A STRONG DOSE of reality this week when I was allowed to take a look at the ramshackle remains of the former KGB headquarters in central Riga. Walking towards what used to be nervously referred to as “the Corner House” I passed a large English stag group making their way in the other direction, right past the building.
It was easy to tell they were a stag group. They had brightly-coloured T-shirts on declaring the fact, along with a random assemblage of Cyrillic letters that they thought other people would view as both appropriate and hilarious.
No doubt part of the reason they were in Riga was because of lingering romantic ideas about the supposedly Soviet nature of countries such as Latvia. It’s all tarty women, Kalashnikovs, Mafiosi and vodka. And the moderate wages the stags have been collecting in telesales, warehousing and admin will be regarded as great fortunes by the impoverished locals - or at least that’s what they think. For once, they’ll feel privileged, free and important.
Their notions about Eastern Europe may be complete hokum, but unbeknownst to themselves, the stags have stumbled on a truth as well. They really are privileged, free and important. If they’d joined me on my brief tour of the Corner House they would have realised just how privileged, free and important.
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