Abdul Turay

A hard landing indeed By Abdul Turay First published Aug 20, 2008 Estonians act and think like any group of people who have known poverty. They like to spend money they don’t have on stuff they don’t need. This is why the credit crunch has hit the Black and Hispanic community in America so hard. Now a sensational new book which makes the same point is causing a buzz in the ex-pat communities and the corridors of power. The book is called “Hard Landing”. It was written by Dr Claudio Zucchelli, an Italian-German, financial analyst and investor and Dag Kirsebom, a Swedish-Norwegian former banker and entrepreneur. Ministries have ordered copies. The Estonian prime minister, Andrus Ansip is rumoured to have read it. The book has been specially ordered by Merrill Lynch. All this for a pocket-sized book that a fast reader could finish in an afternoon. The book argues that not only will Estonia suffer a hard landing but the culture and mentality of Estonians themselves has led to this situat

Neo-Nazi thrown out By Abdul Turay 11 August 2009 An American neo-Nazi has failed in his attempt to remain in the country after a court rejected his asylum plea and branded him a racist and a public menace. Craig Cobb, 57, founder and operator of the Podblanc website, a sort of YouTube for racists, emigrated to Estonia in 2005. Cobb planned to make Estonia the centre for his propaganda campaign to promote white nationalism. Now it seems time is up for Cobb. He was put on trial August 2009 and banned from Estonia for a minimum of 10 years. Cobb was found guilty of endangering public security, public order, public safety, moral standards, and health. The court also found that he was promoting racism and was a racist. Cobb has not yet been removed from the country, but is being detained. “I have cash and an American passport and am expelled by Estonia, but they have me locked down here till 16 Sept if they want and I think I can get extensions every two months. One Khazarstan(sic) guy has

The hairdresser who ruined Tallinn By Abdul Turay Published in Postimees 24 April 2009 I met a traveller on a plane about two years ago who looked like a character in a romantic novel; tall, good-looking, urbane and rich. He told me of a conversation with two young Irish property “entrepreneurs” in a Tallinn pub. These entrepreneurs were sure that the property market would take off, just like it had in Dublin and that they were going to be rich, or more accurately, richer than they believed they already were. The couple were so full of swagger and confidence that the traveller, a stockbroker by trade, was ready to invest in property in Tallinn himself...... for about five minutes. Then he asked the entrepreneurs what were the yield rates. Neither knew what on Earth he was talking about. A little probing revealed the “entrepreneurs'” had day jobs. The man was a mechanic and the woman was a hairdresser. We all know that the property market has gone to hell. Most people know it is a

Cult of Youth By Abdul Turay First published by Postimees 21 November 2008 Businessman Rein Kilk thinks Estonia’s leaders are getting old and should be packed off to the European parliament. In an interview with Kuku radio on 15 November he singled out Prime Minister, Andrus Ansip and Tallinn City Mayor, Edgar Savisaar for a midnight train to Brussels. Of course Kilk is motivated by his own support for Finance Minister, Ivari Padar. As he said to Kuku radio in English: “Ma ütlen, Ivari, do it ja ma annan oma hääle sulle!” (I said to Ivari, do it, and I will back you). To most visitors coming to Estonia this is an amazing thing to say. They often comment on how young the leadership of the country is. Is Kilk right, are the leading figures in Estonian politics getting too old and is it time for a new generation? It’s true some in Estonian politics have been around a long time; Savisaar and Mart Laar have been around for years. However let’s look at the make up of the government. Urm

Let's eat potato peels By Abdul Turay Published in Postimees on 2 December 2008 At a meeting of foreigner investors recently held in Tallinn there was a consensus on one issue. Estonians hadn’t yet woken up to just how serious the current economic crisis is. People don’t seem to realise what is at stake. It is not just a question of a few bankruptcies, nor of shopping cheaply, nor buying a smaller car, nor having a few friends and relatives out of work. Just to shake people out of their complacency let’s give a hypothetical situation. Imagine if the Estonian economy was owned lock, stock and barrel by Russian banks, a world in which some dour, Putin yes-man, in Moscow decides how companies do business in Tallinn. A country where your home loan was already with a Russian bank and try as you may, you couldn’t switch it to an Estonian one. If you think that the above situation is just fantasy this is from 23 October edition of the Economist: “…one or more parent banks will put a troub

How to become Estonian By Abdul Turay First published Postimees 26 February 2009 I recently gave a series of lectures at Hugo Treffner gymnasium and other schools in Tartu about the crisis of civic nationalism. The students were fairly quiet during the lectures but I am told by their class teachers there was heated and furious arguments about what it all means for Estonia after I left. Some of you may be unfamiliar with what exactly civic nationalism is, much less that it is in crisis so let me clarify it. It means that my own country, Britain, might actually collapse like the Soviet Union, not five years or 10 years from now, but next year or the year after. The same thing could happen to Belgium, Spain, South Africa even the United States. Canada came within a hairbreadths of collapse 14 years ago. In Britain the danger is very real and imminent. If you're not familiar with British politics. You might be surprised to hear this. There are broadly speaking two competing id

A black president for a white nation By Abdul Turay First published Postimees 11 November 2008 A few months ago I was having dinner with an American journalist friend visiting from New York. I joked to her that it seemed like there are only five black people in Estonia.... and two of them are drug dealers. Now the most powerful man on the planet is a black man. What does this mean for Estonia, one of the whitest nation's on Earth? Though this US election was fought on the issues, not on race, it was pretty clear once Obama was elected the huge historical significant of event would be celebrated. Some people may think President-elect Obama’s race doesn’t matter. Some even believe he isn’t really black. After all the president-elect’s mother was white and he was raised by his white grandparents. Those people are wrong. Obama is really black and it really does matter. Most black people everywhere see Obama's election as a personal victory for them. Ninety five per cent of Afri