A near fall from grace

On June 5 in Riga one of its least-known citizens attracted considerable attention by climbing the Vansu suspension bridge unaided and apparently without any prior training. By all media accounts he was not intending to take his life but wanted to bring public attention to some glaring social problems facing people on the lower rungs of society.

Armed only with an extra large wooden crucifix for divine protection and totally convinced that if he fell he would be resurrected (eventually), he managed to climb to the top of the bridge tower with the full intention of climbing down the other side. In the event that his mission was unsuccessful he had left a note and some poetry in praise of God (who obviously understands Russian) which ex-plained his harmless intent.

Thirty-five-year-old Silards, as he is known, certainly gained the attention of city commuters.

The special anti-terrorist force OMEGA, quite rightly had the task to assess and immediately diffuse the situation which at the time may well have been a terrorist plot to destroy a vital transit bridge in Riga. It became known that Silards is unemployed, has no fixed ad-dress, and is former convict with aspirations to become little more than a tramp.

What drives a person to climb a bridge and risk his life? Despe-ration? Hopelessness? Faith? All he demanded (and apparently got) from the OMEGA officers was some mineral water and four chocolate eclairs. He was promptly plucked from the bridge halfway though his mission and taken to a psychiatric hospital for assessment and no doubt heavy sedation.

It is a social tragedy that in this day and age a person has to get so desperate as to risk his life to get a message across. But what was his message? Has anyone taken the trouble to try to find out? Has anyone from the press tried to interview him?

Motivation experts could perhaps learn a lot. Perhaps theology students will want to talk to him about his complete faith. My guess is that this issue is only another internal problem for the Welfare Ministry, which will write Silards off as a "looney tunes." The Delfi Internet portal already wrote him off as "mentally unstable." Is the story already dead? Was he really just a little unbalanced?

Will he later be found to have been sane at the time and thus accountable and able to be prosecuted for losses caused by disruption? Was he a social terrorist? He would be better off pleading insanity in that case.

He should at least pay for the eclairs and mineral water - that was extortion of a sort.

Maybe we will never know what was going on in his mind. Of course the easy solution is to commit him and write him off.

What was in it for Silards? He did, after all, mastermind an unexpected diversion and at quite some height and risk to personal safety, in real-life conditions. The OME-GA training unit will no doubt refer to this in the future as the "Silards-Eclair maneuver." Who would give a genius like that a job?

What happens to Silards now? Who decides his fate? My guess is that we will never hear about him again and he will live his life out quietly and under regular sedation in some state institution, and he will only be famous among the other committed Napoleons, Ghenghis Khans and assorted Jesus Christs already resident in these sanctuaries.

The parks around Strenci should be fine for this harmless social climber who didn't quite make it.

They say that everybody in life is entitled to 15 minutes of fame. Well, Silards, you got more than three hours. Did anybody get your message? Maybe your next move is to write a book about how you planned and executed your mission. What a thriller it will be and the bit about the eclairs will make us all appreciate your fine sense of humor. It could become a "best seller." "Victory on the Vansu". Just write it in Russian if that is easier for you.

If it's good it will be translated into all the languages of the world. We will be able to buy your thrilling little volume in airport lounges at exorbitant prices. Your book may well help place Riga on the world stage. Latvians (of all ethnic persuasions) are now really starting to make a name for themselves on the international scene.

Maybe your faith will be rewarded, and you will live beyond your wildest dreams from the publication sales. Anything is possible.

Perhaps one day you will become a parliamentarian (you will have to learn the local language though) and go about realizing those social reforms you felt so powerless to influence a few days ago.

I don't agree with your method and I don't know if you were serious, but I hope that somebody has taken note of your social concerns (maybe one of the churches will adopt you and help you get back on your feet). May you live happily ever after. Your near fall from grace has certainly touched me.

Edgars Kariks is a Australian-born composer, conductor and flautist