Originally published in Estonian as Mistral: külm Prantsuse tuul puhub itta

http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/483208

David J. Smith*

The French Navy amphibious assault ship Mistral—named for a cold French wind—visits Saint Petersburg today. This is not just a port call; it is a sales call—with ominous geopolitical implications.

“We plan to buy one Mistral class ship in France and with technical support from the French to build four helicopter carriers of this class under license,” said Vice Admiral Oleg Burtsev, First Deputy Chief of the Russian Navy Staff. It would be the biggest ever NATO country military supply to Russia.

The Mistral class of ships is designed to attack the shore from the sea, an ideal weapon for Russia to intimidate its neighbors. Mistrals can carry 16 heavy or 35 light helicopters, 4 landing craft, 900 soldiers and up to 70 military vehicles, including up to 40 tanks.

At about $800 million apiece, France’s motivation to sell Mistrals is understandable. Besides, sale proponents argue, a few modern ships to Russia’s barnacle-ridden navy will hardly threaten American dominance at sea.

However, is Paris prepared to reward Russian aggression against Georgia, ignore shredding of the ceasefire agreement negotiated and signed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, accept the help of Georgian soldiers in Afghanistan but enforce an unacknowledged arms embargo on Georgia, and meanwhile sell advanced arms to Russia? Does France really want Russia to have this littoral combat capability?

Ignoring these questions may evoke pleasant noises in Moscow for a time, but Russia will not reciprocate in any concrete way. Indeed, it will demand ever more to be appeased. And eventually Russia will employ the Mistrals in another act of aggression, thereby making France complicit.

Regrettably, the potential sale of Mistral class ships to Russia appears to spring from worse than unprincipled economics. France’s partnership with Russia, Prime Minister Francois Fillon recently said, “can take several forms in the defense sphere, from military cooperation to close industrial partnership.” Recall that Fillon a day before the April 2008 NATO Bucharest Summit, told France-Inter radio, “We are opposed to the entry of Georgia and Ukraine because we think it is not the right response to the balance of power in Europe and between Europe and Russia.”

It is difficult to imagine what power Fillon imagines France will balance with the sale of Mistrals to Russia. However, one can readily discern Russia’s motivation for the purchase.
Moscow will not soon challenge US Navy dominance of the oceans. The Russian Navy for the foreseeable future will be a green water navy, operating close to home, largely as a complement to Russian land forces. And those forces undergird Russia’s intent to halt NATO’s eastward enlargement, particularly to Georgia and Ukraine; to retain its Black Sea Fleet headquarters in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol beyond the 2017 expiration of its leasehold; to discourage NATO from planning and exercising the defense of the post Cold War NATO allies; to challenge American cooperation with those allies; and eventually to roll back what it characterizes as encroachment from the west.

“All that we consider ours will remain ours,” said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, toasting the 80th birthday of well known Soviet and Russian foreign policy specialist Yevgeny Primakov. The Baltic Sea, once a Soviet lake, is no doubt one of the places that Putin had in mind. When the Mistral navigated Skagerrak and Kattegat, the straits that lead from the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea into the Baltic Sea, it steamed by the shores of united Germany; by Gdansk, catalyst to the upheavals that toppled the communist world that Putin so reveres; by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, now NATO members, once occupied but never cowed by the Soviet Union.

On Baltic shores, apart from Saint Petersburg, only Kaliningrad—headquarters of the Baltic Fleet founded by Peter the Great—remains of the world for which Putin yearns. And it was no coincidence, therefore, that in Kaliningrad on September 28, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Russian troops who had participated in the exercise Zapad 2009, “I am convinced that we will be able to reestablish our navy in the next decade…We need a strong navy.”

And the Mistrals are part of the plan. On inland seas such as the Baltic or the Black Sea, Mistral class ships would make a big difference—and the Russians know it. Referring to Russia’s August 2008 invasion of Georgia, Russian Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy recently remarked, “A ship like that would have allowed the Black Sea Fleet to accomplish its mission in 40 minutes, not 26 hours, which is how long it took us.”

Consequently, the Mistral’s call in Saint Petersburg must capture the attention of every NATO ally. The French sale of Mistral class ships to Russia would be a major adverse geopolitical development and a potential alliance buster—it must be stopped.

*David J. Smith is Director, Georgian Security Analysis Center, Tbilisi, and Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Washington.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new global version of Amazon’s Kindle for Christmas, be aware that there are still quite a few places that the global version will NOT work.  I was disappointed to find that the new version still will not work in my country.

Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.   I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in (below).

It’s also interesting to note the PATTERN of groups of countries where the Kindle doesn’t work–some countries probably lack satellite coverage or delivery systems, while others probably don’t WANT readers to be able to download whatever they want by satellite.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,  Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S.,  Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009) the following countries:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan,  Yemen.

Over 1% of Russian residents are HIV-positive, according to a joint report by the UN Program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization.

Injecting drug use remains the primary transmission route in Russia and the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia region on the whole. According to the report, about 37% of Russia’s estimated 1.8 million drug users are HIV-infected. Young people account for a considerable number of infections among injecting drug users in the region.

“In a study involving street youth (aged 15-19) in St. Petersburg, 37.4% of the people surveyed were HIV-infected, with a positive HIV status strongly and independently associated with injecting drugs and sharing needles,” the report, released on Tuesday, said.

According to the report, three countries in the region – Estonia, the Russian Federation and Ukraine have HIV prevalence that exceeds 1%, with Ukraine showing the most alarming infection rate of 1.6%.

The estimated number of people living with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia rose to some 1.5 million, up 66% from 2001.

Pensa Rápido… onde fica a ESTONIA??

Se me perguntarem onde fica EXATAMENTE a ESTONIA, não sei. Foram tantas divisões naquela parte do mapa que só com a ajuda do google. Enfim, a ESTONIA existe, e tem AD CARDS também . Não muitos mas tem como esses dois ai de cima que impossivel saber do que se tratam, mas irei perguntar depois  há um ano troco postais com uma pessoa de lá… assim como de muitos outros paises.  Além dos postais, na poucas linhas das mensagens trocadas a gente vai conhecendo um pouco sobre  cada pessoa, pais , costumes e  e tantas coisas.

ALÉM DE POSTAIS….FRIENDS

Hoje uma colecionadora da Grécia contou que por lá o vírus influenza está fazendo estragos e se alastrando rapidamente… Ja uma das minhas amigas da Itália não teve muita sorte e pegou a gripe mas já está bem, mas teve que ficar de “quarentena” por um bom tempo isolada.

PIADA DE BRASILEIRO

Enquanto isso por aqui, nossos correios estào cada vez piores… são tantos envios que nao chegam, principalmente os internacionais, que se chegar um dia ja fico feliz, menos pior do que extraviar….

E a “Piada de Brasileiro” que eu tive que contar essses dias para uma amiga de Portugal foi que, depois de ’seculos”, o envelope dela chegou… foi apenas dar um passeio para a ANVISA (vigilância Sanitária) que, MESMO HAVENDO UMA TARGETA DO CORREIO DE PORTUGAL DECLARANDO QUE O CONTEUDO ERAM POSTAIS,  abriram o envelope, FECHARAM DE QUALQUER JEITO COM UMA FITA SOBRE OS SELOS e meteram um carimbo “MERCADORIA NÃO SUJEITA A VIGILÂNCIA SANITÁRIA”…

?? tah? entào por que abriu “burro(a)??

Ainda não entendo como conseguem fazer essas coisas vergonhosas…!!! (e receber salário por isso!)

Um outro envelope (esse não escaneei), também com targeta declarando que eram  POSTAIS ,  foi parar em CURITIBA, aberto pela RECEITA FEDERAL e depois carimbado como ‘Produto Liberado”.

Here’s an odd thing.

Almost every Sunday of my life since three years of age I’ve attended Eesti Maja (Estonian Hall) Adelaide for folk dance practise, I now lead that folk dance group every Sunday, I’ve played in an Estonian folk band, woven two traditional belts, attended a youth leadership camp representing the Estonian community of Adelaide, have tattoos of Estonian folk dancers on my forearms, regularly cook traditional Estonian foods, have taken Estonian language classes, attended the Estonian summer camp Sõrve as participant and leader, marched the Adelaide Christmas pageant in full folk costume in 40 degree heat and played on the Estonian volleyball team alongside my father and an old Estonian buddy of his who used to captain the Australian team. I’ve done all this, more and wholly embraced the culture of my fathers decent without ever setting foot in the country which calls that culture its own…an odd thing indeed.

Often I’ve been of the opinion that coming from a western country has given many ethnic groups in Australia a greatly fortified sense of national pride in the country of their family descent. I can count the number of old blooded Australians I know on one hand and it seems everyone, while being an Australian, wants to belong to some far away, exotic mysterious land. I’m all for that, but the proof is in the pudding, so ‘tis said, and for the children of my generation unless you embrace that foreign culture you might as well be a regular Skip. Be you of Greek man who does not eat pickled octopus, wear kappa pants and say ’fully sick’ or hail from an Estonian family and have never seen the inside of Eesti Maja, stomped a glorious polka or feasted upon a fine blood sausage while sipping vodka.

With this in mind I’ve never felt wholly able to relate to the culture I inherited for two reasons. The first is listed above…I have never been to the fatherland, Estonia, and the other is the language barrier before me. As if ‘twas the moat of a castle surrounding the innermost regions of the realm by the entirety of its watery circle keeping me from really discovering the heart of the empire. Seems all I needed was the password to lower the drawbridge…one problem, I didn’t speak the doorman’s language. I knew a lot about Estonian history, culture and tradition though, as my year ten German teacher said, “You only really know the people once you know their language.”

So it was that I jumped into a taxi at the Tallinn airport and off to my university lodging I sped. The only thing more characteristic of the soviet era than my driver was ‘The Soviet Block’, as I got into the habit of calling it, my new home. With an amazing view out over another soviet era apartment building and a constantly empty car park adorned with the finest ruined cars and discarded signs. I was five floors up and could just make out the Baltic-Sea over the trees. The door ladies were lovely though, and once they realised I was Chris with the Estonian family name they would hold me at their little booth on ground floor and chat at length on the many and varied topics and issues of the day. My family history, if I was related to the famous male Estonian ballet dancer who I share a last name with and as a dog set free from his leash would run free so too would these women’s tongues at any chance to speak Estonian to me, ask me if I needed a new pass card since I was so consistently losing mine and see what I had been learning.

I have always been proud to call myself Estonia, or of Estonian descent, and now it’s not hard to see why. Pride is well bred into the Estonian race and with their struggle for independence so fresh in their minds, couples with the riot of recent years, the fire still burns brightly in their eyes. During a visit to the ‘Museum of Occupation’ with our school our hostess, who had just described her personal, and rather horrifying experiences with the deportations to Siberia, she asked us what we were studying. When a good percentage of the group called out ‘Eesti Keelt’ she literally began to cry. Hey joy in meeting complete strangers who had travelled to the other side of the world to learn about her language and culture was really more than a woman of her experiences could contain.

Estonia has a population of one point three four million (and decreasing) people with a Russian population of up to forty percent nationally. So really there are only around eight hundred thousand Estonian in Estonia. I knew from talking to the travellers and the stories you hear sitting in the dimly lit, club bar at Estonian hall that the Soviet ‘Russianisation’ of Estonia had created problems but it was never enough to really prepare me for it. I’ve never seen two cultural groups, out of direct conflict with each other, living in such close quarters simply refusing to integrate. It would be considered odd for an Estonian to have a close Russian friend and vice-versa. The Russians believe that they should still own the country and, for the most part, refuse to play the old game with new rules. Independence was on February 24^th, 1991 and the effect of the soviet occupation, for good and bad, is still everywhere to be seen…more so on the faces the local populace than in the architecture of the city.

My roommates, to begin with, consisted of a tortured artist American who was out of his home country for the first time, had recently seen Georgia and would not stop talking about it. His favoured haunt in the Vanalinn (old town) was a nice little place called Drink. They played all five test matches, served VB and on every other night you could find a young man in his early twenties, clad in all black sporting a shaggy beard and English drivers cap sitting backwards, slightly off centre stooped over his notebook writing who knows what. His idea of a nightcap following a sordid romp through the Tallinn nightlife was half a bottle of red wine, five cigarettes back to back and five minutes throwing up.

Living on the other side of the kitchen were two Armenian gents who had the top of the pops playing whenever they were in the dorm…that wasn’t very often at all. They were very hard to read and their energy levels would vary so greatly that you never know if they were about to crack a joke or pass out on the kitchen table. They did provide some comic relief throughout the weeks though and it was always funny count the new scratch marks running down one of their backs as he came out for a morning cigarette. I did pick up some Armenian from the pair though it would have been useless for anything other than asking for a light, calling someone gay or asking for a cock to be put in my mouth…I didn’t always understand the messages I was relaying.

Then came zee Germans. Five of them at once rocked up in the last week of school for a course in social studies. They were loud, drunk and, apart from their constant complaining about the state of Estonian bread, they were always in high spirits. Once again I picked up a random collection of vocabulary and since they were from the south of Germany they found it funny to teach every guttural utterance more likely to be heard in a jungle than the bars I picked them up in.

One of these cats was a big football fan and his local team, The Red Devils, had a special uniform. He told me that when you went to the game you went and saw the ‘special’ dentist underneath the grandstand and while the crowd was yelling insults at the umpire, cheering their team on and abusing the opposition you would have your canines sharpened…without anaesthetic. I didn’t believe it but he pulled out his fangs and who was I to argue…perhaps, or not, I should point out that by the time he finished telling me this I was just about drunk enough for a trip to the special dentist as well.

One of the girls was of Romani gypsy descent, I got to know her quite well and after our parting I received an email from the lass saying that we could no longer be in contact. It appears I was somewhat of a distraction on her path to her lord…God 1 vs. Chris 0. I know this is slightly off topic but if I am to devote myself to a religion then the powers that be had best be having a good time. I want a God that will drink and dance and fuck and live on the lighter side of life…seems the book ‘Jitterbug Perfume’ has had some long lasting effects on me.

The first Estonian to die from swine flu is a 13-year-old boy in Harju County. But Estonia hasn’t yet begun to administer swine flu vaccine; the first 100,000 doses are expected to arrive in the country on December 7th and will be made available only to people in designated high priority groups.

Overall, Estonia has to date reported 269 confirmed cases of swine flu infection; the country’s first H1N1 case was reported in May.

EarthTimes has a good summary of the current extent of swine flu infection in all three Baltic states.

While it’s not always as exciting as a summer hen weekend, you can still have a great time as long as you plan properly and think about where you want to go and what you want to do. Watersports are obviously not a great idea unless you all want to catch pneumonia. Indoor activities are always a safe bet and learning a few dance moves is a great way of keeping warm, so the popular pole dancing lessons, burlesque classes, grease dancing and dirty dancing lessons are a fantastic choice all year round.

You can always take advantage of the cold weather and head for the slopes in Slovenia. Maribor and Ljubljana are perfectly positioned with great access to incredible slopes at the Kravec ski resort. If you’ve always wanted to have a go at skiing or snowboarding or maybe you’re already a keen skier then your winter hen weekend is a great chance to hit the slopes. There’s also various other winter sports available such as toboganning, bobsleigh, curling and snowmobiles, so you have a range of options that you wouldn’t get in the summer.

If you want to head to a winter wonderland for your hen weekend then you might want to try Tallinn or Prague (which both have great Christmas markets) – you could go for a white hen weekend in the snow, just don’t forget to wrap up warm!

Click for more ideas for hen weekends

Here are the Top 10 least religious countries in the world:

1. Sweden (up to 85% non-believer, atheist, agnostic)
2. Vietnam
3. Denmark
4. Norway
5. Japan
6. Czech Republic
7. Finland
8. France
9. South Korea
10. Estonia (up to 49% non-believer, atheist, agnostic)

The one that surprised me was Israel, ranking 19th, with up to 37% claiming to be non-believer, atheist, agnostic. Compare that with the United States, ranking 44th, with 3-9% non-believers, atheists, agnostics.

The survey concluded that “high levels of organic atheism are strongly correlated with high levels of societal health, such as low homicide rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, and low illiteracy rates, as well as high levels of educational attainment, per capita income, and gender equality. Most nations characterized by high degrees of individual and societal security have the highest rates of organic atheism, and conversely, nations characterized by low degrees of individual and societal security have the lowest rates of organic atheism. In some societies, particularly Europe, atheism is growing. However, throughout much of the world — particularly nations with high birth rates — atheism is barely discernable.”

And now for the Top 50:

So let’s compare. Here are the nations with very high human development (developed countries).

1	▲ (1)	Norway	0.971	▲ 0.001
2	▲ (2)	Australia	0.970	▲ 0.002
3	▼ (2)	Iceland	0.969	▲ 0.002
4	▼ (1)	Canada	0.966	▲ 0.001
5	▬	Ireland	0.965	▲ 0.001
6	▬	Netherlands	0.964	▲ 0.003
7	▬	Sweden	0.963	▲ 0.002
8	▲ (3)	France	0.961	▲ 0.003
9	▲ (1)	Switzerland	0.960	▲ 0.001
10	▼ (2)	Japan	0.960	▲ 0.002
11	▼ (2)	Luxembourg	0.960	▲ 0.001
12	▬	Finland	0.959	▲ 0.004
13	▲ (2)	United States	0.956	▲ 0.001
14	▬	Austria	0.955	▲ 0.003
15	▲ (1)	Spain	0.955	▲ 0.003
16	▼ (2)	Denmark	0.955	▲ 0.002
17	▬	Belgium	0.953	▲ 0.002
18	▲ (1)	Italy	0.951	▲ 0.001
19	N/A	Liechtenstein	0.951	▲ 0.001

1,350,000 Euros Villa only or 1,500,000 for the Villa, cruiser, jeep and berth

Sitting proudly elevated above Elounda with glorious views is this Architect built villa, with four bedrooms. The property is detached and in its own grounds of over 2,750 m or just over half an acre. Built as a permanent home ,for the English owner to North European Standards, and with quality fixtures and fittings throughout

Amazon's Global Kindle Reader

I heard that Amazon now has a global version of Kindle. I was disappointed to find this morning that the new version still will not work in my country.

Since I’ve wanted one for some time, but have been waiting until they got a version that would work in my country, I checked out their website this morning, only to be disappointed again. Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new Global Kindle for a Christmas gift this year, since the new version will only work in SOME countries, I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S., Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

The Bank of Happiness is an initiative to change the way of thinking. It’s a bank for exchanging good deeds. The wish of the Bank is to make people think and act with their heart. The Bank is meant for all those, who value good deeds and have the will to make good themselves.

The Bank of Happiness was created from the ideas of ordinary people and it is no personal ambition or business plan of anyone. The Bank acts on the level of the grass, thriving to increase the connection and co-operation of the society. The objective of the Bank is to promote the non-monetary values, in order to help people to find their way back to the more deep values. The prerequisite to the operation of the Bank are the real people in need and helpers, i.e. good deed doers, people among us.

The Bank of Happiness performs the gratitude economy, where rules that at the first glimpse seem impossible, prevail. The Bank turns upside down the common knowledge of mathematics, as the rule of the Bank says: sharing = multiplication. By sharing something that you obtain, you can multiply the benefit received many times. How much exactly depends on the value of the shared thing – the bigger the value of the thing to be shared, the bigger will be the win created by the sharing. Also every small thing that you share with others, always gives the bigger benefit than it is worth!

There are many reasons to join the Bank of Happiness – the objective of the initiative was completely sincere and direct, lead by the wish to make good for the whole environment. Participation in the activities of the Bank of Happiness is easy and fun. The Bank offers new experiences and the possibility to meet interesting people. In the Bank of Happiness you will feel yourself needed and experience joy from giving and receiving. The Bank of Happiness is the only bank, where EVERYTHING is free of charge!

 (http://www.onnepank.ee/en)

Fecha: 22 de noviembre de 2009

El pasado 17 de noviembre el Ministro de industria, Miguel Sebastián, anunció que a partir de 2011 el acceso a 1 Mbps será un servicio universal en España. Esto quiere decir, tal como queda recogido en el artículo 22 de la LGT-2003, que cualquier ciudadano, con independencia de su ubicación física en España podrá solicitar el servicio de 1 Mbps y el gobierno estará obligado a dárselo a unos precios de mercado a través de alguna de las operadoras con quien se haya realizado previamente el convenio.

El concepto de servicio universal no es nuevo, ya estaba incluido el la Ley General de Telecomunicaciones de 2003, donde se definía como: “el conjunto definido de servicios cuya prestación se garantiza para todos los usuarios finales con independencia de su localización geográfica, con una calidad determinada y a un precio asequible“. En la actualidad los servicios garantizados más importantes son:

1. Que todos los usuarios puedan obtener una conexión a la red telefónica pública que le permita efectuar y recibir llamadas y acceso a Internet.
2. Que se ponga a disposición de los abonados una guía general de números de abonados.
3. Que exista una oferta suficiente de teléfonos públicos de pago.
4. Que los usuarios con discapacidad puedan acceder a los mismos servicios en condiciones de equiparables al resto de usuarios finales.

En el caso del primer servicio, que comenta el acceso a Internet, se trata simplemente de un servicio de conexión telefónica a Internet a 56 Kbps, que no tiene nada que ver con el que se anunciado a 1 Mbps.

En cualquier caso, el anuncio del gobierno no debería coger por sorpresa a nadie ya que la Unión Europea se había pronunciado en el sentido de proclamar el acceso a 1 Mbps como universal. Aunque esto no se ha producido todavía, en Estonia, Finlandia, Francia y Grecia ya hay servicio universal, y de hecho los finlandeses se han propuesto ampliar a 100 Mbps el ancho de banda del servicio universal para 2015. Dentro de España Andalucía ha anunciado esta semana que adelantará el servicio universal a 2010.

No todo el mundo se encuentra satisfecho con el anuncio del gobierno. Las operadoras a través de Redtel ya manifestaron hace un mes que no es el momento de universalizar el servicio:  “En momentos como el actual, de coyuntura económica adversa, no tiene sentido aumentar los costes de las empresas inversoras vía mayores obligaciones del servicio universal, sino todo lo contrario“. Es se debe a que la financiación del servicio universal tiene un coste para las operadoras que participen en la provisión del mismo porque será necesario tener un fondo de compensación para la prestación del servicio en zonas complicadas. El coste que tenga esta prestación del servicio deberá ser soportada de forma más o menos solidaria y con distribución por categorías por todas las operadoras. Esto se canalizará a través de aportaciones por parte de las operadoras que se depositarán en el Fondo Nacional del Servicio Universal que estará bajo la gestión de la CMT.

Para clarificar todo este panorama creo que será clave el II Encuentro Internacional CMT que bajo el nombre “Regulación del Entorno Convergente” debatirá todos estos aspectos los días 23 y 24 de noviembre en Barcelona.

The global financial crisis will likely delay Latvia and Lithuania’s entry to the EMU. Estonia, however, is still on track for 2011 eurozone entry. ECB policymaker Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell has suggested that pushing forward on euro adoption without meeting the Maastricht criteria is no cure-all for Baltics’ economic woes. Tumpel-Gugerell said that “during the global financial crisis, it became apparent that the euro has been an important shelter for the euro area countries to protect them against what otherwise may have resulted in an exchange rate and balance of payments crisis. This led to the widespread perception that the euro area is a safe haven.”

Eestis pole lauamängud just eriti levinud ja hästi mõistetud ala. Mõni on kunagi veeretanud täringuid selleks, et “Tsirkuses”, “Reis ümber maailmas” või mõnes muus igavmängus nuppe liigutada. Mõni on isegi “Monopoly” ja “Aliast” näinud.

Samas tõstab see subkultuur tasapisi pead ning nakatas mindki mõni aeg tagasi. Nagu Ovegi kirjutab, siis pole väga palju kohti, kus ägemänge kohe leti peal katsuda saaks ja koju viia. Pmst on kaks kohta Tallinnas: Ludo Tartu maanteel  ja WePlay Solarises. Ludol on pood ka Tartus.

Kuid ega kõik huvitavad mängud ka letile mahu. Sellepärast on seda tervitatavam ka uue teemakohase kodumaise netipoe turuletulek – Fortuna Games.

Vabandage promo pärast, kuid tegu on hea asjaga. Avamise puhul on võimalik osa võtta ka viktoriinist, kus on võimalik võita tutikas (2009) Esseni lauamängude messil värskelt esitletud mäng Minotaurose labürint.

Mine siia ja osale viktoriinis -> lauamangud.ee !

Cóż mogę napisać? Było niesamowicie fajnie, nie spodziewałam się, że aż tak. Sztokholm wciąż piękny, choć pogoda mniej. Starówka Talina robi nie mniejsze wrażenie. Jak dodamy do tego atmosferę na statku stworzoną przez ludzi wyjdzie świetny wyjazd.

Source:The Irish Times, Dublin

FORMER MEP Mary Banotti has called on the Government to monitor the number of reported child abduction cases involving sharia law countries which have not signed international conventions on the issue.

Figures published by the Department of Justice last week showed that a record 141 transnational child abduction cases were dealt with by the authorities last year.

The department said 141 cases involving 183 children were received by the Central Authority for Child Abduction in 2008, an increase of 42 cases on 2007 and the highest annual total since the unit was established in 1991.

However, Ms Banotti, who is president of Irish Centre for Parentally Abducted Children, said it was very difficult to retrieve children who were abducted by one parent to a state that had not signed the Hague conventions on child abduction. Cases involving countries governed by sharia law were particularly difficult to resolve.

“I think there should be a record kept of all children removed to sharia law countries,” she said.

Ms Banotti pointed to a case in which an Irish woman, originally from a north African state, was reunited in January with her four children six years after her husband took them back to their country of origin without her consent. Because the African state had not signed the Hague conventions, the woman had no legal avenue to pursue in order to retrieve her children, who were aged between two and seven when they were taken in 2002.

She was eventually reunited with them in January after her husband was arrested by gardaí on his return to Ireland.

Ms Banotti said the latest child abduction figures corroborated her organisation’s view that the problem remained significant. The centre received reports of seven abductions in the past week.

A major shift in trends in recent years was that, whereas women until recently made up the vast majority of those reporting abduction, today at least half of reports came from men.

While the overwhelming majority of transnational abduction cases investigated here once involved the United States and the UK, recent immigration patterns are reflected in the variety of central and eastern European countries that have appeared on the department’s list in recent years.

In 2008, a total of 33 cases related to states that joined the EU since 2004, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

Today FindAnyFilm portal got a facelift and new version. With over 50 major updates including a brand new look and feel, new film matching logic, expanded full release schedule, improved cinema listings (now updated 5 times a week), new content including additional trailers, images and synopses, reviews, and a brand new trailer player to allow for full screen viewing – amongst many!

I personally like Find Any Film because besides info on movies, it provides me with legally downloadable quality movies with reasonable price!

The site is partly developed in Estonia by Blue Barracuda

October is old news.  November is all that’s on everyone’s mind these days, everyone that is unless you live in Brooklyn.  Skeletons, tricks, spooking, candy corn, Columbus’s plundering and slaughter of indigenous peoples, the juxtaposition of orange on black and not to mention the Bavarian revelry that is Octoberfest.  So that’s why the folks at Bushwick Top Chef flipped back the calendar, struck up the oompah band, hiked up their hosen and swung a dimpled mug into our neighbor in this week’s event, metaphorically speaking of course.

The Challenge-Each chef must create a dish based on his or her “interpretation” of Octoberfest.  A dish should yield at least five human servings
The Guidelines- All dishes must contain a meat, and one of any variety of Brooklyn brand beer ie; Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn East India Pale Ale, etc.

Due to complications with the new astroturfing project at the Commodore Bushwick T. Knickerbocker Memorial Arena and Grange Hall where the event was slated to take place, Bushwick Top Chef was held at an enemy territory, over a Native American burial ground and pet cemetery in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan.

I discuss in my book a few instances of petty corruption that I observed in Estonia in 1992, including [in chapter 8] a deal to reclaim a confiscated drivers license by bribing a policeman with a gift of cognac and roses.

But this sort of corruption was the exception rather than the rule, and it struck me as a vestige of the Soviet survival toolkit rather than anything deeply rooted in Estonian culture. In 1992 and in the succeeding five years that I lived in the country, I found that most Estonians were inclined to play by the rules.

These observations are supported by Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index, released today. The index ranks 180 countries according to “the perceived level of public-sector corruption”. Estonia is ranked 27th in the world and is tied for 12th place in the European Union.

Estonia’s ranking places it far ahead of Baltic neighbors Lithuania (#52) and Latvia (#56). Estonia is also perceived as being less corrupt than Hungary (#46), Italy (#63), and Bulgaria and Romania (tied at #71). The United States is ranked 19th. The world’s least corrupt countries? New Zealand, Denmark, and Singapore.

At the weekend, i was in Estonia. Actually Estonia is my home country, but because I Have lived in Finland for 15 years, really think that Finland is my home country. Last time I understood that I like Estonia. I really like Estonia people, Estonian sights…I have three countries that are important to me. These are Russian, Finland and Estonia.

In Estonia...Old Town)))

 When I walked on Estonian streets, I understood that I know this places. Then my friends asked me advice, it felt great and also when one woman came to talk to me in Estonian. Before my mum never taught me Estonian but I have more Estonian friends who have taught me. Then a woman came and I understood all that she said, however, unfortunately I couldn´t answer her. But luckily she understood me.

 When I walked on Estonian streets I was surrounded by graffiti and old streets and old houses. Than we were in Old Town I saw the homeless people and my friends asked me, “How many homeless people are there in Estonia?” In my opinion Estonian people can be divided in to two, the riches and the poor. And because of that many young Estonian have become pickpockets.

There is mine Germany friends...We were in Estonia together))))

Estonian Flag

Translate:

Sights  =  Nähtävyys

Surround = Ympäröidä

Homeless = Koditon

Pickpockets = Taskuvaras

                                                                                                                                                                                                       -Olga-

Bulgaria, Romania and Greece were at the bottom of the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2009 for the European Union.

Denmark leads the index, followed by Sweden and Finland. Estonia and Slovenia are the least corrupt from the East European Member States.

If some Eastern European governments are turning to technology to make their inner workings and public services more transparent a bit later than those “Westside,” then what a great opportunity to make these systems even more robust and pioneering.

Seizing that opportunity today is MySociety in collaboration with the Open Society Institute based in New York who have today launched a project to help people in Central and Eastern Europe who want to build and grow their own transparency and democracy sites.

The plan is to find people or organisations with ideas and then help them to make them into real bits of technology that will make a proper difference to people locally. MySociety is running a call for proposals (CfP) and eventually, the applicants will build projects themselves with some help from MySociety.

What is quite interesting is that the process is open to individuals or groups with no prior direct experience of working in government transparency and accountability. Tony Bowden, leading the project says: “Experience from around the world suggests that some of the best websites in this field have been set up by individuals with no specific NGO background, such as New Zealand’s TheyWorkForYou.co.nz.”

I will try to get an update from Tony about how this is going. If you are interested in e-government and e-democracy in Eastern Europe you might like to read an article I wrote for the Guardian about Estonia’s use of technology to improve public services here.