite vs one from the countryside.This (let me say) ‘stupid’ polarization of society is mostly the doing of urbanites.

c)     This intra-ethnic polarization has cost Latvia at least 200,000 citizens to economic emigration. Whatever the accurate figure may be, the consequences are not only loss of labor force, but is a matter of profound demoralization to the people in the countryside. My neighbour recently responded to the above mentioned figure of 200,000 with: “It feels like a million have left”.

d)    In short, the consequences of snobbism in Latvia on the part of some Latvians who consider themselves to be more Latvian than Latvian Latgalians who do not speak 1^st Latvian without an accent. Thus, just imagine, if so-and-so Latvians who do not speak either 1^st or 2^nd version Latvian, insist that they have a right to continue studying in schools that teach in Russian or when teachers in Latvian schools should begin to teach Latvian speaking Latvian-Latgalian.

e)     The snobbism may also come in reverse. Thus, students in a countryside school may gang up on one who is from Riga. And I have heard quite a few Latvians complain that Russians call Latvian a fascist  language, as the gentleman in the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXKQxcqjMPQ appears to do  (I do not understand Russian, except on inspired osmosis of-the-moments as here) , though apparently for the interviewed person  the word ‘fascist’ is equitable with ‘nationalist’. Here we may be seeing and hearing a Russian liberal of the ‘a Russian-of-Riga’ mind set and its meme.

First Latvian Woman Playright, Marija Pekšēna. Ramava. 2011.

V  For a  Latvian to consider a vote FOR Russian, with which vote goes (in his mind) an automatic AGAINST Latvian there is much to do and think about. One of the questions is, of course, would this question have arisen if the economy was or is doing well?

A large crowd of populists is waiting at the door of the Latvian Saeima, everyone in it wanting to know if the Saeima knows that to the populist Latvians the country feels as if  a million people have gone?

A Painted Tree.

December 10, 2111

The currently “hot” political issue in Latvia is the consequence of a successful signature gathering campaign that will lead to a Referendum of whether the 2^nd official Latvian language ought also be Russian.

While most everyone believes that the outcome of the Referendum cannot be anything but an AGAINST vote against the Russian language becoming an official second language, is this necessarily so?

This writer’s sympathies were revealed when in a 1991 paper, he suggested that the official language of Latvia be in the future English, with Latvian and Russian languages playing their role within the subjective realm known as “home”. The writer’s failure to learn Russian after a total of twenty-seven years in Latvia, Russian ancestry on the mother-side, and believing the Latvian Children of Johns’ Festival to be a relic of Russian Orthodox festivals in the distant past when the forests still ruled the surface of planet Earth, attests to a view paradoxical of the one that some readers are likely to already see as AN ANTI-Latvian orientation. No doubt, I favor the Latvian language as a language of the subjective over its officialese, for which trouble I have a couple of self-published books of translations in English of Latvian folk-poems to show.

Wood for the Temple Complex.

In any case, the possibility that the anticipated AGAINST vote may not be so overwhelming as the reps of the oligarchs in the Latvian Saeima expect. There may not be any “Ureka!” for the fascist-nationalists which is but an small inflection from “Hurraa!” . The “Hurraa!”  role ill befits the descendants of the Children of Johns, who never addressed the Sun as “Saule”, but always as “Saulihte” or Dear Sun. “Saulite” is a word, that should be the first word in the Latvian national anthem. “Dievs” (God) was put there by by sn exercise in metamorphosis, a romanized view of life the--of the lighthouse on the hill--the romanization beginning about the 18^th , which puts my great great-grandfather in the Herrnhuter ranks. My grandfather's cardinal rule was "never speak ill of anyone while at the dinner table" No one did, and learned resentment instead.

The Roman instilled tradition and presumption of substituting human lives for lack of self-discipline, rather than become able to reflect on life and act with mindfulness, occupies a large place in the content box of Latvian consciousness. Therefore, with the help of teaching the Latvian mind to do a little hocus pocus in the mind-set, it may come to see the romanizing (a way of metaphormozing one religion into another) as a an event that can be understood, as when a vision of Romans become Enterprisers (Uznehmehyi) is repeated often enough to seem natural. Thus men identified as Latvian Oligarchs. Meanwhile, the taking human life has been dubstituted by substituting human life with economic depravation (called ‘Capitalism with a Heart’ in America), nevertheless leading to an economic death for an entire society and culture somewhere else.

Having joined NATO, Latvians now officially participate in such distant, distasteful and ultimately ill serving violent events appearing out of the sky and out of the blue, for which they contribute 2% of the annual wealth of the Latvian people''

I have to confess that I often call people by the name of populists. The Latvians call themselves “tauta”). I believe that the word “tauta”, it is a synonym (albeit denied in the media) for Latvian "tautas" way of identifying themselves as  populists. The Latvian media gives evidence of many tendencies to bend Westward, which means it is from the ceiling in the room below and the enourmous magnet beaming pro-Roman beams and, therefore eternally, pro-West slanted, because it knows little or nothing of the history of the West and even less of "tauta". It will not permit itself to associate populism with the word “tauta”, which it nevertheless obviously means.

So, the issue of removing the Russian language, and replacing it with Latvian in schools which heretofore have been teaching in Russian, has been met by over 180,000 signatures gathered by the Russian speaking Latvians to make Russian officially Latvia’s 2^nd language. Now the extreme rightists, having earlier gathered significantly less votes for their initiative against the language at school, are raising their voices in angst, and saying that the large number of Russian signers was but a Russian “protest vote”. Apparently the kids gave up smoking cigarettes to start smoking mini cigars.

Not likely that it was but a PROTEST VOTE!

IT WAS A VOTE TO REMOVE A GOVERNMENT WHICH HAS PRESUMED ITSELF TO REPRESENT THE STATE.

Who knows how many Latvians will sympathize with having their State free of corruption, having a Government where corruption by way of Romanization, becomes Catholicization, becomes Monetization and becomes Globalization. Still, this is how my rear-view mirror projects the psyche (mind set) of the current government and how iit shows naked with its regard for the place and role the State has in its heart of hearts.


The Painted Tree as A Gate Post.

 The AGAINST Russian vote may perhaps be nullified by adding to the “FOR” and “AGAINST” vote, a third vote, one that is AGAINST, BUT FOR, MAKING THE REFERENDUM NOT BINDING. 

For this to happen  the Chairman of the Elections Office, Cimzars, must resign, because he is a committed “One Systems Man”. When in an earlier Referendum, he refused to agree that it is legitimate under the present law to make place for a square that would allow one to NOT-VOTE http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/ , by likening such an interpretation of democracy as being anti-State, because to think so means to think anti-state.

Thus, for Latvians, the question in the upcoming  Referendum in is whether it is "TAUTA" who is the rightful owner of the LATVIAN STATE, or whether the State is corrupt AND XENOPHOBIC?

Volodya, at Temple Honoring Destroyed Forests: Latvia; with the apple trunks he saved.

December 3, 2111

As the host of “100.panta preses clubs” (in Latvian), Dzintris Kolāts introduced those present http://ltvzinas.lv/?n=zinas&id=4204 Šovakar „100. panta preses klubā” – diskusijā par krievu valodu Latvijā - Sandra Kalniete, Eiropas Parlamenta deputāte („Vienotība”), Nikolajs Kabanovs, Saeimas deputāts (SC), Kārlis Seržants Saeimas deputāts (ZZS) Žurnālisti: Eduards Liniņš (Latvijas Radio), Māris Antonevičs („Latvijas Avīze”), Andrejs Hotejevs, („Telegraf”) Raidījuma vadītājs – Dzintris Kolāts.

Described as a show that will discuss the place of the Russian language in Latvia (following the gathering of signatures of whether  to hold a referendum:  Whether the Russian language should be given 2^nd language status in Latvia. The guests included no academic language experts or experts of subjective opinion (writers or poets).

As always, the Latvian communications media makes no concessions to Latvian populists. In fact, strong attacks against populism were waged by EU Deputy Kalniete and Saeima deputy Serzhants. The only pro populist statements heard came from Kabanovs and Linins.

The exclusion of all who might in the past have displayed any anti-elitist views is typical of the oligarch representatives in the Latvian Saeima. This was pointed out by Linins from Latvian Radio, who also drew attention to the fact of the Latvian language and ethnicity are taboo subjects par excellence.  Linins stressed (at 9:50 min) how language and ethnicity were the subjects most avoided by Latvian politicians. Linins himself did not inhale the word, however, danced around it.

The opening up of the populist pomegrenade as a result of the exclusion of populist interests close to the Russian speaking public may not stop or be checked at this juncture. As several participants in the show pointed out, the ultimate Referendum (likely to be held sometime in April 2112) may split the population 60/40% or roughly 800,000 vs 300,000 [which = potentially 1,100,000 voters or the adult population of Latvia.]

Another reason why the opening of a populist heart-land is likely to backfire is because the questions  likely to be asked include economic questions as well. The economy may in the end be the decisive one, yet, because it is well enough known that the Oligarch representative packed Latvian Saeima has avoided the question of Latvia’s economic development with determination.

Why have the Latvian elite politicians stayed away from the economic question with such determination?

Temple Honoring Destroyed Forests:
Apple-tree-trunks have taken this corner of the  Guest Room.

The answer has been pointed to in these blogs before. One only has to look at the influence of Swedish banks on the political circles, starting from the President of Latvia Andris Berzins down to the Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, who signed off on a notoriously pro-Western banking book by a Swedish neo-economist Andreas Aslund.

If Saeima deputies like Serzhants question (11:03) the source of advertising and promotion for the signature campaign by suggesting we look East and the political campaigning going on in Russia, the populists who hold dear the Russian language can with justification point to the West and the economic and deptors’ crisis in Latvia caused largely by Swedish banks through their local oligarch-controlled  affiliates.

Given that

·        the oligarch representative-dominated Latvian Saeima (banking interests among them)- was voted to be dismissed by the Latvian voters in a Referendum earlier this year (but received no satisfaction for their trouble), and the signature gathering campaign for the April Referendum is professionally waged, one would not be surprised if the vote went 300,000 for vs 800,000 against the Latvian language—a result, arguably, a disaster for the Latvians;

·        lest we forget that possibly up to a half a million Latvians have left Latvia and neither they, not their at-home relatives feel especially indebted to the their oligarch representatives in the Saeima;

Elves dancing at the Temple Honoring Melnays Jahnis, in Latvia.

Leader of the Elves, Col. Yonderman, at the Temple Honoring Destroyed Forests, Latvia.

·        could turn the neglect of the Latvian economy into a rich (1%) vs poor (99%) issue in Latvia that may be exploited by the Russian speaking Latvian public into their favor. All one needs do is point to the railroads. Currently, the West is spending lots of money advertising the North-to-South Railway (Helsinki-Warsaw) line, whereas a West-East or Riga-Moscow line is arguably to greater economic advantage to the people of Latvia.

·        one of the populist segments of the people of Latvia are the people of the region of Latgale, who have suffered during the current financial-economic crisis most. Moreover, they have been humiliated in the Saeima, by the refusal of the body's Chairwoman to accept the inflection of Latgalian as part of the Latvian language. A deputy from Latgale was forced to reread his oath, because he pronounced one of the words in the oath in the Latgalian dialect.