- The homeless conundrum
A little over a year ago, Janis* injured his leg, and he wasn’t able to work.
- The struggle for a home
Last August, to the horror of a nation, a baby was found wailing in a Riga dumpster. Her mother, already struggling to feed two mouths, had simply placed the infant there and walked away.
- Suicide epidemic persists
Arguably the most famous video footage of Lithuania’s independence movement is a scene depicting Vytautas Landsbergis standing before a half-million people, asking them if they wanted to be free.
- R&D craves business involvement
Captain Yuri Feldman and Chief Engineer Yuri Bogomolov were with the merchant fleet several years ago when, inspired by the idea of riding Baltic waves with more speed, they developed the idea of a revolutionary power unit.
- Racism rears its ugly head
In recent weeks, many a back alley in Riga’s Old Town has been vandalized with hate-filled, racist graffiti. Observers call it a recent phenomenon.
- To prevent an epidemic
Ilze was 16 when she found out she was HIV-positive. “I was really sick with pneumonia or something, and I went to the doctor. I hadn’t heard very much about HIV before, but I took a test just in case,” she recalls.
- Unlearned lessons of modern slavery
Vita’s story is a painful one to hear. How she was severely beaten and left in the snow. How she was forced to have sex with 20 men a day. How she was robbed of her health, her freedom and her dignity.
- Mental healthcare suffers chronic neglect
Inga doesn't wake up to a cold tray of pills sitting at her bedside anymore. She doesn't have to wait for mealtime if she's hungry, or attend a craft workshop if she's sad.
- Doctors worn to the bone
“We have a saying among doctors,” says Mindaugas Sidaravicius, a surgeon at Siauliai Hospital. “No money for food on a single shift, and no time for it on a double shift.”.
- Lithuanians ready to confront history
Some NGOs feel that efforts to deal with the legacy of the Holocaust are half-hearted.
- Looking for counts and princes
Latvian fencers hoping to foil foreign opponents.
- From cultural center to World War II ghetto
Special to TBTIn the central hall of the Holocaust Museum, a yellow flame burns from a block of black marble like the fire of a sacrificial altar.
- Ice sculptors chisel life into Dome Square
In RigaRoughly 30 artists, clad in bright yellow raincoats, wielding chain saws and pickaxes, poised to transform large blocks of ice into finely-crafted sculptures.
- Say What?
• Baltic athletes may have returned from the Nagano Winter Olympics empty-handed, but that hasn’t discouraged Alexi Shirov, an athlete of the mind rather than the body.
- Lithuanian glass blowers searching for a market
In VilniusA sprawling factory once known as “Red Sunrise” looms over Naujininkai, Vilnius’ gritty industrial region.
- Vilnius Kiosks’ days may be numbered
The Lithuanian kiosk is perhaps one of life’s greatest paradoxes. From the outside, these structures appear to be too tiny to be of any insignificance.
- Folk dancing from all walks of life
Although the Latvian dance and song festivals are known for their high artistic standards, they have always been showcases for the talents of ordinary people rather than professionals.
- Biathlete puts Latvia on the world map
He is not as tall and broadshouldered as he appeared to be when Latvia watched him on TV during the Nagano Winter Games in February.
- He shoots, he scores!
Ice hockey is a natural sport for wintry Latvia, but it has floundered here in recent years.
- Techno no no: a dream for the Baltics
Half a decade of Soviet domination had nothing on the latest and most depraved assault on the sensibilities and good taste of Baltic residents.