On 2 November, President of Latvia Egils Levits was joined by young people from Dobele region for the last discussion ‘Latvianness: a privilege or a burden?’, which concludes the series of constitutional values discussions ‘#Satversme100: future values’, to speak about experiences and attitudes towards Latvian language, culture and traditions and how they shape our national identity, and what we should do to shield them against globalisation.
Egils Levits opened the discussion by saying that globalisation influences all nations and Latvia is no exception. ‘If we believe our language and culture are less competitive, we narrow our possibilities,’ President of Latvia said. ‘We need to get rid of these biases about our country. We belong to European Union and the world that has shrugged its colonial past; that is what we should take pride in,’ President continued.
Ričards Liepiņš-Melnis from Auce Secondary School reminded that young people are the ones who will further our national and cultural traditions, and singing and dancing or other cultural activities are the best way to do so. According to Ričards, Latvian language and history school programmes should increase focus on awareness of Latvianness among youngsters.
Whereas Nikita Juziks from Exupery International School thinks that Latvian citizenship is more than a document that verifies your nationality. It also comes with responsibility for your country and its culture as it evolves over time. Every resident of Latvia, every Latvian, is the ambassador of national culture and it is up to youngsters to make Latvian culture contemporary while preserving past values. ‘Modern youth embodies both the past and the present,’ he said.
Enrijs Birze, student of Dobele State Gymnasium, also said that Latvian language and culture are unique and, to promote Latvia internationally, we must bring more of our culture to the world. He said we need to get more Latvian books translated into other languages and continue to take part in Eurovision song contest with songs in Latvian. President Levits replied that international contacts are important – the more countries know about Latvia, the more influential we are politically and culturally, however, opinion or attitudes of others are probably less important than our national self-esteem. Estere Upmale from Dobele State Gymnasium elaborated on this by underlining that Latvia will be known for its smart and capable people who will represent Latvia at international forums, providing competent input in all kinds of thematic discussions.
Series of discussions are organised by Presidential Chancery and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, NGO Quo Tu domā? and European Movement Latvia.
