Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Party political broadcast

An essay written by Heiki Järveveer was published on Delfi the other day with a title that roughly translates as Lefties back in the closet? Dream on! I decided I would translate it and post it here. I had intended to edit it, but realised I liked it too much as is, so it has bypassed the cutting room and appears here in full.

Eavesdropping on the conversations that go on in the public arena, I often find myself wondering whether Estonians even know that social democracy exists. People let themselves be led astray by diametrically opposed distractions and the all too fashionable Right.

The Left is frequently frowned upon because it means a more just distribution of wealth among citizens through the taxation system. This is thought to be bad because it means the rich would be less motivated to earn money, and thus it would be unfair to them. An understandable position to take perhaps, but also lacking, because it's a question of where you place the emphasis.

With social democracy the emphasis is on freedom, justice, solidarity and well-being – in a strange coincidence, the same values on which the likes of the Reform Party rest, although it is being nudged ever more to the Right. The difference lies in the fact that social democrats believe such values should be available to everyone in society, not just the chosen few; the Right is convinced that perks have to be earned. Social democracy views people and people's lives as values in themselves, not merely their ability to make money or promote enterprise. A bank teller is no more important to society than a school teacher, even if for some reason the former is better paid in Estonia than the latter.

The view that the state has the right to intervene in economic life is equally ripe for criticism. There is a widespread understanding in Estonia that the marketplace determines all and that this is good. I would agree, to a point. If people can get by amongst themselves without the state having to interfere, this is good. Unfortunately, this much vaunted freedom has brought about a situation in which one section of society finds itself trapped in conditions of poverty and ostracism. These people basically have no freedom – a position in which no rich person would ever want to find himself.

This is where the fundamental principal of solidarity comes into play. That is, by supporting each other we can create as good a life as possible for everyone. It is the principle on which the entire European Union is structured. It is the principle on which the welfare states of Scandinavia are structured. It is a position that by its very nature is socio-democratic.

In Estonia, poverty and wealth are something you are born into. The poor cannot overcome their poverty because they have no means to do so. Social democracy considers this to be unjust. People must be in a similar position if they are to fully realise their rights and freedoms. What is just is providing opportunities first and foremost to children, who have their whole lives ahead of them. They are not to blame for the conditions they find themselves in. Society will do better if the poor have the chance to become richer, i.e. break out of the cycle of poverty.

The imbalance in the positions that people are forced to start from was one of the catalysts for the rise of social democracy. However, the phenomena that gave rise to it have gone nowhere, so it can hardly be argued that the Left or social democracy have outlived their usefulness. Human values never do.

By no means am I propagating some ultimate truth here: I am merely trying to explain what I understand by social democracy and the Left. My advice: think critically. Think critically about what the centrists and the Right are saying to you. Consider whether the pacifist stance that the Left takes is actually as bad as it is made out to be, and whether militarism and aggression are more attractive options. Ask yourself if nationalism really rules out tolerance of other nationalities, and if running them down is what nationalism is in fact about. Does obstructing freedom of choice when it comes to family models or when to have children bring us any closer to the pipe dream of spreading as one great nation across the fatherland? Ask yourself too whether those people and groups that have become separated from society should be invited back into the fold or pushed even further away. Where is the value and dignity in forcing everything that is different deeper into the 'closet' – people from different racial backgrounds, the disabled, the elderly, the prisoners, the homosexuals, the young and poorly educated, the unemployed, the sick, the poor, the fat, the short, the lazy, the workaholics, the farmers?

The Left does not equate to naivety and pseudo-solidarity: it equates to assurance. Everybody has moments when they need the support of society. And that is exactly why we should treat each other with respect and solidarity. From the left.
_____

The article made me think of a conversation I once had with a private student of mine - a rich and successful and very nice woman whose job it was to make money from investing other people's - that cemented my own political views, such as they are. I have always voted social democrat, at least in positions where it counts (which is to say the upper house, in Australia), and assuming I ever get the residency status that allows me to vote in local government elections here in Estonia, I will continue to do so. Eiki Nestor, for one, makes a lot of sense. I know people who say that a vote for a party with no real chance of making a difference is a wasted vote, but I'm not one of them.

65.24

Introducing Virgilijus Alekna, Lithuania's deposed discus world champion :-P
Woof!

68.94

Introducing Gerd Kanter, Estonia's new discus world champion :)

Monday, August 27, 2007

Suvi sai otsa

Just in time for the start of the new school year, as if to tell the kids: "Look, there's no reason to be on holiday any more!", the warm weather has given way to the damp, grey conditions you tend to associate with Estonia for about eight months of the year. Whereas a week or so ago thermometers across the country were pushing 30, this week's highs aren't expected to top 15.

What this means is that certain things you don't see nearly enough of in Estonia (such as men in board shorts, left) will now almost certainly fail to be seen again for another eleven months, more's the pity. The brave and the stupid will still be walking around in their sandals and T shirts when the first sleet falls, but alas, goose pimples ruin the effect.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Blink and you'll miss it

Doctor Who
ABC, 7.30 pm, Saturday 1 September

Friday, August 24, 2007

Everybody needs good neighbours

BBC News has published an article entitled Baltic neighbours face alcohol crisis. It provides a pithy snapshot of life in Estonia and Finland. Here is an abridged version.

The Estonian government plans to raise taxes on alcohol next year as the small Baltic nation of 1.3 million is struggling with a drink problem. The BBC's Baltic correspondent Laura Sheeter examines the effects of heavy drinking in Estonia and neighbouring Finland, where Baltic booze cruises remain popular.

Grey-faced patients barely respond to the doctors and nurses treating them in intensive care at the North Estonian regional hospital. Many of them are here because of alcohol.

Heavy drinking is widespread in Estonia, which comes near the top of EU rankings for alcohol consumption. On average each Estonian drinks 12 litres of pure alcohol each year - and every year they are drinking more. Experts warn that if the trend continues, alcohol will contribute to an irreversible population decline.

The tax hike may sound like good news, but anti-alcohol campaigners say it is unlikely to help. The government, they say, has kept taxes low for years to boost economic growth, despite rising alcohol consumption. They argue that it is only raising taxes now because it is not planning to join the eurozone soon, so it is no longer worried about a tax rise pushing up inflation.

At the Ministry of Social Affairs, they are barely more optimistic. Chief public health officer Andrus Lipand says the government asked for a national alcohol strategy, but his proposals to limit sales and advertising are simply being ignored. "Our government supports a so-called liberal alcohol policy. It's a conflict between health and business, and at the moment business is winning."

Yet the Estonian tax hike has been welcomed on the other side of the Baltic Sea, by the Finnish government. When Estonia joined the EU in 2004, the Finns, worried that people would travel to Tallinn to buy cheap liquor, cut their own alcohol tax. But the plan did not work. Finns just started drinking more. Hundreds of thousands of them catch the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and return home with crates of cheap booze.

In the last three years there has been a sharp rise in alcohol-related diseases and crime in Finland, and drink has become the country's number one cause of death among adults. Now, encouraged by the Estonian tax rise, the Finnish government has announced that taxes will go up there too.

Shoppers on one weekend ferry had mixed feelings about the rise. Some wanted to see an altogether more liberal alcohol policy in Finland, while others said they were worried about heavy drinking in Finland - but none of them thought it would stop them shopping in Estonia. One told me that if the price got too high, he would just go to nearby Latvia instead.
_____

There's loyalty for you. And I was about to say how nice it is to see that Finland and Estonia still share such strong ties. For the full text of the article, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6957153.stm.

Bolt from the blue

Tallinn (and presumably other areas along the north coast) was struck by a fierce thunderstorm in the early hours of this morning. I was woken at 3.30 by a flash of lighting or a peal of thunder, or possibly the driving rain that accompanied the storm, and reverted to my childhood almost immediately.

You see, thunder and lightning are unusual occurences here in Estonia. There's something about the climate (basically the fact that it's never hot) that means thunderstorms are just not part of life. In Australia, a summer day is not a summer day if it doesn't end in a thunderstorm and an electric light show. It's one of the few things I miss about the country: the change in the air; the smell of ozone, or whatever it is; the stark contrast in temperature before and after.

So to be woken in the middle of the night here by a right corker of a storm was a rare treat. I lay there doing the whole counting thing between flashes of lightning and accompanying thunder. I pulled the doonah up under my chin when the maths told me I should - and as I had always done as a kid, petrified and exhilarated at the same time - and an explosive burst of thunder right overhead made the building shake and set off alarms left, right and centre.

The whole thing lasted a good few hours. It had gone six when I last checked the time, and though I had dozed my way through most of it, I reckon I still registered every jolt and every bolt. Bloody brilliant.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Give the man a medal

The Financial Times has awarded Andrus "Don't Ask Me I'm Just The Prime Minister" Ansip the title of 2007 European of the Year, citing the business-friendly economic and taxation policies he has implemented which have transformed the country into an attractive investment environment. I wonder if they realise they're exactly the laurels he's been resting on for, like, the last four years.

Clash of the Titans

Estonia has beaten Andorra 2:1 in tonight's Euro2008 qualifier played at Lilleküla Stadium. This lifts Estonia from the bottom of the Group E table and the shame of ending in last place with a big fat nought - the fate now facing Andorra, whose tournament so far has seen them score a whole 2 goals whilst conceding 30, losing an impressive eight games out of eight. Top level football doesn't get any better than this.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Tundkem Eesti riigi üle uhkust!

On the 16th anniversary of Estonia regaining its independence, president Toomas Hendrik Ilves is encouraging us all to be proud of our country. So for once I won't take any pot-shots at it. Here's what he said during an interview on Kuku radio this morning.

“There have been precious few moments in Estonia's recent history in which the entire nation has held its breath, all eyes on one room in one building,” he said. “But on the 19th and 20th of August 1991 it did. The nation awaited news from Toompea. They awaited a decision.”

“And you were there,” he continued, addressing those who took the courageous step of declaring independence from the Soviet Union. “You were the decision-makers. The situation you found yourselves in was clearer than clear, but at the same time an enormous burden to shoulder. You had no margin for error, but neither did you have a choice. You could not let the nation down: they had been awaiting such a moment for 51 long years.”

“I thank you for the decision you made - just as the people of Estonia thank you, and just as our children and grandchildren will thank you. I wish everyone a happy Independence Day!”

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Bloody families

Doctor Who
ABC, 7.30 pm, Saturday 25 August

Friday, August 17, 2007

My dog has no nose

Poor Viljandi. It is one of the loveliest towns in Estonia and boasts one of the country's most gorgeous settings, whatever the season - and tourists are deserting it like rats from the proverbial sinker because it reeks. Hotel and guesthouse managers, tired of their trade fleeing the town in horror at the objectionable odour wafting over it, have picketed the town council.

The fetor is thought to derive from local pig farm slurry, a nearby manure farm or possibly the town's waste treatment facilities. However, while all three admit that they are inevitably responsible for a certain stinkiness, none of them are taking the rap for the putrid pong repelling unsuspecting visitors.

A spokesman from the Pärnu County Environmental Inspectorate said that they would be keeping an eye on the three as potential sources of the offensive stench, but conceded that you can expect little else at the peak of the smelly season. "Summer has been relatively hot and dry, and there hasn't really been any wind to speak of, so any whiff is going to become extra shitty under those circumstances," he explained. Or words to that effect.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The view from MY balcony

Isn't it pretty?

...but I know what I like

One of the things I love about Estonia is its applied art - particularly what they do with glass. Here's a picture of a glass, um, thing I bought over the weekend. I couldn't take my eyes off it despite the multitude of beautiful things vying for my attention, and so I bought it.

Here's another photo of it. The photos are almost as beautiful as the thing itself. (Thank you Anu!)

And here's a picture of the gallery I bought it from.


It's called Lühikese Jala Galerii because it's on Lühike Jalg, one of the loveliest streets in the Old Town. They have a sister gallery on Vene which is equally enchanting. On their website (http://www.hot.ee/lgalerii/eng.html) they describe themselves as the oldest and largest gallery of their kind in Tallinn. In my opinion they are also the best.

Anyone who comes to Estonia and who wants to take away something with which to remember it by (and endlessly admire) should shop here. If you're the kind of person who thinks the perfect Estonian souvenir is a Russian doll or something hideous made of amber, don't bother. And buck up your ideas.

We all have our cross to bear

This is the winning design for the Freedom Monument to be erected on Harjumägi, one of the most picturesque settings in the centre of Tallinn. Rather imaginatively, it is called Libertas.

It is 28 metres tall. It is f***ing ugly.

Monday, August 13, 2007

While I'm at recommending places

You wouldn't necessarily expect a bookstore cafe to offer some of the best food and drink in town, but Rahva Raamat in Viru Keskus - run by Imre Kose, one of the best chefs in Estonia - does just that. At the very least you should try their freshly squeezed orange juice. If the whole shopping mall literary setting is not your thing though, try Kolme Näoga Mees on Kuninga in the Old Town. Despite being a stone's throw from Town Hall Square and tourist magnets like Olde Hansa, it's not the kind of place just anyone walks into, so it still has a sense of intimacy about it. And they do fantastic ice cream cocktails.

寿司店

Over the weekend we popped into Sushihouse on Rataskaevu in the Old Town for a spot of vegetarian maki. They had the saltiest soy sauce I have ever tasted.

Other than that, the experience more than lived up to the various awards they have been, er, awarded with, including Silver Spoons for best restaurant. The place itself, or at least the little cellar bit we were in, was a delightful fusion of the medieval and oriental: I can understand how they have also won awards for best interior design. And yes, the maki was great. I also tried their gyoza, and although no one's gyoza will ever live up to my Japanese host mother's gyoza on my school exchange to Hamamatsu in 1992, it was still lovely. Best of all, the maki et al are perfectly affordable.

Here are the edited highlights of how the restaurant describes itself on its website, http://www.sushihouse.ee/: "Sushihouse is far from only a sushi-serving restaurant. Sushihouse serves healthy food and natural beauty for a demanding taste. The cuisine offers you freshness, contrast and pure taste. In addition to the rich and various menu [there is the] unforgettable interior, fabulous service and various rooms, where in addition to the traditional restaurant layout are available lounge and comfy-cozy chamber with soft pillows, which offer a chance for a very relaxed pastime. Sushihouse is a well-balanced mixture of old and new, where cultures (east-west; old-new) coexist in balance and harmony instead of a collision."

As obvious as it may seem, I might just point out that I did not translate their blurb for them.

He's coming home

A report in today's Äripäev business daily suggests that the gulf between Finland and Estonia may be getting smaller - and we're not talking tectonic plates. While there are as yet no statistics to support the claim, the pay on building sites the length and breadth of Ye Olde Suomi is said to no longer be sufficiently higher than it is in Estonia for our hard-hat labourers to bother working abroad, and the boys are heading home.

This is good news for me, as I may finally be able to find someone who can turn the pile of tiles gathering dust on my balcony into something.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

It's just not in his nature

Doctor Who
ABC, 7.30pm, Saturday 18 August

Thursday, August 9, 2007

That'll teach 'em

Just weeks before the start of the new academic year, it has been revealed that hundreds of teaching positions throughout Estonia remain to be filled, with some local governments having yet to even place advertisements for them.

In Tallinn alone, students will arrive on their first day to more than 60 teacherless classes unless there is a dramatic last-minute rush of takers for the underpaid and undervalued positions. The Ministry of Education and Research have been forced into the rather pathetic admission - given the tasks they are charged with - that they are not even sure how many teachers they will be short come September 1st. Presumably they will find out when students start wandering corridors up and down the country in search of an educator.

In all fairness, the Ministry is caught between a rock and an entire range of hard places. The average age of serving teachers in the country is rapidly approaching 912, and as they die or are pensioned off, there is no next generation to replace them: anyone graduating in modern, go-get-'em Estonia inevitably goes on to study business administration, IT or something that will get them to Brussels, with tertiary education producing about 3 new teachers annually.

Not that you can blame the youngsters when there is no financial incentive to go into teaching, no fringe benefits and only rooms bursting at the seams with obnoxious pre-teens and teenagers to look forward to. If the government made the prospect of teaching more attractive, a few more people might give it a go. Alas, it's a vicious circle: the government doesn't have enough money to provide the incentives the profession needs if it's not to go into terminal meltdown within the next few years. Allegedly.

It's a perfectly fixable situation, of course, if someone takes the initiative, and as a former teacher myself I can vouch for how satisfying and enjoyable (if not exactly lucrative) a job teaching can be. But the role of educators is rarely shown the respect it deserves, anywhere. If nothing else, Estonia can take heart from the fact that it's probably not alone in having an education system facing imminent implosion.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

"Police arrest blind man driving car"

Here is how the Sydney Morning Herald and syndicated papers are reporting a recent drink-driving incident here in Estonia:


Police in the Baltic state of Estonia stopped a man who was driving erratically at the weekend, only to find he was blind.

The 20-year-old was driving in the southern city of Tartu early on Sunday - helped by instructions from his 16-year-old passenger.

"At first they thought he was just drunk, but the man kept missing the tube for the breath test, then they realised he was blind" and arrested him, Tartu Police spokeswoman Marge Kohtla said.



What they fail to mention is that: 1) the blind man was in fact also drunk; 2) his passenger, who could see and had therefore taken on navigating duties, was also soused; and 3) neither of them was licensed to drive (which is reasonable enough in the case of the blind man). However, I do like the optimism of describing Estonia as 'the Baltic state of', as if this will give the average Australian reader any better idea of where the country is.

Nothing to do with us

Consistency in governance is clearly a tenet City Hall subscribes to. After lambasting the state for taking matters into its own hands in the removal of the Bronze Soldier - the Soviet era statue of a Red Army infantryman erected in 1947 as a 'monument to the liberators of Tallinn' - from the centre of the city, it has now passed the buck on erecting a memorial to the victims of Communism as, it says, such things are matters of national importance. Clearly it has nothing to do with the fact that the party currently leading the city (Keskerakond, or the Centrists) has the local Russian-speaking population to thank, almost single-handedly, for its absolute majority.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Update

I take it all back. The Estonian Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology has forecast an entire week of glorious beach weather, with temperatures in the mid to high 20s - and possibly as much as 30 - Monday through Sunday. But beach goers beware: the Baltic remains awash with dangerous blue-green algae! Still, if you can't swim you'll at least be able to appreciate the irony.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

¡Cuidado, procariotes!

The Swedish Bureau of Meteorology has issued a stark warning to beach bums along the north coast of Estonia that the waters of the Baltic Sea are seeing one of the most ghastly proliferations of blue-green algae in recorded history!

This is grave confirmation indeed of the predictions made by Finnish scientists in May that the choking mass of algae (more correctly referred to as 'prokaryotes') in the Baltic this summer would be significantly more choking than this time last year.

Thankfully, with the country's traditional handful of days in which the water temperature is slightly above that which induces almost instant hypothermia already behind it, few are likely to be troubled by the peculiar pea soup phenomenon. But there's always next year!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Let the sunshine in

Doctor Who
ABC, 7.30 pm, Saturday 11 August

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Tehtud!

The ever-attractive Edgar Savisaar, occasional Mayor of Tallinn and full-time cardboard cutout, has had his licence suspended for three months and fined 3900 EEK (app. 170 GBP) (or 250 EUR) (or 340 USD) (or 400 AUD) for exceeding the speed limit by more than 50 km/h in a 30 km/h zone in July.

The former Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications reacted to the fine and suspension of his licence thusly: "It says in the notice I got that their decision was based on “the principle of equal treatment for all and similar penalties issued to date”. But I suspect that the way I've been penalised has not been seen in any such case to this point. In fact I suspect I am more equal than others, and that's fine by me. People expect more from me than they do from others, and that's as it should be."

What a twat. Personally, I don't think the penalties go far enough, although they're more than I'd hoped for. If he'd done the same in Australia, he could have had his licence taken off him on the side of the road where he was pulled over for a minimum of six months and fined anywhere up to the equivalent of 22,000 EEK. Well, if he'd been speeding through an operating school zone. In New South Wales. And convicted by a court.

Personally (again), I feel the fines should also be in direct proportion to your smug indifference and somehow calculated on the basis of what would actually pinch. I mean, 3900 EEK is peanuts to someone like Hr Savisaar. Why not fine him a year's income from all of the various golden egg-laying battery goose farms he has a stake in? Ratchet up the figures till they induce mild palpitations and voila: you have your magic number.

The sad irony, of course, is that the bill will now be left for the tax payers of Tallinn to foot, as His Jowliness will undoubtedly spend the next three months being driven round everywhere by some City Hall toady. Mind you, does anyone believe he pays any of his car expenses himself in the first place?

Man of the People


A startling, in-depth piece of investigative journalism by those tabloid trashbags at SL Õhtuleht has revealed that the Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, is up to his eyeballs in debt - having run up millions of kroons in car, home and property loans from a variety of banks and credit institutions. Placing him in pretty much the same boat as every other upper-middle class Estonian.

My advice to him would be: make use of SMS loans while you can. There have been rumblings - from those who clearly don't need them - that such 'dial-a-dollar' schemes are subversive and wrong, but come on, think of the convenience! Next time the president is at Säästumarket and realises his almost 85,000 EEK monthly salary won't be enough to cover his value pack of cheesy wieners, all he need do is make a quick call and voila! They'll be exploding in the fire quicker than you can say "he'll be paying them off for months to come at a ridiculously exhorbitant rate of interest".