Causes are not excuses

In light of recent extraordinary criminal activity (mass killing in Norway, looting and riots in London, also the gunman at the Estonian Ministry of Defence) there have been calls not to look at the causes of these crimes. These actions have been deemed by some as mad or crazy acts which supposedly took place irrationally, from some sort of natural evil that surfaces from time to time. Those acts might have been desparate and committed by people who are not sane and they are, of course, criminal, but that should not prevent us from looking into why these actions were taken. What was it that has driven some members of the society into these horrific actions against their own societies? As a side note, it is interesting to observe that although the preoccupation of governments have been focused on how to react to an outside terror threat, these actions have been taken by the citizens against their own state.

I do not advocate shifting the blame from the individual who committed the crime to the society on the whole. It is clear that those individuals who were proven to commit a specific act deserve to be punished according to the law. However, in order to prevent such acts in the future, it is important to look at and analyse the causes of these events. The society should also look into things that are wrong and try to remedy these. This way, the horrific events could be turned into possibilities to make a better society. This does not mean that we somehow reward the criminals, because the motivation should not be fear of someone doing something similar again, but to eliminate the root causes of these actions.

Some people (especially those who like to see things in black and white terms) think that there are people who are evil and that is that. Those ‘evil’ people need to be tracked down and put to prison or even killed. That is not the way I look at things. I think people and life in general is much more complex. Goodness and evil are subjective, relative terms that could, at best, relate to specific actions in a specific ethical or moral framework, but not really to the whole of a person.

Faced with complex set of issues that shock or frighten, people tend to seek for strong leaders with simple, harsh measures. However, I think it is best to analyse the situation and also look at the root causes of these criminal events. Trying to ignore problems will not make them go away.

Who to vote for?

I have already voted at the upcoming local government elections in Estonia, but I have been thinking about my choice (or rather lack of good choices). Here is my take on the Estonian politicial party landscape:

1. Keskerakond (Centre Party): They are dishonest and populist to the extreme. Although they have certain redeeming features in what they want to achieve, I could not vote for them because of how they behave in politics.

2. Reformierakond (Reform Party): I have been disappointed with them in recent years. In their hunt for popularity they have let go of their principles and become more populist than I would have expected. If you have to change your principles in order to get more votes, then what point is there to having power if you cannot do what you would want? They have disappointed me with many things, but mostly with dropping their fight to end compulsory military service. They have changed from a less popular party that got things done to more popular party that gets nothing substantial done.

3. Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit (Pro Patria and Res Publica Union): They are simply too conservative, nationalistic and sometimes even fascist to appeal to me. I cannot consider voting for them until they become less radical.

4. Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Partei (Social Democrat Party): They lack consistent ideology that would offer a specific plan for Estonia. They have locked themselves to oppositionary thinking and rather than coming up with new and interesting ideas, they just rehash the same old stuff. They are economically not credible and their leadership is completely uncharismatic.

5. Erakond Eestimaa Rohelised (Greens): It is just a big mess, not a party. They are not organised, which means they will remain marginal. I have severe issues with several people who belong to that party.

6. Rahvaliit (People’s Union): Like Centre Party Light, but with no clout or support. Politically a lame duck, deservedly. Hopefully these elections will end their misery and they will finally disintegrate completely.

I made the choice reluctantly by voting for the party I thought might be least capable of completely screwing up, but for a long time there has not been anyone to really vote for.

Estonian Higher Education is systematically flawed

Estonian higher education is deeply, systematically flawed. The greatest flaw is not the lack of cooperation among Estonian universities, but rather forced cooperation where competition should be encouraged. Dreams of one and only “Estonian University” or the University of Tartu’s dream of them as the only university in Estonia will end up a nightmare where there are no substantial universities in Estonia at all.

The main problem of Estonian universities is the small pond effect. Universities, and Ministers of Education seem to see only Estonian higher education space, where they should see at least European or global higher education space. Today’s academic world is not constrained by boundaries and the more time we spend closing our higher education space off for foreigners the worse off we will be. If we want our universities to be European class or regional centres of academy we need to do the following things:

1. Forget about Estonian-language higher education: This single biggest thing holding back Estonian universities is the lack of teaching and studying in English. Using English as the only language for studies will be an enormous benefit. Today, Estonian institutions of higher education work against, not towards internationalisation, mostly due to the lack of English language skills of faculty and staff.

2. Stop discriminatory practices in admissions, forget about state exams: SAIS only for Estonians with Estonian ID cards has perhaps made it easier to administer the admissions process, but it has also separated Estonians from other students.

3. Admit the failure of state regulation, give universities their freedom. Forced migration to 3+2 is an ongoing disaster that has resulted in terrible loss of academic quality and competitiveness. The same applies to all state mandated reforms that no one really needs. At the moment Estonian universities are extensions of the Ministry of Education and Research, they are being pushed and pulled by different reforms and practices. Forget about state funded places, forget about state funded research libraries: just give the money to universities so that they can be responsible and choose their own means of providing access to universities for disadvantaged students or decide which books, databases etc to buy.

I think it is worth to try this radical new approach instead of driving off the cliff, but faster.

The bizarro-world of Tallinn city government

People tend to think of municipal politicians all over the world as more corrupt and less talented as those governing a state. Tallinn however is in a class of its own. All traditional elements of corruption are present: nepotism, favouritism, special deals with certain businessmen, shady advisors, city officials forced to become members of the ruling party, increasing propaganda-machine to hold power, rigorous court actions to defend against supervision etc. Corruption in Tallinn has become so commonplace that people have ceased to expect more and kind of accepted dishonesty as a part of a political ideology used by the Centre Party. No one in their right mind would tolerate the kind of behaviour exhibited by those governing Tallinn among their friends, or in their workplace.

“They are all the same” is just another way for them to shift blame for corruptive acts to someone else, to the democratic system.

The idea for this blog came, as I took trolleybus no 3 back home from work I saw the new “conductor” the Centrist city government has put to many of the public transport buses, trolleybuses and trams in order to create “social” jobs ahead of the local government elections in October. There is nothing social about these people, to me this particular individual seemed to be bored out of his mind. No-one spoke to him, no-one even looked at him during the 25 minute ride. He strolled back and forth through the trolley-bus (which fortunately was not very crowded), fiddled with his phone and tried hard to look important.

In my opinion these people are not conductors, rather they are people who the city government pays to ride the buses and trolleybuses and trams the whole day. I think that being paid to be a commuter is a horrible job, because commuting already for half and hour is quite difficult task. I probably would not survive the full workday in this meanial, boring job. This reminds me of the film where it showed how Nazis tried to break the will of their prisoners in concentration camps by having them move a pile of rocks back and forth between one place and another. I don’t understand why they don’t just pay these “professional commuters” their small salary and let them do something productive. Or put them all in one bus that takes more diverse, scenic routes and where they could play chess, read books. This saves us, the commuters who are not paid to commute, some space and allows to travel comfortably, without having to tolerate watching a person who is in the brink of being bored to death.

I plan to vote for someone who is sane and sensible in the coming local elections and not for someone who only looks at everything through narrow ideological perpective.

Hectic times and the Moment of Truth

As always, the beginning of September is time-wise extremely constrained for me. Therefore I do not have enough time to write anything. In any case, I’ll soon be back with a more regular updates to the blog.

In the meantime I have had a nice birthday and other things are developing nicely.

I wanted to give a new remark about the new TV show Tõehetk (The Estonian version of the Moment of Truth). I think the show is especially vicious and it is a crime against the human civilization. It plays on the vice of greed to satisfy the public’s almost unlimited infringement on the game participant’s privacy, which I value as especially precious. I am scum for having watched it and I’ll try not to watch it any more.

Georgia under attack!

If everything had gone according to plans, I would be in Georgia today with a group of people from Estonia, visiting Batumi. As fate had it, the plans changed and I am in France instead.

If this event does not convince European leaders that Russia cannot be regarded as an equal partner, then what needs to happen. Democratic countries do not attack other democratic countries. Do they need to nuke someone for people in European capitals to wake up? Russia is too big and too consequential to let it drift into a complete dictatorship.

Read the joint declaration of Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish presidents on Russia’s military attack against Georgia.

Unlucky Friday

Yesterday was Friday 13th, so naturally some things had to go wrong: in a global scale the Irish said no to the Lisbon Treaty, but in my personal level my MacBook Pro refused to show any video (the screen was completely blank). At the local Mac service I was told it was the motherboard which was faulty and there would be a 2 -3 weeks wait until a new one arrives.

Fortunately I can borrow another MBP at work and restore my documents to that one until I get it fixed. Also, my MacBook Pro was within warranty period, so I do not suffer a financial setback, just an inconvenience.

The Irish said No to Lisbon Treaty

It appears that the best hope for a more integrated Europe has gone. The Lisbon Treaty, already a Plan B after the failure of the Constitutional Treaty has been rejected by the voters in Ireland, the only country where a referendum was held. It is a sad day for Europe, as it appears there is no Plan C.

Populist rightwingers can continue their lies and misinformation about the European Union.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights, abolishment of the pillars and streamlining lawmaking process are now all on hold.

I do not understand who say that this was a democratic vote. It was not. 3 million Irish people decided to hold back 500 million Europeans. The No campaign was based on misrepresenting, fearmongering and unashamed populism, which muffled the Yes vote. The whole situation is absurd.

Things That Suck: the Victory Monument

The planned Victory Monument of the Freedom War (Vabadussõja võidusammas) is being built without regard to the principles for which Estonia stands for me. I will not honour the monument and will use any and all means reasonably possible to discredit this antithesis to freedom or the memory of the victory. I love Estonia, but I hate the monument the way it is planned. I was not always against it, I am a great believer in the power of the arts so I welcome any new development that would enrich our public space in my home town of Tallinn. But everything changed when I saw the design and found out more about who and why is building it. For some reason the monument is being built under the auspices of the Ministry of Defence, which as far as I know does not deal with planning of public areas in Tallinn.

Here are the reasons for my decision to disown the monument:

1. The cross: Estonia has never been a Christian country, we are mostly atheists/pagans and proud of it. The cross has for Estonians the meaning of oppression and foreign conquest rather than victory. The teutanic cross is also very similar to nazi regalia, which might confuse some people.
2. The process, which ran against all good governance principles. The monument process was politically driven and hasty. It did not take into account any of the principles of inclusion, instead it showed that in 2008 democratic Estonia it is still possible to make decisions like in 1978 Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. Dissenting opinions are disregarded and democratic dialogue discouraged with classic excuses (not the right time to raise questions, it is unpatriotic). It seems to me that the people who decide are motivated by the need to be written in history as the ones who finally managed to conclude a project which was in the making since 1918.
3. It is unsuitable. The general consensus among those who are educated in the field of arts is that artistically it is not suitable to the area. 

A question of principle

An interesting dilemma. Via Andrew Sullivan.