Round Ball in Latvia
Sports fans—imagine this! At 5:00 on a Friday evening you’re considering evening options, and discover the home town team (think Patriots, UNH Wildcats hockey, Celtics—probably not the Bruins) are playing in town at 8:00. Call some friends (3 in this case), meet a little after 7:00, walk 20 minutes to the arena, buy tickets at the door, sit for a drink and snacks before the game (the U.S. Embassy marines were working on a full course meal before the game), then walk into the game with 5th row, non-reserved seats just off center court.
The game was exciting—fast paced, physical, multiple lead changes including double digit leads for and against our ASK Riga team. There was fairly spectacular 3-point shooting from a player or two on each side. “We” seemed intermittently careless and sloppy with the ball—missed fast break layups, errant passes out-of-bounds, way too many missed free throws, but with 3 +/- minutes left the score was tied at 76. After a fast and furious finish (their big, C. Barkley-like center fouled out), ASK Riga won by 3 points.
Highlights of the show? Check the pictures. 1) The game, of course! 2) The half-time antics of several children, including a 2-3 year old or two—the next generation of players? 3) A brief schmooze and photo with the team mascot, a Lion, 4) the blonde-maned, similar-sized, scantily dressed, energetic, gymnast-like cheerleaders, & 5) a chance to chat with the 6’ 10” A.J. Bramlett—former U. of AZ star, drafted by the Cleveland Cavs in ’99, for the past 2 years center of the ASK Riga team. Check him out on Wikipedia—nice guy & one of 3 U.S. starters on the team!
Oh, did I mention the price of admission? One LVL, i.e. U.S. $2.00 each!

Riga and Politics

About the time I think I have made some real progress learning about this new culture, I’m hit with another insight; in this case about politics. In Social Work practice we teach the importance of community, state and national social change through legislative processes to improve quality of life. In the US we know the name, party, and positions of our representatives and do sometimes write, call, email or visit. So, in 6 fall classes I asked students (about 250 in total) if they knew the name of their legislative representative in the parliament and got back blank stares or occasionally a comment like “It doesn’t really matter” or “They don’t represent us anyway.” An instructor can only push an issue so far and then needs to move on. I moved on.
But here’s what I didn’t/couldn’t understand. “There is no one specific representative to call.” Cheryl & I had lunch with the church senior citizen group this noon and sat with a Latvian-Canadian who was today’s activity organizer. The discussion focused on a parliamentary resolution to increase significantly the pensions of the elderly. At this point it’s the kind of feel-good proposal that many support in principle but aren’t likely to fund. “Because of the Latvian proportional system”, said our host, “the members are beholden to no constituency but the party. You see, there’s no specific person to call.” Latvia is smaller than West Virginia and has a population of just over 2 million (about the size of metropolitan Cleveland or Cincinnati).
Here’s the Latvian system for electing parliament. Each of several political parties puts forth a list of candidates. Five to seven parties reach the 5% vote level to qualify for seats. If a party wins 20% of the vote, they appoint 20% of the members of the 100 seat parliament from their list. Several may be from one district or neighborhood but other districts or neighborhoods may not have anyone in the parliament from their area. It’s no wonder students looked blank or perplexed by my culture-bound queries about “their” representative.

Saule spid

When the sun is out Bob and I explore more of Riga, so this past Monday we took the tramvajs to The Brothers Cemetery also known as the Cemetery of Heroes. There are about 2000 graves beginning with 1915, the soldiers who fell during the first World War. In another section of the cemetery are white crosses representing some of the victims of the years of the Stalin terror...these remains were removed from a mass burial site in Riga and reburied here. The obelisk with names of the victims including the "nezinams" (unknown) The plaque reminds us that people remember and commemorate the events that occurred in the past. The eternal flame burns ....there always seem to be fresh flowers at many of the memorials throughout Riga.....people do remember. The statue of Mate Latvija (Mother Latvia) overlooks the vast rows of tombstones of her fallen sons.

Gunars Astra a human rights activist sentenced during the Soviet regime said in court....

"I fervently believe that these nightmare times will end one day. This belief gives me the strengh to stand before you. Our people have suffered a great deal but have learned to survive. They will outlive this dark period in their history." He was sentenced in 1983 to seven years' imprisonment and five years' internal exile by the Soviet regime for the crime of possessing recordings of radio programs, photo negatives and subversive books and for writings of a personal nature. In was sentenced in 1983 he died in 1988 and is buried in this cemetery.

In 1991 the people of Latvia were at the barricades to regain freedom.