Emigration etc.

Ho Ho Ho.

It feels a bit odd when people wish you Merry Christmas in the middle of December, but the marathon has kicked off even earlier. I think the first person to wish me Merry Christmas said this on the 3rd of December. And although this is supposed to be the season of joy and happiness, in a somewhat magic way as of the 1st of December Dubliners lost their usual easy come easy go attitude and turned into an army of angry shopaholics.

Shopping became part of Dublin life a long time before I had noticed a poster on Dublin Bus SHOPPING culture ENTERTAINMENT. The add was supposed to promote all three of the above, but the design of the poster was suggesting that Dublin equals to Shopping culture and Entertainment. Skip culture. Unfortunately quite often it is exactly like that. Unless you come to Dublin for some fiddle tunes.

A few weeks ago my sister was asking me to suggest a museum where she could bring her 12-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son (they've been living in Ireland for over 7 years). Natural History Museum had been closed until further notice and I couldn‘t come up with any other ideas. You might accuse me of ungrounded bellyaching again, but this reminds me of a visit to Van Gogh’s Museum in Amsterdam, where they have special guide books for children. Kids are being asked to find particular details or colours or shapes in the paintings, observe differences and similarities with comprehensive and unfussy explanations. Last weekend I was in London and while strolling through Tate Modern and National Portrait Gallery I encountered quite a few parents and teachers with children. Looking at a dinosaur replica is one thing, but teaching to read paintings is another.

Anyway. Although constant state of shopping (despite the reason of need) - another attribute of the West - can be encountered in Dublin throughout the whole year (think Henry Street for instance), it reaches its pinnacle in December with Merry Christmas as a driving force behind it.

According to Deloitte’s annual consumer survey Irish households will spend on average §1,431 on Christmas this year. Compare this with §411 in the Netherlands; §420 in Germany and §556 in France. Of the Irish figure, a total of §720 will be spent on gifts, §431 on food with §279 on socialising.

My friend’s colleague who keeps constantly complaining about the lack of money and lives with her mother took a loan from the bank - 3500 euros - which she will spend on Christmas gifts. Next year she’ll be working for the sake of Christmas.

As I was looking for a coat last week I realized that the virus of “thingism” (a desire for things) is highly contagious. Indeed there are so many pretty things out there that cry to be bought. The handbags and the glad rags. Things which you desire, but you will never need. And have you noticed - although this is the season of happiness - everybody seems to be angry! Spend three hours in a shopping mall and you will feel as exhausted as a mountain climber who has just made it to the peak of Everest. That virus of thingism sucks out your spirits and leaves you a replica of consumerism fighting for those gifts. Although it is supposed to be a season of joy and happiness. Ho ho ho you’re in the army now.

I suppose I was 20. Not that I am past my prime now, with grandchildren racing in the shadow of an apple tree thriving underneath my window, begonias on the windowsill and a duck roasting quietly in the oven. Anyway, I was 20. Third year in college, great expectations, naiveness, etc. I was in America. How incredible that even after the recent dark ages across the Atlantic (paranoic war on terrorism, Iraq, economic crisis, shootings in schools) those tree words still carry an aura of magic. The first glimpse at New York's Manhattan, skyscrapers, astounding feeling that nobody cares about you, therefore there is no need to feel uberimportant, black people, enormous traffic, over air-conditioned "Greyhound" busses, "Amtrak" trains, industrial suburbs of New Jersey, a guy with a python across his shoulders on the bus stop in Camden, a kid selling something colorful in a dinger, a street preacher moralizing about Jesus and Apocalypse and a vagabond shoving a tattered "Starbucks" cup into my face. No change, no change!

If you arrive to a Western country from Central/Eastern Europe, panhandling mostly leaves you outraged, the main difference being the fact that in Central/Eastern Europe you could rarely see fit young men and women, physically capable of working, begging on the streets. If you boarded a plane to Lithuania, you would mainly encounter old weary women on their knees asking for change besides Baroque churches. Throughout my explorations to the USA, the UK, France, Ireland, Italy and Spain I've never seen elderly women begging. Honestly - don't remember such an occurrence. Beggars in the West are fit and well capable of working. Men panhandling besides ATMs, restaurants, on Ha'penny Bridge, besides cars stuck in traffic... Have you noticed that the vast majority of them have hands and feet? Therefore I'm convinced they are in the streets not because they can't get a job or are incapable of working, but because they have chosen panhandling as a style of life.

I encountered panhandlers for the first time when I was walking towards underground station in Philly, USA. At first I couldn't even get - what's the problem? Why so much anger?

Over the past two and a half years that I'd spent in Dublin, I came to conclusion that panhandlers in this country are mainly junkies. Not as angry as in the States, but typically all young. Ironically, quite often they find shelter underneath or besides signs "Staff wanted".

I went to the ATM to withdraw some cash a few weeks ago, but some guy was in my way blocking the access. He apologized and placed himself underneath the money machine.
"Nice day", he said.
"I wonder if for long", added.
"Indeed", I answered.
"Good for you, I'm sure you can enjoy it", he muttered in a voice rehearsed for zillions of times.
"Have you got any spare change?" he asked.
"Sorry", I replied.

Panhandling besides ATMs in Ireland is a tremendously common sight. As a matter of fact, panhandling in general is acutely popular over here. Some say because of the widening gap between the poor and the rich - while some get more and more prosperous others become even more poverty-stricken. Sometimes it is the case, although knowing for a fact that dozens of able-bodied Lithuanians bulldozed their way to various benefits from the Celtic Tiger (on top of working 40, 50 or 60 hour weeks), I tend to think that panhandling nowadays for many has become a kind of occupation - despite vast opportunities on the job market. Although Irish still can't compare to the impeccability of the skills needed to, let's say, Italians. During my two-week-long stay in Italy this spring I learned of such numerous ways of mooching money that I could kick start a new career. I.e. distribute a flyer with a picture of a small girl on the train. She has one month to live. This is my daughter. Please help. I gave a euro - damn it, I couldn't look at that picture without apathy.

As of the 1st of January 2007 the number of those, who day in and day out live with a hand reaching out for small change, has even increased over here. New citizens of the expanded EU flooded the streets. But instead of IT professionals and laborers of mushroom factories, it was an army of gaudy skirts with a marching band of accordions. Until now if you ever met an Irish child on the streets of Dublin, it was a busker with a bucket in front. If you hit the streets of Dublin today, you encounter dozens of children, 10-year-olds and younger, with a hand reaching out for change (what a connotation of the word!). "Spare some change, madam" become the first English words they learn.

Once a Dutch woman whom I got to know while working in the shop, stressed to me that begging in the street with children is illegal in the Netherlands. In fact, during a couple of weekends spent over there, I had never encountered beggars. Just a quick glance of a tourist, which, obviously, could as well be quite wrong. During a few days spent in Denmark I was approached by a beggar only once. A friend of mine gave him a cigarette.

A couple of months ago a young beggar won his High Court claim that a law outlawing begging in a public place is unconstitutional because it excessively interferes with his right of freedom of expression. I guess, the expression of freedom can be interpreted in many ways nowadays.

Emigrants from Romania and Bulgaria risk being stopped from entering Ireland until the end of next year because of entry restrictions on low-skilled workers. In order to work in Ireland, they need work permits. Just 106 work permits were granted to Romanians this year and only 33 workers from Bulgaria were given access.

If I went for a stroll in certain areas of Dublin, I can bet a bottle of good wine, that in a few hours I could calculate more than a hundred of gaudy skirts or their mustached cavaliers. No, not those with accordions in their hands. And not those photographing the architecture of Dublin. But those exhibiting their freedom of expression. Because there can be no embargos for it. On the other hand, I could probably still calculate more pahnandling Irish, staying on the streets because they have chosen to. Despite the fact that there are numerous signs in town saying "staff needed".

Freedom lulled thousands of Lithuanians to Ireland like honey does the bees, while the Irish, allured by it, hit the streets. Isn't it ironic?

Whenever I encounter a foreigner who has visited Lithuania more or less recently I ask them how was it. Don't want to sound full of myself, but majority seem to like it there. Even my Polish friend's friends who had visited Wilno (that's how Polish call the capital Vilnius - it belonged to Poland for a while anyway) said that they liked it. When they have Krakow it is hard for us to compete... Anyhow.

A lovely elderly couple walked into the shop today and they mentioned that they had been in Vilnius in 2000. After saying that I will be going there shortly, they remarked that the place must be quite different now.

"There must be more prosperity now, possibly like in Ireland," they commented and chuckled.

"I hope not too much of prosperity," was my reply and they smiled.

That is my honest hope and prayer.

I've been living in Ireland for over two years now and I have seen so many people who were born into money (is that the way the saying goes?) that it nearly gets scary. My sister came back from Paris last spring and she said that just by judging the amount of new cars in the streets Paris looks like a shabby place compared to Dublin. Yet she came back from Lithuania a month ago and said that she was amazed by the quantity of luxury cars on the roads there...

Now I have nothing against new cars or new houses. I am just dumbfounded at the speed at which Ireland is turning to a classic consumerist society. Somehow I get even more conscious about it when I return from countries who have been rich for a long time, i.e. Denmark. As we were walking the streets of Copenhagen in July with a friend of mine, both of us remarked that it looks like in Dublin people live just for the sake of SHOPPING and DRINKING.

Of course, they do shop and drink in Copenhagen or Strasbourg, yet in Dublin quite often you get the feeling that people stay alive just by talking about prices, selling or buying. The amount of places selling coffee 2 go is booming - what about funky little cafes where you can sit and relax inside or outside and just have a good coffee without the need of purchasing a sandwich? Not those chain cafes - Insomnias or Starbucks... Alas - everybody is rushing to sell or buy, thus there's no time for un café...

When in the shop, now and again we chat with customers about the future of Ireland. Just like the newspapers we keep wondering how long this economic boom will last. Quite a few people (mostly those who are older and who have travelled a bit) mention that the growth of economy was so rapid you can hardly believe it would last for long. It's like a genetically modified chicken - so young yet so big, but somehow missing the real flavor.

I find Ireland getting more and more similar to the clichéd image of the USA - McDonald's, drive-ins, drive-throughs, to-goes, buy-2-get-1-frees. I spend therefore I live - the infectious slogan of new economies. That's what I mean by saying I hope Lithuania doesn't get too prosperous.

I know I am not making too much sense, therefore I suggest to read the last two issues of my favorite magazine "Monocle" - the previous one is about the cities that offer the best quality of life and the current issue is about building a country.

I hope somebody in charge of Lithuania's future reads them too...

Poland has introduced cheaper visas to attract workers from neighbouring countries in an attempt to replace Poles emigrating to Western Europe. Nationals of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will be able to work in Poland for up to three months, twice a year. According to BBC, Poland's economy is enjoying a boom, but is suffering labour shortages since more than a million Poles have left for EU states, notably the UK and Ireland.

The shortages are so acute, the authorities have even considered using soldiers and prisoners to help build the infrastructure.

Personally I don't believe a million has emigrated, the figure must be at least a few times bigger - have a look around Dublin. Polish ads in the newspapers, in the bus stops, zapraszamy (welcome in Polish) on the hairdressers, etc. Anyway. Anybody intrested in 233 euro minimum salary please apply.

By the way, my country has been considering a similar measure, yet apart from even smaller minimum salary - 202 euro (minus flat 27 percent income tax, which should be decreased to 24 as of 1st of Janurary 2008), foreigners might have to face xenophobia.

A comment on the largest news web site in Lithuania DELFI on a story about how difficult Lithuanian language might turn out to be for foreigners:

"Asians have started to flood our country yet, bombs in the market are about to start exploding".

The comments are not reviewed a priori and the website is greatly cooperative with institutions such as Attorney General and police in helping to disclose authors of such comments, yet anonymity is like a fig tree leaf that helps to spit out all kinds of intolerant thoughts and conceal your identity at the same time. And comments like the one above unfortunately are quite common on the stories about immigration. Freedom of speach unveils impotency of mind to adjust to the world evolving.