I am back from Brussels and leaving for Istambul tomorrow. Its busy time now with increased amount of work at the university. My blog entries shall be scarse this month due to work schedule, and to be honest - there is nothing new to utter due to the deeply entrenched incompetence of the present government of Latvia. Opinions among general public about the performance of the existing government range from one extreme, calling in the US government to simply overthrow the incumbent politicanos, to another, saying that the the accused maire of Ventspils should be elected as a prime minister to solve all the problems with his 'magic hand`. The Kas notiek Latvija? TV show just ended where politicians discussed with experts, trade union and employers confederation representatives the budget for the 2008 fiscal year, which the rubber stumping parliament without any discussions passed in the first reading this Monday.
The way the governing coalition acts does not seem even irresponsible anymore, but simply careless. Carelessness is omnipresent among numbers of blue collar workers and ´hard working politicians' who simply make their life easier with increased amount of alchohol consumption. Apathy prevails among the liberal circles of the society, and the feeling of helplesseness is in the air. Trade unions shall protest tomorrow in front of the Latvian parliament, and it is going to be interesting to see the actual number of protesters ( between 3 and 5 thousand participants I presume). Is the spell of general oblivion going to be broken, or virtual welfare and tranquility shall back burn until the hard landing of the economy sets in? Sad, very sad....And personally lightening up my sad contemplations by going to the sunny Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
3 comments:
If Latvian leaders keep this up, there will be no Latvia for them to plunder. Moscow will be soooooooooo happy when that day comes. Instead of Russophones moving home to the East, you got Latvians emigrating to the West in droves.
And truly what worries me is that this is also the environment that breeds extremism and extreme politics from both the left and right. We don't need "youth organisations" fighting with "sporting clubs" on the streets like the late 1920s and early 1930s...
Who would have thought things would crash so fast after Vaira's exit from Rigas Pils...who'd thunk it...
Mel:
If there is no will among Latvian citizenry to accept the reality of participatory democracy and EXISTENCE of plural societym, then there is only sovereign democracy left for such fools.........all this in the EU country, and who would have thought about that. My Estonian friends were traditionally bemused about my apprehensions, but what are they saying now??? They should be jumping on one leg in Ilves EST, cause Zatlers LAT is going down the gutter.......
Maybe latvians don't care about their country as much as Estonians and Lithuanians do? Less patriotism? More russians? Diplomaatia dedicated its july/august vol to Latvia. There was one very interesting article about Latvia's defence ( http://www.diplomaatia.ee/?archive_mode=article&articleid=284 ). The conclusion was quite negative.
Completely fucked up Latvia is not good for Estonia -- fear of "domino effect" (1998 collapse vol 2), Russia's growing influence (politically, economically), open borders (more crime). Bad, very bad.
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