RSSTaxi into the Past
Nov 06
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RIGA – On my way to a work-related activity yesterday, I hopped into a taxi. Opening that taxi door felt like opening the door into 1984 Soviet Union.
“So if Americans can elect a monkey as their president, why can’t we elect a president who is an ethnic Russian,” asked my Russian taxi driver, Evgeny. “Never mind that his tail fell off only yesterday,” he added before I could muster a response.
It turned out a response wasn’t needed. On my short journey, Evgeny opined on everything from the financial crisis to the war in Iraq. “You know what they say,” he said, “George W.Bush came in as the president and will leave as the Secretary General of the Socialist Party.”
He reminded me of some of my die-hard Republican friends who fear socialism is upon them.
The 20-minute journey between my house and the foreign ministry building in Riga turned out to be a journey into a warped outlook of the taxi driver who unfortunately is a representative of many people who live in Latvia – particularly those who are the Russian-speakers of the older generation.
I couldn’t argue because I saw no point. Their worldview revolves around a clique of people that control everything – an Old New World Order, if you must. That clique, according to Evgeny, elected George W. Bush as the president in 2000 because “they wanted to go to war.” Now that same clique who was “enormously rich” remembered that America is a democracy and that’s why they elected Barack Obama, he said.
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