Latvian schoolchildren protest against education reform to the music of Pink Floyd (photo, video)

On the eve of the Riga castle - the residence of the President of Latvia, Vike -Frebergi, a rally was held , in which approximately 20 thousand Russian schoolchildren took part. They continue to protest against the translation of training in high school in the Latvian language.

The president did not go to the protesters, but a day earlier she accepted three Russian schoolgirls. “We are glad that we were listened to. And we regret that we did not hear,” the girl said after this meeting. “I tried to understand what is dramatic, as the schoolchildren, their parents and teachers predict, will happen after September 1, but I didn’t receive an answer,” Vika -Freberg said and decided to sign the laws approved by the Sejm, according to which, from September 1, 2004, only 40% of subjects can be taught in her native language in high school. She advised to get dressed in a warmer to the protesting schoolchildren - in Latvia there is frosty weather.

The rally participants sang a song from the scandalous video clip "There is no reform!" This clip was engaged in the Latvian security police.

(To view the clip, click on the video camera icon in the upper right corner)

The security police established the authors of the video clip, which expresses a protest against the translation of Russian schools to study in Latvian. Their names have not yet been made public.

Security Chief Janis Rhikes told BNS that the investigation in connection with this video clip will most likely end this week. According to him, the clip attracted the attention of the security police, firstly, by the fact that it used "hostile symbolism", and the fact that it is "clearly aggressive."

"In this video, cabinets break, tear and scatter books," said the police chief.

Janis Rhikes explained that the security police also checks whether the creators of the video clip copyright and the law on advertising were violated.

The video was shot to the music of the popular song by Another Brick in the Wall of the Pink Floyd group, and the words in it echoes the text of the Russian song "Black Raven".

The plot is as follows: people dressed in black, with stylized swastika on their sleeves break cabinets and throw Russian books, but children protect their schools. The phrase is a refrain: "Hands off Russian schools!"

Video clip is very popular among Russian youth, it is distributed on CDs, the video can also be found on the Internet, the newspaper "News Time" writes.

Representatives of Pink Floyd expressed indignation for the fact that in the video clip of the headquarters to protect Russian schools, the song Brick in the Wall was used without permission.

Magnus Salmborg, representing in Scandinavia, Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd, said he was going to achieve the cessation of the illegal use of the group’s music.

The activist of the headquarters for the protection of Russian schools Gennady Kotov in an interview with Latvian radio claimed that no one created the clip and that the Pink Floyd group could borrow a melody from the Russian folk song "Black Raven".

Kotov, in an interview with BNS, expressed the opinion that he did nothing wrong. “This is folk art. We did not distribute a clip on television, we simply distributed discs to schoolchildren,” he explained.

The text of the video clip

Black Carlis, that you are curling up
Above my head?!
You will not achieve reforms.
You hear, Carlis, I'm not yours.
Hey, Karlis, be a Russian school!
This is the only way we can
Save your tongue.
Hey, Shadurskis, you remember
What we breathe, as we want.
That we do not need someone else,
But we will not give our own.
Hey, Carlis, go to the board!
We want to study in our native language.
Let's say there is no dull reform
No cutlets from the brains.
Enough cowardly shameful
Enough of Jesuit words!
Hey kungs, this is not a joke.
Hands off Russian schools!