I saw someone from a neibgouring condo dumping something the other day. Why don’t you take your Esto House/culture gestapo over there and interrogate the seniors who might be moving and getting rid of books and magazines?

It is obvious that this article was written in haste as I am sure (hopeful) that there was no intention to discredit Tõnu Naelapea or to make people turn away from our community with any criticism of our valuable members. I am sure EKN appreciates the diversity of our community and realizes that we need people who are willing to voice their opinions and their concerns.
Our Estonian community has been transforming into a much more interesting community because we had been welcoming of people who have differing ideas, views, opinions, interests and values.
This growth occurred because we had space for everyone to co-exist. Forcing everyone under one roof is a much more complicated issue than our community leaders have understood or anticipated. We are most likely losing our most interesting members by forcing everyone to squeeze together.
The more interesting and creative people are usually the least likely to desire to be in close proximity to those who are more conservative= the mainstream. Why hang around and squeeze in with Estonians if they can continue to feel free among non-Estonians?
As for our books, I really hope that the reaction to this discourse is not a hasty ´let´s sell everything´ quickly. The point is that we do not need to keep everything that is in the Estonian language, but we need to ensure that the most valuable does not just end up anywhere or in the garbage.
Selling or just giving books away will lead to valuable items being similarly lost to the community.
Let´s reach out to the Estonian Arts and Letters Society and have them organize expert appraisal of everything lying around the Estonian House. They can work with other knowledgeable experts to ensure the survival of the Estonian in our community. Let´s work together, but let´s acknowledge that we need as many knowledgeable people and experts as possible who know our local cultural heritage.
By the way- Tõnu Naelapea is one of the few in our community who is very knowledgeable about Estonia and our local Estonian cultural heritage,
And please! Tõnu Naelapea´s article should be taken for what it is. It was a wake-up call for all of us to take ownership of our Estonian heritage. We should all work to ensure the survival of as much of our heritage as possible, but we need to do work to gain knowledge of our culture and our history.
May this wake-up call lead to many more people researching our culture and doing more to take steps to preserve our Estonian cultural community. This is for the people who will be here after we are no longer around.
EKN should quickly write to clarify that we do need to work together to look after our cultural heritage and that EKN is grateful to Tõnu Naeleapea for his courage to write about this critical issue, knowing that it is also a sensitive issue.

Thanks you for the information, could you be a bit more specific? Where exactly in the basement are these books "laying around"? Are these areas that are accessible any time the Esto House is open or are there specific times one needs to come to have a look?

I remember seeing books stacked up by the corridor near the library. They were there for some time. Excess books are also periodically shipped to Eesti.
If you’re genuinely concerned why don’t you go there and look? Or offer to volunteer through VEMU?

Dear Tiina,

I appreciate your response, hopefully someone can respond with more current information (it's nice that the books were there but are they still there)?

It's not a matter of me being "concerned", it's a matter of me being interested - if books are going to be thrown in the garbage then I'd love to have a look to see if there's anything interesting there without having to look in garbage bins as Jaak did (and others have done). There is a shelf at Tartu College with books available for the taking and I picked up something very valuable (to me) there and I wish Eesti Maja would do something similar. I live a fair distance away and can't make it there often so before I go, it would be nice to know - are there books there or not and is any time a good time to come etc.?

I'm hope I'm not the only one who believes that it can only benefit our community to make books available for people to read before they're thrown out.

And to be honest, it's tedious to be told "why don't you volunteer" - is it so difficult to answer a simple question without chiding people? This isn't directed just at you, it's a response that I see given all too often to people and it's this kind of attitude that helps drive people away from our community. Rest assured that I have made and continue to make a contribution to the community but I also believe that if anyone expresses an interest in anything to do with Eesti or our community or reading or whatever else, their requests for information should be responded to in a non-judgemental way. In the long run, this will get more people involved than telling them - "why don't you volunteer". JMHO.

“It’s tedious to be told to volunteer”? And you think this is what turns people away?

What about the actual volunteers who provide you and your family with community events and programming?

How do you think they feel after they pour their time, sweat and money into keeping this community alive and get thanked by trolls on EWR who constantly attacking them and demand more without contributing themselves?

Have you no shame?

Or is gratitude too tedious as well?

I guess you missed the part where I mentioned my ongoing contributions to our society. Or did you think that meant something other than volunteering? Perhaps you should make more of an effort to understand what it is you are reading before you go off shaming people. And yes, this is exactly the self righteous BS that drives people away from our community, this I know for a fact.

I'll see myself out now. Perhaps I'll check back at some point to see if indeed there are books "lying around the basement", I still have received no answers to my earlier questions. Maybe I shouldn't bother though as it seems this isn't a place where people ask and get answers, it's a place where people ask and get berated. I'm going to Eesti soon enough and have a list of books to buy when I get there so it's not like I'm desperate for reading material. If people would rather not provide information when people ask then go ahead, throw it all out I suppose.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Tiina, Tõnu, Archive Volunteer and Looking for the perps sound exactly like one person, hiding behind different names and IP addresses. Same underappreciated, angry, self-righteous attitude.

To answer your question:
"I live a fair distance away and can't make it there often so before I go, it would be nice to know - are there books there or not and is any time a good time to come etc.?"

I would try calling the Estonian House manager, she should know how you could access the books that are up for grabs.

Enjoy your day! Don't pay attention to the nastiness. Some people just need to vent.

Visit the Estonian House on Sat Oct 13, there will be a sale of goods (including books, I understand) and stuff given away from the Estore.

Hopefully they will bring up the books in the Archive hall way for people to access and take away.

Such an angry reaction is perfectly expected by the bullies who regularly troll this site and attack our community volunteers. Try volunteering or doing something productive, it’ll do wonders for your self-esteem.

cut EKN some slack, at least they didn't claim this time they represent 40,000 Estonian archivists in Canada ...

"Kus leiad viga laita, tule ise aita!"
Great ideas, why can't you implement them?

Who says this idea is not on its way to implementation? I've already got the idea out there by writing about it to you and I've heard others toying around with the idea ... perhaps it has legs and a number of us can run with this.

Do you like the idea? What would you do differently? Who would you like to hear in the cafe? Or what activity would you like to see in there?

Would love the feedback.

Well you raise a good point that the number of people able to read Estonian continues to decrease, but there is still a large segment of the community who could take a book in hand and could get through it reasonably well. I believe A. Meiusi is one of these people. I suspect you as well. You have more in common with your self-appointed archenemy than you think! ;)

<div class="deleted_comment">Kommentaar on kustutatud EWR toimetuse poolt.
This comment has been deleted by EWR</div>

<div class="deleted_comment">Kommentaar on kustutatud EWR toimetuse poolt.
This comment has been deleted by EWR</div>

Mul on hea meel onudel oli palju raamatuid lugeda suvilas. Kui päike paistab, ilm on ilus ja linnud laulavad, istun siiamaani puu varjus ja võtan raamatud kätte. See tõesti on kõige parem kink mis onud jätsid mulle. Kahju oleks küll üksi keldris istuda, akna kardinad kinni, päike soojendust mitte oma pale peal tunda ja veeta oma päevad arvuti ekraani taga... küll oleks kahju. Tänu onudele mul pole see probleem.

Lihtsad ja siirad sõnad on see, mis heaolutunnet esile kutsuvad, ja mis aitavad edasi.

<div class="deleted_comment">Kommentaar on kustutatud EWR toimetuse poolt.
This comment has been deleted by EWR</div>

I would sure love to see the language police department disbanded.