Suddenly - nothing happened!

A month or more has passed since my last post. I have not written for several reasons. Firstly I have been working in Bulgaria fairly solidly, secondly not much has changed and thirdly I have seen few cameos worth recounting in print. Now I do not think that we are seeing a plateau in the crisis, more I suspect that much of the continuing movement is under the surface. There is no serious evidence of visible improvement although the international experts choose to say there is some.

So what do I see today. There are still plenty of people avoiding paying on the trams. The number of visible drunks is increasing in town as is the length of the food queue outside of the Russian Orthodox Church on K Barona. Some of those waiting are clearly more middle class than the usual crowd of last winter. I have seen a gradual reduction in cars parked outside our flats and a steady offering of parking places for rent. But these are small things. There are of course many winners in this game. Those who kept their jobs and the same wage are now much better off as clothes and food have dropped in price. The supermarkets are getting their act together and competing. That is good for all of us.

But through all this there has been a remarkable good humour. There has been no tension between the communities despite the crass language based acts of some of the politicians. I suspect the Russian speakers value the freedom in Latvia and the EU and realise that whilst there is much to be unhappy about here, there is also much to celebrate. We just have to hope that the Government finds the courage to reform badly run ministries rather than raise taxes to pay for them. But I am not sure they have the courage or the skill.