As an employee of Latvian Public Media (LSM) I naturally take a passing interest in its content. By which I mean not just the work of my ace news-gathering colleagues, whose stories I steal, mis-translate and pass off as my own, but the other content strands, TV channels and, most particularly, the radio stations.
Our English-language podcast, Minutes From Latvia returns for a second go with LSM editor Mike Collier joined by political expert Iveta Kažoka of the Providus center for public policy.
In these troubling times it is hard to find a cause one can truly believe in. I count myself lucky to have found such a cause. It is, I hope you will agree, one with much to recommend it and with your help it may even come to pass. The cause of which I speak is the letter 'O'. Or, to be more precise, the letter 'Ō'.
Dear Dazza, Bazza and Gazza,
When a Latvian Prime Minister has been in office for 100 days, local media traditionally produces reports marking the occasion. There are two main reasons for this. The first is to get something on the record given the not-too-remote possibility that he or she will not last another 100 days. The second is that it is an extremely easy story to do because inevitably, not much will have happened in 100 days.
It can be a great thing to go it alone. Everyone likes a plucky underdog, battling against far stronger forces. It is after all, part of the reason the Baltic states' own Singing Revolutions had such historical resonance.
As LSM has already reported, May 4 is Latvia's Restoration of Independence Day. This year in fact is 26 years since the country's official resurrection, and the powers that be are asking everyone to make a little extra effort in celebrating.
Relations with Turkey are at the forefront of European Union thinking right now for numerous reasons: NATO member Turkey's confrontation with Russia; the deal by which Turkey shoulders much of the burden of refugees fleeing Daesh from Syria and Iraq; and even in the decision of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to allow the prosecution of a comedian who satirized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The always controversial, unofficial March 16 parade in support of the Latvian Legion passed peacefully on Wednesday, with only one arrest made - and that of someone who clearly wanted to be arrested more than anything else.
What's the best ride in Latvia? Some might say it's careening down the Sigulda bobsled track on a sort of troika called 'Vuchko'. Others would suggest it is being hoisted into the air above Riga's Old Town and made to eat a three-course meal among non-sufferers from vertigo as part of a "dinner in the sky" experience.
Over the last few years - in fact ever since Latvia needed a massive bailout during the crisis and Estonia didn't - a popular belief has arisen that Latvia should be a lot more like Estonia. Identical if possible. Apart from the language and the flag, obviously.
With President Raimonds Vejonis recovering from a serious heart operation on January 20, there's minute examination of every release coming from the Presidential office, not only regarding his state of health but the constitutional implications of what looks certain to be an extended leave of absence.
If you were going to try your hand at influencing geopolitics, the office could not be better located, sharing the same building as the Georgian embassy, the Latvia-China Business Council and adjacent to the Ministry of Defense. From the third-floor window, the Foreign Ministry is within a snowball's throw if you have a good pitching arm.
"From morning to evening they killed those whom they found, both women and children, together with three hundred of the better men and leaders of that province, not counting innumerable others."
It's that time of the year again when news publications produce their predictions for the coming twelve months in a desperate bid to pad out their pages. But LSM decided to break ranks and get detailed and reliable prophecies from world-renowned astrologer Isaac Bickerstaff. He looked at his crystal ball and tarot cards in a special and surpisingly affordable 'consultation' and here's what he says the stars have in store for Latvia in 2016!
It's more than a week since Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma informed Latvia she would in future prefer to be referred to as 'former' Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, and several months since everyone else prophesied the fact.
It's about time I wrote another Viewpoint piece. I know this because the things the editor-in-chief throws at me across the office have been getting heavier.
LSM's English-language editor Mike Collier comes clean about his true identity.
In August a novel new public fundraising effort began to collect cash for the Zemessardze, Latvia's volunteer National Guard. Primarily aimed at providing night vision equipment they currently lack, the initiative was supported by many leading figures and attracted widespread publicity.
The target was to raise €130,000, but with the end of the initial campaign approaching on Latvian Independence Day (November 18), around €20,000 has been found so far.
LSM asked Juris Ulmanis, one of the initiators of the campaign, for an update.
Hanging around gambling shops during my misspent youth, one of the first lessons I learned was "Better a short-priced winner than a long-priced loser." The temptation of the inexperienced gambler is always to back a 100-1 shot in the deluded hope that it'll romp home and you'll make a fortune.
As far as state-of-the-art weapons go, the US Predator drone which was showcased at Lielvarde airbase on August 8 is pretty impressive.
Hysteria really doesn't suit Latvians. Physically and intellectually, it seems at odds with their basic makeup. For a start that pale skin looks doubly blotchy when the blood vessels in a Baltic neck are straining to the limit in a cry of overdone outrage.
Where were you all? Am I the only one who cares? There I was outside the gates of Vermanes park, all ready to demonstrate, but no-one else even showed up.
Latvia's leading foreign policy expert, Andris Spruds of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, spoke to LSM about the Riga Summit, taking place May 21-22.
Syrian journalist and free speech defender Mazen Darwish received worldwide recognition in Latvian capital Riga Sunday when his wife Yara Bader was presented with UNESCO's World Press Freedom Prize in a ceremony at the Latvian National Library.
Peter Greste, the Latvian-Australian journalist who spent more than a year in an Egyptian prison, was in Riga Sunday for World Press Freedom Awards.
On April 29, well-known investigative journalist Lato Lapsa spent a couple of hours under arrest courtesy of Latvia's Security Police (DP) after a visit to their headquarters took an unusual twist.
Most of the attention at this week's meeting of European Union finance ministers (ECOFIN) in Riga was focussed on Greece's minister/economist/rock star Yanis Varoufakis and his supporting cast of central bankers, European Commissioners and delegations.
Living in Latvia at the moment reminds me of living in the United Kingdom in the 1980s - and not just because New Romantic music seems to be cool again.
Latvia is threatened by a decadent and degrading Western menace. It is being forced to accept something fundamentally opposed to its traditional values and I, for one, am glad people are finally standing up to it. Political parties that are normally opposed are voting together to protect the nation from this vile phenomenon being forced down our throats.
Are we absolutely certain that Vladimir Putin is 62 years old? I know the fact that he has been running the Russian Federation in his own inimitable style for the last 15 years suggests he might indeed be a man of fairly mature years, but I have come to suspect the truth may be something else: Vladimir Putin is in fact only fifteen years old.
