Life after Eesti

New Blog

2008-03-29T19:32:00.003-05:00

For a number of reasons I'm switching away from Blogger so please update any links or bookmarks you may have and point them to the new site which can be found here:

http://www.sehr.ca/blog/

I apologize for the minor inconvenience this change causes but in the long run it'll be better for me to host my own stuff.

Alcohol Politics

2008-03-16T17:07:00.003-05:00

Alcohol politics are a popular topic in Estonia, no one seems to agree on what restrictions if any should exist. In Ontario the topic rarely comes up but sometimes it's pretty obvious what side has won. (Note the # of outlets open).

The Shock Doctrine - Review

2008-03-04T17:59:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading Naomi Klein's latest book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism". I enjoyed her previous book, No Logo, quite a bit so I was looking forward to this one.

The book starts out with an in depth recount of experiments conducted in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly at McGill University in Montreal, that studied a severe method of mental therapy on patients. This therapy involved braking down patients to their infantile level using methods such as intense periods of isolation followed by sensory overload, electroshock and hallucinogenic drugs. Once a patient had been "broken down" it was believed that doctors to "remake" the patients and cure all sorts of mental ailments. A lot of this research has been later used as the base for modern interrogation (torture?) employed by around the world. Klein also argues that basic principals of this research has been used on a much larger scale to inflict mass therapy on entire nations, braking them down to their basic level and wipe out any resistance in order to implement radical reforms that would otherwise be opposed by the majority of the population.

The book then spends a lot of time focusing it's critique on Milton Friedman and his so called "Chicago Boys", staunch free market economist who's main goal is remove any government interference in economics and let corporations run free. The first nations to implement Friedman's policies were Latin and South American nations, such as Chile under Pinochet, which had removed left leaning governments from office and been taken over by right wing dictatorships that brutally repressed it's people. In many of these countries Chicago trained economist came into powerful positions and privatized industries, raised prices, laid of public servants and generally screwed the poor.

Klein explains that Chicago boys learned that during times of instability they would be able to influence public policy (generally through institutions like the IMF) in order to advance their agenda of free market theory. Klein cites examples all over the world where disasters (man-mad or natural) have occurred and how states have been pressured into selling off their assets and opening up their economy to foreigners for plunder. Some of the examples include:

Poland right after the Solidarity movement won elections.
Russia after the fall of communism.
South East Asia after the tsunami of 2004
South Africa at the end of the apartheid

In all of these cases, Klein argues that Chicago trained and influence policy makers pushed through radical reforms that would never otherwise get passed in order to benefit big business.

I'm not sure that I agreed 100% with Klein's arguments, for sure there are numerous cases where corporations got sweetheart deals and it does seem like the IMF is more than happy to saddle struggling nations with a lot of debt and commitments but I don't think it's all that black and white. One example she talks about is Poland's shipyards closing shortly after communism fell, she seems to attribute this to western corporations raiding the factories and closing them maliciously, while the more likely cause is simply that communist era factories were generally a mess and in no way capable of staying open without the Soviet era subsidies they once had.

The section that is the most striking is about the Iraq war and the general outsourcing of the American government to private contractors. After 9/11 the "homeland security" industry grew from nowhere and all sorts of firms started selling services to the government. Most of these firms were run by former government officials who in some cases came back to the government at set policy that would often help their firms. The amount of ineptitude (or sheer corruption?) that occurred in the first months of the Iraq war were stunning. The people in charge were more concerned with getting Wal-Mart and Haliburton on the ground than they were saving Iraqi lives. Iraqis were excluded from working on reconstruction projects while contractors were guaranteed costs, plus profit. She also has a chapter on New Orleans and how corporations were given billions in reconstruction contracts (almost always no-bid) only to see the money get disappear with little to show for it even to this day.

There's more than enough in this book to get you riled up and upset about how some countries have been taken advantage by government and big business. But in general, Klein is a little too lefty for me. She doesn't offer much in terms of solutions, the book left me the impression that she believes that if only the entire world were run by Chavez and Morales and if corporations were all in the hands of governments we'd all be better off. Not sure I agree with that.

Overall the book was a decent read. Not as good as her previous one, a bit harder to get through and a little repetitive but overall worth reading if you enjoy this type of anti-corporate book.

Estonia's nuclear ambitions

2008-02-29T10:27:00.001-05:00

There's been talk in the press recently about whether or not Estonia should build it's own nuclear power plant. To me this is an odd questions so I started reading up on it a bit.

Estonia has always been electricity independent thanks to it's abundance of oil shale deposits in the east and the large power plants near Narva which provide more than enough power for the country and even a little left over to sell to neighbors.

In 2013 the EU electricity market opens up and due to the dirty nature of Estonia's electricity generation it will become prohibitively expensive to produce power (they charge a high CO2 tax on oil shale). So Eesti has started looking into alternative methods to get electricity. The past couple of years Eesti Energia has been talking with the Lithuanians about a partnership to build a new plant in Ignelina where there is a plant right now that has to be shut down shortly due to EU regulations. Apparently the negotiations haven't gone so well, the Poles want a large part of the generation and small Eesti may get pushed out of the deal. Eesti has also asked the Finns whether they can be a part of any future projects in the north since Finland has a number of nukes already running, this option doesn't look likely as they are in the process of building a plant and probably won't need a new one anytime soon.

Because none of these partnerships seem to be working the government has decided to investigate whether building their own, small nuke plant would be a good idea. A couple of locations out on the eastern coast have been mentioned and there is talk of taking the CO2 money that they'll be making in the next couple of years and investing it in a plant that will ensure the future of Estonia's electrical independence.

Does Estonia really need to spend the money to build a plant? Are there no other alternatives? It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Post War: A History of Europe Since 1945 - Review

2008-02-16T17:39:00.006-05:00

I recently finished reading Tony Judt's excellent book on the history of Europe after WW2. It's a well written overview of the events that shaped modern Europe and describes in detail how the rise of the EU and it's institutions came to be.

It also delves deeply into the conditions and events in Eastern Europe and how they shaped (or failed to shape) the rest of the continent. The first couple of chapters were of particular interest to me, the short period after the war and before the Cold War set in was a precarious time for all of Europe. Security and economic uncertainty was everywhere and a lot of decisions were made with the assumption that Germany could one day rise to threaten the world again.

There were a number of interesting sections that discussed Estonia and its directs neighbors and events that I was either unaware of or found interesting, some of those sections I'll mention here.

Early in the book the author discusses the effects of collective farms and farm quotas on the local populations and how out of touch they were:

The Baltic States, fully incorporated into the Soviet Union itself, were even worse off than the rest of eastern Europe. 1949, kolkhozes in northern Estonia were required to begin grain deliveries even before the harvest had begun, in order to keep in line with Latvia, four hundred kilometers to the south. By 1953 rural conditions in hitherto prosperous Estonia had deteriorated to the point where cows blown over by the wind were too weak to get back on their feet unaided.

Another section that discussed Sweden and the successful social democratic model they employed also mentions various eugenics programs (attempts at racial improvement that usually involved sterilization) that were by run by Uppsala university. I had no idea that such programs existed and continued to exist until 1976.

The chapter on the 1960's discusses some of the reforms that Krushchev tried to undertake, one of which was a small attempt at private farms which apparently worked a little too well.

"By the early sixties, the 3 percent of cultivated soil in private hands was yielding over a third of the Soviet Union's agricultural output."

When discussing centralized planning in East Germany there are some comedic references to the strict nature of quotas that existed.

"It was announced that Book-holdings in the libraries are to be increased from 350k to 450k volumes. The number of borrowings is to be increased 108.2 percent".

In the section about the creation of a common EU currency the author mentions how Germany pushed hard for stringent rules to ensure that the new currency would mimic the policies of the old Deutchmark. This is of particular interest for Eesti as they have been unable to meet the criteria to join the Euro zone simply because inflation grew as the economy heated up.

"The German negotiators - wary of the profligate tendencies of 'Club Med' countries like Italy or Spain - imposed draconian conditions for membership of the new currency."

Overall I thought the book was one of the most readable history books I've read and provided me with a good base for understanding a lot of current EU (and Russian) issues. So if you're looking for a nice 800+ page book to cozy up with next to the fireplace on a wintery night I highly recommend it.

Pet Peeve

2008-02-01T18:15:00.001-05:00

Can someone explain to me why such a large bottle is needed for such small pills?

I know that the probably only make 1 or 2 sizes of bottles to accommodate the largest size pills but really, this is a waste of packaging.

Skype vs. Scrabulous

2008-02-01T10:27:00.000-05:00

Scrabulous is the popular Facebook application that got into trouble for ripping off the original Scrabble game.

It appears that they also have a strikingy similar logo to Skype. :)

Teder vs Jõks

2008-01-29T09:52:00.000-05:00

Reform has given their support to Indrek Teder and it's likely that he'll become the next õiguskantsler (Estonia's version of a constitutional ombudsmen). Teder has supported a recent decision of Jõks where parliament members can't sit on the board of directors of companies (not sure if it's just government firms or all firms?) so it should be interesting to see if Teder gets chosen if he'll push this through against the wishes of Reform and Kesk.

To me it just looks like the main requirement for this job is being bald with think rimmed glasses. :)

Australian advisories

2008-01-25T10:05:00.000-05:00

There's an amusing article in most of todays Canadian dailies about Australia's official travel advisory website which warns to "exercise caution" when traveling to Canada. The site lists Canada as more of a risk then Chile, South Korea and Latvia to name a few.

Some of the major dangers in Canada include:

- Risk of terrorist attack
- Petty crime such as pick pocketing and street theft occurs at tourist destinations, hotels and on public transport.
- The province of British Columbia in western Canada is in an active earthquake zone
- Alberta and British Columbia are also subject to avalanches. Tornadoes can occur in some areas of Canada between May and September.
- Bush and forest fires can occur any time in Canada. (Fires in the winter?)

I checked Estonia out on their site. Eesti is consider one step safer than Canada, some of the dangers include:
- You should avoid demonstrations and large public gatherings as they may turn violent.
- Driving in Estonia can be dangerous due to local driving practices, poorly maintained roads and vehicles, and inadequate road lighting.
- When you are in Estonia, be aware that local laws and penalties, including ones that appear harsh by Australian standards, do apply to you.

Canada sure sounds like a scary place. :)

Fox "News"

2008-01-12T09:18:00.000-05:00

The post below contained a video clip from a Fox debate, in which Ron Paul ripped the host a new one when asked why he was running since he wasn't electable.

Fox apparently cut this from the debate (not sure if that's 100% true) and now they've gotten it removed from YouTube even though there are thousands of other Fox clips on the site.

A lot of people claim that the mainstream media is purposefully ignoring Ron Paul, I'm starting to believe that may be true.

Straight talk

2008-01-11T15:32:00.000-05:00

Ron Paul has some pretty kooky ideas but boy is it nice to see an honest politician once and awhile.

You're fired

2008-01-10T10:02:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of ink being spent in Estonia on a new employment law that was announced yesterday. I haven't read many specifics about the law, mainly because most of the press is going towards the battle between Reform and the Sotsid who dislike the bill. I gather that the bill makes firing employees easier which is upsetting a lot of people, if anyone has more details on the actual bill I'd love to hear them.

What did strike me as interesting in this bill is that it provides every employee with 15 days a year for an "educational vacation". I think this a great idea, it's a way to ensure that your population continues to upgrade their skills and gives employees a chance to break from the everyday work life and learn something new and interesting. I expect we'll see a proliferation of schools and companies offering 2 week courses in all sorts of topics if this bill passes.

An surprise benefit of Shengen

2008-01-09T14:03:00.000-05:00

Apparently Nashi activists are pissed at Estonia again (although I don't think they ever stopped). This time it is because as of last month when Eesti joined the Shengen visa free zone which allows for border free travel in the EU they have shared their "banned list" of people denied entry to Estonia with the rest of the EU. Because of this there are a number of Nashi (reportedly around 2000) who are now barred from entering any Shengen country, essentially all of the EU except England and Ireland. Nashi activists have gotten so obsessed with getting to Tallinn that they've resorted to crossing borders illegally on foot.

Orwellian

2008-01-06T09:05:00.000-05:00

Has Rudy Guliani resurrected George Orwell and put him in charge of his ads?

Something is off

2008-01-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

Does this seem normal to you?

Singing Revolution Box Office receipts

2007-12-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

The Singing Revolution came out in NYC last week. It got some good reviews and managed to crack the Top 10 box office in terms of average revenue per screen in all of the US. Hopefully these good results will mean a little more exposure for the film.

A little bit about Russia

2007-12-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

So yesterday Russia held their parliamentary elections, no surprise in the result. Putin's party won more than 60% of the vote and there are complaints of widespread voter manipulation.

I also noticed the news that the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) announced that they are beginning talks with 5 new countries to join, among them Estonia and Russia.

I didn't know much about OECD so I check out their website and their mission statement is as follows:

The OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the market economy from around the world to:

• Support sustainable economic growth
• Boost employment
• Raise living standards
• Maintain financial stability
• Assist other countries' economic development
• Contribute to growth in world trade

I wonder how the Russia fit's into that criteria, based on this weekends performance their doesn't seem to be much "democracy" going on there.

Global Climate Destabilization

2007-12-02T12:23:00.000-05:00

Good video that explains in simple terms that action to combat global warming is an exercise in risk management that shouldn't be ignored.

Russia: Death of a Nation

2007-11-26T20:37:00.000-05:00

I just finished watching a fascinating and frightening documentary on Russia's demographic crisis (thanks for the tip Jaanus).

It's a look into the rapid decline of Russia's population which is compounded by poverty, drug use and disease. It also examines the growing nationalism in the country, the maker often compares what he sees to 1930's Germany.

It's made by Channel4 in the UK and is available on Google Video on also on some torrent sites.

It's a good watch if you're into Russia and makes you wonder how they'll turn things around internally.

Is Russia trying to devalue the Estonian Kroon?

2007-11-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

There are reports in the papers today that Russian websites are saying that the Eesti Kroon is being devalued and people should cash in their EEK's for Euros. Officials have come out and said that this is not true but that hasn't stopped a number of people from rushing to currency exchange places to convert their kroons. Apparently most of the people converting have been ethnic Russians in places like Idu-Virumaa and it hasn't spread much further.

So the question is whether the Russian government (directly or through its various proxies) is trying to cause the kroon to collapse and whether they could succeed? Eesti Pank has said that they have more than enough foreign currency reserves to hold the peg and since the Kroon is a fairly illiquid currency on the global market I doubt that Russia or any Russian organization has enough kroons to sell to make any impact. Also, since the biggest losers of a devalued Kroon would likely be the Swedish banks that control Estonian finances they'd probably do everything they can to purchase the excess money that is coming onto the market. So the only real option would be to try to cause an internal "run on the bank" and get locals to sell their Kroons, which it seems like they are trying to do at the moment but I doubt it will work.

Now I wonder what would happen if Russia tried to push the value of the kroon up instead of down? Could this ruin the economy by making exports unrealistically expensive? Hypothetically if Russia took some of the vast amounts of money they make every day off of oil and started buying kroons they could push up the value of the kroon to effect an already vulnerable economy. I haven't thought this through very much so I'm sure there's a reason why this wouldn't work but it's an interesting thought nonetheless. Most likely Eesti Pank could flood the market with more kroons bringing the value back down to normal and negating any impact.

Economic Crisis a good thing?

2007-11-13T11:49:00.000-05:00

Sten caused a bit of a stir this past weekend when some of his comments at a innovation forum made the newspaper. Sten was quoted as saying that Eesti could use a good old economic crash at this point in order to secure the economic future of the country. He argues that Eestlased have gotten a bit lazy, that life is going so well and the money is rolling in so there's no need for radical change. This is good in the short term but long term will hurt Eesti which still relies greatly on Old Town tourism, (no longer) cheap labour, a real estate boom and transit corridors as sources of income.

I think Sten hits the nail on the head and a little shake up is necessary in order to re-order the school system and focus the country on a sustainable economy of innovation and services. Looking at the recent economic stats (GDP growth hits a 4 year low) we may be in process of that correction, whether or not it will be severe enough to shake things up is yet to be seen.

Inflatable

2007-11-07T14:24:00.000-05:00

Estonian inflation hit 8.5% in October, nice. I don't see much about it in the papers or any comment from the government. I haven't seen a single step by the government to curb inflation (not that they have many options) and I'm starting to wonder if anyone in Eesti understands the economic consequences of high inflation? Ansip proudly stated that they hadn't adopted the Euro yet not because of any internal problem but because of the strict Euro entry requirements, wonder if he still uses that (weak) argument?

España

2007-11-06T10:26:00.000-05:00

I spent the last week in Spain catching a bit of sun and spending some time with Liisa. I'd been to Spain before about 6 years ago and enjoyed it then and still enjoyed it today.

A couple of things I noticed while in Spain:

1) Madrid's subway system is amazing, it's cheap and goes pretty much everywhere and is exactly what public transit should be. A single ride costs 2EUR but you can purchase 10 rides for about 6EUR. You can take the metro out to the airport eventhough it's 15+ kms from the centre and there's even a line with only 2 stops (I think it's mostly to get up a big hill). They continue to expand the system each year which is something unheard of in Toronto. Purchasing tickets is simple, quick and mostly automated although there is still usually 1 worker who you can ask questions of or buy tickets. The system appears to be used very widely and was always full. I wonder how they get the money to continue to expand the system? Do they get EU money for it? Toronto (and Tallinn) could seriously learn a lesson or two from Madrid's public transit.

2) Spanish lifestyle is fun but doesn't suit me. In Spain time seems shifted, shops don't open until 10 or 11am. They close for a long time in the afternoon and reopen again after 5pm. You can't get dinner until 8:30pm (kitchens are often closed) and no one goes home until 4am. While this might work well during the hot summer days and is fun once and awhile I couldn't live like this. I like to go to bed relatively early and get up early, I'm most productive in the morning, maybe the long Estonian winter nights have permanently shifted my patterns.

3) Tapas is great. I love being able to have a number of different little dishes rather than one big dish. It's also great to be in a country where they don't tack on a 500% markup on a bottle of wine in a restaurant.

All in all a great vacation, coming back to Toronto weather wasn't much fun but it's better than the weather Liisa has in Tartu. :)

Estonian Identity Act

2007-10-25T14:03:00.000-05:00

The topic of ethnic relations has been on the radar in Estonia for the past 6 months since the riots. Quebec languages laws have often been compared and contrasted with Eesti so I was amused when I read an article in the paper today about the purposed "Quebec Identity Act" which the Parti Québécois is purposing in Quebec.

Essentially the law would create a "Quebec citizenship" which you can get if you speak French and know enough about Quebec culture and history (I'm assuming through some sort of test?). Without Quebec citizenship you would not be able to for the National Assembly, municipal council or school posts, and from contributing to political parties (even Federal Parties) or petitioning the assembly. The article gives a nice example: Just imagine. A born-in-Canada computer analyst from Toronto who moves to Montreal for work could apply for "Quebec citizenship" only if he or she speaks French and knows Quebec culture..

Even if this proposal were somehow to become law (which it won't) there's no way it would survive a legal challenge but it's always interesting to see that Estonia's ethnic integration issues aren't unique and exists even very close to home.

The Estonian Threat

2007-10-25T10:28:00.000-05:00

I just read an article in the NY Times about what Putin may do to stay in power. This paragraph struck me:

The other option would not require Mr. Putin to move out of the Kremlin even for a short time. According to the Russian Constitution, the president may declare martial law in the case of aggression or “direct threat of aggression.” A subsequent “martial law regime” could be easily fashioned by the Parliament to include the cancellation of elections until the “threat” is over. The “threat” could be found to emanate from Estonia, which has been sharply denounced by Russia’s official propaganda this year. Estonia’s ambassador in Moscow has been harassed by a government-organized youth group and its Web sites have been subject to cyberattacks.

I've got to wonder what kind of "threat" Eesti could pose to Russia to cause martial law? I can't even think of a made up threat that Russia could come up with that would require martial law, any ideas?

Adopt the EURO now?

2007-10-22T19:35:00.000-05:00

There's an interesting article on EPL today that talk about Estonia adopting the EURO as a parallel currency to the Kroon. All sorts of transactions such as payroll and taxes could be done in either currency. This has been brought up because it's clear that Eesti won't be joining the Eurozone anytime soon as inflation continues to rise out of control and the government is incapable (or unwilling) to address it. Two of the ruling parties have talked about this and it appears to be something that is under study and consideration, how serious that consideration is is unknown.

My thinking is why not take it one step further. Why not simply abolish the Kroon and adopt the Euro unilaterally? There are a number of countries that use the US Dollar even though there not part of America, so why doesn't Eesti make a similar move? There may be EU laws against it, I don't know, but it may be worth considering.

Singing Revolution - Canadian Premiere

2007-10-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended the Canadian premier of The Signing Revolution film at the Ontario Science Centre. The movie was part of the EstDocs film festival, a Estonian documentary film festival that is in it's 3rd year here in Toronto. The event was sold out, with an about 500 guests in attendance including 2 member's of Canada's parliament and Mart Laar who spoke about the film. One of the film's creators, Maureen Castle Tusty, was also in attendance and introduced the film. (You can see a video of the intro at Eesti.ca)

I had seen the movie earlier and wrote a bit about it but this was the first time seeing it on a big screen with a crowd. Most of those in attendance either fled Estonia during the war or were born to parents who fled so there was a personal connection for most people there. The film received a very warm reception, including a 5 minute standing ovation at the end. It was followed by a nice Q&A with Mart and Maureen where they explained a bit of the background of the movie, how footage was collected, how the inspiration for the film came and some of the challenges of making it.

The film is opening in Los Angeles and New York in December (I believe the weeks of Dec 7th and 14th respectively) and I urge you to go to SingingRevolution.com and register for a screening in your area if you're interested. If you are familiar or interested in eastern european history or have a connection with Estonia, chances are you are going to enjoy this movie. Documentaries are difficult sells, especially ones about small northern countries most people haven't heard of, so supporting this movie is important.

Skype + MySpace

2007-10-16T17:06:00.001-05:00

Skype and MySpace just announced a partnership to allow MySpace users to make calls to one another using Skype technology. I think this is a smart move on Skype's part, they've been fairly absent from social networks recently and in my opinion were falling behind in space that seems like a natural fit.

The only question I have is whether MySpace is the right partner? I personally don't use (or like) MySpace and think Facebook is much further ahead and there's been more hype around it recently. Is Skype latching on to old news? I don't know, hopefully this doesn't mean they can't do similar deals with other social networks.

Please, don't give me a raise.

2007-10-16T10:57:00.000-05:00

Eesti has little control over it's own economy at this point, and the little control the government does have they don't want to use because they were elected based on the promise that everyone would be rich. Now the head of the Estonian Central Bank, Andres Lipstok, has come out and asked people not to request a raise next year. Seriously? This is how far Estonian economic policy has fallen, we have to beg people not try and get a raise? Doesn't instill much confidence in the governments management of the economy.

Hatebook

2007-10-15T14:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't signed up for this but it looks good. :)

http://www.hatebook.org

Estonian Corruption Alert

2007-10-11T15:22:00.000-05:00

Looks like a member of parliament is in another apparent corruption scandal. This time it's Ester Tuiksoo, a member of the Rahvaliit party. The claim is that she's been driving around in Oliver "Kohuke" Kruuda's car for awhile without paying for it. She's also being looked into for some shady apartment deals that have gone down recently. I wonder what the blowback for this will be? Probably very little going on previous similar incidents, taking gifts or doing business with major contributors doesn't seem to bother anyone. I wonder what would happen in a country like Sweden where politicians resign for a lot less.

Singing Revolution Toronto Screening

2007-10-09T11:35:00.000-05:00

A couple of people have asked when the Toronto screening will be for The Singing Revolution movie.

The Toronto screening is on October 21st at 5:30pm, it is being held at the Ontario Science Centre (Don Mills & Eglinton). Before the movie there will be a reception with one of the directors and Mart Laar, the 2 time Estonian Prime Minister and current head of the IRL party.

As for screenings in other locations, I have no information. I suggest you check out the website and/or try and contact the makers of the film for more info.

The future of the music industry?

2007-10-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

Radiohead has a new album coming out October 10th. It's their first album in a number of years and their first since they finished up a multi-album contract with EMI. They've decided not to sign with another record label and are releasing the new album online. While that in itself is a little different for a big band what is most compelling about this is how they are pricing their album. They've decided to let the purchaser decide how much they are willing to pay for the album! That's right, you go to radiohead.com and you can (pre)-order the album, you enter any price you want down to 1pence and then submit your order.

For someone like myself who hasn't purchased a lot of music in recent years this is very intriguing. Clearly Radiohead can do it more easily than some other bands since they are filthy rich already but by allowing the consumer to price the product as they want it makes the proposition of purchasing music for someone like myself much more viable. I can know decide myself how much I value the music and also ensure that the money is going to the band, not some big record label.

This probably isn't the first band to do this but as far as I know they are the biggest to try something like this. Is this the future of the music industry?

The Loonie

2007-09-28T09:08:00.000-05:00

Lot's of talk around here about how the Canadian Dollar (ie. the loonie) is stronger than the US Dollar for the first time a long time. Stephan Colbert put in his two cents (or about 3 cents Canadian).

Quote of the Day

2007-09-25T07:38:00.000-05:00

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran in his speech to the students of Columbia University in NYC"

“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon, I do not know who has told you that we have it.”

Kanada Onu

2007-09-22T19:17:00.000-05:00

Great stuff.

Singing Revolution movie review

2007-09-10T13:47:00.000-05:00

While I was in Eesti I was lucky enough to see the movie "Singing Revolution", a new documentary about the Estonian occupation and the independence movement of the late 80's and early 90's. The movie isn't only about singing, rather it uses singing and it's place in Estonian culture to tie together a number of different historical elements to tell the story of Estonian Re-independence.

The first thing that strikes you is the amazing production quality of the movie, this is a top rate Hollywood production that has interviews with most of the important players of that time and has some amazing archival footage that is rarely seen elsewhere. The directors do an amazing job of telling the story of how the Estonian people fought for independence with song and non-violent protest as well as some clever exploitation of Gorbachev's perestroika era to assert their freedom. The movie was able to show how independence didn't come easy for Estonia as there were many different thoughts on how best to achieve freedom and that internally the local activists had trouble agreeing on the best way to proceed. The footage from the 80's and 90's is amazing, I vaguely remember the events of that time but seeing it all put together in this film really helps put together what happened during those important years.

I guess the only small critique of the movie could be the glossing over of some events during the second world war as well as barely any mention of the struggle for freedom that was done outside of Eesti for 50 years by the Estonians who fled in the 40's. These are small issues and in no way diminish the wonderful movie. I strongly recommend that if you get a chance to see the movie that you do, you won't regret it. I believe that the film is having a screening in Toronto sometime in mid-October which I will gladly attend again. The trailer to the movie can be seen below.

So long Tory.

2007-09-05T13:56:00.000-05:00

The provincial Tories just lost my vote. I was considering voting for them in next months elections as I liked John Tory when he ran for mayor and some of their policies are decent (not all, I don't like the idea of funding religious schools). But then today they go ahead and announce that Creationism should be allowed to be taught in schools here. What??? First off, since when has anyone in Canada ever even wanted this? As far as I know this has never been an issue here. This is just another example of the Americanization of Canadian politics. Yuck.

D'oh!

2007-08-31T09:11:00.001-05:00

This site is cool, although I think I look a little too much like Milhouse.

Note self, avoid flying via the US.

2007-08-30T13:31:00.001-05:00

I learned a valuable lessons this month about travel; if at all possible, avoid traveling via the USA.

With the increased security and down right terrible airlines going through the US only causes delays and anxiety. My flight to Stockholm was suppose to be with US Airways but because of a delay in Toronto I was forced to get my baggage, switch terminals and get on a Lufthansa's flight via Frankfurt instead. This turned out to be a blessing considering the mess on the way back.

Through no fault of their own the flight to Philadelphia was late arriving 1.5 hours. This left me 1.5 hours to get my bags, check them in again, go through security and catch my connection to Toronto. I thought it was tight so I asked the stewardesses (normally airlines have offered to help when you're late, no so with US Airways), if they could help ensure I made it through quickly or made sure I was confirmed on the next connection if I miss mine. Their answer was no, I'd have to wait in line like everyone else. They were rude the entire flight and didn't think it necessary to help the few of us who knew we'd miss our connections. When I landed and then proceeded to wait 40 minutes for my bags I knew I wouldn't make it. So after proceeding all the way through security I made it to the desk where the gentleman told me that I just missed my flight and the last confirmed spot on the next flight, all that was left was stand-by. Had the "nice" flight attendants bothered to call ahead and help me I wouldn't have to sit in Philly for the next 6 hours.

Turns out that Philly has one of the worst cancel/delay rates in the US, 39.6% of a planes leaving there are delayed! Amazing, but after sitting there for hours I believe it. US Airways overbooks most of it's flights, then scrambles to find passengers willing to go on the next flight in exchange for a coupon. The staff is incompetent at best, not knowing how stand-by works, how many seats are on the plane or have any idea where your bags may be.

Thankfully I made it home eventually and learned to avoid the US at all costs when flying overseas.

A few days in Stockholm

2007-08-29T11:51:00.000-05:00

After Tallinn Liisa and I decided to take the ferry to Stockholm and spend some time there with her friends and family. I enjoy taking the ferry once and awhile. Unlike Liisa I haven't taken it too many times so I'm not sick of it and there's still some novelty to it. One odd thing about Tallink is the pricing schedule, the cheapest price we could get was for a "cruise", which is basically a return ticket in a suite with a double bed that you need to come back with the same day after spending 8 hours in Stockholm. Obviously we didn't use the return part of the ticket but I'm not sure why they make this the cheapest ticket when there were cabin with 4 beds available that I'm sure are less desirable. Anyways, the ferry was relaxing and got us early enough to leave most of the day to do things.

After dropping our bags off at Liisa's apartment we decided to take the train up to Uppsala where Liisa goes to school. I'd never been there so it was nice to see where she spends a lot of her time. We took the local commuter train (think GO Train) there, it cost about $25 round trip which is pretty expensive if you have to do it often but still a decent deal considering the distance you travel. Uppsala itself is a very nice university town with a lot of history. It's one of the oldest universities around, has the largest church in Sweden next door and am active student life. Later that evening we met some of Liisa's cousins for drinks in downtown Stockholm. I'm always shocked at the price of beer in Sweden, at about $10 a beer we didn't stay out too long. In one sense it's an outrage but then prices like that may force me to cut down my personal consumption of beer. :)

The next couple of days were spent mostly with Liisa's family, most of who I hadn't met even after 3 years together. Aside from me not understanding a lot of the conversations due to my poor (read: non-existent) Swedish skills it was really nice to meet everyone and get a feeling of her family.

One nice surprise was that I managed to go to the Summer Days event held by the Estonian Fraternities and Student Unions. It was held at a lakeside camp ground known as Veski-Järve where Stockholm-Estonians have been going for years. The event was not very large and was mostly represented by EÜS members but it was interesting to talk to them none the less.

The night before I left we went to Liisa' friends house for dinner and then briefly to a private party at some yatch club. The party was much more affordable than bars (10 drinks for $25) which is probably why these types of events are much more common than in Toronto. The next days Liisa and I had to say our goodbyes as I got on a (long) flight back to Toronto.

Overall, I'm always impressed when I'm in Stockholm. Aside from the high prices and taxes, Swedes appear to live a good life. Liisa says that there's quite a class system in Stockholm that is unpleasant but other than that it's a great place. What amazes is the infrastructure that the city has. The amount of tunnels, bridges, overpasses, good roads and great public transit puts Canada to shame. Toronto can't even fund it's daily life let alone do any major infrastructure investments so seeing a city that does it well is a nice change.

Back in Eesti, briefly.

2007-08-28T13:52:00.000-05:00

I spent the past two weeks in Eesti and Sweden on vacation so I'll spend a couple of entries to summarize my short time back in Europe.

The plan was to spend the first week in Saaremaa at Liisa's cottage so I decided to take an uncommon route and flew Toronto-Frankfurt-Stockholm-Kuresaare all in one leg. It was a long day and didn't go as planned thanks to US Airways (more on them in a later post) but leaving Toronto and landing in Kuresaare is quite a world of difference, but once I got there it was well worth the wait. I spent most of the first week simply relaxing by the sea, reading, catching some sun and enjoying Eesti õlu.

Unsurprisingly Saaremaa has changed little since I last visited, aside from a newer airport all seems the same and life goes slowly by. Liisa and I talked about what life would be like living in a place like Lümanda, the next day we got a bit of real life when we went to the local store to buy some milk and other small items. We were the only ones in the store not buying alcohol, it was only 10:30am. It Reform was to actually live up to it's not and make some serious changes they could tackle the drinking problem that exists in Estonia instead of ignoring it and ordering special beers for holidays.

After winding down in Saaremaa we decided to go to Tallinn for a couple of days before heading to Stockholm. Back in Tallinn I immediately headed out to a couple of my favorite haunts for food and drinks. I managed to meet up with some old friends, old colleagues and even some fellow Canadian-Estonians that were in town. There were a number of people I didn't get to see and I apologize for that, I simply had too little time in Tallinn and was there mostly over the holiday long weekend when a lot of people were out of town.

Liisa and I managed to do a couple of touristy things while there, there aren't many things in Tallinn that I haven't seen but we decided to go visit the Bronze Man in his new resting spot (a bit hard to find, much nicer location imo) and also visited the newly opened tunnels under Toompea (very interesting). We also spent some time checking out some of our favorite neighborhoods should we ever decided the real estate market has dropped enough. We caught a modern dance performance at the Kanuti Gildi Saal in Tallinn. Thankfully we knew what we were getting ourselves into so when two naked, middle aged men started dancing around stage (and at one point in the audience) we weren't as shocked as some of the people sitting close to us.

One thing I noticed was the steady price increase on pretty much everything has continued since I left. Prices on certain items (ie. food and beer in restaurants) seems to have risen 30% or more since I moved to Tallinn in 2004. It's at the point now where it's no much cheaper to go out in Tallinn then it is in Toronto, the only big difference is the deplorable service you get in most places in Tallinn (yes, I'm mean you Double Coffee).

I also managed to catch a screening of Signing Revolution, the new documentary about Estonian independence, appropriately on Taasiseseisvumispäev. I'll write more about the film at some later point, it hasn't been release wide as far as I know but if you do get a chance to see it I highly recommend it.

Overall being back in Eesti, albeit for such a short time, was great and I plan on coming back as soon as possible.

Dinner with Mart

2007-08-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

Last night I had dinner with Mart Laar who is staying at my mother's house for a few days while he's in town.

I'll skip over what was discussed for privacy sake but will say that my respect for Mart as a politician and intellectual rose dramatically last night.

Tomorrow I'm off to Saaremaa!

Kommentaarid

2007-08-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

I was just reading the reader comments over at Postimess attached to the article about Ansip's visit to Toronto. Man, there are some angry people around. According to a lot of these people Canadian-Estonians should keep their mouths shut.

Some examples:

MIDA KÜLL RASKEL AJAL KANADASSE PLAGANUD EESTLANE IKKA NII VÄGA TEAB.MINU JAOKS ON NAD LIHTSALT LIHTSA ELU OTSIJAD JA HINGE KODUMAA EEST NEIL KAH EI OLE.KANGELASED OLID NEED KES SIIA JÄID.kODUEESTLASED MA MÕTLEN.

and

Mingitel kanada eestlastel pole küll sel teemal õigust sõna võtta. Mis nad teavad okkupantidest või kommunistides? Las elavad edasi oma vahtralehe varjus, ei tea nad midagi sellest mis siin viimase 60 aasta jooksul toimus, ja vist tahagi teada, sest eriti nad tagasi tulema ei kipu.

I'm not totally sure why some "kodueestlased" have so much animosity towards "väliseestlased", some people say they are pissed that some got out in the 40's and others didn't but I don't know what the real reason is. I never personally experienced much of this sentiment when I was living in Eesti but I know it exists. There are only so many Eestlased around, we should at least try and be civil to each other.

All I know for sure is that reading comments to articles can be maddening.

Ansip's excellent summer vacation

2007-08-01T08:32:00.000-05:00

Apparently I'm not the only one going on vacation. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip is currently vacationing in Canada with his family. He's been staying in central Ontario at a relatives cottage which is a great vacation choice. If you ever get the chance to visit the Muskokas I highly recommend it.

Ansip did fit in a couple of official work days into his schedule. This past Saturday he visited Jõekääru summer camp which I attended as a child and so have many others over the years including President Ilves. Last night there was an official reception for Ansip in Toronto, it was held at the Estonian House and the place was packed with people.

The evening started out with some nice words from the new Bishop of the Estonian Lutheran Church and then a couple of other speakers before Ansip took the podium. He spoke for about 10-15 minutes, primarily on the Estonian economy (that is suppose to be Reform's specialty right?) and how he does not see any crash in the future, the Bronze Statue incident and at length about the struggle that Estonians who fled in the 40's endured and their role in maintaining Estonian culture during occupation. His speech was decent but nothing special. After his speech he took some questions which I'll outline:

1) The first questions was regarding Eesti's birth rate and what can and is being done about it. Ansip started off his answer by talking about the Bronze Soldier again, he linked it to a increase in patriotism or something like that. He then went on to explain that his government has passed legislation to provide new mothers with 1 years paid maternity leave and plans on raising that to 1.5 years in order to jump start the baby making. He explained that the longer parents are allowed to stay at home with their child and not worry about income the more likely they are to have more kids.

2) Second question regarded the events after the election and why Mart Laar was excluded from the Foreign Ministry position, was it because he was jealous of Laar as the Economist recently suggested? Ansip started off by saying he's answered this question many times and the it essentially boils down to the fact that the PM should be able to control 3 main ministries: Justice, Finance and Foreign. He never really answered the question directly and was clearly playing the position of politician on this one.

3) Next question was about the Euro and how will Eesti ever join it at this rate. He started off by saying that this is probably a topic foreign to most of us in the room (I guess can we don't know about Euros?) and then went on to explain how well the economy was doing and that the only reason we haven't joined already was because the qualification rules were unfair. No real explanation as to what his government plans of doing to actually join the Euro zone was included in his answer.

4) Next question was about the Estonian language and what more could be done to preserve it. Ansip answered that Estonia was the only country looking out for the Estonian language and that lot's of hard work needs to go into ensuring that it is kept alive and healthy. (I didn't listen to most of the answer as I needed to refill my wine glass.)

5) Last question was about a statue of Lenin that resides in Narva and why it hasn't been removed. Ansip said it should be removed and those types of statutes shouldn't exist in Eesti but that the time was just not right.

I'm not a huge Ansip fan and don't agree with a lot of his politics but overall he did a decent job. Canadian-Estonians tend to have different views on Estonian politics since a lot of the internal and domestic issues don't affect them directly. This comes out in the questions that are asked so it was nice to see that some good domestic issues were brought up as well.

After Ansip's Q&A there was some very nice performances followed by dinner. Unfortunately the after dinner portion was long and drawn out. Instead of getting to hear more from Ansip or meet him personally we sat through representative after representative from virtually every Estonian-Canadian group still active. Instead of doing that they could have had a 1-2 hour meeting beforehand where each representative got 5 minutes with Ansip personally to express their views. All these speeches meant less time for us to hear from Ansip and more time to hear from people we hear from all the time.

Overall the night was interesting and enjoyable and aside from the after dinner speeches very well organized. It's not everyday that we get to meet top Estonian politicians in Canada so I appreciate Ansip taking the time to come and visit us on his vacation. You could say he was doing it to get votes and boost his popularity but I don't think many Canadians voted for him last time, that may change now but I doubt it.

Summer Vacation

2007-07-30T13:21:00.001-05:00

I'm taking a bit of time off from blogging for the rest of the summer. I'll be traveling a bit and spending time in the outdoors to recharge my battery over the next month or so and plan to start blogging again in the fall when I hope to launch a new hosted site.

Also, if you're in Tallinn or Stockholm between August 11th-26th and want to get together let me know.

Parking Pain

2007-07-12T12:26:00.000-05:00

I thought real estate prices were bad in Tallinn and things were getting real ugly there until I read an article about parking spaces in Manhattan going for $225,000 (~$2.5 million EEK). Yikes. Along with the congestion fees that Bloomberg plans on introducing it's going to be increasingly expensive to own a car in Manhattan, thankfully a lot of Manhattan's residents are fairly wealthy.

Paul & Katherine in the Globe

2007-07-10T12:51:00.000-05:00

The Globe and Mail contacted my brother and Katherine before their wedding asking if they could do an article about them and the fact that they'd hired Prius "limos" instead of any other type of car. The article was in this past week's Style section with two nice pictures of Paul and Katherine.

Unfortunately the journalist didn't manage to get our family name correctly, talk about journalistic accuracy. :)

Full article can be read here.

More economics

2007-07-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

More comments/analysis on the Estonian economy:

- Edward Lucas weighs in the on the overheating eastern economies.
- Estonian inflation climbs to 5.8% in June (Canada's inflation is 2.2%)
- Estonia's income inequality is judged to be among the worst in the EU.

Baltic Exchange

2007-07-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

This article is pretty cool, apparently they are moving the historic Baltic Exchange that was destroyed by an IRA bombing from London to Tallinn. The building was taken apart piece by piece and will be put back together along with a lot of new construction somewhere in downtown Tallinn. Nice to see that someone cares about this historic place enough to do this.

Estonian economy overheated?

2007-07-05T08:42:00.001-05:00

The Estonian economy has been firing on all cylinders for the past 2-3 years and a lot of people are predicting that the party is coming to an end soon, an article in todays Financial Times expands on this situation. Most recently Standard and Poors downgraded the Estonian economy to "negative outlook" because of the over heated economy, high inflation, increasing real wages and huge current account deficits.

The real problem with the Estonian economy is the government. The current coalition government has committed to a large amount of spending and tax cuts and it's unlikely that they'll be willing to sacrifice any of those commitments if the economy starts to turn sour. Since the Estonian Kroon is pegged to the ~~USD~~ Euro and most of the banks are owned by foreigners (thus lending decisions are made outside of the country with little regard to the local economy), the only outlet Estonia has to slow down the economy safely is through fiscal policy (ie. government spending). Unfortunately, instead of planning for the inevitable downturn and building surpluses, the government has pledged lower taxes and higher wages. If the economy slows down and the current era of cheap money all over the world starts to disappear we could start to see home foreclosures, small business closures and other serious problems in the short turn. Medium term, however, the Estonian economy should settle on 5-6% growth as it makes it's way towards the rest of Europe.

Can anything be done to ease the pain of a downturn? Only if the government is willing to reneg on some of it's promises (like continued tax cuts) and become more fiscally responsible.

Congrats!

2007-06-25T10:24:00.000-05:00

Vanamutt

2007-06-19T09:39:00.001-05:00

Great Estonian Music Video

SiCKO Review

2007-06-18T08:52:00.001-05:00

Last night I watched an advanced screening of SiCKO, Michael Moore's new documentary. The movie is about the US health care industry and how poor the level of care is for a lot of people. He doesn't spend a lot of time on the topic that 50 million Americans don't have insurance, rather he focuses on the rest of Americans who do have it but still get terrible service from their insurance companies and are often denied vital procedures so that the insurance company doesn't have to pay out cash. A lot of the people he talks to have truly disturbing stories, many of which end in death, serious disability or bankruptcy after being denied service by the HMOs.

He spends a lot of time in countries with socialized medicine (Canada, UK, France and Cuba) to show that this type of system not only provides better service to all citizens but also provides good lifestyles and freedom for doctors who work in the system. As with any documentry you only see one side of these other systems but he does try to address some of the weak points of universal health (long wait times, less choice, etc).

I enjoyed the movie, it was a bit of a departure from Moore's other works as he has toned down the rhetoric and doesn't lash out at the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies or government as you might expect (although there is still a fair bit of criticism). What he spends his time on is real life stories of people and how other countries manage to provide universal health care without becoming commies. By not spending the whole movie on the attack Moore ensures that the movie will have a wider audience and people who normally think he's a liberal nut case will be able to watch the movie without much prejudice.

Watching SiCKO makes you realize how important universal health care is and makes me feel good that Canadians place a high value on our system.

First Impressions: Macbook

2007-06-13T14:00:00.000-05:00

[Edit - I thought I posted this weeks ago, turns out that I hit "Save Now" instead of Publish. Oops]

I got home yesterday evening to be greeted by my new MacBook which had been delivered earlier that day. I've never owned a Mac and have limited experiences on them (although I do fondly remember playing Civ1 on a Mac for the first time at Arlen's house) so I'll post my first impressions after playing around with it for a couple of hours last night.

Design is beautiful as is to be expected. Too good perhaps as now I'm worried about scratching the black surface. Not sure why other manufacturers find it so hard to come up with a comparable product, even most high end machines pale in comparison to the Mac.
White cables with a black laptop, what's up with that? Same thing happened with my iPod. You'd think they could produce a couple of black cables to complete the package.
Setup was quick and relatively easy. Although I somehow forgot my admin password in 5 minutes and had to reset it and the Mac wouldn't recognize the WEP security on my router so I had to change it to WAP in order to get it to work.
The remote, I love it. I spend a lot of time watching and listening to things and the remote makes that so simple and fun. This feature blows away and multimedia feature I've ever seen on a Windows box. The only thing is that this feature on the Macbook makes iTv even more worthless imo.
So far I haven't had any trouble getting software that I need for it, didn't really expect to have any problems but it's good to know that I can still do all my favorite things.
Parallels or Dual Book? At some point I may want to install Windows to play games or do something different and I'm not sure which approach is best. I'll research more before installing anything.
My Macbook get's hot. Real hot. I downloaded a little program that helps speed up the fan when that happens and it seems to help.
Where's the Page Up and Down keys? I use these all the time, especially when scrolling through web pages. Hopefully I can figure out how to configure the keyboard to get this work.
And finally, I still have a lot to learn. I'll be playing around with my new toy for awhile. :)

There's probably a ton more I could write but I'll wait a bit until I get more time to play around with it.

Short Sopranos Thoughts

2007-06-13T13:02:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in awhile, little free time. I've been to the cottage a lot and in the evenings I'm either not interested in posting because of the heat or playing with my new laptop (BTW - Safari on Windows? I don't even use it on my Mac).

This past weekend was the Sopranos season finale. If you haven't seen it and want to then stop reading now. I thought the ending was great, most people seemed to disagree. I think people are used to have things wrapped up in nice boxes at the end and wanted Tony to either die, go to jail or flip to the feds. Personally I think leaving the ending open and showing that Tony is at heart just a family man is exactly the premise of the entire series. I did think my download cut out at the end but that just added to brilliance. There are a ton of little details that were never resolved in the show (was Paulie ratting to NY, what happened to the Russian, etc) but that is simply the way life is. The reaction to the ending was caused by the terrible series finales that have occurred (remember Seinfeld!) that try and wrap up the show and close all possibilities, most of the time that isn't possible.

For a great analysis and back and forth of the series check our Slate.com.

terminuz

2007-05-31T09:46:00.000-05:00

I just read that Jaanus Kase is moving on from Skype and going to do his master degree in the States. Congrats! Skype is loosing a valuable resource, someone who has contributed a lot to the development of their community but he's been around a long time and it's natural to move on. I'll remember shortly after I started at Skype Jaanus and Tarmo took me out to lunch at some theme restaurant in Mustamae and helped me get an idea of how the company culture works and what I should be aiming to do, it helped a lot.

Now that he'll be in the US in the fall maybe he can make a trip up to Canada to visit. I know how much he enjoys long cross country drives. :)

Priidu would be proud

2007-05-24T10:08:00.001-05:00

I took the plunge and bought myself a MacBook. Should arrive in a week or two, looking forward to it. :)

eBay vs. eBay

2007-05-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

Recently I had two very different experiences with eBay, one good and one not so good. First off, I'm not an eBay newbie (in fact I've even sort of work for eBay at one point and know a lot of eBayers) and I generally have an excellent idea of what goes on on it's online marketplace. The two experiences, however, show that even a fairly knowledgeable person can have problems. The first auction was for a low priced item which I bought directly (no auction) and paid for quickly and easily through Paypal without thought, the item arrived in less than a week from Texas, perfect. The second auction was for a high priced item which I bid on, the bidding went smoothly enough except near the end someone placed a higher bid which they quickly retracted, interesting. After winning the auction, the seller promptly contacted me and ask that I send payment via a different method than originally advertised to a name and address that didn't look right. Needless to say I didn't feel comfortable doing this and after a number of emails with the seller and eBay I decided to not pay for the item and drop out. :(

eBay is based on trust, without it nothing would get sold since there is no fool proof method of online payments that is quick and easy to protect users. For small value items I'm willing to extend more trust to a seller (or buyer) and the transaction will likely get done , with higher priced options that level of trust doesn't always exist. eBay has done a great job creating trust (feedback, Paypal payments, etc) but there must be more that could be done, I can only imagine how many users have fallen into the same situation as me but are more trusting and less knowledgeable about what goes on online. I'd love to know what the stats are on auctions that never get finished because of scams or lack of trust? Based on what I know about online fraud I'm sure it's huge.

Vanaisa

2007-05-18T13:29:00.000-05:00

My grandfather (vanaisa) Edgar celebrated his 87th birthday last night. He's still as busy and active as always and is getting ready for a month long trip to Eesti this summer that he's planned. This isn't just any regular trip as he's taking 40+ students from Toronto to sing at the Noorte Laulupidu song festival in Tallinn followed by a 2 week bus tour of Eesti. I can only hope that I half the energy he does at that age. Palju õnne sünnipäevaks vanaisa!

WeatherBill.com

2007-05-17T16:40:00.000-05:00

Had coffee this afternoon with David Friedberg who runs Weatherbill.com (another Index Venture), we did a bit of brainstorming on ideas to grow OANDA and I was very impressed with what he came up with.

I was also impressed with his own company which stands to solve the problem of rained out vacations or snowless ski trips. Who wouldn't want to spend $20-30 extra on a vacation knowing that if the weather sucks you'll get a refund? Once weatherbill.com gets added to travel sites I think it has huge potential, very cool.

Hey Apple.ca, tax matters.

2007-05-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

I'm still shopping for a new laptop, haven't had an urgent need to buy one but as Liisa is returning to Europe in a couple of months and I'll be without computer at home. I've been seriously looking at a Mac laptop, especially since they've just released new versions which means some of the current versions are being sold off cheap.

So I went to the apple.ca website and checked out some prices, found a model that I liked and started going through the purchase process. I confirmed the purchase and was happy with the price I paid but a couple of minutes later I received a confirmation email with a different price on it! The difference, tax. The apple.ca site doesn't calculate or show tax when you place your order which confused me a bit since every other Canadian online retailer shows tax properly, apple.ca does show shipping when you order however. Not showing tax up front is either a mistake that could be easily fixed or a sleazy way of making it look like their products are cheaper than they are.

Tax added 14% to the order and I figured I could get a cheaper price elsewhere so I canceled my order before they processed it which was a bit disappointing.

On top of this problem I repeatedly had to log into the apple site in order to navigate around and when I canceled my order I got a cancellation confirmation email in French while all the other emails I got from them were in English? Nice products, but could use a little improvement on the e-commerce side.

Arcade Fire - Toronto Concert Review

2007-05-16T13:10:00.001-05:00

Last night I attended the Arcade Fire concert at Massey Hall. I thoroughly enjoyed the show even though a lot of critics seemed to feel it lacked something special. I stood less than a meter from the stage and didn't think it lacked anything but what do I know, I guess I just didn't have expectations and went to enjoy myself.

Where's Skype?

2007-05-16T12:56:00.000-05:00

I was looking at bidding on an item on eBay and decided to use the "Watch this item" feature as the end date is a couple of days away and I wasn't interested in bidding yet. I noticed that you could be notified by IM so I thought that getting a Skype update would be cool. Unfortunately as I went forward I see that Skype isn't one of the options for notification, surprising considering eBay purchased Skype for $2.4 billion awhile back. :(

Any chance of getting Skype updates on eBay anytime soon?

Facebook Marketplace

2007-05-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

Facebook added a new feature to their site today - Marketplace. It works as a online classifieds similar to Craigslist. It has a couple of unique features: items are listed as part of your Network making listings more local to you, you can view items that are being sold by just your contacts and it adds "6 degrees of separation" to any listing telling you if the seller is a friend of a friend, etc.

This is definitely a departure from Facebook's normal operations. I find that a lot of people are already starting to worry about the creeping commercialism and lack of privacy with Facebook and wonder if this new feature will continue to foster those fears. This could however, be a decent niche player in classifieds, in particular with student products such as used textbooks and student services.

Vacation booked

2007-05-09T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a couple of weeks vacation in August to come back to Eesti. I'll be flying into Kuresaare on the 12th of August and spending a couple of days there decompressing before making my way to Tallinn and then Stockholm where I'll fly out of on the 26th.

Looking forward to being back, even just for a short time.

SkypeIn and the CRTC

2007-05-09T10:50:00.000-05:00

Skype announced a cool little feature whereby your SkypeIn number will be displayed when you call via SkypeOut. I know that this has been requested since the first day SkypeIn was launched and it's nice to see it finally arrive. There are ton's of legal and regulation issues in each country regarding this type of service.

Unfortunately in Canada we still don't even have SkypeIn numbers. This is thanks to the wonderful CRTC which controls our airwaves. They are here to "protect" the consumers which is funny considering Canada has some of the highest mobile/phone rates in the world. We have 3 companies that control most of the phone, tv and internet in the country, one of which will probably go private in the next little while. If the CRTC was serious about protecting the consumer then they'd open up the market and allow some additional competition in from the US and Europe. Then maybe we could finally get SkypeIn numbers. :)

Sticker shock

2007-05-07T09:58:00.001-05:00

Last Friday night Liisa and I went for dinner at "Lee", a restaurant run by the world famous chef Susur Lee. It's a tapas style menu where you order 5-6 dished and share them. Overall the food was very good although 1 or 2 of the dishes were slightly disappointingly (the braized pork which is cooked for 2 days was a bit bland). What really annoyed me, however, was the exorbitant rate they charge for alcohol. I ordered a 2004 Bogle Merlot which cost $65. The wine itself was good and we very well with what we ordered but considering that this bottle of wine retails for $16.95 at the LCBO is crazy. I could have saved $15 had I bought the bottle myself and paid the $30 corkage fee at the restaurant. I know that restaurants make a lot of their money of booze but to charge over 300% profit is a bit insane. Especially in Ontario where you can easily know the exact price of the wine from the LCBO's website.

(Thankfully I had a gift certificate for dinner which helped absorb the cost. Thanks Paul, Eric and Triina!)

St. Patrick

2007-05-04T07:15:00.000-05:00

You know things are bad when Pat Buchanan is writing about Estonia.

New solar technology

2007-05-03T15:43:00.000-05:00

This article is cool, it explains a new power generation plant in Spain that harnesses the Sun energy to create steam and generate energy. More technologies like this need to be developed to help solve climate change. Very cool.

Stolen remains

2007-05-03T11:03:00.000-05:00

I wonder if anyone is going to protest about this? Probably not.

Toronto FC and missing seats.

2007-04-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was the inaugural home game for Toronto FC, Toronto's new MLS football team. Even though MLS soccer is nowhere near the level of what you see in Europe and elsewhere there is a lot of enthusiasm to get some decent games locally. With David Beckham joining the league later this summer it also adds a little bit of fun.

My colleague Dean went to the game on Saturday, he'd purchased expensive season tickets right along centre field with some of his friends when he arrived at the game and made his way to his seat he realized that his seat didn't exist! Apparently they sold season tickets to seats that were never built in the new BMO Field and he was forced to watch the game from an alternative (ie. really bad) seat. All turned out well however, as he was notified today that he'd be given alternate season tickets that were just as, if not, better than what he purchased. I wonder how many other "phantom" seats were sold?

Bridge Building

2007-04-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

The events of the past 3-4 days in Estonia have been difficult to watch from afar. Being in Canada I'm forced to rely upon news reports, blogs and forums to get my up to the minute news of what is going on in Tallinn. I even resorted so far as to check the Tallinn weather webcam once and awhile to see if there were crowds gathering in Vabaduse Valjak. :) Relying on this type of news makes the entire situation seem worse than it really is since you get multiple views of the same event and they stack up and multiply. Speaking with a number of people that are in Tallinn (or got out of town for a rest) the situation seems to be under control and level heads will prevail.

What I've learnt from this is to stay away from online forums and blogs when it comes to politics. There is simply too much ignorance, hate, confusion and sheer stupidity that it will drive you mad participating in these things.

Hopefully we can put most of this past us now and start working together to build bridges. Estonian community leaders need to meet with ethnic Russia community leaders and find out what can be done so that the events of last week do not repeat themselves in the future.

Sad

2007-04-26T20:57:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone I know in Tallinn stays safe and level headed. Don't get goaded into anything and let's do it like it's 1989, peacefully.

Not good

2007-04-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

Yikes, watching the footage of what is going on in Tallinn I have to say that things don't look good. Hopefully things don't get any more out of hand than they already are.

Watching drunken young men trash downtown Tallinn won't do much to convince moderate Estonians that moving the monument is a bad idea. Let's just hope this whole process moves quickly.

Beginning of the end?

2007-04-26T10:42:00.000-05:00

And so it begins...

Confederate Flag vs. Pronkssõdur

2007-04-20T10:03:00.000-05:00

Last night I was watching a 60 Minutes interview with presidential candidate John McCain, one question that came up was his view on the Confederate Flag which is flown at the state capital in South Carolina. In 2000 this issue came up and he said it was a state issue, many believe his stance on this played a part in him loosing the primary there and subsequently losing the Republican nomination.

In this week's interview he said that his initial statement wasn't what he truly believes and in his heart he knows that flying the flag is wrong, quote: "That it was a symbol to many of, a very offensive symbol to many, many Americans".

Similarities with Pronkssõdur?

Confederate Flag vs. Pronkssõdur

Valli Baar

2007-04-19T14:08:00.000-05:00

I just read that Valli Baar has been placed under heritage protection meaning that Millimallikas will continue to be served for generations to come. Awesome.

Kaiser Chiefs in Concert

2007-04-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to the Kaiser Chiefs concert, it's been awhile since I saw live music. I've always enjoyed going to shows but that past couple of years in Tallinn didn't yield a terribly large number of good concerts. Toronto on the other hand is a great music city, there are always live shows going on and bands big and small from all over the world include Toronto as a stop on their tours.

Last nights show was opened by The Walkman, a NYC band that I had never heard of. They had some decent tunes but I wasn't a big fan of the lead singer. They played a 40 minute set which overall was decent but nothing too great.

Kaiser Chiefs can on around 10:30pm and opened with a couple of songs off their first album "Employment". They tried to get the crowd to sing along with a bunch of the songs but unfortunately Toronto concert crowds are notoriously conservative and I don't think it went as well as they had wanted. Overall the Chiefs were very entertaining and put on a good show. I'm looking forward to a good summer concert season here in Toronto, coming up next is Arcade Fire at Massey Hall.

Shortages

2007-04-18T14:58:00.000-05:00

Ouch. A scary article in the Baltic Times today talking about the labor shortages in Estonia and the rest of the Baltics. Not enough workers to go around and nothing that can be done to incentivize workers to increase productivity. Of the people who are still unemployed “About 99 percent of those are unemployable. They are too drunk to fill out the paperwork”. Yikes!

Eesti is a tiny country that isn't growing population wise but has a rapidly growing economy, eventually something has to give. Will the government allow in more immigrants to work there? Probably not for reasons that are somewhat understandable.

One of the most interesting quotes was about the recent elections: "Some parties promised to ensure that workers will earn a monthly wage of 25,000 kroons". I think the use of wage increases as a political gimmick is disturbing, especially in a market economy where the government should have little role in setting wage levels. Sounds like something would have happened years ago with a "managed economy".

I know a number of people who own or run companies that are desperate for decent workers and have made it clear the labor shortage is the #1 problem currently. Maybe it's time for me to jump back across the pond, I think I'm sober enough to fill out paperwork. :)

Let there be light!

2007-04-18T14:34:00.000-05:00

The Ontario government has followed Australia's lead and banned incandescent light bulbs (starting in 2012). Compact fluorescent lights use 75% less energy and LEDs even less, it will be illegal for retailers to sell the bulbs but no fine for actually using them, I wonder if there will be a black market for incandescents. CFL's contain a bit of mercury so hopefully LED technology will improve quickly in the next couple of years but this is a good small step that I'm sure many jurisdictions will follow. It's about time we phased out these ancient technologies.

2007-04-17T11:43:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I purchased a new bike to get around with and I'm loving it. I hadn't biked a lot recently partly because of some health problems and partly out of shear laziness. Toronto is a pretty good city to bike around in, it's relatively flat although drivers can be pretty blind to cyclists it's nowhere near as bad as in Tallinn where I'm convinced drivers try and run down bikers on purpose. We could have better bike paths, I particularly like the way Stockholm has built bike lines separate from the road.

The biggest concern is theft. Last year there were an estimated 7000 bikes stolen in Toronto, real numbers aren't available because a lot of people don't report thefts. Unfortunately at home I don't really have a good place to keep the bike so I have to lock it up on the front porch, usually there is someone in the house so that should be a deterrent. At work I can park my bike in the parking garage where they have some bike racks next to the ticket booths so there is someone watching them 24/7. But all it takes is 5 minutes for someone to rip you off and no matter how good your lock is I don't think there's much you can do except not worry about it.

Can't wait for later this week to really enjoy the riding as weather is expected to hit the low 20's. :)

Zippy

2007-04-11T14:45:00.000-05:00

The other day I signed up for Zipcar, a service that allows you to reserve cars that are located all over the city for an hour or two (up to a couple of days) if you need. Since I live downtown and rarely need a car I haven't ever considered buying one but once in awhile it would be useful to be able to hop in the the car and drive somewhere to run an errand (hello suburban Ikea's!). The rates are pretty good, about $10/hr which includes insurance and gas and there are various plans that you can sign up for depending on your driving needs. Most of the cars are located downtown and you simply go to their site to reserve one and drop it off at the same spot when you're done. A cool feature (which I'll rarely use but it's still cool) is that you can use the service in any of the cities that Zipcar services in the world, so next time I'm in London and need a car for a couple of hours problem solved.

I think this type of initiative is great, it allows people who don't have cars to get some occasional mobility and hopefully can convince some downtowners who do own cars that they could save a lot of money (and a bit of the environment) if they drove less. It's not the best solution if you need a car for longer time periods or trips but it suits most urban lifestyles quite well. I'll update at a later point about the experience once I've actually used the service.

Flying high

2007-04-11T13:16:00.000-05:00

I'm in the process of looking for flights from Toronto to Tallinn later this year. I'm pretty flexible as to time lines but as early as possible in August is preferred in order to take advantage of the long days in Eesti, I'm also flexible as to where I fly since I'd be happy to stop over in Stockholm for 1-3 days and spend time with Liisa there before going on. There are unfortunately only so many options from North America when it comes to flying to Estonia. There are no direct flights to Tallinn, the closest you can get is Helsinki as Finnair runs direct flights in the summer. Pricing all seems to be the same, from $1100 to $1500 for the cheapest flights unless you grab a really cheap charter to London and then get an Estonian Air/Easyjet flight to Tallinn. Will there ever be direct flights from Tallinn (or the Baltics in general) to North America? Will the new "open sky" rules help?

The Tragic Hip

2007-04-05T13:16:00.000-05:00

I wanted to give some credit to Canada's much maligned health care system. I've had nagging hip pain for 3 years for which I've seen a lot of doctors and done physiotherapy but it still hasn't gone away so last week I had an appointment with a specialist who ordered a whole bunch of test. In the past week I've had an MRI, a EMG (electromyography) and some other test which name I don't know and can't pronounce. It looks like I'm close to a final diagnosis which is nice but what is amazing is the speed that everything got done, you hear horror stories about wait times in Canada for tests and medical care but my experience wasn't that bad. I know that a lot of people do have problems but I still feel compelled to give credit where credit is due.

Oh, and total cost to me for all these doctors and test was $80 which is covered by my work. Not bad. :)

Keep on rocking.

2007-04-04T13:04:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971 a lot recently. I'm a big Neil Young fan (aren't all Canadians?) and this is an excellent addition to his large list of good albums. What's most interesting to hear is that most of the songs that he sings are new and were being heard by the audience for the first time. Their reaction is often muted but these songs go on to be some of his biggest hits.

Kaliningrad vs. Tallinn

2007-04-03T12:53:00.000-05:00

The Russian First Minister Ivanov is calling for Russians to stop buying Estonian products (but he's not calling for a boycott) and asking them to stop visiting Estonia and go to Kaliningrad instead? Where would you rather go?

Kaliningrad
vs.
Tallinn

Eesti Toit

2007-03-28T13:42:00.000-05:00

The Toronto Star (Canada's largest daily newspaper) had a nice little article about Estonian food in it. Makes me miss all the local food that I could buy in the supermarket in Tallinn but now I only eat on special occasions.

I could go for some rosolje right about now.

Breaking up is easy to do.

2007-03-22T12:47:00.000-05:00

Well, it looks like the proposed government that was about to take shape in Eesti is on the verge of falling apart. Reform is saying that IRL wants to much (he claims they want Speaker of the House and first choice of minister) while IRL is saying all they wanted was Foreign Minister (for Laar) and then would negotiate on the other 4 minister positions. There is some speculation that all this may have been planned for awhile and that now Reform and KESK will get back in bed together and form a coalition.

Whether this is all just posturing on both sides and they will make up and work together or whether this is the end of the "right wing" alliance is yet to be seen. I wonder how all those who voted Reform will feel if Ansip decides to cosy up to Savisaar again?

UPDATE: Reform has sent a new offer to IRL that Laar says is better than the first so there is still hope for this coalition.

Global influence!?

2007-03-21T13:47:00.000-05:00

The Economist ran an interesting survey to see who has the most positive influence on the world and surprisingly Canada came in first place. It doesn't really explain much about the survey so I'm not totally sure what the questions(s) were or who they asked so it's hard to really comment much on this but I wonder how much people really know about Canada? Often people see Canada as a semi-socialist, cold wilderness paradise but I can't imagine that much is actually known about the country.

No wonder people put Canadian flags on their bags when the travel. :)

Oh Canada

2007-03-16T11:52:00.000-05:00

Liisa and I are off to the nations capital, Ottawa, this weekend for a trip. Liisa hasn't been there before and it's been about 5 or 6 years since I last visited. It's about a 5 hour drive depending on the road conditions so hopefully there won't be any snow on the way. Ottawa is a strange capital, similar to Washington D.C., it's a bit of a made up city in the sense that it was selected as the capital rather than organically becoming the capital. If I remember my history correctly Kingston was the original choice for capital but Ottawa was chosen for it's location between Upper and Lower Canada at the time.

There are quite a few good sites to see: museums, parliament, galleries, the market, etc. Depending on the weather there we may get a chance to skate the Rideau canal which is the world's longest skating rink.

Growing up

2007-03-14T09:24:00.000-05:00

Statscan released their latest census results yesterday which had some interesting tidbits in it. Canada's population grew 5.4% from 2001 to 2006 which was the highest growth rate in the G8 and now puts our population at 31.6 million. What was interesting was that 2/3 of the growth was fulled by immigrants and it's predicted that by 2030 all the population growth will come from immigrants. Most of the growth is occurring around big cities which isn't much of a surprise, not to many immigrants can afford 400k condos in the city which seems to be the only thing up for sale.

Another interesting stat was that the city of Barrie grew 19.2% to almost 180k people. No wonder the cottage (which is 15kms from Barrie) no longer feels like the great outdoors like it used to.

Canada is often held as an example of a country that is built on immigrants and can successfully absorb so many without a lot of the political and ethnic tensions that others experience. Sure we have our problem, PHD's driving cabs isn't good, but a lot of countries (cough, cough, Estonia) could learn a couple of lessons about growing their countries with immigrants.

Skype 3.1 Beta

2007-03-09T12:07:00.000-05:00

Skype launched their Beta 3.1 version recently and there are a couple of cool new features that have been in the works for awhile. First off is Skype Prime, which allows users to setup their own paid content service and charge customers to call them. This is a great way to monetize the user base and get some additional revenue. The one thing I did notice is that any pornographic type of calls aren't allowed. I understand the logic behind this (protecting kids, keeping the community "clean", etc) but wonder if there is a plan to open it up a bit more in the future to tap this potentially large market. Maybe something like "escort" services which are technically legal all over North America but everyone knows it's just prostitution will pop up?

For me the more interesting new feature is Skype Find which is a community built tool to help users find and contact all types of businesses and services. I love this feature, especially the part that shows me what my friends have added and rated recently to be very useful as I can figure out what friends would recommend in various places. Currently there are about 3900 reviews listed by 1500 users, once this version goes gold and more people start using it I can only imagine it being one of the best new features in awhile.

The new version also has the much requested "show when the other person is typing" feature but with a creative twist.

Good job guys.

(Note: For full disclosure I used to work for Skype but now have no affiliation, just great affection for the company and people)

Time to get to work.

2007-03-07T11:08:00.001-05:00

I spent Sunday afternoon watching the entire Estonian elections coverage online. First off, kudos to ETV. Broadcasting live, with a high quality stream was a good move, there were some minor sound and video issues once and awhile but all in all they did a great job. The commentary they provided was decent, maybe not as captivating as U.S. or Canadian election coverage but they had great access to the candidates and some decent analysis, in particular the prediction that any coalition will last 2.5 years at most.

As for the results, a lot of people were happy to see that KESK didn't win, myself included. Sotsdemokraadid and IRL did better than expected and somehow Rahvaliit still managed to get votes which boggles my mind.

Now that this circus is over it's time to move on and address the real issues. How will the next coalition come together and will they address some of the pressing needs in Eesti? Higher wages aren't the only issues, in fact I can't imagine any western politician promising higher wages in an election. Both the Wall Street Journal and the Economist had some critical words about the over heating economy and lack of additional reforms. It will be interesting to see what agenda the government pushes forward with.

One post can make a difference

2007-03-02T14:02:00.000-05:00

A while ago I posted a little review about the latest Arcade Fire album Neon Bible. I personally don't think it's a great review since I'm not a great writer but somehow it's generated a huge amount of traffic to my blog. For a most of the past couple of weeks when you search for Neon Bible reviews on Google my blog was coming up 4th or 5th in rank, before the page fold, which has driven huge amount of traffic (I'm dropping but still on the first page).

For me this is the first time I've had this type of traffic and it's an interesting marketing experience. If you can write something that is both unique and on an interesting and topical subject you can drive significant traffic to your site, regardless of a previous reputation or "name". I don't image that much of the traffic will be sustainable unless I significantly improve the quality of my writing but it's been cool to see the traffic spike like this.

Elagu Eesti!

2007-02-23T09:53:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Vabariigi aastapäev (Estonian Independance Day), which for many Estonians is the most important holiday of the year (with Jaanipäev a close competitor). The past 2 years I was in Eesti during this weekend, actually last year I spent part of the weekend in Stockholm with Liisa, but I tried to make it to the military parade each year because not only was it patriotic but it was very interesting for me. Canada has a hard working but small military and I don't think we've ever had a parade with missiles, tanks, etc in my lifetime so the chance to see hundreds of soldiers marching was something I didn't want to miss.

This weekend there are lot's of Estonian events in Toronto as well. Today the mayor of Toronto will be hoisting the Estonian flag at city hall, there is a large party tonight at a Latvian bar (there isn't a proper Estonian bar in T.O.) where many Estonian youths will gather to sing Estonian songs and drink Saku. Tomorrow there is an official iseseisvuspäev ceremony followed by a gathering of Estonian veterans at Eesti maja. And to finish off the weekend the well known ETV show Laulge Kaasa will be filming an episode of their show on Sunday in Toronto.

It will be a full Estonian weekend in Toronto. :)

P.S. - I wonder if they they had held the elections this weekend instead of next turnout would be higher?

e-Vote

2007-02-22T12:33:00.000-05:00

The upcoming elections are getting a lot of international press the past couple of days thanks to the use of e-voting. This will be the first time in the world that parliamentary elections are being voted for over the internet. It seems world apart from the US and their whole hanging chad, we can't figure out how to hold a incontestable election mess that will no doubt rear it's ugly head again in 2008. The one part about this that is troublesome is that it's still expected that 50% or less will bother voting in the elections. A lot of people use the laziness excuse to not vote, since they usually have to walk 10 minutes but that excuse is gone with internet voting. 72% of eestlased do their banking online regularly and a similar high percentage file their taxes online. So why do more people take advantage of the this new option and vote from the comfort of their living room?

Time for a change?

2007-02-21T10:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I cast my ballot in advance of the Estonian Parliamentary elections coming up in March. I've voted before in the Estonian national elections but this one was more relevant to me since I spent the last 2 years in Tallinn and have more of a connection and understanding of the country. I was happy to cast my vote but came away from the experience a bit confused and thinking that the Estonian electoral system needs some changes, let me explain.

First off, I barely understand how candidates make it to parliament. I've tried to read the voting laws and any other information I can find in Estonian and English but it's still not clear and I couldn't properly explain it to anyone else. I know that each party usually has 4-5 candidates per riding, but most of them don't have a chance of making it to riigikogu but at the same time no matter how low on the list you are you always have a shot at an individual mandate if you get enough votes. I know that a party needs at least 5% to get any seats but there are still areas that I can't fully understand. Why it needs to be so confusing? On top of that the entire process of voting seems to be too complicated based on my experience from yesterday.

I went to the Eesti Maja on Broadview Ave. since the consulate is located there and voting would be held there and at one of the larger Estonian senior homes in Toronto. I arrived before the after work rush so there wasn't too many people there but I asked and was told that turnout during the day had been exceptionally good. When I arrived I was asked if I was on the voting list, I was, if I hadn't been I would have had to provide my Estonian passport (which I had) or since most foreigners born with Estonian citizenship (valiseestlased) don't have a passport they would have had to provide valid Canadian documentation and have been authorized by the consul in order to prove they are Estonian, from what I've heard a couple of people have voted here only to be later denied by officials in Eesti but this is quite rare.

Once I had been verified to vote I was asked what riding (ringkond) I would be voting in. There are 12 ridings in Eesti and normally you simply vote in the one that you are living and registered in. However, since foreigners aren't registered anywhere you're allowed to basically choose a riding to vote in. In many cases people vote in the ancestral riding that they or their family left in the 1940's, if they don't vote there then they tend to default to Tallinn nr.1. This step often confuses both old and young alike and can lead to people voting in ridings where they have no knowledge of the candidates or issues.

I voted in Tallinn nr.1 not because of a default but because I had lived there for the past 2 years and thought it was appropriate. Once I had selected my riding I went to the little voting booth and needed to write a number on a piece of paper to register my vote. In order to get that number I had to look at the voting book (the whole book is listed here since people vote is almost all ridings), find my riding, then find the party I was supporting, then find the candidate's number. In total there are roughly 900 candidates so finding the one you want to vote for isn't the easiest exercise. By the time I've gone through all these steps I'm not longer sure who I've voted for, I can only imagine what the elderly pensioners who come to vote think of this process. Now since my candidate isn't high on the list there's a small chance he'll win and because I don't fully understand the way the system works I'm not really sure what will happen to my vote, oh well.

I'm no electoral expert but I see a few areas for improvement:
- Look at reducing the total number of seats in parliament, does a small country of 1.3 million need 101 representatives?
- Either create more ridings or put a more realistic cap on number of candidates in each riding. I don't think I've ever heard of a election system where a party has 4-5 candidates vying for the same vote. This also reduces the direct access government since your riding isn't represented by 1 person but a number of people. In Canada we have 1 candidate per riding and usually candidates have town hall debates and meetings where people discuss local events and issues. Can you imagine all the candidates in Tallinn nr.1 getting together and having a debate?
- Make the voting process simpler, instead of selecting a number to write down why not hand out a list of the candidates and next to it you place an X to mark your vote. That way you're sure who you voted for instead of worrying if the number is right. There should be no room for voting errors (don't get me started on why Americans can't figure out how to hold an election) and a simple X marks the candidate seems to work well from most countries.

There's been talk about electoral change recently which is good. I think the overly complicated system makes it harder for people to decide and lowers turnout.

It will be interesting to see what voter turnout in Eesti is like, how many people vote online and who comes out on top. I'm looking forward to March 4th.

Valimised 2007!

2007-02-20T09:57:00.000-05:00

Today I'm going to exercise my civic duty and cast my ballot in the Estonian elections. Pre-elections are taking place in Toronto (and other places for valiseestlased) in the next week in anticipation of the big day in March. Toronto usually casts about 2500-3000 votes which isn't bad considering most people here are even less knowledgeable and uninspired to vote then back in Eesti. Valiseestlased tend to vote for Isamaaliit since they're considered nationalistic enough for people here and issues such as wages, health care and so on aren't as important to many since it doesn't affect them personally. I don't think this is a great thing since these are important issues in Eesti but at least Kesk won't get many votes (any votes?) from Torontonians.

2007-02-16T14:06:00.000-05:00

Why are books 20% more expensive in Canada than in the US? I bought a book today and it listed 2 prices (as most books here do), the book is $14.95USD compared to $21.00CAD. When you account for the currency difference it's a 20% premium north of the border. So why do I have to pay so much more for a book than Americans?

Update: Apparently I'm not the only one complaining, I found this article from the Globe which states that prices were suppose to go down in July, guess they need to come down again.