ambersun - 16 March 2010 07:46 PM

Dzons,

How presumptuous of you to try and speak for Latvia and the Legionnaires since you are neither.

Mīļā Saulīte, who is Latvia?

Džons point is hard to refute. I do not live in LV, because of that I understand the relative value of my opinion in all things relevant to latvija. Flip it around and consider american expats chiming in on what is or isn’t best for the good old USofA. not only their knowledge, but more importantly their experience is at the best, one step removed from the reality of life “in country”.
I would take everything they contribute to the conversation with that in mind. Those who are in LV should do the same with us.

ambersun is a joke.

ambersun - 16 March 2010 02:12 PM

Anita appears from the deep of the cabal central on March 16 to post her ‘tribute” to the Legionnaires, which included Rubiks’ stepfather and her father.

ambersun the Madame President, who loves Latvia, joins in a thread started in Latvian, writing her thoughts in….ahem, English? Whaaaaa?

Int- absolutely agree. Whenever I visit the USA, I am struck by how much/little things have changed, but mostly by how limited my knowledge is. Even my Facebook conversations with my American family and friends show how little I know about current politics and culture, since what I know is from my quite biased choice of web reading and forums!

Having said that, I lived nearly 40 years in the USA and that means I do have background that (in a reverse fashion) many trimda posters here do not have with regards to LV. I tend to put much more weight to trimda who actually lived here as opposed to visited here. It takes a while to shed the visitor skin and become an everyday schlepping resident.

A couple of years ago we saw a play in Gulbene called (literal translation) “In America Lives a Latvian.” The basic premise was a trimda who returns to LV to reclaim property. He believes that all locals were thieves, out to cheat him and they (locals) believe that he is rich. The interesting observation was that, despite his language knowledge and ethnicity, he was an outsider. With or without language it takes a darn long time to really appreciate the local situation from ground level.

Ambersun bizarrely wrote:-

Dzons,

How presumptuous of you to try and speak for Latvia and the Legionnaires since you are neither.

Firstly I am speaking for myself - Latvians like you are an embarrassment.  I spoke to my mother about you and she related a story about one of her cousins who lives in America criticising her and my aunt for not teaching their children to speak Latvian.  This was many years ago when we were children.  Time passed and three years ago my mother visited her cousins (three sisters) in America and none of their children spoke Latvian any more, and none had any interest in visiting Latvia, let alone living here, and yet all three cousins were stalwart members of the local Latvian community.  In contrast, my mother moved back here when she had the chance, as did I.  It’s easy to call yourself Latvian, and post your armchair commentary from afar, but the test of your Latvianness is very simple - do you want to live here and help make Latvia the place you want it to be?  The answer in your case is clearly no.  You are American, and you will always be American.

Secondly, if only legionnaires can speak for legionnaires then let’s wait for the few remaining nonagenarians to register and make their comments before any of us speaks again on this subject, shall we?

Džons

It’s easy to call yourself Latvian, and post your armchair commentary from afar, but the test of your Latvianness is very simple - do you want to live here and help make Latvia the place you want it to be?

I think this is an excellent litmus test on what makes one a Latvian. I could get on board with this one.

T.s. “Varonis” rakstīja:

Krieso Krievu Kremlinistu infiltrāciju ieteicams atspēkot ar saprātu!

Kur tad ir Jūsu saprāts? Aleksejs nav nedz kreisais, nedz kremļa pārstāvis; varu to personīgi apliecināt (kaut gan man, tāpat kā Anitai, itin nekas nav jāpierāda). Ja nodarbojaties ar apšaubāmiem etniskiem apvainojumiem—pierādiet pats. Krieviņš viņš ir gan; krievu izcelsmes Latvijas patriots. Jums acīmredzot aizmirsies, ka Latvija leģiona laikā arī bija okupēta, tikai no citas puses. Visu cieņu leģionāriem—labi zinu, ka viņi mīl un mīlēja Latviju. Bet Latvija tolaik neeksistēja. Tikai sirdīs, protams. Tomēr vācu okupācijas laikā nogalināja apm. 100 000 Latvijas pilsoņus, to skaitā apm. 18 000 latvjus. 16. marts nav varonības svētki—tie varētu būt svinīgi kapu svētki, ja dažnedažādi grupējumi neizjustu nepieciešamību izrādīties. Latvija zaudēja jau pirms kara. Latvijas Republika pazuda jau 1934. g., reālā nozīmē. Šodien ir 2010. g. 17. marts. Neaizmirsīsim, neaizmirsīsim—dedzīgi atbalstu vēstures zināšanas. Bet varbūt palasiet, ko Prof. Nollendorfs teica Guardian laikrakstā? Et tu, Ambersun?

Vysu lobu,
/P

Rarely objective but entertaining reading this.

Andrejs

forgive me for this but kas ir trimda??

trimda = exile…...............
that’s what we are, but supposedly, no more.

Exile ended when the borders were opened.

Since then, Latvians outside of Latvia are the diaspora.  To simplify.