The ho ho horror!
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Latvia Just As Corrupt As It Ever Was!
I get a good chuckle every year when the various corruption indexes come out which invariably show Latvia's standing improving somewhat from year to year. Anyone who lives here knows better. The latest;
Foodie Fraud: Latvian Restaurant Chain Suspected of Tax Sam
Latvia's Asian restaurant chain Gan Bei has been accused of cooking more than delicious stir fry.
Financial police arrested seven people on Wednesday, including the wife of a member of parliament, on suspicion of cooking the firms books in a scheme that allegedly benefited them US$ 870,000 a month.
The suspects were held in connection with tax fraud and a scheme to under report earnings. At least two other people were taken into custody.
Officers of the State Revenue Service (SRS) searched at least 30 locations including the offices of catering company Lade Ko, it's subsidiary Gan Bei, and an unidentified cash register manufacturer. Gan Bei, which serves Japanese, Indian and Thai-inspired cuisine has ten outlets in and around the capital Riga.
Kaspers Podins, chief of the SRS, said at a press briefing that the cash register company under investigation had offered software to it's clients that let them fake having lower amounts of money in the registers, allowing them to skim off the remainder. The suspects, he said, had kept some of the money for themselves and used the rest to pay employees under the table.
Police also received parliamentary approval to search the house of MP Sergejs Potapkins, whose wife Galina Karmaca is a co-owner of Lade Ko and is one of the arrestees. When asked about the case Potapkin complained of "political speculation."
SRS General Director Kaspirs Cerneckis said that evidence obtained in the investigation could result in further charges against other retail and service companies.
Lade Ko confirmed to LETA that all Gan Bei locations have now reopened.
The salient points here;
My interest in this is kind of personal, one of the accountants is my neighbour who I witnessed being taken away by the SRS on Wednesday morning after showing up at 7:15 am and staying for two hours. A nice enough person but knowing the rest of my neighbours as I do I feel sorry that this person is now in the belly of the beast. Illegal schemes are rampant here as the number of knowing participants in this one would indicate.
Foodie Fraud: Latvian Restaurant Chain Suspected of Tax Sam
Latvia's Asian restaurant chain Gan Bei has been accused of cooking more than delicious stir fry.
Financial police arrested seven people on Wednesday, including the wife of a member of parliament, on suspicion of cooking the firms books in a scheme that allegedly benefited them US$ 870,000 a month.
The suspects were held in connection with tax fraud and a scheme to under report earnings. At least two other people were taken into custody.
Officers of the State Revenue Service (SRS) searched at least 30 locations including the offices of catering company Lade Ko, it's subsidiary Gan Bei, and an unidentified cash register manufacturer. Gan Bei, which serves Japanese, Indian and Thai-inspired cuisine has ten outlets in and around the capital Riga.
Kaspers Podins, chief of the SRS, said at a press briefing that the cash register company under investigation had offered software to it's clients that let them fake having lower amounts of money in the registers, allowing them to skim off the remainder. The suspects, he said, had kept some of the money for themselves and used the rest to pay employees under the table.
Police also received parliamentary approval to search the house of MP Sergejs Potapkins, whose wife Galina Karmaca is a co-owner of Lade Ko and is one of the arrestees. When asked about the case Potapkin complained of "political speculation."
SRS General Director Kaspirs Cerneckis said that evidence obtained in the investigation could result in further charges against other retail and service companies.
Lade Ko confirmed to LETA that all Gan Bei locations have now reopened.
The salient points here;
- a Seima MP possibly benefited from this scheme
- said MP's wife is deeply involved and arrested
- the scheme is well thought out & organized over time
- many ppl involved from employees to cash register mfg
My interest in this is kind of personal, one of the accountants is my neighbour who I witnessed being taken away by the SRS on Wednesday morning after showing up at 7:15 am and staying for two hours. A nice enough person but knowing the rest of my neighbours as I do I feel sorry that this person is now in the belly of the beast. Illegal schemes are rampant here as the number of knowing participants in this one would indicate.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Don’t Accept Putin’s Version of History
Finally, someone with a visible position in media tells it like it is:
The crisis in Ukraine, and the prospect of a further crisis in NATO itself, is not the result of our triumphalism but of our failure to react to Russia’s aggressive rhetoric and its military spending. Why didn’t we move NATO bases eastward a decade ago? Our failure to do so has now led to a terrifying plunge of confidence in Central Europe. Countries once eager to contribute to the alliance are now afraid. A string of Russian provocations unnerve the Baltic region: the buzzing of Swedish airspace, the kidnapping of an Estonian security officer.
Don’t Accept Putin’s Version of History
The West didn’t provoke Russia. It gave it more credit than it deserved.
But one Western policy stands out as a phenomenal success, particularly when measured against the low expectations with which it began: The integration of Central Europe and the Baltic States into the European Union and NATO. Thanks to this double project, more than 90 million people have enjoyed relative safety and relative prosperity for more than two decades, in a region whose historic instability helped launch two world wars.
These two “expansions,” which were parallel but not identical (some countries are members of one organization but not the other), were transformative because they were not direct leaps, as the word “expansion” implies, but slow negotiations. Before joining NATO, each country had to establish civilian control of its army. Before joining the EU, each adopted laws on trade, judiciary, human rights. As a result, they became democracies. This was “democracy promotion” working as it never has before or since.
But times change, and the miraculous transformation of a historically unstable region became a humdrum reality. Instead of celebrating this achievement on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is now fashionable to opine that this expansion, and that of NATO in particular, was mistaken. This project is incorrectly “remembered” as the result of American “triumphalism” that somehow humiliated Russia by bringing Western institutions into its rickety neighborhood. This thesis is usually based on revisionist history promoted by the current Russian regime—and it is wrong.
For the record: No treaties prohibiting NATO expansion were ever signed with Russia. No promises were broken. Nor did the impetus for NATO expansion come from a “triumphalist” Washington. On the contrary, Poland's first efforts to apply in 1992 were rebuffed. I well remember the angry reaction of the U.S. ambassador to Warsaw at the time. But Poland and others persisted, precisely because they were already seeing signs of the Russian revanchism to come.
When the slow, cautious expansion did eventually take place, constant efforts were made to reassure Russia. No NATO bases were ever placed in the new member states, and until 2013 no exercises were conducted there. A Russia-NATO agreement in 1997 promised no movement of nuclear installations. A Russia-NATO council was set up in 2002. In response to Russian objections, Ukraine and Georgia were in fact denied NATO membership plans in 2008.
Meanwhile, not only was Russia not “humiliated” during this era, it was given de facto “great power” status, along with the Soviet U.N. Security Council seat and Soviet embassies. Russia also received Soviet nuclear weapons, some transferred from Ukraine in 1994 in exchange for Russian recognition of Ukraine's borders. Presidents Clinton and Bush both treated their Russian counterparts as fellow “great power” leaders and invited them to join the G-8—although Russia, neither a large economy nor a democracy, did not qualify.
During this period, Russia, unlike Central Europe, never sought to transform itself along European lines. Instead, former KGB officers with a clearly expressed allegiance to the Soviet system took over the state in league with organized crime, seeking to prevent the formation of democratic institutions at home and to undermine them abroad. For the past decade, this kleptocratic clique has also sought to recreate an empire, using everything from cyberattacks on Estonia to military invasions of Georgia and now Ukraine, in open violation of that 1994 agreement—exactly as the Central Europeans feared.
Once we remember what actually happened over the past two decades, as opposed to accepting the Russian regime's version, our own mistakes look different. In 1991, Russia was no longer a great power in either population or economic terms. So why didn't we recognize reality, reform the U.N. and give its Security Council seat to India, Japan, or others? Russia did not transform itself along European lines. Why did we keep pretending that it had?
Eventually, our use of the word “democracy” to describe the Russian political system discredited the word in Russia itself.
Eventually, our use of the word “democracy” to describe the Russian political system discredited the word in Russia itself.
The crisis in Ukraine, and the prospect of a further crisis in NATO itself, is not the result of our triumphalism but of our failure to react to Russia’s aggressive rhetoric and its military spending. Why didn’t we move NATO bases eastward a decade ago? Our failure to do so has now led to a terrifying plunge of confidence in Central Europe. Countries once eager to contribute to the alliance are now afraid. A string of Russian provocations unnerve the Baltic region: the buzzing of Swedish airspace, the kidnapping of an Estonian security officer.
Our mistake was not to humiliate Russia but to underrate Russia's revanchist, revisionist, disruptive potential. If the only real Western achievement of the past quarter-century is now under threat, that’s because we have failed to ensure that NATO continues to do in Europe what it was always meant to do: Deter. Deterrence is not an aggressive policy; it is a defensive policy. But in order to work, deterrence has to be real. It requires investment, consolidation, and support from all of the West, and especially the United States. I’m happy to blame American triumphalism for many things, but in Europe I wish there had been more of it.
Monday, August 11, 2014
What Kind Of Motorcycle Is It?
There are few notable old re-conditioned beasts around Babite but this one stands out as it looks like a quality rebuild. I encountered it at my local Elvi this morning but didn't have time to properly scope it out before it disappeared. Anyone know what it is?
Monday, August 4, 2014
What's On TeeVee In Latvia?
Basic Tele2 service pack...3:00pm:
996 KINO TV HD, two idiots babbling about movies as though they knew shit. Best thing about this channel was the very likable blonde girl they chased away many months ago and then disrespected by putting a sign on her chair saying Ï Am Not A Movie Geek." FU movie twats! I have no idea what HD means. Huge Dicks? It can't possibly mean High Definition. You don't know shit movie twats!
997 Video Noma actual movie promo's. But direct to video stuff. It serves no purpose but to eat bandwidth and in this it succeeds wonderfully.
100 INFO KANALS what it sez folks. How to run your remote to better enjoy the many choices offered by your basic Tele2 channel package.
101 LTV1 German kiddy movie sub titled into Latvian with audio. Death.
102 LTV7 Soccer. Slashing my wrists.
103 TV3 Latvian soaper. Looking for something to punch.
104 LNT Latvian daytime talk show. Forehead hits desk as I nod off. Awake with a start and find remote control spilling drink in the process, blonde host is suggesting violence to her guests. CLICK!!
105 TV5 Russian, cuz of the neon backdrop and stupidity. Sub titled into Latvian. Bad suits. Flesh colored face mic's. The horror, the horror!
106 TV6 English shit sub titled into Latvian with audio, Some sort of sci-fi futuristic detective twaddle with typically bad American writing. KILL IT WITH FIRE!
107 KANAL S2 English twaddle in Latvian...need to pee.
108 Russian talk show in Russian. Not bad. There is a drunk outside my balcony, off to find my pee pot.
109 РОССИЯ PTP- Russian historical soaper. Good production values. Good acting. Looking for my bottle and a pickle.
110 HTB-МИР breathless propaganda. My head hurts. Complete drama queens.
111 REN TV some sort of shite.
112 3+ Horrible great big fat man with gold teeth and a huge nasty dog in a mold infested flat. Ahhh, it's a mystic show with soothesayers and visions! This should be good! Freaks.
114 RE:TV (BOOM FM) Two sports like dummies in Hawian shirts yapping about something in Latvian. Twats.
115 Positivus TV The music festival on a loop. Umm...
117 OTV Latvian kindergarden. Kids. But without the benevolent sun face in the sky. Needs moar drugs.
118 TV RIGA-24 Some sort of local cable that never fails to put me to sleep. Pretty people though.
181 Russian! I Don't understand! Too freakin fast!!
182 LRT News. Russian? Uke? Jeezuz, it's Lithuanian! Need to pee again.
183 BBC World News. Buh bye!
184 Eurosport
185 Fine Living. EAT THE RICH SHEEPLE!
186 Crime Investigations. In English but it doesn't help. Shite.
187 ESPRESSO TV Uke. All war all the time.
188 Baby TV. Need serious drugs to appreciate this one, in English unfortunately.
201 TV-21 Some weird English movie with Russian audio. Looks, bad.
203 FOX Sci Fi? English sub titled into Latvian, vampire? Dystopian theme? Pulse slowing, vision going black at the edges...
205 UNIVERSAL CHANNEL universally shite they mean!
210 SONY ENTERTAINMENT English with Latvian subs. They should be sued for using the word entertainment. The laugh track is enough for me to start killing flies in the flat. OH FUCK! The baseline! It's FRIENDS!!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
301 Cartoon Network What it sez. Cartoon. But weird, and in Russian. This is a good way to practice ones Russian however. Giggle, funny.
302 Nickelodeon Please die Disney. Now.
401 Eurosport. Those biking fools again. Get saddle sores you idiots.
402 Eurosport2 Tennis. I hate you Eurosport.
404 OUTDOOR CHANNEL. Rednecks. All day all the time 24/7. Kill yourself now!
411 Sportacent Latvian sport twats.
501 DISCOVERY CHANNEL Any idiot with a GoPro and a wetsuit can be on this channel. Need a beer.
502 Animal Planet. I usually only watch for the monkeys. They don't have monkeys anymore.
503 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. I remember when National Geographic was a quality educational channel with truly thought provoking photography and topics. Now I keep expecting Sarah Palin to take a shit on camera.
515 HISTORY CHANNEL why are they rebuilding cars on the History Channel?
601 MTV EUROPE Kill yourself now!
602 V11 EUROPE see above
603 Some Latvian music channel which means their version of country music. I'm not a total bastard. You watch it and figure it out for yourself. I'd rather drag my face through a bag of hammers tho!
MTV MUSIc 24 Ghetto shit yo!
605 Latvian music again, maybe? Northern Europe? I don't know.
606 Music channel...sigh.
607 ...more music...
608 Iconcerts. What it sez.
701 All Russian movies all the time.
801 Euronews
802 CNN Twats!
And I pay for this shit because my internet and landline are bundled. Not a single Italian channel in the whole bunch. This will not stand!
<edit> of course I meant Lattelecom
996 KINO TV HD, two idiots babbling about movies as though they knew shit. Best thing about this channel was the very likable blonde girl they chased away many months ago and then disrespected by putting a sign on her chair saying Ï Am Not A Movie Geek." FU movie twats! I have no idea what HD means. Huge Dicks? It can't possibly mean High Definition. You don't know shit movie twats!
997 Video Noma actual movie promo's. But direct to video stuff. It serves no purpose but to eat bandwidth and in this it succeeds wonderfully.
998 HD Testa Kanals, the same National Geographic loop for many years now. Planets. Origins. Sea water flowing over magma. It picked up for 1 month this summer when it was a 24 hr Seal concert. Contract must have run out. Back to bubbling cauldrons of mud and bad graphics, for another year. There's that HD again'!
100 INFO KANALS what it sez folks. How to run your remote to better enjoy the many choices offered by your basic Tele2 channel package.
101 LTV1 German kiddy movie sub titled into Latvian with audio. Death.
102 LTV7 Soccer. Slashing my wrists.
103 TV3 Latvian soaper. Looking for something to punch.
104 LNT Latvian daytime talk show. Forehead hits desk as I nod off. Awake with a start and find remote control spilling drink in the process, blonde host is suggesting violence to her guests. CLICK!!
105 TV5 Russian, cuz of the neon backdrop and stupidity. Sub titled into Latvian. Bad suits. Flesh colored face mic's. The horror, the horror!
106 TV6 English shit sub titled into Latvian with audio, Some sort of sci-fi futuristic detective twaddle with typically bad American writing. KILL IT WITH FIRE!
107 KANAL S2 English twaddle in Latvian...need to pee.
108 Russian talk show in Russian. Not bad. There is a drunk outside my balcony, off to find my pee pot.
109 РОССИЯ PTP- Russian historical soaper. Good production values. Good acting. Looking for my bottle and a pickle.
110 HTB-МИР breathless propaganda. My head hurts. Complete drama queens.
111 REN TV some sort of shite.
112 3+ Horrible great big fat man with gold teeth and a huge nasty dog in a mold infested flat. Ahhh, it's a mystic show with soothesayers and visions! This should be good! Freaks.
114 RE:TV (BOOM FM) Two sports like dummies in Hawian shirts yapping about something in Latvian. Twats.
115 Positivus TV The music festival on a loop. Umm...
117 OTV Latvian kindergarden. Kids. But without the benevolent sun face in the sky. Needs moar drugs.
118 TV RIGA-24 Some sort of local cable that never fails to put me to sleep. Pretty people though.
181 Russian! I Don't understand! Too freakin fast!!
182 LRT News. Russian? Uke? Jeezuz, it's Lithuanian! Need to pee again.
183 BBC World News. Buh bye!
184 Eurosport
185 Fine Living. EAT THE RICH SHEEPLE!
186 Crime Investigations. In English but it doesn't help. Shite.
187 ESPRESSO TV Uke. All war all the time.
188 Baby TV. Need serious drugs to appreciate this one, in English unfortunately.
201 TV-21 Some weird English movie with Russian audio. Looks, bad.
203 FOX Sci Fi? English sub titled into Latvian, vampire? Dystopian theme? Pulse slowing, vision going black at the edges...
205 UNIVERSAL CHANNEL universally shite they mean!
210 SONY ENTERTAINMENT English with Latvian subs. They should be sued for using the word entertainment. The laugh track is enough for me to start killing flies in the flat. OH FUCK! The baseline! It's FRIENDS!!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
301 Cartoon Network What it sez. Cartoon. But weird, and in Russian. This is a good way to practice ones Russian however. Giggle, funny.
302 Nickelodeon Please die Disney. Now.
401 Eurosport. Those biking fools again. Get saddle sores you idiots.
402 Eurosport2 Tennis. I hate you Eurosport.
404 OUTDOOR CHANNEL. Rednecks. All day all the time 24/7. Kill yourself now!
411 Sportacent Latvian sport twats.
501 DISCOVERY CHANNEL Any idiot with a GoPro and a wetsuit can be on this channel. Need a beer.
502 Animal Planet. I usually only watch for the monkeys. They don't have monkeys anymore.
503 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. I remember when National Geographic was a quality educational channel with truly thought provoking photography and topics. Now I keep expecting Sarah Palin to take a shit on camera.
515 HISTORY CHANNEL why are they rebuilding cars on the History Channel?
601 MTV EUROPE Kill yourself now!
602 V11 EUROPE see above
603 Some Latvian music channel which means their version of country music. I'm not a total bastard. You watch it and figure it out for yourself. I'd rather drag my face through a bag of hammers tho!
MTV MUSIc 24 Ghetto shit yo!
605 Latvian music again, maybe? Northern Europe? I don't know.
606 Music channel...sigh.
607 ...more music...
608 Iconcerts. What it sez.
701 All Russian movies all the time.
801 Euronews
802 CNN Twats!
And I pay for this shit because my internet and landline are bundled. Not a single Italian channel in the whole bunch. This will not stand!
<edit> of course I meant Lattelecom
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Latvia Ghetto Games
I have to admit I was initially biased against this series of events not knowing the reasoning behind it. I was doing something in the flat with the tee-vee on sans sound which is SOP in TRex world and out of the corner of my eye I saw the adverts for the 2014 Ghetto Games in Ventspils and right away I got pissed off because for some reason it reminded me of ICP, juggalos and all that weirdness. Also because I thought someone was just marketing the ghetto. Bear in mind I'm fresh off my New Wave hate fest so it took me a while to calm down and check out what this stuff was all about. Imagine my surprise!
Now I'm kinda curious! Withholding judgment and all.
But there's no way I'm going to Ventspils on Aug 8-10 for any reason at all.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Valium Nation Moscow Edition
It's been a while since I wrote about our home away from home on Gruzinski val, Belorusskaya station, Moscow and there are some pretty good reasons for that I figure. But since most everyone in Moscow is currently having to deal with the change out of electrical meters demanded by Mosenergo let me give you a heads up that may save you a ton of heart ache! Surprising no one I am sure I suspect there is the possibility of a scam here (there is no such thing as paranoia in Moscow!) but reality dictates that it is too sweet an opportunity for there to not be a scam against all property owners who may be spending most of their time outside of the country and therefore not be in a position to deal with issues in person.
It works thusly:
Mosenergo gives you a notice that your flats electrical meter is old and needs to be replaced. This is a normal enough request so you make an appointment and the deed is eventually done. It's not quite that simple but if you have ever lived in Moscow there is no need for me to fill in the gaps.
So you ask the service tech what to do with the old meter and he says to bin it as he is required to report the old readings to the head office and billing will smoothly transition to the new meter all nice like! With no problems whatsoever. My antenna should have been up and twitching right about then.
So like an idiot you throw out the old meter and the service tech promptly gets a decimal point out of sequence and you now owe Mosenergo 12 billion rubles and having left the city you call from a foreign area code to attempt to smooth the situation and are told with rank hostility that if you don't pay it by next week the word goes out to the border police (a department of the FSB) and the next time you visit the country your passport will be confisgated and you can't leave. Until you pay seventy billion rubles, because penalties and all!
So eventually with many phone calls to the original service tech who suddenly has no record of ever having met you you are suddenly the proud owner of a burnt out Lada and a clean electrical bill. The end.
Well, what did you expect?
The fact is that Moscow authorities do not actually descriminate against foriegners as far as I am aware. They treat everyone like dirt. But that bit about being prevented from traveling out of the country if you have an outstanding debt is perfectly true and I am sure the fact is used by anyone who is trying to settle an account whether it is a legitimate charge or not.
It seems to me that unless you are filthy rich or friends of some really ugly people owning property is just a huge hassle. If it isn't nasty neighbors then it's self-important officials looking to have something to produce for their next peer evaluation with the boss. But renting has it's own pitfalls as I am sure we all know.
I remember a line from a William S. Burroughs story where to get rich was to get cured and man am I ever in need of a cure!
It works thusly:
Mosenergo gives you a notice that your flats electrical meter is old and needs to be replaced. This is a normal enough request so you make an appointment and the deed is eventually done. It's not quite that simple but if you have ever lived in Moscow there is no need for me to fill in the gaps.
So you ask the service tech what to do with the old meter and he says to bin it as he is required to report the old readings to the head office and billing will smoothly transition to the new meter all nice like! With no problems whatsoever. My antenna should have been up and twitching right about then.
So like an idiot you throw out the old meter and the service tech promptly gets a decimal point out of sequence and you now owe Mosenergo 12 billion rubles and having left the city you call from a foreign area code to attempt to smooth the situation and are told with rank hostility that if you don't pay it by next week the word goes out to the border police (a department of the FSB) and the next time you visit the country your passport will be confisgated and you can't leave. Until you pay seventy billion rubles, because penalties and all!
So eventually with many phone calls to the original service tech who suddenly has no record of ever having met you you are suddenly the proud owner of a burnt out Lada and a clean electrical bill. The end.
Well, what did you expect?
The fact is that Moscow authorities do not actually descriminate against foriegners as far as I am aware. They treat everyone like dirt. But that bit about being prevented from traveling out of the country if you have an outstanding debt is perfectly true and I am sure the fact is used by anyone who is trying to settle an account whether it is a legitimate charge or not.
It seems to me that unless you are filthy rich or friends of some really ugly people owning property is just a huge hassle. If it isn't nasty neighbors then it's self-important officials looking to have something to produce for their next peer evaluation with the boss. But renting has it's own pitfalls as I am sure we all know.
I remember a line from a William S. Burroughs story where to get rich was to get cured and man am I ever in need of a cure!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)