„The Golden Soldier“

Artist Kristina Norman brought the golden imitation of the Pronxsoldier, which will represent Estonia at the Venice Biennale 2009 and is part of the project „After- war“, to Tõnismäe on the 9th May- it was removed on the same day in about 30 minutes.
http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/468232

There have been very many contrary opinions about the soldier. In my opinion, which coincides with Juku- Kalle Raid is that it was too provocative, our society is slowly starting to forget about the dramatic conflict and now she managed to remind the happenings again. Juku- Kalle Raid exact words were: "Väga raske on haaval kinni kasvada, kui ukse taga on pidevalt abivalmis mees jämesoola ämbriga. Ma ei arva, et see oleks nutikas. Kui inimene on hea kunstnik, siis peab ta suutma oma kunsti teha ka ilma igasuguse radikaalse sotsiaalse lisandita. Hea kunst laiendab inimese mõtteprismat. Ma kardan, et see kuldne junn ei laiendanud küll mitte midagi."
http://www.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/eesti/article.php?id=23388995

It is normal, that art is provocative, but it has to be that secretly- “The Golden Soldier” was too obvious. I hate to see that art form has turned into socio- political propaganda, it always refers to something bad, sad or negative. Why cannot art be positive, colorful and pleasant anymore?

We will see how it turns out in the end and what reflection will this sculpture, which indicates on cultural and ideological integration problems in Estonia and can be expanded world- wide, get on the universal level after the Venice Biennale 2009.

Tallinn Day

We invite everybody to celebrate The Tallinn Day! On this very day 761 years ago Tallinn was granted the Lübeck city rights (1248) and accepted to the union of European cities at the time.

Tallinn will celebrate the day with events from early afternoon until late in the evening from the opening ceremony, concerts and photography to a knitting graffiti exhibition, Mayor of Tallinn Mr Edgar Savisaar will open the Tallinn Day celebrations on Town Hall Square.

Helpful Tallinn

Tallinn City Council has decided to compensate thermalenergy appreciation for those citizens whose average neto income for one person in that household is under minimum monthly salary

Tallinn hires unemployed citizens

Tallinn will employ 1000 of the unemployed citizens: 100 of them will clean public vehicles and tram roads starting from June. In September 900 unemployed will get job as a public vehicle conductors- their job is to help handicaps, pensioners etc as well they will be selling tickets instead of the drivers.

President left the old election system remain valid

There has been lots of dicussions about the election system in Tallinn, which was broached by Keskerakond. Finally President Toomas Hendrik Ilves declared that the election order will remain the same- Tallinn will still have eight electoral districts.

Your money in action.

As discussed in todays issue of Äripäev the procurement campaign for the new cars of our governments key players was merely a show. The choice had been secretly made beforehand.

This incident brings up another topic. Are all those expensive cars actually necessary ? While the positive sides are superficial and quite clear, the negative sides run deep. The apparent downside in this case is that the public, while ignorant in the finer arts of economics and politics, perceive this display of wealth as a waste of their hard earned funds. This further alienates the general population, something best avoided. 

To further explain my point i would like to give you a demonstration. Imagine you are a single father/mother of 2 school aged children, due to the financial crisis the government is holding a hearing on which of your benefits to cut : child support or lone parent support. Naturally you are interested in the discussion and choose to follow it. 

Which of the following scenarios upsets you more ? Seeing financial minister Juhan Parts arriving to the meeting in a shiny new Audi A6 Quattro FSI, or a his old powder blue Nissan Stansa ?

Sort it out guys !