Glad, yes, glad I am that Aleksandrs Kirsteins agrees that we would all have to scream if the Nazi Bundestag were to hire a Nazi. Sad, yes, sad I am that he fails abysmally to recognize that he has already hired if not a Nazi, then a pretty close approximation of one. Whether or not DDD is or is not registered with the Cabinet of Ministers is utterly irrelevant (and incidentally it is absolutely ridiculous to refer to this publication as a "newspaper" - it is the newsletter of a marginal organization of extremists).
What is of importance is that this is a newsletter which blithely published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, universally known as the masterpiece of anti-Semitic forgery of the last century, a newsletter which has called for the "deportation" (their word) of 700,000 of Latvia's residents, a newsletter which routinely uses a word for "Jew" which is patently offensive to most Jews, a newsletter which recently published an article that ended with the words "On behalf of the Aryan nation - let us go to battle!" and a newsletter which regularly attracts the attentions of the country's Security Police.
Now, if Aleksandrs Kirsteins looks at that and decides that everything is just hunky dory, then he has either lost his marbles, or he has decided to sink into the swamp of disingenuousness that is the hallmark of this country's nauseatingly smarmy political system. Yes, international standards in Europe prohibit discrimination on the basis of political views, but the authors of international standards also recognize that there are views so entirely outside of the mainstream, or even of rationality, that they are not automatically protected. There would be not a single MP in Germany who would for a moment argue that a Nazi skinhead should be hired because he speaks French, and let the devil care about his views.
I do not know what prompted Mr. Kirsteins to hire this radically anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic person to be his secretary. It has been suggested to me that his reasons have been entirely personal ones. In that or in any other case, I renew my call on the international diplomatic community to protest this situation, and I call on the People's Party to remove this gross stain from its reputation by ejecting Mr. Kirsteins from its ranks.
And Mr. Kirsteins should also check his facts. The 100 lat fine that I was ordered to pay (and which is on appeal) was not for "ethical" problems - it was for libel. On a radio show I once called two of the activists in the organization from which the redoubtable MP's new secretary hails "goats." Readers of The Baltic Times may ponder whether the word "goat" on a commentary show would be actionable under the libel laws of the world's civilized legal systems, especially when applied to women who routinely call others "traitors," "criminals," "pederasts," etc. I personally don't have any doubts. Nor do I have any doubts that the situation at the Foreign Relations Commission remains untenable and unacceptable.
Karlis Streips
Riga
