I don't want to hear your words

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has hit the headlines in the Estonian and international press for his views on speaking Russian.

Interviewed by an 'old friend', BBC journalist and Russophile Tim Whewell, and asked why he doesn't speak the language spoken by more than a quarter of Estonia's population, Ilves was quoted/misquoted/taken out of context as saying that speaking Russian would be like giving the nod to 50 years of brutal suppression. This inflammatory soundbite was quickly taken up by the local Russian press, with headlines along the lines of 'president refuses to speak language of occupiers', and also made it into the foreign media.

An opinion piece written by one Laur Viirand appeared on Delfi today in response to the controversy, extracts of which I have translated hereunder. Healthy debate of contentious issues is encouraged.

It's perfectly understandable that Ilves as an individual may not necessarily like the idea of studying and speaking Russian. To foreign Estonians the language perhaps symbolises their being forced to flee from occupation and the loss of their homeland. Unfortunately, things aren't quite so black and white when it's the president we're talking about. Such an inflexible position is not becoming of the office of president, whose primary role should be to mitigate conflict in society.

A foreign Estonian president taking up Russian lessons would be a magnanimous gesture, something the undercurrent of tension in the country needs. It would by no means be a sign of weakness, the imminent arrival of a second national language or some kind of white flag — rather it would be an indication of strength and the overcoming of complexes.

It would also be a sign of the maturity of the country. A decision by the president to learn Russian would not only be welcomed by the local Russian-speaking population, but it would also show solidarity with the majority of the Estonian-speaking population — most of whom were once forced to learn the language themselves.

http://www.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/arvamus/article.php?id=18297311

Borderline

Latvian president Valdis Zatlers and Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves will come together to mark the two countries' accession to the Schengen zone on 21 December at the Valga/Valka border crossing, where they will perform the ceremonial removal of the barrier dividing the two cities and countries.

"Taking into account the shared history of our cities (dating back 720 years - Ed.) and the partnership we share today, removing the physical barrier between them bears enormous significance for the future," said Valga mayor Ivar Unt. "With the border gone, the opportunities for our two countries to interact and work together will be even greater."

Alo vanishing on 21 December will be surly border guards in their boxes at Terminals A through D in the Port of Tallinn for ferries leaving for and arriving from Finland and Sweden (and any other Schengen countries, which in this case is to say Germany). Perhaps they'll all be packed off to the eastern front, where border crossings with Russia are, conversely, to be reinforced.

The Estonian jet-set will have to exercise a little more patience, however, as Schengen passport-free fun times for all at Tallinn (and, er, Kuressaare) Airport are not scheduled to be introduced until March - giving new members much needed extra time to complete the required terminal renovations.

Predsjednik Mesić u Estoniji

Utorak, 06.11.2007., 06:00

ZAGREB/TALLIN - Predsjednik Stipe Mesić putuje u službeni dvodnevni posjet Estoniji gdje će ga primiti njegov kolega, estonski predsjednik Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

Or in other words, Croatian president Stjepan Mesić has been in Estonia on an official visit to fellow president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, as reported in today's Postimees Online.

The Estonian president praised his counterpart on Croatia's stability, openness, democracy and rapid development as it heads towards membership of NATO and the European Union, declaring it a role model for the rest of the Balkans.

Mesić then met with Estonian prime minister Andrus Ansip, who reiterated the country's support for Croatia's bid to join the EU and NATO, describing the steps the former Yugoslav state has taken towards membership as greatly impressive.

Following up on comments from Ilves, Ansip then addressed what Croatia truly represents to the man in the street in Tallinn: a cheap[ish] option for summer holidays. "It's an attractive tourist destination for us Estonians," he said, encouraging closer economic ties between the two countries, and turning both of the stories reporting Mesić's visit into free ads for Estonian Air flights to Dubrovnik.

And why not? It's bloody beautiful. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Apparently there are quite a few more Croatians making the trip to Estonia too nowadays. Coming from a country that statistically enjoys the most sunshine in the Adriatic or Mediterranean or wherever, Estonia must be popular among those in search of danker, greyer climes.

Kati Come Home

If president Toomas Hendrik Ilves had his way, Mary Tamm (see story below) would know lots of Estonians - because she would abandon her life in England and return to her ancestral home to live!

On a trip to the US of A to speak at the UN on behalf of Europeans everywhere, Ilves popped in to Estonia House in New York to have a chinwag with the local emigres and urge them to think about dropping everything to migrate to a small, cold, foreign country.

“Thank you for keeping Estonianness alive,” he said, using a phrase that is difficult to translate without it sounding silly. “But you should know that Estonia has moved on, and awaits you. It is no longer a poor country, but has grown powerfully, and I urge you to come to Estonia and see all this for yourselves.

“We have come so far that you might even think: perhaps my income in America is a little higher than it would be in Estonia, but my children could be educated in Estonian, we could eat Estonian bread, and live an Estonian life,” the president continued. “So think about coming home. We need every Estonian we can get.”

Now, much as I love rye bread, it hardly constitutes a convincing argument for moving half way around the world. Nor would the Estonian education system form much of an incentive, given how inflexible it is. And it's easy for our Toomas to exhort others to follow in his footsteps when they led him to the presidency: salary is probably not quite the issue for him that it would be for others contemplating such an upheaval.

There's something wonderfully romantic about these calls to home, although they're completely pointless: the only ones likely to heed them are the elderly, and they're hardly going to contribute to the gene pool any more than they already have. But then Ilves is a diplomat to the last, and what else are you going to say to a bunch of lifelong expats frankly. “It's charming in a quaint sort of way that you maintain some semblance of being Estonian despite the fact you would obviously never consider leaving your comfortable life here to actually live in the country” wouldn't exactly cut the mustard.

Take a chancellor on me

It may come as no surprise to hear that the Social Democrats (SDE) have come out in strong support of Allar Jõks, the man with two hands firmly on the tiller of Estonian justice. The embattled Chancellor has rankled the Right by actually doing his job rather than just kowtowing to the government, and with his tenure up early in the new year, the knives are out.

However, Eiki Nestor and friends have ridden to Jõks' defence and will be voting for the man to continue in the country's top judicial post for another seven years when the lease comes up for renewal in March. "Unlike some parties, the SDE hold Jõks in high regard for the courage he has shown in taking decisions that have gone against the wishes of the parliament and the government," Nestor said, highlighting the Chancellor's championing of constitutional and human rights and his strong social conscience.

Nestor and current SDE leader Ivari Padar are reported to have pressed the issue today in a meeting with Toomas Hendrik Ilves who, as president, is charged with the task of selecting the candidate for the Chancellor of Justice post for approval thereafter by the parliament. For those of you who don't know, Ilves is a former leader of the Social Democratic Party.

For what it's worth, I think Jõks has done a good job.

Driving it home

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves tells it like it is in an interview for Postimees:

Nothing seems to be able to stop the driving situation in Estonia from getting worse and worse. Maybe there are just too many cars?

It's not a case of there being too many cars - there are too many stupid people. In the 16 years since Estonia regained its independence, 4041 people have been killed in traffic accidents. That's the entire population of a small town. 35,572 have been injured in the same period. That's the entire population of a small county.

These figures tell us that arrogant indifference reigns in Estonia. What else is it if not indifference when someone knowingly gets behind the wheel while drunk, or runs the gauntlet by recklessly overtaking on our highways, or fails to take their foot off the accelerator as they approach a pedestrian crossing, or takes no notice whatsoever of a single speed limit? Worse, we continue to see people boasting in the press about how fast they managed to make it from Tartu to Tallinn.

We'll make no inroads into this arrogance if we leave it up to the police and harsher punishments. We'll only overcome it if we all take a stand against it: show our disgust and intolerance of careless, speeding or drunk drivers. Because they're only ever a few metres away from killing someone. And the tragedy, as we see every day, is that many of them already do.

http://www.postimees.ee/010907/esileht/arvamus/280329.php

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!”

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".

A word to the wise

Edited highlights of the press conference following Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves' meeting with US President George Bush at the White House, 25 June 2007. It lasted six minutes. (The press conference.)

PRESIDENT BUSH:
It is a high honor to welcome President Ilves to the Oval Office. He is a very strong advocate for democracy and the marketplace, and as a result, his country is thriving and doing well. And so we welcome you.1
I thank you very much for your voice, heard very clearly, for those who suffer under tyrannical societies. The people of Estonia paid a high price. I know you lost two soldiers in Afghanistan recently.2 We thank you for your sacrifice.3
We talked about a lot of other interesting subjects, as well. I readily concede there's an inconsistency in our visa policy where the people of Estonia are treated differently from other people inside Europe -- even though they are making great sacrifices for the cause of democracy and liberty alongside with U.S. forces.4
We also talked about an interesting subject, and one that I can learn a lot about,5 and that is the cyber attack that makes us all vulnerable. Estonia recently went through a wave of cyber attacks.6 And this President, one, understands the issue well; two, has got some ideas.7
But I'm dealing with a man who is a clear thinker, he speaks with moral authority and moral clarity, and he's a voice for reason and hope around the world.8 And we're proud to welcome you here to the Oval Office.

PRESIDENT ILVES:
Thank you very much, President Bush. I'm grateful for President Bush's position, which I did push him hard on.9
I know that President Bush has a busy schedule, but I do hope that when his term in office is up, that you will come to my ranch -- which is a lot smaller than yours.10

PRESIDENT BUSH:

Thank you all for coming.

_____________________

1: Makes you wonder what he’d have to say to the President of, say, Moldova.
2: Two local soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Saturday – the first to die in the line of duty since Estonia joined NATO, if I’m not mistaken – while the rest of the country was marking the Victory Day public holiday. (See also 4 below.)
3: Interesting take on the ‘thank you for shopping with us’ spiel.
4: I wonder if that means priority is given to countries whose servicemen are dying in other people’s wars. It must be comforting for the families of Kalle Torn and Jako Karuks, the two servicemen killed in Afghanistan, to know that they won’t have to spend a dime of their 1.5 million kroons in compensation on a visa next time they want to jet off to the States on vacation.
5: One of many, I’d wager.
6: Did Torchwood open a local branch on the top floor of Tallinn’s new twin towers?
7: And they don’t involve pre-emptive strikes on Moscow. Fancy!
8: OTT perhaps, but as labels go, you could certainly do worse.
9: Carry On Up The Oval Office, anyone?
10: Needless to say. President Bush’s ranch could be modest by American terms and still be about a quarter of the size of Estonia.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/06/20070625.html

"Either past it or a bit dull"

According to The Economist, there are only two interesting heads of state in post-Communist Europe, and Estonia has one of them. (The other is Russia's Vladimir Putin.) Labelled 'brainy' and well-travelled, Toomas Hendrik Ilves is seemingly elevated to the ranks of much better known senior statesmen Lech Walesa of Poland and Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic (but interestingly, not Estonia's former president, the late Lennart Meri). Perhaps he will attain the same status in time. He probably deserves to.

The article is ostensibly about the newly elected Latvian president, Dr Valdis Zatlers, whom the unidenitified author portrays as "an orthopaedic surgeon [who] admits collecting thousands of dollars in tips from grateful patients, on which he is now hurrying to pay tax" whilst decrying the fact that he doesn't even hold a wick, let alone a candle, to the country's outgoing leader, Vaire Vike-Freiberga, "a steely-minded émigré polyglot". He (for I am assuming the author is a he) clearly holds the multilingual in great stead. Especially those lucky enough to have been raised and educated in the West.

Not that I'd begin to argue the point. Toomas Hendrik Ilves' outright victory in the funny handshakes round of the presidential election last year - something no one was really predicting - was the most enthralling edge-of-your-seat television since Turkey won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 with the second last set of points from Slovenia. I hadn't been so chuffed about anything in Estonia in a long time. I actually jumped up and down, cheering madly. (Much as I had when Turkey won Eurovision.)

There's good reason for this, of course: he's the best thing to happen to the Estonian political scene in a long time. The president may only be a figurehead in this country, but with Ilves at the helm, there's no 'only' about it. And when you ponder the alternative, and look at other examples around Europe... well, take Poland, for instance. The writer from The Economist says its "ruling twins are refreshingly honest, but prickly and provincial". I'm sorry, but if you ask me, there's something fundamentally wrong about having two brothers as president and prime minister. Especially twins. And it's not exactly like they (or, by extension, their government) have made a name for themselves recently with their progressive attitude.

Fair dos, the article does single them (and others) out as exceptions. "A lot more typical," it continues, "are such political leaders as Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, or Hungary's Ferenc Gyurcsany: wily political operators with [...] a populist touch. They show little interest in restarting reforms or in foreign policy." The irony is that these couple of lines could just as easily describe Estonia's prime minister, Andrus Ansip - who is head of the Reform Party. I'm not aware of any use for laurels other than to be rested on, and sadly, neither is the country's recently re-elected government. But again, given the alternative...

Thank goodness we have Toomas Hendrik Ilves at the tiller.

www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9370421

Oh, I almost forgot: tha article naturally also gets the thumbs up for being entitled Doctor Who?