That's not for me to say

Eesti Ekspress is reporting that like his Russian-speaking constituents being anti-foreigner, Tallinn mayor Edgar Savisaar is anti-gay.

Under the headline "Savisaar shows no support for sexual minorities", the independent weekly reveals that the jolly leader of the Centrist Party has declined to join other European mayors - including those of Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Barcelona - in upholding the rights of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transexuals to freedom of speech and public expression.

Sparking controversy is the fact that though personally called upon to address the matter, Savisaar passed the buck on deciding not to support it to his underlings. "What we are dealing with here in an important stance and an issue that is very topical in society today, which is why I am asking the education and culture committee of Tallinn City Council to examine the issue and make their own proposals," Savisaar wrote. They advised him not to sign up.

The nub of the letter addressed to Europe's mayors by sexual minority representatives is the infringement of their rights in post-Communist Eastern Europe: restricting freedom of speech and making it almost impossible to hold demonstrations and public gatherings, with the police failing to provide sufficient security. It also points out that leading politicians in neighbouring countries (but not Estonia itself) have used discriminatory language in reference to sexual minorities.

Sadly, whether or not Itkar acted appropriately in delegating responsibility for weighing up the issue, it was a no-win situation to begin with: someone in his position, from his party, considering its grass roots support, was never going to sign up to anything so taboo, and the fact that the issue remains so in the country means that his inevitable 'no' will only reinforce the image of Estonia as a homophobic nation. Which it perhaps deserves.

http://www.ekspress.ee/2008/03/13/eesti-uudised/1618-savisaar-ei-toeta-seksuaalvahemusi

Revolting

Edgar Savisaar is to face a mass demonstration outside City Hall on Friday in protest at his proposed 150% hike on land tax. Which is not to say he will address them, but rather that if he happens to be there and looks out the window, he'll see a rather large crowd of people calling for his resignation.

Gunnar Stahl, the organiser of the rally, has been behind a letter-box drop urging residents of Tallinn to rise up against their mayor, albeit in a very calm and dignified way in which their displeasure is expressed through their presence and their placards - which are sure to reflect the general opinion that the plan stinks more than the city's sewers, which any revenue generated through the rate rise would be designed to improve.

Though espousing a peaceful protest, Stahl is using fighting words. "Our demonstration will go ahead as scheduled unless Savisaar scraps the plan by 13 December at the latest - and apologises to the nation on the 9 o'clock news that night for the mistakes he has made!" Here here.

Wheeling and dealing

ETV's Sunday night current affairs programme Aeg Luubis has reported on the results of a sociological survey asking respondents which politicians, if any, they would trust enough to buy a used car from.

The short answer is that most people wouldn't trust any of them. The clear favourite among Russian-speaking Estonians was Centre Party leader Edgar Savisaar (surprise!), while least favoured of all recipients was former People's Union leader and Minister of the Environment Villu Reiljan - people presumably worried that if they bought something from him it would become embroiled in a dodgy swap scandal. Most trustworthy of the bunch overall was deemed to be president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, although the same number who said they would buy an old jalopy from him also said they didn't know how to respond to the question.

And arguably rightly so: it's a daft one and entirely moot. Sociologists claim that the results of the survey reveal interesting things about the mindset of people towards politicians these days: for example, that support for certain parties may be high, but not for their leaders (prime minister Andrus Ansip being a prime example); and that generally the trend is to favour politic[ian]s that follow a social-democratic line. But since this isn't really reflected in how people vote - Ansip received the greatest number of single votes in electoral history at the last parliamentary elections, while the Social Democrats failed to make much of a mark at all (sadly) - I fail to see the relevance myself.

The only substantive point the survey makes is that Russian speakers will support Edgar Savisaar and Keskerakond whatever it is that's being peddled, and we knew that already.

http://www.etv24.ee/index.php?0597355

What do Edgar Savisaar and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have in common?

They both deny what is blatantly obvious to just about everyone else in the world.

A couple of days after the preposterous Persian president insisted there are no such things as homosexuals in Iran, our mayor and saviour has made the [far less offensive but just as wilfully blinkered] claim, to all intents and purposes, that there is no such thing as underage drinking in Estonia. Or at least that if there is, they're not buying their alcohol from anywhere that shouldn't be selling it to them.

The issue kicked off in the last few days when it emerged that a check-out operator working at Prisma in the Kristiine shopping centre had sold a couple of cans of beer to some 17-year-olds. Hardly the most heinous of crimes, you might think, but it has since cost the supermarket its liquor licence - due in no small measure, I suspect, to Edgar Savisaar sanctioning such a move in the media.

Makes you wonder what City Hall's going to do when every shop and supermarket in Tallinn is found to be selling fags and booze to teenagers, something Northern Police Prefecture head honcho Raivo Küüt has gone on public record as describing as 'out of control'. Of course, you have to believe that's actually the case, and that the city's police know what they're talking about. Our Itkar does not.

"I'm sure the case of Kristiine Prisma is an exception to the rule," he said. When quizzed on the degree of justice that would be brought to bear on a store not caught selling beer to the almost-of-age but, say, vodka to a 13-year-old, Savisaar gave the kind of answer that is the verbal equivalent of sticking your head in the sand. "Impossible," he stated. "But if it were, if a 13-year-old were to be sold vodka in Tallinn, City Council would have to have a serious discussion about it."

You have to feel sorry for Prisma, since they're very clearly being made an example of here, but in a totally pointless and unsustainable way that quite possibly also has no basis in law. I'm not making excuses for the check-out operator who failed to ask for ID, and I'm not saying that 17-year-olds drinking beer isn't an issue. But there are much more effective ways of making your point than reacting in such a knee-jerk manner with your eyes closed to the heart of the problem.

In your dreams

Someone called Vilja Kiisler was full of praise for City Hall's crackdown on alcohol in an article entitled The Centre Party's Wet Dreams on Delfi today:

Curing the nation's drinking problems with restrictions on alcohol sales is no longer the business of the Centre Party alone: Tartu's Reformist mayor has also come to the conclusion that selling vodka in the wee hours will have to be done away with. But back in Tallinn, the Centrists plan to turn the taps off even tighter.

City Council mouthpiece Toomas Vitsut has announced that even tougher restrictions are in the pipeline — because the ones they've put into practice thus far have failed to reduce the amount of drinking. A bit of common sense here might make them question whether the restrictions make sense in the first place if they're not even getting close to doing what they say on the tin. But no. Loyal footsoldiers cannot afford the luxury of common sense. Particularly not Vitsut, whole sole reason for being of late seems to be to play up [party leader Edgar] Savisaar's great ideas.

And now Vitsut is going even more Savisaaresque on us and promising that if one ban isn't enough, we'll impose two — and keep on imposing them until they produce results, without bothering to ask whether it actually helps anyone break their debilitating habit.

We can talk about it till the cows come home, but common sense says that no restriction is ever going to break the habit of a lifetime — it will only make people hide it even more. If you know you won't be able to get your beer or your vodka from the shop after 8 o'clock, you buy it earlier, and voila, problem solved. In fact you buy more, just so you won't have to face the inconvenience of running out. Who does Vice Mayor [Jaanus] Mutli (hooray! - Ed.) think he's fooling when he says that vodka shopping sprees are a thing of the past and that people aren't drinking as much as they used to?

http://www.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/arvamus/article.php?id=16848162

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?