'Latvians Are Everywhere' by Otto Ozols: A New Face of Modern [Latvian] Literature or A Mirror of the World Today?

Source: janisroze.lv

I walk along the numerous shelves of diverse manifestations of knowledge, and stop at the shelf stating 'Latvian Literature'. So there I stand, scanning through the many new and old masterpieces of new and old wizards of domestic literature. What immediately catches my eye is the very patriotic cover of a book 'Latvians Are Everywhere' [Latvieši ir Visur] by Otto Ozols. It also states that it's a special limited edition dedicated to the country's birthday in November. As follows, this national thriller as named by some was first published in 2010. I'm intrigued, though I'm not able peak inside as it's covered in extra plastic. However, it is visible to the eye that the cover contains engraved Latvian ornaments and has four short reviews on the back cover made by publicly well-known figures, including the wizards of contemporary Latvian literature. One of the main conclusions the locally famous reviewers try to feed to the audience is that the book is like a medicine for those that have lost their feeling of national significance. The book is pricier than other books, so I have my moment of doubt whether I should spend 18 something Euros and get this 'boost of national significance'. Well, 'Latvians Are Everywhere' and they win me over, also because I'm intrigued to learn about how people describe their experiences of living abroad. However, not everything looking splendid and promising from the outside is able to keep up with the created image when extra plastic cover is removed...

The Biggest Fears of a Latvian News Reader regarding Refugees [2015]

©Gatis Šļūka 'A View on Europe Today'

As it became clear earlier, due to the refugee crisis the EU made a decision to find new homes for 60 000 refugees in its member states. Latvia as one of them also agreed to contribute to refugee crisis and in two years time accommodate 250 refugees. However, Latvian society has demonstrated different attitudes to this event, including readers of news portals. Weirdly enough refugees haven't come yet - but an opinion about them and who they are is already formed. More stereotypical than real. One of the causes for that might be the fact that despite a large protest against the coming of unknown, refugees are going to settle in Europe, and that it is already decided without public consent. Therefore the reaction of European society in some parts is very harsh. However, it does not change the fact that the information that is rotating around is rather prejudicial and stereotypical. In this matter, I did a small research in which I went on exploring the characteristic traits of the future refugees in Latvia based on posted comments by readers on news portal DELFI [www.delfi.lv] and came up with TOP 7 stereotypical characteristics of future refugees in Latvia. The results do not represent the opinion of the whole Latvian society, but is still a [great or minor, decide yourself] part of it. I hope these findings will serve as a tiny bit of a help to the people that will be dealing with integration issues in tomorrow's Europe. If not then it's just a sarcastic answer to all today's bloated and superficial fears about refugees that are intensely spread around in social media channels. Enjoy!

Thinking piece on Understanding of Modern Political Challenges

 © Marta Podniece

The Earth is round? Right? That is the universal truth we all tend to believe, because there has never been any discussion about it in the past few centuries or possibly no political campaign has found it an attractive reason to make people believe it will change something for them. Let’s face it - we are egoists. Many things have been happening on this round ball called Earth, especially in political matters. It’s easy to see the point of one individual by just hearing him commenting on the news, while reading an analytic piece on the second page of the daily newspaper every morning. This is a habit. And politics is a habit as well. Politics of a particular newspaper, which include choices on exactly which activities will be commented on on the second page of the paper. Sensations? Surprises? Money laundry? Politicians involved in the international scandals? Yes, please! We want it! We want a theme to talk about during the lunch break! We want a theme that we can be smart about! And here we go...

The World On a Day Before Yesterday: A Global Image of 14th March 2012

Guardian, India; Parivartan Sharma/REUTERS

Once I prepared a workshop for young people on the theme of stereotypes and I used visual data of online media [to be precise - I used photo galleries posted on different news sites under the name "Photos of the Day" as a data set], as a source that represents different countries and influences different reading audiences on their opinions about the world here and now. It's undoubtedly a free space for stereotyping and identifying global players in the global politics, but from other perspectives such a gallery of the day reveals a lot more information about what is important for different nations - individualism versus collective consciousness, traditions, culture, the life quality and life priorities, the importance of time and status, money and wealth, and if you're just a reader of a particular media, such visual interpretations even unconsciously influence your view about the world, as according to S.Sontag or any non-expert in photography - "we tend to trust that the image is showing the truth as  in the reality we don't have enough time to travel and check it "... so therefore I wanted to check: How the world looks like on 14th March 2012?

Hitch-hiking Back to Balkans. Day Three. Bits of Czech Republic.

Ostrava, Czech Republic 2011

The morning starts just right after 6 AM. We’re having the last coffee together this summer. I have no doubt there will be more, as Europe appears more and more to be an extremely small village, where everything and everyone is connected. Agnieszka makes me sandwiches for the long way, as with hitch-hiking you never know where and when you’ll exactly end your day, as she says, though my destination is clear for today - Ostrava, where Adam is expecting me, so we can continue our journey to Balkans together tomorrow.

We take a tram from Agnieszka’s place (she actually lives quite close to the Old town - at least you can see Wawel Castle on the other side of the bridge, when you come out on the busy street) and get off at the main bus station. We go to the platforms, looking for my bus, or actually the bus, which I’m not taking to Katowice. We wait for the passengers to come, as it’s almost the departure time. We don’t know yet, if our idea of selling the ticket on the bus will work - as everyone appears to have a previously purchased ticket. But we’re lucky - just 1,5 minutes before the bus should leave appears a guy, who is in a complete rush, trying to manage to get on the bus, so that it’s not leaving without him. Agnieszka asks the guy in Polish, whether he needs a bus ticket to Katowice and luckily he really does! He gives Agnieszka 10 Polish Zlots in cash and he’s gone with the wind and the bus. We’re happy to have some benefit out of this morning’s bargain activity, and moreover Agnieszka admits that it was her first time selling the ticket on the bus. Yeah, there always comes the first time for something.

Hitch-hiking Back to Balkans. Day One. Bye Riga!

Hungary, 6 km away from Serbian border

Here I've gathered bit some pieces from my journey to Serbia at the end of June 2011. Although my final destination was Serbia, beside exploring the road stories and people I met on the way in Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Serbia itself, I also managed to go a bit further to Macedonia, which was my EVS (European Voluntary Service) country in 2009/2010. Each blog post on this journey (with a label Back to Balkans 2011) presents one day on the road and all the details I've managed to grasp on the way in form of people I've met, thoughts I had and sometimes silly experiences that I got myself into. The journey started in my home country Latvia on 23rd June 2011.

Urban Stories: A Fairy in a Bluish Purple Smock

© Marta Podniece 'Autumn in Riga'

She starts her day always the same way: by sweeping yellow leaves into bigger and smaller piles, swearing on guys that throw cigarette butts on the ground instead of throwing them in the bin and she's always there - welcoming random people on their way to work, being a psychotherapist while listening to the petulant stories of grannies of how much the old bones hurt and that the medicine has become way too expensive, greeting the postman who's trying to enter the blockhouse but apparently forgotten the entry code as he stays at the front too long, probably thinking. This everyday ritual hasn't changed at all, at least for the last 20 years. It might be very possible that the prisoners inhabiting the cells of this Blockhouse Paradise have changed, the kids of them have already grown up, but she's still there - sweeping the streets and washing the stairways of the blockhouse with chlorine (so the smell is worse than in a public swimming pool). So invisible and at the same time regular she is. She's like a thing that belongs to this particular Blockhouse Paradise, even more than the actual prisoners of the inhabited cells. She's like a clock of existence. She's like a painting on a wall in a famous museum (which is admired through the centuries, yet nobody cares to bother, as long as it is there and nobody has taken it away). She is an icon of this live Museum of Cells, where behind the closed doors people tend to quarrel, love, cook dinners and oversleep working hours. It seems to be a way of being a part of a randomly formed social group, though unintentionally.

Her bluish purple smock does not change colors either (color of royalty, wealth and wisdom) as the years pass by and it is an integral part of this urban museum icon, of her being. And her face is a face of an angel in a Forgotten World filled with degenerates, drug addicts, young families and old couples, homeless cats and sometimes dogs, living inside or nearby this particular Blockhouse Paradise, living in a space that has no signs of high culture, with not a single building that would evoke high appreciation or amazement, not a single positive vibe around... maybe that's why these districts are called the 'sleeping' residential complexes... and there are many of them, having many of these urban fairies in bluish purple smocks sweeping around the magic dust.

Forever Young. Forever Drunk. [Вечно молодой, вечно пьяный]

© Alexander Drozdov/AFP/Getty Images

While I'm checking the daily dose of emails confirming or rejecting the hostel bookings on an ordinary working day and hoping to proceed with fighting my BA thesis when a spare moment arrives, two backpackers come in to check-in their pre-booked hostel beds. 

Olga and Irina. They came to celebrate. It's yet another year and another birthday. This is a special one despite the fact that Riga greets them with snow, so white and so unbearable.

They say they never buy a return ticket, just in case if the city's charm gets them too far and the desire to enjoy the beauty of the place is so vigorous that there's no chance to resist it.

They come from the city of lions and bridges. The city that is all covered up in historical fairy-tales and beauty, having both features in a great amount. [St. Petersbourg]

They speak about the famous white nights and the bridges that tend to split and merge back time to time. That's all about the weirdly astounded bridge thing, as they say. If you stay on the wrong side of the bridge after a great party it just means that you had a great party. Indeed! Now you need to use your creativity to figure out where you're going to spend the rest of the night. The tourists even if just innocently watching this phenomenal bridge splitting activity might get themselves into a trouble for the same reason for being on the wrong side of the bridge.

The economic tendencies are uniquely precise and appropriately portraying the global stability crash, also in Russia. The workforce is experiencing massive dismissals from full-time and part-time positions. Same goes for pubs that are decreasing in space and numbers, as they say.

They consider themselves workaholics. For already 3 years they're earning money by writing BA and Master thesis and reports for lazy students. They work together and they succeed. One of them states that if the spring season was very productive by doing this stuff, they can afford a pretty easy living afterwards that includes expanding of horizons away from home city walls, like now. Seems like it's worth it. However, the present economic tendencies have also influenced their unique method of earning income, since the nation's financial capacity has become less impressive than it used to be.

They passionately approach the subject of existing subcultures in their city, when I ask, excited to describe the curious features of subcultures that they are also part of. The Roofers is one of them. Roofers are those living on the roofs or at least enjoying some late night beers there once in a while. However, even roofers are experiencing hard times, since the owners of houses that apparently have roofs have started to close more and more doors to those numerous Roofers' paradises. That's a shame! Maybe those house owners want to keep the king-size happiness of being on the roof for themselves? Nevertheless, there are still some unlocked roofs left and if needed you can always get directions how to get there.

Meanwhile they continue to celebrate. To celebrate their silent moments of happiness of being in a big city, drinking beer hidden in gloves, smiling and telling jokes, inviting to come for a visit, to visit the city of lions, pretty bridges and just great people. I'm smiling along [for those... forever young and forever drunk].