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  14 Sitting At the Bottom of a Barrel…
  …and singing a Latvian folk song:
  "Strauja, strauja upe tecēj...."
  (a fast, fast river flows).
  Where does the fast river flow?
  The barrel is too deep
  for anyone at the bottom to see,
  whether it is a river or whatever.
  The barrel merrily bobs its way
  to wherever the stream flows."
  As any Latvian will recognize, the above of course are not the words of the song. However, words to a song may change with time either wholly or in part. In the original version of the song, a horse fears the fast water, and the rider cannot cross the river. The rider urges the horse not to fear and move on. At the end of the song it is not clear however whether a crossing in fact took effect.
  But the words of the song unexpectedly reveal the intentions of the rider. He has not come to the river to cross it, but to build on top of the fast flowing stream a fire. His reasons are shamanistic: he wishes to build the fire for the people who do not wish him well. If one listens to the rhythm of the melody, it indeed sounds like a shaman's (burvis, ragana) incantation.
  [It is unfortunate that the lovely melody of the song cannot be entertained here because the YouTube version incants scenes of WWII with Latvian legionnaires in German uniforms. This surely perverts the soothsayer's magic and fast paced curse on ill wishers.]
  When I was a young student and sang the song, none of the above ever entered my mind, except perhaps when it came to the words "I chopped my firewood (with my sword) on a rock."* Being old enough to have been a cowherd and have seen live chickens suddenly dead, I knew well enough that no one in his right mind would strike his axe or sword against a stone. Therefore, these words encourage one to think that the song actually is a shaman's incantation against his ill wishers (those who have declared a curse against him), those of his client, or those of his nation.
  I was encouraged to think of and reminded myself of what I knew about magic incantations when I received the following two youtube clips. The first is a political campaign ad on behalf of two of Latvia's foremost neo-capitalist, while the second one is their victims' response.
  AŠ kvadrātā - Stendzenieka variants
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m1gWH5-8qI&feature=related
  AŠ kvadrātā - tautas vārds :) :)
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHteTxaSJZU&feature=related
  It is obvious that the first ad is aggressive. It claims a 13% economic growth rate when the two heroes mentioned in the ad were (implicitly) riding high in government. The ad is unmistakably meant to put a curse on you who took power from us when we had ****** over the nation. We are ready to repeat the 13% growth clip squared if you elect us again.
  The second ad, the one that is the response of those who received the curse of the first proves itself limp.
  The ad responds by making ridicule of those who put the curse against them, but aside from ridicule (deserved) offers nothing new. It presents the future as more of the same. The ad suggests no tangible way to improve on the loss (to be compared to the death) of 200,000 emigrants, the vast majority of who represent the proletariat, but contains a good number of educated people—because there is no job for them in Latvia. The ad makes no criticism of those who originated the cursing, though it they are the ones whose economic policies bankrupted the nation, and in the name of capitalism lost the nation 200,000 of some of its best.
  If the world ever returns to financial health and material prosperity and Latvia's economic situation improves with it, these 200,000 absent Latvians will likely be replaced by 200,000 Chinese. The Chinese are of course very nice people, but they will hardly know anything about Latvian roots, even less than when Latvians do not know much about their roots themselves. What has happened with the minds of these shamans? Are they possessed and is their power of possession squared? And is this why no prophecy comes from their mouths?
  One can nth the curse and return it as a direct hit. For example, it could issue the curse on behalf of the proletariat and because of the harm that has been made to the nation. Almost all the 200,000 are working age people. They are the physical muscle of Latvia. The thought however never enters the mind of any of the cursed, because that has to be backed up with a vision of a more promising future and how to get there. By repeating to the curse of the first with the same images they use, but changing the words and getting no further than to make ridicule, is a tempest in the teapot between two banalities.
  The fashion of the world in our time is to rule by not knowing how to govern. The Commandment that rules says: Do not kill:/ but reduce to slavery. This is what human rights amount to.
  have we not all survived to be among the live ones? And have not many been reduced to slavery—very much so when it comes to using our minds? There are of course ways to bring the Latvian economy back to its feet, but none of the 'democratic' authorities dare offer it.
  One offer that can be made is to realize the suggestion of a Dutch organization by the name of De Einder, or Horizon which asks that people who reach the age of seventy years be given the right to decide for themselves whether they are also "at a point where they consider their lives 'complete.'"
  When the choice is between losing a nation and doing what it takes to keep it alive, then the people who believe that their lives are complete and they wish to exit [as incidentally did the now forgotten Christians (the Cathars, Bogomils, Lollards, Johns Children and others)] are right. Countryside tourism, with a meaning that reaches far beyond fishing and other forms of escape, would then return again as something real and enliven the economic scene. If it was restrained in producing the reality that now circumscribes and diminishes life with an offer of virtual life in the city, the city will shrink down to an acceptable level.
  Therefore, vote by NOT-VOTING in the upcoming 2010 elections. See previous blogs for more arguments on behalf of the NOT-VOTE.
  *Uz akmeņa malku cirtu,/ Strautā kūru uguntiņu. /Lai sildāsi tie ļautiņi,/Kas man labu nevēlējā.
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