Sea pollution, Latvian nationality and euro as a future Latvian currency

I have read in a Lonely planet guide about Baltic states that in many latvian beaches is dangerous to take a bath because ot the pollution of different factories. As I have never been to Latvia, i would like to know if it is true.

Secondly, several years ago a lot of Latvian Russian speaking people didn't have any passport at all, cause they didn't understand Latvian language and because they were not born in Russia and fhat it was necessary to pass an exam about Latvian history and Latvian language in order to be able to obtain Latvian nationality. I would like to know if nowadays in 2009 all these questions have been solved and everybody has a nationality and the right to vote as in any democracy.

And, finally, I would like to know which is the opinion of Latvian people about the euro. Do you think that the change of currency will be positive for the country or will contribute to the inflation as it happened in Spain, Greece or Slovenia when they adopted the euro as a national currency.
LORD JIM

Well... as usually, we would like to ask what is that actually, "a Lonely planet guide about Baltic states". Is it available online or in a paper edition? Could we get a copy?


Absolutely not. Unfortunately, Latvian government still keeps politics regarding non-citizens which are also called "niggers" sometimes, even in mass media! It's a word-playing actually, because the word "nigger" which is an s-word in US and many English-speaking countries, has the same letters root as "non-citizen" (i.e. негр - негражданин). No democracy in action regarding this case... very sad for about 30% of population of Latvia (still, they all have to pay taxes).


I could say this is a bit outdated information. Currently, in Latvia only very few factories are still working; in general, almost all ex-USSR production is ruined. So beaches are surprisingly clean, if not made dirty by people themselves. It's also officially forbidden to smoke on beaches. I personally "took a sea bath" many times and I am still alive


I asked many of my friends regarding that case, and surprisingly all of them answered they voted against joining the EU at all. We all suspect that joining EU was strictly government's plan. Introducing Euro now obviously will cause a very strong inflation; however despite of that, government is going to do this soon.

Welcome to the most undemocratic country on Earth...

I would like to know what exactly is the socio-economic situation in Latvia nowadays? Is there civil unrest as they say in the news. What baout the unemployment and do foreign firms leave Latvia? Is htere a new wave of immigration under way?

Civil unrest... oh well, it's abnormally huge... People are very stressed and depressed, it's true. Mostly because in 19 years of "independence" we have actually caught in the total dependence, from Euro, from loans, from the rest of the world actually.

Who knows may be it's the only way to open society's eyes...

Foreign firms... Well, I couldn't say they were a lot actually. A lot of foreign banks were here, that we know for sure!!

Plomb: I have read the Lonely planet guide in a local library in a paper edition. It was not the English original version but a Spanish transation printed at the end of 2006. Latvia chapter was written by Becca Blond, and American journalist. I ignore if she visited your country or wrote the book using Internet.
I suppose many of non citizens are mostly old people who are too old to learn Latvian language, not the girls of this forum.
I imagine the economical situation is not good in Latvia. But it

It seems like she would just surf some web pages to claim that, like many other "journalists" do. We hope our forums give the real detailed information on the subject!

This forum is supposed to use "Latvian girls brand" just because it seems nowadays everybody know Latvia because of such term. It's the law of mass media: the one says something, other believe it's true because it's said on the TV or newspapers. Let's not forget mass media is just another source of earning; people get paid for saying anything there, not mandatory it should be the true. Only people which are not paid could tell you how it goes; but only you could know it for sure seeing with your own eyes.

Iceland... well, in many ways it's similar to Latvia. BTW Iceland was the first country to accept Latvia's independence in 1991. Now it seems it began the show again

Yes, economics are very poor now, but this is just another reason to think deeply and to review the things from the other angle. Let's see how it goes...

In fact your goverment wont decide when they wan to addopt the EURO
with your inflation and economic situation, is more probable to stay with lats for some years and not adopt the euro.

SAMED
Actually it all happens because the currency rate of Lat is too high and is not grounded on Latvian economics, in general. It's too unnatural. The high rate ruined the economics much earlier. Now I don't know a person which stores own savings in Lats... everybody has Euros on top anyway. It will not change the situation if we kill Lat and introduce Euro now. The problem is on the other side...