latviski
Lat Chat and More! for Sunday, November 28, 1999
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 amusing herself 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
Latvian links
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.
is the one for NATO (check out the U.S. subpage for a
statement of policy regarding the Baltics):
NATO Official Homepage↗
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):
Kas jauns Latvija?↗
In the news
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.]
Picture album
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 Ranka↗↗lv 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.
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