The following is the English translation (provided, and paraphrased, by yours truly) of an opinion piece that appeared in today's Eesti Päevaleht. I can't begin to enumerate the points on which I disagree with the author, 'Mart Raukas, philosopher'. Unless his tongue is very firmly in cheek and he's not the self-satisfied liberal he seems to be. (I have sought a second opinion.) He would appear to have written it on, or based on, a recent flight from Crete to Tallinn.
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There are few things in the world that influence people’s happiness quite as strongly as being compared to their neighbours.
Those who once measured how well-off they were against nothing more than the achievements of their closest neighbours have now begun to draw comparisons with the achievements of people who form part of different cultures altogether. And wherever these comparisons bring positive results, such superiority tends to take on a patriotic form.
Compared to Estonians, the Greeks – however illustrious their history – are no longer a cultured people, not when you look at the country’s attitude to the economy and social norms. The Greek government closes its eyes to the budget deficit, produced by the ‘black money’ that so massively circulates – not properly issued bank loans, like we have here in Estonia.
Greece lags well behind us in terms of its policy on alcohol, too: the government there has proven unable to do anything to stop local production of moonshine, which goes on in every village in the country. Its unwillingness to raise excise and impose new duties has made the Greeks complacent, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for our government to teach their southern colleagues a thing or two about how things should be done.
Not that it’s just the success of our economy we should take pride in; we should also be proud of our cultivation of the latest social trends.
The Greeks have tied casinos up in their apron strings at the state level, viewing them as dens of folly. Our Minister for Social Affairs, conversely, appears to represent the government’s position, which is that gambling addiction is the free choice of every citizen and that it is not the government’s place to step in. Estonians and Greeks also have diametrically opposed views when it comes to sex and gender equality.
And isn’t the famous Greek art of war in something of a downward spiral? How else can you explain the fact that, at a time when our soldiers are dying on foreign missions protecting the children and the elderly of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Greeks haven’t even got the courage to chip in with a support unit?
Estonia is conspicuous for its success. Much of it is due to the trans-Atlantic coalition we are part of, in which me have earned ourselves trusted partner status. What this trustworthiness has given us is a government who are two times as good as their Finnish colleagues when it comes to how often they have met the leaders of the United States.
www.epl.ee/arvamus/391128
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5 comments:
Oh, he is out of control. Finns don't want to meet with the U.S. That's why Estonia meets with Bush twice as often. He is a typical patriot -- "EVerything is better in my country!"
The thing is, tongue-in-cheek is such a novel concept in Estonia that it's hard to tell whether he's being serious. I sure as hell hope not. I've asked one of my colleagues to cast her eye over it and see what she thinks. I'm putting off penning a follow-up post till I find out.
According to the Finnish press, it's the U.S. that doesn’t want to meet us. But I'm not worried as long as Finland gets regularly mentioned on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien, see http://tinyurl.com/prvso
Heh, even as much as 7 years in Estonia isn't obviuosly enough... (although your dubious comment shows you're half way there)
Hint... you were missing the following labels: self-criticism/irony/ridiculing, Estonian sarcasm etc.
If irony were a natural resource in Estonia, it would, appropriately, be iron pyrite. Very easy to mistake for the real thing :)
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