Regarding the most important task to be carried out in 2020/2021 – getting vaccinated or gaining immunity against Covid-19, enough has been heard, read and discussed. But!
It seems that a fact which is hard to miss and even harder to pretend not to see has slipped past – as is usual. Namely, the Ministry of Health, which has “cooked up a mess”, has been “ministered” (led) since 2019 by representatives of the party alliance whose words and speeches are teeming with “clarity”, “transparency”, “openness”, “honesty”, “the rule of law”, etc. Furthermore, representatives of the alliance are very fond of all kinds of regulations, which they are ready to concoct or harmoniously adapt to any human activity. Listening to or reading what these people say, write or publish (including on social networks), we see phrases, beautiful, rounded sayings, slogans and appeals, and... very little concreteness. In fact, the situation at the Ministry of Health is no surprise, because... speaking properly is one thing, acting reasonably is quite another. And if you can do one but cannot do the other...
The problem – no one has insisted on a concrete answer from the representatives of the party alliance as to how, in a ministry led by their people for long enough, uncertainty, lack of traceability and lack of transparency are possible. And – where have the open answers gone?
Turning to topics closer to the forestry sector, it must be remembered that the ministry directly related to the sector – VARAM – has also been led for just as long by a minister nominated by the aforementioned party alliance (specifically, the specific party alliance is responsible for the ministry).
For one – both ministers to date have certainly been interested, first and foremost, in the administrative-territorial reform, which was necessary for Latvia, but whose peculiar execution is criticised, yet the ministry and alliance representatives do not analyse this criticism. For example, why were municipalities not given the time to merge and reach an agreement themselves? Why did the ministry not react in any way to the indication, even voiced in public media, about specific interests in future political representation in the newly created municipalities? In 21st-century Latvia, is a nuance of reform necessary that attempts to exclude a political force from having a say without the voters' input? And – has it been considered that this method could be turned against any party in Latvia? The reform, which, it must be stressed again, was necessary, was implemented somewhat crookedly – assuming that: “If we say that we are talking, our silence can also be considered a conversation.”
The most important thing for the forestry sector. The “Green Deal” set by the European Union must certainly and undoubtedly be perceived and implemented as an opportunity for Latvia to become wealthy, get rid of debt and flourish! There must be no other thought on this matter! At the same time, it must be remembered that the “Green Deal” was created in a situation where there are no other ideas in Europe, and environmental problems are mostly and to a greater extent observed outside Europe. Let us remember the ship graveyards on the African coast and the floating islands of waste in the oceans... How many activists from Latvia sail towards these islands and collect what has been thrown into the ocean (sea) in bags? Or is it easier to lie, emphasising that the same thing is happening here?
Latvia's problem, which the ministry (VARAM) employees deliberately pretend not to notice (we can only guess the reasons) – for the purpose of absorbing project money, in central or northern Europe (as they judge and look, or want to see), problems that do not exist in Latvia are diligently and purposefully sought in Congo, Indonesia, Brazil, etc., in a misleading and untruthful way. Namely, in Latvia, “bags full” of non-existent problems are being brought into people's minds, step by step, using the recently mentioned in another context method of “preparing society”, creating an impression in a part of society that views nature, the countryside, the forest and the environment via Google Maps, Twitter or TikTok that the mess is huge.
“It seems that there is an opportunity... to address that part of society that is not interested in the essence of things with politicised slogans and deliberately distorted information.” (a quote from Agnese Margēviča's article “Politics against the court” was used in part to explain the problem)
Living comfortably in a tent in the middle of the desert, chewing dates, talking about what is seen around, it is forgotten to mention that we are not in Latvia... VARAM takes a very strange position in this situation, effectively ignoring the Latvian economy, which earns money for Latvia (mostly, this is not done by people called “activists”), and supporting the creation of problems and obstacles for both the state and the residents (primarily the latter). Moreover, it looks like the ministry cares more about the very careful and self-invented strict implementation and execution of various rules developed in Europe, rather than about the future of Latvia – the people who will wish, want, live and work in the Latvian countryside and forests. This is a very specific responsibility of the ministry's employees: unfortunately, in the Latvian public space, the doer has to stand against the activist's deliberate lying and blathering, but the ministry people, hiding behind phrases about the freedom of (lying) speech, let it happen, thus accepting the spread and consolidation of false information in people's minds. It is the ministry's responsibility to pretend that the indications from existing and former employees of the institutions it oversees regarding “emotional data” or “data that 'shows' a situation desired by someone” are a normal daily work routine. Of course, the ministry people do not care, for example, about the criticism directed at farmers, because ministry employees receive a salary also for what is left undone, and do not wait for the August or September, or... harvest. Of course, ministry employees also do not care about the forest owner's partially collapsed forest and its decrease in value, because this owner, by paying taxes, has also paid for the ministry employee's dismissive attitude and inaction. By the way, it is also the ministry's responsibility not to seek compensation money for forest owners for restrictions created legitimately or for the purpose of “green business at the expense of others” in European funding, but to discuss it long and widely “within their own circle”.
“...when the little trees bloomed with rosy flowers after a few years, the baron himself came with the baronesses to watch. The noble ladies push their long snouts towards the flowers, sneeze and then: Ah, how beautiful, ah, how lovely!”(Zenta Ērgle. I was born a loser)
Every now and then, laments appear in the mass media (even outside the rutting season): there will be no trees, there will be no forests, everything is being cut, there will be nothing... Years pass, the forest grows, we have large volumes of mature and over-mature stands. Activists, and unfortunately VARAM too, pretend not to notice this. Are the “asphalt people” of Riga and similar beings full of emotions, in the understanding of the ministry, more knowledgeable than Latvia's forest scientists who see the situation differently? Does the ministry, unlike European institutions, pretend not to notice or truly not notice the work and research of Latvia's forest scientists? How is it, comrades, who work at the ministry?
Currently, it looks like VARAM wants us to be the outskirts of Europe, which is getting overgrown, becoming swampy, which is occasionally visited by tourists because they are afraid to step in and get dirty, and for which someone in Brussels or elsewhere mercifully throws some money. Of course, all this happens transparently, in accordance with conventions and masked in beautiful words, preferably reciting poetry in a foreign tongue...