Re: Lithuania and the Soviet Union 1939-40: The Fateful Year [Was: Re: I strongly urge...]



According to the Lettish Europhobes at nato.lv, a study showed that
ca. 37% of Lithuanians think independence since 1991 has been the
worst period ***in the entire history of Lithuania***, by the way.
Whatever one thinks of surveys, lies, damned lies, etc. -- I don't
think Andrius is a ghostie primarily because I've met innumerable
people who think like him, more or less.

In Latvia, too, there are people who simply detest the direction we've
taken (or the lack of direction). Most of these people wouldn't take
the radical tack Andrius takes -- it'd usually be more like "yes the
deportations were awful and so was __ and __... but now we have
nothing." And one can easily step into their shoes -- health care is
catastrophic, education is in the pits, the scientific base was
destroyed, manufacturing is dead, prices are astronomical, corruption
is rampant, etc., etc.

Direct experience _does_ affect the view in a very deep way; I have
only a very slight familiarity with not being able to make ends meet,
but it only takes a few months for psychological devastation to set
in. A little more time, and you learn to live with it. A teacher here
said "in 1992 we ate potatoes and cream, in 1993, potatoes and butter,
in 1994, potatoes and salt..." Meanwhile, you'd see the odd Maserati
streaking down the street. You know who sat in it. I will never forget
being on the beach at Majori and a purple topless jeep roaring down
the water line for sheer pleasure -- make them sunbathers jump.
Meanwhile, PM Birkavs was dissing the pilchard-eaters (his term). If
anyone will decide anything, it'll be the elite. Who loves the elite?
Does the elite deserve love? And "time, time, time, in a sort of Runic
rhyme" -- how long can one be in transition? To what? The noble ideals
of the Singing Revolution included the understanding of "we don't do
this for ourselves as much as we do it for our children" -- but some
of the people forced by this economy (and even more so -- by this
society) to seek sustenance in the Emerald Isle or elsewhere have
grown up in independent Latvia. We already passed the mark of how long
democracy lasted (1920-1934)... soon we'll pass the mark of our entire
period of independence between the wars. What do we have to show for
it? (And I am not trying to detract from what we _do_ have to show for
it -- I just wouldn't paint the overall picture in bright colors.)

When I was in Rīga on Friday, I had a meeting with a millionaire. He's
a hardworking guy who produces real value and does a lot of things
because of what they are -- substance, not easy money. His impression
of where we are, the state of the nation? That people who work hard
and have capabilities and talents, like himself, are totally screwed,
pushed to the edges of the stage. Screwed by people with no conception
of real value. We live in a credit bubble blown by thieving
abstractionists who could care less about this country. And this is
not a ne'er-do-well or a whiner -- he's a successful workaholic with
assets galore.

Vysu lobu,
/P

http://lettonica.blogspot.com/

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