BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Rakvere awarded title of Estonian Child and Youth Friendly City

Stenbock House - Today, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Elle Kull, President of the Estonian National Committee of UNICEF, presented to Rakvere the title of Child and Youth Friendly City. The city earned the title by joining the UNICEF movement, which values, in addition to security and a happy environment for children, urban citizens awareness of children´rights.

In 2008 and 2009, the UNICEF Evaluation Committee observed a number of Estonian cities, and based on its findings it was decided to award this year’s child and youth friendliness certificate specifically to Rakvere. During the evaluation period, above all, collaboration between the city, business operators and non-profit associations improved.

The Prime Minister thanked the leaders and people of the City of Rakvere for their single-minded work towards making the urban environment more child friendly. For children to be able to feel happy in their home city matters not only to this one city but the entire nation and people, he said. The Prime Minister also expressed delight that there were already 12 Child Friendly Cities in Estonia.

Estonia joined the UNICEF movement in 2004, and the title has been previously earned by: Haapsalu, Jõhvi, Kunda, Kuressaare, Narva, Põlva, Pärnu, Saue, Tallinn, Tartu and Viljandi. Amongst European cities, there are over two hundred title holders.

Christmas Jazz with the great and world-known violin virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty

Time: up to the 17th of December
Location: Different locations in Tallinn
Website: www.jazzkaar.ee

The Christmas Jazz festival is now in its 14th outing. The festival actually got started by chance when the world-famous Danish bassist, Nils Henning Orsted Pedersen, who was too busy to come to the annual Jazzkaar Festival in the spring, agreed to come to Estonia in December 1996 instead together with a Danish TV crew.

This year's Chiristmas Jazz will raise spirits with 20 concerts in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Viljandi and Otepää. Festival's headliners are violin virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty from France, bossa nova singer Giana Viscardi from Brazil and club star Christian Prommer from Germany. On the program are a number of local stars stars such as Ivo Linna, Maian Kärmas, Helin-Mari Arder and Hedvig Hansot.

Tickets available at www.piletilevi.ee

More events in Tallinn at www.tourism.tallinn.ee

A H1N1 Influenza

The Estonian Health Protection Inspectorate has created a telephone hotline for questions about the novel influenza A/H1N1 (human swine influenza).

The hours of operation for the phone line with number 510 2270 are Monday through Friday from 8.00 to 17.00. The standard per-minute rate as specified in the service package is applicable. During evening and weekend hours you can call the family physician hotline at 1220.

President Ilves sent his condolences to the Russian Head of State after a tragic train accident

"I send my heartfelt condolences to you and the entire Russian nation commemorating those who perished tragically in the accident involving the Moscow-St. Petersburg train on November 27th," President Toomas Hendrik Ilves wrote in his letter of condolence to Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Head of State. "My thoughts are with the families of the victims and I wish all those who were injured a speedy recovery."

Office of the President
Public Relations Department
Phone +372 631 6229

The retail sales decreased further in October

According to Statistics Estonia, in October 2009 compared to October of the previous year the retail sales of goods of retail trade enterprises decreased 17% at constant prices. Since July the decrease in retail sales has been relatively stable compared to the same month of the previous year.

In October, the retail sales of goods of retail trade enterprises were 4.5 billion kroons. The decrease in retail sales of goods was most influenced by the stores selling manufactured goods, where the retail sales decreased by 26% compared to October 2008. The retail sales of other specialized stores, such as stores selling computers and their accessories, photography supplies, books, sports equipment, games and toys, etc., decreased most or 41%. The decrease in stores selling household goods and appliances, hardware and building materials which slowed down to some extent in previous months accelerated again in October. In these stores the retail sales of goods decreased 29% during the year, which was one of the greatest decreases over the last six months.

The decrease in stores selling textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods, and the retail sales in non-specialized stores with industrial goods predominating slowed down remarkably compared to previous months. The retail sales of these stores decreased respectively 14% and 25% during the year. The sales campaigns organized in October contributed to the slowdown in the decrease of the retail sales in these stores.

Estonia has become a destination for tax-free shopping

The Estonian Parliament made a decision to lower the boundary of tax-free purchases until the end of 2011. While the previous boundary was 2000 EEK, now tourists can make tax-free purchases beginning from 600 EEK (€38).

Due to this change in legislation, Estonia has become a better shopping destination for tourists than Finland, Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania, where the lower boundary of tax-free purchases is higher than in Estonia. In Estonia, the prices for luxury items are also cheaper than in many neighboring countries.

Lowering the tax-free boundary before the Christmas season means that Estonia has become an ideal destination for all visitors from outside of the European Union: Japan, USA Canada etc. It is especially ideal for Russian citizens who have traditionally had the practice of doing their holiday shopping in Estonia. Acquiring an Estonian visa has also been made easier for Russian citizens; the application can now be done via courier service.

In order to receive tax redemption on goods purchased from Estonia, the client must ask the Merchant for a tax redemption stamp on the receipt. When leaving the country, the customs service temple must be attained and then the receipt can be redeemed at local Global Refund bureaus.

For more information regarding the global tax-free system, read more HERE and about applying for a visa via courier service in Russia, please check out this LINK

Estonia has lost her most famous toque

Imre Kose´s Bellavista company is bankrupt ... At the present time, it is not known who will pay for the EEK 3 million arrears of taxes.
So, wave "good-bye" to the Vertigo, to Mercado and other "Boulangerie" + "Bestseller" ...

The current economic situation has also put a halt to the top chief´s ascension as it has done to the day to hundreds of small or smaller businesses. But either one pays a minimum salary to one´s employees, else one doesn´t! But do not wait for support from the state.

See Vello´s article of last Saturday only : Chefs We Dig: Imre Kose

Given the all-consuming quiet caused by the recession, I thought I'd stumbled into a speakeasy in prohibition-era America. Vertigo is not a small restaurant, and conversation and laughter emanated from both of its large dining rooms.

And the chef was in the house. Imre Kose was dashing back and forth from kitchen to dining room, speaking with guests, holding hurried court as chefs do. And his English. Oh, his English. It's hard to pin down an Estonian accent. To me, it seems less an accent and more a brief pause on the way to having no accent whatsoever. But Kose's accent isn't even that. He's somehow made English his own. Perhaps due to a blend of natural charisma and having to be heard over chattering diners, something unique has emerged. Were I Estonia's dictator, I'd send language teachers and academics to study it.

Over a Jack on the rocks I watched a parade of violin-case-packing middle-aged women enter the restaurant. They were either visiting orchestra members with instruments too expensive to check, or they were about to shoot up the place. Later, halfway into a rack of lamb and Imre approached our table: "There's a Filipino woman, part of some orchestra, and I half-jokingly asked her if she wouldn't want to play a song..." And then there she was, violin unsheathed and under her chin, playing for our table. Playing for the restaurant. Playing for Imre.

City of Helsinki to check on payment of Estonian workers at city construction site

Estonian construction worker who told HS about pay arrears absent on Thursday.

The City of Helsinki is investigating the payment of wages to Estonian construction workers at a city-owned building that is under renovation in Käpylä. Estonian workers at the site told Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday that they had not been paid on schedule.
 
The Estonians’ employer is an Estonian-owned company, which works as a subcontractor of the Finnish company in Käpylä.
  “We agreed that the company should clarify the situation by Friday next week. We want to see the pay slips and documents which prove that payment has been on time”, says Risto Mykkänen, head of construction at the Helsinki Housing Production Department (ATT).
  The city also wants to find out if the company has drawn up a proper agreement on occupational health services.
 
Mykkänen says that Helsinki wants to fight shady practices in the construction industry.
  “When subcontractors are chosen for our building sites, we ask them to show the papers required by the law on buyers’ responsibility. They show, among other things, that the company has no tax arrears, and that it has taken care of its pension insurance payments.”

The Estonian argument for English translations

The advantage of English's cultural dominance means that it can provide a means of opening up literary culture across Europe.

The Apollo Solaris bookstore in Tallinn is Estonia's largest bookseller: modern, including a coffee area, and by all appearances much like any good bookshop in the UK or US, with the significant difference that its shelves are filled with books that most of us can never hope to read, because they are written in Estonian. Until someone invents a special pair of translation goggles that will convert every foreign word we look at, English-language readers are stuck on the outside of this particular bookshop experience, left to admire the decor, lounge in the coffee area, but all the while self-conscious and, if you're anything like me, depressed, irkingly aware that these shelves represent an enormous number of intellectual and artistic experiences that you, sad sack, will never have. 

A small contingent from Dalkey Archive Press visited Apollo a few years ago while scouting for Estonian novels to publish, and met with Nele Hendrikson, the product manager at Apollo, who was somewhat surprised to learn that an English-language publisher had come to Estonia for any reason other than vacation. Estonians are proud of their own literary tradition, no doubt, but English-language publishers do not typically come looking for it. They did have a section of the store dedicated to books in foreign languages – including English – but what this section provided was simply something good to read. What it did not and could not provide was access to the enormous number of intellectual and artistic experiences the rest of the store – and, by extension, all of the Estonian culture – has to offer. 

Tiiu Kuik : November 2009

Unfortunatly, lack of time forbids me to update Tiiu´s albums

Baltic EU commissioners happy with new jobs

Riga - European Union commissioners from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania responded positively Friday to the announcement of their likely new portfolios.

The proposed shape of the new European Commission will see all three Baltic states given different briefs than they had had in the outgoing commission.

Lithuanian commissioner Algirdas Semeta is set to take over the administration, auditing and anti-fraud portfolio from Estonia's Siim Kallas. Since July, Semeta has had the budgets and financial planning job.

Semeta told the German Press Agency dpa he was 'delighted' with his new role.

Kallas said in a statement he was 'satisfied' to take over the transport brief, describing the position as 'in the first rank of responsibility.'

Latvia's Andris Piebalgs is set to lose the coveted energy portfolio to Germany's Guenter Oettinger. Piebalgs will assume responsibility for the EU's development brief.

Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis was quick to counter any suggestion that Piebalgs had been demoted, saying that the development portfolio was an important one.

Tallinn to host Eastern Europe film market

New event is part of the Black Nights Film Festival

By Vladimir Kozlov

MOSCOW - A new film market for projects from countries with smaller film industries in Eastern and Northern Europe and Central Asia is to be launched in Tallinn on Nov. 30 as part of the Black Nights Film Festival, one of the main industry events in the Baltic region, which runs through Dec. 6.

Organizers of the event told THR they are going to focus on new films from the neighboring regions and smaller film industries, such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Georgia, Russia. Producers from Finland, Norway and Russia are also to take part in the new film market.

"The goal is to enhance audiovisual cooperation on both sides of the Eastern border of European Union and Nordic countries and to give filmmakers visibility and access to the bigger audiovisual markets around the world," the organizers said in a statement.

The film market is to be preceded by the From Books To Films event on Nov. 29, a literary rights market presenting and promoting books from the neighboring regions that have potential for screen adaptation.

Tallinn Christmas Market to be opened on Sunday, 29th of November

On November 29, the traditional Tallinn Christmas Market will be opened on the Town Hall Square.

The market will be open until January 7.

Jüri Lump, deputy elder of the Tallinn City Centre District, noted that the Christmas Market that is highly valued on the international arena has expanded this year and besides the Town Hall Square, the market also operates in the other focal points in the city centre.

"In addition to the market centre with 65 Christmas Shacks, trade and entertainment activities also take place on the Harju Street, on the Vabaduse Square, in Tammsaare Park, near the gates on the Viru Street and in the Rotermanni Quarter,” said Lump.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday, Mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar and the Dean of Tallinn Jaan Tammsalu will light the first advent candle on the Christmas Tree on the Town Hall Square.

The Tallinn Christmas Market was recently included in the list of top Christmas markets in Europe compiled by the UK news portal Times Online.

Kohtla-Järve mayor, businessmen detained

The security police detained yesterday Jevgeni Solovjov, mayor of Northeast Estonian town of Kohtla-Järve and two local businessmen, Nikolai Ossipenko and Rinat Hamidullin,  under suspicion of bribery.

Ossipenko's company N&V has for years won large road maintenance contracts and together with Hamidullin who owns a construction company built a house for the mayor for free.

The security police searched through 20 offices, companies and homes and confiscated about 20 computers.

We are investigating four public tenders. The most recent one was a 229 million kroons four-year contract for road and green maintenance in Kohtla-Järve that was won by Ossipenko's N&V," said the prosecutor, adding that the winner of the tender is suspected to have already agreed before the tender was announced.

Ossipenko has refused to comment.

Former high-ranking police officer Koit Pikaro who has now retired said that Ossipenko knows the police from inside out and has money. "He has been corrupt for all his life and could get off easily also this time. Perhaps charges will be brought, but considering the court practice in Northeast Estonia, I would not see him get convicted," said Pikaro, adding that even members of the local mafia have admitted that Ossipenko is too strong for them.

Man kills woman in Tallinn park, on the loose

TALLINN — An unidentified man allegedly attacked two women with a baseball bat in daylight Monday morning at Toompark in Tallinn’s Old Town, fatally wounding one. He remains on the loose.

The attack took place just before 8 a.m. in the vicinity of the Shnelli Pond and Patkuli Stairs, and the victims were found not far from each other. One woman, 34-years old, died in Mustamäe Hospital Wednesday evening, confirmed Maria-Elisa Tuulik, the Northern District Prosecutor’s Office press specialist. The other woman, 33-years old is in stable condition.

The motive of the attack are unclear. It is not known whether the attacker knew his victims. Police said the two women did not know each other and are not releasing the victims’ names or familial status.

Another incident took place in the Mustamägi neighborhood on Tuesday morning before 9 a.m. when a male with a similar description harassed a woman in Lepistiku Park near the Magistral shopping center. Tuulik said it’s not certain if it’s the same attacker.

“There was no physical contact between the woman and attacker,” Tuulik told Baltic reports.

The suspected attacker is 180-185 cm tall, is thin and has dark hair and a dark tan complexion. The man may be wearing a white cap and a dark jacket. An updated profile sketch is being prepared.

Police have received many tips but no suspects have been named or arrested.

The Toompark area is generally considered a safe neighborhood in Tallinn.

“There have been misdeeds, but only a couple crimes,” confirmed Tuulik.

Tallinn medical clinics refused to treat a foreigner with flu

An exchange student from Portugal who was undergoing traineeship in Tallinn and went down with flu was almost left without medical treatment.

Eesti Ekspress wrote this week that the young man was in bed for two days with high fever of 39 degrees without getting any medical help. Finally, his colleagues in the place of traineeship contacted various medical clinics, infection centre and  ambulance and asked them to help, but instead of helping him they suggested to try other establishments. They even contacted the ministry of foreign affairs and ministry of social affairs, all in vain. Shame on you, Estonia.

He was explained that the Estonian family physician system does not provide for clear guidelines on what to do with a foreigner who lives in Estonia and contracts flu.

Things started to move only after the case was taken over by Peeter Mardna, head of the supervisory department of the Tallinn municipal healthcare service, personally.

Mardna said that he had to tell people what and how to do. "Such a situation is unforgivable. This is tarnishing the image of our medicine when staff refuses to take responsibility for treatment of an EU citizen," he said.

One colleague of the Portugese student said that it was unlikely that the foreigner had been able to undergo the whole process himself.

Swedbank Estonia to close its Private Debt Fund

Swedbank Estonia said it will close its Private Debt Fund that invested in Estonian corporate bonds at the end of this year.

Swedbank's so-called PDF fund was in the centre of controversy in September when the value of some bonds held by PDF plummeted, eroding the value of investments made in PDF by Swedbank's pension funds.

PDF adjusted the value of some bonds that it held downward by more than a fifth.

Agnes Makk, head of Swedbank's investment funds, confirmed that the bank was going to liquidate the fund at the end of the year.

After the scandal over the pension fund management, Swedbank decided to compensate the loss caused to shareholders.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonian president met with CEOs of four largest banks

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves met yesterday with the leaders of the largest banks in Estonia to discuss the economic situation of Estonia and its closest neighbours and the perspectives for improving the future outlook.

Vahur Kraft from Nordea Bank, Aivar Rehe from Sampo Bank, Priit Perens from Swedbank, and Ahti Asmann from SEB were present at the meeting; the bank representatives gave the head of state an overview of the current situation and developments in the Estonian loan market, among the other issues that were discussed.

At the discussion, it was decided that restoring investment to its original level, as soon as possible, is the pre-requisite for a speedier emergence from the recession. Estonia’s trustworthiness as an investment environment needs to be continuously strengthened to meet that purpose.

“Estonia becoming a member of the euro zone will probably increase its attraction for both local and foreign investors,” President Ilves stated.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Blood sausage party at the NY Estonian house

NY Eesti Maja Verivorstide Talgud/ Blood Sausage Party at the NY Estonian House
Laupäeval, 5. detsembril kell 2 pl - 6 pl/Saturday, Dec. 5th from 2pm to 6pm
New York Estonian House

If you want to make your own blood sausages, join us on Saturday, Dec 5th, at 2pm to 6pm.  We offer a good company and every participant will have the opportunity to take 2 ring-shaped sausages to go.  Cover: $15.00.  Please do confirm your participation before Dec 2nd, 2009. 
Info: eestisport@hotmail.com or info@estonianhousenewyork.com

Georg Ots: Toronto - 2009-12-01

Eh!U European Film Festival: Meet the Europeans presents: Estonian Film: "Georg" Teisipäeval, 1. detsembril kell 6 p.l./ Tuesday, Dec. 1st at 6pm The Royal Cinema, 608 College (at Clinton), Toronto ON Director: Peeter Simm, With: Marko Matvere, Anastasia Makeyeva, Renars Kaupers, Elle Kull, 2007, 107 minutes

Opera singer Georg Ots' captivating, rich baritone made him a household name throughout the Soviet Union. In this biographical drama, his story is seen through the eyes of his former wife and tells of the singer's stratospheric rise to fame, his turbulent marriages, as well as his dealings with the totalitarian Soviet state. He was forced by mobilization to join the Red Army after the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940 and, despite gaining fame in the USSR and Finland, he was denied a chance to perform in the rest of Europe.

For more info on the film festival please follow this link: Eh!U Film Festival
For the film's website, follow this link: Georg Film
Eesti Elu article: Eesti Film Georg

European Union Film Festival in Vancouver presents: "Georg"
Reedel, 4. detsembril - kell 21:30/ Friday, Dec 4th at 9:30pm
Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe St., Vancouver BC

For more information about this film in Vancouver: EU Film Festival BC