Photos

all the presidents men . . . |or how survive politics in Latvia

Latvia has a beautiful tradition . . . once every five years we have a song and dance festival . . . it's truly unique.
Start is the big parade through old town.
We went there and I was taking photos . . . after a while I checked my little screen on the camera and I had an idea I knew the guy . . . I looked up and I saw the president -Valders Zatlers :) . . . worse . . . only at home I saw that the mayor and prime minister were also present . . .
In a small country it is not so difficult to meet these people . . . and in Latvia it is tradition for the government to fall after about 6 month on average . . . so after 15 years of independence there are plenty of ex- prime ministers . . . the presidents have 4 years and survive with more dignity.

The real problem is shown by the guy on the left; Ivars Godmanis, the current (still) prime minister. Politics in Latvia is in the hands of a small circle of people . . . they care about Latvia we think . . . but we know they care about themselves more . . . we had the fastest growing economy in Europe . . . but we also had the highest inflation . . . we saved NO money . . . build NO schools . . . NO hospitals . . . instead we are building a national library for almost 200 mln. Euro.
Now we are one of the hardest hit countries in the EU and this man had to borrow 7,5 bln. to keep the country going.
Nobody knows how it will be spend . . . but those who can get out of here . . . the rest can pay it back.
15 years of politics has left us with no illusions.

Fotka - Obama is now president . . . I hope he has more guts and possibilities than the guys here

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