„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 !

Fun times with Nikolai Uspenski.

As discussed in the critical radio show "Rahva Teenrid" on the 14'th of March, students who identify themselves as Russians and like to express their views get their mouths gagged. 

Sergei Metlev, a student of the Mustamäe Gymnasium, cunningly deflected the criticizm aimed at the Russian ambassador Nikolai Uspenski. That upset the schools director and reprecussions followed. 

Freedom of speech anyone ?

According to ERR news the director in question might soon be out of a job, as Tõnis Lukas points out. 

To work or not to work ?

As the financial crisis draws its claws ever deeper into our economy people are still struggling to decide what to make of it. Should it be feared or used to ones advantage ? 

Well, as with all things there is never one true answer, nevertheless some people still think that their answer is the only right one.

This statement, made by our very own Siiri Oviir had me worked up all day. While i do agree with her bland statement that minimum wage jobs pay little, i find it hard to believe that someone who holds a seat in the EU Social and Labour affairs office can give such misinformed advice. As nice as getting money for doing nothing sounds, it is not advisable for the three following reasons.

First and foremost. At this moment the unemployment offices are swamped with would be benefit seekers. On any given day their office shelters no less than 100 applicants and the registration process itself takes weeks, weeks that could be spent on duty.

Second. Being unemployed has never been a nice position in the view of society. The booming development durning the last 10 years has further enforced the stereotype of an unemployed citizen as being a lazy good for nothing. Shure, nobody is going to unload his views about your unemployment in your face, that's just not nice, the thoughts will rather be expressed in secret and behind your back.

Third. Stuff that performs well in a time of crisis is good stuff. Same applies to you, take that minimum wage job and do it well and rewards will follow. Even if that job leads nowhere and has no future prospects it will be a nice thing to brag about to future employers. 

Get to work, the government has enough to deal with as is.

Keit Pentus- the new mayor of Tallinn?

Reform Party affirmed their candidate for the Tallinn mayor at the upcoming local elections in October today- that is Keit Pentus. Keit Pentus promises to give the best of her as the future mayor of Tallinn to make Tallinn more contemporary, safe and, for all practical purposes, European capital city.