Circo Vicioso

Editor's note: "Narva Oblast" is a text published first in the "Eesti Ekspress" weekly newspaper back in 2009 after Vladimir Putin invaded some regions of my beloved Eastern Iberia (Georgia). I decided to upload it here in the (English language) original version before translation into Estonian by my good Tallinn-born friend and ex-editor Askur Alas. Well, off it goes... Narva Oblast Everything happened too fast. Extremely fast. But History is picky: who could predict a month ago European Union's official recognition of Kosovo would happen the very same week as the Presidential election in Russia? “Rude mistake”, “Careless foreign policy”, “Big Bear underestimated”, “Bronze Soldier’s revenge”, “Second Act”, “Vladimir’s Grand Finale ”, etc. I can’t remember all the headlines printed those late days of February 2008. “Surprise”? To some extent. However, one can hardly say it was an “ab...

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keeles ) At first I didn’t understand: “Estonia’s International Friends Meeting.” If the emailed PDF letter hadn’t been signed by the President, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, and businessman Margus Reinsalu I would have never believed it. It was the first time I was receiving a letter of protocol via Internet... “Why the hell are they inviting me to such an event?”, I questioned myself. Still suspicious of a hoax, I asked my colleagues in "Eesti Ekspress". "Do you know something about this?" Well, nobody knew, as if it were a well-kept secret. Publicity wasn't a priority. I understand such initiatives are not that popular in times of crisis. Tax-payers are suspicious of any potentially irresponsible spending of their money and this “Estonia’s International Friends Meeting” was anything but conventional. Yet it seemed to me that everyone shared the burden: private players invested, Estonian institutions contributed, and participants p...

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keeles ) "Tallinn is like Prague after the neutron bomb!" This funny and simplistic joke invented by my Dutch friend Thomas has proved quite popular among my Estonian network. We don't need an hermeneutical exercise to conclude locals tend to agree Prague shares lots of things with the capital of Estonia. Yet today I decided to upgrade the challenge. The question: "What is the most similar country with Estonia?" A tough one, isn't it? Is it Czech Republic? Truth to tell, in my mind it has been clear for years. Slovenia, of course. "How come Slovenia has to do with Estonia?", you may ask. Well, the Germanic influence in the last thousand years. This is undeniable. Just visit Ljubljana: it's center is different, but the spirit reminds Old Tallinn's. Those are cities originally designed with human scale. The local castle it's a kind of Toompea and the only big difference would be the river Ljublianica...

Jah, siin on tasuta! Ja kui meeldib, osta siit .

Vá lá, apesar da tradução (portuguesa) da tradução (francesa) da tradução (estónia) do inglês original, o texto existe e é legível. Sai este mês no Courrier International . Às vezes fico espantado com a força de certas ideias. Sobrepõem-se à aparente incomunicabilidade.

Already in the Estonian bookstores. Ilus, ilus, ilus...

João Lopes Marques* ( Eesti keeles ) There is nothing more delicious than His superlative irony. Having read a couple of agricultural articles on vineyards in Scandinavia and the Baltic region, God surprised me (us) with a altruistic orgy of extremely white snow. More: who could guess some weeks ago I would be walking in the middle of the streets fearing being hit by one of those menacing spikes that grows bigger and bigger in the roofs of Tallinn? Well, since last Winter I have realized this crystalline water ice can break legs. That I already knew. What I never expected was that this gigantic natural spears pointed at me in every corner. Last night I even dreamt about one of them that is growing in a building by my flat — it fell unexpectedly perforating my gentle torso. For sure I also don't fancy all this army of tractors and caterpillars that just remind me Godzilla. But let's be positive (at least this time): these are quite bearable side effects of one of His most wonde...

by João Lopes Marques* ( Eesti keeles ) When the subject is historical fabrication, there is no better example than Australia. In fact, the surname Cook of the official English discoverer unveils almost everything: the discovery of Australia was cooked by London and its ambitious Admiralty. Those who have the military and economic power tend to have free hand to write and rewrite History their way. Let's face it: truth, whatever it means, is far from being essential in this exploration business. A good founding lie suits best as long as people don't question it too much. Antipodal distance helped and time accommodates the rest: Terra Australis Incognita has been a self-perpetuated fetish since Ptolemy and the ancient astronomists. Yet unlike mysterious Atlantis, there is plenty of evidence the "Lost Continent" was found and lost and found again several times throughout the millennia. By the Aboriginals, some 60,000 years ago. By the Javanese, Timorese and other Malay...

To you, small baby!

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keel ) I not only acknowledge but I also respect that a huge percentage of the human population wants to be famous. Dreams of glory are normal: fame is money, power, vanity, recognition. To some extent life can become easier, though one has to be prepared for losing his beloved privacy. Another minus is that the famous person tends to behave in order to fulfill social expectations on him. (Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears are just two recent cases; others, many others, ended up in suicide.) Why this subject? Because I have just landed in Ülemiste after one week Madrid. My business is nowadays more and more centered in the Spanish capital and I have to go there often. And this is why something is haunting me: in Madrid almost everybody looks at me in the street. Disturbing, since I was never famous in my life, let alone in Spain. Last month I asked my friend Filipe to pay more attention while by me. Puzzled, he confirmed my strange impression: "You are...

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keel ) This text is about tolerance, or the absolute lack of it. There are few things as bad as going out to our favourite place and, in the next table, we bump into a young baby who cries as loud as possible. We are enjoying the brunch, the music is nice, our company just perfect. Yet... that furious baby! He is so annoyed that prevents us from hedonisticly spend a good time. Finally the bill comes (not-that-cheap-anymore-as-you-may-know) and we pay for a terrific headache. Yes, I guess this is slightly unfair. And "unfair" is soft: this is nasty. The same applies to a dog that barks too much or just adores to leak your toes while you are finishing the last sip of cappuccino. "In other words what you are saying is that parents should stay always home, isn't it?", commented Triin who became recently mother of one. I know this is a very cruel image, but from a pure sensorial angle it is an objective aggression. For sure, things get ...

by João Lopes Marques ( Estonian version ) Unexpectedly, watching a football match became these days an unbearable task for me. The goals are sometimes beautiful, Cristiano Ronaldo is getting good shape again, but I can’t even look at the cruel faults players commit on the pitch. All those legs and feet and legs and feet in aggressive motion against each other. For some reason doctors baptized it “Traumatology Room”: a twisted ankle can have major consequences and I don’t mean only in our vulnerable bones and ligaments and whatsoever. It can also twist severely our perspective on the most earthy things. It happened finally to me. Three impressions just popped up: 1st) I never imagined so much Russian-speaking Estonians worked in the main Tallinn public hospital; 2nd) it is still a mystery for me why the emergency room sends us back home without a pair of crutches; 3rd) it is not easy to decide fast which pair of jeans we will rip off so that the plaster cast fits. This was a pedag...