DANGEROUS DRIVING, THE LAW, AND THE PRESIDENT

Of the five worst examples of dangerous driving I have ever seen, two were in Italy. The first was on a mountain road near the Brenner pass into Austria in the early 80s. I was heading to a ski camp in Antholz. A fiat overtook me on a sharp blind corner going far too fast. About 5 km later I was not at all surprised to see the car in a snowy field where the driver had steered it off the road rather than crash into an oncoming lorry. The driver was standing by the car clearly shaken but unhurt. He was lucky.

The second incident was on the Bologna - Padova motorway when I was coming back from an evening at the Jazz club in Bologna. (totally sober I might add) I drove into the inevitable thick mist that every autumn and winter covers the flat plain 30km either side of the river Po. The visibility was about 15m so I slowed down and drove very very carefully. Suddenly a container lorry passed me in the outside lane driving at least 100km an hour. It was going so fast the trailer was swaying dangerously behind it and it forced me to swerve hard onto the hard shoulder. I was seriously shaken and almost missed the Ferarra turnoff a few minutes later. I was grateful to get home alive that night.

The other five dangerous examples have all been in Riga and concern the police escort drivers. At least two of these have been with the President and a third I was not sure because they were going so fast it was impossible to see who the cars were carrying. I have watched cars swerve away out of their lanes to escape the aggressive attack, and people jump back onto the pavement in fear. Sooner or later these police will kill someone who cannot get across a crossing fast enough when they jump the red lights. It is inevitable. It will be a mother with pram or someone disabled who simply cannot move away.

There are many facets to this. The first is that dangerous driving is against the law and these police should be prosecuted like anyone else. The second is that they appear to believe that breaking the law is alright for them but not for others. Why do the traffic police not stop and arrest them for example? Are they given orders by senior police not to do so. If so the senior police should resign and go and farm somewhere. They are not doing their job.

The third thing is that by convention, the senior person in a car or in a cavalcade is the person responsible for the way that the cars are driven. This places the responsibility firmly upon the head of the President. Why does he allow this dangerous practice day after day? We are not in Belgrade or any high risk security area. If there is a death then who will be guilty of manslaughter, the driver or the President? Cars when driven aggressively are a weapon and should be considered as such by law.

John Adams, the second president of the United States was fond of saying that he wanted a country that was ruled by law and not by men. We need that too in Latvia. This means that Presidents and police should also abide by the law. If they do not, then what point is there having any law at all?

LATVIAS BUDGET - AND BASKETBALL

It is perhaps ironic that on one of the most important weekends in Latvian history, the newspapers carry more about basketball than the crucial budget readings. But that is Latvia for you. The list of budget winners and losers is as expected. Teachers keep their pay level, firefighters will lose some posts. The workers who cleaned up Chernobyl get a small increase. Considering the small numbers and the huge service they did for the world they might have got more.

The police will also be cut but this is vital if they are to become a healthy western facing force. They are hugely overmanned and still operate like the police in some minor South American state of 50 years ago. They are only happy serving VIPs. The first sign of any minor dignitary and they bully and abuse the public and also break the law by driving dangerously with impunity. A few prosecutions would not be out of order. The Presidents cavalcade is the worst.

But back to the budget. The key thing is that the figures only show the top of the iceberg. What is not shown is all the nonsenses that our money is spent upon. Basketball gets money from at least three ministries and employs some 12 people or more. I accept that major sports that cannot attract private funds should get Government support. The country should probably pay for a national coach and a couple of administrators, but not more. Basketball gets private money. It should get no government funding at all.

At least the Government got something right by stealing Gatis Kokins from the main opposition Party the SCP to bring stability to Parex bank. We wish him well and lets hope that Latvia has enough money to support basketball instead of proper business and public services in another 90 years time.

Recession and some early thoughts?

It is not clear yet if full recession has come to Latvia, if it will come, or even if anyone takes it seriously. The evidence is mixed. I went to Alpha Rimi last monday and the carpark was full at 12 Oclock. All the seats in a coffee house were taken and people were clearly spending money. One of my clients reports that his firm is doing better than ever. But on the other hand, two firms I am doing work for have reported a serious drop off in income. My observation is that much of the success and failure I am seeing is to do with the variable quality of performance of the workforce as market conditions start to bite. Many people are just not good enough at their job.

Two weeks ago I took a spin around a big furniture shop and then across the road to a car showroom. I was well dressed so in both stores they could have fairly assumed that I was a buyer. No-one aproached me at all to ask if I was interested in anything. The look of indifference upon the faces of the shop assistants was remarkable. They simply did not care.

Well you may ask why do you write about this in a people blog. Well for two reasons. This is a management problem in two parts. It is clear that there are either firstly not good enough guidelines for the staff or secondly that the staff have not been trained properly. 5 years ago in Latvia it would have been fine just to let the product sell itself. Now that is not enough. 5 years ago firms could work by letting the boss make all the decisions like some latter day Tsar. That is now not good enough either As the money flow tightens, the quality of the management and the performance of the staff are now going to become deciding factors. Training is still seen as an extra in Latvia. It will soon become vital. Like a football team, when the centre forward gets the ball, you need him to shoot at goal immmediately, not be taught how to do it then or wait to ask the manager for permission. Things must change in Latvia as far as selecting and training people are concerned.