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Dem a loot Man, that USA. Home of the blues, jazz and r-and-b. All influenced, composed and recorded by those whose fore bears were forcibly brought from Africa in the interest of capitalism. Slavery is the worst legacy of the country, one that to this day is still seen by some as the bastion of opportunity and freedom. As events in our emancipated age have shown, equality is still a myth. But then again, what do you expect from a nation that brought us Mickey D’s, Wal mart and social media? All the cultural accomplishments, be yond the musical ones noted, are tarnished by the greed of the privileged. And the land of the free has done a lot of good, even though its lustre has been tarnished greatly by bankers and politicians. Music, though, is what keeps this heart pump ing happily and the body slender. The slimster usually avoids politics like the plague. Whoops, we are living in infected times, are we not? Beyond politics, that is. It is with chagrin that we have to view the uprisings, yet again, south of the border. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
EESTI ELU reedel, 5. juunil 2020 — Friday, June 5, 2020
Violence is not the answer. Nor is answering that with the threat of more, backed by the state. But the oppressed do not stay down, for a reason. No wonder then, that the mind went to the Jimmy Cliff classic movie “The Harder They Come” and its timeless soundtrack. The lean one dug it up, having a choice of three various formats – vinyl, cassette (only for personal use) and CD. The movie, while no great shakes technically, is honest, a true representation of poor Jamaicans. Many remember the original Rodney riots – not in Los Angeles and beyond, associated with a man whose last name was King – but in Kingston, Jamaica, October 1968. The Rodney there was the last name of a professor (first name Walter) who was banned from teaching at a university there. The riots inspired the 1970 Black Power Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago. The work of an American minister, also ironically named King had an impact. But ‘nuff history, look it up yourself, but do listen to Jimmy Cliff on YouTube if you so wish. For the comparison, 50+ years later, is chilling. Beyond the meaning of the title track,
The Moscow Olympic Games changed the face of Tallinn forever the next day the Olympic flame was formally received in the In Tallinn, there are still Town Hall Square,” said archi prominent reminders of de tectural historian Karin Hallasvelopments made to host the Murula. “And I have a personal sailing disciplines of the 1980 memory working at the Moscow Olympics. The city Ministry of Culture as a young received 200 million rubles in girl. I was the one who held the addition to the budget to plate with scissors and I re create the Tallinn Olympic member there were two pairs of Yachting Center. scissors just in case. And that’s After the decision was made exactly what happened, the first that the sailing disciplines of pair just wouldn’t cut through.” the Moscow Olympic Games in The budget also allowed for 1980 were to be held in Pirita, plenty of elegant restaurants, projects were immidiately de cultural objects, and museums veloped to make the city a host to be built or renovated. 436 and representative for the Soviet house facades were renovated Union. around Tallinn. “It was done rather random In five years, more than 50 projects were developed in ly: the paint we had in the Tallinn. The TV-tower, port warehouse was used. No survey terminal, Hotel Olümpia and or research was done,” added Tallinn Airport were all de Hallas-Murula. veloped with money from the Thanks to a innovative sea ministries of the Soviet Union. bed collector, Tallinn bay was “The Estonian Museum of cleaned, and the people of Pirita Applied Art and Design opened and Viimsi got an adequate road two days before the sailing home with a fortified shoreline. The decision to hold the disciplines began in Pirita and
ERR, June 2020
(partial lyrics – “the oppressors are tryin’ to keep me down”) check out Desmond Dekker’s “Shanty Town” The chorus of that simple, but effective, power ful tune is “dem a loot, dem a shoot, in shanty town”. Kingston was mostly slum (shanty in caribbianese); police were trying to quell rioters and looters. On orders from the government. Far too many people, far too many races, have suffered in the name of greed. Many, Estonians and Jamaicans (temporarily) here included, did find freedom, through song. Forgive the phi losophy on top of history expressed here. The slimster is human after all, just like all others, who do not know which way to turn at a peculiar and difficult time. Remember the lyrics of Me ‘n’ Bobby McGee – freedom is another word for nothing left to lose. Remember also Kris Kristofferson and The Burden of Freedom. Let us all achieve freedom peacefully. Estonians did so with the singing revolution. Let us hope for a similar outcome everywhere. Brothers, not in arms, but in peace. No looting, no fires, no armed resistance. Pigmentation is irrelevant, understanding each other is what is needed. OTEPÄÄ SLIM
Olympics in Moscow and the sailing disciplines in Tallinn was made in 1974. By then the architectural competition had already been held. The competi tion was won by a group of young architects who had just graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts, led by AvoHimm Looveer. “There were moments where the right to project was going to slip on, how to say, very unethi cal purposes. The bureau who received second place decided that they would introduce their project in Moscow before the city of Tallinn had made a deci sion, so that their project could not be pushed back by Tallinn,” said Hallas-Murula. That plan was eventually nixed and with additional contests architects from Eesti Projekt, led by Henno Sep mann, were added to the project group. Every Estonian was able to work on preparations for the Olympics, for example school girls from Viljandi were as signed to clean windows in Tallinn. They were wearing their finest clothes – they got the chance to go to the capital. In protest of the Soviet inva sion of Afghanistan, 66 invited countries did not participate in the Olympic Games, most notably the United States after president Jimmy Carter received support from the United States Olympic Committee to boycott the Games. Eventually, only 23 countries took part in the regatta, with representatives from Brazil, Finland, Spain, Denmark and the Soviet Union winning gold in six disciplines.
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Saarts: Integration policy shifts into overdrive Tõnis Saarts, ERR, May 2020 We needed three decades and the most unusual crisis situa tion of the past century to prove what has really been known for decades – that Estonia’s Russians care about the country they inhabit. Does anyone still doubt Estonian Russians’ contribution to overcoming the coronavirus crisis and loyalty to the state? Estonian Russians observed social distancing rules just as Estonians did. Thousands of Russians worked 12-hour days on the front lines of the crisis, just like Estonians. People who speak Russian as their first language often had the toughest and most respon sible tasks in the crisis and per formed wonderfully. Let us highlight if only the brilliant contribution of Dr. Arkadi Popov and the calm and effec tive actions of Mayor of Tallinn Mihhail Kõlvart that probably left most of Tallinn’s citizen with the feeling that the city was “well kept.” Whereas it is worth noting that both men managed to com municate more empathically and clearly with the public than many ethnical Estonians from the cabinet. What’s sad about all of this is that it took us three decades and the most unusual crisis situation of the past century to prove it. To prove what we have known to be true for decades – that Estonia’s Russians care about the country they live in. That the vast majority of them are loyal and are not awaiting instructions from Moscow to set about undermining the Estonian state and destabilizing our society. Indeed, the crisis almost did away with national boundaries and we could say the integra tion project came along in strides. However, the fact that Estonian Russians managed to demonstrate they can be trusted in such situations to even the most national conservative Estonian was not at the heart of this progress, as the true quan tum leap took place in terms of communication. For the first time in three decades, we wit nessed the birth of a common information sphere to unite the two language communities. Several studies suggested that interest of Russian-speakers in Estonian media grew notice ably. Because official informa tion was communicated in two languages, no one was left in the dark. The question now is whether media institutions can maintain this newfound surge in interest and trust credit and make it work for themselves in a sustainable manner. A lot is riding on that in terms of inte gration – possibly everything.
The crisis also boosted Russian-speakers’ faith in the capacity and neutrality of the Estonian state – no one was treated differently in the crisis just because they were Russian. Unfortunately, this trust in national institutions might not last very long because it is clear the looming economic crisis will hit Russians harder than it will Estonians. This is first and foremost due to their labor market position, as Russians often have a lower professional status than Esto nians and tend to work in sec tors where unemployment is forecast to grow drastically. However, it is difficult to ima gine anyone succeeding in hitching growing socioecono mic dissatisfaction to the buggy of nationality-based conflict as Estonians will also suffer from the recession. Additionally, Russian-speak ing people still regard the Center Party’s government as standing closer to them than any previous coalition. Herein lies an important difference compared to the previous economic crisis, when many Russians felt the country was run by a government that was downright hostile to them. And yet, all it would take for progress made on the integra tion front to disintegrate would be for a member of the govern ment to say something along the lines of: “We will only help Ida-Viru County once regions inhabited predominantly by Estonians have been taken care of.” This newfound togetherness of national communities hardly comes as good news for rightwing parties that are itching to play the traditional “Russian card” at the upcoming local elections, especially in the capi tal Tallinn. However, the call to arms of “Let us reclaim the capital from the Russians!” will likely leave a lot of voters in different this time around as they simply won’t see the prob lem this aims to solve. The most important question in a situation where the “Russian card” no longer works is what could take its place. Provided established parties cannot come up with a more thought-provoking and mobiliz ing topic, the air will be filled with the Conservative People’s Party’s (EKRE) marriage refer endum (whether to define mar riage as being between a man and a woman on the level of the Constitution – ed). All it means is that old polarizing topics will be replaced with new ones. Still, we should take joy in the ice breaking regarding at least one major confrontation. The coming decade will tell whether it is temporary or permanent.
ESTONIAN LIFE
