In an interview with Netakarīgā, the famous singer Igo Fomins laments: "I think everyone who knows how to observe has noticed that Riga has gone to the wind. Outside of Riga, we see well-kept areas. I perform quite a lot all over Latvia, I see that the small towns of Latvia look like candies. They are pleasant to look at.
And then, when I return to Riga, I will not always feel a sense of celebration... I know that I will see something that I won’t like. Empty storefronts, dirt... I do not like indifference, ignorance, often tasteless flower pots in the center of Riga. All of this does not speak of the vision of responsible people who would know what is happening in the city, what is happening in the country. Then the question is, do they even know where they live? What streets do these people take to go home? Do they really not lift their eyes and see what the streets and people look like? Without the return of Riga, which is now a littered thoroughfare, to the status of a capital, nothing can change. This is just one point that I do not like, but I could name many others.
"There are things that we cannot accept," reflects the popular performer. "I had to come to terms with a lot after my dramatic accident in 2000, but I get things done and live with pleasure. We try to push tragic events away from ourselves, but they happen - to us, to the state. I spent a lot of time in Russia, I sang there, I had open stages and stadiums... But now I follow the events, I read between the lines."
"How much is each of us capable of doing, at least by supporting our own state? For such a state that we are proud of, for which we will stand and fall. Or - due to some breeze, we will run away from it. Because it may turn out that we do not love this place, because we were accidentally born here and have been scratching around here.
