BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Torches of Memory IV – a road to your roots

The biographies of individuals are the yarns from which the carpet of a nation’s history is woven.

Shortly before last Christmas holydays the fourth issue of Torches of Memory was published. It contains the memoirs of the group of writers active at the Tartu College. The current issue is unique in that the memoirs are written in both Estonian and English. This takes into account the fact that many of the third generation of Estonian refugees into Canada no longer speak Estonian sufficiently fluently, which is an impediment to reading the memoirs written by the first and second generation Estonians.

It is very likely that many of the third generation of Estonians shortly or eventually develop an interest about their roots. Unfortunately it happens quite often that when such interest arises, there is no longer anyone around whom to ask what happened, who were the relevant persons, events and situations.

The series of Torches of Memory, the first three issues of which are unfortunately written only in Estonian, covers the fate of the Estonian people from the birth of the first independent Republic of Estonia to the arrival of refugees in Canada and their adjusting to the new life. Torches of Memory IV covers the same period, but with fewer examples. It is still sufficient for looking for your roots and it mirrors the fate of our people.

Estonia will not celebrate its 5th anniversary in EU

Estonia is not planning to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the accession to the European Union in 2009, writes Postimees Online/LETA.

"It would not really be appropriate; for economic reasons, and the fifth anniversary also does not justify organising major popular festivities," said the EU information manager of the Government Press Office Villu Känd.

According to Känd, the only public event will be a round table discussion to be organised a day earlier where representatives of Riigikogu, State Chancellery as well as of the European Commission will analyse the developments in Estonia in the past five years.

Finnish president rejects apology to Estonia

Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president, said Thursday she had always been against the concept of collective apology, adding people were capable of learning from past developments and adjusting their behaviour accordingly, something that was better than an apology.

Jutta Zilliacus, a former Swedish People's party MP, had been quoted as saying by regional daily Aamulehti that Mauno Koivisto, Finland's president in 1982-94, should apologise for failing to back Estonia in the then Soviet republic's bid to regain its independence in 1991.

Estonian kroon rises to 2-day high against dollar

The Estonian kroon extended its recent rally against the US dollar during early New York trading on Thursday. The kroon that fell to a 6-day low against the buck on Wednesday bounced back and hit a 2-day high of 11.488 by 8:10 am Eastern Time on Thursday. The Estonian kroon pared some of its gains shortly and is currently worth 11.5 against the greenback.

The Estonian kroon is pegged to the European single currency since January 1, 1999. The reference rate for the euro-kroon pair is at 15.6466.

In economic news, a report by Statistics Estonia said the trade deficit stood at EEK1.57 billion in January, narrowing from an EEK3.07 billion deficit in the previous month. The report said the trade deficit was the smallest since January 2005. Exports declined 29% annually to EEK7.2 billion in January, while imports dropped 36% to EEK8.8 billion.

Estonian Confederation of Employers: postponing the Labour Contract Act would cause a wave of bankruptcies

Juhan Tere

The Confederation of Employers in Estonia does not consider the proposal from trade unions to postpone the entry into force of the new Labour Contract Act a realistic option and urges the trade unions to consider the consequences of such a move on the labour market, writes EPL Online/LETA.

The confederation stated that entrepreneurs have worked hard to maintain jobs, hoping for the quick entry into force of the new Labour Contract Act, limiting significantly the already high level of unemployment rate and the spending of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The organisation noted that postponing the implementation of this new law would certainly bring about an extensive wave of bankruptcies as reserves for paying redundancy compensations have been spent on wages and taxes.

"Many think that a wave of bankruptcies could be the fastest way to reach the bottom of the economic decline, but its impact on the employment rate would be brutal. In postponing the new Labour Contract Act, Estonia might be threatened by the level of unemployment of 25%," said the head of the Confederation of Employers Tarmo Kriis.

He added that in postponing the law, small enterprises would end up in a particularly difficult position.

The employers' organisation is of the opinion that in order to avoid multiplying the unemployment insurance tax calculated from the wages of employees, the situation should be assessed realistically and measures should be adopted to avoid the insolvency of the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

Experienced Estonian defender Stepanov joins Watford until the summer

Frank Smith

Watford have secured the services of experienced Estonia international Andrei Stepanov until the end of this season.

The 30-year-old started training with the Hornets at their London Colney base on Tuesday.

And Brendan Rodgers moved to land the former FC Khimki and Torpedo Moscow defender just before this evening’s 5pm transfer deadline.

The Watford boss said : “Andrei is an experienced centre back with over 70 caps for Estonia and although my defenders have been doing really well, I needed to make sure we have adequate cover until the end of the season.”

Estonian Air changing to summer schedule

On Sunday 29 March Estonian Air is switching to the summer traffic schedule. During the summer season Estonian Air will provide direct air link from Tallinn to 20 attractive destinations, offering good flight opportunities both for business and leisure travellers.

In connection with switching to the summer schedule, Estonian Air resumes the summer seasonal routes:

On 29 March 2009 between Tallinn and Paris with two flights a week on Thursdays and Sundays. The route will be operated until 25 October 2009.

On 15 April 2009 between Tallinn and Hamburg twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The route will be operated until 24 October 2009.

On 9 April 2009 between Kuressaare and Stockholm twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays. The route will be operated until 25 October 2009.

On 9 May 2009 between Tallinn and Barcelona once a week on Saturdays. The route will be operated until 24 October 2009.

On 30 May 2009 between Tallinn and Dubrovnik once a week on Saturdays. The route will be operated until 19 September 2009.

On 4 June 2009 between Tallinn and Dublin twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays. The route will be operated until 30 August 2009.

On 13 July 2009 between Tallinn and Rome once week on Mondays. The route will be operated until 31 August 2009.

Russian group admits deportation was a crime

MOSCOW - The Russian human rights organization Memorial said that the mass deportation of Estonians in 1949 could be qualified as a crime against humanity but not as an act of genocide, reported Interfax news agency.

"Attempts to interpret the 1949 deportation as genocide or a war crime are legally unsound. At the same time, there are quite enough reasons to say that, in terms of international law, the deportation was a crime against humanity," said Memorial in a statement marking the deportations.  

The organization said in its statement that the criminal case Estonian authorities had opened against Arnold Meri, who has been accused of genocide against civilians during deportations of residents of the Hiiumaa Island to the Novosibirsk region in 1949 should not be charged of genocide by of crimes against humanity.

In January exports and imports of goods declined sharply

According to Statistics Estonia, in January exports of goods in current prices totalled 7.2 billion kroons and imports 8.8 billion kroons. Compared to January of the previous year, exports declined by 29% and imports 36%. The decrease in value of exports and imports began already in November 2008.

In January exports of goods was 2.9 billion kroons smaller than in January of the previous year. The decline in exports was mainly caused by the decrease in exports to the European Union countries. The decline in exports was also partly caused by the high comparative indicators last year. Exports was last on such a low level in the 1st quarter of 2005.

In January imports of goods was 5 billion kroons smaller than in January 2008. The decline in the imports was mainly caused by the decrease of imports from the EU countries. The decrease was also partly caused by the high comparative indicators last year.

Estonian foreign trade deficit was 1.6 billion kroons in January, which was 2.1 billion kroons less than in January of the previous year. The foreign trade deficit was so small last in January 2005.

In January the share of the European Union (EU 27) countries was 74% and the share of the CIS countries accounted for 10% of the total exports (in January of the previous year 75% and 10%, respectively). The main countries of destination for goods were Finland, Sweden and Latvia. Exports to EU countries decreased by 2.3 billion kroons and to CIS countries by 0.3 billion kroons compared to January of the previous year. Exports to Latvia, Finland and Sweden decreased the most.

Tartu Airport to become international

Tartu Airport will get EEK 138 mln in addition to previous EEK 65 mln from EU, which will make Tartu Airport meet all international requirements by mid-September, Tartu Postimees writes.

Current passengers terminal will be bigger and in front of current frontal will be new part pf the building. The restructuring enables to fly from Tartu Airport to Schengen countries and Russia. The airport was meant for domestic flights during the Soviet times.

Current passenger terminal will be for arriving and departing passengers. There will be 160 sq m waiting hall to existing 450 sq m passenger terminal.

Baltics look for new energy

The Baltic States, widely referred to as an “energy island” for their lack of connections to Western Europe, are getting desperate for energy. With the closure of the regions only nuclear power plant on the horizon, politicians and energy experts are now stepping up measures to ensure that the three countries are able to keep their lights on.
In the run up to a planned trilateral meeting on energy concerns due to take place at the end of the month, many in the Baltics are wondering what the future might hold and where the three states might turn for new sources of power.

One of the most pressing concerns for the Baltics will be how the three countries can plug into the Nordic energy grid.
The most high-profile of these connections will certainly be the underwater cable that will link the Baltics to Sweden, dubbed Swedlink.
The 350 kilometer long cable, which was originally planned for completion in 2012, will have a capacity off 700 to 1,000 megawatts.

On March 20, the European Council approved a support plan that would see as much as 175 million euros committed to the power link. The funding for the power link will be allocated from the 5 billion euros earmarked for the bloc’s energy projects and rural development.
In order to make use of the money, however, Latvia and Lithuania will have to quickly resolve the ongoing dispute over which country will host the link.

“There is agreement on the 5 billion [euros] we started talking about last December, as well as on the projects which are important to Lithuania. This means that the implementation of the Baltic-Swedish interconnection [project] has to begin by 2010, because there has to be a project to which the money can be allocated, and the money is big, 175 million euros,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said at an EU summit on March 20. 

Discovering the Baltic Islands : Europe’s lost Riviera

It all started during a long consultation with a map.

I was staring at the French Riviera, where we were thinking of spending a week. At some point my eye drifted upward until I hit a patch of blue, the Baltic Sea, and the filigreed curtain of Danish islands that separates it from the Atlantic. The looming fingers of the Scandinavian countries extended down from above, and the sea came to a timorous stop at the western tip of Russia. At its bottom lip were Latvia and Estonia. Looking at the map I couldn’t help but think of them as two tiny pebbles only recently revealed by the receding Soviet tide. They have been independent since 1991, and joined the European Union in 2003.

But at the moment, my thoughts were less geopolitical than preoccupied with the hedonistic question, What’s the beach like up there ? Mustn’t there be a Baltic Riviera? Surely it must be pristine, untouched, an unknown kingdom neglected by history (or the tourism industry).

Which is how I found myself, a few months later, with my wife and our six-month-old daughter (a.k.a. “the Nugget”), setting off from Riga International Airport for Juūrmala, Latvia, the best-known beach resort on the Baltic. I’d had this perverse idea that we’d be entering some sort of Soviet time machine, but when I saw the profusion of Mercedes, BMW, and Audi sedans surrounding us on the broad highway, I knew I’d been wrong. What I discovered were two Baltic countries, different in language and culture, that are both still struggling to define themselves against their enormous neighbor to the east.

Pensions in Estonia are going to grow in April

The National Broadcasting: the Government fixed the new State pensions annual index value on Thursday, writes LETA.

According to the new index value, the average old-age pension will grow by 223 kroons in Estonia in 2009 – to 4,723 kroons.

According to the Government decision, the national pension rate will grow from the current level of 1,913 kroons to nearly 2,009 kroons. The principal part of the pension will grow from 1,700 kroons to 1,793 kroons and the annual coefficient from 65 kroons to nearly 68 kroons.

Estonia's regional airports to receive 242 mln kroons

Juhan Tere

The minister of economic affairs and communications of Estonia Juhan Parts signed a financing decision, allocating 242 million kroons from the European Regional Development Fund for regional airports.

Airports in Kärdla, Kuressaare, Ruhnu and Tartu will receive this money, writes the National Broadcasting/LETA.

The funds will be used to extend the airport flight track in Kuressaare, to renovate the buildings servicing passengers in Kärdla and Tartu and building a weather-resistant flight track in Ruhnu.

The completion of the works is planned for the end of the year 2010.

Estonia has failed to collect more than 422 mln kroons of expired fines

Juhan Tere

As of now, March 25, Estonian State has not been able to collect more than 220,400 fines in the total amount of 422.3 million kroons, writes EPL Online/LETA.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the average amount involved in the fine claim is 1,915 kroons.

Six months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the limitation period for fines is 18 months, but many individuals do not know that after that period, one needs to turn to the court by oneself in order to request a termination of the execution proceedings.

Lipstok : average salary cannot be lowered much anymore in Estonia

Juhan Tere

Andres Lipstok, the Governor of the Estonian Central Bank, claimed the average salary can't be lowered sharply anymore for Estonia's employees, LETA reported, referring to Postimees.ee.

Wages stopped growing in Estonia during the first couple of months of this year compared to the past year.

"One must emphasize that wages in Estonia are still low compared to EU's average. Those entrepreneurs and analysts, who think that Estonia should lower salaries remarkably to remain competitive, are wrong," Lipstok pointed out.

He added that Estonia can't and won't be a country with a low-wage level.

Estonia and Latvia remember Soviet crackdown

RIGA : Crowds gathered in Estonia and Latvia yesterday for emotional ceremonies marking 60 years to the day since Stalinist-era security forces deported tens of thousands of people to Soviet camps. The crackdown of March 25, 1949 is etched in the consciousness of citizens of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all Soviet republics until 1991.

In Riga, hundreds gathered at the soaring Freedom Monument to lay flowers in memory of more than 40,000 Latvian families deported.

“Sixty years ago the unexpected guests knocked at your door, changing your destiny forever,” said Latvia’s President Valdis Zatlers in a speech near the monument on the cold sunny day. “Today we still ask why,” he said. Former deportee Hilda Petrova laid a bouquet of white carnations at the foot of the 42-metre (140-foot) landmark. “I wanted to remember many innocent people who were deported, imprisoned, died in basements under Soviet rule,” she said with tears in her eyes. Those sent to the Siberian Gulag included opponents of Soviet rule and nationalists as well as so-called kulaks, or wealthy farmers, and their families in an effort to impose collectivisation in the republics recently reabsorbed into the Soviet Union.

In Estonia, hundreds of deportation survivors gathered around the Linda memorial in central Tallinn.

Ice-skating in Tallinn

By Jana Belugina

TALLINN - The winter is finally giving up it rights and the sun is getting warmer and warmer each day. It is still a bit cold for open air activities, however, and the melting snow is too soft for the usual snowball fight or skiing in the beautiful parks on the outskirts of town.
Yet even as the seasons change it can still be possible to enjoy some late-season ice skating. Very few who have been to Tallinn during the winter could resist a couple of rounds sliding on the open-air ice rink on the Harju hill, in the middle of Old Town.

This amazing rink is still open for some time, but unfortunately, unpredictable weather with a mix of snow and rain can also nix all the plans. But the sunny days spent at this place are sure to leave warm memories until next winter.
Yet with the weather being what it is during an Estonian spring, it may still be best to visit some of Tallinn’s plentiful indoor ice rinks.

The newest, biggest and fanciest is the Premia ice hall. Located in a picturesque district of Tallinn, Rock al Mare, it was opened in 2002. Premia has two ice rinks, each 28 by 58 meters, and great opportunities for both amateur ice-skaters and professionals.
Stable temperatures of eight degrees above zero will keep skaters comfortably warm, while energetic non-stop music will keep those skates moving ever faster. 

Language use and new technologies

The 12th International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML) will focus on language use and new technologies. The conference, held in Tartu, Estonia on 28th -30th May, is organised by the University of Tartu including partners the Estonian Department of Education and Research and the Estonian Committee of EBLUL.

The ICML conference in Tartu and Võru will focus on the study of autochthonous minority communities and their language use. New perspectives have emerged for the revitalisation of lesser-used languages due to modern technological development. However, new educational and communicational technologies and tools have not been fully applied in the development of minority communities and their languages. This conference will provide an academic opportunity to discuss which barriers need to be overcome, myths to be broken, processes to be followed and changes to be undertaken.

Given their colonial past and often-shifted state borders, but also today’s multimodal media and fluid identities, scholarly attention to autochthonous languages always confronts a number of problems :

•What are the consequences of standardisation ?
•How are the issues of language ownership reflected in schooling ?
•Do multiple identities and languages visualised into landscapes add to linguistic diversity ?
•What is the role of primary socialisation in language maintenance ?
•Does the way researchers or planners name languages decide their very existence ?
•Have minority communities and their languages benefited from the World Wide Web ?

Vakaru laivu statykla with Fiskerstrand BLRT to construct a gas-powered ferry

Danuta Pavilenene

AB Vakarų laivų gamykla (VLG) subsidiary company UAB Vakarų laivų statykla (VLS), together with Fiskerstrand BLRT AS, signed the contract for the construction of a gas-powered ferry. Ferry, able to accommodate 120 cars and 250 passengers, will be built to ”turn-the-key” for the Norwegian company Fosen Namsos Sjø AS. VLS will work for the first time with this company, which in addition to 18 vessels is the manager of 8 ferry and 5 high-speed ferry boat routes in Norway.

Fiskerstrand BLRT AS developed the conception of the ferry, and the design work was carried out by the Norwegian ship design company Multi Maritime AS with the extensive experience. Inland waterway transport ferry length – 109 m, width – 16.8 m, speed – 13 knots. One of the world leading classification societies Det Norske Veritas, with over than 5000 ships under classification, will grant gas powered ferry 1A1 class.

The Scandinavian ferry construction work will begin in November, 2009 and will go on until  January, 2011. The ferry, on the route in future within the Norwegian fjords, between Hallhjem ir Våge (Hordaland district), is known as the environmentally-friendly, because the gas engine operation is based on “green” concept, which is especially highlighted in the European Union directives. The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Directorate General, located in  Brussels, in close cooperation with regional and European level interested countries, aims and promotes to conserve the maritime environment, thus, the new ferry meets the majority of the made demands.

Currently, Fiskerstrand BLRT AS, with 50% of shares, owned also by AB Vakarų laivų gamykla, along with the new order has business package for 8 ferry construction. Since the beginning of ship construction UAB Vakarų laivų statykla (VLS) has already built 17 ferries. At present, three ferries are under construction for the Estonian ferry company Saaremaa Shipping Company Ltd, two for Fiskerstrand Verf AS, as well as the lock-up-stage works on the ferry under the Åland Islands’ Government business order. Total AB Vakarų laivų gamykla ferry construction business package  value makes about 153 million LTL.