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 ) Unfortunately, Demographics is a discipline most people don’t take very seriously. Most of us just occasionally glance at population rankings and birth rates. And that’s all. It’s a pity: Demographics encloses notions of time and sociability that explain our daily life. Existence. Especially in countries like Estonia, where territorial dimension is crucial. Truth be told, the entire region suffers from a mild or severe land disorder: • Russia is not only the largest country in the world, and loves to collect territories it is barely able to populate (or administrate), it also ranks 218th in population density (i.e. one of the least densely populated countries in the world) in addition to the fact that its population shrinks by 700,000 individuals per year; • Finland is also one of the least populated countries on Earth (199th), which triggers an inbreeding and autistic problem that even Estonians mock them about; • Estonia ranks in t...

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...

Porque "kalinka" é afinal um fruto silvestre. A melhor e mais arrebatada interpretação que vi até hoje. O meu exército de glóbulos vermelhos ainda rejubila. Vivam os Leningrad Cowboys e o Russian Red Army Choir, claro.

Lesson to be learned: never miss a good trauma, please. Poor Gagarin... Russian animation at its best.

São dez minutos que valem a pena. O melhor final da história das séries de televisão. Sangue? É impressão vossa. A Rússia no seu melhor. Até dá a impressão que nem eles morrem nem as balas se acabam... Da svidaniya !