I was recently asked to write an article about the role of the Honorary Consul, a position which I have had the privilege of occupying for just over 6 years now.  I thought I’d begin with my official duties and then go from there. My role as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Estonia is such that I am the official representative of the Estonian government in Washington State. To many of you, that means that when you apply for an Estonian passport and it is issued, it comes to me and I then contact you for the official issuance and signature. While issuing passports has been a brisk business since the Consul General’s visit in October (we took almost 50 applications), there is much more to my responsibilities. 

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Published: March 25 2013

 

ERR News - Estonian Air has disclosed a record-breaking net loss of 49.2 million euros for 2012. The previous biggest annual loss was 17.3 million euros in 2011, which in turn was six times greater than that of 2010. Revenue amounted to 91.5 million euros, and operational losses to 35.8 million euros, which do not include one-off costs for impairment on aircraft, according to a press release. The costs associated with the attempt to grow the airline and expand the route network amounted to approximately 26 million euros.

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Published: March 25 2013

 

The Estonian American National Council is reaching out to ask: what does being an Estonian American mean to you? EANC’s website, www.esto-site.org, has a new discussion section titled “The Estonian American Experience.”  Anyone can post a comment to an existing discussion topic or start a new topic/discussion thread under the “Estonian American Experience” umbrella. If you received the March issue of the EANC Newsletter  in the mail, you may have read the first discussion topic: Do you need Estonian language to be Estonian?  It has already sparked some interesting discussion on the website.

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Published: March 25 2013

 

ERR News - Statistics Estonia said that per capita average annual potato consumption is 98 kilograms. The figure includes figures for homes and restaurants as well as for both locals and tourists, said the agency in a statement. Consumption of the starchy tuber is slowly increasing in Estonia. In 2009, the average consumption was 84 kg per resident and increased to 95 in 2011. Potato consumption is around 272 g per day. The worldwide average in the first decade of the 21st century was about 33 kg of potatoes, reported the UN Food and Agriculture Organi-zation in 2009. In comparison, the average Estonian resident consumes close to 5 kilograms of rice annually.

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Published: March 25 2013

 

So we all know the Estonian language has 4 special dotted letters (täpi/tähed), that lie obediently in wait at the very tail end of the alphabet (tähestik). More precisely, they are topped with diacritical marks or diacritics (diakriitiline märk ehk diakriitik). But do you know what order they are in? Logic might say that they should mirror the order of the same letters without diacritics; in other words perhaps Ä, Ö, Õ, Ü? NO. They way I finally managed to remember the order is to acknowledge the particular uniqueness of the letter Õ. It definitely deserves to be the first täpitäht in the parade.

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Published: March 18 2013

 

The Estonian American National Council (EANC )is pleased to announce that it will award financial support to selected young adults interested in attending the10th Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC) Baltic Conference on April 19-20, 2013. The Conference will be held at the Crystal City Marriott outside of Washington DC.  EANC will accept applications from individuals aged 17 to 30.

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Published: March 18 2013

 

ERR News - Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on March 12,  gave the green light for holding the next round of border treaty talks with Russia. Following an address from the Estonian foreign minister and ambassador to Russia, the parliamentary committee, which will be in Moscow from April 9 to 12, endorsed the current course of talks with Russia. The Estonian side has proposed, following a plan by Estonian Foreign Policy Institute Director Lauri Mälksoo, that the new border treaty focus only on the practical aspects of the border, excluding complicated disputes such as Estonia's historical continuity of statehood.

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Published: March 18 2013

 (Washington, DC) - The Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. (JBANC) is pleased to announce that William Browder, the former employer of whistleblowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, will speak at its Tenth Baltic Conference, being held April 19-20 on the outskirts of Washington DC. William Browder is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management in London.

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Published: March 11 2013