The new year 2022 will be very important for Latvia, because on October 1 the 14th Saeima elections will take place, which will determine the course of our country's development for the next four years - until 2027.
Before Christmas, the Latvian government briefly broke away from its Covid obsession and allowed shops to open for pre-Christmas shopping and entertainment venues to operate on New Year's Eve.
The European Commission on Tuesday set the validity of the Covid-19 vaccination certificate for travel in the EU Member States at nine months from February 1 next year. Each country can set the validity period of this certificate for internal use, and our rulers are saying it could be five or six months. In other words, the way is clear for regular vaccinations every six months.
In a few weeks, it will be one year since Daniels Pavļuts became Minister of Health. On January 7, the Saeima voted in favor of his appointment, and two days later, on January 9, he gave an interview to TV3 in which he said, among other things: "Voluntary vaccination is a fundamental principle of vaccination." And after a short pause, he added: "I would not want us to become a totalitarian state."
Putin's Russia has once again shown that it knows how to surprise. Here are the words with which Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov put on the table the draft Russia-US Security Guarantee Treaty: "Everything is handed to you on a plate. All you have to do is sign it. It can basically be done in a few days." The tone was roughly that of Zhukov accepting Keitel's surrender in Berlin on May 8, 1945.
Jāzeps Baško pēc vairāk nekā desmit gadu dzīvošanas Rietumos (pārsvarā Londonā) pērnruden atgriezās Latvijā ar misijas apziņu – veicināt konservatīvās domas attīstību un iepazīstināt latviešu sabiedrību ar pasaules konservatīvās domas izcilāko prātu sacerējumiem. Šim nolūkam viņš ir izveidojis grāmatu apgādu “Kodoka” (KOnservatīvās DOmas KArtotēka). Tieši šodien šajā apgādā iznāk sērijas “Konservatīvas domas bibliotēka” pirmā grāmata – Britu filozofa Rodžera Skrūtona “Kā būt konservatīvam”.
In April of this year, a wave of hatred swept over Latvia. The umbrella organization of the LGBT+ community, Mozaīka, circulated loud posts on social media with numerous exclamation marks and the words - Hate!!! Hate!!! Hate!!! A man was burned to death in Tukums because of homophobic hatred.
How to evaluate the "Rododendrs" event at the Riga Castle organized by the well-known political showman Aldis Gobzems? I have to tell it like it is. It is ambiguous because, on the one hand, it was undoubtedly a poorly organized event without a serious scenario, purpose and, one might even say, meaning, but, on the other hand, it is hard to condemn it because Gobzems is used by various loyalists no less, perhaps even more than by critics of the government.
"The world has fallen out of love for democracy anymore" and "I am convinced that freedom of conscience, together with the other civic rights, provides the basis of progress" - these are the two main theses to note in the Nobel Prize speech by this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
In Friday's issue of Neatkarīgā, I wrote about Mike Judge's film Idiocracy, based on a screenplay by the legendary Ethan Cohen. The government of idiots depicted there looks like a literal rip-off of our Kariņš/Pavļuts model. See for yourselves.
The National Language Centre has finally translated into Latvian the terms "woke" and "wokeism", which are popular around the world to describe viewing all issues through the prism of racism and inequality (of the oppressed/oppressors).
On Tuesday afternoon (Moscow time) or in the forenoon (Washington time), US and Russian leaders Joseph Biden and Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukraine issue over a secure video channel that was set up back in the days when Barack Obama used to travel to Moscow with his Russian mistranslated "Reset" button.
On Thursday, Germany saw the "retirement" of its long-serving head of government and, it is safe to say, head of state, Angela Merkel, in a solemn ceremony. A great chapter in the history of Germany, and indeed of Europe, has come to an end. But life goes on, and this week (the Bundestag vote is scheduled for December 8) Germany will have a new, so-called traffic-light government with Social Democrat Olaf Scholz at its head.
All last week we were discussing in the editorial board that we should write a commentary on the new traffic light coalition government in Germany, which will replace the old Merkel black-red government in the coming days. But other current events prevented us from honoring this agreement. To get ahead of events, I will say that there will be no article on the new German coalition this time either. Why?
The well-known and internationally acclaimed pianist Vestards Šimkus has announced that he is temporarily suspending his concert activities in Latvia. "Dear friends and listeners! I am forced to stop my professional activity. For how long? Maybe until January 11. Maybe until warmer weather..."
The meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Riga should, in theory, send a clear signal to potential adversary Russian authoritarian president/monarch Vladimir Putin: don't even think of barging into NATO territory, it won't end well for you. Don't even hope for any reluctance and hesitation on NATO's part. The response will be sharp, swift, unequivocal and will destroy you.
From December 6, all face-to-face workers will have to take the Covid-19 self-test at least twice a week. This has been approved by the government. The tests will be bought by the state for both public and private sector workers.
Today, an extensive media conference “Defending media freedom. What freedom?” is taking place in Tallinn. Rita Ruduša, a well-known “trainer” of the society in our country, was also announced among the speakers. Reading the conference application, it becomes clear that the event is planned as another stage in a longer chain of "training", when, talking about defending the freedom of speech, it is discussed how to make one "correct" worldview convincingly dominate the information space, while others are limited as much as possible.
Watching the video of a crowd of thousands of potential border trespassers breaking across the Belarusian/Polish border on Monday, a question came to mind: how long will the EU remain tolerant of Lukashenko's actions? When will the EU reach the limit of their patience, and they will stop humiliating themselves with the expressions of "worries" and "deep concern" that have already become a source of ridicule?
The absolutely neutral, even meaningless slogan "Let's go Brandon" has become the main slogan against President Joe Biden by his opponents. It is shouted out of the stands during football matches, printed on T-shirts and it has become viral on social networks. Why and what does it mean?