Tweet
Just spent two weeks touring the four Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. From both a cultural and educational viewpoint, it was a most fascinating trip. They are all certainly well worth visiting and we had a wonderful trip.
All four countries suffered terribly under both the Nazis and then nearly 50 years of Communist Russia's devastating rule. Today, they are all virtually Socialistic countries.
We had a Polish guide for the entire trip and in addition in the first three countries we had local city guides as well. They were all excellent and our Polish guide was tremendous. He was in his middle 60's and the other three guides were young ladies in their 30's. Plus, an hour lecture presentation was provided in each capital city by extremely entertaining, honest, and most open and direct local university professors.
All four guides and the guest speakers spoke of the problems they are now enduring under Socialism. Certainly not as depressing as what they went through under Communism, as now they are at least free. But the countries are all struggling tremendously.
Apparently, there is still an underlying current amongst a small minority of the people who still feel that that "at least under Communism, every one worked." One of the things the Russians did, immediately after WWII, was to forcibly relocate large numbers of their own citizens, to these countries with the purpose of having significant numbers of their citizens in making up future generations of the population. For example, even today, the Russian population of Riga, the capital of Latvia, outnumbers the local Latvians by a small majority.
Under Socialism they are undergoing virtually the same problems we are in that large numbers of their population see no reason to work as they too have realized that the State will take care of them. Their unemployment rolls range from 13-20 percent in their Capital cities and much higher throughout the country in the rural areas. Under both Communism and Socialism, the underground theme amongst the workers was/is to work, but work slowly.
But at least Latvia does not have an immigration problem as they do not provide any services or finances, whatsoever, to non-citizens (primarily Arabs). They pass through, but upon finding out that there are no freebies, they keep going. Gee, what a truly UNIQUE, simple solution to a most complexing problem.
The countries are experiencing terrific brain drain. Their doctors and engineers, upon graduating, quickly take jobs elsewhere where they can receive a decent wage.
All four countries are receiving rather hefty loans from the European Union for infrastructure projects to include roads and bridges, but are not sure just how long this will continue due to the economic shape of the vast majority of the larger West European countries. Estonia uses the Euro and the others will follow in one, two, and three years.
Religion - Vast, vast attendance decreases in all Christian churches. Under Communism, people who attended churches lost their jobs and students were kicked out of colleges. That started the downward trend and unfortunately, once started, it has continued.
Despite all of the above, for the most part the people seemed to be happy, were dressed well, out and about shopping, dining out, buying merchandise in large modern malls in Warsaw, attending movies, night clubs and so on.. The grocery and clothing stores were well stocked and were always crowded, as well as most of the restaurants.
All four countries suffered terribly under both the Nazis and then nearly 50 years of Communist Russia's devastating rule. Today, they are all virtually Socialistic countries.
We had a Polish guide for the entire trip and in addition in the first three countries we had local city guides as well. They were all excellent and our Polish guide was tremendous. He was in his middle 60's and the other three guides were young ladies in their 30's. Plus, an hour lecture presentation was provided in each capital city by extremely entertaining, honest, and most open and direct local university professors.
All four guides and the guest speakers spoke of the problems they are now enduring under Socialism. Certainly not as depressing as what they went through under Communism, as now they are at least free. But the countries are all struggling tremendously.
Apparently, there is still an underlying current amongst a small minority of the people who still feel that that "at least under Communism, every one worked." One of the things the Russians did, immediately after WWII, was to forcibly relocate large numbers of their own citizens, to these countries with the purpose of having significant numbers of their citizens in making up future generations of the population. For example, even today, the Russian population of Riga, the capital of Latvia, outnumbers the local Latvians by a small majority.
Under Socialism they are undergoing virtually the same problems we are in that large numbers of their population see no reason to work as they too have realized that the State will take care of them. Their unemployment rolls range from 13-20 percent in their Capital cities and much higher throughout the country in the rural areas. Under both Communism and Socialism, the underground theme amongst the workers was/is to work, but work slowly.
But at least Latvia does not have an immigration problem as they do not provide any services or finances, whatsoever, to non-citizens (primarily Arabs). They pass through, but upon finding out that there are no freebies, they keep going. Gee, what a truly UNIQUE, simple solution to a most complexing problem.
The countries are experiencing terrific brain drain. Their doctors and engineers, upon graduating, quickly take jobs elsewhere where they can receive a decent wage.
All four countries are receiving rather hefty loans from the European Union for infrastructure projects to include roads and bridges, but are not sure just how long this will continue due to the economic shape of the vast majority of the larger West European countries. Estonia uses the Euro and the others will follow in one, two, and three years.
Religion - Vast, vast attendance decreases in all Christian churches. Under Communism, people who attended churches lost their jobs and students were kicked out of colleges. That started the downward trend and unfortunately, once started, it has continued.
Despite all of the above, for the most part the people seemed to be happy, were dressed well, out and about shopping, dining out, buying merchandise in large modern malls in Warsaw, attending movies, night clubs and so on.. The grocery and clothing stores were well stocked and were always crowded, as well as most of the restaurants.
Comment