The other side to this is how fast forest grows again.  I used to have horses on my land, and the owner of the adjacent land let me use his grassland for grazing.  He has since let his land return to forest, and it’s now hard to imagine my horses grazing in what is clearly forest.  This process happened all over Latvia after WWII, where a quarter of the country returned to forest.  Whatever point Jandžs is trying to make (and I can’t make it out) it isn’t supported by his absurd view of forest clearances.

Forests are not just for logging. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_old_growth_forests

http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0412_full.html

http://science.jrank.org/pages/4853/Old-Growth-Forests-Species-dependent-on-old-growth-forests.html

From Sweden:  http://distributedcomputing.info/ap-charity.html

Click a button at Ett klick för skogen (A Click For The Forest) to help save the last remaining old growth forests in Sweden. The charity’s first project, completed on July 28, 2005, collected 840,000 SEK (about $123,500 (US)) to buy and protect a forest in Årrenjarka in the northern part of Sweden. On March 26, 2008, the project signed a contract to buy and protect the Verles old growth forest 50 Km away from Gothenburg. It needs to raise 7,450,000 SEK (about $US1.2 million) by March 19, 2009.

The site is available in English and Swedish. Each click saves between 20 and 127.5 square centimeters (up to 20 square inches) of forest. The program costs you nothing (it is paid for by the companies which sponsor the site) and you do not need to register.
  ongoing:
3,405,270 SEK collected

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Bialowieza_Forest,_Poland

NOT-VIOLENT TERROR
52 A Floating Dead Fish (IV)

(Continued from blog 51)

Fear of Latvia losing brainpower and labor to emigration is nothing new. http://tiny.cc/P29Sg Social disintegration in Latvia, especially the countryside, is happening partly because of the many people looking for greener pastures abroad. The demoralization of the country speaks for itself through daily news. As for personal safety, everyone hopes for the best, some may install alarms to be heard a kilometer or more away, and some are discussing how best go to each other’s aid when such an alarm goes off or the neighbor calls for help by mobile telephone. Were such an emergency to arise, the neighbors will have agreed beforehand to come see if everything is as it should be.

Just recently, television news spoke of armed gangs of youths robbing, beating, even killing elderly farm people. Last year, not far from where I live, a man who had sold his cows (the dairy industry in Latvia is collapsing) and was suspected to have the money from the sale at home was killed. Police in the countryside is a legal matter, not a practical factor. The police highway patrols make highly visible raids especially at the end of the month to beef up the budget, but not much more. People who live in a village nearby express fear of unruly gangs of village youths congregating at night hours at a local bus stop. The youth have no nothing to do during the weekends especially. I have seen many walking around drunk. The lights on the street of the village go out at 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, everyone knows this is not the bottom of the bust. While most people realize that the economic crisis is world wide, the Latvian government receives the lion’s share of the blame. It should. Whatever the happy talk on television news that village choirs will continue to receive government support, and that the nationwide Song Festival every five years, a tradition since 1873, will go on, fact is that over the last twenty years, countryside culture of Latvia has collapsed from the “minimum” during the Soviet rule, to a “deficit” under Latvia’s own government. With the absence of communally known songs, which incidentally first made Latvians conscious of themselves, homogeneity disappears. Sure, the Latvian media has been telling its audience how the Suits (Suitu) http://tiny.cc/EOEGm received support from the EU as a culturally unique community. Only in the event this were true for every “novads”, i.e., municipal jurisdiction would could this be considered good news. [One person to consistently note the demise of Latvia is Alvis Hermanis, the Latvian theatre director: Latvija līdz ar Latvijas laukiem šobrīt aiziet nebūtībā. KF 10/16-23/09, p. 5] I suppose the following link http://tiny.cc/DgxQ9  may inspire some and they will see in it future possibilities—if only more folk songs were to be so recast, the effort consistent, and people took to it. However, from another point of view, it is a goodbye to songs with roots reaching back centuries on a most jarring note…. (For more go to blog. Photo by author: Melnays Jānis—Black John—receives a wreath.)

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NOT-VIOLENT TERROR
53 The Ides of Marx (I)

I had to look twice when I saw the TimesOnline headline: “Vatican thumbs up for Karl Marx ….” I was even more surprised to learn that the headline was telling the truth. The Vatican is engaged in historical reappraisal and making changes in its stance with regard to its former positions on a number of issues. According to TimesOnline:

“L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, said yesterday [10/22/09] that Marx’s early critiques of capitalism had highlighted the ‘social alienation’ felt by the ‘large part of humanity’ that remained excluded, even now, from economic and political decision-making.

“Georg Sans, a German-born professor of the history of contemporary philosophy at the pontifical Gregorian University, wrote in an article that Marx’s work remained especially relevant today as mankind was seeking ‘a new harmony’ between its needs and the natural environment. He also said that Marx’s theories may help to explain the enduring issue of income inequality within capitalist societies.” http://tiny.cc/6jOOf

It is significant that the leader of a major institution with populist tendencies, the “Church”, is changing its mind and has tilted the institution it controls—the Catholic Church in this instance—closer to those who are critical of neo-liberal leadership. The latter has clearly presumed itself to be the Captain of the Universe as it leads the charge towards globalization. Going into opposition is a radical step for the Vatican, because Catholic leadership (ever since its beginnings at Avignon) is responsible for the betrayal of the arch-Christian autocephalic democracy in order to serve the interests of secular princes. It is through the help of the Catholic Church that the princes, the forerunners of the capitalist system, were able to infiltrate into the social fabric of society and weaken its resistance to outsider exploitation. Indeed, the Catholic Church’s dependency on secular leadership for support created the “more-equal-than-others” economic order that rules today.

Nevertheless, if the Catholic Church has the will to turn from rhetorical doubt to seeing in it a major spiritual revelation, it must yet take another step into the populist camp. Such a step………..

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On the theme of “more-equal-than-others” that the Pope appears to be squaring off against:
http://tiny.cc/RRviK
http://tiny.cc/1NFQJ

NOT-VIOLENT TERROR
54 The Ides of Marx (II)

To discover how a bean reaches the sky takes some serious attention, but most of us leave it be knowing that once the shoot breaks the ground, it needs a branch or a wire to attach itself to, and once these are provided, the rest takes place on its own. However, the bean that I am talking about is named Latvia, and its growth has been, at best, stunted.

Latvia is a small nation that originates in Indo-European tribes, specifically as a linguistic group that since the foundation of the Baltic countries have come to be known as the Balts. http://tiny.cc If originally the Baltic Germans (occupiers of many of the territories of the Balts) applied the name only to themselves, linguists began to apply it to the languages spoken by the Lithuanians and Latvians, which is why those who spoke these languages became known as Balts. In a geopolitical sense, however, the name “Baltic countries” includes Estonia. This is because the Soviet Union annexed all three countries at about the same time. In any event, here she is, behold Latvia, ninety-one years since its founding in 1918.

The Latvians borrowed their name from the Latgalians, a tribe of Balts that played a significant role in creating Latvia itself. The Latgalians were an aggressive tribe. Perhaps this was because they were so much so egalitarian, that upon his death a father divided his land equally among all his sons. Since such a practice soon left his sons, especially his grandsons, with little land, they were left with no alternatives other than go look for (seize) more land or chose village life. In some ways, the Latgalians never resolved their egalitarian sensibilities, which is one reason why—when easy expansion into thinly settled lands of Neolithic people was no longer easy—they became prey to their militarily more advanced neighbors. http://tiny.cc/hJ3qh  First, they were joined with the Lithuanian-Polish Empire that brought them into the ranks….. (See below to continue.)

These blogs tend to be a continuum of an idea or thought, which is why—if you are interested in what you have read—you are encouraged to consider reading the previous blog and the blog hereafter.

If you copy this blog for your own files, or to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author and http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/

[size=3]NOT-VIOLENT TERROR
55 The Ides of Marx (III)

“November 11, 1918, Germany was compelled to sign the Compiègne armistice http://tiny.cc/7MJVo with the allies and this gave the opportunity for declaration of an independent Republic of Latvia. Initially, LNDP [Provisional* Latvian National Board, i.e., Latviešu pagaidu nacionālā padome] and the Democratic Bloc [anti-socialist or so-called “citizens” circles] could not agree on the political system to be chosen for the new country - the Social democrats insisted on forming a socialist regime, which was not acceptable to other parties. However, after long debate, on November 17, 1918, LNDP and the Democratic Bloc agreed to jointly form a provisional parliament, the Latvian People’s Council (LPC), which resolved to establish an independent and democratic republic. On the following day, on November 18, 1918, based on the previous day’s resolutions, the independent Republic of Latvia was proclaimed.” http://tiny.cc/Qg8nD **

However, this is not the whole story. Indeed, it passes over much that is relevant. For one, it completely bypasses the populist point of view—“populism” meaning “the people”***—which is not taken into consideration (in spite of the word “people” being so prominent a part of the council’s name), and by numerous legalistic oversights is excluded from having a say in the Latvian Constitution (Satversme). Note from the quote above: “…Social democrats insisted on forming a socialist regime, which was not acceptable to other parties. However, after long debate, on November 17, 1918, LNDP and the Democratic Bloc agreed to jointly form a provisional parliament….” What happened to the Social Democrats? Did they disappear, capitulate, or accept the point of view of “other parties”?

The Social Democrats refused to join the LNDP when it was founded on 1st of October, 1917. Only ten months after the Latvian troops (strēlnieki) had lost 8000-9000 men during the “Christmas battles” of 1916, the feelings against the tsar’s regime ran high. The loss occurred because Russian troops failed to come to the aid of the Latvian troops, when on December 23rd, 1916, they created a breach in the German lines. The Russian troops (possibly due to demoralization in the ranks and fear among officers to order an attack under such circumstances) failed to take advantage and enter the breach. The Latvian troops then had to retreat and stabilize the lines to prevent the Germans from seizing Riga during a counterattack. Because of the huge losses during these battles, the mood of the troops and most Latvians in the territories unoccupied by the Germans was against the tsar, indeed, many spoke of overthrowing him. [/size] (For more of the blog, click below link.)

These blogs tend to be a continuum of an idea or thought, which is why—if you are interested in what you have read—you are encouraged to consider reading the previous blog and the blog hereafter.

If you copy this blog for your own files, or to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author and http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/

NOT-VIOLENT TERROR
56 The Ides of Marx (IV)

(Continued from blog 55…)

No matter how one describes the events that led to Latvia’s founding on the 18th of November, 1918, it is clear it was done with a haste that is not as innocent as it is now said to be. The public at large received no period of grace for either approval or disapproval. Unfortunately, it was the “breadth” of the representative body of the Sovereign Council of the People, not the Latvian people themselves who spoke.

Does the behavior of the “liberal citizens” invalidate the Latvian Constitution? One hopes not. There were good geopolitical reasons for not wasting time in debates that would necessarily have taken some time. Moreover, though World War 1 was technically over, the aftermath was still one of violence, especially with a Revolution raging in Russia.

However, the haste of liberal circles to force themselves on Latvia as its sole founders, leads to the conjecture that these circles were motivated by a desire to establish a society and culture with a bias for the urban middle class and liberal economics. Today one would expect a referendum, a vote, a coming together of a majority of the people in order to establish their communal bonds beyond any doubt. Such a moment of coming together most likely occurred in “the days of the barricades” in early 1991, with the Peoples’ Front representing the populist front. Alas, the government that came to power on May 4th of that year, took the Constitution of 1922 for its own. If most Latvians today sing the Latvian national anthem giving their voices an inflection of pathos, the roots of this inflection must be sought in the circumstances that surround Latvia’s declaration of independence and the tilt of its Constitution.

Interestingly, the pathos of Latvia is expressed rather well by the former foreign minister of Latvia, Janis Jurkans, who (referring to the immediate post 1991 years in Latvia) says: “Political power in those days came into the hands of three, four people. I now live in a nation that has been stolen.” (My translation.) The former foreign minister ads that several retired politicians who are now returning to politics are doing so, because “They fear for their security before the law”. http://tiny.cc/mFz6b

Saulīt, svēti Latviju! Bring us a sunny day.

These blogs tend to be a continuum of an idea or thought, which is why—if you are interested in what you have read—you are encouraged to consider reading the previous blog and the blog hereafter.

If you copy this blog for your own files, or forward it, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author and http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/

There was no haste in proclaiming Latvia an independent country!  Finland, Estonia and Lithuania all declared independence in February, 1918, while the Latvians debated and debated until November 18.

Why couldn’t Latvians get their act together?  Because Latvian socialists were so loyal to the idea of working class supremacy that they were worried that the formation of National Latvia would set back the cause of international socialism.  What finally convinced them to come along was a suggestion that socialists could fight more effectively for the rights of the working class from independent Latvia than from a landless forum.

With apologies to Irena, but I second the link,re
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj4crMCg-XY
Latvian populists demand demoracy for the Latvian people.
It is time for “labējie” to go into retirement.
Let us get rid of partidocracy by rewriting the Latvian Constitution.
Incidentally, a countryside tourist industry (excluding Riga), if created around Johns grass will have the Swedes themselves pay back their banks what they stole from Latvians. Johns grass is good for making an exellent cup of Johns grass milk tea. Swedes, come on over to Latvia as friendlies.

This is part of a series of blogs on Populism, the Latvian People, and Johns. As the reader will discover, the Johns were the consciousness raisers of the Latvian people.

NOT-VIOLENT TERROR
57 The People of Johns (I)

Circumstances have kept the people of Latvia almost invisible. This is not only the case during the founding of Latvia as a nation and the writing of the Latvian Constitution, when self-awareness ought to be at its hight. The reason for the “invisibility” of the Latvian people is rooted in the distant past. However, if the roots before the 12th century are hid for lack of records, from about the 12th and 13th centuries on the roots may be inferred from peoples sharing similar circumstances.

Caterina Bruschi, a lecturer at Birmingham University, has just published an innovative account of the Catholic Inquisition in Languedoc, now part of France. Her account takes into consideration the point of view of not only the inquisitors, but also the “heretics”. “The Wandering Heretics of Languaedoc”, published by the Cambridge University Press this year, is a study of the testimony of what Bruschi calls “non-conformist itinerants”, and how their depositions were effected not only by fear, but their dissent from the Catholic orthodoxy as well. http://tiny.cc/hv43e  As the readers of my blogs know, I never call the name of so-called “Christianity” other than “neo-Christianity”. That is to say, what neo-Christians generally refer to as orthodox Christianity, I call it neo-Christianity. Therefore, in my parlance, the Christians of old who dissented from orthodoxy are what I call “arch-Christians”.

My interest in the Cathars of Languaedoc was first aroused, when it became increasingly likely to me that the fate of the Latvian “Children of Johns” (Jāņu bērni) was in some way related to the fate of the Cathars, the Waldesians, the Bogomils, in fact to all the confessions, which in one way or another could be imagined to have a connection with the name “John”—of which the Latvian “Jahnis” is a cognate.

As the reader probably knows, the Latvian “Children of John” (their festival is celebrated on Midsummer’s Eve) are a complete mystery today—especially to the Latvians themselves. This is in spite of the fact that almost all Latvians celebrate “Johns Eve” on an annual basis and have done so since time immemorial. The closest explanation for “Johns” that one comes across in public is ……………… (to read more, click on the last link below.)

These blogs tend to be a continuum of an idea or thought, which is why—if you are interested in what you have read—you are encouraged to consider reading the previous blog and the blog hereafter.

If you copy this blog for your files, or to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author and http://esoschroniclnes.blogspot.com/

There’s a great deal of garbage in these graphomaniacal screeds that’s completely out there. Little worth commenting on, but lest some innocent wanders in and believes this stuff, I feel compelled to point out the absurdity of one contention—

The Latvian Constitution (Satversme) was written under the umbrage of the Allies and Latvia’s German occupants, still on Latvian soil at the time.

The Latvian Constitution was produced by the freely elected Constituent Assembly that convened on 1 May 1920, a day we still mark as Satversmes sapulces sasaukšanas diena as well as Labor Day.

The elections to that Assembly, which took place on 17 and 18 April 1920, took place after Latvia had won the War of Independence (the last to get chucked out being not the German “occupants” [sic] but the Bolsheviks, though they were still terrorizing the young state from their bases in Russia).

Turnout was massive, at 80%. The Social Democrats received a plurality of the votes—38,7%. The committee that wrote the Satversme was dominated by Social Democrats. You should read Skujenieks, Cielēns and Menders if you think the Constitution was authored in haste by some nefarious liberal circles forcing themselves upon Latvia.

Your pseudo-historical conspiracy theories might look a little better if you bothered to read something other than Fomenko’s fantasies and brief condensations in English (but, then, you think of Latvian as a “shell of a language”). The Social Democrats, for instance, wrote copiously—Cielēns’ memoirs are online now for just Ls 0,61 a volume (highly recommended), here. Ideju Forums has a growing online library that’s free of charge, here. You will find Andersons’ tome on the period, 1914-1920, there; lest you worry that it’s liberal capitalist propaganda, you’ll find an endorsement of its objectivity by Bruno Kalniņš, the Social Democratic leader, here.

The public at large received no period of grace for either approval or disapproval. The public at large was either under occupation, in a war zone, or wandering around in Russia as refugees in 1918. Once Latvia and its allies won the war, the enthusiastic endorsement of the Republic by the public at large is indisputable.

Excuse the tone, but your one-man populist party reeks of fascism and the anti-democratic rhetoric once devoted to the “dictatorship of the proletariat”—something Latvia’s Social Democrats, who were democrats, rejected.

/P

One wonders how it was possible for a partidocracy to establish itself in Latvia twice. As I pointed out (blog 56), President Ulmanis, one of the founders of Latvia, had to intervene to check what he himself had helped to create. The hasty readopting of the 1922 Latvian Constitution in 1991 has accomplished an even worse dysfunction of government. There is a saying: The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

As blog 57 argues (above), the origin of the Latvian people is complicated and profound, far more so than the current pseudo Peoples’ Party (Tautas partija) and its allies knows or care to know. More in my next instalment (blog 58) in about a week’s time.

NOT-VIOLENT TERROR
58 The People of Johns (II)

Due to its geography, the territory that is now Latvia has always been in a state of greater or lesser demographic crisis. No doubt, various conflicts and wars have played their horrific role. However, an undeniable role in the shaping of the culture of the Baltics has been played by the land itself. As I remember from a news report a while ago, the current Premier of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is said to have referred to Latvia as a country where one can find only sand and mushrooms. Of course, in a derogatory sense, Putin is absolutely correct, because the third resource, forests, are now fast disappearing. According to some of my neighbors, the mushrooms, too, may be going due to the fast pace of deforestation.

There is some richly fertile land in Latvia, of course. However, most of it lies in the south of the country, and, from what I read, it has been bought up by foreign companies. Where I live, the northern part of Limbazhu region (not far from the Estonian border), the land has only about a foot of rock-thrown topsoil with clay appearing immediately underneath. This condition is due to the scraping and leaching of the land by the retreating ice age and its plentiful water runoffs not all that many thousand years ago. While farmers are exploiting this topsoil to the maximum and claim that the soil has plenty to give yet (“as long as you keep tilling and fertilizing it”), my own sense is that the land is better served if it were left to the forests and humans adapt to a forest environment.

The geography of Latvia pleads that the land be reforested, that the people learn how to build their homes in forests again as of yore, and that the population continue to be sparse—as it always has been.

Such an readaptation to geography, unfortunately, runs against the grain of the privatist mentality that prevails in the wake of 19th and 20th century philosophies that hold that those in power are “more-equal-than-others” and to simplistic Darwinisms such as “survival of the fittest”. Such theology-philosophy was well represented by the current President of Latvia, Zatlers, when on Latvia’s Independence day, he emphasized three things as being of primary importance: “land, people, freedom”. Why the president omitted sacrifice makes sense in the context of the neo-religion that prevails in Latvia today and is enabled by Latvia’s Constitution, the same that was unable to prevent two savagings of Latvian culture and the country’s economy. The first savaging occurred ………………

(To read the rest of this blog, please click on the last link below.)

These blogs tend to be a continuum of an idea or thought, which is why—if you are interested in what you have read—you are encouraged to consider reading the previous blog and the blog hereafter.

If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author and http://esoschroniclnes.blogspot.com/

I’m bored, so what the heck…
jandžs - you make this statement

because the third resource, forests, are now fast disappearing.

, or statements like it with regularity and you have been challenged to somehow objectively substantiate it. This is a serious issue and demands some kind of proof beyond “my neighbours tell me.” Maybe you have contacted WWF LV or some other NGO with an interest in illegal timber harvesting (WWF LV has written a series of reports over the years)? Perhaps you have gone to the officials and inspected documents regarding the harvesting that you saw off the highway?

By your metric (looking out your window, be it home or bus) there are no trees in LV. Here at Skolas iela 11, I can’t see a single one!