[ExI] 1984 and Orwell's Warnings

[Amara Graps]

Rafal:
>It is extremely tedious and odious to find streets and plazas in my
>birth-city of Bytom continuously renamed. From "Kaiserplatz" to
>"Hermann Goering Platz", to "Plac Stalina", to "Plac Thelmana" to
>"Plac Solidarnosci", little political rat-creatures gnawing at names
>and places, ever eager to erase the blackboard and to repeat old
>mistakes.

>Once a name is given, and achieves sufficient currency, it is almost
>always a wrong idea to change it just to spite others or to suck up to
>them.


It was extremely *refreshing*, and inspiring to the coming of the
Independence  to the Baltics to see old names restored, so that instead
of "Lenina iela", the original "Brivibas (Freedom)  bulvaris" had
returned ....

Amara

(the Baltics in 1990, on the way to Independence)
http://www.amara.com/Independence/LestWeForget.html

"I was in Riga alone for the first time, learning my way around using
public transportation and guided by the Riga street map given to me by
my uncle. However, he forgot to tell me that some street names here on
my map had changed and more were changing. Many or most of the new
street names are street names from before the Soviet occupation."
http://www.amara.com/Independence/RigaMapa.jpg

       Lenina iela (street) --> Brivibas (Freedom) bulvaris (boulevard)
       Gorkija iela --> Kr. Valdemara iela
       Kirova iela --> Elizabetes iela
       K. Marks iela --> Gertudes iela
       F. Engels iela --> Stabu iela
       Sarkanarmija iela -->Bruninieku iela
       Revolucijas iela --> Matisa iela
       Komjaunes _-> 11 Novembra
       Kommunaru bulvaris --> Kalpaka bulvaris
       Kirova parks --> Vermanes darzi
       (But why was Radiotechnikas iela changed to Mukusalas iela?)
-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado