Saturday, 30 October 1999

October 30, 1999

Opinions-Editorials
Latvian Link
In the News
Picture Album

Lat Chat and More! for October 31, 1999 Date: 10/30/99 2:34:50 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Sturgalve

File: 68234-19-vansu-tilts.JPG (52017 bytes)
DL Time (TCP/IP): < 1 minute

Sveiks!

And a Happy Halloween! (As far as we know, though, despite our pagan past, there's no "holiday" we're aware of that parallels Halloween.)

First, a few words on the Lat Chat contest.

A "little birdie" told us that they had spoken to several people that expressed concern over the "test question" part of the contest, some even embarrassed to turn in their entries fearing low scores. Well, hopefully we can alleviate those concerns!! The whole purpose of this second contest was for entertainment, and hopefully, a little education, too. When we had the first contest, we published the winning essays plus a few more, and the feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive.....people loved reading those essays because everyone could relate. Quite frankly, that's really what we were hoping to achieve with this contest as well, which is why the essay is weighted the heaviest even though probably each and every one of you can whip out a wonderful essay talking about Latvian stereotypes with hardly a thought. As far as the questions, we were hoping it would get some folks to dust off some of those wonderful books you have on Latvia and do some reading....believe me, that's what happened to me putting the test together. Hopefully, some of you with concerns will feel better knowing that working together, we would have scored less than 50% not using a book! As far as publishing results, no test scores will be published!!! The correct answers will be published, and some of the essays ( with permission, of course ), but again, this really wasn't meant to be about winning or who has the highest score. Also, we know many people are just too busy to spend time on researchin the answers, so why not just guess??? Have fun with it! The same little birdie I mentioned earlier told me that he and his parents had a blast trying to come up with the answers together. That, dear Latvian friends, is the spirit we hoped to generate! Besides, we really do have some great prizes, so take a few minutes and get those entries in!! To make it easier on everyone, we're extending the deadline until Nov 8....so no excuses! We really like giving prizes away, but even more than that, absolutely love reading the essays....even if you want to say "the heck with those questions", you can just write the essay and participate!

In the spirit of Halloween, this week's link points to a reference regarding Latvian pagan customs and beliefs.

We have an "op-ed" ("Opinions and Editorials") piece by Vytautas Landesbergis, chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament and the first president of Lithuania after independence from the Soviets, talking about the Russian desire to re-erect a new wall of influence keeping the Baltics on "their side."

There was a mix of good news and bad news regarding Latvia this past week:

• CME International and Caterpillar Power Ventures are building a natural gas power plant in Liepaja.
• most corrupt of the Baltic States in which to do business (Estonia being the least). Only Denmark scored a perfectly uncorrupt score of 10.
• sea border treaty, meaning plans can go ahead to explore for and exploit off-shore oil reserves.
• Latvia is reported as the country with the highest incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases (22%), and Estonia the third highest. Second highest was the Delhi state in India.

This week we have a picture of a Latvian sunset from our trip this October.

Remember, you can retrieve past mailers from our web site (http://www.latvians.com).

Ar visu labu,

Op-Ed

By Vytautas Landsbergis
Keeping a New Wall from Appearing (WSJE: CEER)
In 1988, a firm “Enough!” rang through the three Baltic States. The Kremlin threatened us with violence, but it failed to suppress the rising demands for freedom and democracy. The most impressive demonstration of this new spirit was the 600-kilometer human chain we formed on August 23, 1989. It began in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, on the green Castle Hill.
I was assigned a place in the chain at the pediment of the Vilnius Cathedral that runs along the edge of the square. Even though we were still under Soviet rule, the national tricolor flag of independent Lithuania was fluttering on the astle Hill Tower, the symbol of Lithuania's statehood. Hoisters of such a flag would have been sent to prison a few years earlier, but by the time of this peaceful demonstration, it was no longer possible to imprison us without provoking a reaction in the West.
The foot of the hill extends into the Cathedral Square where the first mass meetings of Sajudis, the grassroots movement intended to free Lithuania from decades of Soviet occupation, had taken place. By linking hands, we formed a living, human chain stretching from the hill in Vilnius all the way to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. I noticed in passing that our link of the chain stretched round the marvelous classical building of the Cathedral, a long-lived symbol of our country's dominant Catholic faith. Despite decades of isolation due to the Soviet occupation, we were still an identifiably Roman, Western civilization.
On that day, I hurried to take my spot in the chain from the radio studio, where I had addressed the Lithuanian people. Already, huge traffic jams had formed on the roads leading to highways of Lithuania. People were rushing to get to their assigned places, so they could insure that this unprecedentedly large, multicountry protest against Soviet occupation would succeed. “Do not rush about, just so you can get to the assigned places on time,” I had said. “At 7:00, we shall simply stand where we are with our hands joined.”
My wife and I stood at the Cathedral joined by my brother and his wife and my sister and her husband: All four of them had come from Australia. Formerly divided by the war and occupations, the family was reunited. Young scouts with flags stood on my left. These were representatives of an organization banned by the Soviets but already restored in Lithuania (which was formally still occupied by the Soviet Union). It was a way for Lithuanian youth to display their regained freedom to associate in non-Soviet organizations.
I see today a very close and indivisible relation between “The Baltic Way” chain and the joy over the downfall of the Berlin Wall. We shared common values with the people of Berlin. Perhaps not coincidentally, an exhibition of photographs of Sajudis was on display in Berlin during the very week that huge protests began there. The exhibition was heavily attended, and served as a poignant reminder that the agony of the Communist downfall and the victory of freedom and democracy were not events taking place in one country alone.
Those who weep over the collapse of communism at the end of the 20th century sometimes say, “We should have been building and improving, rather than destroying.” This is manipulative and deceitful. Would anybody say that the Berlin Wall should not have been demolished? Should it have perhaps been constructed still taller, longer and more beautiful? Certainly not. Evil must be rejected, and the prisons of nations must be demolished.
When on September 8, 1991, Lithuania prayed in her sacred site Siluva and thanked God for liberation, Rita Suessmuth, the then-president of the German Bundestag, also prayed and shared our happiness.
It should also be noted that when Germany made efforts to get rid of the former Soviet troops, Lithuania, having gotten rid of those troops herself, provided Germany and Russia with all necessary transportation privileges. Our common goal was to free all the nations of the nightmares of the past.
The unification of Germany allowed us to overcome another artificially created myth—that there were always “two Europes,” and that their dividing line could be shifted from Berlin to the Oder river and frozen there again. This would not work. The world has rejected isolation and xenophobia for the sake of rapprochement and cooperation.
From Lithuania's point of view, it is amazing that people in the West still think the last leader of the U.S.S.R., Mikhail Gorbachev, awarded Germany with unification. Soviet intelligence documents that have been published in Germany show that as early as 1988, the leadership of the U.S.S.R. was well aware of the unavoidable economic and social collapse of the German Democratic Republic. The situation meant that the whole Soviet policy of “reforming” communism in Central Europe would fail—first in Poland, then in the Baltic States—with unpredictable consequences.
As a result, the Kremlin decided to “save what could be saved” and leave the waste of the GDR for others to clean up. This was probably meant to make Germany powerless for a long time. The Soviets even managed to win a strategic victory by selling the unification of Germany as a present awarded by its former occupier. Their goal was to move the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain a little bit further to the East.
However, the nations that live east of Germany did not miss their historic chance. On March 11, 1990, the freely-elected Parliament of Lithuania declared its independent statehood restored. It was my destiny to lead the political and moral self-defense of our restored state against the Soviet occupation. By the way, even though we suffered occupation by Germany some fifty years ago, we welcomed that country's unification. We noted, as well, that the repeatedly stated principle of nonviolability of European borders concerned only the lawful state borders.
Another illusion that lingers from that time is the sense that the Berlin Wall has ceased to exist. Alas, it is still here. The bricks and cement it was made of may have disappeared, but the spiritual blocks it left behind have not tracelessly disappeared. They continue to separate and suppress people, and not only in Germany.
Post-Communist societies can still be divided into two camps. One camp includes countries that had adjusted to the Soviet way of doing things and now experience discomfort from the insecurity that freedom brings. The other camp contains those that are not frightened by the trials that freedom poses. Comfort expressing one's views is the key dividing line. Communist societies awarded people with the privilege not to think or decide for themselves; some countries and people apparently prefer that security to the confusion they now experience.
Most notably, the Berlin Wall still looms in Moscow. Many influential Russian politicians still dream of having not only Belarus, but also Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on “their” side of the well-known line once drawn by Stalin and Molotov. To them, eastern Germany was given back to the West in return for the Baltic States, which should remain forever under Russian rule, or at least as a dominion of Russian interests. The Baltic States, however, have firmly refused to consent to this arrangement.
The European Union is the aspiration of all the Baltic States, and Lithuania looks forward to the invitation to join NATO in 2002. Russia gave its consent for that in 1991 in a treaty governing Russian-Lithuanian interstate relations. In short, no trace of the Berlin Wall—new or old—should ever be allowed to appear between Poland and Lithuania.

Vytautas Landsbergis is chairman of Lithuania's Parliament. Since 1988, he has been at the forefront of Sajudis, a political movement that led Lithuania's drive to restore its sovereignty after 51 years of Soviet occupation.

Latvian Link

In searching for any Latvian holidays similar to Halloween, we did come across a site (work in progress) which discusses ancient pagan Latvian history, customs and beliefs. It's pretty interesting--don't be put off by the "Member of the Pagan Webcrafters Association" note at the bottom!

Link: The Baltic Heritage Page
URL: http://www.globalserve.net/~latvis/baltic/noframes/index.html

In the News

RIGA, Oct 25 (Reuters)—U.S.-based CME International and Caterpillar Power Ventures said on Monday they were investing $70 million to build a natural gas power generation plant in the western Latvian town of Liepaja.
The firms, announcing the venture at a joint press conference in Riga, said the plant would have a capacity of 15 megawatts, which would be sold to Latvian state-owned power firm Latvenergo for it to distribute through its power grid.
"Our key interest is to build a power plant that creates a social value in the country, in this case, reduced energy costs for the people of Liepaja," William Martin, president of CME International, told journalists.
"We will be able to supply Latvians with reliable energy in a region where they do not have a reliable supplier," he added.
Construction of the plant will begin in the spring of 2000, with it expected to be fully operational for the heating season of 2001/2002.
Martin added that CME is currently looking at other regional projects worth a total of $200 million, though he did not elaborate.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd.

WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters)—Following is how countries ranked in the 1999 Corruption Perceptions Index and Bribe Payers Index of 19 leading exporters issued by Transparency International (rankings begin with the least corrupt nation):

Rank	Country	1999 CPI Score
1	Denmark	10.0 < 10 is a perfect uncorrupt score
2	Finland	9.8
3	New Zealand	9.4
4	Sweden	9.4
5	Canada	9.2
6	Iceland	9.2
7	Singapore	9.1
8	Netherlands	9.0
9	Norway	8.9
10	Switzerland	8.9
11	Luxembourg	8.8
12	Australia	8.7
13	United Kingdom	8.6
14	Germany	8.0
15	Hong Kong	7.7
16	Ireland	7.7
17	Austria	7.6
18	United States	7.5
19	Chile	6.9
20	Israel	6.8
21	Portugal	6.7
22	France	6.6
23	Spain	6.6
24	Botswana	6.1
25	Japan	6.0
26	Slovenia	6.0
27	Estonia	5.7
28	Taiwan	5.6
29	Belgium	5.3
30	Namibia	5.3
31	Hungary	5.2
32	Costa Rica	5.1
33	Malaysia	5.1
34	South Africa	5.0
35	Tunisia	5.0
36	Greece	4.9
37	Mauritius	4.9
38	Italy	4.7
39	Czech Republic	4.6
40	Peru	4.5
41	Jordan	4.4
42	Uruguay	4.4
43	Mongolia	4.3
44	Poland	4.2
45	Brazil	4.1
46	Malawi	4.1
47	Morocco	4.1
48	Zimbabwe	4.1
49	El Salvador	3.9
50	Jamaica	3.8
51	Lithuania	3.8
52	South Korea	3.8
53	Slovak Republic	3.7
54	Philippines	3.6
55	Turkey	3.6
56	Mozambique	3.5
57	Zambia	3.5
58	Belarus	3.4
59	China	3.4
60	Latvia	3.4
61	Mexico	3.4
62	Senegal	3.4
63	Bulgaria	3.3
64	Egypt	3.3
65	Ghana	3.3
66	Macedonia	3.3
67	Romania	3.3
68	Guatemala	3.2
69	Thailand	3.2
70	Nicaragua	3.1
71	Argentina	3.0
72	Colombia	2.9
73	India	2.9
74	Croatia	2.7
75	Ivory Coast	2.6
76	Moldova	2.6
77	Ukraine	2.6
78	Venezuela	2.6
79	Vietnam	2.6
80	Armenia	2.5
81	Bolivia	2.5
82	Ecuador	2.4
83	Russia	2.4
84	Albania	2.3
85	Georgia	2.3
86	Kazakhstan	2.3
87	Kyrgyzstan	2.2
88	Pakistan	2.2
89	Uganda	2.2
90	Kenya	2.0
91	Paraguay	2.0
92	Yugoslavia	2.0
93	Tanzania	1.9
94	Honduras	1.8
95	Uzbekistan	1.8
96	Azerbaijan	1.7
97	Indonesia	1.7
98	Nigeria	1.6
99	Cameroon	1.5

Rank	Country	1999 BPI Score
1	Sweden	8.3
2	Australia	8.1
3	Canada	8.1
4	Austria	7.8
5	Switzerland	7.7
6	Netherlands	7.4
7	United Kingdom	7.2
8	Belgium	6.8
9	Germany	6.2
10	United States	6.2
11	Singapore	5.7
12	Spain	5.3
13	France	5.2
14	Japan	5.1
15	Malaysia	3.9
16	Italy	3.7
17	Taiwan	3.5
18	South Korea	3.4
19	China (including Hong Kong)	3.1

Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd

VILNIUS, Oct 28 (Reuters)—Lithuania's parliament on Thursday ratified a long-awaited sea border agreement with Baltic neighbour Latvia, a pact five years in the making due to the possibility of large offshore oil reserves.
Lawmakers voted unanimously to approve the border deal, Deputy Parliamentary Chairman Andrius Kubilius told the chamber.
Latvia's parliament has yet to hold a final vote on the agreement, for which negotiations were rocky due to the possibility of some 50 million tonnes of crude under the Baltic Sea in a region that both countries wanted access to.
The current agreement on maritime territory, economic zones and delimitation of the continental shelf in the Baltic Sea border treaty leaves aside the contentious issue of oil reserves for later talks.
The pact was signed by both prime ministers in July.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd.

By Beth J. Harpaz, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP)—Drug-resistant tuberculosis has been found in 104 countries and could spread to every nation unless $1 billion is devoted to controlling it, according to a study released Thursday.
The report was commissioned by philanthropist George Soros and conducted by Harvard Medical School.
Russian prisons are among the epicenters of the hard-to-treat and potentially fatal disease. About 100,000 inmates have active TB and about 40 percent have drug-resistant TB, said Gen. Vladimir Yalinin, the chief of prisons.
About 30,000 people with active cases are released from prison in Russia each year, and 400 prison workers have developed TB, he said through a translator at a news conference in New York.
"These epidemics are only briefly local," said Dr. Paul Farmer, a professor of social medicine at Harvard and author of the report. "They will not remain within prisons, they will not remain within national borders."
TB is the leading infectious cause of death among adults worldwide, killing up to 2 million people every year. Eight million people are infected each year.
The report identified TB hotspots—countries where at least 5 percent of all TB cases are drug-resistant. The highest percentage of drug-resistant TB cases were found in Latvia at 22 percent.
Latvia was followed by the Delhi state in India, Estonia, the Henan province of China, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, the Ivanovo region of Russia and the Ivory Coast.
The study says a TB strategy successfully implemented in New York City in the mid-1990s—deploying health workers to watch patients take each and every dose—is the only way to cure the disease and stop the proliferation of drug-resistant strains.
While the approach used in New York City required less than a year of treatment for each case, new strains of multi-drug-resistant TB may require up to two years of complex treatment, costing anywhere from several hundred dollars to several thousand per patient.
Many countries lack the funding, personnel and public health infrastructure to implement such an intensive method of treatment.
The report predicted that the disease will spread across the globe unless $1 billion worth of resources is devoted to controlling it.
The report also suggests that physicians in many countries are improperly prescribing TB drugs, contributing to the problem.
The disease is airborne and can be spread through contact as casual as sitting on the same airplane with someone who is infected.
Copyright 1999, Associated Press

Picture Album

As we mentioned, it's from Riga and our most recent trip this month. Poor Peters only had one evening to go out and take some pictures! The good news is that the sunsets in Latvia can be truly spectacular. The bad news is that if you're in Riga, the sun sets opposite the old town, over the "Pardaugava" area. Peters managed to catch the last bits of sunset looking down Valdemara Iela across the Vansu Tilts (Bridge).

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