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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 14:21

Expert comes down hard on name given National Library's restaurant in Riga

BC, Riga, 17.07.2015.Print version
The brouhaha over "Kleever" – the name given the Latvian National Library's restaurant, has the negative opinion of Eriks Stendzenieks added to a long list, informs LETA.

"Not bad for a 'library's food-place', but for the restaurant of the Latvian National Library – absolutely pitiful," commented Stendzenieks, who is a successful media ad man. He mentioned that it aptly reflects the "pidgin German" gene.

 

Stendzenieks referred to the period in history when post-serfdom Latvians aspired to be as intelligent and refined as the German aristocracy, often parroting vocabulary and manners incorrectly.

 

Recently, 11 intellectuals signed a letter to National Library Director Andris Vilks and Culture Minister Dace Melbarde, requesting the name "Kleever" be changed. The letter is also addressed to State Language Center Director Maris Baltins. The Center had previously complained that the restaurant "from now will carry a Latvian-language-unfriendly name."

 

Baltins commented that "Kleever" has nothing in common with the Library's popular "Palace of Light" image; "indeed, it recalls yesteryear when Latvians had a warped sense of what is refined and intelligent, frowning on anything remotely 'Latvian'".






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