Estonia

The subject of traffic tickets is on my mind lately, as a few months ago I got busted for doing a California roll right turn here in North Oakland. I’m in the midst of online traffic school right now, and when all is said and done, I’ll have had to throw down $400 for the pleasure. Compare that to Alex’s experience in Estonia: Then came (compared the the States) a lot of paperwork. A document showing my rights under Estonian…

Folks who know me will undoubtedly know that Senegal and Estonia are two of my favorite countries. (Heck, they comprise two of the four countries in my book.) So, you bet my interest was piqued when I read that Doudou Diène, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, just authored a study on racism in Estonia. I’m guessing that he just might be the only Senegalese person in recent memory to set…

Hamid Tehrani of Global Voices conducted an email interview with me about my forthcoming book, tentatively titled The Internet of Elsewhere. Cyrus Farivar is a USA-based blogger, journalist and writer. He is currently working on a book about the impact of the internet on society. Cyrus writes about internet impact on Iran, Senegal, South Korea and Senegal. He was recently in Iran and has taken several photos of Iranian carpets, food, buildings and nature too. Q: You visited Iran recently…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the one year anniversary of the Estonian cyberattacks will be airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern –…

Friends: Today, I had a piece on PRI’s The World on Estonia’s nationwide cleanup day, also known as Teeme Ära! 2008 (Let’s do it!). It ran on today’s show. Sorry I didn’t let you guys know about it sooner, but I finished the piece shortly before air and by that time it was 10 pm here in Estonia and I hadn’t had dinner yet. Anyway, if you download today’s show here, you’ll find my piece starting at minute 42:51. I’ll…

ZOMG, I just shook hands and got my first autograph with a head of state! President Ilves spoke at the very beginning of a thank you concert on Sunday evening, the final day of the Teeme Ära! 2008 weekend. After speaking to the assembled crowd of a few hundred in the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, he hopped off stage and walked toward some of the standing crowd. He had one uniformed high-ranking member of the Estonian military with him, his…

I’m here at Veljo’s dad, Vaino Haamer‘s house out in eastern Estonia near the Russian border. We were out here today to take part in the national Estonian cleanup day, Teeme Ära! 2008 (“Let’s do it! 2008”), which I’m covering for The World. After a hard day’s work, this is the view from the Haamer farm. Not bad, eh?

I’ve just arrived here in Tallinn, fresh off the boat from Helsinki. I’m sitting here at one of Veljo’s favorite bars in downtown Tallinn, Molly Malone’s, in the Raekoja Plats (Town Square). I’ve been pleasantly greeted to an American car show and outdoor concert: I kid you not, an Estonian band, Casakama, is singing “Johnny B. Goode” right now. They also hit favs like “Jailhouse Rock” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” It’s a much smaller version of what I saw…

Wait, there’s a networking company in Lithuania called Santa Monica Networks? And they do business from Lithuania, through Latvia and Estonia, all the way up to Finland? Huh?

The Baltic Times: TALLINN – Islam is taking off in Estonia. The Koran, the holy book which was recently published for the first time in Estonian, has been on the best sellers list for months. The liberalization of immigration policy, meanwhile, is likely to lead to an increase in the number Muslims settling in the country. Three thousand copies of the Koran have been sold since it was first published in December 2007. To put this in the context of…