THE RISING price of food is the top topic of conversation in Riga right now - at least among the non-chattering classes. Expensive milk and bread hits the poorest hardest. Combine that with angry farmers being squeezed by the supermarkets from one side and fearful of the prospect of a reformed Common Agricultural Policy on the other, and there is the makings of a food crisis.

continue reading this entry »

THIS fine figure of Russian manhood was spotted strolling along the promenade in Yalta a couple of weeks ago. While he may not be exactly the ideal embodiment of Homo Sovieticus, he undoubtedly has a certain style and bags of character. Wonder which Black Sea Fleet battleship he commands?
Seeing as the chances of Baltic Outlook using this shot in their glossy pages are somewhere between slim and negligible, I thought I would take the opportunity to share him with the rest of the world via the Baltic Bulletin.

To see some of the other shots from the Crimean trip, visit our Flickr site.

We salute you, Cap’n - a credit to the navy!

I KNEW it was too good to last.

Two weeks ago I felt a rare stirring of national pride when the British embassy in Riga made the small but significant gesture of flying the rainbow flag from the embassy balcony. This happened while childish, nineteenth-century insults were being hurled at a small group of homosexuals on the other side of town for daring to walk around openly in public.

They were greeted by a ragtag welcoming committee of skinheads (unaware that they looked the biggest poofters of the day) and snarling Christians who manage to conveniently forget a couple of Commandments every time they think about other people’s bedroom habits. Which they seem to think about an awful lot.

So the British embassy’s flag-waving gesture was a small statement of common sense and tolerance, prompting me even to send a ‘well done’ email to the ambassador, the likeable Richard Moon.

But last Friday, the reputation of Britons (or more accurately, the English) returned to the gutter. Literally.

continue reading this entry »