Rīga
Art Nouveau building
July 12, 2005
Riga's architecture is fascinating and the history comes alive through it. The
city has been occupied by the Swedes, Latvians, Russians, Germans, and Soviets.
I almost immediately fell in love, but was too hungry to enjoy it. We ate at a Lido
restaurant, a chain in the city and the food was excellent. I had pilof and a pork
cutlet with two kinds of cheese and tomatoes on top.
Eternal Flame
Near the Swedish Gate
July 13, 2005
I started today in the old town, then out east to the Art Nouveau district, which
was just as impressive. Riga has more Art Nouveau architecture than any other city
in the world and most of it is phenomenal. Every turn was a new surprise and the
old moat, now a channel from the river makes an ideal little park, with the old
aura of the moat.
There was very little I disliked, the city was great, the people nice, everyone
speaks Russian, so I felt comfortable. By the end of the day I made it to the other
side of the river to see the modern buildings in the single-building financial district.
It truly is quite difficult to find flaws, but then I found a glaring one, which
I can't get over.
In the afternoon Derek and I went to the “Occupation Museum” and I realized what
a racist hell this world is turning into. I found this building to be the most ironic
and hypocritical building I've ever encountered. The building teaches fact and
history, but the facts are all about the occupation, hence the name, by the Soviet
government. The history is fine and as far as I'm aware accurate... the museum
had nothing other than facts, but there was so much it failed to say, it was so
biased, it was so one-sided.
The museum’s whole purpose was to show how evil the Russians are, to show their
disastrous traits and their bad traits. But two things struck me immediately and
have not left me yet. The first is the fact that I couldn’t find one person on the
staff that spoke Russian. Five people there were Latvian-Americans and so spoke
both Latvian and English, but obviously spoke no Russian, which was also apparent
from their name tags, which had flags of the languages that they spoke. The woman
in the shop had no visible tag and I only heard her speaking Latvian. Finally, there
was a Latvian soldier in the corner, falling in and out of sleep. My guess would
be that he does in fact speak Russian, however what Russian in their right mind
would talk to him... he was in his Latvian military uniform working in an occupation
museum.
If the point of this museum is education, wouldn’t it help to have staff that spoke
Russian seeing as how over 50% of the city’s population is of Russian descent? If
the point was education, wouldn’t it make sense to present the facts in a way that
welcomed the Russians so that they would feel welcomed and want to learn of past
mistakes? The museum didn’t do this, instead it immediately told the visiting Russians
that they were evil, we will not have any staff that speak your language, we will
fill the exhibition with quotes of your evilness, we will not show any other side
of the story, we will not show how Russian people were also deported, and in many
times in greater numbers, we will not show that the Russian people may have any
positive characteristics or traits, we will only be racism pig-headed hypocrites
who’s only purpose is not education, but revenge, a display of their hatred and
a backlash of this bitterness.
This museum is educating how to hate, how to use the past as a tool for revenge
and an excuse for hatred. This museum is nothing more than a tool to show the Latvian
superiority. This museum is a tool to spark hatred and violence. This museum implied
the Russian people were the culprits, not the Soviet government. How is a young
society supposed to learn to love and forgiveness, if this is what they are fed
at a young age? How is a society supposed to mature, grow, and progress if they
know only how to hate, if they learn a biased history, if they learn vengeance rather
than forgiveness?
This museum taught the people to divide, to use their past and their history as
tools and excuses. This building missed the single most important point, as does
nearly every person who has entered that building: the Latvian government is now
the occupier.
In addition, this museum was free as if to encourage everyone, both local and foreign
to see the evils done to them. This act is not an act of kindness or of free education,
but rather is an opportunity to spread a biased past and a means of spreading the
hatred. How can a government that fails to recognize the rights of nearly a third
of their people talk about occupiers? The government in Latvia refuses to grant
Russians citizenship, they refuse to recognize their rights, they oppress them.
This government sees this as justice. Justice is not getting equal, justice is forgiving
and educating. Has this government so blindly walked into this situation and forgotten
about their past? This new Latvian government will not give citizenship to these
Russians, but this is only a response to how the Soviet government treated their
people.
Was it these particular Russians who placed that Soviet government in power, was
it these Russians who deported the Latvians, was it these Russians who even asked
to be sent to Riga to begin with? These Russians have become the scapegoat for an
entire country that no longer exists, and what’s worse is that this hatred and injustice
begins not with a group of lost youth, it is led by the country’s most prestigious
politicians, the most respected in the nation. If this is the best the Latvian people
can offer up to lead their country, then their future has a sad outlook.
How can a people be so blind? Have they failed to realize that this museum is facts,
but history is not about facts, but about answering the question of why, of understanding
the motivation. Facts don’t matter if you can’t figure out why they happened
so you can prevent them in the future. This answer to the question why
is the answer, and in the case of the Latvian deportation by the Soviets the answer
was racism and power. A racism in the belief of superiority and inferiority of the
Latvian people. A power in that by flooding a region of potential rebels they would
gain a majority and prevent uprisings. The Latvian government failed to see this
why and skipped only to the what. They see the deportations and
so respond with an act not dissimilar. Do the Latvian politicians really fail to
see that they are doing to the Russians in their country just as the Soviets did
to them and their ancestors?
This museum teaches facts and answers the what, but completely fails to see the
why. The why is racism and if the government would look internally and ask themselves
why they won’t give citizenship to the ethnic Russians, they find the same answer…
racism. If the museum addressed the real issue present, racism, then they would
perhaps make a positive impact, they could actually educate, they would finally
spread the entire truth, and not just a biased hatred-filled museum of garbage.
The government must first grant these Russians citizenship, and only then can they
allow such a museum to flourish, however at this point they would have to add the
recent Latvian history, the occupation of the Russian people by the Latvian government.
Modern architecture
Modern architecture
Pilsetas Kanals
Sarnu Iela