BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Ilves-Krugman spat to be turned into ‘Financial Opera’

Last year’s public spat between Estonia’s President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and economist Paul Krugman will be transformed into a short operatic work based on the disagreement on fiscal issues between the two men.

In a blog in June 2012, Mr. Krugman questioned the assertion Estonia was booming and described the country as “a poster child for austerity defenders,” which hadn’t fully recovered from the global financial crisis. The post got a fierce response from Mr. Ilves, who posted angrily on Twitter in defense of Estonia, which enjoyed a budget surplus.

Among others, he said: “Let’s write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing.” One tweet included a profanity to say people could get away with insulting “East Europeans,” whose “English is bad” and who “won’t respond and actually do what they’ve agreed to and reelect governments that are responsible.”

Composer Eugene Birman and journalist Scott Diel found inspiration in the quarrel. The operating work they’re creating will be titled “Nostra Culpa,” Latin for “Our fault”, which Mr. Ilves used in an ironic admission to being one of “dumb and silly East Europeans.”

11/01/2013 : "Big City Fashion party" @ Casablanca, Roseni 9, Tallinn

"Big City - Fashion Party" on mõeldud külalistele, keda ei huvita mitte tavalised ööklubid, vaid kes on orienteeritud kõrgematasemelistele koosviibimistele. Nendele klientidele pakumegi võimalust osaleda üritusel "Big City". Kuna 13.jaanuar on vene vana kalendri järgi aastavahetus, siis toimub üritus vene stiilis.

Suurepärase atmosfääri loomiseks on kavas moeshow, mille käigus demonstreeritakse Itaalia moekultusfirma "LorMar" aluspesu, mille toodang on kättesaadav vaid Stockmanni kaubamajas ja Kaubamajas. ...

Lisaks kutsume üritusele Eestimaa parimad  Go-Go tüdrukud, kelle show taustal tutvustatakse ja pakutakse baarides vaid kõrgekvaliteedilist alkoholi  "Fashion Vodka". Valitud suupisted on saadaval VIP laudadel, mille valmistab külalistele "Sushi Panda" ja meie sõbralik ning professionaalne meeskond on teie teeninduses ja täiendab olemasolevat atmosfääri. Külalistel on võimalik tellida endale ka vesipiipe, mille toob teieni "Grand Shisha". Sisenemine naistele alates 18.eluaastast, meestele alates 21. eluaastast.

VIP laud 4-inimesele - 150 EUR
Sisaldab: sushivalik 50tk. , Fashion Vodka 0.7, Martini Asti - 1 pudel, AURA mahl - 1 l.
Ettetellimusel vesipiip puuviljadega 25 EUR

...........

Big City-Fashion party is a unique event that is dedicated to celebrate the New Year in the old style.

Big city offers you the best modern dance music, go-go dancers in sexy Russian costumes, presentation fashion underware clothes from Italian firm LorMar, great gifts from online store DonJuar.ee, and many more.

At the entrance, each guest will be able to enjoy a glass of champagne "Odessa". When ordering, vip tables, guests get a form of sushi from Sushi Panda and fruit basket. Also all the vip tables includes a bottle of champagne and a CD with music palyed at the event.

Meetings next week to determine whether Tallinn farecard system is street legal

As Tallinn implements its unique free public transport program to much international interest, it still has the unfinished matter of explaining to the Data Protection Inspectorate how it intends to guarantee the security of its data.

The national agency expressed concern that personal data in the personalized farecard system can be accessed by too many different persons and will be on file for too long a period.

The Data Protection Inspectorate said Wednesday that they have agreed that Tallinn city is to provide written explanations at the beginning of next week or face possible sanctions.

The Inspectorate's adviser Stiina Liivrand told uudised.err.ee that a meeting with city officials will take place next week after the explanations are received. Sanctions could be applied if the matter is not resolved, she said.

Estonia's lake-maker lives his dream

It started as a whim, but snowballed into a life-long passion.

Estonian Tõnu Tamm has dedicated the past two decades of his life to his obsession of creating artificial lakes. Surrounded by water in the south of the small Baltic republic, his enthusiasm is infectious as he insists everyone should do their bit for the environment and take tiny steps that help bring calm to a troubled world.

"People might think it's very hard to make a lake, but you just need a suitable landscape and some knowledge, including about dams," the 71-year-old told AFP. "It all started in the spring of 1981. After spending all our summers from 1966 to 1980 on wild nature trips to Siberia, where I made several TV documentaries, I decided with my wife Tiiu-Mall to buy a summer cottage in Estonia," he explained.

At the time, Estonia was under Soviet rule. As in other communist-bloc states, escape to the countryside was one way for urban dwellers to forget the political sloganeering of daily life. Despite the Soviet command economy, it was still possible to buy a cottage or exchange a city apartment for one.

"The plan was just to have a cottage to relax at weekends and retire when we got old. But when we arrived here, for one day only, the beauty of nature stunned us so much that we decided to stay forever," Tamm said. Having loved the lakes he saw on his travels, he dreamed of having one near his new home.

A Scottish Highland cattle eats its feed in Osmussaar island

A Scottish Highland cattle eats its feed in Osmussaar island December 13, 2012. Rita Koppel, together with her husband Ervin, father Uno Bergstrom and mother Aili have lived for 11 years on a lonely island Osmussaar, about 10 km (6 miles) from the mainland.

Ervin once ran a large construction company and Rita was an entrepreneur but now the Koppel family engage themselves with agriculture and maintaining order on the island, choosing to enjoy nature and the company of their cattle over the urban hustle and bustle. 

Picture taken December 13, 2012.

REUTERS

140 couples will get married in Estonia on the magic date

TALLINN - 140 couples will get married in Estonia on the magic date on Wednesday, i.e. 12.12.2012, LETA/Ohtuleht reports.

38 of them will get married in Tallinn. Head of the Tallinn Vital Statistics Office Karin Kask told Ohtuleht that there were more people that wanted to get married on that date but unfortunately there isn’t any space for more.

Ida-Viru county government population acts service senior specialist Irina Saltruk said that they will have 5 festive marriage registrations and 17 non-festive ones, i.e. without guests.

In Viljandi county government, marriage registration starts already at 8.30 a.m. since there are couples who want to get it done before the start of the workday.

The eagerness to get married on a "magic date" was the biggest in the years 2007 and 2008 when the dates coincides with a weekend. After tomorrow, the next combination where the date, month and year figures coincide, 01.01.01, has to be waited for 89 years.

Cheap alcohol drives young Britons to drink

LONDON — Young Britons are more likely to have been drunk by the time they reach their teens than their European peers and are spurred on by cheap alcohol promotions, a study says. The report says youngsters in Britain are more likely to have been drunk by the age of 13 than in almost anywhere else in Europe, while 15 and 16-year-olds are more likely to have been drunk in the last month than their European contemporaries.

Only young people in Estonia, Malta and the Isle of Man drink more than those in Britain, the study for the charity Alcohol Concern claimed. In a survey of 1,000 16 to 24-year-olds in Britain, 63 percent said cheap alcohol promotions encouraged them to drink excessively, while "drinking to get drunk" was the general aim among young people.

Participants pointed out that it can be "cheaper to buy a three-litre bottle of cider than buy a ticket to go to the cinema", according to the report, being published to mark the start of Alcohol Awareness Week. Researchers compared the drinking habits of Britons with the findings of a Europe-wide survey conducted in 2007.

Estonian player accused of cocaine dealing

TALLINN — An Estonian international footballer who plays at one of the top clubs in his country has been arrested on suspicion of cocaine dealing.

Prosecutors say they have initiated criminal proceedings against 27-year-old Oliver Konsa, who plays for Estonian league champion JK Nomme Kalju and has made 20 appearances for the national team.

Kristel Praun, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor's office, says Konsa and several other individuals are suspected of distributing "large amounts" of cocaine.

Konsa's defense lawyer failed to immediately return calls seeking comment. The Tallinn club said Tuesday that it has suspended Konsa pending an investigation. Konsa joined the club in 2010.

Disney to air TV show on russian school, but filmed in Estonia

A new television show developed by Disney and Channel One will feature the adventures of students at a Russian school — but all the filming will be carried out in Estonia.

The family-friendly show, "After School," was made especially for the Russian market and will debut at midnight Friday on the state-owned channel. Each weekly episode will feature a ninth or 10th grade student at a regular Russian school. But the series, the first to be produced under a collaboration between the U.S. entertainment giant and Channel One, will be filmed in its entirety in Tallinn, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing Channel One.

Co-producer Andrei Boltenko said the Baltic city was chosen for its "fabulous and nonbourgeois atmosphere," Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Monday. The head of Disney Russia, Marina Zhigalovo-Ozkan, told the newspaper that the show feeds on the best traditions of Soviet TV shows such as "Prikluchenia Elektronika" (Adventures of an Electrician), which incidentally was also filmed in the Baltics, in this case Lithuania.

Fourth man charged with extortion of two Estonian men

POLICE have charged a fourth man over alleged extortion threats made against two Estonian men working in Australia. It will be alleged the 28-year-old man operated a company along with three other men that was advertised on the internet which offered employment in Australia for workers from Eastern Europe.
Two victims engaged the company’s services and travelled to Perth from Estonia. 
 
The four men involved with the company allegedly took control of the victims’ bank accounts and took possession of their passports. They then allegedly made threats to the two men for further money. The 28-year-old man has been charged with two counts of extortion.
 
He appeared in the East Perth Magistrates Court on Saturday and he will next appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on November 19. The three men already charged as part of the investigation will next appear in court in January.
 
Major Fraud Squad officers are encouraging anyone who can help with its investigations into this matter to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Estonians re-selling tires thrown away by Finns

Many used tires that are being sold in Estonia are actually tires that Finns have thrown away, according to Estonian daily newspaper Õhtuleht.

The paper quoted a Finnish mechanic who works at a garage who said that he often sees Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, but also Poles going through the container of used tires behind the garage because most of the tires there can still be used for a season or two.

The mechanic said that it was customary for Finns to drive a few seasons with new tires and then change all four.

This means that tires that have not been under the driving axle are fully usable. Priit Muru, CEO of Kummi-Ott, Estonian retailer of used tires, says that he is familiar with the case.

Muru admits that he himself been going through the discarded tires and says that Finns find such behaviour repulsive. He adds that in some cases Finns pierced the discarded tires to make them unusable.

According to Muru, many used tire sellers in Estonia lie to their customers that they get used tires from Norway and that they have been used for a few months. The truth is that most of the used tries arrive from Finland or Sweden and have been notably more used.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonian and 6 Russians kidnapped off Nigeria freed

Six Russians and an Estonian kidnapped from a ship off Nigeria on October 15 have been released, French oil industry servicing company Bourbon said on Thursday.

Bourbon said the seven who were snatched from the Bourbon Liberty 249, an anchor handling vessel of the kind used to tow anchors for oil rigs or mobile drilling rigs, were freed on Thursday and appeared to be in good health despite "difficult conditions while in captivity".

They were undergoing medical checks in Nigeria and would return to their home countries within the next few days, the company said in a statement.

No details of the circumstances of the release would be given, Bourbon said, adding however that it wished to thank Nigerian authorities including the police and special security services.

Scores of kidnappings for ransom have occurred in the Niger Delta, though a 2009 amnesty deal greatly reduced unrest there. Sporadic incidents continue to occur despite the amnesty.

Most of the hostages have been freed after payment of a ransom.

© ANP/AFP

Eesti in brief : 2012-11-01

A meeting of the Estonian Nature Foundation (ENF) and representatives of Nord Stream took place in Tallinn on Monday in connection with the intention of the latter to build more gas pipelines through the Baltic Sea, reports Postimees Online. At the meeting, Nord Stream could not answer several important questions about the effects of the existing and planned gas pipelines on the environment of the Baltic Sea, ENF said. “The state of the Baltic Sea is critical and additional endangering of it is not acceptable,” ENF sea environment and nature protection expert Alex Lotman said. He added that Nord Stream has not been able to show, despite the environmental studies conducted so far, how much pollution and dangerous chemicals are really released into the Baltic Sea from the sediment at the bottom of the sea. ENF is of the position that building new gas pipelines contradicts the need to curb global climate problems, for which consumption of fossil fuels has to be reduced, it believes.

Russian aviation company Aeroflot started flying the Tallinn-Moscow route after a gap of 16 years on Sunday; Tallinn Airport hopes to increase the number of passengers traveling between the two capitals to 100,000 a year, reports Public Broadcasting. Estonian Air and UTair also fly on the Tallinn-Moscow route. Tallinn Airport board member Erik Sakkov said that Aeroflot won’t take away passengers from existing flights but should increase the market so that next year there would be more than 100,000 passengers on the route. Sakkov said that the Aeroflot flight is not meant just to bring Russian tourists to Estonia, but could offer Finnair competition regarding Asian flights, and Areolflot’s network also reaches Africa and North America. Tallinn Airport has a third more flights this winter than last year and hopes to handle 2.2 million passengers this year.

Free adaptation program for new immigrants available in Estonia

Free adaptation courses and support person services for third country nationals that have come to live in Estonia in the past three years will commence this autumn, the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People reports.

The new immigrants' adaptation program supported by the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) is designed for those European third country nationals that have legally come to live in Estonia in the past three years, informs LETA.

The adaptation program is a training course commissioned by MISA and developed by Tallinn University in 2009 that is aimed at improving the socio-economic coping abilities of new immigrants in Estonia.

Different areas of basic training introduce the history, country, and culture of Estonia as well as the main customs and values of society in order to prepare the participants for entering the labor market. Information about current laws and the rights of residents in Estonia will be given and a 364-hour Estonian language course will be carried out. The adaptation program is being offered in both English and Russian and a total of 300 new immigrants will receive the support service over the two-year period.

Estonian citizen crosses Russian border on a dare

A patrol boat has detained a 19-year old Estonian citizen in Russian waters of the River Narva. The young man insisted he was trying to illegally cross the state border on a bet. This information was made public by a law enforcement representative.

During interrogations on the riverbank, the young man, a resident of the Estonian city of Narva, said he had struck a bet with friends for a sum of 100 euros that he would be able to swim across the river Narva and back, undetected.

Criminal proceedings have been initiated against the detained, had previously had a run in with the law for involvement in smuggling.

Estonian Central Bank cancels plan to sell the Maardu manor house

Estonian central bank Eesti Pank has given up plan it announced in the spring to sell the Maardu manor house, writes ERR.

Despite of the criticism made by supervisory board chairman Jaan Männik who said during the election of central bank president in the spring that it was not the bank’s duty to be a manor owner, the bank is no longer seeking to sell the manor house, but is looking at ways to earn more money from renting it out, according to the central bank’s press spokesperson Ingrid Mitt.

Eesti Pank acquired the manor house at the start of 1990 and has been using it for hosting its own events and allowed its executives to use if for private parties at very cheap prices.

Last year the bank spent 85,400 euros on the upkeep of the manor house, while earning about 27,000 euros in rent income.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonian doctor fell to her death from Cliffs of Moher

A recently qualified medical doctor bought a one-way ticket from Estonia to Dublin to travel on to the Cliffs of Moher, where she fell 700ft to her death at the base of the cliffs.

The body of 25-year-old Dr Elo Sonajalg was found in waters off the cliffs by members of the Doolin Search and Rescue Unit on September 14. Dr Sonajalg was embarking on a career as a medical doctor after having just qualified last May. She made the 1,200-mile trip to Dublin from Tallinn by herself on September 8 without informing her parents.

Supt Derek Smart told an inquest in Ennis yesterday that Dr Sonajalg's father searched her computer after she had gone missing to find that she had looked up flights to Dublin, train timetables from Dublin to Galway and bus timetables from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher. Supt Smart said that Dr Sonajalg's father made contact with a Galway garda station on September 14 to report concerns about his missing daughter. Supt Smart said that Dr Sonajalg's father contacted gardai on the same day that her body was recovered from the base of the cliffs.

Wolf-dog hybrids genetically proven in Estonia

A recent study by University of Tartu zoologists confirms hybrids of male wolves and female dogs exist in Estonia.

Eight animals exhibiting unusual external characteristics for wolves - six from Estonia and two from Latvia - proved to be wolf-dog hybrids after gene analysis. The analysis of wolf pups hunted from Taebla municipality provides the first scientific evidence from Europe of mating between male wolves and female dogs in the wild, said the Estonian study, which included collaboration work with Latvia and Poland.

From the perspective of species conservation, hybridization poses a concern, as it can threaten the integrity and fitness of many wild species, including canids. As a result of habitat fragmentation and extensive hunting pressure, gray wolf populations have declined dramatically in Europe and elsewhere in the last centuries.

Professional hunters fear the hybrids will acquire aggressive characteristics and pose a threat to livestock and humans, reported University of Tartu's scientific magazine Novaator. The wolf-dog hybrids from the study are first-generation, therefore, the scientists are unsure if the hybrids are able to breed. The scientists' next goal is to figure this out.

Hunters are given permission to kill roughly a hundred wolves each year to keep the Estonian wolf population at around 200. Unusual-looking wolves with canine characteristics are reported to scientists.

One Estonian and six Russian sailors kept hostage by Nigerian pirates

Nigerian pirates have attacked a cargo vessel, kidnapping six Russians and one Estonian. Another nine crew members were left on Liberty 249, which has safely docked at the Nigerian port of Onne, its final destination. ­The attack occurred on Monday near the Niger Delta, but it only became known on Wednesday.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Russian nationals were among the seized crewmembers.  Russian and Estonian diplomats assured they are now taking all the necessary measures to hasten the release and secure the safety of the kidnapped sailors. Nigeria Special Forces are working in cooperation with both Russia and Estonia to find the crewmembers, as their whereabouts are unknown. Some reports have speculated that a group of pirates with hostages left Nigeria after the attack.

"The emergency unit has been set up to aim at their rapid liberation under the safest security conditions," the French company Bourbon, which owes the vessel, said in its statement. The emergency group stays in contact with families of the kidnapped people. The vessel’s crew worked on maintenance of oil platforms off Nigeria’s shores. The Bourbon Liberty 249, belonging to a French company, was used to tow anchors for oil rigs or mobile drilling rigs. Kidnappings for ransom are widespread in some parts of Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude oil producer.

Fuel ships are the most popular target, though pirates are usually more interested in the cargo, than in kidnapping the crew. According to a report by International Maritime Bureau, released in April this year, a number of incidents of piracy and armed robbery have dangerously increased in West African waters since last year. The report also stressed that “while the number of reported incidents in Nigeria is still less than Somalia” the level of violence against crewmembers is dangerously high.

Thomas goes riding the silver sunset

Your seatmate from Heathrow to Copenhagen is a beautiful young Estonian woman who, thankfully, is talkative. You are starved for conversation. You were alone at Heathrow for several hours with nothing but your vodka to talk to. She lives in Tallinn, a beautiful city. You were once there in December in the old town and the architecture was breathtaking behind the falling snow.

Her name is Annika, and she has been traveling since early this morning from Buenos Aires, where her boyfriend lives. She is interested in literature and humanitarian work and makes her living as a tango instructor. You tell her you have a foot in all three worlds at once: you have written a novel about a torture survivor who dances tango.

“You dance tango?” she asks.

“I wish. I’m terrified of dancing.”

“With the terrified men,” she says, “I start out only walking with them to help them find the rhythm to their bodies.”

Her casual acceptance that some men fear dancing convinces you that this woman was sent into your life to liberate you from that strange fear. “Are there many men like that?” you ask.

“Everyone is terrified of something,” she says, and her young eyes grow distant. “Some are terrified of dogs, some of cats, some of rats, spiders, of prison, of flying, of elevators . . .”

You wonder what terrifies her, but think it inappropriate to ask. You lean back your head and contemplate her list of fears. You don’t really have any of them. It occurs to you that instead of fear you have vodka. You think of telling her that fear changes with age, the things you fear when you are young are less specific. Is that true? Instead, you say, “I’m sure that you are the only person in the world who could teach me to tango.”