The Ex-Soviet country of Latvia has come up with an ingenious way to put themselves on the map.
They just recently held their first annual “Blonde Parade” in the capital city of Riga. The locals decided to fight the “blues” associated with their serious economic contraction with an overwhelming touch of “pink” instead.
I have to admit it certainly brought a big grin to my face to learn about it.
And I’m sure it will for you too. ;)
POSITIVE ENERGY
Blonde Parade Lifts Spirits in Gloomy Latvia
Latvians may be feeling depressed as a result of the economic crisis which has hammered the Baltic state, but over 500 blonde women did their best to lift spirits in Riga on Sunday with a parade and other “Blonde Weekend” events.
The global economic crisis has hit the Baltic state of Latvia particularly hard and left the population feeling blue. But one group of Latvian women has taken a novel approach to fighting the pervasive feeling of doom and gloom.
On Sunday, a procession of more than 500 blondes paraded through the capital Riga wearing pink and white. Many were escorted by lap dogs wearing the same cheerful hues. Their goal: to use their beauty to shine a little light into the dark mood caused by the global downturn.
Though it was far from being a protest march, some women used the opportunity to counter stereotypes. “I am beautiful, but I’m not dumb,” Ilone Zigure told the news agency AFP. The student added that she hopes that those of her countrymen who are depressed about the economic crisis will find her “positive energy” contagious.
It’s a sentiment that many observing the parade shared. “Finally, something positive,” one 70-year-old woman watching the parade told AFP. “I just can’t stand listening to people talk about the crisis anymore.”
The parade was just part of a range of events making up Riga’s “Blonde Weekend,” which also included a golf tournament, a fashion show, a ball and a drawing contest for kids. The Latvian Blondes Association, which organized the events, hoped to use any proceeds from the weekend’s activities toward a playground for handicapped children.
jtw — with wire reports
(You can read the original article here)
Photos by Tom Uzans
[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTsjDL6LD1s&eurl=http://www.goblonde.lv/eng/&feature=player_embedded]
Please enter your email for special updates, news & upcoming offers 
So is this what heaven looks like?
Oh my god, their doggies!
I am a fellow blonde and would’ve loved to have taken part.
I promise that I will never tell another blond joke. It’s not fair to a bunch of spirit-lifting girls doing a good thing.
GL, that would not happen to be you in the blond wig at 1:37 in the video would it?
Hi Sam. No I don’t think I’d look too good as a blonde I’ll leave that to the lovely girls instead
It looks like Lativa has armies of blondes, and it makes my day…….:-)
Taras
Taras, that’s not GL. Do you think it could be Richard? Check it out at 1:37 in the video.
I don’t think it was me in that crowd. Not just because I’m a middle aged guy with brown hair. I’d have loved being there for that parade but I might be asked to leave for drooling down my shirt and mumbling to myself as I walk around with a glazed over look in my eyes.
Also loved the vintage Cady convertible that zoomed by loaded with ladies.
I wish I were blonde, black hair is dull!! But these girls look great, and of course it’s all for a good cause
Black is beautiful, too, Sophie. Don’t ever think it’s dull! I, of course, agree that the girls are great, and their cause is admirable.:)
Sophie, there is nothing dull about black hair. Personally, I like black or red hair the best, especially in combination with blue or green eyes. But hair color is unimportant compared to what the things that really matter, such as character, values and honesty. Changing one’s hair color is easy, changing one’s character or direction in life is a lot harder.
Taras
My hair used to be that bright platinum… when I was 2 years old
Now it’s a light brown that acquires natural highlights in the summer.
Also, I giggled at the sea of pink… apparently their plan to induce happiness worked! Good job, ladies
I’ve noticed some natural highlights this summer as well. Unfortunately, they are grey/gray. I figure it’s all because of the economic meltdown.
Several years ago I attended a service at a local church located adjacent to my property. The speaker was a man, Fred Hawks, who upon release from the penitentiary had pursued a career in the ministry, specifically as a minister to those encarcerated. His employer, Rock of Ages Prison Ministry, Inc., assigned him to Riga, Latvia. He accepted the assignment willingly, and traveled to Riga on very short notice. Despite his enthusiasm for his work, Fred found himself sitting on a bench on a busy street in Riga on a chilly, overcast day, overcome with homesickness, overwhelmingly lonely, and depressed. As he sat with his head down, he felt that familiar sensation one often has when being stared at or closely observed. Fred raised his head and looked up the busy street to see a man, perhaps a block away, striding purposefully through the throngs and staring directly into his eyes. Because he knew literally no one at that early date, Fred shrugged and put his head back down. A few seconds later Fred felt a hand upon his shoulder, and looked up to see the same man standing directly in front of him. As he looked directly at him, the man called Fred by his full name, and said that everything would be okay, turned and disappeared into the crowd.
I had the good fortune to hear Fred speak at the same church some three years or so later. In that short time, Fred had married a beautiful Latvian girl, built a heavily insulated house with the requisite steam room, and fathered three children. Regardless of who or what he was, the man Fred encountered was right, and another country boy from the States is living happily in a land far away, Riga, Latvia, to be exact.
Nice to see that the Latvians are ‘bucking up’ through these poor economic times. And nice to see pretty ladies, but rat dogs? That’s just too much American ‘Paris Hilton’ trash culture (and I’m an American). Does this mean Latvia has been ‘infected’ with American pop culture? I hope not. Hopefully the ‘Paris Hilton; look was ‘Halloween’ for the Latvians.
I’d rather see them with some big and plush cats of any breed myself.
Taras
WOW..!!!
A blonde Army…!
I dont know what, but there is something about the russian girl that make crazy to the latin men…
what’s the plane ticket for Latvia?
I didn’t know where to post this so I’ll just post it here.
A Ukranian Amazonian colony in the Carpathian mountains.
“In the Ukraine, a country where females are victims of sexual trafficking and gender oppression, a new tribe of empowered women is emerging. Calling themselves the “Asgarda”, the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students, led by 30 year-old Katerina Tarnouska. Reviving the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology, the Asgarda train in martial arts, taught by former Soviet karate master, Volodymyr Stepanovytch, and learn life skills and sciences in order to become ideal women. Little physical documentation existed on the tribe, until recently, when renowned French photographer, Guillaume Herbaut, met the Asgarda back in 2004 in the midst of the Orange Revolution.”
http://www.planet-mag.com/2009/art/jenna-martin/asgarda/
Thanks for posting that.. pretty interesting stuff indeed. Maybe this is where Wonder Woman really comes from?
johnUK,
I read about this a couple of years ago and really didn’t think it would still be around today. Not that I doubt the resolve of these women at all, in fact nothing could be further from my mind, but merely that I expected some form of collapse or intervention to take place. Noting that they let visitors in to see, photograph and write about their secluded life makes me want to go there, too.
They might have a punishment for trespassers.
The article is from September last years so I don’t know if the organisation still exists.
Interesting to read the history of warrior women in Southern Ukraine and Russia which I didn’t know existed apart from WW2 off course.
Evidence of high-ranking warrior women comes from kurgans in southern Ukraine and Russia. David Anthony notes, “About 20% of Scythian-Sarmatian “warrior graves” on the lower Don and lower Volga contained females dressed for battle as if they were men, a phenomenon that probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazons
I’ll bet they’re all lawyers or other highly confused life forms.
Well…it’s my opinion.
-Ken
Good one, Ken. Listen, I need good content regularly for home entertainment.
You need to write in more!!! You can’t expect Richard to carry the ball every play.
Apparently it is more of a retreat than a colony of women living in the Carpathian Mountains.
I was under the impression that this was some sort of colony and life choice type of thing and that they actively recruited women to make this decision just as an ancient monastery would have recruited young priests.
Either way it is interesting to me that the women are taking a similar kind of training as in many of the ancient religious sects and also their isolation from the rest of the world and other worldly ideologies.
I would have included the article from the website that researched it but the comment doesn’t post for some reason when I include the link so I will just post the extract from the article.
“The presentation of the photos is not entirely objective. From what I’ve been able to piece together from their Ukranian Wikipedia page, Asgarda was founded by Katerina Tarnouska with her teacher, Vladimir Pylat, in 2002. Pylat’s also credited as co-creator of Asgarda in Herbaut’s Cossacks photo essay – though curiously omitted as a named co-founder in the Amazons essay – and contributes text to the English version of Asgarda’s page. A Ukranian karate master, Pylat was responsible for the revival of a Cossack martial arts style called Combat Hopak in the 1980′s. A kind of Ukranian capoeira, Hopak is said to be a lost art dating back to the 15th century that combines dancing and fighting. Asgarda seems to be the female school of this martial art. The Planet article describes a “tribe” seeking “complete autonomy from men,” and while the Wikipedia page cites an Asgarda seminar in the Carpathian mountains, there’s no mention of any sort of permanent settlement. The captions on Herbaut’s site confirm this by indicating that the majority of the Asgarda women he chose to photograph individually are enrolled in universities. The leather-clad girl from the Planet spread turns out to be be a student of economics at Lviv University at the time that the photo was taken; the one wielding the double scythes studies at the polytechnical institute; the girl with the axes studies English and Japanese. How can they live in the mountains and study in school? If I were to guess, the Carpathian excursion was some sort of extended summer retreat, and the lack of specification on this point was just an attempt to spin a good story..
If you want the original article just Google coilhouse Asgarda: The Music Video.