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...

Yes, sometimes I miss you.

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keel ) That was a strange morning. Spring was stupidly late. Allow me to add the unusual hangover from the wedding party the night before. As if it wasn't enough, in five minutes I received two SMS whose content was nearly coincident... Spooky. That was particularly concerning since they came from two different (foreign) persons who don’t know each other: “Hey! Did you know about the kebab place called ‘Istanbul’? We are a real European capital now!” "We?" Well, more than Tallinn becoming finally a long-waited European capital city, I got immediately excited by the word “kebab”. K-e-b-a-b! I love kebab, as long as the yogurt dressing is excellent and the salad (especially the Anatolian medium-sized tomatoes) is premium. Only this could justify my irrational impulse: to put on my black shoes and pass by Teater väljak in order to try one of this amazing wrapped-and-grilled sandwiches. Took me a couple of minutes to remark on how bad shape I wa...