April 15 is a day to celebrate diversity in Estonia

April 15 is mitme/kesisuse/päev, Diversity Day all over Estonia. Mitme/kesisus is diversity. Mitme/mitu is many or multi; as in multifaceted.

The poster says “You can’t make an orchestra out of only violins”, “Every member of the team is important!” and “Tegutse, kui märkad diskrimineerimist” – “Do something, if you witness discrimination”.

They have used the anglicism tiim for team.

Synonyms are mees/kond (mees = man, i.e. literally a team of men), nais/kond (naine = woman, a team of women) or võist/kond, a gender neutral "competing team".

You can see why tiim is a tempting alternative, although it's not used very widely.

Diversity Day events are being led by the project "Erinevus rikastab" – Diversity enriches, whose website at www.erinevusrikastab.ee is trilingual.

They also have a Facebook page of the same name.

Võrdsed võimalused kõigile sallivas ühiskonnas – Equal opportunities for all in a tolerant society.

You wrap a sall (scarf) around your neck to keep you warm.

That’s a nice way to imagine tolerance – caring for one and all, wrapping a common sall around them.

Tolerance is sallivus. Estonia knows sallid and is warming up to sallivus.

Riina Kindlam,

Tallinn