Customer Reviews (1)

TOTALLY INSULTING!
The level of ignorance in this book is unbearable! To start with, on the cover of a book which is supposed to talk about Latvia, there is a picture of a girl in a RUSSIAN folk costume! This is like if one would write abook on Native Americans and put cow-boys on the cover! This is animmense insult to the whole Latvian nation.The book is full of suchfalacies, with pictures that are NOT AT ALL from Latvia (for example thereis a picture of Tallinn at one point and they say it is Riga).Manypictures show Russians and the caption describes them as Latvians infolk-costumes or describes what they are doing as Latvian traditions! There is even a picture of a GERMAN dance troup, in little leather pants,and the caption again falsly calls then Latvians.The authors wereobviously in Riga during an international folk festival, Baltica orSudmalinas, and considered everything they saw as Latvian.It is mostobvious the authors of this book had no idea what or who they were writingabout, and were just trying to plug another hole in their series.DO NOTWASTE YOUR MONEY! THIS IS NOT WHAT LATVIA IS!.........I live in Latvia,I have dedicated most of my life to the study of these people and of thiscountry, and I am greatly saddened to see Latvians and Latvia treated withsuch lack of respect! Not worth the paper it is printed on... not evenworth one star!................... ... Read more

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Latvia has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 913 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts in Latvia face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts to Latvia? How important is Latvia compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts vary from one country of origin to another in Latvia? On the supply side, Latvia also exports human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts. Which countries receive the most exports from Latvia? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers?

This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts in Latvia. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts for those countries serving Latvia via exports, or supplying from Latvia via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models.

In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where Latvia fits into the world market for imported and exported human blood, prepared animal blood, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms, and similar products excluding yeasts. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for Latvia in particular, is estimated using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the share that Latvia is likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize Latvia compared to other major country markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information sources for strategic planning purposes. ... Read more

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Chapters: Archaeological Sites in Latvia, Narva Culture, Grobiņa, Principality of Jersika, Kunda Culture, Sēlpils, Āraiši Lake Dwelling Site. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Narva culture or eastern Baltic (ca. 5300 to 1750 BC) was an European Neolithic archaeological culture found in present-day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad Oblast (former East Prussia), and adjacent portions of Poland and Russia. A successor of the Mesolithic Kunda culture, Narva culture continued up to the start of the Bronze Age. The technology was that of hunter-gatherers. The culture was named after the Narva River in Estonia. The people of the Narva culture had little access to flint; therefore, they were forced to trade and conserve their flint resources. For example, there were very few flint arrowheads and flint was often reused. The Narva culture relied on local materials (bone, horn, schist). As evidence of trade, researchers found pieces of pink flint from Valdai Hills and plenty of typical Narva pottery in the territory of the Neman culture while no objects from the Neman culture were found in Narva. Heavy use of bones and horns is one of the main characteristics of the Narva culture. The bone tools, continued from the predecessor Kunda culture, provide the best evidence of continuity of the Narva culture throughout the Neolithic period. The people were buried on their backs with few grave goods. The Narva culture also used and traded amber; a few hundred items were found in Juodkrant. One of the most famous artifacts is a ceremonial cane carved of horn as a head of female elk found in ventoji. The people were primarily fishers, hunters, and gatherers. They slowly began adopting husbandry in middle Neolithic. They were not nomadic and lived in same sett...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2485920 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Riga (Latvian: R?ga, pronounced [ri??a]( listen)) is the capital and largest city of Latvia, a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltics, and an important seaport, situated on the mouth of the Daugava. With 713,016 inhabitants (2009)it is the largest city of the Baltic states and third-largest in the Baltic region, behind Saint Petersburg and Stockholm (counting residents within the city limits). Riga's territory covers 307.17 km2 (118.60 sq mi) and lies between 1 and 10 metres (3.3 and 33 ft) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga's historical centre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city is particularly notable for its extensive Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) architecture, which UNESCO considers to be unparalleled anywhere in the world. ... Read more

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Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nationality groups have claimed sovereignty in the new republics bearing their names. With the ascendance of these titular nationality groups, Russian speakers living in the post-Soviet republics face a radical crisis of identity. That crisis is at the heart of David D. Laitin's keenly awaited book.

Laitin portrays these Russian speakers as a "beached diaspora" since the populations did not cross international borders; the borders themselves receded. He asks what will become of these populations. Will they learn the languages of the republics in which they live and prepare their children for assimilation? Will they return to a homeland many have never seen? Or will they become loyal citizens of the new republics while maintaining a Russian identity? Through questions such as these and on the basis of ethnographic field research, discourse analysis, and mass surveys, Laitin analyzes trends in four post-Soviet republics: Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

Laitin concludes that the "Russian-speaking population" is a new category of identity in the post-Soviet world. This conglomerate identity of those who share a language is analogous, Laitin suggests, to such designations as "Palestinian" in the Middle East and "Hispanic" in the United States. The development of this new identity has implications both for the success of the national projects in these states and for interethnic peace. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Well written and extremely interesting
This is a carefully researched, thoughtful and well-written examination ofthe Russian speaking population in the "near abroad" since thebreak up of the Soviet Union.While my experience is largely withLithuania, his discussion of the Russian speaking population in Estonia andLatvia seemed insightful. As a minor criticism, or perhaps more as a termof reference for readers, I should note that Laitin seemed more sympatheticto the diaspora Russians than to the local populations.His discussion ofBaltic events struck me as distinctly pro-ethnic Russian, although notoutrageously so.Persons with Baltic ties may disagree with some hisviews, but they will still find them interesting. ... Read more

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In this book, I examine contemporary emigration from Latvia to theUK with the purpose of understanding why this phenomenonoccurs and what the possible consequences of this trend are; whataffects the decisions of Latvian migrants to move to the UK; whattheir experiences are; and what the links between internationalmigration and the development of the sending states in the contextof Latvia are. Migration Systems Theory allowed examining of themigration process on multiple levels. The concepts of remittances,social remittances, and brain drain were combined in a developmentlens for analyzing the potential consequences of Latvian emigration.The fieldwork was conducted in November 2007 in London. Latvianmigrants living in the UK participated in the qualitative in-depthinterviews and completed questionnaires. Interviews with theparticipants revealed several economic, social, and political factorsinfluencing Latvian emigration, allowing for the discussion of thepotential consequences of this emigration. This book might beuseful for academics, policy makers, as well as for anyone who isinterested in the subject matter. ... Read more

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The book examines ways in which implementation of a development cooperation project influences the capacity of project implementing organisations in Latvia. The study discovers whether social capital generated during the project cycle has an effect on projects' effectiveness and ability to produce added value.Characteristics of structural and cognitive social capital or common understanding of value systems shared among project partners have been identified. Social capital provides environment for people and organisations to succeed, increase effectiveness and focus on mutual characteristics of their coordinated actions. Implementation of development cooperation projects enhance: (a) financial and human resource mobilisation and management capacities; (b) process management related capacities as strategic planning, coordination, and decision making, communication, problem identification and solving; (c) knowledge acquisition and generation within organisations. The concept of social capital is applied to international networks. New concepts - ?social organisational capital' and ?organisational social capacity' have been proposed. ... Read more

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The Livonians or Livs are the indigenous inhabitants of Livonia, a large part of what is today the northwestern Latvia and southwestern Estonia. Unlike the ethnic Latvians, Lithuanians, and most of the other peoples of Europe they do not speak an Indo-European language, but speak the Finno-Ugric Livonian language, a Baltic-Finnish language which is closely related to Estonian and Finnish. Historical, social and economic factors, together with the ethnically dispersed population, have resulted in the dimunition of the Livonian population, with only a small group surviving in the 21st century. According to the 2000 census there were only 177 Livonians in Latvia. ... Read more

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Includes a history of Riga and several fine itineraries, plus 103 color photos and maps. ... Read more

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Most people don't think about singing when they think about revolutions. But in Estonia song was the weapon of choice when the Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation.

The Singing Revolution tells the moving story of a people's non-violent and dramatic march to regain their freedom--while helping to topple an empire along the way.Based on the acclaimed film, and written by noted National Geographic author Priit Vesilind with filmmakers James and Maureen Tusty. Includes more than 150 photographs

This is a must read for people interested in seeing how change can be manifested through peaceful methods--in rejection of violent means. ... Read more

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Revisiting the process of political community building in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, this book analyzes the roles that international actors have played in these processes and assesses the unintended consequences of this involvement. The study differs from other works on ethnic minorities and nationalism in the former Soviet Union by exploring the use of minority rights discourse and the salience of historical memory. Case studies examine the transformation of nationalism in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - all former Soviet republics - which have experienced Soviet nationalities policy first-hand. Primarily intended for an academic audience and practitioners interested in promoting tolerance in multiethnic societies, the book's historical narrative will also appeal to readers with a general interest in the former Soviet Union and post-Communism. ... Read more