Latvia tops Baltic Olympic battle
GOLD : Strombergs is the number one man in Latvia.
RIGA - Eight competitors tested their pedals, waiting for the signal to start the tense winner-takes-all race. It was a historic moment in their sport — the first to cross the finish line would take home the first ever Olympic gold medal in BMX cycling.
In the previous heats, Maris Strombergs, Latvia’s 21-year-old BMX prodigy, had earned the right to choose which gate he would start from. He chose a fast track and it gave him an immediate edge over the other cyclists. By the end of the first turn, he was well ahead of the competition.
His performance was flawless. Strombergs threw up his arms in victory before even crossing the line. He was nearly half a second ahead of the next competitor.
“I needed the fast lane, and I did it,” Strombergs told the Associated Press after his win....
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"Harding Landing" – the book ...TALLINN - As a Black Briton I can say this – in many respects Estonians and other Balts act and think like Black people. By that I mean they like to spend money they don’t have on stuff they don’t need.
This is why the credit crunch has hit the Black community in America so hard.
Now a sensational new book which makes the same point in a different way is causing a buzz in the ex-pat communities and the corridors of power.
The book is called “Hard Landing,” It was written by Dr Claudio Zucchelli, an Italian-German, financial analyst and investor and Dag Kirsebom, a Swedish-Norwegian former banker and entrepreneur.
Ministries have ordered copies. The Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip...
Night club scams on the rise ...RIGA - Last May Toni Lahtinen walked into a night club in Riga’s Old Town and immediately knew he hated the place.
Lahtinen, who was visiting the city from his native Finland, only stayed for about 20 minutes before going to the bar to settle his 10-lat (14.2-euro) bill and leaving to find a club more to his liking.
He paid the bill with his debit card, quickly punching his PIN code into a portable machine. But the payment didn’t go through. The barman said there was probably some “trouble at the lines” and that he should try again. The second time it worked.
“Later, when I was back in Finland, [it was] exposed that I accepted a 654-lat transaction. Nordea Bank found out that the firs...
A country within a country...Not a single prisoner or prison guard is going to let you interview them, and none will go on the record,” Jaanus T., a former prisoner, told a reporter from The Baltic Times when asked about prison culture.
T. explained that a prison is a country within a country. “It doesn’t matter if you try to talk to a prisoner [or a] guard — they are all stuck in the middle,” T. said.
The hunger strike began in late July at Tallinn Prison and is ongoing. On July 24, one prisoner died, though authorities believe the death was not directly related to the hunger strike.
The Baltic Times reported earlier that the detainees were striking to protest against being served food by a former in...
Baltic athletes going for the gold and euros ...With the 2008 Olympic Games just a week away, few in the Baltic states doubt that their country will take home a bit of Olympic glory — and collect the wads of cash each country’s athletes Olympic committee has promised the winners.
This year’s games are politically controversial because they are being held in China, a country with poor human rights records. On June 30 China announced that they are taking emergency measure to make sure there is no trouble in Lhasa the capital of Tibet.
There have also been concerns above the quality of the air and conditions for the athletes. China is heavily industrialized and this had led to severe environment damage.
Still, this is the ...
Lithuanian roads most dangerous in Europe...VILNIUS - Lithuania is the most dangerous place to drive in Europe. Car crashes killed 739 Lithuanians in 2007 — a death rate of 21.9 per 100,000 people. To put this in context, if this death rate were repeated in a country as populated as, for example, France, this would kill 17,500 people per year.
The problem is so serious that the Lithuanian Statistics Department has cited it as one of the root causes of Vilnius’ 20 percent population discrepancy between men and women, and experts in all corners are blaming speeding and alcohol for the deaths of over 700 Lithuanians per year for the last five years. Since 1980, yearly road deaths have numbered below 700 only seven times.
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The great language myth...TALLINN-VILNIUS - Estonians can be strange people. Not only do they dislike Russian speakers speaking Russian, they don’t like Finnish tourists speaking Finnish.
“We are not in Finland. If you can’t speak Estonian, speak English” would be a typical response.
It’s understandable that Estonians prefer English — it is, after all, an international language. Also, in this part of the world, it is politically neutral. Russian, German and even Swedish can be associated with occupation and colonization. Estonia and the other Baltic states are small nations, and they can’t expect everybody to learn their language.
There are also practical reasons. The fact is, a lot of people living in Estonia d...
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