Wednesday, May 02, 2007

glaziers delight!

I'm back in Tallinn. And this is what my local neighbourhood looks like...








The vandalism is widespread and apparently indiscriminate. Obviously the rioters targeted 'convenience stores' to get alcohol, but anything at street level was fair game.

I flew in quite late and the streets were very quiet. My taxi driver told me that it was 'witches night', which was normally a big excuse for public revelry in Estonia but the only people I saw on the streets were the police.

The original protests were sparked by the removal of the statue of the Bronze Soldier by the Estonian government. The statue had been erected by the soviets to commemorate the Russian soldiers who died during the war with Nazi Germany. As it turns out, the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, which is a big celebration where Russian-Estonians would normally gather and lay flowers at the statue, just happens to be next Wednesday. We're being advised to stay indoors.

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3 comments:

shula said...

It appears we're not in Kansas, anymore, Toto..

Anna Davern said...

You may be right there, dot.

Glass Replacement said...

wow that's a waste of money, replacing every single glass on your shopfronts every now and then should make you worry all the time. If I were the shop owner I would close it down, transfer to a safer neighborhood and live a happy life. Or you could also opt to place a steel bar on every glass window. HA!