Nr. 11
EESTI ELU reedel, 20. märtsil 2020 — Friday, March 20, 2020
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Opinion
The Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in Ottawa is looking to hire a SECRETARY (to replace a temporarily absent employee) We can offer you interesting work involving extensive communication at Estonia’s foreign representation in Canada.
When will the Chinese government be held accountable for the spread of coronavirus? Marcus Kolga: Canada will have to work with our allies to assess the Chinese government’s responsibility when it comes to the spread of coronavirus and to ensure that they are held to account where appropriate
Main tasks:
Marcus Kolga
The main tasks of the secretary are to coordinate the administrative work of the embassy and to assist the ambassador.
March 17, 2020
This involves office management, drafting and formalising official letters and documents, monitoring the ambassador’s schedule, arranging meetings, serving clients, answering phone calls, financial assistant tasks, consular work, culture and information tasks, managing the website, supporting the organisation of embassy events, translation work and archiving.
On Sunday night, the two remaining Democratic Pres i dential candidates, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, entered a sparse CNN studio for a oneon-one debate, in which the venue, context, and substan ces were all unsurprisingly hijacked by the coronavirus pandemic. Among the top issues were how millions of Americans would endure economic stresses caused by the outbreak and what the United States government should do to overcome it, especially with the projected costs running into the trillions of dollars. One of the debate’s most interesting moments came when CNN reporter Dana Bash asked the two candidates: “What con sequences should China face for its role in this global crisis?” Responsibility is exactly what the Chinese Communist Party government has been avoiding since the initial outbreak in Wuhan. Most notably, Dr. Li Wenliang raised concerns about the virus in December and was in turn detained by Chinese authorities and forced to sign a confession of making “false comments” and disturbing “the social order.” The virus would eventually take his life in Feb ruary. While Bernie Sanders might be forgiven for naively blurting out that “now is the time to be working with China,” the Chi nese government has offered little evidence to suggest that
You are a suitable candidate if you: • have secondary education (preferably vocational secondary education linked to the area of activity); • speak good Estonian and English (French would also be of benefit); • are precise and correct in matters related to office management, have a sense of duty, are willing to cooperate and able to learn, have good communication skills and are friendly; • are aware of protocol and etiquette; • have good general knowledge of both Estonia and Canada; and • have previous experience as a secretary or assistant. To apply for the position, e-mail your CV (in Estonian or English) and a letter of motivation indicating your desired salary to the Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in Ottawa at embassy.ottawa@mfa.ee. The deadline for applications is 5 April 2020. Any questions regarding the position should be e-mailed to Embassy.Ottawa@mfa.ee. Start date: Immediately Location: 260 Dalhousie Street, Ottawa Employment type: Fixed-term employment contract in accordance with Canadian law The Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in Ottawa does not mediate activities related to the registration of residence and employment and does not cover living costs.
Estonia not issuing Schengen visas, 14-day quarantine when entering country BNS, ERR News, March 2020 Under the Estonian state’s emergency measures dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Estonia has temporarily stopped issuing Schengen visas under new border controls which came into effect on Tuesday, March 17, Baltic News Service reports. All those entering Estonia will also have to under go a 14-day quarantine period during which they must remain at home and not have direct contact with any other indivi duals. Quarantine details The quarantine measures mean it is unlawful for those so placed to leave their place of residence or permanent place of stay during that two week period which follows arrival in the country, though exceptions may be granted by permission of a Police and Border Guard (PPA) official or a health worker, and in the event of an emergency threatening life or well-being. The same applies to those staying in the same premises – in other words these need to remain in quarantine, according to the interior ministry’s site LINK. “I suggest that isolated people communicate with their friends and acquaintances by phone or online and ask them to bring them necessary items. It
is important to remember that the person bringing the goods must not have any physical con tact with those in isolation. The situation is inconvenient but I ask for people’s understanding. It is important to isolate people with symptoms as this way we can reduce the possibility of further infections,” the Minister of the Interior, Mart Helme, said, according to the ministry’s website. In cases of serious symptoms upon arrival in Estonia or later, individuals will be hospitalized. Schengen visa details Due to the coronavirus out break and pursuant to the government’s order, the Mi nistry of Foreign Affairs is tem porarily suspending accepting applications for Schengen visas and Estonian long-stay visas at Estonian representations and visa centers. This also applies for visa applications handled by Estonia on behalf of other member states, according to BNS. Visas that have already been issued, even if currently valid, will not grant passengers entry to Estonia during the emer gency situation. A visa application can how ever be lodged under exceptional circumstances for humanitarian reasons, such as an illness or funeral of next of kin, transport of goods or raw materials, pro vision of services for resolving
health-related or other emergen cies, and for those whose parent, child or spouse is a citizen of Estonia or a has a residence permit or permanent right of residence. From Tuesday, March 17, only citizens of Estonia and holders of an Estonian residen cy permit or right of residence can enter the country, as well as foreign citizens who are not exhibiting coronavirus symp toms and whose parents, grand parents, children, grandchildren, or spouse are a citizen of Esto nia or a residence permit or ID card holder. Foreign nationals working in Estonia with a visa, or visa-free (i.e. require no visa) will not be allowed to return to Estonia af ter 17 March. In case they are already in Estonia, they can re main here or leave the country, if they wish so, the interior ministry says on its website. Exceptions to Estonia entry restrictions The above restrictions do not
closer cooperation would lead to a solution. Conversely, Bei jing’s mishandling and negli gence has directly enabled the spread of this pandemic. China’s primary motivation throughout has been to avoid any responsibility or account ability by deflecting blame and suppressing criticism since day one. So effective has the Chinese campaign been that even foreign governments (in cluding here in Canada) have remained largely silent about China’s role. The instinct of any totalitarian state like China is to cover up anything that might require them to take responsi bility. During the initial coronavirus outbreak, authorities in Wuhan stated that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” Yet, as first noted in a January study in The Lancet, more than a third of patients had no connections to the Wuhan food market, and people started to become ill weeks before the government would admit. But the obfuscation goes deeper. Instead of informing its own people and the world about the threat early on, the Chinese government contributed directly to the global pandemic we face today through politically moti vated manipulation and active disinformation. By lying about the virus’s initial spread, includ ing by not acknowledging hu man-to-human transmission when it was quite clearly happening, and by prioritizing political stability over human
apply to diplomats and foreign nationals arriving in Estonia in the framework of international military cooperation. Foreign nationals are current ly permitted to transit through Estonia on their way to their home country if they do not ex hibit symptoms of COVID-19. Travel outside Estonia While exit from Estonia is ongoing, the interior ministry points out that this might com plicate later return as well as running the risk of being placed in quarantine in the country of arrival. “We ask people to remain in Estonia and not to travel. When going to another country, people may remain in a quarantine area and returning home may be highly difficult or even impos sible,” the interior minister said on the ministry’s website. The measures are valid until the order is changed and the need for them will be reviewed every two weeks the latest.
health, China’s actions directly led to the massive spread of the virus. The first case of the virus likely occurred in mid-Novem ber, 2019. While identifying a novel virus of course takes time, Taiwan identified the out break and banned flights from Hubei before the end of 2019. By comparison, before China finally acknowledged the gra vity of the situation in late January, some five million people left Hubei, allowing the disease to spread throughout China and the world. To put a finer point on this: had China acted when Taiwan took action (when it was al ready apparent that a crisis was upon Wuhan), the spread of the virus could have been reduced by some 95 per cent. While it is also true that many Western countries are failing in tragic fashion, thousands of lives, in China and around the world, would have been saved had China put aside its politics and acted swiftly. Chinese authorities had this information and data but re fused to release it in a timely manner, instead preferring an ever-changing narrative about the outbreak that made medical assessments on the coronavirus and its impact very difficult. Crucial weeks were lost that could have helped to contain the country-wide and later global spread of this virus. Most recently, Chinese government propagandists have promoted a bizarre story about the outbreak in Wuhan being caused by the United States Army. This latest conspiracy, reported by Eto Buziashvili of the Atlantic Council, is seeming ly inspired by the KGB’s Operation Infektion from the 1980s, which involved the KGB planting a story in a pro-Krem lin newspaper in India where it was claimed that HIV/AIDS was developed in a CIA labora tory in Fort Detrick, Maryland. The Russian disinformation campaign eventually metasta sized within the U.S. media en vironment, eventually reaching mainstream U.S. national news in 1983. Buziashvili reports that sto ries about the U.S. army intro ducing coronavirus in Wuhan were planted on pro-Kremlin platforms in January, and have since spread to fringe western pro-totalitarian conspiracy theory platforms, including one based in Montreal. Those stories have since been amplified by Chinese government officials, including Zhao Lijian (the de puty director of Foreign Ministry Information Depart ment) who posted it on Twitter, and further promoted by the (Continued on page 10)
