tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240976332024-03-13T15:53:51.584+01:00Latvian BlogTie kas tic un cīnās, dzīves Saulē tiek; Tie kas nolaiž rokas, ēnā jāpaliek.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-79422614468678861022016-04-10T17:31:00.001+02:002016-04-10T17:31:03.516+02:00National Library of Latvia Materials Preserved by ABBYY FineReader: 4 Million Pages in 20 LanguagesWe were happy to read that the ABBYY FineReader engine has been used to preserve 4 million pages in 20 languages at the <a href="http://www.abbyy.com/casestudies/4000000-pages-in-20-languages-abbyy-finereader-engine-preserves-the-national-library-of-latvia-for-future-generations/#sthash.OQW0tTik.dpbs">National Library of Latvia</a>. Much material is available for public viewing.
This is not an ad, just info. See that page for further links.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-78018258068802181302016-02-12T19:33:00.002+01:002016-02-12T19:44:24.844+01:00Ligo, Ligo! Gravitational Waves Detected by LIGO, Confirming Einstein's Theories<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ux5Jpj8E4" target="_blank">Ligo, ligo!</a> The Baltics knew this all along, did we not ;-)<br />
<br />
As reported in an article by Dennis Overbye at the New York Times, Einstein's theory of the existence of gravitational waves has now been confirmed by <a href="http://www.ligo.org/" target="_blank">LSC, LIGO Scientific Collaboration</a>, in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/science/ligo-gravitational-waves-black-holes-einstein.html?action=click&contentCollection=Real+Estate&module=MostPopularFB&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article">Gravitational Waves Detected, Confirming Einstein’s Theory - The New York Times</a>.<br />
<br />
Do we have ESP? Apparently, given our last posting at Einstein's Voice in November, <a href="http://1/" target="_blank">100
Years of Relativity Theory - Is the Universe its Own Singularity? -
What is the Speed of Gravity at Work and is Gravity the same as Dark
Matter? </a><br />
<br />
The gravitational waves themselves are said to travel at the speed of light, but how fast is the actual speed of gravity itself? Instantaneous? <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Here is the offical press release by LIGO:</b></span><br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;">"<span style="color: #073763;">Gravitational Waves Detected 100 Years After Einstein's Prediction
</span></span></h1>
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span>
<span style="color: #073763;"><b>
News Release
•
February 11, 2016
</b></span>
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #073763;">Visit <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/detection">The Detection Portal</a></span></h4>
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">See also: <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/310/original/LHO-NewsRelease-11Feb16-Final.pdf?1455201669">LIGO Hanford Press Release</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><i>LIGO Opens New Window on the Universe with Observation of Gravitational Waves from Colliding Black Holes</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">WASHINGTON, DC/Cascina, Italy</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of
spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at the earth from a
cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major
prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and
opens an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Gravitational waves carry information about their dramatic origins
and about the nature of gravity that cannot otherwise be obtained.
Physicists have concluded that the detected gravitational waves were
produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two
black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This
collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">The gravitational waves were detected on September 14, 2015 at 5:51
a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (09:51 UTC) by both of the twin Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located
in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, USA. The LIGO
Observatories are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and
were conceived, built, and are operated by Caltech and MIT. The
discovery, accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review
Letters, was made by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (which includes
the GEO Collaboration and the Australian Consortium for Interferometric
Gravitational Astronomy) and the Virgo Collaboration using data from the
two LIGO detectors.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Based on the observed signals, LIGO scientists estimate that the
black holes for this event were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the
sun, and the event took place 1.3 billion years ago. About 3 times the
mass of the sun was converted into gravitational waves in a fraction of a
second—with a peak power output about 50 times that of the whole
visible universe. By looking at the time of arrival of the signals—the
detector in Livingston recorded the event 7 milliseconds before the
detector in Hanford—scientists can say that the source was located in
the Southern Hemisphere.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">According to general relativity, a pair of black holes orbiting
around each other lose energy through the emission of gravitational
waves, causing them to gradually approach each other over billions of
years, and then much more quickly in the final minutes. During the final
fraction of a second, the two black holes collide into each other at
nearly one-half the speed of light and form a single more massive black
hole, converting a portion of the combined black holes’ mass to energy,
according to Einstein’s formula E=mc<sup>2</sup>. This energy is emitted as a final strong burst of gravitational waves. It is these gravitational waves that LIGO has observed.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">The existence of gravitational waves was first demonstrated in the
1970s and 80s by Joseph Taylor, Jr., and colleagues. Taylor and
Russell Hulse discovered in 1974 a binary system composed of a pulsar in
orbit around a neutron star. Taylor and Joel M. Weisberg in 1982 found
that the orbit of the pulsar was slowly shrinking over time because of
the release of energy in the form of gravitational waves. For
discovering the pulsar and showing that it would make possible this
particular gravitational wave measurement, Hulse and Taylor were awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">The new LIGO discovery is the first observation of gravitational
waves themselves, made by measuring the tiny disturbances the waves make
to space and time as they pass through the earth.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“Our observation of gravitational waves accomplishes an ambitious
goal set out over 5 decades ago to directly detect this elusive
phenomenon and better understand the universe, and, fittingly, fulfills
Einstein’s legacy on the 100th anniversary of his general theory of
relativity,” says Caltech’s David H. Reitze, executive director of the
LIGO Laboratory.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">The discovery was made possible by the enhanced capabilities of
Advanced LIGO, a major upgrade that increases the sensitivity of the
instruments compared to the first generation LIGO detectors, enabling a
large increase in the volume of the universe probed—and the discovery of
gravitational waves during its first observation run. The US National
Science Foundation leads in financial support for Advanced LIGO. Funding
organizations in Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and
Technology Facilities Council, STFC) and Australia (Australian Research
Council) also have made significant commitments to the project. Several
of the key technologies that made Advanced LIGO so much more sensitive
have been developed and tested by the German UK GEO collaboration.
Significant computer resources have been contributed by the AEI Hannover
Atlas Cluster, the LIGO Laboratory, Syracuse University, and the
University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Several universities designed,
built, and tested key components for Advanced LIGO: The Australian
National University, the University of Adelaide, the University of
Florida, Stanford University, Columbia University of the City of New
York, and Louisiana State University.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“In 1992, when LIGO’s initial funding was approved, it represented
the biggest investment the NSF had ever made,” says France Córdova, NSF
director. “It was a big risk. But the National Science Foundation is
the agency that takes these kinds of risks. We support fundamental
science and engineering at a point in the road to discovery where that
path is anything but clear. We fund trailblazers. It’s why the U.S.
continues to be a global leader in advancing knowledge.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">LIGO research is carried out by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
(LSC), a group of more than 1000 scientists from universities around the
United States and in 14 other countries. More than 90 universities and
research institutes in the LSC develop detector technology and analyze
data; approximately 250 students are strong contributing members of the
collaboration. The LSC detector network includes the LIGO
interferometers and the GEO600 detector. The GEO team includes
scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert
Einstein Institute, AEI), Leibniz Universität Hannover, along with
partners at the University of Glasgow, Cardiff University, the
University of Birmingham, other universities in the United Kingdom, and
the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“This detection is the beginning of a new era: The field of
gravitational wave astronomy is now a reality,” says Gabriela González,
LSC spokesperson and professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana
State University.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">LIGO was originally proposed as a means of detecting these
gravitational waves in the 1980s by Rainer Weiss, professor of physics,
emeritus, from MIT; Kip Thorne, Caltech’s Richard P. Feynman Professor
of Theoretical Physics, emeritus; and Ronald Drever, professor of
physics, emeritus, also from Caltech.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“The description of this observation is beautifully described in the
Einstein theory of general relativity formulated 100 years ago and
comprises the first test of the theory in strong gravitation. It would
have been wonderful to watch Einstein’s face had we been able to tell
him,” says Weiss.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“With this discovery, we humans are embarking on a marvelous new
quest: the quest to explore the warped side of the universe—objects and
phenomena that are made from warped spacetime. Colliding black holes and
gravitational waves are our first beautiful examples,” says Thorne.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Virgo research is carried out by the Virgo Collaboration, consisting
of more than 250 physicists and engineers belonging to 19 different
European research groups: 6 from Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS) in France; 8 from the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica
Nucleare (INFN) in Italy; 2 in The Netherlands with Nikhef; the Wigner
RCP in Hungary; the POLGRAW group in Poland; and the European
Gravitational Observatory (EGO), the laboratory hosting the Virgo
detector near Pisa in Italy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Fulvio Ricci, Virgo Spokesperson, notes that, “This is a significant
milestone for physics, but more importantly merely the start of many new
and exciting astrophysical discoveries to come with LIGO and Virgo.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Bruce Allen, managing director of the Max Planck Institute for
Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), adds, “Einstein
thought gravitational waves were too weak to detect, and didn’t believe
in black holes. But I don’t think he’d have minded being wrong!”</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“The Advanced LIGO detectors are a tour de force of science and
technology, made possible by a truly exceptional international team of
technicians, engineers, and scientists,” says David Shoemaker of MIT,
the project leader for Advanced LIGO. “We are very proud that we
finished this NSF-funded project on time and on budget.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">At each observatory, the two-and-a-half-mile (4-km) long L-shaped
LIGO interferometer uses laser light split into two beams that travel
back and forth down the arms (four-foot diameter tubes kept under a
near-perfect vacuum). The beams are used to monitor the distance between
mirrors precisely positioned at the ends of the arms. According to
Einstein’s theory, the distance between the mirrors will change by an
infinitesimal amount when a gravitational wave passes by the detector. A
change in the lengths of the arms smaller than one-ten-thousandth the
diameter of a proton (10<sup>-19</sup> meter) can be detected.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“To make this fantastic milestone possible took a global
collaboration of scientists—laser and suspension technology developed
for our GEO600 detector was used to help make Advanced LIGO the most
sophisticated gravitational wave detector ever created,” says Sheila
Rowan, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Glasgow.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Independent and widely separated observatories are necessary to
determine the direction of the event causing the gravitational waves,
and also to verify that the signals come from space and are not from
some other local phenomenon.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Toward this end, the LIGO Laboratory is working closely with
scientists in India at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and
Astrophysics, the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, and the
Institute for Plasma to establish a third Advanced LIGO detector on the
Indian subcontinent. Awaiting approval by the government of India, it
could be operational early in the next decade. The additional detector
will greatly improve the ability of the global detector network to
localize gravitational-wave sources.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">“Hopefully this first observation will accelerate the construction of
a global network of detectors to enable accurate source location in the
era of multi-messenger astronomy,” says David McClelland, professor of
physics and director of the Centre for Gravitational Physics at the
Australian National University. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;">Additional video and image assets can be found here: <a href="http://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave" target="_blank">http://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><b>Caltech</b><br />
Kathy Svitil<br />
Director of News and Content Strategy<br />
626-676-7628 (cell)<br />
ksvitil@caltech.edu</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><b>MIT</b><br />
Kimberly Allen<br />
Director of Media Relations<br />
Deputy Director, MIT News Office<br />
617-253-2702 (office)<br />
617-852-6094 (cell)<br />
allenkc@mit.edu</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><b>NSF</b><br />
Ivy Kupec<br />
Media Officer<br />
703-292-8796 (Office)<br />
703-225-8216 (Cell)<br />
ikupec@nsf.gov</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><b>Virgo</b><br />
Fulvio Ricci<br />
Roma +39 06 49914261 (Office)<br />
Cascina +39 050 752 345 (Office)<br />
+39 348 3187354 (Cell)<br />
fulvio.ricci@roma1.infn.it</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><b>GEO</b><br />
Susanne Milde<br />
Phone +49 331 583 93 55<br />
Mobile: +49 172 3931349<br />
milde@mildemarketing.de</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><b>UK Science and Technology Facilities Council</b><br />
Terry O’Connor<br />
+44 1793 442006<br />
+44 77 68 00 61 84 (Cell)<br />
terry.o'connor@stfc.ac.uk</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><b>Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics Hannover</b><br />
Benjamin Knispel<br />
Press Officer<br />
+49 511 762 19104<br />
benjamin.knispel@aei.mpg.de</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #073763;">Read the Press Release in</span></h3>
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><span style="color: #073763;"><a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/286/original/Press_Release_Bengali.pdf?1455060791">Bengali</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/287/original/Press_Release_Catalan.pdf?1455060825">Catalan</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/307/original/press-release-chinese.pdf?1455163479">Chinese</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/288/original/Press_Release_French.pdf?1455063100">French</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/289/original/Press_Release_Gujarti.pdf?1455063140">Gujarati</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/290/original/Press_Release_Hebrew.pdf?1455063206">Hebrew</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/291/original/Press_Release_Hindi.pdf?1455063234">Hindi</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/292/original/Press_Release_Hungarian.pdf?1455063268">Hungarian</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/293/original/Press_Release_Korean.pdf?1455063294">Korean</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/294/original/Press_Release_Marathi.pdf?1455063318">Marathi</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/295/original/Press_Release_Odia.pdf?1455063345">Oriya</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/296/original/Press_Release_Portugese.pdf?1455063378">Portugese</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/308/original/press-release-russian.pdf?1455163549">Russian</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/298/original/Press_Release_Spanish.pdf?1455063438">Spanish</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/309/original/press-release-swedish.pdf?1455163695">Swedish</a> | <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/299/original/Press_Release_Thai.pdf?1455063460">Thai</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><b>LIGO Caltech</b><br />
MC 100-36<br />
California Institute of Technology<br />
Pasadena, CA 91125</span>
<span style="color: #073763;"><br />
Information: (626) 395-2129<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><b>LIGO MIT</b><br />
MIT NW22-295<br />
185 Albany Street<br />
Cambridge, MA 02139<br />
<br />
Information: (617) 253-4824" </span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-62054668010760847552015-12-16T21:43:00.001+01:002015-12-16T21:43:08.737+01:00Latvian Kristaps Porzingis (Kristaps Porziņģis) A Rising Star in NBA Professional Basketball on the Team of the New York KnicksProfessional basketball player 7'3" 20-Year-Old <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristaps_Porzi%C5%86%C4%A3is">Kristaps Porzingis</a></b> (<b>Kristaps Porziņģis</b>) of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liep%C4%81ja" title="Liepāja">Liepāja</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvia" title="Latvia">Latvia</a>, now playing with the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), is a rising star in the world of sports.<br />
<br />
Nate Silver and Kirk Goldsberry have the straight scoop
at fivethirtyeight.com in
<a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/kristaps-porzingis-is-a-freak-and-potentially-a-superstar/">Kristaps Porzingis ... Potentially A Superstar</a>.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-60285368556953219932014-02-04T17:36:00.001+01:002014-02-04T17:36:39.152+01:00Riga is European Capital of Culture in 2014See the story at the Official Latvian Tourism Portal<br /><br />
in <a href="http://www.latvia.travel/en/article/riga-will-become-european-capital-culture-2014">Riga will become the European Capital of culture in 2014</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-81014756513572474522013-12-29T16:05:00.000+01:002013-12-29T16:05:04.231+01:00Laimīgu Jauno Gadu! Latvia Switches to Euro on 1 January 2014The <a href="http://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/changeover/latvia/html/index.en.html" target="_blank">European Central Bank</a> (ECB) reports that Latvia joins the Euro currency as the 18th member of the Euro area on January 1, 2014.<br />
<br />
The Latvian currency, the Lats (LVL), ceases to be legal tender on January 15, 2014.<br />
<br />
The fixed exchange rate is € 1.00 = LVL 0.702804, which is equivalent to ca. 1 Lat to 1.42 Euros.<br />
<br />
<b>In Latvia</b><br />
<br />
Latvian post offices will exchange the old money until March 31, 2014 while normal banks will exchange the old currency until June 30, 2014. In addition, the country's <i>central</i> bank, the Latvijas Banka, i.e. the <a href="http://www.bank.lv/en/" target="_blank">Bank of Latvia</a>, will exchange unlimited amounts of LVL currency (notes and coins) for an indefinite period into the future.<br />
<br />
<b>Outside of Latvia in the Euro Area</b><br />
<br />
Outside of Latvia, Euro area national central banks (NCBs) will exchange Latvian banknotes in amounts limited to €1000 for any given party/transaction on any one day until February 28, 2014.<br />
<br />
<b>General Comment</b><br />
<br />
Although the shift from the Latvian lat to the Euro area currency is not massively popular among the Latvian populace, the fact is that "<span style="color: #0b5394;">Latvia has, for all practical purposes, been part of the euro zone since joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 2005.</span>" (<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/eurocrisis/2013/06/05/latvians-divided-on-euro-benefits/" target="_blank">WSJ</a>)<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-63521610588845834292013-10-16T11:40:00.001+02:002013-10-16T11:40:46.396+02:00Latvian Dictionaries
<a href='http://www.tezaurs.lv/'>Latvian Dictionaries</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-53358689901549790072013-10-11T17:23:00.001+02:002013-10-11T17:23:08.258+02:00Models of Economic Recovery: A Fistful of Euros Asks: As Good As It Gets In Latvia?What are the essential elements for economic recovery?<br />
<br />
This is a question that can be asked regarding the arguably complete economic recovery in Latvia over the last 3 years.<br />
<br />
A Fistful of Euros in fact asks:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/as-good-as-it-gets-in-latvia/">As Good As It Gets In Latvia?</a><br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-39358961776849520912013-10-11T17:18:00.000+02:002013-10-11T17:18:04.018+02:00Dual Citizenship Permitted in Latvia under Amendments Effective 1 October 2013Amendments to the Citizenship Law of the Republic of Latvia have now made it officially possible under given circumstances for emigrated Latvian "nationals" or their descendants to obtain dual citizenship.<br />
<br />
Previously, there was a requirement that a previously existing citizenship in another country had to be relinquished to obtain Latvian citizenship.<br />
<br />
See the details at Baltic-Course.com News in <a href="http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/legislation/?doc=81829">Assistance obtaining dual citizenship in Latvia</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-10676166159031714892013-07-12T00:12:00.004+02:002013-07-12T00:12:42.079+02:00Latvian Neighbor Estonia Draws Raves at The Economist for being a Baltic Corporate Tech CapitalSchumpeter raves about Estonia at The Economist in <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/07/estonias-technology-cluster">Estonia's technology cluster: Not only Skype</a>. Here is a sample:
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #0b5394;">"IT TAKES just five minutes to register a firm in Estonia.... Estonia holds the world record in start-ups per person — a sizeable feat considering that the country has only 1.3m people....</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Estonia may be too small to become anything like Europe’s Silicon Valley, but it certainly has a shot at being the EU’s Delaware, the state where most of America’s technology firms are incorporated."</span></blockquote>
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-76939625823941560972013-07-10T22:26:00.001+02:002013-07-10T22:26:13.570+02:00Latvia as an Economic Role Model for Europe?<a href="http://www.dw.de/can-latvia-be-a-role-model-for-reforms-in-europe/a-16941073">Can Latvia be a role model for reforms in Europe?</a><br />
is a headline at the English-language German Deutsche Welle.<br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-67690047320546725382013-07-10T22:19:00.003+02:002013-07-10T22:19:48.462+02:00EURO to Replace the LAT: Latvia to Become 18th Eurozone Member Starting January 1, 2014The beleaguered Euro is given a lift as <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/european-finance-ministers-ready-to-welcome-latvia-into-euro-despite-economic-problems/2013/07/09/e2831378-e878-11e2-818e-aa29e855f3ab_story.html">Latvia gets formal OK to join the euro, hopes it will bring growth despite economic problems</a>. Latvia will formally join the Eurozone on January 1, 2014 thus making it the 18th member, as reported by the AP via the Washington Post.<br />
<br />
Recall, with newly added Croatia, that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union" target="_blank">European Union</a> now has 28 members, of which 10, after Latvia, will still retain their own currency. It is no surprise that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_and_Monetary_Union_of_the_European_Union" target="_blank">economic and monetary union in the EU</a> is taking a slow pace. Given European history, the surprise is that it is working at all.<br />
<br />
We live in Germany and fly to Latvia regularly and are always puzzled by the apparent bias of some news reports about the Baltic and the European Union that can be read in the USA and elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Rather than celebrating the tremendous changes and improvements that have been made in Russia and the former Soviet Union nations, there are many commentators who seem to prefer an Armageddon stance on Europe.<br />
<br />
Contrary to reports and articles during recent years by persons who should know better, the Euro is not disintegrating and Europe is still alive and kicking.<br />
<br />
There are of course problems, so what is new about that?<br />
Life is a constant stream of problems -- and, ideally, solutions. <br />
<br />
At the same time, there are new frontiers out there for Western democracy and capitalism, and almost all of those frontiers are in the East.<br />
<br />
The countries there are developing their own versions of more liberal government and economic models than they had before, and these are, in spite of difficulties, far better than what existed not too long ago behind the Iron Curtain.<br />
<br />
The CHANGE is remarkable. A functioning capitalist system and a political democracy are not forged in a day. A vibrant economy is dependent on the achievement of many long-term objectives that are essential economic factors.<br />
<br />
People need to exercise reasonable patience in the amount of improvement that can by expected.<br />
<br />
In any case, the conversion to the Euro should boost Latvia economically.<br />
<br />
See also: <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/09/news/economy/latvia-euro/index.html" target="_blank">Euro get 18th Member: tiny Latvia</a>, at CNN Money.<br />
<br />
We cite particularly to that article because it shows how subtle some of the Stateside bias against Europe can be. Latvia is not "tiny". Rather, it encompasses an area of 24,938 square miles, which would rank it 40th among American states and just above West Virginia with 24,230 square miles, but more than twice as large OR MORE in terms of area than each of the States of Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, or Rhode Island. Hence, Latvia is small in comparison to larger States of the USA or as judged by the size of nations, but it is by no means "tiny". Correctly, as far as Latvia is concerned, "small" is beautiful.<br />
<br />
Hat tip to C.Z.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-87444426665938670322013-07-10T00:15:00.001+02:002013-07-10T00:15:08.820+02:00The Land That Sings: Latvian Song and Dance Festival 2013As reported at e.g. <a href="http://www.local-life.com/riga/articles/latvian-song-festival" target="_blank">The Land That Sings</a> the<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.riga-guide.com/events/latvian-national-song-and-dance-festival-2013/" target="_blank">XXV Latvian National Song and Dance Festival</a><br />
as organized by the <a href="http://www.km.gov.lv/en/" target="_blank">Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia </a><br />
took place in Riga and ended this past Sunday, July 7, 2013.<br />
<br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-82974789750973807592012-08-12T19:34:00.003+02:002012-08-12T19:35:12.965+02:00London 2012 30th Olympiad Ends Competition with Baltic Win of the Gold Medal by Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania in the Women's Modern PentathlonLaura Asadauskaite of the Baltic country of Lithuania won the Women's Modern Pentathlon competition to take the final gold medal to be awarded at the London 2012 30th Olympiad.<br />
<br />
Eric Willemsen has the story at the Huffington Post in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120812/oly-pen-women-s-modern-pentathlon/">Asadauskaite wins Olympic pentathlon gold</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-18112883459128116472012-08-10T18:29:00.001+02:002012-08-10T18:30:24.245+02:00Maris Strombergs of Latvia Wins BMX Gold at London 2012 to Defend His Olympic TitleAt the Huffington Post, Dave Skretta headlines that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120810/oly-cyc-men-s-bmx/">Latvia's Strombergs defends BMX Olympic gold medal</a>. As Skretta writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
"Maris Strombergs is content being the only men's BMX champion in Olympic history.<br />
<br />
The rider from Latvia defended his title Friday...."</blockquote>
Read the rest at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120810/oly-cyc-men-s-bmx/" target="_blank">Huff Post Sports</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-51432142777802319692012-08-10T01:20:00.001+02:002012-08-10T01:20:03.415+02:00LONDON: Latvia wins Olympic beach volleyball bronze - Olympics - MiamiHerald.com<a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/09/2942464/latvia-wins-olympic-beach-volleyball.html">LONDON: Latvia wins Olympic beach volleyball bronze - Olympics - MiamiHerald.com</a>: - Sent using Google ToolbarUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-19084451784817068152012-08-04T20:53:00.001+02:002012-08-04T20:53:15.099+02:00Laura Ikauniece at Hurdler49 as Track Beauty of the WeekNice writeup about Laura Ikauniece<br />
at Hurdler49<br />
in <a href="http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/track-beauty-of-the-week-laura-ikauniece/">Track Beauty of the Week: Laura Ikauniece</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-65726245437216526962012-08-04T20:49:00.001+02:002012-08-04T20:49:56.555+02:00Laura Ikauniece -- Rising Young Latvian Heptathlon StarLatvian Laura Ikauniece is a rising young heptathlon star. See <a href="http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/biographies/letter=0/athcode=244374/index.html">iaaf.org - Athletes - Ikauniece Laura Biography</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-79143143531734893092012-07-05T18:49:00.000+02:002012-07-05T18:49:21.085+02:00Latvian-Born Conductor Mariss Jansons, One of the World's Best, and the Music Behind the NotesAt the Guardian, The Observer's Fiona Maddocks reports in an article headlined:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/04/mariss-jansons-interview-fiona-maddocks#">Mariss Jansons: 'The notes are just signs. You have to go behind them</a>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #3d85c6;">
"Mariss
Jansons is regarded by many as the best conductor in the world. On the
eve of a visit to the UK with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw he talks about
his Latvian roots, his heart attack on the podium, and why he's never
satisfied with his performances"</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-39029503554787809792012-07-01T14:56:00.001+02:002012-07-01T14:56:35.592+02:00Ligo - Latvia Celebrates the Summer Solstice According to Ancient Traditions - The BBC ReportsThe great thing about the ancient and traditional celebration of the Summer Solstice in Latvia is that it is a fresh and healthy departure from the monotonous stream of reports about the world debt crisis or other negative international events that dominate the daily news.<br />
<br />
Damien McGuinness reports for BBC News in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18614119#">Latvia midsummer: Songs, flowers and running around naked</a>.<br />
<br />
Looks definitely like one understandable way to get up the low birth rates in Western Civilization countries.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-47169636388835688862012-07-01T14:44:00.001+02:002012-07-01T14:44:07.880+02:00US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Visit to Riga Latvia Recommends Fewer Business Barriers For Young LatviansThe Voice of America Breaking News reports that <a href="http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/06/28/clinton-recommends-fewer-business-barriers-for-young-latvians/">Clinton Recommends Fewer Business Barriers For Young Latvians</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-21690659173968330562012-07-01T14:41:00.001+02:002012-07-01T14:41:00.966+02:00Hillary Rodham Clinton Visits Latvia as 100th Visited Country as Secretary of State and 122nd representing the USASee the AP story at the Washington Post, June 28, 2012, in <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/globe-trotting-hillary-clinton-hits-100-country-milestone-as-secretary-of-state/2012/06/28/gJQAKNjR8V_story.html">Globe-trotting Hillary Clinton makes, marks history in Latvia</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-62960757182971136792012-04-20T17:20:00.001+02:002012-04-20T17:20:59.831+02:00mtDNA of Latvians - 2005Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog has a year 2005 posting about haplogroups in the Baltic at <a href="http://dienekes.blogspot.de/2005/11/mtdna-of-latvians.html">mtDNA of Latvians</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-52190433159762488682012-03-21T20:41:00.000+01:002012-03-21T20:41:00.282+01:00Latvian Blondes Publish Cookbook<br />
Mrs. Universe 2008, Marika Gederte<br />
and Laura Vikmanis, oldest NFL pro football cheerleader,<br />
and others are involved<br />
as <a href="http://bnn-news.com/latvian-blondes-association-publishes-cookbook-charity-project-42401">Latvian Blondes Association publishes cookbook as charity project</a>,<br />
reported via the Baltic News Network.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-24797081013531724052011-12-31T14:10:00.001+01:002012-07-01T15:38:33.831+02:00The Rule of Law in Russia and Eastern Europe : Dietrich André Loeber : Andis Kaulins : Kiel : Institut für Ostrecht : Latvian Law Research<br />
In the year 1974, I left my position as an associate with <a href="http://www.paulweiss.com/">Paul, Weiss</a> in the United States to come to Europe, heeding the call to work together with the late Professor <a href="http://www.balt-hiko.de/dietrich_andry_loeber.php">Dietrich André Loeber</a> at the University of Kiel Law School in Germany, where Loeber, later Dean of the Law School, was the Director of what was then called the "<a href="http://www.uni-kiel.de/eastlaw/cgi-bin/cms/front_content.php?idcat=12">Institut für Recht, Politik und Gesellschaft der sozialistischen Staaten</a>" (Institute for the Study of Law, Politics and Society of the Socialist States) , in short, "Institut für Ostrecht" (literally, Institute for "East Law"), which is now the "<a href="http://www.uni-kiel.de/eastlaw/">Institut für Osteuropäisches Recht</a> (Institute of East European Law).<br />
<br />
The current Institute is surely a much different institution than it was in my years there (1974-1979), when members and staff included <a href="http://koreaweb.ws/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws/1999-June/001459.html">Prof. Dr. Youn-Soo Kim</a> (see also <a href="http://www.lawpundit.com/blog/2008/02/new-york-philharmonic-orchestra-with.htm">Kim</a>), <a href="http://www.amazon.de/Rechtsstellung-Ausl%C3%A4nders-Polen-Teresa-Pusylewitsch/dp/3789001767">Dr. Teresa Pusylewitsch</a>, <a href="http://ipac.lib.uchicago.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=O23E834731805.308873&profile=ucpublic&uri=link=3100008%7E%219059480%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21horizon&term=Dissertations%2C+Academic+--+Germany+%28East%29+--+Bibliography.&index=SUBJP">Liselotte Rawengel</a>, and Heike Pagels, all deceased, as also <a href="http://www.schleswig-holstein.de/MWV/DE/OrganisationAufgaben/OrganisationAnsprechpartner/OrganisationAnsprechpartner__node.html">Rainer Wiechert</a>, Dagmar Hederich (geb. <a href="http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/heusinger+von+waldegge.html">Heusinger von Waldegge</a>), and Waltraud Knoche (later Waltraud Wagner), in addition to numerous visiting scholars from America, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. <a href="http://www.uni-kiel.de/eastlaw/cgi-bin/cms/front_content.php?idcat=2">Professor Dr. Wolfgang Seiffert</a> succeeded Loeber as Director of the Institute in 1989. Loeber passed away in June of 2004 - see the wonderful biography (in German) by <i><a href="http://www.balt-hiko.de/mitglieder/nachrufe/dietrich-andr%C3%A9-loeber/" target="_blank">Gert von Pistohlkors of Göttingen</a> -</i> and Seiffert passed away in January of 2009. Loeber and I stayed closely in touch over the years and I attended his 70th birthday celebration in Hamburg in 1994.<br />
<br />
Very few persons who knew me in 1974 understood my move to Germany to work at Loeber's Institute, giving up a great potential career at a major law firm and turning down an offer to join a law faculty in the USA. Then, as now, the mainstream legal community in the United States and in Europe has little conception of the importance of the work that was done, two decades prior to - but in clear anticipation of - the coming of a man like <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michail_Sergejewitsch_Gorbatschow">Gorbachev</a>. See, in this regard:<br />
<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ikfhMOrJxTUC"><br />Law and the Gorbachev Era: Essays in Honor of Dietrich André Loeber</a>, edited by Donald D. Barry, published by Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff. 1988. xix + 426 pp. inc. index, ISBN 9024736781 and 9789024736782, and reviewed by Bernard Rudden (1990) at the <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=1514924">International & Comparative Law Quarterly</a>, 39, p. 500, doi:10.1093/iclqaj/39.2.500.<br />
<br />
Loeber's father, "<a href="http://www.balt-hiko.de/dietrich_andry_loeber.php">Senators Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. August Loeber</a>," had been a Justice of the <a href="http://www.at.gov.lv/en/information/?page=40">Latvian Supreme Court</a> (Latvian: then <a href="http://www.at.gov.lv/en/about/history/foundation/"><i>Senāts</i></a>, today <a href="http://www.at.gov.lv/lv/information/?page=1">Augstākā Tiesa</a>) between the two world wars. Indeed, as I discovered in the course of my research, Augusts Lebers (<a href="http://www.at.gov.lv/en/about/history/foundation/">here with photograph</a>), in terms of the number, extent and importance of judicial opinions issued by the Latvian Supreme Court in that period, was its most productive member.<span style="color: #993300;"><br /><br />[In terms of linguistics, by the way, the Latvian root "</span><span style="color: #993300; font-style: italic;">sen-</span><span style="color: #993300;">" means "long ago, old" so that the Latvian </span><a href="http://www.at.gov.lv/en/about/history/foundation/" style="color: #993300;"><i>Senāts</i></a><span style="color: #993300;"> as a court of course has the same Indo-European root word origin as the legislative United States <a href="http://www.senate.gov/">Senate</a>, as a congregation of wise men, i.e. "</span><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=senate" style="color: #993300;">council of elders</a><span style="color: #993300;">".]</span><br />
<br />
In this connection, among many other things, during my sojourn in Kiel, Dietrich Andre Loeber and I selected and organized important decisions of the Latvian Supreme Court from an enormous corpus of case materials from which the most important decisions were translated into English. Loeber's 1995 publication <a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9789984908205/Latvia%3B+Loeber,+Dietrich+Andre/Latvijas+Senats,+1918-1940:+Raditaji+Latvijas+Senata+Spriedumu+Krajumiem/">Latvijas Senats, 1918-1940: Raditaji Latvijas Senata Spriedumu Krajumiem</a>, ISBN 10: 9984908208 and ISBN 13: 9789984908205, was related to this work.<br />
<br />
Loeber's father's wife was Emilie Mentzendorff, and Dietrich Andre Loeber was the philanthropist behind the recent restoration of the <a href="http://www.mencendorfanams.com/index-en.php">Mentzendorff House</a> (Latvian: <a href="http://www.mencendorfanams.com/index-lv.php">Mencendorfa Nams</a>) in the center of Riga, Latvia, which today is <span class="Teksts_raksti">a branch of the <a href="http://www.rigamuz.lv/km/index.php">Riga Museum of History and Navigation</a>.</span> Below is an embedded panorama:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
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<br />
I first met Loeber when he was a visiting Professor of Law at Stanford University Law School while I was still a law school student. We became friends and kept in close contact. Loeber himself was a consummate expert on Russia, and when he visited me in New York City in 1974 to invite me to work with him in Kiel, he predicted that the then <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union">Soviet Union</a> (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also called the USSR) would fall apart within the next 20 years. Had I not believed his prognostication, I would never have left the United States to come to Europe. As it turned out, less than 20 years later, in 1991, the Soviet Union in fact ceased to exist, and the Baltic States regained their independence, just as Loeber had predicted. He viewed this development as inevitable, and, it would appear now, in an era of the global sharing of knowledge and information, as irreversible. The old days could never return. Something new was coming, and had to come.<br />
<br />
Loeber spoke fluent Russian, German, Latvian and English, and also had articles published in French and Italian. During the Cold War he visited the Soviet Union as often as he could, but never as much as he would have liked, following his various academic pursuits. As he himself stated about his trips to the USSR: "This is my field. I have to know what I am talking and writing about".<br />
<br />
Loeber was a hands-on academic of the old school, the likes of which are probably seldom found at universities today. When Loeber was in Moscow in the Soviet era, he bought and wore Russian clothes, so that he would not stick out from the crowd. He was a good listener and a good observer, and returned from his Eastern sojourns with new academic insights. Whenever he heard thoughts and theories on Russia and Eastern Europe that he found to be removed from reality, Loeber would say something like, "Tjaa.... I was there. I am not sure." Loeber, ever the diplomat, seldom contradicted his colleagues in the field openly, even when he disagreed. This diplomacy and his ability to keep things to himself made him a welcome guest everywhere.<br />
<br />
Loeber's main academic treasure was his immense private library on Russian, Soviet, East European and Baltic law. Whenever he found an academic book or other resource that he considered to be important to have, he would buy it or trade for it by offering Western books or other goods that were lacking in the East. Life in Russia and Eastern Europe in those days was very much a give-and-take proposition. As Donald D. Barry writes in the Foreword to <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ikfhMOrJxTUC">Law and the Gorbachev Era: Essays in Honor of Dietrich André Loeber</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
"<span style="color: #996633;">On a visit to his home near Hamburg in 1962 I first got the chance to see and use his personal library -- without a doubt one of the handful of great repositories of materials on Russian and Soviet law outside of the USSR. Loeber always had not only an encyclopedic knowledge of legal sources, both common and scarce, but also the great ability to hunt down and acquire even the rarest of them.</span>"</blockquote>
Much of that library found its way to the East after the year 1991, thanks to Loeber's donation of his books and resources. At the same time, Loeber also produced some marvelous books of his own. As <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ikfhMOrJxTUC">Barry writes</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
"<span style="color: #996633;">[H]is early training and interest in international law culminat[ed] in his magisterial East-West Trade"</span>.</blockquote>
See Dietrich Andre Loeber, <a href="http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=1867176&matches=1&author=Loeber%2C+Dietrich+Andre&browse=1&cm_sp=works*listing*title">East-West Trade: A Sourcebook on the International Economic Relations of Socialist Countries and Their Legal Aspects</a>, (No. 60, 4 volumes, 2304 pages, Oceana Publications, Dobbs Ferry, 1976-1977. ISBN-13: 9780379004854 ISBN: 0379004852. This book was created and published in the period that I was at the Institute, and I had a great deal of pleasure in those years to help André put together the materials and to edit that book.<br />
<br />
What would André (for so Dietrich Andre Loeber was called privately) say about the current Western view of Russia and Eastern Europe? Here is what he wrote in <span style="font-style: italic;">Regional and National Variations: The Baltic Factor</span> (published in <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=JzH1fc3EaV4C">Toward the "Rule of Law" in Russia. Political and Legal Reform in the Transition Period</a>, edited by Donald D. Barry, pp. 77-92, revised papers from a conference held at Lehigh University, May 30-June 1, 1991. Published by M.E. Sharpe, 1992. ISBN 1563240653, 9781563240652. 402 pages):<br />
<blockquote>
"<span style="color: #996633;">The concept of </span><span style="color: #996633; font-style: italic;">pravovoe gosudarstvo</span><span style="color: #996633;"> </span>[footnote 1: The terms <span style="font-style: italic;">pravovoe gosudarstvo</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Rechtsstaat</span>, law-based state, and the literal translation "legal state" are used in this paper synonymously."] <span style="color: #996633;">is now hailed as progressive and "socialist" in the Soviet Union after having been denounced for almost seven decades as a device of the reactionary classes. A veritable avalanche of journal articles and books has begun to be published on the subject. One aspect in the heated debate has been largely ignored--regional variations. I am not aware of any single Soviet piece of research addressing this issue explicitly. This is surprising since we are justified in expecting such variations. In the West, for instance, we do not have a uniform concept of <span style="font-style: italic;">Rechtsstaat</span>, but witness several types at work, one of them being the rule-of-law concept in common law countries.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">In order to detect different concepts of the </span><span style="color: #996633; font-style: italic;">pravovoe gosudarstvo</span><span style="color: #996633;"> within the Soviet Union, one would have to scan publications of all regions with potential variations ... at least fifteen legal subsystems could be identified tentatively....</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">Russia, the Ukraine (including the former area of the Don Cossacks and the North Bukovina, a former Romanian territory), Belorussia (both the Ukraine and Belorussia with former Polish territories);</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">Estonia and Latvia (which - similar to Finland - lived under a separate legal system until 1917), and Lithuania, now jointly known as Baltic states;</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">Moldova (including Bessarabia);</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Caucasus;</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">the five republics in Soviet Central Asia.</span><br />
<br />
... [LawPundit: note that these are the regions between whom the most recent conflicts have arisen]<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">E. Ridamae, an author in Estonia [writes]:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">As regards </span><span style="color: #996633; font-style: italic;">pravovoe gosudarstvo,</span><span style="color: #996633;"> we are probably still at the level of pronouncing declarations from high tribunes.... Let us remember how (socialist) legality was devalued: Despite its permanent strengthening and safeguarding, it became a mass (socialist) lawlessness, as it turns out now after the fact (</span><span style="color: #996633; font-style: italic;">zadnim chislom</span><span style="color: #996633;">). We probably do not yet know what a </span><span style="color: #996633; font-style: italic;">pravovoe gosudarstvo</span><span style="color: #996633;"> actually means....First we have to find out...how to liquidate collisions between the right of self-determination and superpower interests."</span> [footnote 89, "Glassnost', demokratiia, Sovetskaia vlast', pravovoe gosudarstvo," <span style="font-style: italic;">Sovetskoe pravo</span> (Talinn) 1989 No. 4, 219-222, 222]<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #996633;">This point was missed by John Lloyd, writing in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Financial Times</span> in 1990. For him the "process of the creation of a law-governed state in the Soviet Union is the success story of the five years of President Mikhail Gorbachev. Not just successful: breathtakingly successful." Ridamae, I submit, is closer to reality than John Lloyd.</span> [footnote 90, "Law-Governed State", <span style="font-style: italic;">Financial Times</span>, 12 March 1990, VIII.]</blockquote>
And so, by wisdom of hindsight, Loeber can be seen to have been right again. The rule of law will not come so quickly to the East in spite of democratic claims to the contrary, because it is a concept not seen equally by all nations or in all regions. Only when this is understood and sensibly applied in a nation-state context, can true progress toward the <span style="font-weight: bold;">sustained</span> rule of law in Russia and Eastern Europe be made in the long term. It will never be the same as in the West.<br />
<br />
Crossposted from <a href="http://balticcoachman.blogspot.com/2009/05/rule-of-law-in-russia-and-eastern.html">The Baltic Coachman</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24097633.post-10937791491713354972011-12-31T14:07:00.001+01:002011-12-31T14:07:31.880+01:00Talinn Riga and Vilnius Lead Baltic Travel Revival in 2012<br>Happy New Year!
Where is 2012 to take us?<br />
There is an unmistakable trend at Tripadvisor.com<br />
in
<a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/InfoCenter-a_ctr.ontherise__5F__eur">15 destinations on the rise</a><br />
but we have no idea what is behind it:<br />
<br />
You've been there, right?<br />
<br />
It is VERY UNLIKELY that you have traveled to ALL the fifteen places that <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/InfoCenter-a_ctr.ontherise__5F__eur">TripAdvisor.com</a> currently lists as "<b>Destinations on the Rise</b>":<br />
<br />
1. Tallinn, Estonia<br />
2. Riga, Latvia<br />
3. Moscow, Russia<br />
4. Zurich, Switzerland<br />
5. Fethiye, Turkey<br />
6. Seminyak, Indonesia<br />
7. Vilnius, Lithuania<br />
8. Austin, TX<br />
9. Chania Town, Greece<br />
10. Chaweng, Thailand <br />
11. Bordeaux, France<br />
12. San Sebastian - Donostia, Spain <br />
13. Lyon, France<br />
14. Essaouira, Morocco<br />
15. Mendoza, Argentina<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0