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EESTI ELU reedel, 21. veebruaril 2020 — Friday, February 21, 2020
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Sing On! Estonia rejoices with world’s largest choir festival Text and photos: Ants Tammemägi Good things come in small packages, they say, and the tiny country of Estonia – population of only 1.3 million – proves this correct. Once every five years it holds a truly epic event: the world’s largest choral festival. It’s hard to imagine 35,000 people all singing the same song together on one giant stage. But it happens. Hundreds of Estonian choirs are joined by dozens of foreign choirs and meld into one single group. The most recent Festival took place on July 6 and 7, 2019. Over 70,000 spectators listened to the mass of voices, occasionally singing along and all the time enthusiastically waving national flags. My wife Ally and I were immersed in the overwhelming crowds and loved their infectious exu berance, friendliness and fantas tic pride in being Estonian. It was an enormous, emotional celebration. To further complicate the happy mayhem, the National Folk Dance Festival, with more than 10,000 dancers, took place during the first half of the Song Festival week. The singing and dancing take place in the capital, Tallinn, which has one of Europe’s most beautiful medieval Old Towns and is a UNESCO World Heri tage Site. The old city, sur rounded by massive ancient stone walls and turrets, was crowded with smiling, laughing people wandering in the cobblestoned streets lined with colour ful outdoor cafés, bars, museums and restaurants. Ally and I were
constantly surprised to turn a corner and discover a dance group or musical ensemble per forming or practising in a park or square. Although most of the choirs were local, a number came from other countries, often composed of ex-pats and their descendants who fled Estonia in 1944 as the Soviet Union invaded. To qualify, the foreign choirs had to audi tion by submitting videos of them singing the Festival’s songs, all in Estonian. There was a strong Canadian con nection as three choirs were selected from the Toronto area and one from Vancouver. A 35-strong children’s choir came from Japan. Keishi Ito, the Japanese conductor, said, “In Japan, the Estonian Song Festi val is famous. Every choir sing er dreams of one day singing on this stage. Our children love it here, and they found the Estonian songs fairly easy to learn.” The Festival has a deeper meaning, Ally and I discovered, that reaches far beyond music. Singing has always been an integral part of Estonian life and is a way of maintaining the national character, especially in the face of foreign repression. The Song Festival played a major role in the nation gaining independence from the brutal Soviet regime in 1991 through a “Singing Revolution,” amazingly without suffering any blood shed. As one of the lead con ductors said, “To Estonians, maintaining the Song Festival is preserving our liberty.” The National Folk Dance Festival precedes the Song Festival with three sold-out per formances at the 12,000 seat
Kalev Stadium. I went to the stadium a day early and was astonished to find it packed to overflowing even though it was only a dress rehearsal. While the dancers formed elegant choreographed patterns to the music on the stadium grass, I wandered along the outside edge of the stadium. Many dance troupes were preparing for their turn on the stage by hopping and spiraling to the music. It was a whirlwind of traditional regional costumes, alive with the colours of hand made shirts, woollen skirts for women, trousers for men, knit socks, embroidered accessories and beads. I was astonished by how many young people were involved and their unbridled enthusiasm. Two days later, the big mo ment arrived. On a sunny after noon all the singers and dancers formed a giant parade which wound from the city centre for about five kilometres to the Festival grounds on the eastern edge of Tallinn. The mood was exuberant as the marchers, who were grouped by regions and wore colorful folk costumes,
Northern Birch Credit Union launches Forge to reinvent the member online experience 20 February 2020 – Northern Birch Credit Union is the latest credit union to move forward in offering the Forge Digital Banking suite of on line services to its members, joining dozens of Canadian credit unions and financial institutions in enhancing their banking services with integrated digital capabilities. Anita Saar, CEO of Northern Birch Credit Union, is excited about the possibilities. “In an increasingly fast-moving world, we must complement personal attention with the latest pro ducts and services. The Forge platform is an all-in-one bundle that enhances our core service and allows us to roll out complementary services on our schedule. It represents a real leap forward in our capabilities and that’s pretty exciting.” Forge is an integrated solu tion that recognizes Canadians are unique and so are the fintech solutions they know, love and expect from their financial insti
tution. The public website, online banking, mobile app, small business banking, account opening, and new services are part of the same out-of-the-box platform. Northern Birch is beginning this journey with the launch of its new website. Members will see more and different things, and the experience has been tested extensively to be member friendly; members will be able to easily access what they want and to find information about things they’re curious about. Later rollouts will follow the same pattern making each intro duction logical, clear and intui tive to use. See the new website at www.northernbirchcu.com. “The Forge Digital Banking Platform is about creating unique and customized digital banking experiences for Cana dians, and Northern Birch Credit Union have worked hard to provide this for their mem bers,” says Mark Blucher, President and CEO of Central
1. “Forge will enable Northern Birch Credit Union to remain on the forefront of innovation in an ever-evolving industry.” Northern Birch Credit Union chose Forge as part of their multi-year growth plan. Intro ducing it is a significant step forward in delivering on the goals of providing best-in-class banking services while main taining the community feel of a member-owned financial insti tution. A fully managed infra structure and 24/7/365 cyberse curity underpins the foundation of the plan, allowing for greater focus on individual member needs and community connec tion. Northern Birch Credit Union is the new name of the former Estonian Credit Union and Latvian Credit Union, which merged effective January 1, 2020. The amalgamated organi zation currently serves more than 6,500 members and ad ministers approximately $196 million in assets through bran
were cheered by the spectators who enthusiastically waved blue-black-white Estonian flags. The marchers responded by cheering the on-lookers. As the final sections of the parade reached the Festival grounds, the singers climbed onto the stage of a large amphi theatre, like an enormous Holly wood Bowl, where they were grouped into basses, altos, tenors and sopranos. After the lighting of the traditional flame, the conductor, to the cheers of the audience, mounted the podium where he was barely visible amongst the thousands of singers. There was total silence as he raised his baton.
When he lowered it, amazing song burst forth with 35,000 voices joined together. Ally and I were mesmerized as we lis tened to nationalistic songs in Estonian, many written just for this performance. The singing and flag waving continued and we wished it would never cease. Darkness settled and when the concert finally ended, we cheered and cheered, then wan dered with the crowd back to Old Town. Later that evening, we met a Canadian woman from Victoria who enthused, “I love the Song Festival; it’s a fabulous event. This is my third Festival and I plan to come again.”
Parliament passes law aimed at bringing ships under Estonian flag
nies of the shipping sector and brings it into accordance with EU state aid rules. The special income tax regime was created with a law adopted in the Riigikogu on February 13 last year, with which zero percent was established as the rate of income tax on the remuneration of the personnel of cargo ships, as well as of passenger ships making international trips out side the EU, the Riigikogu said. While the main principles of the special tax regime were not changed, individual conditions were specified. Specifically, the law unequivocally lists the main activities, auxiliary activities and other activities in interna tional transport by sea eligible for support, to the income from which a more favorable ton nage-based income tax regime can be applied. In the case of income from auxiliary activities, the ton nage-based income tax regime can be applied, provided the in come received does not exceed 50 percent of the total income of the international transporta tion of goods or passengers.
BNS, February 2020 The Riigikogu on Tuesday adopted a law aimed at making flying the Estonian flag attractive for cargo ships again, giving a boost to the Estonian onshore sector and restoring the international reputation of Estonia as a maritime nation. The law specifies the special income tax regime for compa
ches in Toronto and Hamilton. In addition to the merger and renaming, the credit union is embarking on an ambitious pro gram that includes a rebranding and awareness effort, and a banking system conversion this year. Please reach out to Miina Yalle at miina.yalle@northern birchcu.com for more informa tion.
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