Abdul Turay

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...