Advertising expert Ēriks Stendzenieks: The country is run by guest workers

"Europe says: we need square tomatoes. Yes, reports our nation state, will do! Europe says: we need to cut ships and factories. For sure, says the nation state, let's cut! But where is the national vote against these regulations? There is none!”- in his usual, ironic style, the former advertising tycoon, now a simple Kolka resident Ēriks Stendzenieks, sadly smiles at the state and society. About the country and about Covid-19, about the millions of Porziņģis and the small salaries of the officials, about gospels at the song festival and the death of the parties - our conversation today.

You have an outsider's view of the socio-political situation in the country. You have been living in Kolka for a long time, it seems like a completely different planet. Tell us your perspective.

To tell it is like trying to stuff Latvia into some symbol. There was just another offer of the rulers: to popularize Latvia for 3.9 million euros. If there has been a complete failure with the popularization of Latvia's image 67 times, then what hopes can we have that for the 68th time everything will be excellent? There was a "land that sings", a "magnetic Latvia"... Even Rainis for all of his life had not been able to formulate what Latvia was, Imants Ziedonis also tried it, he came close, but not to the end. So what can make us think that a circle or a triangle will describe and explain the whole of Latvia? But yes, we started with the socio-political situation...

It is, of course, easy for me to speak from Kolka. Nobody has seen any masks there, you enter the gas station, kiss the salesman on the lips, lick the door handle, people hug and everything happens. When I arrive in Riga, I a very confused, it feels like someone will call police on me immediately, because I don't see the virus. All right, it is somewhere there, but... It has been written that in Europe there have been 160 000 more deaths than last year in this period, but that does not mean that it was exactly the virus. How many have jumped out the window due to covid depression and fear that they will be isolated immediately, how many have not gotten operations because all the resources have been thrown at the covid?

This is especially true in America: there some 60% of the population have two weeks of sickness insurance, 30% have no insurance at all, and some 55% of Americans are two weeks' salary away from bankruptcy. You have a job, you have people to take care of, and you suddenly start coughing, and that's the last thing you want - to go to the doctor to have you quarantined at home.

Many covidtime rules have been compared to the rules of the road that people mostly nevertheless follow them.

If at a speed of 90 kilometers someone flies into a pole, no one has canceled the physics: the driver is a corpse. But in the case of covid... The government recently took two photos. In one everyone is in a mask, meant for the citizens, in the other - for the family - without masks. I'm not joking. The World Health Organization also keeps switching: first the masks are needed, then they are not needed, then they are needed again, but only partly, then Prime Minister Kariņš comes with the message that only in public transport, and just a scarf is enough, then the chief infectologist Uga Dumpis says - the sick need them, healthy people do not, then everyone needs it again... And then people look at this and don't understand: who to believe? And why believe it? In such a situation, it is very difficult to demand obedience. Then we have to look at the explanation in the most recent evening TV show - then the Russian media is not needed: if we have friends like these, enemies are no longer needed.

It seems to be similar to paying taxes.

It is. If four times a week all these programs are hammering in our heads about how that politician owns a row house, that politician does not pay taxes, the MPs are involved in criminal cases, the oligarchs, of course, are thieves, then one begins to think: wait, and why should I pay any taxes? That is the socio-political situation. But even more dangerous, in my opinion, is the triumph of political correctness: when about 90% of the time you are no longer allowed to think and talk about the topics you are used to thinking and talking.

Like what?

For example, if you say that white lives are important - not black ones, you will be fired immediately. The new Oscar regulations are symptomatic: if your film does not have a gay, a disabled and a black person, then your film cannot win the main prize. I think it's fascism, well, all right, fascism-lite, but it's still about burning books. About castration of thinking. Tom Sawyer and Uncle Tom's Cabin have been modified, Pippi Longstocking's dad is no longer Negro prince, but some African-American... Can’t even find any sports game to watch anymore because - before playing - they all kneel and worship something.

It's hard to understand how people can be forced to do something like that.

Well, if Porziņģis has a contract, say, for 150 million dollars, then... how can you not fall on your knees? He can be understood. But when I look at our European officials who work in various EU organizations, I see that they pass on human values ​​- self-esteem, free thought - for a small official's salary, for some 7,000 euros a month, not for millions like Porziņģis. People sweep under the rug everything that grandfather and grandmother had taught us, who may have went to Siberia and returned not broken.

Not only money can be used to humiliate. Already at the beginning of the conversation we saw that humiliation can also be caused by an illness - imaginary or real.

I don't understand anything about infectology, only as much as I've heard from Uga Dumpis when we studied together in London. We partied together, he revealed to me a lot of music news, he has a good musical taste and a great sense of humor, which does not appear at all in his interviews, in which he looks like anxious Dracula. I understand that he is the best infectologist in the country, and now he is out on the stage, he is more famous than ex-president Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, and who wants to get out of the spotlight?

What have you not settled with Saeima deputy Aldis Gobzems? You both, I think, have a similar way of thinking, you speak in paradoxes and at the end you come to logical conclusions that cannot actually be objected to. But what is the problem?

This is a question - a paradox. I have always hated the form "He is such a this and that, but on the opposite side - there’s ME!!!", but this time I can’t avoid it. I would never tweet that I have a video of one of the ministers masturbating on the toilet. Guys don't say that. If you are a possible prime minister of the future, you would never attack a journalist on social networks, calling him a fat and ugly person who has achieved nothing in life, so no woman would choose him. Such little things create my point about Gobzems. Now his trendy topic is covid, and he is copying US President Trump in terms of expression, but there is a difference between them: Trump is the president of the United States, but Gobzems has achieved nothing. But sometimes Gobzems, of course, says something fundamentally impassioned that is hard to disagree with.

If Gobzems' had formed the government, he would hardly have surpassed the current...

This government is the most useless I have known. Also the most arrogant. Šķēle, Godmanis un Šlesers were once accused of arrogance, well, they can bow to the current government in this regard. Speaking of arrogance: Šlesers was hauled over coals because he appointed his driver's son (who had higher education) as an advisor, I think. Now in Saeima sits Mārtiņš Bondars who is already convicted for money mismanagement for bank and depositors (including - Maestro Raimonds Pauls), with colleagues from whom 15 million are being reclaimed. No one in the civilized world will believe that this person heads the Saeima's Finance and Budget Committee. We have defendant Juris Jurašs. He chairs the Legal (!) Commission... Well, what are you laughing at? Someone might think that with Gobzems here something could be overthrown and changed, but that man also should not be given power. I was also offered to take part in a political force - after two years, when my probation expired - I was listed the people who would take part there, including Aldis. After a week of reflection, I refused. And I explained: I have ten reasons why I would like to participate, but there is also the eleventh because of which I will not participate, and that is Aldis. I said, let's see how he wrecks everything for you in six months and stabs you in the back, and then I can get involved. And the party organizers lead to a completely different direction than someone might imagine - not to Ainars Šlesers side.

You have probably also evaluated the emergency elections of the Riga City Council.

I think that three parties are now over and done with. KPV is over, and they can rename themselves however they want. This party has no "headline" - it is not clear what they are for or against, or about Europe, or the economy, or about the social issues, or about Latvians and Russians. The JKP is also over: this party was having such difficulty compiling a candidate list for the Riga elections, I would like to see how it will manage to compile 40 lists for the next municipal elections. If you have not participated in the municipal elections, you will have the little chances to get in the Saeima, because the voter will simply not recognize you. Harmony is also over. ZZS? They need leaders. Tavars? Maybe. But Didzis Šmits would be better. At one point he was very prepared to become one of the greens. When Didzis joined KPV LV, I thought: he has lost his mind. But then I realized that this is actually a good move: to start out, then to withdraw, using this withdrawal as a springboard for the next political step. For the first time you have to beg to be put on the list as high as possible, then - after active work - they will start fighting over you in the next election. Didzis Šmits has an excellent education and high intelligence. There will be a fight for him.

But what about the National Alliance (NA)?

NA is a sad story, because they do nothing except organize a torchlight procession on 18 November. They only have two dates, 9 May and 16 March, but where is the commitment to national values, where is the resistance to stupid European regulations? The Constitution of Latvia states that power belongs to the people of Latvia, but where is that power when Europe issues some regulations? Europe says: we need square tomatoes. Yes, reports our nation state, will do! Europe says: we need to cut ships and factories. For sure, says the nation state, let's cut! But where is the national vote against these regulations? There is none! However, I think that a bright political force will appear in the next elections, because many strong people have been "freed". Their assessment may be contradictory, you may or may not agree with them, but their intellectual contribution and charisma are unquestionable. They are: Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis, a wise man, Jūlija Stepaņenko - an outstanding sharpness of mind, a Russian who speaks Latvian better than some Latvians. Back in politics I would love to see Inguna Rībena. I can not forgive Krišjānis Kariņš that he once said the leaders' time in politics it is over (he embodies this saying perfectly...). On the contrary, this time has begun. But currently the country is run by guest workers - Kariņš is a guest worker, Levits is a guest worker - with binoculars aimed to Brussels. For unknown reasons, such people are elected and appointed.

Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel?

It is not clear what will happen to the world economy and to the European Union. Old Europe is actively and energetically destroying itself - history, values ​​and the future, without war and tanks it is handing over its administration, control, the rule of law to the more shameless and violent - illegal migrants. We are told: oh, how they suffer, the poor things! We must not treat them badly! But at least for the time being, Latvia answers: there will be no black dictatorship here! But the situation is not getting better in general... And let's remember that cars are burning in Stockholm, which are being burned by migrants with all their great benefits, of which a Latvian can only dream of.

But there are people who fully support illegal migration, who say, “refugees welcome”, who say, come on, darlings, we will put down a rug just for you!

I could even forgive absolute evil, but stupidity is hard to forgive. Stupidity and bootlicking - Latvia's misfortune. Remember how in the movie "Purva bridējs" Sutka kissed the boot: with a smile on his face!

Yes, Blaumanis was a genius in Latvian assessment. I wonder if today's students know there was such a Blaumanis?

I am not sure. It is criminal that studies again take place remotely. And perhaps this practice is here to stay. 50% of perceived information is body language, small motility, gaze, voice - all this teaches students when in person and can not be realized using a 2x3 centimeter window in Zoom. In addition, Marxism has appeared in Latvia - Leninism with all sorts of Selma Levrence type of people at the forefront. And it's not just one specific person, it's a whole generation we're already experiencing. It is possible that we will also experience a song festival, in which Raimonds Pauls and Mārtiņš Brauns will not play, but rather gospel choirs will. So... talking about that tunnel: the light is still on, but the sun is setting. It is getting darker, including skin color in EU. We may still live out the remainder of our lives in that last light. But those sunsets are always the nicest.