West to the sun - or East to goodness knows what?

This afternoon I had a long phone call from a Latvian who liked my Blogs. It was good natured and educative. But I had a strange feeling from his words that I am inhabiting a strange parallel world here in Riga that many Latvians do not see. Everyone and everything was to blame except normal Latvians for the crisis. I could easily blame the Latvian language. When you translate Articles, Blogs and comments it is clear that no one here knows how to say anything straightforward. The future is never discussed. We go through every historical twist and turn, every shred of irony and call on every allegory we can think of. Every politician stinks, is to blame for something and is dishonest. Or worse all are secret Skele or Lembergs moles under deep deep cover to re-emerge like butterflies from the chrysalis at some later time. Emerging of course to return the country to darkness. And the EU and IMF are totally to blame for all this. No Latvian ever seems to blame themselves, even those who voted for the most corrupt. The language mix is simply impossible to follow for a foreigner. No wonder the Russian speakers stick to Russian to communicate.

But I wonder if we are not reaching a point where something here has to change. This week the Finance Minister Einars Repse has tried (or has actually succeeded - we have to wait and see) to sack the head of the State Revenue Service, Dzintars Jakans. The man has actually been dragging his feet badly on reform. This could be for many reasons and the conspiracy theorists will find loads, but I suspect that he is another past political appointee who like many in power simply has no clue what to do at all. Reform = cuts, doesn't it? The Peoples Party aided by the Goons and Farmers want to use this sacking as an excuse to bring down the government, but conveniently they say they will wait until after the budget is finished at the end of the year. I don't think they know how stupid and weak that makes them look. They had all day Friday to act if they thought they had a real case, but they showed what cowards they are by doing nothing. I guess that's because they know the only person who can do the real budget work is Repse and they have to wait until he is finished.

The real opposition forces in the form of the Oligarchs have been plotting too and Lembergs, Slessers and Skele (he came back the week before last amid trumpets, dancing girls and ribbons to save us all) have formed a new political Axis. Perhaps in half hearted opposition, former President VVF has also thrown her political hat into the ring and started with education reform. The comments were mixed. Many were saying thank God she is back whilst others were more vitriolic about the "Canadian" noting that she was in charge during the 7 fat years and did nothing. Mind she is not an economist!

So what next. If the coalition is going to fall we could be seeing a major turning point in Latvian politics. The end game might be closer than we think. A left turn to corruption and closer ties with Russia, or a right turn to honest government and a chance of a better future. The choice might just come down to the stubbornness of Repse and the decisions of the President. But it is clear that whoever holds the levers of power as we go into the election next summer will have the scope to bribe and fool the population. The big prize is to steal the EU and IMF money - and there are those who eye this greedily.

Sadly, I suspect that good Latvians will wait much longer before they really fight back. They would much rather sing their way to democracy than be active. But that will not work this time folks. The enemy are Latvians too and understand the weakness of this. Those in the countryside just hope the IMF or EU will come on white horses and save them. The Russian speakers keep their heads down and try to get by or even earn enough to live well. Latvian weakness is their political opportunity. And the forces of evil will rub their hands with glee as Latvia becomes more like a failed African state every day. They know that if good men and women continue to do nothing they will be the eventual winners.

And all the while, Russia waits and watches like a hungry vulture.

Latvia - Twitter, Blogs, Writing

I have been overwhelmed in recent weeks by business emails, Twitter followers and helpful blogs telling me about the new art of media marketing using Web 2 tools. I am supposed to want to get hundreds of people to follow me and what I write and somehow this breeds money. The key appears to be that we should all deliver some sort of marketing training package, or new way of improving our media offering that others then buy from us to make - yes you have guessed it! - their own way of delivering marketing training and better media packages. Hardly anything seems to be real goods and services.

This spiral of activity must of course stop when everyone has sold training and media tools to everyone and they are all perfect. One of the major contributors even admits that his business is a spiral sales package and that it relies totally upon pyramid selling - as if that was somehow a positive benefit.

So far Latvians seem to have used these tools to practice their favourite sport of creating new political parties and doing een more political complaining, rather than for productive business. But it set me to thinking if we could deliver better business from Latvia using these tools and I think we can.

The keys of course are that:

1. they have to be aimed at selling to and informing the rest of the world, not to Latvians,

2. they must be written in English, not Latvian or Russian.

So far the majority of Latvia Twitter posts I get are rarely in English and I think that they are much poorer value for this. This is especially so as most people here seem to have better English than me. As a country Latvia has so much to offer and it does no-one any good by hiding the beauty and possible business opportunities from others when there is simply no need.

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH

Every Christmas I try to watch the Queens Speech on BBC television in UK. This year in Finland I watched the Queens speech given by President Halonen. I asked my philosopher friend if he always watched it and he said she was too boring!

But the interesting point was that she gave the speech in two languages, Finnish first and then Swedish. I wondered aloud to my friends if that would happen in Latvia in the forseeable future for Russian speakers with as much grace and enthusiasm. Apparently though it has not always been so easy in Finland either. After the Swedish occupation ended in 1809 and Russia took over, Swedish remained the official language of the country (not Russian). By the end of the century there was a backlash and even many Swedish speakers said that this was not right. Finnish gradually took hold but the pendulum swung too far the other way and the Swedish speakers then felt discriminated against. Now the country has a good balance. No-one would even think about questioning the loyalty or "Finnishness" of any Swedish speaker. Swedish speakers have their own language, clture, media, universities, schools, clubs and sports teams and businesses. The two language groups coexist in harmony and the country is much stronger and more fun to be in for it.

The gradual process of language integration within the three Baltic states is full of good and bad stories. The only problem is that all three states need to take the Russian Government warnings seriously about their right to meddle in the affairs of those sovereign states that contain Russian speakers. But one thing that should be clear to all politicians from their own history and that of the Finnish nation is that a prosecuted language does not die. You cannot force a new language upon someone who does not want it, by any threats or persuasions. The Russian language must be accommodated by the three Baltic States because it is simply not going to go away. The challenge is to do this with inclusion, love, empathy and humour - and before Russia decides to find an unwanted solution of its own.

But one thing does puzzle me. I sat opposite Mrs Halonen at dinner many years ago and heard her speak strongly about the importance and value of the two language solution. Despite her outspokenness on many difficult EU subjects I have not heard her speak out in support of the Russian language in the Baltic Countries the same way. I would love to hear a reason.