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Latvia
Culture & Identity
Latvia's Personality
Latvia acts as the big brother of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania),
but is also consumed with hatred and division, making him a poor role model. Historically
the country was a meeting point for Germans,
Swedes, Russians, and Latvians, but today the
country is gaining a stronger identity and rejecting this diversity.
Still big enough and powerful enough to control most trade and business in the region,
Latvia makes decisions and sticks to them, but these decisions
seem to be an internal disease killing their long-term growth and future. Minority
groups, particularly Russians, receive fewer rights than
ethnic Latvians and the country and government dwell on their history and past,
almost entirely forgetting about their present and future.
Identity
Latvians define themselves by their ethnicity, whatever
ethnicity the individual may be. The Russians are taught
to be ashamed of being Russian, but this encourages them to gain more pride; the
Latvians are taught that being Latvian means being anti-Russian as they're filled
with Latvian pride, causing even more hostility. Unfortunately, few people can actually
define what it means to be Latvian without describing what it is not.
This page was last updated: February, 2012