Of note was the fact that the Riga Free Port has a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), meaning that companies with that status enjoy an 80% discount on real estate tax. Discounts are also available on income tax, while dividends transferred to companies registered in offshore jurisdictions are taxed at 0%.
December belongs to Ziemeļnieks. There is frost already, snow and greyness alternate with insensible white, but people have not yet forgotten autumn's generosity, the orange of pumpkins, the red of apples, the roundness of cabbage heads. There is still plenty of everything, abundance of everything, and one can celebrate the solstice. Ziemeļnieks' poetry can be read at length, it is so melodic - but I wish to recall just one poem that is, in my view, timeless.
Recent events connected with the collapsed Zolitūde Maxima shopping centre, and especially the way in which representatives of state power and local government present, conceal and interpret them, involuntarily prompted reflections that go considerably deeper than an answer to the trivial question of who is to blame. If one looks at history, it is nothing unusual in Russia for some apartment block to be blown up and in the course of the "investigation" it emerges that the guilty parties were Chechens or Caucasians.
The value of a human life. However oddly this may sound in this sad moment, in a state the value of every person has been calculated. Including the value of children and elderly people. State men and women never speak of this aloud, but such calculations possibly serve as the basis for many decisions. Although emotions are the only thing each of us feels acutely and truly, a state cannot be governed on the basis of emotions alone...
We read Vācietis' poetry not by cosily curling up on a sofa (as with Čaks), but by going outdoors in autumn, sitting down on grass already covered in frost, feeling the already sharp north wind on our cheeks, lingering in the dim yet lovely autumn sunlight like a mother's caress. I invite you to do the same!
Any electronic device, including a mobile phone, emits electromagnetic radiation. Unlike other devices, however, a phone is often kept close to the body - carried in a pocket, pressed firmly to the ear during calls. This has led many to wonder how harmful - or perhaps harmless - mobile communication devices actually are.
Although the Riga City Council's environmental department, judging by its employees' statements, bears no responsibility for air quality and has no obligation to monitor or do anything in this area, the European Commission's threatening finger and MEPRD's persistent urging has nevertheless prompted A. Kļaviņš to reluctantly set about an action programme.
The local Rēzekne district newspaper "Rēzeknes vēstis" has a column called "Hello! RV is listening!" In it, the newspaper's readers, residents of the city and district, have the opportunity to call the editorial office and "get things off their chest". Some topics even develop into a "chat" where readers exchange experiences or "pleasantries" from issue to issue.
Passing the time while leafing through an older women's magazine at the hairdresser's, I came across an interesting article whose insights I would like to share with you. Russian psychologist Yelena Sulima has researched and described the connection between a woman's choice of clothing and how she feels on the inside.
In this article I have compiled the main differences of the Latgalian written language from Latvian, and provided examples of writing in Latvian and Latgalian. The main message is not for Latgalians to change their oral language habits, but to adhere to a unified grammar in writing, so that it is understandable and learnable for themselves and others.