She's like a poppier, more accessible version of Bjork and I really like the clip below, which is the title track from her album, "Love Is Dead". The excellent pop-savvy blog Music Is The Heart Of Our Soul has the bonus track "Heal" available for download: more simple, catchy melody lines in the same vein as the other songs I've heard. I'll be keeping an ear out for more of Kerli in future.

These children are destroying our future! I am excite. We must dance until the very last day, promise me now! These children, my favourite the second from left-most with the black shirt, are compete in the Estonian robotos competition called Robotex at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia.  I notice there are no females in this photo, they must be kept safe for the revolution.

The photo shown here is like the American game of foosball.  Olé!

Yo mother,
€

I was asked by the federation to speak at their yearly conference, held this year in Tallinn amidst unbelievably well preserved 13th century buildings. It is quite the setting!

The topic was the model that the OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre uses in the delivery of SME services to our client groups. An interesting fact is that while Small Business Centres in Ontario total 57, and serve an overall population base exceeding 12 million, in Finland they have over 417 local associations, 21 regional based centres and 49 trade centres serving a total membership base- country wide of approximately 90,000 businesses. 98% of these have less then 10 employees.

Finland's total population sits at around 5.2 million

Our strength and strategic alliances within the youth sector, as well as the ability of the EC to work quickly and effectively with private sponsors to support not only some of our funding requirements but also to act as key strategic partners in industry- is a novel concept for many of these centres. Being state-run limits, at times, their overall ability to act in an entrepreneurial manner- the hands-are-tied approach does not often instill confidence in the aspiring entrepreneur simply looking for help and advice.

A nugget of learning taken from the conference, and from my new Finnish friends- is their focus on the selling, and succession planning of and within SMEs. Where we have a "youth, starting and growing" focus, they include 'selling' to the mix as more and more businesses are requiring help in succession.

Our web site -and the strength of our domain- was a hit and was our forthcoming model for growth -iProfit (using a web 2.0 platform as a complement to face-to-face mentoring).

Some contacts outside the realm of the EC were developed and passed along to the appropriate OCRI personnel-..

Great trip- experience- people!

Kittos,

Micheal Burnatowski

 But, hey - I was moving to France. They're mad about cheese there, I thought cheerfully, there will be loads of cheddar-like varieties to choose from. But no. A significant portion of Friday's visit to my local supermarket was spent anxiously perusing the selection in the cheese aisle. I mean, honestly. 3.2 million types of cheese, and nothing even remotely resembling a block of mature cheddar. Surely this cannot be right?

Soft cheese, cream cheese, holey cheese, white cheese, orange cheese, flavoured cheese. Cheese with bits of fruit in it, cheese with a selection of crackers, cheese that smells really bad. Mild cheese, blue cheese, sliced cheese, spreadable cheese, blocks of cheese, tubs of cheese, balls of cheese, wedges of cheese, stringy cheese, smoked cheese, crumbly cheese. Every type of cheese imaginable, and more cheese on top of that. But no cheddar equivalent. Pity about that, France.

And while I'm on the subject of absent foods, why, oh why are there no bagels anywhere? This is most distressing to me, as someone who is particularly partial to a sesame bagel with cream cheese, or an onion and poppyseed bagel with scrambled eggs. Thorough searches of several supermarkets in Tallinn, one in Helsinki, and three in Lyon have revealed that I have clearly been taking too many things for granted.

On the plus side, though, I can't help but feel that French crème fraîche, coffee, and croissants are, in their own special ways, kind of making up for the distressing lack of cheddar cheese and bagels. Mmm-mmm-mmm...

Devo ammettere che non conoscevo il fatto che in finlandia ogni anno si pratica questo sport. Il nome dice tutto da se e che dire, è fantastico. Le regole, trovte su wikipedia.org, le prime suonano più o meno così:

• La lunghezza della pista ufficiale è di 253.5 metri e la superficie della pista è parzialmente in sabbia, parzialmente in erba e parzialmente in ghiaia.
• La pista ha due ostacoli asciutti e un ostacolo dell'acqua, profondo circa un tester
• La moglie da trasportare può essere la vostra, del vicino o potete trovarla più lontana; deve, tuttavia, avere almeno 17 anni
• Il peso minimo della moglie da trasportare è di 49 chilogrammi. Se è meno di 49 chilogrammi, alla moglie saranno aggiunti dei pesi in modo tale che il carico totale da trasportare è non meno di 49 chilogrammi.
• Tutti i partecipanti devono divertirsi
• Se un partecipante fa cadere la propria moglie gli verranno aggiunti 15 secondi per caduta

Ho messo il video dopo il salto, a causa dell'odioso autoplay

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.626466&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Sembra che i più bravi in questo sport siano gli estoni: hanno vinto tutte le edizioni dal 1998 al 2008.

Molti di voi penseranno: beh vince chi ha la moglie più leggera, non è giusto. La cosa bella arriva proprio qui: il premio consiste infatti in un equivalente in birra del peso della moglie! Quindi, forse chi ha la moglie più leggera non è così contento!

Inoltre le coppie più divertenti, il costume migliore e la moglie più pesante trasportata riceveranno un premio speciale! Che dire ce n'è per tutti! Mi sa che devo fare palestra ancora per un po' io però....

Well boys, this is it. The final countdown (queue song by 80's Swedish glam-bland, Europe). The bells are beginning to toll, our time is almost up and we thus begin to retro-spect on our mission here. And say goodbye. Goodbyes were always easy for me growing up. My family moved every two years or less during my adolescence and so I became very accostomed to burning bridges behind me. Not so now. As I've grown, I can see the importance of "wrapping-up" and finishing well.

We leave behind friends and co-workers yes, but also a family of believers in the same Christ and God we serve. That's not so easy to leave as it once might have been. Yet there is joy, knowing that the connections, relationships, and bonds formed here are indestructible. We are one Body of Christ, one Family, and will never lose that vital connection. I look forward to returning here one day to see the progress, growth and development in the congregation that we have poured the last year of our lives into.

It is in this pouring out that we are most like Christ. And "we [indeed] have heard the chimes at midnight." Now we go from here to the next place along the path that Christ has called us to walk. His plan is perfect and we are perfected in Him as we walk out His plan. We are grateful to have had this opportunity and we speak blessings over the precious souls here that have received and accepted us into their family. We bid all here adieu, until our paths cross again. May the Peace and Love of Christ keep you all.

Amen.

• atlas shrugged-- note to all the nutty "Objectivists" who have been posting: (a) don't take yourselves so seriously and (b) I'll probably write a reply to your posts tonight
• labute-- as in Neil LaBute, the playwright responsible for Fat Pig, Some Girl(s) and, unfortunately, reasons to be pretty
• "shankman mused in his haro e-mail"-- I have to be honest, this one tickled the hell out of me. Who the hell searches for something so specific? Peter Shankman's a good guy, and I love Helpareporter.com, but this is just strange.
• estonian civil liberty-- where do I begin?

[Update 6 July '08]:  Corruption in Romania video report (7:25m) by Journeyman Pictures.

The Economist has ran another piece on corruption, second in a little bit more than a month (good for them). This time, rather than looking at Eastern European corruption at large, it chose to focus on Romania as a single case in an article plainly titled Corruption in Romania.

For parts of its content, the article relies on a report by Willem de Pauw, a Belgian prosecutor to flash out corupţie in Romania; the report is available in pdf format here. The never-published-until-the-economist-picked-it-up report contrasts with conclusions of a similar document by the European Union.

Unlike the EU report, de Pauw concludes that "instead of progress in the fight against high-level corruption, Romania is regressing on all fronts."

Less encouraging - because it supports the conclusions of Hammarberg's report - is the observation about the state of Romanian justice system:

The Romanian judiciary and/or legal system appears…unable to function properly when it comes to applying the rule of law against high-level corruption.

Intriguing is the next statement:

Indeed, more than five years after the start of Romania’s anti-corruption drive, the public is still waiting for one single case of high-level corruption to reach a verdict.

This is a similar problem experienced by Estonia, which was recently criticized for not having prosecuted a single case of international bribery in the past two years (2006, 2007). While not the same, the comparison must sting for Estonians whose country is relatively highly rated on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Estonia's CPI score is over 6, in comparison to Romania's CPI of over 3 (note: 10=lowest perceived corruption).

Two observations are made by The Economist, that...

1. The EU relied too much on individual politicians to back Romania’s anti-corruption drive
2. [There is] intense resistance of practically the whole political class of Romania against the anti-corruption effort

Given this, what can the European Union and reformers in Bucharest do better to decrease corruption levels in Romania?

For one, Brussels should avoid placing all its eggs in one basket as it did with the former justice minister Monica Macovei - who was conveniently dismissed from the government after Romania acceded in 2007. And second, if the whole political class (or a vast majority) is resisting anticorruption efforts, then the EU ought to create encourage vested domestic constituencies that could aid in its push for a more accountable and transparent society.

One such constituency that could clearly benefit from less corruption are small businesses owners, who are typically less "connected" than major corporations, and who are very interested in protecting their property and profits from corrupt public officials.

Most importantly the EU should not forget that it wields a powerful tool in the EU funds, a carrot-turn-stick

It should be generous in disbursing grants funded by the EU taxpayers, but just as much it ought not hesitate to withdraw funding if the recepient party fails on its commitments.

It perplexes me how so many Americans keep saying that Mandarin will soon replace English as the world's trade language. The thought I would assume comes from the idea that if our country's dominance ceases, so will our language. It is completely false. The Greeks, led by Alexander the Great conquered the known world by force of arms, though their culture made a far stronger impact and it's language which had been set up as the world's trade language; remained dominant for centuries after the fall of the nation. As the Roman nation rose, Greece fell to in-fighting, the Romans didn't rise in spite of the Greeks but instead used it to propel them. The Romans had already begun to emulate Grecian culture, Greek slaves were prized by wealthy Romans; the educated revered as teachers. And when Greece fell, Rome gained the philosophers, the artists, the poets and the like by way of immigration. It seems like a modern idea, but the cultured of the world have always gravitated towards new happening places; The Greeks left a dying Greece to go to Rome, the Romans left for Constantinople as the Roman Empire began to fall, Mansa Musa of Mali was such an inspiring figure that he sucked talent from Europe and the Middle East creating a Golden Age in Timbuktu that even now we don't fully know the extent of it, When Constantinople fell the cultured came to Italy and sparked the Renaissance, and of course the United States of America has had massive migrations of talent from around the world; the greatest example being the Jewish-Germans thinkers that immigrated during the Nazi reign of terror. America's dominance in the world is waning, but will our culture and our language disappear from the scene; unlikely.

Now I hate to bring China up but I have little choice. China is not a free nation, it's economy is controlled and it's laws are merciless. I bring it up due to it's people's thirst for American culture and language, the former for it's entertainment and the latter for it's economic purposes. In my model of a Roman-Greek relationship China is most certainly the Rome to our Greece; something to keep in mind as you chuckle at China's Shijingshan Amusment Park (a blatant copy-off of Disney World) or beam with pride as they ship students to our Universities and hire American computer scientists for their own Silicon Valley. They seek to emulate us because they seek to replace us. Now the question is, will they. I would say they have a very good chance to. They've done a great job of opening up the market and turning themselves into a massive producer of raw goods, refining goods, and consuming goods; loosening up restrictions on those in the dense south-east while keeping those in the north and west drowning in poverty seems to be working for them. Also with massive increases in education, the Chinese are turning into a smart little bunch. Now the double-edge sword of education is the more educated a person becomes the more restless the need for freedom will be. That along with Christianity spreading like wildfire (bringing morality to a secularist people) has a good chance of turning China into a very strong free nation.

Now, you may be asking yourself, how can I profit off of my homeland's fall? What a despicable thought. Here's how; In our ever globalizing world taking an overseas position can have massive payoffs. Companies opening up new branches overseas often want to bring their own people over as managers, overseers and trainers but Americans hate leaving home so the benefits tend to be substantial. Good to keep in mind if you're sensing your company is going to export yours and your fellow co-worker's jobs; a potential problem can turn into a new beginning if you look for it. Also just having a good command of the English language is extremely valuable, even without TESOL certification (though it's great to have) there are countless jobs for English speakers abroad, many in Asia, where when cost of living is factored in; you can make out quite well. People around the world love us, don't ask me why; we're rude, loud, pay no attention to our host culture and act like we should be treated like royalty. But for some reason they do; milk it for what it's worth.

Slightly off topic, but quite typical for me; Estonia. Remember the name, keep an eye on it, the gains they are making in terms of freedom and economics are fascinating. They are well on their way to first world status. Libertarians have a habit of sounding off on which countries they're going to immigrate to due to this or that law being passed, this country should be first on their list. I stand in awe of what the Estonians have done since gaining independence from the Big-Momma. I keep going back and forth on whether I want go for my masters at Tartu University in Baltic Studies, they keep up the good work and I'll probably be set.

In Estonia, most people speak English to some extent, and are happy to do so. In France, fewer people speak English, but they appreciate you making the effort to speak their language, and are very pleasant, patient and helpful as you stumble around in your faded memories of auxiliary verbs and the imperfect tense. Conversations take much longer, and can be quite embarrassing, but all my exchanges thus far have been friendly and punctuated with jokes and smiles. In Germany, I felt a bit stupid and snubbed every time I tried to ask for help or directions. Sad and weary, I finally retreated to a quiet corner of the airport and sat down to read my book.

An elderly gentleman approached with his luggage, indicating the space beside me and asking something in German. I nodded politely, indicating that the seat was free, and he sat down, arranging at his feet two battered leather bags and, quite inexplicably, a tightly sealed crate of bananas. I continued to read. The man fidgeted for quite a while, and then said something else, clearly hoping to have a conversation. This was impossible, because of my tiredness and the fact that I didn't have a clue what he was saying. Ich spreche kein deutsch I said haltingly, shaking my head with an apologetic smile. He rolled his eyes and gave an annoyed grunt, muttering something under his breath. I chose to ignore this, and continued to read.

Eventually, he got up and just sort of shuffled off out of sight, leaving his luggage behind. I eyed the crate of bananas somewhat suspiciously, and decided to take advantage of his absence to move to a free bench at the other side of the lounge, where, exhausted, I curled up underneath my coat and tried to get some sleep.

I woke up to find myself staring at a gun.

This was a little unexpected. I blinked several times as I emerged from my doze, and let my eyes travel upwards to take in the uniform and face of the gun-wearer: an airport policeman who had apparently been told that I was seen talking to the Possible Terrorist who had abandoned his banana crate/box of explosives. Good grief. More than a little nervous, I explained my non-involvement, feeling the disapproval in his voice and expression, and hoping that he wasn't going to arrest me. He looked at me with what I can only describe as a sneer, and nodded tersely before turning and walking away to deal with the bananas. Sleep was impossible from then on.

And that was Berlin. It was... an experience.

I note from my blog stats that I have some readers in Germany. I wish to make it clear that I have nothing against Germans - especially the ones who read my blog! Please don't hate me. I'm simply reporting an experience. For all I know, they thought I was the rude one...

Gross rental yields of 10% can be attained in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital but there are high transaction costs on purchase.

Gross rental yields are 8% in Bucharest, Romania, and again there is no capital gains tax.

Property prices are fairly low in Budapest but Hungary’s economic growth is weak.

Estonia has emerged as the strong eastern European country with staggering property prices – a huge 246% in the last 5 years. However, property is becoming more costly.

Despite the positives mentioned above, the Ukraine and Russia have many drawbacks which make them unattractive overseas investments. In particular, Russia has an uncertain political environment and can be considered as very expensive. However, solid economic growth could make it appealing for some investors.could be seen as a solid overseas investment. Property is reasonably priced, the economic growth is strong, there is no capital gains tax on long term property holdings and rental income tax is low. The stream of investment money into the country implies that economic growth will continue strong and reform will remain on course.

Gross rental yields of 10% can be attained in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital but there are high transaction costs on purchase.

Gross rental yields are 8% in Bucharest, Romania, and again there is no capital gains tax.

Property prices are fairly low in Budapest but Hungary’s economic growth is weak.

Estonia has emerged as the strong eastern European country with staggering property prices – a huge 246% in the last 5 years. However, property is becoming more costly.

Despite the positives mentioned above, the Ukraine and Russia have many drawbacks which make them unattractive overseas investments. In particular, Russia has an uncertain political environment and can be considered as very expensive. However, solid economic growth could make it appealing for some investors.

Julia Kovaljova

Pactul Ribbentrop- Molotov a lovit deopotrivă Estonia, Letonia, Lituania şi România. Consecinţele pactului Ribbentrop- Molotov au fost anulate pe plan internaţional de jure numai pentru Estonia, Letonia, Lituania. Dar nu  şi pentru România. Provinciile istorice răpite de pactul Ribbentrop- Molotov României au fost date Ucrainei. Fără îndoială, toată lumea ştie, atât oamenii de cultură români, cât şi superputerile SUA, Rusia şi  UE care girează acest statu quo postbelic, faptul că nu  există metodă de a  ţine încopciată dinăuntru alcătuirea pseudo-statală Ucraina, în afară de ‘politica toporului la brâu’ practicată de Kiev, pe care UE, SUA şi Rusia o susţin tacit. Diplomaţii şi oamenii politici români, scriitorii şi ziariştii români, trebuie să explice în permanenţă colegilor din SUA, Rusia  şi UE, problema foarte gravă a pactului Ribbentrop- Molotov pentru România. Există un principiu de uniformitate în dreptul internaţional. Principiul cere ca România să fie tratată la fel ca Estonia, Letonia, şi Lituania în ceea ce priveşte reversibilitatea consecinţelor pactului Ribbentrop- Molotov. Pe vremea lui Stalin ni se spunea că roata istoriei nu poate fi întoarsă. UE, SUA şi  Rusia manifestă acum cinism stalinoid faţă de România pentru că refuză să întoarcă pactul Ribbentrop- Molotov în cazul ei.  Dar ucrainenii, politicienii şi oamenii simpli, par a fi total mulţumiţi cu acest statu quo de sorginte stalinistă. Ei nu ştiu despre apocalipsa care se îndreaptă spre ei.

Extremiştii ucraineni au tras, câţiva ani în urmă, o rachetă asupra unui avion cu turişti din Israel ce veneau la staţiunile ucrainene de la Marea Neagră. Deşi foarte grav, incidentul diplomatic a fost aplanat pe tăcute. De ce au tras extremiştii din Ucraina, se pune întrebarea. După ‘Războiul de şase zile’ din Orientul Mijlociu, celebrul general israelian Moshe Dayan a dezvăluit proiectul deschiderii unui coridor levantin pe litoralul mediteranean până la Marea Neagră. Moshe Dayan exprima în clar speranţa că generaţia lui va cuceri litoralul Libanului şi al Siriei până la frontiera Turciei, rămânând ca restul să fie împlinit de generaţiile viitoare. Negustorii khazari iudaizaţi au cumpărat de la Hoarda de Aur peninsula Crimea. Fiind foarte meticuloşi, au înregistrat actele de vânzare/cumpărare la notari din peninsula Crimea. Singurii notari se aflau în cetăţi genoveze. Notarii genovezi conştiincioşi trimiteau copii ale actelor în republica mamă Genova. Astfel că în arhivele vechiului Officium Gazariae din Genova foarte probabil se păstrează acte dovedind că peninsula Crimea este proprietate evreiească. România ar putea salva preventiv Ucraina de la această apocalipsă, printr - o reconciliere istorică, în care consecinţele pactului Ribbentrop- Molotov să fie anulate. În primul rând Ucraina are interesul să rezolve amiabil şi rapid  contenciosul implicând Bucovina de Nord, Basarabia de Sud şi Insula Şerpilor. Refuzul ucrainean de a ceda drepturi legitime României va conduce la finalul inevitabil: Ucraina va dispărea de pe mapamond la viitoarea sa mare împărţire…

Când vorbim despre provincia Transnistria, trebuie să menţionăm şi  capitala sa, Odessa. “Rusul-paparus” (am citat dintr-o poezie populară a răzeşilor de la Nistru) Igor Smirnov, preşedintele facticei respublici Transnistria,  nu o revendică de la Ucraina. De ce oare ? Pentru că Igor Smirnov este rus sadea. Care ştie prea bine că Ucraina este tot Rusia, adică (mala) RUSIA.  Cum spuneam, Ucraina de jure nu există ca stat, există numai  prin politica faptului împlinit prin forţă şi prin încălcarea dreptului popoarelor, în speţă a poporului român, de la care “statul”Ucraina a furat sudul Basarabiei, nordul Bucovinei şi Insula Şerpilor.

Să reamintim aici, doar sumar, situaţia din Transnistria celui de al doilea război mondial. Unii dintre tinerii popi militari români din Transnistria, fundamentalişti ortodocşi, insuflau în slujbele lor o propagandă antislavă/antirusă/antisemită feroce, pentru care România plăteşte acum despăgubiri de 1 milion (more or less) de euro pe zi! Câţi dintre români ştiu aceasta? Câţi dintre români ştiu că primarului Craiovei, aflat pe vremuri în vizită la Odessa, i-au plăcut troleibuzele Odessei şi le-a cerut administraţiei româneşti pentru a fi instalate la Craiova. Ceea ce s-a şi întâmplat, troleibuzele Odessei fiind instalate pe traseul Gara- Parcul Romanescu din Craiova! România a fost obligată apoi de URSS să plătească greutatea lor în aur. Dar pot să jur că acel primar al Craiovei nu a fost prezent şi la opera din Odessa, --proiectată  de  aceiaşi arhitecţi care au făcut teatrul din Iaşi--, pentru a vedea spectacolul Lacul lebedelor, cu una dintre cele mai bune distribuţii care au existat vreodată ! Alături de odesseni, în  sală erau soldaţi şi ofiţeri români, adică  TTR-işti, învăţători, şi profesori în uniformă. Ştiu toate acestea de la tatăl meu.

Titus Filipas

Gertrud Levit, writing for the Baltic Business News, discusses the failure of government in Tallinn to deal with international corruption. This is somewhat surprising given that Estonia regularly scores at the top of the Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) among communist states.

Levit, quoting a report on Estonia by the TI, says:

In 2006 and 2007 not a single case of international bribery was looked into in Estonia...[and the country] doesn’t even have laws to fight international bribery.

Some of the measures to counter corruption recommended by the TI are that Estonia should...

...define the terms foreign official, giving a bribe, and enterprise liability better, once the appropriate changes to the Penal Code have reached the parliament.

Tuesday night, a group from the youngest generation of these players came to Seattle under the auspices of the Early Music Guild and Town Hall, the result of a chance hearing by a Seattle couple visiting Tallinn (the capital city) last year.

The Early Music Ensemble of Kiili ( a suburb of Tallinn) plus Estonian soprano Eve Kopli, performed a concert of “Pious and Playful” music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as part of a North American tour.

The seven musicians, aged between nine and eighteen and dressed in medieval-style costume, used recorders, violins, cello, guitar and percussion, many of them playing more than one instrument and singing as well, while solo work was undertaken by Kopli (who also played vielle), herself not much older. Heili Meibaum, director of the group and mother of two of the musicians, played flutes, percussion and recorders.

She needed to do very little direction for this group, mostly just indicating beginnings and endings for the group’s polished and stylish playing.

While several of the instruments were not authentic—the cello, violins and bows were modern—the playing style was very much in the mode,

Dance and religious music from Spain and England, Italy and Bohemia, France and the Netherlands filled the lively program.

The excellent ensemble work was instantly noticeable, as was the equally good intonation. Sophisticated, sometimes syncopated rhythms were accomplished with ease and verve; percussion instruments—tambourines, drums, bell, even a child-size xylophone—added variety and flavor.

Most astonishing was the playing of the youngest member of the group, nine-year-old cellist Marten Meibaum, whose responsibility it was to carry the bass line. While the music was not difficult per se, his secure sense of timing and tempo underpinned almost every work(other times that role was taken by the guitar).

Kopli’s soprano carried over the instruments only when singing in her higher register, and most  medieval music does not venture outside a middle range. Her voice is small but sweet and pure, appropriate to the style. Unfortunately, words were rarely audible from her or any of the others when singing. The consonants of the Estonian language are very soft, and those soft consonants carried over to singing in another language make them not easily heard from any distance.

The audience was small, due perhaps to the fine weather and vacations. It would be great to have this group back during the winter so that more could hear them, but this is when the musicians are all in school. They have a busy schedule when they are able—touring neighboring countries, performing on television and radio and at festivals.

We don’t normally get any early music concert this time of year. This one was a pleasure.

Marcelo Leal

WWW.CONSULTORDEVIAGENS.COM

"Se till att kunskapen om banden hålls inom en så snäv krets som möjligt", heter det i mejlväxlingen.

Dags nu att tvätta den smutsiga byken kring tsunamin och Estonia  ? 

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_1423663.svd

http://svd.sesam.se/search/?q=tsunamibanden&submit=Sök&c=nn&abb=svd&ss_lt=sitesearch&ss_ss=svd.se&ss_hpos=searchbox&ss_pid=svd&searchsite=svd

http://figureskate2008hb.svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=22620&a=1030043

    Vineri, Rusia și Uniunea Europeană au anunțat demararea, pe 4 iulie, a negocierilor pentru mult-așteptatul parteneriat strategic. În acest context, comisarul european pentru Relații Externe și Politică de Vecinătate Benita Ferrero-Waldner a ținut să remarce diferența dintre cei doi lideri ai Federației Ruse - Putin și Medvedev. Desigur, aceasta s-a referit în primul rând la modul acestora de a purta tratativele. Până în momentul de față, Putin s-am remarcat printr-o politică apropiată de un șantaj economic, în sensul că orice dezacord al europenilor ar fi putut fi sancționat prin închiderea robinetului de gaze. Această imagine de tiran cinic, KGB-istul și-a creat-o în rândurile unei bune părți a țărilor membre UE și nu numai (vezi Ucraina). Astfel, state precum Slovacia, Austria, Germania, Austria, Polonia, Ungaria s-au pomenit în situația de a depinde din punct de vedere energetic de un ”moft” țarist. Astăzi însă, un nou interlocutor pare să-și impună poziția. Medvedev pare să fi învățat bine lecția, astfel încât susține cu multă ardoare proiectele predecesorului său. ”South Stream (care traversează Marea Neagră) și North Stream (care traversează Marea Nordului) sunt esențiale pentru asigurarea energetică a vestului Europei, argumentează șeful de stat. Prin aceste proiecte se are în vedere ”ocolirea esticilor cu probleme politice” (o fi avut în vedere și Republica Moldova?). În primul caz, doar România și-a exprimat reticența față de inițiativă, pe când în cel de-al doilea, a fost vorba atât de statele baltice, cât și de Polonia.

În același timp, prim-ministrul Putin amenință Ucraina că va transfera pe teritoriu rusesc înaltele tehnologii și tehnologiile pentru rachete. Replica omologului său ucrainean, Timoșcenko, a fost însă una pe măsură: ”Toată lumea colaborează cu NATO, fie că este vorba despre Ucraina sau despre Rusia.” Desigur, a-ți declara orientarea evidentă pro-NATO și ”a-ți lua jucăriile acasă” denotă două moduri total opuse de colaborare, dar se prea poate că tot ”colaborare” poate fi numită.

Dacă avansăm spre nord, găsim o Polonie care este pe cale de a semna cu SUA acordul privind instalarea unei baze a scutului american anti-rachetă, după cum a declarat Zbigniew Chlebowski, șeful grupului parlamentar de guvernământ. De asemenea, Cehia - țară cu o mai veche istorie de rezistență împotriva rușilor (de ex. Evenimentele din ”Primăvara de la Praga”, în care rușii au orchestrat invazia asupra cehilor), cel mai probabil că va aproba instalarea unui radar anti-rachetă american.

În aceste condiții, ”schimbarea macazului” operată de Federația Rusă nu pare foarte surprinzătoare. Este oare posibil ca liderii acesteia să-și fi dat seama că șantajul economic practicat cu atâta cinism până acum sfidează mersul firesc al lucrurilor și aduce mai curând NATO în pole-position decât în poziția de negociator?

"Ilves recently met Medvedev, with a result that was more or less zero-sum. But the Russian president unleashed Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Duma Committee on International Affairs, to attack Estonia (and Latvia). The usual story: discrimination against Russian minority; attempts to falsify history; fascists.

Then Ilves participated in the 5th World Congress of Finno-ugric Peoples, 28.06.08, in Khanty-Mansiysk. He gave a speech - see below -, in English. First there was furious criticism: why was the speech in English and not the Estonian president's own national language? Very simple – the Russians, as usual afraid of Ilves and Estonians, indicated that no translation from Estonian into Russian would be available. Simple: let him talk in gobledegook; no one will understand.

English, however, is understood. The contents of the speech made the Russians spit blood. They claim that it basically incites Finno-Ugric peoples to seek independence.

Then today, in the ongoing World Congress Kosachev (after already having attacked Estonia the evening before at a press conference) rides again. Takes the floor and says that much was said some time ago about the beating up of a Mari national representative. But what about Estonia using violence against innocent people as happened during the Bronze Night when one person was also killed, the investigation about this having been inconclusive.

Then Ilves and the Estonian delegation stood up and left the conference hall. (Reportedly, some time later, also the Finnish and Hungarian presidents left)."

President of the Republic of Estonia at the 5th World Congress of Finno-ugric Peoples28.06.2008

June 28th, 2008 in Khanty-Mansiysk

No one is so smart as to dream up a detailed plan of social development in a way that it is immutable. True, that kind of planning has been tried repeatedly throughout history, and although always unsuccessfully, it will probably be tried again.

A plan is good, when its sustainability, the correctness of its chosen path is checked every day, when it is open to criticism and to change. This is the way free and democratic societies function, where those elected must ask the voter every day: am I doing the right thing? Am I going in the right direction, are my decisions understandable, do they satisfy you? This principle works just as well for communities smaller than the nation-state as well as for ones that are larger, such as international organizations.

Daily checks of our goals are also healthy for the world-wide finno-ugric community. And even if the questions might be unpleasant and the answers horrible. Without an internal audit it’s always even worse. Speaking here today I have to admit I do not have prepared answers for all finno-ugric peoples. I have my own personal answers, my own notions, my own preferences. Our joint answers can come only out of joint efforts, from co-operation.

So what is the big idea in finno-ugric common efforts? Are language and a language tree of people’s relatedness drawn long ago in the past enough to be the altar tryptich we bow down to? Is this enough to confirm our faith and provide the cement for remaining true to ourselves everywhere and for everyone? Can they be the inexhaustible source of pride?

Indeed, alongside the finno-ugric people, the indo-european, turkish-tatar, and other linguistic groups hold no language-centered world congresses to speak of. This is a solely Finno-Ugric distinction.

Language, and the preservation and development of languages, are truly important. But this can only occur successfully when we are engaged not in a narrow philological activity or garnishing for avcational ethnography, but a socially encompassing, in other words political, theme.

The three largest finno-ugric peoples have experience with this. After all, in the European Union, the supra-national organization to which Estonia, Finland, and Hungary belong, linguistic diversity, protection of languages and ensuring one’s ability to employ them at all official levels have been treated by all member nations as a political matter they have closely followedd.

The European Union umbrella has given the Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian languages new guarantees they have never before possessed in their history. In no other continent exist such guarantees or no other international entity takes the health of languages as seriously.

We might thus ask: how can we put all finno-ugric languages under European Union protection to ensure their preservation and development?

In what I have said I have already drawn a line between those finno-ugric peoples who are in the EU and the rest, who aren’t. This distinction raises an important question. Do we draw any distinctions among finno-ugric peoples? Belonging to the EU as countries can be used merely as a formal distinction without implying judgement.

But there are also dangerous emotional, evaluative differences that may not be conducive to cooperation.

Should we and can we even classify our peoples as developed and undeveloped? As bigger and smaller brothers? As native and non-native? As those peoples with a written culture and those without one?

These are vague measures whose use won’t really lead anywhere, though it may boost some egos and sink others. They would seem to imply that some are given more rights and duties while others are freed of responsibility.

Consider indigenousness. Both Estonians and Finns consider themselves quite indigenous to their homes; Estonians have been tilling their fields on the shores of the Baltic for about 5000 years.

Yet we are not indigenous peoples in international parlance. Whenever business suit and cologne-wearing gentlemen in far off palaces and halls of government start talking about the worries of “indigenous peoples”, I always get the feeling that this talk is not fully sincere, but a myopic attempt to secure for the evening entertainment festooned in ethnic costume.

And “valuing indigenous cultures” is nothing but political cover to ensure market success for this branch of the entertainment industry. Or perhaps a belated apology and simulated activity to make good upon previous mistakes and maybe even crimes.

At the same time, if a still stateless people declares its indigenousness to be its sole remarkable characteristic, it thereby conveys a message that, in today’s world, calls upon others to bear responsibility for it. Presumably because of some historic injustice, as such a declaration always has a price tag attached.

If, however, we draw no distinctions, and do not create artificial or emotional divides among ourselves, cooperation will come to rest upon a strong foundation, upon common values. Hungarians, Finns and Estonians have chosen so-called European values, which today manifest themselves in the use of liberal democracy to order society.

Ask yourselves: does this choice necessarily presume an independent state? No it doesn’t. Back when these societies chose to be European, they had no states of their own and Europe, too, was very different from what it is today.

But freedom and democracy also make for good rules of the game in non-state structures. Freedom and democracy were our choice 150 years ago, when not even the poets dreamt of an Estonian state.

Many finno-ugric peoples have yet to make this choice. As a small aside it bears mentioning, particularly in light of the example of Estonia, that once you have tasted freedom, you will realize how much of it is sacrificied in the name of surviving or just ‘getting by’.

The European Union’s critics claim that Estonia, along with Finland and Hungary, have given away part of their sovereignty, their right to make free and independent choices. But, as detailed above, linguistic-cultural guarantees give back to us every day many times what we have given up.

Precisely through the European Union have the finno-ugric languages for the first time in their history developed a truly global reach. Our language rings in the meeting rooms of Brussels and Strasbourg, as I have myself repeatedly witnessed in my previous position as a member of European Parliament.

Here, in Khanty-Mansiysk, which borders Europe’s eastern geographic boundary, it may seem a bit odd to speak of Europe, the European Union, and European values. But still – freedom and democracy are universal values that acknowledge neither national nor geographic borders.

Europe’s understanding of diversity as a value applies to, and must apply to, everyone. Every individual, people, and culture is part of a global balance, an ecological balance, if you will. If one part, however small, is taken out of the system, lost, or extinguished, nobody can predict what kind of catastrophe this might bring about somewhere else.

It is said that the flapping wings of a butterfly can cause a hurricane. The finno-ugric people may indeed be small butterflies among all of humanity, but it is a concern for all of humanity to ensure that these butterflies not flap their wings in the wrong place the wrong time, in a way that might be fatal to those much larger than the butterflies.

The Czech writer Milan Kundera, writing in French, has an essay with a German title, Die Weltliteratur, („Global literature“ in English) in which he writes:

Small peoples differ from large nations not only on quantitative criteria, but also in something deeper. For small peoples existence is not self-evident, an indisputable fact, but a permanent question, a wager, a risk; they are always in a defensive position face to face with History, a force greater than they, which does not take them into account, which does not even notice them.

Kundera goes on to ask what would be the case if the icelandic Sagas had been written not in icelandic, a nation of 300 thousand, but in English.

Quote: „The names of the heroes in the Sagas would be as familiar to us as Tristan or don Quijote. Their esthetic particulars, their chronology and their imaginative intermediaries would have provoked all kinds of theories, people would have argued whether or not to consider them the first European novels.“

Most importantly, argues Kundera, they would have influenced living literature through the ages. But they did not, because there are too few icelanders. But does this mean that they are worth less? That in the pantheon of great creations of the human imagination, that they are of any lesser stature than the creations of large nations. To the contrary, even the smallest peoples can create the greatest literature.

This is why the ecology of cultures and peoples is an issue for all mankind. This is why the European Union cares.

The utility of global balance is well understood in the European Union. If the finno-ugric question has taken on a powerfully international dimension anywhere, it is there. The finno-ugric question has become an inexorable issue on the agenda of partnership talks between the European Union and Russia. Recently, the European Union appropriated 2.5 million Euros for the support of native peoples in Russia.

The European Union and its members are the motor that has driven the harmonization of protections for minority rights in Europe. And, we might now ask, would finno-ugric concerns be on the European agenda if Hungary, Finland, and Estonia were not members of the Union? Hardly. And herein lies the answer to why European values are also useful east of the Urals.

Much is happening on the field of Finno-ugria, of which account has been given and will be given during this Congress.

This is an opportunity primarily for governments, but also for civic organizations and every citizen.

I do not wish to deprive anyone of the joy of telling us what praiseworthy work he has done and intends to do henceforth. Nevertheless, let me emphasize that the more multifaceted the underlying basis of our cooperation, the more securely it rests on common basic values, the more assuredly the finno-ugric wagon will roll in the right direction.

As a start, freedom and democracy, and by extension Europe, are not at all bad basic values. And, to be honest, there’s really no alternative.

Anyway. With this in mind, I don't know what possessed me to opt for the south of France as my chosen destination for the month of July.

I'm actually having panic attacks about it, as I sit once again in a sea of unpacked clothes and general disorganisation. Tallinn has been pretty hot, but temperatures have never gone above what I might reasonably be expected to endure in Northern Ireland. It distresses me terribly, therefore, to observe that the temperature upon my arrival in Lyon promises to be 32°C.

There's only one thing for it, I decided yesterday, as I returned from a mild stroll in even milder temperatures and spent ten minutes gulping down water and pushing sweat-soaked locks of Mad Hair out of my eyes, the Mad Hair has got to go. And so it was that this afternoon I located an English-speaking hairdresser's salon and marched resolutely towards it. Having less hair on my head is, let's face it, probably my only hope of survival in 32°C. All intentions of growing it into a chic, sleek bob have been abandoned: this is an emergency situation, and it is time to return to the insane spikey look. It is a matter of life and death.

Alas! I am too late, for the hairdresser had no appointments available today. I leave tomorrow morning, with the hair equivalent of a 15-tog duvet on my head.

Woe is me. Woe.

Did Hitler’s crimes justify the Allies’ terror-bombing of Germany?

Indeed they did, answers Christopher Hitchens in his Newsweek response to my new book, “Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War“: “The stark evidence of the Final Solution has ever since been enough to dispel most doubts about, say, the wisdom or morality of carpet-bombing German cities.”

Atheist, Trotskyite and newborn neocon, Hitchens embraces the morality of lex talionis: an eye for an eye. If Germans murdered women and children, the British were morally justified in killing German women and children.

According to British historians, however, Churchill ordered the initial bombing of German cities on his first day in office, the very first day of the Battle of France, on May 10, 1940.

After the fall of France, Churchill wrote Lord Beaverbrook, minister of air production: “When I look round to see how we can win the war, I see that there is only one sure path … an absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland.”

“Exterminating attack,” said Churchill. By late 1940, writes historian Paul Johnson, “British bombers were being used on a great and increasing scale to kill and frighten the German civilian population in their homes.”

“The adoption of terror bombing was a measure of Britain’s desperation,” writes Johnson. “So far as air strategy was concerned,” adds British historian A.J.P. Taylor, “the British outdid German frightfulness first in theory, later in practice, and a nation which claimed to be fighting for a moral cause gloried in the extent of its immoral acts.”

The chronology is crucial to Hitchens’ case.

Late 1940 was a full year before the mass deportations from the Polish ghettos to Treblinka and Sobibor began. Churchill had ordered the indiscriminate bombing of German cities and civilians before the Nazis had begun to execute the Final Solution.

By Hitchens’ morality and logic, Germans at Nuremberg might have asserted a right to kill women and children because that is what the British were doing to their women and children.

After the fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945, Churchill memoed his air chiefs: “It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed.”

Churchill concedes here what the British had been about in Dresden.

Under Christian and just-war theory, the deliberate killing of civilians in wartime is forbidden. Nazis were hanged for such war crimes.

Did the Allies commit acts of war for which we hanged Germans?

When we recall that Josef Stalin’s judges sat beside American and British judges at Nuremberg, and one of the prosecutors there was Andrei Vishinsky, chief prosecutor in Stalin’s show trails, the answer has to be yes.

While Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were surely guilty of waging aggressive war in September 1939, Stalin and his comrades had joined the Nazis in the rape of Poland, and had raped Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, as well. Scores of thousands of civilians in the three Baltic countries were murdered.

Yet, at Nuremberg, Soviets sat in judgment of their Nazi accomplices, and had the temerity to accuse the Nazis of the Katyn Forest massacre of the Polish officer corps that the Soviets themselves had committed.

Americans fought alongside British soldiers in a just and moral war from 1941 to 1945. But we had as allies a Bolshevik monster whose hands dripped with the blood of millions of innocents murdered in peacetime. And to have Stalin’s judges sit beside Americans at Nuremberg gave those trials an aspect of hypocrisy that can never be erased.

At Nuremberg, Adm. Erich Raeder was sentenced to prison for life for the invasion of neutral Norway. Yet Raeder’s ships arrived 24 hours before British ships and marines of an operation championed by Winston Churchill.

The British had planned to violate Norwegian neutrality first and seize Norwegian ports to deny Germany access to the Swedish iron ore being transshipped through them. For succeeding where Churchill failed, Raeder was condemned as a war criminal and sent to prison.

The London Charter of the International Military Tribunal decided that at Nuremberg only the crimes of Axis powers would be prosecuted and that among those crimes would be a newly invented “crimes against humanity.” This decree was issued Aug. 8, 1945, 48 hours after we dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima and 24 hours before we dropped the second on Nagasaki.

We and the British judiciously decided not to prosecute the Nazis for the bombing of London and Coventry.

It was an understandable decision, and one that surely Gen. Curtis LeMay concurred in, as LeMay had boasted at war’s end, “We scorched and boiled and baked to death more people in Tokyo that night of March 9-10 than went up in vapor in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.”

After the war, a lone Senate voice arose to decry what was taking place at Nuremberg as “victor’s justice.” Ten years later, a young colleague would declare the late Robert A. Taft “A Profile in Courage” for having spoken up against ex post facto justice. The young senator was John F. Kennedy.

Stiff Right Jab contributor, Pat Buchanan, is America’s leading populist conservative, was a senior advisor to three American Presidents, ran twice for the Republican nomination in 1992 and 1996, and was the Reform Party’s Presidential candidate in 2000. The author of eight books, including the mega-bestsellers, The Death of the West and Where the Right Went Wrong, as well as other bestsellers. Mr. Buchanan is a syndicated columnist, a political analyst for MSNBC, and a founding member of three of America’s foremost public affairs shows. He is also Editor Emeritus of The American Conservative..

Stiff Right Jab invites you to visit Buchanan.org to get your copy of Pat’s great new book, Churchill, Hitler, and The Unnecessary War.

The cheesy handwave isn't meant to be cheesy; it's actually there for contrast, i.e. normal skin colour vs. current facial skin colour. The really disturbing thing about it is that this roasting happened only a couple of days after my blog post about my previous painful experiences with the sun.

:::sigh:::

Anyway, yesterday I took the advice of Foreigner and went on a little daytrip to Pärnu - Estonia's "Summer City". It is, as she suggested, a beautiful place, and I was particularly taken with the beach. Warm, white sand, sparklingly clear water, beach cafés and bars, volleyball nets, playground games, music... it was an ideal place to relax after, erm, a couple of days of work (you have to ease yourself back into these things). I lay on the sand for a few hours, just appreciating life, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on my face, and trailing my fingers lazily through the fine sand.

I was woken from my half-doze by a little boy who had been playing nearby. He said something to me, and I shook my head. Ma ei räägi eesti keelt. He repeated his babbling, and I shrugged helplessly, prompting him to look at his babysitter, a girl of around my age, in some confusion. She spoke to him at length, evidently explaining our language barrier in greater detail than my five words would allow. He did not appear to understand, and continued to attempt to communicate with me. Eventually I realised that I had absent-mindedly been digging a small hole in the sand as I trailed my fingers through it. Small Boy was interested in my project, and suddenly arrived at my side with two plastic spades, one of which he offered to me.

Erm... aitäh! I said as I accepted it in some amusement, watching as he began to dig in quite a purposeful manner. He kept looking at me and babbling quite sternly, so I meekly obeyed and joined him in some serious digging. Small Boy communicated with me in short phrases and hand gestures, having apparently concluded that my lack of speech meant that I was some sort of slightly stupid overgrown child.

Before long, we had a very deep Hole In The Sand, which we surveyed with satisfaction. Small Boy was saying something about which he was clearly quite excited, but I could not understand him. Frustrated, he turned to his babysitter, who was grinning. Ah, yes... she said to me, in halting English, he asks if you do not mind to be... ah... She, too, began the odd hand gestures, apparently having difficulty finding the right word. I watched helplessly as the pair of them mimed something utterly ridiculous, until eventually the babysitter indicated the Hole In The Sand and added ...to be under it?

Excellent. Small Boy wanted to bury me on the beach. It was like one of my worst nightmares coming true, and I was powerless to stop it for fear of making him cry or something. Helplessly, I got into the Hole In The Sand, and Small Boy began to shovel sand around me in delight. The Babysitter looked increasingly overcome with mirth, and did nothing to change what was happening to me at the hands of her charge.

I had to stay in the hole for at least 15 minutes before he got bored and dug me out. I'll probably have nightmares about it for many years to come.