I risk being detained by the Latvian secret police
It appears that a Latvian academic was detained by the secret police for spreading rumours about the possible devaluation of the Latvian currency. (Hat tip to the Latvian economy blog.)
The ex-communist states are of course still very influenced by their recent past. I also suspect the period they spend under communism was something of a time-out; there is a lot they *didn't* do, in large scale cultural and social terms, that other countries were doing. E.g. moving on from religion, social liberalism, etc.
Poland of course has always been insanely democratic, so communism in some respects for them was a blip, but I suspect some of the other ex-communist states were historically fairly autocratic (of them I've only read Polish and German history) - so expecting them to go from communism to effective democracy is a bit unrealistic; it's not a case of them returning to what they were before communism came along, because they weren't democratic before communism came along.
The ex-communist states are of course still very influenced by their recent past. I also suspect the period they spend under communism was something of a time-out; there is a lot they *didn't* do, in large scale cultural and social terms, that other countries were doing. E.g. moving on from religion, social liberalism, etc.
ReplyDeletePoland of course has always been insanely democratic, so communism in some respects for them was a blip, but I suspect some of the other ex-communist states were historically fairly autocratic (of them I've only read Polish and German history) - so expecting them to go from communism to effective democracy is a bit unrealistic; it's not a case of them returning to what they were before communism came along, because they weren't democratic before communism came along.
Whilst they may not come to get you in Oz, be wary of landing in Heathrow. With a EU arrest warrant you could be in the Baltic within weeks.
ReplyDeleteThey got to detain the senior Citigroup economist in London first...
ReplyDeleteThe thing that amazes me is how couter-productive this is...
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