Letters to editor

Nazis and Soviets

I am writing in response to the opinion piece by Janis Bolsteins ("Chasing phantoms," Aug. 22-28 issue). Being Jewish myself I have no alternative but to think "from the Jewish perspective" as Mr. Bolsteins says.

However, I ask myself, or still better I am asking him, that if Ambassador DeThomas said that "in contrast to the Nazi occupation, the Soviet occupation did more direct harm in Estonia" he really meant that the Soviets were worse than the Nazis. Does Mr Bolstein forget that the Nazis were occupying this region for only three years compared to the Soviet rule of almost 6O years? And that in those three years 400,000 Jews and other "undesireables" were exterminated?

Comparing the same proportions, the Soviets should have killed about eight million people, which means that practically all three Baltic nations would have vanished.

The whole world knows that this German efficiency was achieved with the help of local collaborators. I agree with Mr. Bolsteins that after six decades, trying to hunt down these Nazi collaborators must be a frustrating task. But this does not exempt the Baltic states from coming to terms publicly with their past. France and Austria, the examples mentioned by Mr Bolsteins, are openly discussing this matter.

In his opinion, Mr. Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office, will try to influence the U.S. Senate when it is debating the NATO enlargement to the Baltics,with the argument of the high rates of collaboration of these countries with the Nazis.

Why not preempt this by recognizing publicly that there existed this collaboration and, as Germany did, try to inform and educate the next generations so that never again history will repeat itself.

Gabriel Groszman

Argentina

EU bad

In their rush to join the EU, government leaders in the Baltics seem to have forgotten that socialism does not work. It always deteriorates into what is essentially a dictatorship by a committee or ruling elites. In this case, the committee will be far away in Brussels, and the Baltics will be just a tiny fraction of the total EU membership. The only beneficiaries will be the far-left elites who glorify big government, high taxes, and as Pope John Paul II recently said, "the noisy propaganda of liberalism, of freedom without truth or responsibility."

The common sense conservative thinking that values family, religion, education, hard work, and thrift are one of the most attractive qualities of the Baltics. It would be very sad to see those values replaced with Hollywood-style liberalism.

The Baltics would be far better off if they instead fully embrace freedom and opportunity for all by having small and efficient governments and low taxes. Even Russia, their former socialist oppressor, is now benefiting from a simplified tax system with a low flat rate. The Baltics could be very attractive places for foreign investment, but socialist schemes kill the very savings and investments needed to build a strong economy with opportunities for all.

F. Stephen Masek

Mission Viejo, California

Football fever

It was good to see your paper finally acknowledge the presence of international football with a small preview of the Latvia-Sweden match ("European soccer cup kicks off in Riga," Sept. 5-11 issue).

In view of Estonia and Lithuania also kicking off their Euro 2004 campaigns against top quality opposition at the same time as Latvia, it was a pity that your piece didn't go just a little further, but it was welcome all the same.

The comparative unpopularity of the game here in Latvia is often attributed to the national team's lack of success and even ability, although I have long thought this a rather convenient excuse. As the long time supporter of an average English club team, I can say that football supporters will follow their team through good times and bad once they are hooked, so maybe we need to get people hooked first.

Anyone who was at Skonto stadium for the Latvia-Sweden game saw a battling and extremely competent second-half performance from Latvia against the World Cup quarterfinalists and in (Latvian players) Pahars, Laizans, Zemlinskis and others, they have some true big-time players. Despite the match remaining goalless, there was plenty of excitement to cheer.

Estonia achieved a similarly creditable draw against Croatia (who themselves defeated Italy in the 2002 World Cup) while Lithuania were far from disgraced in Vilnius against World Cup finalists Germany. It may not exactly have been a new dawn for football in the Baltics, but the signs were encouraging enough to hope that the popularity of "the beautiful game" will only continue to grow.

Mike Barnes.

A British football fan living in Riga

A question of choice

Writing on the subject of bilingual education on the Latvian policy Web site politics.lv, Viktor Gushchin, a member of the Association for Supporting of Latvia's Russian language schools, comes up with some unusual proposals.

The observation that some of the Russian schools would be unable to convert to instruction being held in state language by year 2004, is odd.

Gushchin says that 22 percent of students in Russian schools intend to remain in Latvia. This means that for 22 percent of students in Russian schools, it would be better if they received instruction in chemistry, mathematics and physics in Latvian rather than in Russian.

Gushchin further says that 40 percent of students in Russian schools intend to migrate either to European countries or to the United States or Canada. Would it not be better for those students to attend Latvian schools, those where the second language is either English, German or French..

Very interesting is Gushchin's statement that 82 percent of parents of students in Russian schools are today active in the movement for establishing of Russian language as the second state language. This is a purely political game, that has no relevance to the education of their children. Is it fair then to say that Russian parents are sacrificing the future of their children by restricting their education to purely Russian instead of encouraging them to expand the horizons of their knowledge? o

Jekabs Ziedars

Melbourne, Australia