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EESTI ELU reedel, 10. juulil 2020 — Friday, July 10, 2020
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Excelling in the Midst of Adversity (part five): Action as a Strategy the discovery process is to ‘frame’ the idea for your target audience, both in language and story, so they can experience it fully and provide the most use This week’s theme is “Ac ful and accurate feedback. This strategic action is a small ‘test’ tion.” At Chaordic Design, we of your idea in the real world, firmly believe in the incredible with real people, and can be power and malleability of used to create future growth, in action, especially when it is form small and large changes, paired with strategic planning, and enable a dialogue with your audience. and well-timed execution. Ambitious, strategic action Our mission is to help orga nizations and communities can often be broken down into realize their inherent potential smaller steps, and therefore to innovate and thrive, and smaller tests, so that each com enacting their vision in the ponent of action is easily imple world – whether as an indivi mented with your Users or dual leader, small team, or large Clients, so that you and your organization – is a direct idea can feedback, test, revise, and thrive! component of that. Taking ambitious action, no Action is necessary both in life and innovation, because it matter the limitations that exist, takes an idea and crashes it has always directed Estonian against the realities of the sports, particularly in relation to world. An idea, no matter how women’s tennis. good, can exist in its perfect Before Estonia regained in state in the vacuum of our dependence, professional train thoughts, our company white ing opportunities for tennis board or the back of a napkin, were extremely limited. Suitable yet, it might be received quite pieces of equipment, including differently by our end Users, or tennis balls and racquet strings, Clients who need it. Most inno were difficult to obtain. It took vators are fearful to share their another several years for coach idea in an ‘imperfect’ state, yet, ing to become more widely at it is this early discovery process tainable: for example, Evald that can be most valuable to us, Kree Spordimaailm was started and provide real-life feedback in 1998. Countries like Canada that can make a good idea truly or the United States had an great. advantage in that regard, but The key to strategic action in these athletes worked with what
Estonia ‘does not exclude the possibility’ of banning RT
A collaboration between Chaordic Design and Estonian Life
Life during… (Continued from page 8)
metal knitting needles – yes five, that is how many are used in Estonia to knit socks. When my children were born, she was busy knitting all the time. I found a lovely little pair of colourful socks joined together with a safety pin. A pair of large wooden knitting needles that my father made for the girls got Juliana started on a sweater of old Lopi wool she found in a drawer. The lovely blue sweater is now finished. There are also numerous eye glasses left by different genera tions and passports with photos that tell the age. We had a session of mask making. Sitting around the din ing room table where we had spread out colourful pieces of fabric. We each tried to produce something chic, but they also had to serve their purpose, and be properly insulated to make them safe. Since sanitation is of utmost importance, we placed bottles of hand sanitizer next to the front door, and by the car. We do not allow people to enter, and parcels have to be left outside. Bloor Street is just about 1 km from our house. I have been to the mail box several times, but always wearing a mask and keeping my distance. There are definitely less people on the streets and quite a few stores were closed and windows
covered with brown paper with “For Rent” signs. I have kept out of the stores completely, but do drive around occasionally so that I am still familiar with my surroundings. Our food shopping for every body is done solely from Rabba store by daughter Karin at 5:30 Saturday mornings. The store is open 24 hours. She wears a mask and gloves inside the store and wipes the products before they are brought into the house. TV dinners are conve nient, but I am soon reaching the limit. My taste buds are yearning for something more delicious and a visit to a good restaurant is a secret dream. Our relatives and friends in Estonia do not take the situation very seriously. They have not put restrictions on themselves as we have. They are locally mobile, only longer flights seem a problem. My cousin will miss visiting his three grand children in Utah. Our 4th granddaughter Liis beth’s Estonian grandmother is in a nursing home in Estonia. They have had no cases of the COVID virus and the residents are socially active and content. During the height of the pan demic, Liisbet, who lived in Kitchener, moved her two-year old son and husband from their house in Kitchener to Ottawa. We could be of no help to her and neither were her parents who live in Halifax. Liisbet is a paramedic and moving to
ERR News, July 2020
Anett Kontaveit. Photo: Peter Menzel, used under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 license
they had, tested their ideas openly, and got out on the court to practice. Anett Kontaveit, currently number 22 on the Women’s Tennis Association’s singles rankings, started train ing at the age of six with her mother Ülle Milk. The success of previous ten nis players triggered the further growth of training programs, so that Estonia is now regularly coaching women to play pro tennis. Kontaveit has spoken of Kaia Kanepi as having led the way for her. Those who have carried on the tradition after Kontaveit include Elena Malõ gina and Katriin Saar. The ac tion of previous tennis players has been tested, revised, and en abled tennis in Estonia to thrive. Thinking about what you don’t have can become a reason
to give up. It can distract you from putting in the hours of practice and preparation that are required to do great things. But it doesn’t have to get in your way if you break your action into smaller, more manageable steps.
Ottawa had been her wish. When the opportunity came along, she acted immediately. Young people have an abun dance of energy and courage. Our present situation brings back memories of a somewhat similar situation, a quarantine we had to go through during WW2. After our flight from Estonia to Gotland, Sweden, all boatloads of refugees were placed into quarantine. We were also sprayed with disinfectants and housed in an old factory surrounded by a high iron fence. We were free to walk around within the fence. The Swedish army kept guard. The locals were fascinated and came to look at us, as though we were part of a zoo. But we were refugees from a war-ravaged country and could be carriers of disease. Our quarantine ended with a huge fire which started somewhere in the baggage section, which was heated to a certain degree – obviously too hot. I am thankful to Piret and Johanna for setting up the Viktoriin game in Eesti Elu. It gave our everyday life a little spark and opened our interest in the history of Tartu College. Now I know exactly how many steps I have to climb to reach the front door. Keep us curious! Keep us active with more of the same. Our future situation is an un certainty. The COVID-19 has an aura of Science Fiction
around it. A tiny element is in control of the world and trying to eliminate life on earth. Our future is in the hands of scien tists, world over and their knowledge in producing a vac cine. With knowledge comes hope. I have hope.
As Kontaveit has stated in interviews with the press and at tennis tournaments, her victo ries show that it is possible to make it big in sports, even if you come from a small country. Next week, we’ll hear from Talvi Parming, a teacher, facili tator of sports and outdoor ac tivities, and a leader for the Estonian Girl Guides in Toron to. We’re excited to share her ideas about leading an active life, and we think you’ll enjoy it, too!
• Laani Heinar 26.06.2020: “During the lockdown, I’ve often found myself wearing a certain pair of slippers. These ones right here, with colourful floral embroidery from Muhu Island, Estonia. They’re cozy and lift my spirits up in the way that beautiful design often does. In a way, they’re also connected to all the things I’ve been work ing on at this time. Beyond continuing to work as an illustrator, I’ve also spent a decent amount of time piecing together information on my Estonian/Finnish family tree on line. Names, places and spoken memories come to life when you look at old letters, and looking at these slippers remind me of how all of that is part of my life here and now.”
Estonia has not excluded the possibility of banning Russian TV channel “RT”, the Minist ry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday after Lithuania announced it would stop broadcasts. Latvia banned the channel in July. Lithuania’s media watchdog has banned the broadcast RT due to its connection with Dmitry Kiselyov, a journalist who is under EU sanctions for his role in promoting Kremlin propaganda during the an nexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, the country’s national broadcaster LRT reported on Wednesday. Kiselyov, officially the head of Russia’s state-controlled me dia group Rossiya Segodnya which includes RIA Novosti and Sputnik, is also considered to be in charge of RT. He denies the connection. Estonia has previously banned Sputnik, while Latvia’s media watchdog banned RT in July, calling on EU member states to follow suit. However, Estonia has not announced what its plans are regarding the channel. “Estonia does not exclude the possibility of taking addi tional steps in implementing the European Union’s sanctions policy,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told ERR News on Wednesday. Estonia is implementing sanctions concerning Kiselyov for his central role in Russian propaganda justifying attacks against Ukraine. Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Delfi news portal on Monday that he approved of Latvia’s actions, but in order to take a similar step in Estonia, an analysis would need to be carried out. This would need to confirm that restricting the channels would be the right step to implement financial sanctions. He emphasized that he was only speaking about pro-Krem lin channels, the beneficiaries of which could be found on the list of sanctioned persons, and not on the restriction of any Russian-language media. “RT” was launched in 2005 and is a network of television channels which broadcasts in English, Spanish, Arabic and several other languages, distri buting content consistent with the official positions of the Kremlin, Latvian broadcaster LSM reported. The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ full comment is published below: “Estonia does not exclude the possibility of taking addi tional steps in implementing the European Union’s sanctions policy. “Estonia is implementing the European Union sanctions con (Continued on page 11)
