The next time someone tries to kid you that Latvians are typically of a sunny and carefree disposition, show them the graph below.
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One thing of which Latvia has no shortage is cemeteries. While a visit to one of them can be for reasons that are extremely sad, slightly melancholy or relaxingly tranquil, having an expert historian by your side turns such a visit into one of the more interesting hours of your brief life above ground.
The Latvian pavilion at the 60th international art exhibition of the Venice Biennale was opened this week.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs on April 17 signalled his support for Baiba Braže to become Latvia's next Minister of Foreign Affairs in a Saeima vote scheduled for Friday.
If it's no longer as exciting as it once was, if it has become workaday, more of a chore than a pleasure, something you do out of a sense of duty rather than a sense of adventure, then I suggest taking all your clothes off and trying it a different way.
Having dealt with the northernmost point in Latvia last week, it is now time to turn our attention to the southernmost point in Estonia.
Thankfully the Latvia-Estonia border is not the cartographically satisfying but extremely boring straight line such as one finds between certain of the United States or countries owning shares in the Sahara Desert. On a large-scale map it looks fairly consistent, but the closer you zoom in, the more irregular and oddball it becomes.
In 2024, Tartu – or rather, Tartu and a large chunk of southern Estonia – is a European Capital of Culture, and as LSM has already reported, a concerted effort is being made to attract as many Latvian residents as possible to the party. However, it would be misleading of me to say that's the reason for this series of features. It's not the reason, it's the excuse. Some of us have had the Northern Latvia/Southern Estonia bug for a long time already and need no new invitation to explore the quirks and kinks of the Latvia-Estonia border.
While much of Latvia's focus is on Liepāja's year as a European Capital of Culture in 2027, Latvian residents will have a chance to experience a full capital of culture program much sooner than that. The southern Estonian city of Tartu has capital of culture status in 2024 (along with Bodø in Norway and Bad Ischl in Austria), and with Latvia being so close, there is a drive to attract as many people as possible to make the short trip north.
Having tackled a wide range of important subjects over the years – everything from high-level corruption to oligarchic influence and reforms of the judicial system – Latvian Television's trailblazing investigative show Aizliegtais Paņēmiens (AP) took on another topical theme September 25 and asked the question on everyone's lips: can Artificial Intelligence (AI) come up with a decent recipe for spinach?
Edvards Smiltēns (United List) was voted out as Saeima speaker September 20, with Gunārs Kūtris (Greens and Farmers Union/ZZS) lined up to take over the important duties as part of the new coalition's reallocation of power – but then seeing his candidacy receive a mauling.
The next Latvian government will attempt to be formed by three political forces – New Unity (Jaunā Vienotība), the Greens and Farmers' Union (ZZS) and the Progressives, announced the current minister of welfare Evika Siliņa (New Unity), who was nominated for the post of prime minister by President Edgars Rinkēvičs on August 24.
It's rare that I feel annoyed these days about missing a press opportunity, but I must admit that it happened last week when I belatedly discovered that the three Baltic Prime Ministers had met in an Estonian bog. If ever there was a press opp designed for me, this was it.
The Rail Baltica project has published a new promotional video that, on the one hand, lists the claimed benefits of the new high-speed rail network across the Baltic states but, on the other hand, takes these claims so far that it seems extraordinary it hasn't been built already, given the apparently miraculous effect it will have on pretty much everything.
"Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to raise Latvia's international profile – preferably in a positive way. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds." So might have run a particularly exciting episode of 1960s spy series Mission: Impossible.
Doctor of Communication Science, Mārtiņš Kaprāns, recently published some fascinating research into the lives of Latvians living in the United Kingdom.
When the nomination window closed on May 13, just three people had submitted the necessary documents to Saeima hoping to become Latvia's next head of state. For a full outline of how the selection process works, you can see our earlier feature. But for now, here's a brief look at who the three declared candidates are.
Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš gave an entertaining and provocative launch to the Latvian Capital Market Forum in Rīga February 8 with candid remarks that included the highly quotable line: "Politics is one of the fields in which cheating is actually good."
The Foreign Ministers of the three Baltic states and Poland met in Rīga January 31, with the occasion serving to provide plenty of optimism about close future cooperation with each other and an equal amount of pessimism about the chances of Russia changing its imperialistic and genocidal ambitions in Ukraine and elsewhere.
International pariah state Russia reacted with yet another fit of self-righteous, indignant fury November 10 to Latvia's ongoing removal of Soviet monuments.
There are countless examples of the courage and resilience of Ukrainians at the moment – and also of their creativity, even in difficult circumstances.
With nearly all votes counted, it's possible to draw some conclusions about who did well and who did not so well in the 14th Saeima elections. We'll run through the parties in the order in which they appeared on the ballot papers and give a brief verdict on each.
A ceremony in Cēsis on July 4 – Jewish genocide memorial day in Latvia – unveiled a series of freshly-commissioned artworks on the city's streets. But these are no ordinary works of conceptual or public art. They will serve as an ongoing memorial and constant reminder of Cēsis' 200-strong Jewish community, which was wiped out in the Holocaust.
Tuesday in northern Latvia was sunny, but still quite cold. The ice gave the impression it couldn't decide whether it should melt, and so would wait a bit longer before committing itself one way or the other.
October 14 brought very sad news of the death of one of Latvia's most respected statesmen, Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš. The announcement was made by Saeima speaker Ināra Murniece on social media.
July 2 saw the launch of a new database from the European Platform for Democratic Elections - EPDE which attempts to identify 'fake' election observers used to help generate propaganda and give legitimacy to non-democratic regimes and electoral processes.
Latvia's search for its 'Nokia' has been a protracted one. For those not familiar with the term, the search for "Latvia's Nokia" has been around since the days when Finland's Nokia was the big success of the Baltic region and has been used as shorthand for a concept combining Sir Gawain's quest for the Holy Grail, the Conquistadores' search for Eldorado and Austin Powers' bid to regain his mojo. As with all these examples, the hunt for Latvia's Nokia went on a bit longer than was strictly necessary.
One of the strangest things about the tedious phenomenon of "fake news", by which in most cases we mean badly-written fiction posing as factual reporting, is the way in which reporters are almost forced to write about it.
Every Friday lunchtime, an old red van trundles into a farmyard in Drabeši parish, Vidzeme region. The engine idles for a moment then dies. The front doors open.
Following my failure in the first citizenship examination, I had four months to prepare myself for the re-take.
The day of my citizenship test was a strange one.
Having decided to apply for Latvian citizenship, my next step was to do very little for a couple of years. Rather, I quickly obtained most of the necessary documents and assumed the rest would take minimal effort so could be put off until that mythical moment we all dream of "when I have some free time."