Abdul Turay

Veerpalu the new Linford Christie By Abdul Turay Publish December 10 2011 Skiing superstar's Andrus Veerpalu reputation had died and with it the belief of an entire nation. I once said that Estonians act and think like black people. This sorry mess with Andrus Veerpalu seems to confirms it. Something very similar happened to my own people about a decade ago. There are about one and a half million black people in Britain, about the same number as the population of Estonia. We are also called Afro-Caribbean because most of us have roots in the former British colonies in the Caribbean. Estonians tend to think of black culture in term of black Americans or black Africans they do not think about black British culture or black European culture of any description for that matter. This is common ,the World thinks like. It's frustrating. The black community in Britain feels, somewhat, neglected. Our achievements, our literature, our art, our music and our science is rarely celebr...

Socialist have a conscience By Sven Mikser Published 27 August 2010 Columnist Abdul Turay finds in yesterday that the socialist(sotsids) are freaks, The proof, The sotsid are not in government yet their polling rating is in fourth place. Despite Turay's provocative style his opinion story contains questions which deserve an answer. There are many reason why Estonia politics have leaned to the right for the last 20 years. Sotsid propaganda weakness is only one and not the biggest. Yes the Reform political technology has had most skilful, moving from in 1990 gradual competition in paying for education and medical services, to in 2003 the parent's salaries “soft” sphere, and in the year 2007 bronze portable “nationalism”. But this crude right wing agenda still has basic fundamental errors. The centre party(Keskerakond) has corned the “disappointment” niche. And this niche is incredible big and lively nuisance for the right, who ruthlessly casts the weakest to the side. The crud...

Survival of the fittest By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 23 November 2011 Never, ever start a story with a statistic a colleague once told me when I just started out in journalism. Just to be contrary, here's one you are probably familiar with. In Estonia, life expectancy for men is 65.9 years, for women 76.8 years. In the U.K. life expectancy for men is 77.2 years for women life expectancy is 81.6. In Sweden life expectancy for men is 78.7 years and 83 years for woman. Lies, lies and statistics. These statistics aren't actually lies but they don't tell the whole story. I have travelled a bit, so the newspaper asked me tell that story and interpret these statistics. Let's start with what you probably know. Health care and sickness prevention in Estonia, and indeed in the Central and Eastern Europe in general, is better than in the developing world but still not up to the standards of Old Europe. So much so that even though women outlive men everywhere, British and S...

London isn't crying about the Euro By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 21 October 2011 It's not going to work, not now, not ever. The European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), the plan to save the Euro, is doomed. The Euro - at least in it's present form- will fail, that is the view from London. It is a view held across the board, by left-wingers and right-wingers by Eurosceptics and Europhiles, by economist, politicians and traders and it is really only in the last month or so that this view has crystallised and become a majority view. The only question is not “if” the Euro will fail but “ how” it will fail. Can Europe's political elite work something out so that the Euro will continue on in another form may be even come back stronger at a later date or will the whole thing disintegrate into a unholy mess that will destroy Europe and the rest of the World. Some traders who know the region are painting a very black picture for Estonia indeed. “One day Estonia will be in ...

White Riots By Abdul Turay Published 23 August 2011 Some in the media are doing “The Italian job” on England's black population. For those of you who are not British, I'll explain. “The Italian Job” is a famous 60s movie starring Michael Cain. It's something of a national institution here, every Briton has seen it. Non-Brits may have heard of the more recent American remake staring Mark Wahlberg. It's a very clever, quirky, patriotic movie about an elaborate gold bullion heist in Italy by London's criminal underworld. There are couple of scenes in the movie that have always bugged me and I suspect every other Black Briton. At the end of the movie, after a celebrated car chase through Rome's Byzantine streets, the gang load the gold onto a bus, ditch the cars, get on the bus themselves, and drive off. The driver has the easiest job in the whole gang, in fact the easiest job in the World. He has to drive a bus along a perfectly maintained mountain pass, with no ot...

New feature (Off Topic) This Blog is about Estonia but occasionally I may publish a feature or opinion piece that is off topic. Here's one about the England riots. White Riots

City under siege By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 11 August 2011 Croydon High Street this morning looked like a war zone. I could see smoke pouring from buildings on the main street. Places I know well were burning to the ground. Police had sectioned of the main street. The helicopters, the one s with the cameras on, whirred overhead. Debris strewed the streets, people walked around dazed and shocked, not quite sure what to do. Then is started up again. By noon Croydon was starting to look dangerous. Crowds of youths were beginning to gather. So I went home, only to find the high street near to where I live was shut down. There are reports of crowds beginning to gather there too. I can hear the wail of police sirens as I am typing this. There is no simple explanation as to why this is happening. The truth is nobody knows why it is happening. Some commentators have pegged the rioting on the usual suspects of inner city social deprivation and government cuts. This...

The End of Newspapers By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 12 July 2011 Until last Sunday The News of the World was the most successful and biggest selling English language newspaper in the World. It sold 2.6 million copies more than the entire population of Estonia. Then on 7 July 2011, Rebekah Brooks, the flame-haired chief executive of News International, the media empire that owns The News of the World , marched into their main office in Wapping unannounced and told the staff to their utter amazement that Sunday's editions would be the last and the paper, which has been in existence since 1843, would be closing. In Britain, where I am at the moment, everybody is stunned; not just media types. Taxi drivers, hairdressers, waiters, fitness instructors, even people who don't even read newspapers, how much more The News of the World , are talking about nothing else. Britain's newspaper industry is in deep trouble and the rest of the World is about to fol...

China Rising By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 6 June 2011 Here is a random list of things that came into my head: Wong Fei-Hung, Tsui Hark, Gong Li, Shao Lin, Leon Lai Ming, Stephen Chow Sing Chi, Wang Fei, Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai Shek (also known as Jiang Zhong Zheng), Fa jia, Si ren bang, Han Fei, Shen, Dao, Fu Jian, Bo Yang, Guo Min Dang, Aaron Kwok Fu Shing, Nan Jing, Cui Jian, Tang Chao, Andy Lau De Hua. To most people here, the above is just a list of sounds. If I were to put together a list of the Western counterparts you would know precisely whom or what I was talking about. Wong Fei Hung is the Cantonese equivalent of Robin Hood. Nan Jing is a big city, a former capital. Somebody asked me once knowing that I had once lived in China what the Chinese and Estonian share common. The answer is the Chinese and Estonians share... ignorance,they have a limited knowledge of each others culture. In April the IMF published figures that predict that China will replace the United States...

Why the world is silent about the Estonian election Playing around with higher education Response from Education Minister (ed note: in Estonian, will translate into English when I have time) Right is Right ? Why I write in Estonia Sotsid are not freaks Why are the Social Democrats still failing? Room 101 A comparison between British kids and Estonian kids Go West Where is Estonia exactly? Venture Capitalist Allan Martinson view Follow up story Musician Jaan Tätte view Follow up story The greatest speech of all time A review of Unite Estonia a very successful political play held 8 May at Saku Suurhall. For Europe's sake: Stop the Tories How the British elections will influence Estonia. The libertarian tradition Why Estonian Health care is better than the USA Brave new Estonia Estonian Independence day Cancel the debt Haitian crisis Who's in charge here How the leader of the opposition in Estonia can bully the PM. The man who annoys Estonians: Q and A with Priit Pull...

Why the world is silence about the election By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 10 March 2011 Nobody cares. The World didn't care. The global reaction to the Estonian election has been total apathy. In the UK, The Financial Times ran a brief inside story on the election saying who won but not why. The Chicago Tribunal carried a brief wire report as did The Herald Sun in Australia and The Telegraph in Britain. The BBC covered the story, but buried away somewhere. It had no analysis on the lead up to the election and no real analysis of the reasons for the results. The New York Times was better. It gave the story brief analysis, but from its Moscow correspondent, which as many people believe, is a bit like writing about the activities of the French resistance in World War II from the point of view of the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. “Estonians stoically absorbed the suffering,” wrote The New York Times correspondent. “The opposition leader Edgar Savisaar, the mayor of th...

Playing around with higher education? By Abdul Turay Published Postimees 4th February 2011 The IRL is promising to scrap tuition fees for a large majority of university students. The Social Democrats are accusing them of populism and Keskerakond are claiming that they are just stealing their policies. But what do the students themselves think? At 18 years old, and about to enter University, Diana Kull is just the type of person whom this policy is aimed at. Free education sounds good to Kull, it was the main reason she picked the university she picked. She is also just the type of young swing voter the IRL is trying to win over. She likes the Social Democrats but she believes the IRL are the party of common sense. “(I like) their general appearance. The IRL are not too nationalist, they are in the safe zone in the middle,” she said. Don't count on Kull voting for the IRL just yet. In fact don't count on her staying in Estonia at all. Kull is leaving the country, she decided t...