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EESTI ELU reedel, 20. märtsil 2020 — Friday, March 20, 2020
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Innovation Supper Club holds Estonia-themed Dinner at Tartu College Juku Gold On the evening of Tuesday, March 10, The Innovation Supper Club of Toronto hosted an intimate Estonianthemed dinnerside event, focused on Estonia’s digital society and how the government, start-ups and corporate businesses have embraced all things digital. Estonia’s digital story was shared by Peter Poolsaar, an experienced tech consultant and entrepreneur-in-residence at RLabs. Peter also played a lead role in organising the first-ever Estonian-Canadian tech con ference Latitude44, held in Toronto in November 2019.
Dinner was provided by Suzi Holmberg Catering.
The virus of fear Ian Buruma, Estonian World, March 2020 The panic that often occurs during a health crisis or in the aftermath of a natural disaster can – and has – led to spasms of irrational violence; the lack of truthful public information can lead to conspiracy theories, which be come lethal when politicians or the media deliberately stir them up, writes Ian Buruma, a Dutch writer and editor. In September 1923, the Great Kanto earthquake devas tated large parts of Tokyo, mostly owing to firestorms. Rumours spread, and were often repeated in the main stream press, accusing Koreans, a despised and poor minority, of planning to take advantage of the disaster by starting a violent rebellion. Japanese vigilantes, armed with swords, bamboo spears and even guns, then set upon anyone who sounded or looked Korean. Up to 6,000 people were murdered as police looked on and sometimes took part. This was not some uniquely Japanese phenomenon. Mobs massacring unpopular minori ties remain all too common. When Hindus started killing Muslims in Delhi recently, the Indian police were as passive, or as culpable, as the Japanese authorities were in 1923. One need not go far back in Euro
Peter spoke to Estonia’s re markable turnaround from im poverished post-Soviet state in the early 1990s to a modern tech-hub and recognised global leader in various innovative areas, from e-governance, to start-up culture, to education, to cybersecurity. Particular focus was on Estonia’s culture of transparency around its innova tion and digitalisation, includ ing the national data exchange layer X-Road, which underpins Estonians’ everyday digital ser vices and has now expanded in some areas to Finland – for example, with respect to digital healthcare and medical pre scriptions. Security risks asso ciated with increased digitalisa tion were also raised, as well as core concerns about trust, pri vacy and integrity of citizens’ data. Audience members asked pointed and informed questions, including on how Estonia’s many innovations, and digital society writ large, might be replicable in Canada. The event’s Estonian charac ter was greatly enriched by a delicious multi-course traditional spread by renowned EstonianCanadian chef Susi Holmberg. Appetizers included fried meat and mushroom pastries (piru kad) and traditional fried garlic bread bites (küüslauguleivad). The tableside menu began cold,
with classic including cucumber salad, beet-potato-apple-based rosolje salad, veal and meat stock aspic jelly (sült), various fishes, and Estonian bread (leib). Then came generous helpings of warm food, including juicy and tender pork, baked potatoes that were somehow (and un characteristically) richly flavour ful, and a delicious sauerkraut (hapukapsas) – that was so good as to compete with this author’s ema’s/mom’s recipe! Dinner was helped down by a range of drinks, including a tasty sea-buckthorn (astelpaju) and vodka shot.
pean or American history to find similar, or even worse, cases of lynching and mass murder.
calling for concentration camps for refugees to protect the population from infection. And then there is US Presi dent Donald Trump. His main worry is that panic about COVID-19 will hurt the stock markets. So, the first thing he did was to accuse his political opponents of “politicising” the epidemic. This clearly is not the best way to keep the public properly informed, and it pro vides a solid basis for con spiracy theories. Trump’s son Donald, Jr went further, and proclaimed that Democrats were hoping the disease would kill millions of people just to drag his father down. Tom Cotton, a Republican US Sena tor from Arkansas and a pos sible future presidential can didate, repeated debunked speculation that the Chinese government had manufactured COVID-19 as a bioweapon.
Lack of truthful public information can lead to lethal conspiracy theories Irrational violence often arises from panic. And panic can easily occur during a health crisis or in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Lack of truthful public information can lead to conspiracy theories, which be come lethal when politicians or the media deliberately stir them up. In Japan in 1923, the minis try of home affairs told police men to watch out for Koreans who seemed to be looking for trouble. In Delhi, a local politi cian of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Kapil Mishra, incited people to violence by promising to send in mobs to break up a peaceful Muslim protest if the police didn’t crack down hard first. Could the current panic about the new coronavirus, COVID-19, have similar con sequences? Fortunately, there have been no massacres so far. But the behaviour of some poli ticians has been disturbing, to say the least. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, the far-right opposition leader, said that migrants were a threat to the country as carriers of the virus, and criticised the government for rescuing a num ber of African refugees. Rightwing nationalists in Greece are
The Innovation Supper Club offers the innovation commu nity in Toronto, as well as other Canadian cities, a chance to come together in smaller groups with some of Canada’s best and brightest to share stories, make connections and hear from an inspiring speaker making change happen. Its founder, and the or ganiser of Tuesday’s event, is Iain Montgomery – who is also the founder of Now or Never Ventures. Those interested in further information about In novation Supper Club events are invited to visit the website, here: https://www.innovation supperclub.com/. The event was also supported by Tartu College.
The damage is already done Such absurdities are some times softened a little when they cause too much of a public outcry. But the damage is al ready done. A friend in New York observed last week how a large white male accosted two Asian-looking women, telling them he hoped the coronavirus would kill them, “just like we did to your people in Hiro shima”. This man was clearly un hinged. One would hope that most Americans, including most white male Americans, would
Peter Poolsaar and Iain Montgomery
Piret Noorhani, Kia Puhm and Juku Gold
be appalled by such behaviour. The problem is that when wellknown senators and other high officials start peddling malicious conspiracy theories, unhinged people feel permitted to say and do things they might normally not. It doesn’t take many un hinged people to form a violent mob. This is why it is wrong to dismiss people who go on murder sprees in the name of a racial, political, or religious ideology as simply mad loners. Figures like Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011 as part of his war to save the West from Marxists, multiculturalists and Muslims, may indeed be lone operators. But the people who spread conspiracy theories that inflame the minds of such killers bear at least some re sponsibility. The same goes for Muslim extremists who call for a holy war on wicked infidels, or politicians who claim that re fugees carrying terrible diseases are threatening their countries.
the fight against the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence, is sceptical about science.
Science, not prayers, will be needed to contain a disease
People learn something every day, and a lot of times it’s that what they learned the day before was wrong. Bill Vaughan
COVID-19 is a threat, like all illnesses that can lead to pandemics. And yet Trump tried to slash the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has not replaced the National Security Council teams responsible for pandemic response. The president and his supporters don’t trust experts, and the man appointed to lead
But science, not prayers, will be needed to contain a disease that threatens the globe. Build ing big walls or pushing people into concentration camps, apart from being inhumane, are not effective remedies. And using the crisis to incite hatred could have deadly consequences. What is needed is expertise, international cooperation and words from our political leaders that seek to calm fears. Un fortunately, in too many parts of the world, we are seeing the exact opposite.
Quotes Friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway. Greg Tamblyn Don’t be so humble – you are not that great. Golda Meir Education is a progressive dis covery of our own ignorance. Will Durant
The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.
Haruki Murakami
I go to school, but I never learn what I want to know.
Bill Watterson
