Weekly review
Poll
Concern about gaps in the skills and knowledge of our pupils is voiced quite widely from time to time. Unfortunately, only when someone from outside Latvia has concluded as much. Why is that?
There is a political tendency to be busy, to invest, to make promises, but not to think about the results
If you have little knowledge yourself, you do not even know how or what you do not know...
A smart society is not always desirable or welcome
Many interests swirl around education. A "good result" is rarely mentioned among them
4-10 February
On current and upcoming events
### Voting for the European Tree of the Year, we invite you to support the Sēja Oak: treeoftheyear.org · vote
### You can still sign for the future of hunting in Europe: signforhunting.com
### Latvian Forest Days in Tērvete. 26 and 27 May
### Student society Šalkone 100th anniversary celebrations on 16 June
On industry-related issues
The Ministry of Climate and Energy (KEM) objects to the amendments proposed by the European Parliament (EP) regarding the use of primary biomass or wood, which would exclude forest biomass from the scope of sustainable fuel and equate it with fossil fuels, Beate Barkāne, strategic communications adviser to the Minister for Climate and Energy, informed the LETA agency.
It is expected that with the help of this programme, we will repair an additional 150 kilometres of local roads over three years. These must be roads that connect parish centres with regional centres so that people can receive quality services and travel to work, to the doctor, take children to school, and go everywhere they need to, without problems. Currently, as is well known, many people have difficulty leaving their place of residence, so my priority is precisely the restoration of this road network.
Our support for Ukraine is support for the Western model of society as such, meaning freedom, democracy, human rights, the European Union framework, technology and product development processes, education, science, culture... When these values are brutally and mercilessly attacked, it is our duty to defend them. Thank you to all the partners whose aid projects we have had the opportunity to participate in. We believe that together we can defeat this evil.
A competition has been announced for the positions of CHAIRPERSON OF THE BOARD AND MEMBER OF THE BOARD of SIA “Latvijas vēja parki”.
Members of the Board of SIA “Latvijas vēja parki” have a full-time workload. Board members make decisions, sign contracts and other types of documents in accordance with the company's statutes and the authorisation of the board. Board members are jointly liable for the results of the board's work.
If we were to reach electricity production volumes greater than Latvia's average annual consumption in four years, which is achievable, then we would find that overall more electricity is exported than imported, and the state gains rather than loses.
On industry issues
...Minister of Agriculture Didzis Šmits, President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (LZA) Ivars Kalviņš, and President of the Latvian Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (LLMZA) Baiba Rivža signed an annual cooperation agreement to ensure continuous and full-fledged mutual cooperation.
The cooperation agreement includes a tripartite agreement on information exchange and collaboration, bringing together scientists from all represented sectors and suggesting priority research directions in fundamental and applied science, ensuring cooperation with all levels of educational institutions and informing about job opportunities in rural areas and agriculture, as well as promoting the growth of young scientists in ZM competency sectors by organising seminars and providing opportunities for doctoral students to report on their research results at LLMZA trial showcases and at joint meetings of LZA and LLMZA.
However, considering two globally significant influencing factors – the war in Ukraine and Europe's move towards achieving climate goals – the Latvian forest industry will be forced to change. This will compel producers to look towards areas of growth that involve the production of more complex products.
By improving a modern higher education study programme offering that is relevant to the labour market, the Faculty of Forestry of the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LBTU, formerly LLU) and SIA “Ziemeļlatvijas meži” have concluded a long-term cooperation agreement, which will promote interaction between the academic and business environments in preparing future industry specialists.
At the same time, it is intended to fell and remove so-called “infested trees” that have just shown signs of a bark beetle invasion and install pheromone traps in their place to catch the insects. Representatives of the Nature Conservation Agency, however, expressed concerns during the discussion that under the guise of this “emergency situation,” spruce felling might also take place in protected natural areas.
On environmental matters
Active eradication of Giant Hogweed has begun in the Jelgava Municipality. Giant Hogweed is an invasive plant species. Invasive species are species that, when introduced into a foreign environment, become aggressive – outcompeting local species and rapidly taking over territory.
Hogweed is a perennial monocarpic plant 2 to 4 metres tall with a leaf blade that can be up to 1.5 m long. Monocarpic means that the plant flowers, ripens its seeds, and dies. Therefore, if the plant has started to bloom, it must not be allowed to ripen and scatter seeds. Once it has bloomed, “thinking” it has completed its mission and reproduced, the hogweed dies off on its own. Therefore, after mowing, to prevent hogweed from spreading further, it is necessary to cut off the inflorescences and burn them. Such a radical measure is necessary due to the hogweed's pronounced reproductive abilities.
The Lubāna Wetland nature reserve is a unique nature complex of European and global importance, covering an area of 513 square kilometres. It was established in 2009 by merging 12 smaller nature reserves. Until now, individual nature protection regulations applied to each reserve, but now the first joint nature conservation plan for the entire Lubāna Wetland territory has been created. Public consultation on the plan is currently taking place, and local residents have expressed concern about the negative impact of the measures it contains on their property and way of life.
Specifically, Latvia is not the worst place to be in this era of climate change. So, I would invite people not to rush to move. In any case, it would not be wise to run our surrounding environment into the ground, thinking that it will flood anyway and have to be abandoned (in a European Investment Bank study, Latvians are among the most sceptical EU citizens about how the transition to a green economy will affect their well-being). It can still serve us for a while longer. Look, it's spring outside! If not the real one, then at least the meteorological one.
The hooded crow is said to have once nested only in forest edges, groves, and high bogs, but now it has become a city dweller, much like a large proportion of people, and nests in cities and residential areas. As the ornithologist pointed out, crows have managed to adapt to the conditions created by humans and have largely become “bin raiders”.
The ornithologist emphasised: “These are not colonies, these are simply places to roost. To roost, to ensure collective protection against any potential enemies, these are crows, these are jackdaws that gather in large flocks in the evenings.”
Now – two years later – the environmental impact assessment of the planned activity has been completed. Those who conducted it acknowledged that no harm would be done to nature or the residents.
On other important matters
The initiator of the merger of the two universities is the Ministry of Education and Science itself; the goal is to save money through merging, increase the capacity of DU, and overall raise the quality of education, said Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry Dmitrijs Stepanovs.
“Our solution is that we would offer to make DU either an institution of LU, or a structural unit, this could still be discussed,” Stepanovs pointed out.
Of course, one of the reasons, which the Ministry does not hide, has been the scandal related to the defrauding of European Union (EU) funds. For the people of Daugavpils, this is incomprehensible.
The government approved the Cabinet of Ministers regulations prepared by the Ministry of Transport (SM), which determine the procedure for implementing and supervising the Recovery Fund's investments in the development of mainline cycle path infrastructure in the Riga metropolitan area.
Significant investments in infrastructure and, simultaneously, reforms to stimulate changes in passenger habits and a transition to more environmentally friendly transport solutions, including cycling, are necessary to reduce GHG emissions in the transport sector. Cycling is one of the fastest-growing alternatives to motorised vehicles in the capital. In the Riga metropolitan area, cycling infrastructure is developed fragmentarily because a unified cycling network is lacking. To ensure the availability of green mobility and create prerequisites for the development of city-level and neighbourhood connections, a unified mainline cycling infrastructure is necessary.
The problem with Latvian politics is that due to unclear priorities, few areas are funded according to their needs. However, it is important to bring clarity to the state's current financial situation in order to critically evaluate every claim about a lack of money.
A better situation in European energy allows us to look a little more positively at this year for the economy as a whole. The sentiment of European entrepreneurs has begun to improve slightly in recent months, and forecasts for eurozone economic growth are no longer being downgraded. However, recession in Europe will likely not be avoided, and, for example, an economic downturn began in Sweden at the end of last year.
Against the backdrop of the human tragedy in Ukraine, writing about the economic consequences of the war in Latvia seems secondary, but one must not forget that the war is the main reason why Latvian residents are experiencing a sharp rise in prices unseen in decades and why the economy is stagnating. Due to the war and its consequences, the Latvian economy has grown half as slowly as could have been predicted on the eve of the war, and the prices of goods and services are approximately one-fifth higher. Of course, not all price increases and the slowing of the economy are a direct result of the war, but the lion's share certainly is.
“Living here in the countryside, I can walk through every house in my mind's eye – I thought I would put them down on paper,” said manager Pēteris Pētersons, who began the inventory of unoccupied houses a year and a half ago. First, he put the houses of Kārķi parish on paper, because he himself comes from this area; he was born there, raised there, attended primary school there, and after his studies in Riga, he returned to stay, having already worked as a manager for ten years. The count revealed that 30 houses stand empty and abandoned in Kārķi.
Likewise, I believe that the President is convinced that by prioritising such issues so highly (“On the essentials! On values!”), he is directly making his unique and optimal contribution to the State of Latvia as an intellectual (though I personally do not know what this concept means). The trouble is that society is very complex and annoyingly contradictory. That might not be likeable, but then there is always the option to stay away from public office.
If there is a desire to treat the vote more seriously and nervously, then, of course, one cannot avoid the question – what can this official actually influence in the Latvian political hierarchy? I have repeatedly asked this question to my wise interlocutors on TV with a persistence that perhaps deserves a better application, receiving in return a prompt list: The President of the State can convene government meetings, submit draft laws to Parliament, and “send back” (temporarily!) to Parliament what Parliament has produced. In short, the powers are there; everything depends only on the holder of the post themselves, which is why the vote matters.
If the worst forecasts come true in March and the price of milk approaches the critical threshold of 25 cents per litre, Latvian milk producers are also ready for widespread protests, Kaspars Melnis, Chairman of the Board of the Agricultural Statutory Societies Association, announced to the LETA agency.
The Association points out that Latvian milk producers are prepared to both boycott shops and pour milk tankers at the doors of the government building so that the crisis-stricken dairy industry is heard by the government.
On political and historical issues
I am only offering the thesis that people – especially in, as they say fashionably, times of heightened turbulence – are very plastic and adapt well.
That, by the way, also applies to people who associate the concept of “Latvian” with themselves.
Daugavpils University publishes the collection “History: Sources and People” annually. In the chronologically latest one (XXV, 2022), Signe Irbe's text about the Komsomol in Latvia in 1945-1949 is interesting. The publication also mentions expulsion from the organisation, and in the aspect I am interested in, the reasons are significant.
So, of the 243 people expelled, 55 were expelled for “activity during the Nazi occupation”, 36 as “anti-Soviet elements”, 31 for ties with national partisans or participation in national partisan groups, 17 for attending church, 15 for ties with “kulaks”, and so on.
If we are putting Russia on trial, then let's go the full distance for everything that has happened in the last hundred years! Historian Gatis Krūmiņš recently participated in a discussion at the Riga Castle hosted by the Presidents of Poland and Latvia with this proposal. He was the first to prove with archival documents that during the years of Soviet occupation, the USSR took much more from Latvia and the other Baltic states than it gave.