Estonian Former President Speaks Out On Race Issue

Having said yesterday I wasn't going to write about politics, I've done gone done it again. Well noone's reading so it doesn't matter.

Former President of Estonia Arnold Rüütel, the first president after the reestablishment of independence in 1992, has spoken out against a conservative politician's remarks last week about black people in Estonia needing to be sent back whence they came.

Good for him (Rüütel) I say. He's an old guy and may not be up with the sensibilities of us younger, particularly ex-pat, residents here, but it's welcome anyway, especially since there seems to have been little or no reaction to the comments from the political elite here.

The conservative party which Rüütel is honourary chairman of, and which the original speaker, I won't dignify him with his name, belonged to, do not currently hold any seats in the Riigikogu (Estonian parliament) so one could dismiss them as the work of a fringe crank, whose daddy happens to be party chairman and a former Estonian ambassador to Moscow. On the other hand the coverage has given it the oxygen of publicity, so the cat is out of the bag, along with any other cliché
you care to mention.

For their part some of the prominent ex-pats here have aired their views; apparently Abdul Turay, a black British journalist here, was scheduled to have a closed debate with the author of the comments, and Stewart Johnson, a standup comic, had also put feelers out in this direction. Not sure what's happened on that front since then.