Just in case you forget

[Abarbarian]

winter is just around the corner.

http://www.wimp.com/estoniawaterfall/

 

[Anon_F]

We had a delivery of rock salt the other day so all ready for winter in 7 months time!

 

[Taffycat]

Wow! What an amazing sight. It looks beautiful.... but oh, so cold!!

 

[Abarbarian]

Wow! What an amazing sight. It looks beautiful.... but oh, so cold!!

Yup I'd like to be there in a fur lined troika.

 

[floppybootstomp]

That's nuttin! My school playground looked like that in 1963, been there, done that

So is Estonia actually a real place then? If it is - where is it?

 

[muckshifter]

That's nuttin! My school playground looked like that in 1963, been there, done that

So is Estonia actually a real place then? If it is - where is it?

Yep, and they in the EU, not like us.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1106425.stm

they be 'posh' people who live there

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia

 

[floppybootstomp]

Language problems eh? They're just as bad as the Welsh

And 'the highest level of Internet freedom in the world'.

Well there's a thing.

Lots of trees.

But do they have any decent pie & mash shops?

 

[Taffycat]

Language problems eh? They're just as bad as the Welsh

Hey ..! My leeks are registered as lethal weapons... so bring it on varmint..!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hey ..! My leeks are registered as lethal weapons... so bring it on varmint..!

I had a notion that might raise your hackles

The burning question is - does Estonia have leaf-cutting bees?

 

[Taffycat]

I had a notion that might raise your hackles

Ooh Flopps, you big tease ...

 

[muckshifter]

The burning question is - does Estonia have leaf-cutting bees?

yep, they have the alfalfa leafcutting bee [Megachile rotundata (Fabricius)]. It's not a native, and considered a pest.

Watch out for miner bees ... what floor flat you on?

 

[Abarbarian]

Language problems eh? They're just as bad as the Welsh

And 'the highest level of Internet freedom in the world'.

Well there's a thing.

Lots of trees.

But do they have any decent pie & mash shops?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1106425.stm

The legacy of the Soviet years has left a mark which the country carries with it into its EU era: Many Russian-speakers complain of discrimination, saying strict language laws make it hard to get jobs or citizenship without proficiency in Estonian. Some Russian-speakers who were born in Estonia are either unable or unwilling to become citizens because of the language requirements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_nationality_law#By_naturalisation

By naturalisation

Those seeking to become Estonian citizens via naturalisation require to fulfill the following criteria:

• applicant is aged 15 or over
• resided in Estonia legally for at least five years
• be familiar in the Estonian language. People who have graduated from an Estonian-speaking high school or an institute of higher education are assumed to fulfill this criterion without the need to take a full examination.
• take an examination demonstrating familiarity with the Estonian Constitution
• showing a demonstrated means of support
• taking an oath of loyalty

Those who have committed serious crimes or are foreign military personnel on active duty are ineligible to seek naturalisation as an Estonian citizen.

I do wish the BBC would get their facts right. If you were born in Estonia and went to school there you would be proficient in Estonian as it is the first language taught, so the last sentence in the bbc quote is just plain bo**ocks.

As you can see the nationalisation criteria are not very severe and to my mind pretty fair. I believe that the language criteria can be as simple as having the ability to speak and understand a minimum of 500 words.

As to discrimination of the Russians. What do they expect. Weekly street parties thanking them for sending nearly twenty percent of the native Estonian population to the siberian death camps during the communist occupation.

 

[Urmas]

As to discrimination of the Russians. What do they expect.

Now that is a good question.

After the War, an Estonian living in ruined Tallinn experienced difficulty with cockroaches. He went to a friend, asking for advice on how to remedy the problem. “I have a clockwork cockroach here,” the friend explained. “Just wind it up and let it loose in your apartment, all the other cockroaches will follow it out the door.”

A week later, the man came back. “Do you have any clockwork Russians?”

__________________________________


Cold-War-era Estonian joke: “We are the biggest country
in the world. Our coastline’s on the Baltic, our capital is Moscow, and our
population’s in Siberia!”

 

[Abarbarian]

Now that is a good question.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I do hope this isn't nationalist but looking at their history I wouldn't trust a.... oh, wait, it is Nationalist, ain't it? I best keep quiet

What side did you say you were on again Igor?

 

[Urmas]

Um... ahem.

I grew up 30 km west of the whachamacallit iron curtain. My late father (born in 1928) used to tell me how, before the WWII, Estonian folks used to sail across the Gulf of Finland, their boats full of potatoes and schitt that they used to sell. That sounded like a fairy tale at that time, in the 1960's, 1970's. Estonia – what used to be a country – was a prison.

This may sound schmaltzy (and nationalist, if you insist), but I am VERY grateful to those VERY stubborn Finnish folks before my time who said, "you can shove your Molotov-Ribbentrop pact where the sun doesn't shine". And acted accordingly.

Given my age, I probably would not be typing this post in English (OK, OK, what I perceive to be English) if Finland's fate had been that of Estonia.

All nations, large and small, should have the right to... quite simply, exist.

 

[Abarbarian]

Estonian folks used to sail across the Gulf of Finland, their boats full of potatoes and schitt that they used to sell. .

They still do don't they.

Past is past. All we can hope for is that the world learns by past tragedies.