The kneeling ladies of Latvia

Back from four exhilarating days of soaking in the early May sun in the Baltic region, I still cannot successfully banish from memory one of the strongest impressions from Latvia: the kneeling, elderly ladies .
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Found standing, crouching, or in a hunched position, these grandmothers (and a few grandfathers) have shouldered an almost back-breaking workload in the past, having probably spent much of their lives queuing up for what scraps of meat, vegetables or other groceries were on offer in the uninspiring, unfulfilling Soviet malls. I cannot know with any degree of certainty, but some of them have most likely also suffered the penalties that ensued rapidly from any noticeable show of non-conformity: a great many latvians whiled out their days in the hellish conditions in Gulag camps. Their only trespass had been e.g. owning a farm, a fundamental no-no in the wondrous world of communist collectivisation.

THE HAVES AND THE HAVE NOTS

Latvia has progressed in leaps and bounds economically since independence in 1991. Signs and billboards in the capital Riga revealed an almost ubiquitous foreign presence in terms of businesses, banks and street-level cafes. But the boons of capitalism are, as always, highly unevenly distributed. And so it is that the working-class widows have been exluded from the shopping bonanza of past years. Instead of enjoying a well--founded sense of safety and contentment in their final years, they are exposed to the torturous humiliation of begging.

We noticed them everywhere, their presence tugging at our consciences. If there's one thing I regret, it is simply this that I wasted most opportunities to play the role of the Samaritan. Latvia will probably recover from the world financial crisis, but will recovery come in time to make a redeeming difference in the lives of the kneeling ladies of Latvia?