I was planning on spending my retirement years in Estonia. Now, I'm told that I've forfeited that right. How did that happen?

Congratulations-you're not part of the majority. As the slogan says; Welcome to Estonia!

Estonia needs to return to the common sense nationalist policies of the Päts regime. If the government made large families with lots of children a priority then all of Estonia's problems would be solved.

How can I be welcome in Estonia if I've forfeited my right to live there?

Maxim uses words that he doesn't know the meaning of.

I've made my position perfectly clear-if you wish to come here, you are welcome. My reference regarding "forfeiting" concerns many other Estonians living abroad who limit their connections to the ancestral homeland by taking out the relevant passport, and making the occasional token visit. That obviously isn't enough to sustain life here, so every other alternative needs to be looked at. Fortunately, there are a lot of well-meaning people of other origin than Estonian who also respect this country. I'll ignore Anonymous' comments because he/she always has a habit of attacking people themselves and not the ideas behind them. This is sad, and only confirms the statement "eestlane sööb teist eestlast". However in time, and with some slavic inbreeding among the general Estonian population, we might finally be able to curb that nasty traditional character fault once and for all...

A forfeighted right is one which is renounced, lost or abnegated. The term is categorical, not scalar.
To make yourself perfectly clear, first consult your dictionary.

"Forfeighted" should read "forfeited".

at times you write as if you like the estonian people .... but at times you sound like you want to obliterate the eesti nation .... with eesti (and all nations) under pressure from shallow american culture, eesti in addition with its proximity to moscow and the jealous, repressive soviet-russian leadership, faces additional pressures .... and unfortunately the ~eestlane sööb teist eestlast~ comment is played out by the leadership in the country

Thank you for your point of view. I am very grateful for your corrections to my grammatical errors, and I suppose that it does hurt me a little when people want to "blackban" me only because I wish to contribute something. As it happens, we are most fortunate to have Peeter Bush write a most enlightening article, and I would like to express my appreciation to him for his excellent English language skills, and for turning what could have been a relatively mundane story into a very interesting glimpse of everyday life in Estonia.

"Blackban" isn't in the dictionary, but most readers would know that you probably meant "blackball" and, thus, it's a trivial error. To say "forfeit", when you meant something else, isn't trivial because we can't guess at what you may have actually meant.
You say that you wish to contribute something and, unquestionably, that's commendable. Nonetheless you should have a second look at Peeter Bush's articles and examine them for differences from your own. He doesn't do anything extraordinary, as you say. He gives us a poignant, concrete example of the communist's mendacity about their professed concern for ordinary people. Usually, he does some research into an obscure historical matter of relevance to Estonians and then shares it with us.
Compare this with what you have done. You've barked at us, in your almost-incomprehesilble English, as if you're the only one that knows anything and, in response, you're surprised and miffed that some of us don't like it. What do you expect? Some of us think that we're ordinary people, worthy of respect, and less nuttier than you. We have jobs, children to put through university and senile parents to nurse. As if that isn't enough, we have to listen to you bark about our rights and obligations as Estonians and how they should be transferred to Russians.

"He doesn't do anything extraordinary, as you say. He gives us a poignant, concrete example of the communist's mendacity about their professed concern for ordinary people". Now preach that message to all the other folk that over time have critcized him as much-or even more-than people here have criticized me.

Peep..you've obviously tried very hard to give me the silent treatment, as I haven't seen a posting here from your for a number of weeks. Glad to see you return anyway.....and sorry if I rubbed you up a little too much this time...

Peep, you as a former Narva citizen can vouch for this fact; and that is that most Estonians will quite willingly admit (if only privately) that Russians are generally more hospitable than Estonians. I see Maxim's point of view for what it is-and I don't think he is being deliberately antagonistic, but merely looking at a touchy subject from another angle.

Their hospitality isn't an issue. Whether or not they will learn Estonian and integrate into Estonian society is in question, with implications for national survival.

In 1992, a Russian asked the American Douglas Wells, who was in Tartu learning Estonian, "why don't you learn a real language, Russian for example?" That attitude was common then; less so now. I heard of a case where a Russian/Estonian couple speak English because neither wishes to learn the other's language.

There are less than a million who speak Estonian. Thi9s in itself puts it in a fragile condition. It needs safeguards and assurances.

Over the past few years, Estonians have begun to focus on the issue of low birth rates. An endemic problem throughout Europe. However, in Estonia, with steadily rising numbers of Russians learning and assimilating into Estonian society, this apprears to have taken the heat off the problem-or are Estonians merely being blase about their problem? Hard to say, but certainly recent increases in the level of birth rates as well as significant increases in Russians and other Slavs taking out Estonian citizenship is certainly encouraging, I would have thought. The Narva problem is something endemic of the entire region, although it is possible to hear by word of mouth of increasing Estonian nationalistic fervour igniting in these eastern regions. I think it would be wise to encourage this, rather than blowing out every flickering candle if it doesn't fit our image of what a future Estonia should look like.

Maxim, whose side are you on? I don't have anything against Russians, as long as they are not trying to destroy Estonia but Russians and other Slavs are not Estonian, even if they speak fluent Estonian.
Of course they are learning to speak Estonian now as they have no other choice if they want to work there. Some of these fluent Estonian-speaking Slavs don't even like Estonians and as a Canadian that they have a common language with some have told me things that they would never tell a "real" Estonian.
A polarized multicultural Estonia with Slavs in the big cities and Estonians living in the country is not a pleasant vision of the future. Estonia and the Estonian people can only survive with a strong national state that emphasizes family values and puts the interest of the people first. It was tried in the 1920s and 30s and it worked, a fact that no one can argue with.

Peter, I have no arguments at all with what you are saying. But I am strongly suggesting that there are political and social processes at work in Estonia which are not easily definable if you don't live here on a regular basis. I think Riina Kindlam, your most respected Canadian-Estonian journalist is much better equipped than I am to tease out these processes and write about them fluently, as time has proven that I am more likely to create more enemies than friends if I add my dime's worth. However, in response to the substance of your posting, I am afraid that a return to the policies of the 1930's is not very realistic at the present time, although I do strongly agree with you that far more attention and easing of financial pressures on families would no doubt improve social tensions considerably, but while we continue to have the likes of politicians who lead us only by the smell of the Euro, no serious moral change or increase of societal trust is likely to occur in the short term. But I have heard of the undercurrents of Estonian patriotism blowing across the eastern parts of Estonia, and unique and strange as that may seem, it actually is in Estonia's present stage of development a positive thing.

Unfortunately "Anonymous" is like the typical Western journalist that manages to provide "objective"reporting of a scene or incident exactly as he/she sees it, thinking no one else is capable of reading or making up their minds on the subject. Worse still, he/she attacks on a personal front because he/she never has an opinion on the subject at hand. Allow me to provide another useful source of information both he/she can refer to as well as the general reader. It is well worth following the opinions of Ago Gaskov and Ragnar Kond from ETV news because they actually live in the places (ida-Virumaa) where these changes are taking place. The only people I've ever met who get hot under the collar in arguments are the ones who haven't a clue where to take the argument. Peter is intelligent enough to argue his points and earn respect from me and many other readers, and I am always grateful for his opinions. No amount of "egging on" from Anonymous to "spike" our argument will change that.

I don't deny that you or anyone else has rights-of course you do!!! Why you choose not to excercise those rights is a mystery to me, and when I prod for an answer, then I get the cold shoulder. You are welcome to do whatsoever you want to with your own rights, it's just a pity that you want to go on in life with your head stuck in the sand knowing there's more you could do with your "rights", and then get upset when someone like me reminds you about it. But then again as has been said before there's the mortgage and the kids and....and......anyhow, Peter has made too much sense for too long, so on this point too there isn't even the slightest whiff of illusion that he would have something positive to say about Hitler. There is much to much evidence of a fine judgement of history on his part for me to buy the line that he is authoritarian or, God forbid, Hitler's reincarnation in disguise. Maybe the positive thought of a new Synagogue in Karu tänav by next May will help reignite healthy Jewish cultural life as it was meant to be back in 1926 and bring anti-semites back to ground level....but I will admit that Estonia has moved beyond the possibility of resurrecting some of his personal favourite ideas, and here again life just goes on as anywhere, and people living in certain places- like Estonia- will not leave it a completely empty space waiting for the "valge laev" to make its way into the harbour. You can discuss and wish as much as you like in Canada..meanwhile, Estonians and other nationalities in their homeland will do the job of getting on with life right here....

Maxim!
If you doubt that Peter is authoritarian, why not ask him?
Then ask the Pope if he's Catholic and Liberace if he's gay.
When your done with that, ask Liberace if he's the Pope. Then, please, please, come back to us with the truth. And preach it to us, tell it like it is.

Is it a big deal if we let Maksim talk to the flies buzing around his head?

You're dead right! It's a very good point indeed..

Good night-it's way past bedtime!

you could have called it pussy or wool. That may have slipped by.
Seems funny that vulgarity gets sceened out but lunacy doesn't.

OK..I won't do that anymore..and I'll place bets that you're damn good looking to boot!!! (The general reaction to opinions expressed in Canada is enormously different to the situation in Estonia. Here it's possible to take it on the nose. However, you all have a very good way with English, and logic is also very strong in most instances. I wish you all luck in the future and a very pleasant Friday...)

When Peter's opinion is challenged, he simply changes it. It wasn't too long ago that he was telling us that Hitler was a swell guy.
He doesn't know that people have a memory.