Jon Latvis, Latvijas Zemessardze Spokesman?

In my sporadic efforts to keep up with the news in my home country of Canada I came across this strange story, click the headline for the full article:

Rob Ford Neo-Nazi Photo: Toronto Mayor Issues Statement Explaining Image

The Huffington Post Canada  |  By Michael Bolen

Posted: 07/26/2012 4:53 pm Updated: 07/26/2012 5:41 pm

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's office is responding after a photo of him posing with a neo-Nazi was posted online.

The image of Ford posing with Jon Latvis is making headlines after appearing Thursday on the blog of Sun commentator, and former Liberal candidate and strategist, Warren Kinsella. Kinsella posed the question: "Why is Toronto’s mayor pals with a former neo-Nazi icon?"

Latvis was a member of the neo-Nazi band RAHOWA (Racial Holy War), according to Kinsella and various web posts.

The photo first appeared on the Web on May 6 on a Facebook page in Latvis' name, according to the Toronto Sun. The caption? "Me meeting with Toronto’s Mayor, Rob Ford to get an endorsement for the Latvian Homeguard — at Toronto City Hall."

"At no time was the Mayor aware of allegations that this individual had made racist, hateful or otherwise offensive comments, nor were any such comments made during his meeting," the statement reads. "Mayor Ford is a strong supporter of Toronto's Jewish community and strongly deplores anti-Semitism in any form."

It is a little confusing that on Jon Latvis' FB page he states that he was meeting the Mayor to seek an endorcement for the Latvian Home Guard (Latvijas Zemessardze) which his wearing of the uniform would tend to confirm, but when given his meeting with Mayor Ford he chose to discuss public transportation issues instead. All this tends to link the Latvian Home Guard not only with Jon Latvis the Neo-Nazi but also with the Mayor's office's condemnation of anti-Semitism. Is that directed obliquely at The Latvian Home Guard or RaHoWa (Racial Holy War, Jon Latvis' last band)?

On his Facebook Page, Latvis calls himself a “European Nationalist, historian and anthropologist.”

He goes on to say as follows:

“Nobody can truly understand me anyway; maybe only big dogs and wolves. Bears maybe also, but I haven’t had the priviledge (sic) to speak to one yet. The Oaks and Holy Birches on my land can understand probably, but they don’t speak too much, only when they start moving their branches to make the wind blow do they make a sound. I’m sure the spirits of my Forefathers can understand me as I do them.” 

While I picked up on this story from that horrible aggregator Huffpo who in turn got it from Warren Kinsella's blog it appears to have originated here.

So, Jon Latvis, the face of The Latvian Home Guard abroad? They might want to look into that.


<multiple edits> spelling, how does it work?

Blatant Plug For Photosynth

I just had to comment on an App that I've had for quite awhile but never played with. It's called Photosynth and it stitches multiple shots together to form one continuous photo that, while still in the application on the phone allows you do drive around and look at the picture from different points of view. I was in Tukums last Sunday at about 9:00 am and while it was terrible weather there were no people so it was a perfectly static main square that drew my attention. Unless you have been to Tukums town square you will not realize that this picture attached below is a roughly 270ºº view.

You can see how it was stitched together from three photos. This is a really handy app for small confined locations as well, like an o(ri)ffice.

Failed States, Who Are They?

Foreign Policy has their annual 2012 failed states index out and Latvia is listed as "borderline." This data actually originates over at the Fund For Peace where there is more detail for those so inclined. 


Using such indicators as Demographic Pressures, Refugees / IDP’s, Group Grievance, Human Flight, Uneven Development, Economic Decline,Deligitimation of the State, Public Services, Human Rights, Security Apparatus, Factionalized Elites & External Intervention Latvia is nowhere near the top 59 ranked failed states which has Somalia at #1 with a score of 114.9 and Mozambique in the #59 position with a score of 82.4. Nevertheless Estonia and Lithuania rate better than Latvia at #143/47.5 and #149/44.2 respectively, Latvia sitting at #136/51.9. Just for some added perspective Greece is currently ranked at #138/50.4  on the list and Finland wins with a #177/20.0. 


I take all lists with a grain of salt, like financial lists which seem to need Latvia's one time GDP boost to bolster the internal devaluation or austerity measures which some politicians are wedded to in spite of many top economists advising more spending. But if you take as much of the information into account as you are able to absorb then a person stands a better chance of cutting through the sound bites and selective rendering and shilling in the media.


I personally think that it will be a long time before Latvia offers a comfortable living for the average person. As a property owner who took a bath when the real estate bubble burst in 2008 I read stories like this with a frown. Latvia is rapidly becoming a country of haves & have nots. 


But it's not quite a failed state, yet.

Tourists

You hate them, right? Not really, they are the bread and butter of this town providing more employment than RIX but damn, when I take the train in and see that huge ferry docked I am so tempted to simply turn around and go home.


It's the way they gum up the normally smooth flow of my day you see! The pedestrians slowing foot traffic as they rubber neck and walk down the boulevard three or four abreast. The backpacks which they fail to allow for as they climb in and out of buses and trolleys almost knocking you off your feet as they pirouette around looking for a seat or place to stand, too dazed & confused to remove the damn thing and carry it by their side. I could go on and on but yesterday gifted me a sterling example of how a foreigner can get a brain freeze when in a strange country and presented with a very simple situation that they just cannot figure out.


I am a tourist myself many times in the course of a year, just not here anymore. I now live here. But I like Italy a lot for example, once lived in Venice and know enough to enter my tourist mode when it is required which involves keeping my eyes open extra wide and antenna close to the ground, pay attention as it were. Yesterday I was doing something I never do which is shop at the men's clothing department on the second floor of Stockman's. They had a sale on pyjamas you see, 40% off...well anyway that's not important but what you should know is the price tags have two values shown. One in lvl and the other in Euro because while Latvia is part of Europe it doesn't adopt the Euro until 2014, something apparently lost on some visitors. So this dual price on the tag is simply a convenience for those who haven't wrapped their mind around the exchange rate yet, doesn't mean that you can pay in Euro, you must pay in lvl. But try to explain that to the older Turkish couple who were holding up the cashier at the check out as they tried to make a 65 lvl purchase with Euros having only 45 lvl in local currency on their person. The cashier was trying to explain to them in very good English which is the default language after Russian that they didn't have enough lvl's and needed to go to the ground floor to change their Euros, but they don't speak English let alone Russian. This just went on and on in a circular fashion with the line behind me getting longer and longer and the cashiers patience just running out and being replaced with a rage face at the inability of this couple to comprehend that they could not escape the reality of the situation without going downstairs and changing some Euros. So finally after I figured out their nationality I pulled out my phone and using the very fine Google Translate App I quickly had them on their way. Simply really. But good lord how dense are you to not have a method of dealing with the host countries language. I make allowance for the couples age but come on.


Still, that wasn't the worst I've seen in my travels. That honour goes to the clearly frazzled American dad in Venice, Italy who managed in his frustration to alienate everyone around him and leave his own family crying tears of embarrassment in the middle of their huge pile of luggage as he waved a limp wrinkled printout of an email hotel reservation at the attendant on the crowded public water taxi demanding in English that someone tell him where to go. Ever been on a public water taxi in Venice on the Grand Canal at the peak of the tourist season? It is considered a hazardous area where one misstep on the heaving crowded surface of the boat can have you in the water crushed against the dock. The attendants try to safely herd these huge volumes of people on and off the boat finally sliding a metal gate into place which is the signal for the captain to gun the engines and take off for the next stop. It's a very dangerous ballet and people who screw up the flow are dealt with quickly. The dad had clearly gone through some sort of hell to get his brood and their mountain of luggage to the Rio Alto bridge, no mean feat but was now so out of control that everyone simply averted their gaze as the attendant coolly responded to his demands to be told where to go with a "not here". He surprised me actually as it would not have been my first choice for a response.


I just couldn't bring myself to tell the guy that 5 feet to his right was a line of motoscafi, private water taxi for hire whose drivers were observing this meltdown with bemusement.

pic taken from foot of Rio Alto bridge

How To Miss an Appointment in Riga

If you're a gambler, live in a suburb and need to commute by train, just blindly follow whatever train schedule is available without leaving some wiggle room. Murphy's Law will come into effect directly.


At the beginning of every month using my cell phone camera I would take a photo of the new train schedules leaving in both directions from my local station then print a hard copy in order to post it on my kitchen wall but ink cartridges for my old Brother printer aren't cheap and between Mrs. T and I we are pretty hard on office supplies. So not finding any domestic train schedule phone Apps which are available for other forms of transportation (Stops Riga is an example) and as a measure of economy I went directly to the Train website thinking that they would keep that schedule current and then saved the screenshot to my photo-editor where I cleaned the image up a bit and sent it my Docs to Go Desktop and synced my phone. That solved my printer supplies problem but it still doesn't explain the odd missing train! What usually works fairly well if your Russian or Latvian language skills are up to the task is calling information at 1188 who will then re-direct your call if necessary and you can confirm a particular trains departure/arrival time. But it costs between 50 centimes and 1 lvl per call and I wonder what schedule they are using! The same one I have? And it still doesn't help you if there is no train.


It all sounds very minor since most residents use very specific trains at the same time every day as they are doing something repetitive like going to work if you are so lucky as to have a job. But if one's schedule is not set in stone but still involves being punctual a missed train can mean a missed trolly or bus connection in Riga and a missed appointment. And unless you are a tourist this is generally a bad deal.


Granted there are many reasons for a schedule to get messed up. People do fall on the tracks occasionally, by accident or design. And there is a definite increase in maintenance or freight traffic which has to be accommodated on a line which changes from a double to single line at various points. I can't imagine how a slow freighter from Ventspils complicates things.


But the bottom line is that in the summer with increased traffic you are just bound to have a train do the Twi-Light Zone on you.


It's still cheaper than owning and maintaining a vehicle tho.

The Grim Reaper forgot his scythe.