• August 1, 1999
• August 14, 1999
• August 22, 1999
• August 29, 1999
• September 11, 1999
• September 18, 1999
• September 24, 1999
• September 30, 1999
• October 6, 1999
• October 20, 1999
• October 24, 1999
• October 30, 1999
• November 6, 1999
• November 14, 1999
• November 20, 1999
• November 28, 1999
• Next December 5, 1999
• December 11, 1999
• December 18, 1999
• December 25, 1999

Latvian Links
In the News
Picture Album

Subj: Lat Chat and More! for Sunday, November 28, 1999
Date: 11/28/99 11:42:12 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Sturgalve

File: sculpture.jpg (63205 bytes)
DL Time (TCP/IP): < 1 minute

Sveiki, all!

We're on the road this week at Silvija's parents. We should be packing to get back home to New York, but I'm (Peters) putzing with the mailer while Silvija is playing with our new Furby Babies. At any rate, we may, or may not, be home in time to join in Lat Chat tonight, but we don't need to be there for you to have good time! Chat starts around 9:00 to 9:30pm ET...follow the link on AOL: Town Square - Latvian chat

Ar visu labu,

We're on the road this weekend at Silvija's parents, so we don't have Gunars' latest list available. In the meantime, here are two that we found.

First is the one for NATO (check out the U.S. subpage for a statement of policy regarding the Baltics):

Link:	NATO Official Homepage
URL:	http://www.nato.int

Second is a weekly news summary we ran across (in Latvian, gathered from Diena and other Latvian newspapers), which was our source for one of the news items (you also need the Latvian "RIM" fonts to read the page properly):

Link:	Kas jauns Latvija?
URL:	http://lls.stcc.mass.edu/zagarins/KjL.htm

It was a much slower week in the news:

• European defense minister conference held in Luxembourg;
• Russian Foreign Minsistry organises vote for Russians abroad (story actually appeared last week, but we just found it); and
• Latvian Saeima votes to continue (as is) the current requirement of a 200 person minimum to form a new political party

LUXEMBOURG, November 21 (Itar-Tass) —Meetings of the Foreign and Defence ministers of the Western European Union (WEU) open in Luxembourg on Monday, with an aggregate of 56 ministers from 28 countries participating. Along with WEU permanent members, present at the meetings are representatives of a number of Eastern and Central European countries such as, in particular, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
pop/pop © 1999

Foreign Ministry organises vote for Russians abroad.
MOSCOW, November 18 (Itar-Tass)—Organisation and holding of the parliamentary elections abroad is an important political task for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Sergeyev, who heads the ministry's committee for the elections, told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
According to the official, more than 860,000 Russian citizens are on the lists of potential voters who will be abroad on December 19, the day of the vote.
It is 2.3 times more than in the 1995 parliamentary elections, he said.
The leader for the number of Russian voters is Germany—on the lists are 262,000 people. There are 98,000 registered voters in Estonia, 62, 000 in Israel, 55,000 in Latvia and 50,000 in Moldavia.
The diplomat noted that nobody would "run after voters to bring them to the polls."
There are more than 350 polling stations in 138 countries. The consular departments at the embassies are to compile lists of voters, inform them of the timing and place of the vote and create all favourable conditions for them. With this aim, the system of early vote will be used for the first time.
The scheme for dividing constituencies is the same as in the previous elections—the constituencies outside Russia are attached to 14 one-mandate districts in Moscow and the Moscow and Leningrad regions.
pan/ezh © 1999 11/18/1999 07:03 OTC

Reported on "Kas Jauns Latvija" Web Page for November 23-26—This week, the Saeima decided not to increase the number of members required to found a political party—going forward, just as until now—a party can be founded by 200 peeople. Voting for not increasing the count were 65 Saeima deputies, 12 against, with 15 abstentions.
The "Tautas Partija" had earlier suggested increasing the required number of founding members to as much as 1,000. The leaders of "Latvijas Cels" categorically opposed any increase in the number.
http://lls.stcc.mass.edu/zagarins/KjL.htm [translated-Ed.]

Silvija's friend Iveta told us of a place we "must" go to take pictures. In the Pardaugava area of Riga, a Latvian sculptor, Indulis Rankis [it's not possible from the declension of his last name to tell whether it's Rankis or Ranka], has set up his own sculpture park. Anyone and everyone is welcome to visit—there are no gates, no fees, and there's a spot to park as well. (It's located just off the start of Slampes Iela.) Here, Silvija and Iveta wander among the sculptures.