Circo Vicioso

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keeles ) It’s an usual remark. “I bet in Estonian there is a huge rivalry between locals and Russian girls”, always hint my foreign friends after a couple of days in Tallinn. “Not really...”, I reply. Of course, I could add Russians believe Estonians are not hot enough and Estonians mock Russians because they dress like a Christmas Tree. However, all in all, fair-play and respect prevails. And that’s an admirable achievement in this society. Somehow, Estonians and Russian sense they are not direct competitors: nowadays, Estonian men very seldom favour Russian girls and I have known very few local Russian men who end up with an Estonian partner. For the worse and for the better: one country, two systems. Full integration is still a mirage. Actually, when it comes to competition — really serious and stiff competition — Estonians love to challenge the Finns. It seems to me that harmony in the Gulf of Finland is not a project for tomorrow. For the dist...

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keeles ) “Ma ei tea...” When I think about the first syllables of an Estonian baby I can imagine “Ma ei tea”... Not “Mama”, let alone “Papa”... Simply “Ma ei tea”. I explain: not to understand a language can be as annoying as entertaining. Since I can’t follow the full meaning of most conversations around my attention turns selective. I’m always waiting for a sentence I’m able to grab with both hands and process in my mind... That’s how I noticed Estonians just love to say “Ma ei tea!”. They repeat it over and over, especially women. It seems to me the most natural and spontaneous phrase an average Estonian can pronounce. Still remember when my friend Krista told me her English language teacher had forbidden all students to use “Ma ei tea!” in the classroom. A national addiction? I myself embraced the epystemology of “Ma ei tea!” as a personal cause. A tough job, I must admit. Yet, after years of random observation, I feel finally prepared to s...

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keeles ) One of the most charming facts of life is that everybody is different. We can even have a dozen of look-alikes, but humans are so nuanced that a quantic analysis will detect automatically significant differences. We just have to scratch a little bit. Zoom in. Those are perfect news. We human beings complement each others. This said, I must acknowledge I have a weird fetish with fetishes. How can I justify it? That was perhaps my way to overcome no tangible obsession in my life. Let’s face it: a deep-rooted fetish in a man is something quite idiosyncratic. Gives us character. Impresses. It’s something others will always write in our obituary: “Donald just loved smoking pipe hours long”, “Magnus never missed a FC Levadia match”, “Ruslan loved so much stars and planets he bought a powerful telescope with his first salary”, etc. Yet I am being too benign. Some of men’s biggest fetishes are related to women’s bodies. That’s quite normal. Funni...