A method both used and sometimes disparaged in sociology and economics is that of "street level impressions", or what one sees, day-to-day, not using any particular methodology or quantification. It is, to be sure, subjective, but not always useless information.
My street level impression living here in Riga is that society is undergoing visible signs of demographic shift and behavioral degeneration. The number of sullen, boorish, possibly (often probably) abusively intoxicated or just plain disturbingly weird individuals seems (at least proportionately) on the rise. Just yesterday I passed a pasty-faced, glassy-eyed young man who decided to scream incoherently just as we passed each other on the sidewalk. His gait was not that of a typical drunk, more likely the user of an individual combination of recreational chemistry. And this at around 11:30 in the morning. Which is not to say that 9 am, shit-faced drunks aren't a common sight.
The "street" is also getting disturbingly older. I am not simply talking about old people -- I am talking about worn out, haggard, empty-eyed, decrepit looking desperate old folks along side the drug and alcohol addled, white-trashy looking young. The bright and ambitious 20-somethings can still be seen, but I suspect most of them are gone. Many of the teenagers and young loitering on the streets in hoodies and jogging pants are locally called "urlas", a kind of Slavic slang for what I would call lumpenproletarian white trash. Urlas are generally seen as Russian, but there are plenty of ethnic Latvians fitting the category as well.
My view of things is, of course, colored by the fact that I work near the Riga central station, and central railway stations around Europe have a way of attracting the weird, the strange and the underclass. I think no one can outdo some of the drunken derelicts I have seen near the Helsinki train station nor the junkies that used to hang around near the Frankfurt Bahnhof when my office was next to it.
The begging around the Riga train station is taking on some Third World aspects -- the public display, even flaunting of amputations and other disabilities is commonplace. There is a young man (otherwise able bodied for a desk, service, or sit-down factory job) who stands on crutches displaying his below knee amputation and soliciting alms. Nearby on the steps leading down to a pedestrian tunnel is a woman shaking from some neurological disease and others whose main affliction is alcoholism.
While there is little or nothing that could be done for most of the beggars. one wonders why the young man simply doesn't emigrate. It is also surprising to be approached by young alms-seekers who start the conversation in good English. So emigrate! You have the basic skills.
The depressing thing about these observations is that they point to a clear and almost irreversible social degeneration -- the "urlasation" of the remaining young (or rather, the emigration of most but the urlas) and the pauperization and visible psychological misery of the old and very old. One rarely seems even mildly happy faces among the older population, but quite a few haggard, thousand-yard stares.
Many, maybe even most of the individuals and categories of individuals I have described cannot be strictly "blamed" for being what they are. They are the victims of a collective political and societal failure, after 20 years of independence, to produce conditions where there is reasonably efficient governance and where education has produced productive individuals who can locally be paid at least roughly in line with their productivity. What we have instead is a downward spiraling or, at best, stagnating, demoralized, ill-educated, poorly productive society that has little hope of pulling itself out of its self-made misery in the foreseeable future.
My street level impression living here in Riga is that society is undergoing visible signs of demographic shift and behavioral degeneration. The number of sullen, boorish, possibly (often probably) abusively intoxicated or just plain disturbingly weird individuals seems (at least proportionately) on the rise. Just yesterday I passed a pasty-faced, glassy-eyed young man who decided to scream incoherently just as we passed each other on the sidewalk. His gait was not that of a typical drunk, more likely the user of an individual combination of recreational chemistry. And this at around 11:30 in the morning. Which is not to say that 9 am, shit-faced drunks aren't a common sight.
The "street" is also getting disturbingly older. I am not simply talking about old people -- I am talking about worn out, haggard, empty-eyed, decrepit looking desperate old folks along side the drug and alcohol addled, white-trashy looking young. The bright and ambitious 20-somethings can still be seen, but I suspect most of them are gone. Many of the teenagers and young loitering on the streets in hoodies and jogging pants are locally called "urlas", a kind of Slavic slang for what I would call lumpenproletarian white trash. Urlas are generally seen as Russian, but there are plenty of ethnic Latvians fitting the category as well.
My view of things is, of course, colored by the fact that I work near the Riga central station, and central railway stations around Europe have a way of attracting the weird, the strange and the underclass. I think no one can outdo some of the drunken derelicts I have seen near the Helsinki train station nor the junkies that used to hang around near the Frankfurt Bahnhof when my office was next to it.
The begging around the Riga train station is taking on some Third World aspects -- the public display, even flaunting of amputations and other disabilities is commonplace. There is a young man (otherwise able bodied for a desk, service, or sit-down factory job) who stands on crutches displaying his below knee amputation and soliciting alms. Nearby on the steps leading down to a pedestrian tunnel is a woman shaking from some neurological disease and others whose main affliction is alcoholism.
While there is little or nothing that could be done for most of the beggars. one wonders why the young man simply doesn't emigrate. It is also surprising to be approached by young alms-seekers who start the conversation in good English. So emigrate! You have the basic skills.
The depressing thing about these observations is that they point to a clear and almost irreversible social degeneration -- the "urlasation" of the remaining young (or rather, the emigration of most but the urlas) and the pauperization and visible psychological misery of the old and very old. One rarely seems even mildly happy faces among the older population, but quite a few haggard, thousand-yard stares.
Many, maybe even most of the individuals and categories of individuals I have described cannot be strictly "blamed" for being what they are. They are the victims of a collective political and societal failure, after 20 years of independence, to produce conditions where there is reasonably efficient governance and where education has produced productive individuals who can locally be paid at least roughly in line with their productivity. What we have instead is a downward spiraling or, at best, stagnating, demoralized, ill-educated, poorly productive society that has little hope of pulling itself out of its self-made misery in the foreseeable future.
6 comments:
When I was a kid, during the late Brezhnev era, it was not uncommon to see drunk, passed out war veterans with no legs or arms near the same area you're describing.
Later, during Gorby's prohibition era, it was common to see small groups of men drinking cleaning liquids or eau-de-colognes that contained some alcohol.
So, what you're describing now is just an ongoing Riga reality. During boomyears we somehow managed to cover it up with massive displays of luxury cars and crap like that.
In any case, read first stories by Vilis Lācis - not much has changed in the lives of our proletariat.
Thank you Mr. Kaža, always a fun read :) One may get confused following the mix of good/bad news various Latvian media but not from this blog, a clear sense of direction being maintained here.
In Pardaugava, I have noticed a slight decrease. Yet many of the main problem areas do remain. I have had many complaints about locations where contraband alcohol is sold. The local residents complain of anything and everything that is not bolted to the ground, gets stolen. Especially metal, in any form. Metal "recylcers" have "barter collection locations". You show up with a bunch of metal, it gets weighed, and in return you have your choice of alcohol, smokes or cash. Cops seem to be on the payroll, they are doing nothing. While on a re-con mission, I sat for 2 hours watching one such location. About every 3 minutes a "customer" would arrive. Some had a couple of shopping bags with stuff, while others showed up with shopping carts overloaded. Some of the items looked like they have recently been stolen. After getting their good weighed, the attendant signals another individual nearby for the payoff. Local residents are too scared to do anything.
As a self professed "gay tranny headcase" (maybe the english word "queer" would be better fitting) I am not so happy about your use of the word "weird" as something bad. Especially since Rīga of all places abhors weirdness.
However I do agree the trend is set. We are on a steady way to hit the rock bottom. I think we're not even half-way yet.
A while back I actually went on to Wikipedia to check suspicion of something that I had. And it proved right the population of Rīga is soon to drop below 700K while at the same time the Baltic-Russian diaspora of London was noted to be the biggest in UK (or something along those lines) where I see a correlation.
So I think the question is not anymore wether we retain our semi-/pseudo-Nordic "character" or become urlasized/russianized. I think the question is rather how long will we be able to see any life.
In the light of this I am actually happy to see a train station busy with freaks compared to streets filled with ever-increasing share of apathetic elderly people.
Riga certainly is a very different city in a very different country than Detroit. However, Riga had emerged as a center for consumer electronics and related manufactures at the peak of the Soviet Union for a large market. All of the manufacturing has largely disappeared much as manufacturing has disappeared from Detroit now a shadow of itself. However, Latvia is gradually reinventing itself. There are many hopeful signs in this direction and a new Riga is emerging. The bottom was reached some time ago.
Boy, you're right about the train stations. The one which I know as having a huge mob out front of people who apparently became hippies in the 1960s and then never woke up is in Copenhagen. It's astonishing.
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