Assignment: Latvia: Coping with Crisis

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2009

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

Until recently, little Latvia appeared to have a rosy future. It was the fastest growing economy in Europe. But now that boom looks like a mirage. No country in the EU has been worse hit by the global recession. Its economy has been in freefall, property prices have collapsed, unemployment has been rising rapidly. Six months ago, Assignment visited several Latvians from various walks of life to see how they were affected by the crisis – now the programme returns to find out how these same individuals are coping as the recession deepens.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading from the BBC.
0:03.0	The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use go to
0:07.8	BBCWorldService.com slash podcasts.
0:17.0	If you're in the Latvian capital and you have an accident, do try not to do so
0:22.0	on uneven days of the month.
0:24.0	I'm at Riga's central hospital, the accident and emergency ward in fact.
0:29.0	And all throughout the autumn, this place was only functioning every other day.
0:33.0	The government has simply run out of money.
0:36.0	Latvia is the country in the EU which has been the worst hit by the financial crisis.
0:41.0	For this BBC assignment programme, I visited the country twice this year to try to track the effects of the crisis.
0:48.0	My first visit was back in the spring.
0:51.0	This shop's closed, so is that one.
0:58.0	And so is that one just over there.
1:00.0	In fact, I've lost track of the number of empty shop windows I've seen on this,
1:04.0	which is one of the main shopping streets in central Riga.
1:08.0	It's April 2009 and every day in this country of just 2.3 million,
1:13.0	1,000 people are losing their jobs.
1:18.0	The most worries is how far it can go.
1:21.0	And it's happening right now, some signs of growing violence on the street.
1:26.0	Myself, I applied to R myself with a gun, so...
1:29.0	Really?
1:31.0	You're worried that due to the financial crisis,
	...

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