BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Ilves : A portrait

Toomas Hendrik Ilves was 31 years old when he first visited the Baltic republic he would one day lead. But Estonia had been on his mind for much longer.

“Being a child of refugees is different from being a child of immigrants,” explained the Estonian president in a brief phone interview this past September. During the Soviet occupation of Estonia from 1944 to 1991, “people could not choose to leave, but fled, meaning there was a much stronger domestic connection [for me]. And second, I really hated communism … and wanted to do something to help.”

Ilves, who was born in Sweden to Estonian exiles and grew up in the United States, recalled the introduction to his homeland in 1984 “as one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen—to see normal people [trying to live] in the face of totalitarianism.”

Sixteen years after Estonia regained its independence, that picture has changed dramatically. It has one of the top-performing economies in Europe, enjoying 11 percent growth in 2006. According to Business Week, it is also one of the most “wired” countries, with every school in the capital city of Tallinn connected to the Internet and much of daily business—from paying parking tickets to voting for members of parliament—conducted online.

Mart Laar's Biography

* When Mart Laar began his second term as prime minister of Estonia in 1999, the country was in the midst of a fiscal crisis. The collapse of Russia's economy the year before had left Estonia's stock market reeling, and the government was struggling to fund the benefits promised by Soviet-era social programs.

Laar realized that the only way for Estonia to weather the crisis was to finally leave behind the legacy of its communist past. He announced deep cuts to paternalistic state welfare programs, slashed business taxes, and urged liberalization of international trade. By the end of his term, the government's Bureau of Privatization was dissolved; more than 90 percent of the economy was in private hands. The economy was growing 7 percent annually, and Laar was widely credited as the force behind the creation of the "Baltic Tiger."

Mart Laar believes in economic freedom because he believes in the Estonian people. As a young student of history, Laar braved Soviet arrest by researching Estonian resistance to the World War II occupation. In his first term of office, he negotiated the withdrawal of Russian troops from the country, introduced the highly stable Estonian currency, and implemented a flat tax that has decreased steadily since 1994.

Laar is not an economist, and he says that his boldness came mostly from naiveté. "I had read only one book on economics—Milton Friedman's Free to Choose," he said. "I was so ignorant at the time that I thought that what Friedman wrote about the benefits of privatization, the flat tax and the abolition of all customs rights, was the result of economic reforms that had been put into practice in the West. It seemed common sense to me and, as I thought it had already been done everywhere, I simply introduced it in Estonia, despite warnings from Estonian economists that it could not be done. They said it was as impossible as walking on water. We did it : we just walked on the water because we did not know that it was impossible."

Archbishop Petersoo "brought a strong sense of tradition"

GENEVA - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has sent a message of condolence to the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC) Abroad following the death of Archbishop Udo Petersoo in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. He died on 14 May, aged 72.

In a letter addressed to the Toronto-based EELC, LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko described Petersoo as a partner in the joint LWF work, who understood the depth of the meaning of a communion of churches in view of the church's close working relationship with sister churches in Europe. "Working with the community of believers in North America as archbishop, he brought a strong sense of history and tradition to the culture," he said.

Noko paid tribute to Petersoo's strong commitment to the gospel during his tenure as archbishop. "As a leader in the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad, he exhibited a strong faith and a love of God's people. Many have been blessed by his service," the LWF general secretary noted.

Petersoo was born in 1934 in Tallinn, Estonia. A graduate of the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, he was ordained in 1975. Prior to his September 1990 election as EELC-Abroad Archbishop, he was dean of Canada and pastor of Toronto's St Andrew's congregation.

Archbishop Udo Petersoo is survived by his wife, Reet Petersoo, three children and one grandchild. The funeral service will be held on 27 May at St Andrew's Estonian Lutheran Church in Toronto.

The EELC currently has around 6,600 members. It joined the LWF in 1947.

WINDOW TO THE FINNO-UGRIC WORLD

AKEN SOOME-UGRI MAAILMA

Language	Number of Speakers * According to the All-Russian population census 2002	Level of endangerment (UNESCO)
Tundra Nenets Forest Nenets (Yurak)	31,311*	endangered
Forest Nenets		seriously endangered
Enets (Yenisei Samoyed)	119*	nearly extinct
Nganasan (Tavgi)	505*	seriously endangered
Selkup (Ostyak Samoyed)	1,641*	seriously endangered
Kamass	extinct since 1989
Khanty (Ostyak)	13,568*	endangered
Mansi (Vogul)	2,746*	seriously endangered
Hungarian	14,500,000	not endangered
Komi (Zyryan)	217,316*	endangered
Permian Komi	94,328*	endangered
Udmurt (Votyak)	463,837*	endangered
Erzya (Mordvin), Moksha (Mordvin)	614,260*	endangered
Meadow Mari (Cheremis)	451,033*	endangered
Hill Mari (Cheremis)	36,822*	endangered
Ter Sami, Kildin Sami	787*	seriously endangered
Skolt Sami	500	seriously endangered
Inari Sami	400	seriously endangered
Northern Sami	30,000	endangered
Lule Sami	2,000	seriously endangered
Southern Sami	500	seriously endangered
Livonian	very few	nearly extinct
Estonian	1,000,000	not endangered
Votian	60	nearly extinct
Ingrian	362*	seriously endangered
Vepsian	5,753*	seriously endangered
Karelian Proper	52,880*	endangered
Livvi (Aunus Karelian~Olonetsian)		endangered
Lude (may be a dialect of Karelian)		seriously endangered
Finnish	5,500,000	not endangered

Homage to Uno Kaljulaid provides mathematical insight

* The late Uno Kaljulaid was an eminent Estonian algebraist of the last century. “Semigroups and Automata. SELECTA Uno Kaljulaid (1941 – 1999)”, edited by Jaak Peetre and Jaan Penjam, pays tribute to this pioneer of the mathematical culture.

This book provides a collection of papers and manuscripts of Uno Kaljulaid. For the first time, Kaljulaid's 1979 Candidate thesis, which was originally typewritten in Russian, is published in English. His thesis is devoted to representation theory in the spirit of his advisor B.I. Plotkin : representations of semigroups and algebras, especially extension to this situation, and application of the notion of triangular product of representations for groups introduced by Plotkin.

Through representation theory, Kaljulaid also became interested in automata theory, which at a later phase became his main area of interest. Another field of research concerns combinatorics. Besides being an outstanding and most dedicated mathematician, Uno Kaljulaid was also very much interested in the history of mathematics. In particular, he took a vivid interest in the life and work of the great 19th century Dorpat-Tartu algebraist Th. Molien. Kaljulaid was also very interested in teaching and exposition, or popularization of mathematics.

No other book on mathematics connects different fields like representation and automata theories and combinatorics. This publication is not only interesting for mathematicians and computer scientists; non-specialists will also be able to broaden their horizon.

Join for the finals of Miss World, in Sanya, China, on 10th December 2005

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ALBANIA - Suada SHERIFAJ	AMERICAN VIRGIN ISLANDS - Kmisha-Victoria COUNTS
ARGENTINA - Emilia IANNETTA	ARUBA - Sarah Carolina JUDDAN
AUSTRALIA - Dennae BRUNOW	BAHAMAS - Ordain MOSS
BARBADOS - Marielle Chetham ONYECHE	BELGIUM - Tatiana SILVA BRAGA TAVARES
BOLIVIA - Viviana MENDEZ RIVERO	BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA - Sanja TUNJIC
BOTSWANA - Tshegofatso  ROBI	BRAZIL - Patricia REGINATO
BULGARIA - Rositsa IVANOVA	CANADA - Ramona Rina AMIRI
CHINA PR - Ting Ting ZHAO	CHINESE TAIPEI - Su-Jung HSU
COLOMBIA - Erika QUERUBIN	CONGO DEMOCRATIC REP. - Nelly DEMBO OSONGO
COSTA RICA - Leonora JIMENEZ MONGE	CROATIA - Maja CVJETKOVIC
CYPRUS - Orthodoxia (Doxia) MOUTSOURI	CZECH REPUBLIC - Lucie KRALOVA
DENMARK - Trine LUNDGAARD	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Elisa ABREU DE LOS SANTOS
ECUADOR - Marielisa MARQUES GUTIERREZ	EL SALVADOR - Alejandra Mirian CARCAMO RAMOS
ENGLAND - Hammasa KOHISTANI	ESTONIA - Laura KORGEMAE
ETHIOPIA - Seble MEKONNEN	FRANCE - Cindy FABRE
GEORGIA - Salome KHELASHVILI	GERMANY - Daniela RISCH
GHANA - Inna Mariam PATTY	GIBRALTAR - Melanie CHIPOLINA
GREECE - Aikaterini STIKOUDI	GUADELOUPE - Meryta MELINA
GUATEMALA - Maria Ines GALVEZ CLOSE	GUYANA - Jasmine Samoy HERZOG
HONG KONG CHINA - Chui Chui IP	HUNGARY - Tunde SEMMI-KIS
ICELAND - Unnur Birna VILHJALMSDOTTIR	INDIA - Sindhura GADDE
INDONESIA - Lindi Cistia PRABHA	IRELAND - Aoife Mary COGAN
ISRAEL - Keren SHACHAM	ITALY - Sofia BRUSCOLI
JAMAICA - Terri-Karelle GRIFFITH	JAPAN - Erina SHINOHARA
KENYA - Cecilia Murugi MWANGI	KOREA - Eun-Young OH
LATVIA - Valerija SEVCUKA	LEBANON - Lamita FRANGIEH
LIBERIA - Snoti FORH	MACEDONIA FYRO - Milena STANIVUKOVICH
MALAWI - Rachel LANDSON PHIRI	MALAYSIA - Emmeline Wei Shu NG
MALTA - Ferdine Irma FAVA	MARTINIQUE - Moana-Sarann ROBINEL
MAURITIUS - Meenakshi Shivani PUTTY	MEXICO - Dafne MOLINA LONA
MOLDOVA - Irina DOLOVOVA	MONGOLIA - Khongorzul GANBAT
NAMIBIA - Leefa Shilkwa LEEFA	NEPAL - Sugarika K.C.
NETHERLANDS - Monique PLAT	NEW ZEALAND - Kay Margaret ANDERSON
NICARAGUA - Valeria GARCIA DAVILA	NIGERIA - Omowunmi AKINNIFESI
NORTHERN IRELAND - Lucy EVANGELISTA	NORWAY - Helene TRAASAVIK
PANAMA - Anna Isabella VAPRIO MEDAGLIA	PERU - Fiorella Maria CASTELLANO GARCIA
PHILIPPINES - Carlene AGUILAR	POLAND - Malwina RATAJCZAK
PORTUGAL - Angela FONSECA SPINOLA	PUERTO RICO - Ingrid Marie RIVERA SANTOS
ROMANIA - Raluca VOINA	RUSSIA - Yulia IVANOVA
SCOTLAND - Aisling Nuala FRIEL	SERBIA & MONTENEGRO - Dina DZANKOVIC
SINGAPORE - Shenise Wong Yan YI	SLOVAKIA - Ivica SLAVIKOVA
SLOVENIA - Sanja GROHAR	SOUTH AFRICA - Dhiveja SUNDRUM
SPAIN - Mireia VERDU TREMOSA	SRI LANKA - Nadeeka Samanmali PERERA
ST LUCIA - Joy MATTY	SWAZILAND - Zinhle Marcia MAGONGO
SWEDEN - Liza BERGGREN	SWITZERLAND - Lauriane GILLIERON
TANZANIA - Nancy Abraham SUMARY	THAILAND - Sindie JENSEN
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO - Jenna-Marie ANDRE	TURKEY - Hande SUBASI
UGANDA - Praise Juliet AKANKWATSA	UKRAINE - Yuliya PINCHUK
UNITED STATES - Lisette DIAZ	URUGUAY - Daniela TAMBASCO MARFETAN
VENEZUELA - Berliz  CARRIZO ESCANDELA	VIETNAM - Huong Giang VU
WALES - Claire EVANS	ZAMBIA - Precious Kabungo MUMBI

World's vast ranks of the stateless

By David Montero

DHAKA – Borders have made all the difference in the life of 25-year-old Noor Islam. He was born in Bangladesh, but an invisible line has virtually confined him to Geneva Camp, a squalid enclave in the capital, Dhaka.

Shifting borders dictated this fate. In 1971, when East Pakistan gained independence as Bangladesh, Islam's family and some 300,000 other Urdu-speakers found themselves without a nationality in the new Bengali state.

"In Geneva Camp, we don't have much access to education and jobs," Islam says, adding that citizenship would dramatically transform their lives.

The so-called Stranded Pakistanis are one of the largest and oldest communities of stateless people, a group estimated to number 11 million across the globe. Their predicament deserves more attention, say experts, since national identity is the most fundamental of human rights - indeed, the very right to have rights.

"They are the ultimate forgotten people," says James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York. The problem persists, he says, in part because nation-states still enjoy broad discretion under international law to grant or deny citizenship as they see fit.

"Even as human rights norms have steadily evolved over the past half-century, the field of citizenship has remained one of the last bastions of untrammeled state sovereignty. As a result, citizenship creates a giant loophole in the international human rights framework," Mr. Goldston writes in an e-mail.

Statelessness is the untold dark side of new nations, including those in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. To date, nearly 20 percent of the population in Latvia and Estonia are stateless persons, according to one estimate. Thousands of stateless people languish in poor conditions in some of the most politicized and conflict-ridden areas of the world, including Palestine and Iraq.

The reasons for the problem differ from region to .........

Estonie : Premier évêque ordonné depuis 60 ans, Mgr Jourdan

* Depuis soixante ans, c’est le premier évêque ordonné en Estonie : le P. Philippe Jourdan, prêtre français de l’Opus Dei sera en effet ordonné samedi 10 septembre à Tallinn, annoncent la nonciature apostolique à Tallinn et le service de presse de la Prélature (cf. www.opusdei.org). Une ordination sous le signe de l’œcuménisme.

Le nonce apostolique pour les Pays Baltes, Mgr Peter Zurbbrigen, sera le célébrant principal. Mgr Xavier Echevarria, prélat de l’Opus Dei, sera l’un des évêques consacrants, ainsi que l’archevêque de Moscou, Mgr Tadeusz Kondrusiewic.

Mgr Jourdan sera le seul évêque pour tout le pays, qui compte environ un million et demi d’habitants, dont 33 % de Russes et d’Ukrainiens. Il est majoritairement protestant, mais l’Estonie est fière de toujours se dire « terre mariale », grâce à un décret du pape Innocent II, de 1215. Et depuis le 1er mai 2004, l’Estonie fait partie de l’Union européenne.

Mgr Jourdan est le premier évêque depuis 1942, et le second depuis la Réforme luthérienne (XVIe siècle). Il a été nommé par le pape Jean-Paul II le 23 mars dernier, quelques jours avant sa mort, ce qui a particulièrement touché les fidèles catholiques d’Estonie. En tant qu’archevêque de Cracovie, Karol Wojtyla avait été ..............

The Baltics: More famous than you might think

* Take a trip to any part of the world and the phrase “I come from the Baltics” is likely to be met with confused looks of wonder and confusion. “The Balkans ?” people reply. But more and more, this part of the world finds itself in the news. As the Baltics emerge as independent countries after years of occupation, the world is getting a better sense of their unique identity. A common question might follow : “What are the people like ?” To assist in answering this question, TBT staff has put together a list of some of the most famous and maybe not so famous people with connections to the Baltics.

Mikhail Baryshnikov – Latvia - Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov was born in Riga in 1948. He started dancing in 1960. He studied in Leningrad under the famous Aleksander Pushkin and began to make a name for himself early on in his career. In 1974, Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union and started dancing with the American Ballet Theatre. He has become the face of ballet not only in cultural circles but among common people and has been described by dance critics as “the most perfect dancer of all time.”

Zydrunas Ilgauskas – Lithuania - This 30-year- old Kaunas native joined the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball League for the 1997 season. The 7’3’’, 230 pound center has remained with Cleveland since being drafted. He was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star Team in 2002-2003.

Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn - Estonia – These three Estonian born computer geniuses were only in their twenties when they invented Kazaa in collaboration with a Swedish programming company. Kazaa, a peer to peer file sharing program, allows people to find virtually any song or movie on the internet—sometimes even before it is officially released—and download it for free. But the trio insists they never thought of creating it to bypass buying licensed music, movies and software. Says their ...........

Strange deal makes Hanschmidt country’s richest individual

TALLINN - The list of the richest businessmen is Estonia suddenly, and somewhat mysteriously, changed last month when Uhispank founder Ain Hanschmidt acquired a huge swathe of Tallink though paying a measly 166,600 kroons (10,645 euros) for the asset.
According to reports, Hanschmidt’s lawyer, Aare-Heino Raig, transferred his shareholding in OU Abante, which controls a significant portion of Tallink shares via subsidiaries, to Hanschmidt.

Independent sources say the real value of the Abante stock is some 45 million euros.

What’s more, two days after the deal was made, Hanschmidt started working as CEO of Infotar, a firm that owns 55.53 percent of the Tallink Group, which specializes in ferry services along the Tallinn-Helsinki route.

Hanschmidt has declined to comment on the transaction, while analysts have surmised that the businessman most likely exercised an option that he arranged in the late ‘90s.

The business paper Aripaev speculated that the deal might have been arranged when Hanschmidt was CEO of Uhispank, the only bank that issued a credit to a cash-strapped Tallink in 1996.

Unfortunately, all who might have .............