ninme

I said at the beginning of this little Anniversarial Adventure that the President of Latvia is “a real classy lady” The more I hear about her, the more I like her.

I linked to the BBC White House Correspondent’s Tour diary yesterday. He continues:

BBC – Tour diary: Bush in Europe – 7 May: The President’s ‘new lady’

Take a look at the photos of the president’s arrival here in Riga and you’ll see that he has a new lady in his life.

The pictures show a beaming Mr Bush, walking down the steps of Air Force One, flanked by a well-coiffured woman.

The pair are waving and smiling, happy to be here.

But it’s not the first lady, Laura Bush – she’s just behind them. The co-star of the show is Latvia’s President, Vaire Vike-Freiberga, who took the unusual step of going to the airport to greet Mr Bush personally.

She’s finding it hard to contain her excitement at this visit. It’s undoubtedly a huge honour for her, and her country, and she’s repaying it by speaking the same language of freedom and democracy as her guest. Almost word for word, in fact.

Yay!

The White House is delighted. They couldn’t have scripted it better, if they’d tried.

Not only is Mrs Vike-Freiberga (not a name that’s making its way into many of my American colleagues’ despatches) a shrewd politician, but, in her distinguished previous life, she was a professor of psychology in Canada.

She should know which buttons to push with the leader of the free world.

So far today, she’s presented Mr Bush with Latvia’s highest honour – he’s now a three-star President, first class, in the eyes of the Latvian people – and she’s laid a wreath with him at Latvia’s Freedom Monument.

In Soviet times, the joke was that the monument, a Latvian version of the statue of Liberty, was a travel agency. Anyone who put flowers there would get a one-way ticket to Siberia.

Mr Bush isn’t going to Siberia, but by tomorrow night he’ll be in Moscow. And judging by President Vladimir Putin’s pre-visit rhetoric he’s likely to get a pretty frosty reception.

Certainly a frostier one than he’s got here.

Hah! See if we care! We’ve got Latvia on our side!

(btw, some of you will remember that Latvia is one of my pet countries.)

Oh and he says this in a later post:

First of all, though, there’s a jaunt to the Netherlands – my wife’s birthplace – and a chance for President Bush to honour America’s war dead. Amid all the diplomatic shenanigans over Russia and the Baltics, they’ve almost been forgotten…

It’s true. The D-Day anniversary took over the cable news channels with reenactments and interviews with military historians interrupted only by the death of Ronald Reagan. But here Putin’s put his foot in his mouth and the Eastern Europeans are still piqued that they were, y’know, occupied for 50 years and didn’t really get to enjoy peace-times till just recently and so on and so the discussions a bit different. But still interesting. We’re still discussing history, but perhaps in a more…unsentimental fashion.

Update:

Wow she’s so cool!

Latvijas Valsts prezidenta kanceleja – Vaira Vike-Freiberga

Born in Riga, Latvia, on December 1, 1937, grew up in refugee camps in Germany, went to school in French Morocco, University studies in Canada (B.A. and M.A., Univ. of Toronto, Ph.D., McGill Univ.). Retired as professor emerita from the Universite de Montreal in 1998, after being a professor of psychology there since 1965.

And John Kerry was the gold standard in multicultural cosmopolitanism? Because he grew up in French mansions, I guess.

Ooh:

SPOKEN AND WRITTEN: English, French, Latvian, Spanish, German

Passive and partial knowledge: Portuguese, Italian

Oh this is crazy:

President’s Spouse – Imants Freibergs

Born on March 12, 1934 in Valmiera, Latvia. Spent early childhood with parents in Jelgava and with grandparents in Riga. Started primary school at the Jelgava Teachers College. In 1944, the family fled to Germany and stayed in refugee camps; in 1948 emigrated to France where he attended…College. Moved to Canada in 1954. Obtained a Master’s degree in Engineering Science at the University of Toronto (1961). Met his future wife, Vaira Vike, while both were members the organising committee of the First Latvian Youth Festival in Toronto; married in July, 1960

So they’re both born in Latvia, both live in German refugee camps, both go to French speaking countries, but different French-speaking countries, then both go to Toronto, both go to the Uni there, meet, fall in love and get married. Already spooky. But then she ends up the President of the country they both originated in!

Update II:

I was going to make this even longer, but it got too good to get lost down here. So, new entry!