Saturday, 18 September 1999

News
Link
Picture
Humor

Lat Chat and More - for Sunday September 19th, 1999
File: Riga-spires-univ-veikals.jpg (58037 bytes)
DL Time (TCP/IP): < 1 minute

Sveiki, all!

Sorry that we missed the chat last week, as we were out on Long Island visiting friends and got home obscenely late. We did hear it was a fun productive chat, and are looking forward to joining tomorrow. As always, the chat starts at approximately 9pm EST and runs until around 10:30-11, depending on how chatty folks are feeling! To access the chat, you can use the following link:
Town Square - Latvian chat. Just to let you know, we're exploring the possibility of having Latvian chat on the internet, rather than on AOL. We've had many people leave AOL and go to other ISP's, and they always ask me how they can still participate in the chat. Unfortunately, right now it's not possible. We've also received inquiries from Latvians not on AOL that have accessed our website how they can join in the chat. So, it's just in the thinking process, and we'd really like to hear your thoughts ( particularly from our Lat chat regulars! )

One more thing coming up in the near future.....finally.....the second AOL Lat Chat Contest!!! We've finally come up with the concept, now just need to get the quiz ( yes, quiz!! ) together. A ( hopefully ) fun way to get those thinking caps on about Latvia, and the best part is, the winner(s) will get a lovely prize directly from Latvia! We'll pick out the prize(s) when we're in Latvia next month. The contest will be attached to a regular mailer, hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

Now for this week's features...

This week's link from Gunars (zulis@aol.com) is about English-Latvian-English translation. Last week we had indicated this week's link was to be about Latvian pronunciation. Unfortunately, it's temporarily unavailable... what the link is, not the site itself. (We suspect Gunars has been keeping more slips of paper since his hard drive crashed!)

In the news, two fairly lengthy articles. The first is on the Baltics seeking to decrease their energy dependence on Russia--included is the planned shutdown of Lithuania's Chednobyl-style reactor. The second is a report on the deal Latvia just sealed with the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

The last news item is the Latvian Embassy's announcement of President Vaira Vike-Freiberga's imminent visit to the U.S..

This week's picture is another view of Old Riga, this time, from the Universalveikals.

And on a lighter note, forwarded far and wide (originally sent by pucite@aol.com) is a list of things you probably wouldn't hear a Latvian-American say! In all humor there is a grain of truth.

Ar visu labu until next week!

Of Special Note

The Latvian President, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, will be in the U.S. the week of 9/20-9/25, making appearances Wednesday (9/22 at 7:30) at the Latvian church in Yonkers, New York, and Friday (9/24 at 7:30) at the Latvian church in Rockville, Maryland.
(See the embassy announcement for more detail.)

LATVIAN LANGUAGE - Part II
English - Latvian - English Translation

This site may be useful for translating difficult or obscure words from one language to the other, or determining the meaning of some particular word. It has an odd design, and they have selected some very odd phrases to cross-reference, while leaving out some rather ordinary words entirely. Regular Chat members will be relieved to find there is no translation for the English word "meatball" so that dispute shall rage on....

Another very important thing not mentioned on the site. To change between Latvian --> English translation and English --> Latvian, click on the small orange arrow between the two national flags. It reverses the direction of translation.

Link: Lat-Eng-Lat Translation
Raw URL: dictionary.site.lv/dictionary

By Jeff Coelho
TALLINN, Sept 16 (Reuters - Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd.) - Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are talking up ambitious energy restructuring plans to dim their Soviet past and win friends in Brussels.
Lithuania aims to close its Chernobyl-style nuclear plant and the three states are pushing for a united Baltic energy system with physical links to central and northern Europe as part of a drive to cut dependence on Moscow.
Energy industry experts said that despite huge costs the Baltics would not be able to face alone, conveying the correct politics of electrical power could help sweeten talks about issues such as membership to the European Union, or even NATO.
"That is the main reason why they are talking like this at the moment -- just to get Brussels to listen to them," Bo Kragelund, head of division at the Danish Competition Authority told Reuters after an electricity industry conference in Tallinn.
"Their main issue now is to get friends in Brussels, to get the possibility of going into the EU and working on it from there, because they can see it as an advantage," he said.
The 15-nation bloc opened EU membership talks with Estonia in March 1998, while Latvia and Lithuania are among the next wave of applicants to begin accession negotiations in December.
BALTIC INDEPENDENCE FROM RUSSIAN ENERGY
The Baltic states, largely dependent on energy exchange with Russia, want to expand their options away from Moscow which ruled the Baltic republics for five decades until independence in 1991.
"We need to find a way to develop ties to the west, as well as keep the possibilities open to trade in the east," said Janis Ositis, technical director at DC Baltija, a joint venture of state power companies in the three Baltic states.
He said political and economic support from Brussels would help make the physical transition for a unified Baltic energy system possible.
"The result of these political activities could be a distinct physical development, because physically it is clear how to do it," he said, referring to much talked about plans to build power cables and natural gas lines connecting to Europe.
The first phase of an underwater power cable from Estonia to Finland is slated for operation in 2002. The Estlink cable is part of a wider plan to integrate the Baltics with Nordic power pool members Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Lithuania, meanwhile, hopes to boost electricity exports to Europe via a power line connecting it to Poland.
"Estonians and Lithuanians are looking for a possible market in the west...but there is no great need for additional electricity in Finland and Poland," said Jurgis Vilemas, director of the Lithuanian Energy Institute.
"From that point of view the interconnections between Finland and Poland are at least in this short-term period more political than economical," he said.
SCRAPPING REACTORS EARNS PRAISE
Lithuania won kudos from Brussels earlier in the month by setting 2005 as the deadline for decommissioning the first of its two reactors at the Soviet-built Ignalina nuclear power plant.
Even though some nuclear experts say the plant is safe, its two RBMK reactors are similar to the one that caused the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine when a reactor exploded, sending radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe.
The cost of closing the first reactor was estimated at around $2.5 billion while projections for a full decommissioning of the plant ranged as high as $4 billion, for which Lithuania says it wants financial support.
Lithuania gets 80 percent of its electrical energy needs from Ignalina, making it the most nuclear-dependent nation in the world.
Setting a deadline date for even a partial decommissioning underscores Lithuania's desire to please the west, particularly when it had spoken of building a new Ignalina plant with Soviet technology shortly after independence.
Vilemas said the government had to give up something in order to open the door for possible fast track EU entry talks.
"To promise one unit is some kind of compromise," he said, noting that Lithuania wanted to avoid a political confrontation with Brussels, which wants to shut down all the power plants.
"It was some comfort to announce to Brussels when we are going to shut down those reactors," he said.
BALTIC REGULATORS NEED "GUTS"
The first steps toward an integrated Baltic energy system could be seen during the first five years of the new millennium, said Kragelund.
But, he said, regulators with "guts" were needed to form an independent system which would open up the monopolistic Baltic electricity market for competition.
"The problem is not that the regulators don't want to do it. The problem is the politicians who don't allow the regulators any freedom," he said.
Kragelund said the easiest way to construct an integrated and open Baltic energy market would be to establish closer links to the EU system.
"The pressure will not come from regulators in these states. It will come from Brussels or the politicians, because I don't think the regulators these days have the guts," he said.

By Burton Frierson
RIGA, Sept 15 (Reuters - Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.) - The IMF and Latvia announced on Wednesday an agreement on an economic policy programme, with promises of deficit reduction that analysts said would boost the beleaguered lat currency but may stymie growth.
Latvia's Finance Minister Edmunds said IMF approval of the country's policies should convince markets the government had the strength to defend a currency that has been sagging amid budget deficit worries.
The deal allows Latvia to tap World Bank structural adjustment loans (SAL) at favourable rates.
Analysts agreed the deal should boost investor confidence, but they said the proof would come when the government launched a planned 75 million euro ($77.5 million) bond issue in October.
"The main objective of this programme is to lay the foundation for sustained economic growth," IMF representative Adalbert Knobl told a news conference, adding that the IMF sees GDP growth near one percent this year and around four percent next year.
"This is to be achieved through two main instruments. The first is to provide for macroeconomic stability through fiscal and monetary restraint that is also supporting the fixed exchange rate of the lat," he said. Structural reform was the second focus.
Knobl said the government had agreed to reduce the fiscal deficit from slightly under four percent of GDP this year to under two percent next year, to press ahead with privatisation and boost minority shareholder rights.
Improving the regulatory environment, particularly in the energy sector, and banking supervision were also key structural issues to be worked on under the agreement, Knobl added.
BORROWING FLEXIBILITY
Krastinsh said the IMF programme and stamp of approval gave the government more flexibility in its borrowing plans, and deficit reduction would boost the lat.
"What can really put minds at ease is the cutting of budget deficit for 2000 to two percent," Krastinsh said.
"The agreement with IMF...will allow us to use the World Bank's structural adjustment loan, pushing any possible borrowing (beyond the October issue) of international markets further down the line. This would happen -- if at all necessary -- no sooner than before next summer," he said.
Analysts said the deficit reduction would strengthen the defence of the lat, which the Bank of Latvia has had to support through sustained foreign exchange market intervention recently.
"I think it's important that they have an agreement on the fiscal deficit with an international institution like the IMF," said Erste Bank analyst Petra Frewein.
The lat was weak on Wednesday, with dealers saying there were signs of intervention by the central bank after it had been off the market for a week. They said the IMF news would not effect trade drastically in one day.
Furthermore, Frewein said the fiscal tightening would not speed recovery for an economy that contracted by 2.3 percent in the first quarter, and the key test of investor confidence would be the October euro bond issue.
"I think it will show us if there is a change in the mind of investors... Recently the intervention levels of the central bank have decreased. Perhaps we are moving in a direction where investors are trying to believe in the lat again," Frewein said.
($1-.9671 Euro)

Washington, Sept 14 (Latvian Embassy) -- LATVIA'S PRESIDENT MRS. VAIRA VIKE-FREIBERGA TO VISIT THE U.S.
Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga will be in the U.S. the week of September 20, 1999. In New York, the President will address the United Nations General Assembly, speak at Columbia University, and meet with representatives of the American Jewish Committee, as well as with NY business leaders. Meetings with U.S. leaders at the highest political level are also being scheduled.
In Washington, DC the President will have meetings on Capitol Hill with Senators and Representatives, in the Pentagon with Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre, address participants in meetings hosted by Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Women's Foreign Policy Group, U.S. Committee on NATO.
The President will meet with Latvian-American communities in New York and in Washington:
- on Wednesday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Latvian Lutheran Church, 254 Valentine Lane, Yonkers, NY (tel. 914-476-4787)
- on Friday, September 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Latvian Lutheran Church, 400 Hurley Avenue, Rockville, Maryland (organized by the Latvian Organizations of Washington, tel. 301-251-4151).
(For further details visit Latvian Embassy on the Web:
http://www.latvia-usa.org).

One of the best views of Vecriga (Old Riga) is from the stairs inside the Universalveikals (department store)--here's a picture from Peters' trip in August, 1993.

A Few Things You'll Never Hear a Latvian-American Say
(no matter how drunk you get them)

"No more beer/wine/vodka for me. I'll just have a soda."
"My grandmother speaks English without an accent."
"I never went to Latvian summer camp."
"We Latvian-Americans tend to be dumb and ugly."
"I dropped out of high school."
"I've never been outside of the state in which I was born."
"Gossip? Nope, never done that."
"I never mix languages."
"Ulmanis? Who's that?"
"Riga? Where's that?"
"Garezers? What's that?"
"We never eat a lot at family gatherings."
"I don't sing."
"I have very few relatives."
"What happens on Midsummer's Eve/St. John's Day?"
"I didn't drink before I turned 21."
"My confirmation wasn't a big deal."
"I don't own any jewelry."
"My family wouldn't mind if a married a Russian."
"What's a hang-over?"
"I have no knick-knacks in my house."
"Green and brown are unusual colors for pottery."
"Latvians usually don't have big egos."
"I don't know anyone named Janis."
"I've never had to memorize a poem."
"Going to church is not a social thing."
"Being Latvian-American is simple and inexpensive."
"I remember where that bruise came from."
"I won't be long honey... I'm just going out for ONE beer."
"We can't drink tonight because we have to sing tomorrow."
"I'll be the designated driver."
"I can't start drinking until noon."
"What's the point in going out with him/her? He/she lives four states away."
"I'm not sure what amber looks like."
"Russian - Latvian - whatever."
"Volleyball is such a girlie game."
"I took studying very seriously at MLG and never drank with my teachers."
"I don't drink while wearing my folk costume."
"Cottages should be decorated by Martha Stewart."
"What do you mean - drip dry?"
"Anybody seen my purse? It's pink..."
"Only geeks dance the polka/"
"Daina? What an original name! I don't know any Dainas."
"School is more important than a stupid party in New York."
"No thanks, piragi are way too fattening!"
"I don't really like beer."
"So what if they don't sell liquor on Sunday - we are not driving an hour across state lines to get more!"