Change

I have always believed in America, despite all the shame and criticism it has been facing over the past years. Listen, guys, we've all had our bad leaders! The previous president of Estonia, Mr Rüütel, was not in too much favour. And sometimes, we re-elect our bad leaders - Mr Rüütel used to be comrade Rüütel and head the Communist Party of Estonia when it was still a part of the USSR.


What amazes me is how some countries, those which are truly democratic, are able to change. Change in spite of anything. Americans have proven to the whole world that they are able to change. Democracy is not a mere word there, it is reality. This is particularly striking on the background of some other self-appointed democracies, where power swiftly changes from one closet-tyrant to another. Or better yet, where power doesn't change hands at all, the tyrant changes his titles, so as to keep the nice theatrical smile to the rest of the world, while pointing his finger at a fig-leave constitution.

I am not fond of political speeches, since I've written a score and I know how they come about. But this time, I was keeping my breath reading Obama's victory speech. It was inspiring and sincere. I congratulate Americans on their choice. And I want to thank them too, for, as one of my friends said, I was able to wake up to a bit better world this morning.

The picture in this blog is taken from Postimees.

Is Ukraine laughable?

I'm not following the news too much these days, but once in a while, I do come across the news on Russian TV channels. Predictably, they all start with Putin's 10 minutes on how good has life become in Russia, but here I'm risking to drift away... I was actually going to write about Ukraine.

Since Ukraine has chosen to start "westernising", particularly, since the latest turmoils didn't end up in the change of direction eastwards, all the news from and about Ukraine have been tinted by desperate attempts of sarcasm. Political maneuvering in Ukraine is never called anything but "the circus" or "playing democracy". Everything that comes out of this country is ridiculed by the Russian news agencies.

There is one thing I particularly dislike about the Russian foreign policy - the attitude "you are either with us, or against us". When it comes to humans, such kind of idealism is a sign of immaturity. Russia could do much better than kindergarten style whining and bullying.

Predictable surprises

The news from Russia today were all predictable and familiar like deja vu - flexing the oil-muscle (this time for Ukraine) and scheming to eternalise Putin's power. BBC's correspondent says that Putin's announcement came as a shock. I think a twist like that was predictable. Putin announced that he might aim for the post of prime minister of Russia after his presidential term. Will Russia become a parliamentary "democracy" now? Time will show. At least there are no limits to the number of terms one can serve as a prime minister, and that is something with potential for eternity.

On the positive side - my respect towards Ukrainian election "circus" is growing. Messy as it is, it looks exactly like the first steps of a new democracy. As one of the Ukrainian politicians wisely said - no-one knows the outcome beforehand, and that what makes it a democracy after all.

Bucketful of nonsense

I do follow Russian news to some extent – to be aware of “another” opinion – but there are limits to how much nonsense one can take. With years, Russian news experience has become increasingly painful. I’m talking about the kind of pain one feels watching people embarrassing themselves.

Today, I managed to sit through the weekly summary news on the main Russian TV channel, the ORT. The amount of wrinkles on my face must have increased considerably from all the frowning and grimacing.

First, I felt a blow of nostalgia, some kind of memory about my Soviet childhood. The new prime minister of Russia – a mister Nobody promoted by the President out of the complete blue – got unprecedented support by the parliament, in fact, the highest ever in Russian history. Who would have expected such an approval of the President’s protégé?

The new prime minister of Russia is a separate long story to tell. It is the predictable big surprise before the parliamentary and presidential elections – a strange move both anticipated and puzzling.

Then, there was a 15-minute report on the President’s moves over the past week, with lots of quoting his remarkable opinions and praise to his foresight, consideration, wisdom. Only the words “our father”, “his holiness”, and “the great teacher” were not uttered in the report, although they were strongly implied on.

Then, in the best Soviet traditions, the reports moved over to bashing every bit of news from abroad.

When a reporter started mocking Ukrainian democratic attempts with a lot of vigour and sappiness, I thought that the Russian propaganda machine has no mercy to those who dare to turn away the almighty Russian supporting hand, such as Ukraine, Georgia or the former Soviet “allies”. I could only laugh bitterly at the blatant burial of Ukrainian democracy on Russian TV. Pathetic as it may seem to some, at least Ukraine is still struggling. Russia, on the other hand, has long lost the lust for fighting for the democracy, and has contently moved to blindly loving and idealising of those in power.

Nostalgia, amazement and disgust, were then replaced by a strong sense of lunacy, when yet another report looked deep into the last performance of Osama bin Laden on TV. The suggestion that bin Laden has never existed and is a myth created by CIA, skilfully costumed, enacted and publicised “in the best Hollywood traditions”, only to boost the ratings of Republicans and Bush in particular made me speechless. This conspiracy bullshit was the main message of the report – the report in the weekly summary news on the main Russian TV channel.

Like a little kinky touch, all the evening news shows on this main Russian TV channel end with a little extra, produced specially for the Estonian Russians, the so-called local news. This is always a curious bit on how Russian propaganda is “seamlessly” brainwashing its foreign compatriots. But that, again, is a whole new story.