Today Estonia became the 15th European Union member to ratify the dreaded 'EU Constitution' passing the baton north to Finland where the nation of Santa Claus and reindeer will decide by the end of the month whether or not to ratify the document as well.To commemorate this historic day, a rally was held in Anton Tammsaare park, where girls shook their asses to Euro stars and foreign minister Urmas Paet preached to a willing choir. EU support remains steady at 67 percent in the country. Looking down on it all is the statue of Anton Hansen Tammsaare, the national writer who managed to capture Estonians hunger for hard work in his series Tõde ja õigus or Truth and Justice.
What would Anton say to the dancing Estonian ladies and the Noor Eesti Välisminister Paet? Would he pick up his stone arms and applaud? Or would he just say 'Noh' and go back to studying the grass? My kroons are on the latter.
Meanwhile up the hill, former Red Army soldiers who today can barely control their bladder let alone steady a Kalashnikov, are laying red roses and memorials in cyrillic script at the foot of the monument to the liberators of Estonia - they who pushed the German fascists out of Russia and then grabbed pastoral Estonia as a nice souvenir along the way.Old men with smelly gums that look like they just wet their pants, their wives with conservative hairdos, and relatives gathered while stubborn Estonian guys with signs and foolish unemployed gentlemen who idiotically shave their heads in order to save money on hygienic costs (you know, all that EU inflation on shampoo products) turned their backs on them.
They come to honor the dead and reexamine old wounds, and they should be respected for that, regardless of history - just as Estonia's other WWII vets and metsavennad should be allowed to honor their dead relatives, friends, colleagues, and elected officials. And these wounds won't completely heal until the last of them are just memories. Everybody is entitled to the simple respect that comes with unbearable grief.
BUT I doubt anyone would disagree that if they had their choice - they'd rather be chilling with Anton Tammsaare than with the fearsome 'Soviet liberator/Land grabber' next to the National Library.
Anyway, I know the EU project is bureaucratic, elitist, and often just silly. But you have to say, Europe Day in Tammsaare Park, with some Saku Rock and some pizza from that place across from McCools sounds much better. And some fly girls.
3 kommentaari:
Call me skin deep if you want, but if I had a choice (and Ido),rather than watching these old farts fumbling around, I would join you, Saku, pizza, and the girls. The only reason I added the girls on the list is that they obviously use religiously some of the best shampoo products around.
The thing about the Soviet Union, Pekka, is that it doesn't exist. It's a deceased society, suspended in time. It's like the Roman empire. It fell. It left some architecture and infrastructure behind, but that's about it.
Europe Day sounds cheesy, but at least its commemorating something that's alive and breathing. The European ideal isn't something you get all emotional about. It's not the kind of thing that makes you want to do something stupid like pick up a gun and go and get yourself killed while singing national songs and losing your individual identity.
But it seems sunnier and positive and going places. The Soviet stuff - that reminds me of Doors fans that still haven't gotten over the fact that Jim Morrison died 35 years ago. Yes, they were around. Yes, they did some exciting things. But when the Doors got together for a reunion tour, the drummer sued the keyboardist and it just turned into a beautiful mess.
It's better to just let dead things stay dead.
Have you read the EU Constitution? It's the most vague, feel good thing EVER.
Sort of like the EU itself - vague and feel good. It contains key passages like:
"In order to promote good governance and ensure the participation of civil society, the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies shall conduct their work as openly as possible."
Now that's revolutionary :)
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