(Will we ever arrive at the Promised Land?)
I must admit that I didn't expect the response to my article that appeared in the electronic version of this paper. At last count there were 9 postings, some of them quite long and even "eesti keeles!" (in Estonian).
There seems to be a range of strongly felt opinions about the language issue. I think I have a bit of an advantage there because of my own personal experiences. First of all, language is a real thorny problem here in Ottawa with extremists on both sides of the linguistic divide. Second, although I'm of Estonian parentage and Estonian is my first language, the mother of my children was of Latvian parentage.
I lived on both sides, the "outsider" and married to the "outsider".
Fortunately both our parents were realistic reasonable people who thoroughly enjoyed their grandchildren even though mine had to talk English to them. Also, the background, religion, culture and food are almost identical so the children weren't deprived of their Baltic heritage.
My son speaks his mother tongue as well as French and English. When he was little, we decided that his mother and grandmother would only speak Latvian to him and he could learn English on the street, which he did. During these early years I also learned basic conversational Latvian. Now I've forgotten most of it, but I could probably still manage to get my face slapped in Riga.
Realistically, I think most children can learn their mother tongue if the will is there. Father tongue with a father that works away from the home and has to travel a lot is a different matter, although I do know one father here who managed this. But not every child has the ability to learn a second language, something that was brought home to many parents here when their children couldn't cope in French language immersion courses. This caused much angst among those whose children were labeled as "failures" at an early age and it must have left life-long scars on the children. Sometimes, it happened in a family that one child had the ability, and another didn't, as was the case with mine.
One of the things that you readers have in common is that you take the time to bother to read and even subscribe to an Estonian newspaper, even though I suspect the preference seems to be, as with me, to jump to the English language pages first thing after we've scanned the obituaries.
Given this shared bond and background, I find it hard to understand why some of you can be so unkind to each other. Is this then the Estonian spirit to refer to others as "language Nazis" and not in jest? Does it make somebody feel better when they accuse others of being terrible parents having deprived the fruit of their loins their birthright? Come on already - is this the second Tower of Babel, Esto style !?
A lot of positive comments came out too, especially the ones that said "welcome back!". I felt good about these because the future of our community is starting to look a bit brighter.
I think that as the second generation, especially the "dropouts", ages with the inevitable effect on health and the extra time for reflection that an empty nest gives, that more will take an interest in their heritage. Some may not find this change in Estonian Canadian society to be comfortable.
I keep reflecting on what I've picked up from my readings about North American Communism. I know many readers don't like it when I draw comparisons, but for the Communists their most hated enemies were not the Fascists. No, they were the "fellow travelers" who weren't ultra-orthodox in their beliefs. Thus, they could quite easily tolerate everyone except those who were closest to them in outlook. Calling somebody a "Trotskyite" or "Social Revolutionary" was the lowest form of insult. In Canada, the Party reserved its vitriol for the CCF (now the NDP), not the Conservative Party.
We all know what happened to the Marxists. Why are some of you so determined to walk the same path?
Yet even more 60 Years in the wilderness (59)
Archived Articles | 23 Jan 2004 | Peeter BushEWR
Viimased kommentaarid
Kommentaarid on kirjutatud EWR lugejate poolt. Nende sisu ei pruugi ühtida EWR toimetuse seisukohtadega.
I am also not interested in seeking any glory, I have simply come up with some ideas in this forum as I see very few if any coming from the organizations who are supposed to be leading our community.
I wonder if there is anyone out there reading these comments who is in a position to actually do more that just talk? Like many of you out there, I have a successful career that takes up much of my time. I have done some volunteer work for our community but often don't even have the time to show up for Estonian events. This is one major problem for many of us and the reason so many drop out. Some rejoin our community only when they retire.
Are there any people from leadership positions in any of our arganizations out there? Do any of you know any such people? Do any of you have connections in the Estonian Government?
Our community has made many such plans in the past, I have read so many old Estonian newspapers that are full of such ideas that never got off the ground.
I wonder if there is anyone out there reading these comments who is in a position to actually do more that just talk? Like many of you out there, I have a successful career that takes up much of my time. I have done some volunteer work for our community but often don't even have the time to show up for Estonian events. This is one major problem for many of us and the reason so many drop out. Some rejoin our community only when they retire.
Are there any people from leadership positions in any of our arganizations out there? Do any of you know any such people? Do any of you have connections in the Estonian Government?
Our community has made many such plans in the past, I have read so many old Estonian newspapers that are full of such ideas that never got off the ground.
I don’t mind running with a good idea or plan of action that I’m behind 100%. I’ve done it before and I will do it again. Black Ribbon Day was brought up, which was started by Markus Hess and supported by a group of people, mainly EKN (which makes sense, it was a political event). My concern is that we don’t seem to have a central organization anymore (or maybe we never had one) that will look at a non-political, cultural idea and say to me: “Hey, that’s a good idea. You run with it and we’ll get a group of like-minded people together and we’ll work on this together.” Not every person with a good idea knows how to implement it, nor do they necessarily have the time to go it alone. In the case of sending kids to Estonian university/schools, I would like my central organization to suggest potential sponsors to contact, help find resources to cover reasonable expenses (such as long-distance calls to Estonia), to lend the organization’s name and support to the project, and give general advice.
No person should be expected to do anything on a large scale for a community by himself or herself, though there are some superheroes amongst us. I think that is why people don’t volunteer with such projects, we lack central leadership. You give me such an organization and I’ll step up to the plate of my choosing.
No person should be expected to do anything on a large scale for a community by himself or herself, though there are some superheroes amongst us. I think that is why people don’t volunteer with such projects, we lack central leadership. You give me such an organization and I’ll step up to the plate of my choosing.
I've been following the exchanges that's been going on but I think it has sunk to an inappropriate level.
IRW - What blame game are you referring to? I don't see anything that Eedu Apa has written could be misconstrued as placing blame.
Eedu Apa - Perhaps a bad attempt at humor that IRW seems to have missed (Monty Python reference). Nor do you have an understanding of IRW's desire to send someone to Eesti.
IRW and Eedu Apa - Nor do I see any reason to start questioning another's intellect just because they don't know anything about you (and you don't know anything about them). That's why it's called ANONYMOUS posting.
Now both of you stop posting and get back to work.
IRW - What blame game are you referring to? I don't see anything that Eedu Apa has written could be misconstrued as placing blame.
Eedu Apa - Perhaps a bad attempt at humor that IRW seems to have missed (Monty Python reference). Nor do you have an understanding of IRW's desire to send someone to Eesti.
IRW and Eedu Apa - Nor do I see any reason to start questioning another's intellect just because they don't know anything about you (and you don't know anything about them). That's why it's called ANONYMOUS posting.
Now both of you stop posting and get back to work.
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