An interesting Political post not of what is happening in Tamil
Nadu – believe me – She is not a fashion
model but a Politician. Thousands of
miles away is Košrags, a small village
in Kolka Parish, Talsi Municipality, Latvia. It sits on the shore of the Irbe
Strait of the Baltic Sea. It is one of twelve Livonian villages on Līvõd rānda
(Livonian Coast).
One
of the most fascinating Livonian stories is the legend of the two survivors
after the plague – a tale of near-total extinction and miraculous renewal from
the Livonian coast in northwestern Latvia.
Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of northern
Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north
and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia and
Belarus and shares a maritime border with Sweden Latvia
covers an area of 64,573 km2 (24,932 sq mi) with a population of 1.83 million which would compare to that of Thane in India, 7 times
smaller than that of Chennai !!
The name
Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four
Indo-European Baltic tribes (along with Curonians, Selonians and Semigallians),
which formed the ethnic core of modern Latvians together with the Finnic
Livonians
The
good looking women at the start is : Evika Siliņa
a Latvian lawyer and politician who
served as prime minister of Latvia from 2023 to 2026. Recently she had to resign following the
collapse of her government coalition, and
remained in office as caretaker prime minister until her successor, Andris
Kulbergs, was appointed two weeks later.
On 16
August 2023, after the resignation of Krišjānis
Kariņš,
the New Unity nominated Siliņa
as a candidate for the post of prime minister.
The government coalition led by Siliņa
won the confidence of the parliamentary majority in the Saeima on 15 September
2023, receiving 53 votes. In her speech,
the new Prime Minister emphasized the need to be more inclusive, which was
interpreted as prioritizing gender equality and other progressive goals. For
the Russian-speaking minority, inclusion assumes elimination of the
"non-citizen" status and integration into the Latvian-based education
system. Siliņa
was the second woman to become prime minister of Latvia, following Laimdota Straujuma
in 2014–2016.
On 14 May
2026, Siliņa
announced her resignation as Prime Minister after the Progressives withdrew
support from her government. They did so
after Siliņa
fired Defence Minister Andris Spruds following the explosion of two drones in eastern
Latvia during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Andris Kulbergs who serves as the
president of the Latvian Authorised Automobile Dealers Association is the new President now.
Now that
interesting survival story :
Before the plague, the Livonian people thrived in villages along
Cape Kolka in northwestern Latvia—Melnsils, Kolka, Vaide, Saunags, Pitrags,
Košrags, and Mazirbe. They were a Balto-Finnic people, speaking a language
related to Finnish and Estonian, fishing in the Baltic Sea, and living
peacefully together. Then the plague arrived. It swept through the villages
like a silent wolf, killing everyone. One by one, families fell. Fishermen
never returned. Children stopped playing. The wooden houses stood empty, and
the Livonian language grew quiet.
When the plague finally ended, only two people remained alive—one in
Saunags, the other in Sīkrags.
The survivor from Saunags woke days later and walked through the
dead village, calling names no one answered. He searched for miles until, near
Sīkrags, he saw fresh footsteps in the sand. Someone had walked here. Someone
was alive. His heart exploded. He dropped to his knees and kissed the
footsteps, pressing his lips to the sand where another human being had walked.
He cried, tears mixing with the dust.
From Sīkrags, the other survivor emerged. He had seen the
footsteps too. And he, too, kissed them. The two men found each little more
than souls from a world that had disappeared. They were the last Livonians in
Cape Kolka.
"We are alone," said the man from Saunags.
"No," replied the man from Sīkrags. "We are
two."
Years later, new people arrived—families from Saaremaa (Estonia)
and Finland who sailed across the Baltic Sea for new land. Two brothers from
Finland arrived in Košrags and built two wooden houses: Anduļu sēta and Žoki.
Their descendants grew up. The names survived. The two Livonian survivors lived
long enough to see their people begin again. They never forgot the plague. They
never forgot the emptiness. But they remembered the footsteps. They remembered kissing the sand.
And they remembered that even when everyone dies, if two people remain, the
world is not yet lost. Today, the two
houses still stand in Košrags. The Livonian people, though nearly erased, still
exist. Their language whispers in the wind along Cape Kolka—a testament to
survival after the plague.
Māris
Štrombergs is a Latvian former professional BMX racer. In
the 2008 Summer Olympics he became the first Olympic champion in BMX cycling. In 2012
he added to his Olympic title by winning the gold medal in the London Olympics. In 2018 Māris
Štrombergs announced his retirement.
Interesting
!
Regards –
S Sampathkumar
7.6.2026
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