Tallinn’s connectivity makes The New York Times

Estonian capital Tallinn – where I spent last week – has been covered in The New York Times’ technology section. Journalists have flocked to the city to report on its reputation for IT services and skills. Tallinn it seems is setting itself up as a Baltic Silicon Valley, which seems a little hopeful, however Tallinn’s IT savvy young tenchogeeks certainly have the ambition.

Both the Economist and Business Week have covered Tallinn recently no doubt attracted by the presence of internet telephony providers Skype.

From The New York Times: -

The Baltic Life: Hot Technology for Chilly Streets
By MARK LANDLER
TALLINN, Estonia, Dec. 8 - Visiting the offices of Skype feels like stumbling on to a secret laboratory in a James Bond movie, where mad scientists are hatching plots for world domination.

The two-year-old company, which offers free calls over the Internet, is hidden at the end of an unmarked corridor in a grim Soviet-era academic building on the outskirts of this Baltic port city. By 5 p.m. at this time of year, it is long past sunset, and a raw wind has emptied the streets.

Inside Skype, however, things are crackling - as they are everywhere in Estonia’s technology industry. The company has become a hot calling card for Estonia, a northern outpost that joined the European Union only last year but has turned itself into a sort of Silicon Valley on the Baltic Sea.

“We are recognized as the most dynamic country in Europe” in information technology, said Linnar Viik, a computer science professor who has nurtured start-ups and is regarded as something of a guru by Estonia’s entrepreneurs. “The question is, How do we sustain that dynamism?”

Foreign investors are swooping into Tallinn’s tiny airport in search of the next Skype (rhymes with pipe). The company most often mentioned, Playtech, designs software for online gambling services. It is contemplating an initial public offering that bankers say could raise up to $1 billion…..

Man who smothers his own child walks free

From The BBC:-

A ‘loving’ father’s mercy killing
By James Clarke
BBC News

Andrew Wragg said it was ‘insulting’ to suggest killing Jacob was ’selfish’
Andrew Wragg never denied having killed his son Jacob after smothering him with a pillow in July 2004.
But the man described in court as a “brilliant” father denied murdering the boy, saying it was a mercy killing to end the youngster’s suffering.

The 10-year-old had Hunter Syndrome and Wragg told the court he thought killing him was the best thing to do - and claimed Jacob believed that too.

A jury agreed with Wragg’s version of events and cleared him of murder.

The former SAS soldier, 38, phoned the police to tell them he had killed his son and admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, for which he was eventually given a two-year suspended sentence……

This story was covered on the Today programme on BBC R4. They had a mother who had experienced a similar trauma with a dying child, and representatives from the Anglican and Catholic Churches.

The mother totally supported the father’s actions – in suffocating his child – and said that people who have not experienced watching their child deteriorate, had no concept of the pain and desperation this causes. She explained how she woke every day hoping that ‘today would be the day’ that her child’s pain was eased by the peace of death. It was a heartbreaking interview, which rammed home the difficulty facing the court when dealing with this issue.

As a father it made me thankful that my son – although only 7 months old - is healthy and well. The church has a tenet against the taking of life, however it also offers support, shared strength, and hope to people in difficult circumstances. It is endemic of the modern secular society that people feel they have no spiritual support – and in desperation turn to desperate solutions. Some people fear that the church will judge; what is more judgmental than the social services?

It’s a deeply sad case, and I don’t want to use it to cause a debate on religion. But can no one else see the problems caused by today’s lack of moral and spiritual guidance, caused by modern secularism and moral relativism?

All very Dan Brown I know….

Chinese smash another manufacturing record

Landmark: Chinese manufacturing has smashed yet another threshold by becoming the worlds largest supplier of IT goods. This represents a significant moment in world manufacturing, and globalisation

As consumers we continue to enjoy the benefits of increased Chinese industrial productivity and manufacturing efficiency with ever lowing prices. It’s hard to blame consumers for buying Chinese constructed goods when the price of a decent laptop is now as little as £350. It also highlights the critical competitively shortcomings of western volume manufacturing, and the importance of specialisation and after-sales support in high knowledge industries.

If the UK is unable to increase its industrial productivity through fixed-asset investment, research, and education/training we face an ever increasing decline in our manufacturing industry.

From The New York Times:

Data in the report, to be published on Monday, show that China’s exports of information and communication technology - including laptop computers, mobile phones and digital cameras - increased by more than 46 percent to $180 billion in 2004 from a year earlier, easily outstripping for the first time United States exports of $149 billion, which grew 12 percent from 2003.

The figures compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris, also reveal that China has come close to matching the United States in the overall value of its trade in information and communications technology products. The value of China’s combined exports and imports of such goods soared to $329 billion in 2004 from $35 billion in 1996. Over the same period, the value of American information technology trade expanded at a slower rate, to $375 billion from $230 billion.

The Tories Outpoll Labour

A poll today has put David Cameron’s Tories ahead of Labour for the first time for several years.  After almost a decade of Blair it’s no surprise that the UK electorate is ready for a change.  I noticed this shift prior to the last election and expected the Conservatives to poll better than they did.  I guess it may have been the Howard factor.

From The Observer: -

Last night’s polls showed a spurt in Tory support since Cameron’s victory - and flagging support for Brown. ICM, in the Sunday Telegraph says if an election were held tomorrow, the Conservatives would get 37 per cent, against 35 per cent for Labour. When respondents were asked how they would vote in a future Cameron-Brown contest, the gap widened to 40 per cent for the Tories, giving them a three-point lead.

A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times showed the Tories leading Labour by 37 per cent to 36 per cent - a two-point rise for the Conservatives and one-point fall for Labour in a month. Brown’s approval rating - more than 40 per cent before the general election last May - is now just 4 per cent.

The Tories had trailed Labour in every poll since January 1993 except for a single month, September 2000, during the fuel crisis.

When flying back from Tallinn yesterday I spoke to a guy who owned a (automobile) panel spraying business in Wolverhampton.  He was in Estonia looking at outsourcing his business there.  He was frustrated with the Labour governments anti-business policies.  Gordon Brown likes to portray himself as a pro-business chancellor and gets very indignant when people challenge his credentials…my airborne interlocutor’s opinion?  “He has no idea, he needs to get a proper job.  Let the businessmen run business.”   He was especially scornful of the minimum wage, which has crucified his business – he competes directly in the global marketplace.

It’s hard to heap too much blame on Labour when globalisation is beyond their control, but it does grate when Labour claim to be a pro-business government, there is little to suggest they have created an “opportunity economy.”

Peaceful last day

And so tomorrow my holiday draws to a close and its back to ledgers and spreadsheets for tyger.

I have enjoyed my time here in Tallinn although today I have withdrawn to my apartment to finish my holiday book – Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons; and yes I can thoroughly say without hyperbole that Dan Brown’s books are worthy of their popularity. The structure of the narrative and the carefully rendered timeline are perfect, and the pace of the novel became ferocious as the story concluded.

Like all good thriller writers Brown gave carefully placed clues as to the books villains, and throughout the book you were looking to second guess where the story was headed. Over his six hundred pages (paperback) Brown skillfully created multiple diverse and well-constructed characters and gave readers a frantic, yet informed, tour of both The Vatican City and Rome. I would be surprised if any reader finished the book and did not have a yearning for more insight into symbolism and art history.

I guess now I must succumb to The Da Vinci Code….

Pif Paf – Part Two

Well I’m back in Pif Paf enjoying a beer and surfing then net.  This is a nice bar/café but the smoking policy seems a little draconian – it seems you have to smoke!  As a non-judgemental non-smoker I stand out a mile tapping away on my little white iBook looking like a preppy momma’s boy, which I probably am. 

It’s cold outside – just below zero, so I’m glad to be inside even if the atmosphere is acrid with smoke; I now know what it must feel like as a stickman in a Lowry.

Estonia is renowned for the attractiveness of the women, and as my partner abundantly proves this accolade is thoroughly deserved.  Estonian women – and Russians for that matter – are very beautiful and take great care to look fantastic.

I cannot however praise the traffic law in Estonia, a green ‘walk’ sign does not mean that cars will stop.  If you’re crossing a minor road, which is joining a major road, the traffic turning off the major road – into the minor road – also have a green light.  Now although it seems the pedestrian has the right of way, this gave me absolute kittens when a bus swung round the corner at me – I froze still like a poorly dressed mannequin only for the bus to stop and the driver to wave me on, I’m sure he’s seen his share of petrified Englishmen.

Another observation – no doubt linked to my comments on Estonian women above – is that there seems to be an abundance of hairdressers in Estonia.  Literally every street seems to have a juuksur; so if you’re headed for Tallinn forget the pre-holiday haircut and take advantage of the ample services on offer.

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If your wondering how tyger is attired here in chilly Estonia – well let’s just say I’m snug as a bug in a rug.  I have woollen snowboarding gloves (fingerless with pullover bits that turn them into mittens), Timberland hat and jacket and Ecco Gore-Tex shoes.  All my bits – iBook, headphones, copy of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and The Economist, are stored in my natty new Camel Active rucksack.  Tooled with a bulging Moleskin notebook I am quite the Hemingway!

****

In the news here in Estonia it seems the government has misled the EU over its sugar surpluses. Estonians have argued that their penchant for jam and other preserves meant that they stocked up on sugar prior to accession (to the EU).  This laughable excuse has not been received in good humour by Brussels – what a surprise! – and Estonia was fined; the Estonians are intending to challenge the decision. 

That’s all for now – take care!

Vodka and politics

I have just enjoyed a delicious Dry Chilli Chicken and fried rice from a Chinese fast food stall.  I have eaten my fair share of spicy food this week; I had Korean yesterday – chilli beef noodle soup followed by an excellent pork dish that was so spicy it felt like I had a party in my mouth, and the only people who had turned up were pyromaniacs.

Last night my partner - an ethnic-Russian Estonian - and I had a traditional Russian drinking session with her father (Vladimir); our chatter – mainly political – was helped by copious amount of very good Russian vodka, olives, caviar, salmon, and cake. 

The debate went from American hegemony to the rise of China with Vladimir arguing that the former Soviet bulwark (against American dominance) was infinitely preferable to a future Chinese one.  I did not necessarily agree as the Chinese seem to thrive as traders, but Vladimir did have a point, and as a merchant sailor all his life he knows more about the world than I could claim to. 

WW1 was as much a war about economics as fervent nationalism; the access to resources and trade routes enjoyed by the British and French were – it was perceived - threatened by Germany’s increasing military prowess.  Alliances were forged and treaties signed, and eventually the assassination of an unloved Austro-Hungarian duke led to a war that killed almost 9 million. 

In 2005 with world energy and commodities in high demand, similar tensions are simmering.  Sino-Japanese relations – tempestuous at the best of times – are becoming increasingly strained over prime mister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to military shrines that the Chinese argue are in deference to war criminals.  This has led to rising nationalism in China with demonstrations and mob attacks on the Japanese embassy – the Chinese authorities have done little to quell this venting of public fury.  A top-level quarrel over the disputed ownership of gas reserves in the East China Sea also causes regional strategists concern.  Japan is also considering changes to its constitution that would allow rapid militarization.  With Japanese technological virtuosity they could have a nuclear weapon in weeks never mind months or years.

So with Chinese economic and military growth (not to mention the rise of India – traditionally an ally of Soviet Russia) the geopolitical landscape looks tentatively insecure.  We may in fact as Vladimir suggests rue Perestroika…

Society - what is it?

An interesting quote of the day from libertarian blog Samizdata; from the editor:-

Society is something emergent that occurs when people interact with each other, you cannot point at it and you cannot owe it anything. When any politician says the word ’society’, you can be damn sure what he really means is ‘the state’.
- Perry de Havilland

This leads me to ask ‘what is society to you?’

Is society something organic or is it a deliberate construct? Can we influence society, and should we? Why are societies so different; and how do law, government, and culture impact upon it, or define it?

Comment:
Personally I believe society is a collective economic contract where we refrain from hobbesian selfish anarchy for the benefit of shared prosperity. Of course institutions such as law and education define the nature of society. As society is organic we should limit any deliberate ’shaping’ of it, as we can never really know the impact of unnatural influence. Society should be allowed to reach its own equilibrium through the economic and democratic choices of the many - not through ideological social engineering of the few.

Pif Paf

I am in a smoky bar with Wi-Fi so I’m fully connected and updated, all emails have been gratefully received and scornfully unanswered, and thankfully my podcast subscriptions have been replenished.

My break in Tallinn has been excellent and my wonderful partner has granted me a day to myself to meander around town aimlessly, hence my presence in said smoky bar (called Pif Paf – just inside Tallinn’s Old Town, good beer, excellent coffee and super fast free wireless connection). 

I ate earlier in the rather splendidly entitled CityPub in the banking district; the menu followed an interesting corporate theme (e.g. Directors Steak, Bankers Salad etc etc) although in the absence of a dish prescribed to accountants, I had to flounder and opted for the Executive Seafood Wok – a stir-fried mishmash of salmon, mussels, fresh vegetables, and prawns.  The golden rule of the stir-fry is not to fry too long as the vegetables become limp and the flavour suffers; needless to say the CityPub’s effort – while palatable – fell foul of this sacred rule.

The CityPub had that most obnoxious of US imports, the pub TV, why people continue to suffer this flagrant insult to good conversation is beyond me, but I suffered on indignantly and read my tattered copy of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons (I know, I know, but it’s better to be one of the in-crowd pointing outwards than on the outside cold, wet, and looking in).

Going back to the horrendous trend of in-pub TV’s, I remember being in a pub in Sunderland back in my dark destitute student days, when I was aggressively hushed because the locals were engrossed in the afternoon rerun of Coronation Street, I mean has the sanctity of the pub ever been more forcefully compromised?  It’s only bloody Corrie for god’s sake!

Anyway as tyger’s beer has run ruefully dry it’s goodbye from Tallinn, until next time!

Musings from Tallinn

I had a discussion the other day with a guy who argued in favour of the Bolivarian revolution in South America, namely the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. The discussion, which was online, was cordial and informed; he made a good case for Socialism being the answer for South America’s poor. It should be no surprise that I argued against the Bolivarian movement.

Let me say right now I like Chavez, and while what I really like about Chavez is that he’s thousands of miles away, I actually do like him. Chavez is the sort of charismatic leader we don’t see anymore in Europe, he speaks passionately about the plight of his supporters – the poor – and communicates directly with them via his weekly TV show. Imagine Tony Blair, our own so-called ‘great communicator,’ addressing his faithful each week? Apart from record complaints to the regulators I’m not sure what he would achieve.

One of Chavez’s most controversial policies was land reform. Chavez confiscated many private estates and distributed the land to the peasants who had toiled them for generations. This has of course endeared him to the peasants but infuriated the landowners. It’s also a powerful message to the middle classes and foreign investors “in Venezuela we don’t respect property rights.” Of course Chavez doesn’t need foreign investment he’s sitting on huge quantities of the worlds great narcotic: Oil.

One statement from my online interlocutor really made my own point perfectly:

“[Chavez] has proven that Socialism without corruption is the best form of government for everyone.”

Rather sneeringly I asked if ‘Socialism without corruption’ wasn’t an oxymoron? I was teasing but I meant what I said; government is inherently corrupt. No matter how ideological and virtuous a political group, power corrupts. Power and corruption are indelibly linked; you can’t instigate change without power, and you can’t have power without some form of corruption poisoning it. Declaring that Socialism without corruption is the best form of government for everyone is rather like saying that a Fiat without rust is the best car in the world; everyone knows Fiat’s and rust are indelibly linked.

The left has always been home to utopian ideas of society; they have an unfailing confidence in man, which instinctively ignores the lessons of history. Man is a self-serving and xenophobic creature, and no matter how he is conditioned, when he is denied his needs and wants he returns to a Hobbesian state and social order disintegrates. It is this anti-social and selfish reality of man that poisons governments, they taste power and it’s delicious. While tygerland is undoubtedly of the left, it harbours a healthy suspicion and disdain of government.

So what does this new and cynical tygerland stand for?

It remains absolutely committed to libertarianism and the freedom of man. It rejects government control beyond guaranteeing those freedoms and ensuring order. It does however believe that education and training are fundamental to prosperity, its caveat being a vitriolic rejection of the use of educational institutions to engineer social change.

tygerland believes that socialism, regardless of good intention, is one step from government imposed serfdom. Only the market can deliver opportunity and prosperity, while rewarding invention and merit. Socialism cannot be separated from totalitarianism; while your basic needs may be met by socialism, it strips man of necessity and freedom. Necessity is the mother of invention, and freedom is paramount to a just society.

Spending a few days in Estonia – a former constituent of the USSR – it is clear that the western model of the capitalist democracy can deliver astonishing prosperity, real freedom, and economic growth.

15mins for 10kr

I’m in a bar enjoying a A.Le Coq beer it’s a good beer with a nice aftertaste.

I’m having problems finding a Wi-Fi hotspot with my laptop after my prefered spot went down. Luckily I have found this bar where 15mins of net access is 10 kroons. Today is -7 so very cold and I have invested in a new scarf from ESPRIT to keep my chest warm. The freeze has also cost me about 50 pounds for a winter ski suit for my baby, but that is good to -40 so we should be ok!!!

I had some excellent Chinese food also today. It’s amazing wherever you go in the world you can be sure you find a good Chinese Restaurant…lol

Anyway I better go 15 mins will not last forever!

Sleeping and eating…hmmmm

Tallinn - 12/3/05 13:10

Having landed in Tallinn’s small but modern airport I have reached the apartment that will be my base for the next week. It’s a grey-brown brick apartment block, and certainly one of the more appealing former Soviet attempts. I’m sure you have all seen the grey concrete 6-9 story blocks of flats that exist on the outskirts of Moscow, well that could be any former Soviet city. Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sofia, Vilnius, Vladivostok; all of them have countless grey concrete blocks of flats dotted around. During Soviet times these flats would be almost identical inside too, with large cabinet units in the lounge, small kitchens, and smaller sitting rooms that double as bedrooms.

Tallinn has a large ethnic Russian population – about 40% - that remained in the country after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. If you remember a bunch of old-school communists attempted to overthrow Gorbachev, and during the melee Estonia and the other Baltic States (Lithuania & Latvia) declared independence. Rather cheeky really, when the cat was busy putting down an old style military coup, the mice were declaring independence, privatising businesses and embracing free-markets. Of course the victims in all the explosions of liberty and confusion were the Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusian’s who had basically become second-class citizens overnight. The newly empowered Estonian government refused to grant automatic citizenship to their Russian population leaving them with uncertain status. The Russians – like their apartments – had become grey.

I’m spending the rest of the day sleeping; I was up at 1am Saturday morning to travel to Stansted airport to fly at 06:45, that’s leaving a fairly substantial margin of error, but better to be safe than sorry. Tomorrow I will be off into the city.

Having a beer - 12/3/05 20:39

Well I have had a few hours sleep and thankfully my six month old also needed some kip. I have just had potatoes, chicken, and Christmas Salad. Christmas Salad – you may well ask? Well it’s a very subtle Russian salad similar to coleslaw but with cranberries, the Russians are the supreme overlords of the salad and the Christmas Salad does not disappoint. The cranberries lost in the mashed potatoes provide a recognisable seasonal taste; nothing brings back the rush of the holidays like fresh cranberries.

Russians are incredibly hospitable. While cold and formal in the streets, get into the home of a Russian family and be astounded by their warmth and hospitality. As a seasonal gesture I was supplied with a bottle of Chocolate Beer, a recent addition to the local brewers product line. If you have never had Chocolate Beer you have missed a treat, it’s full on flavour and has a pleasant chocolaty aftertaste – you can buy chocolate flavoured beer in most supermarkets in England, just have a couple of bottles as it can be quite rich.

I now have an Estonian beer called Saku, this appears to be the main Estii brewer and Saku is a crisp, and fairly strong beer of the sort common on the continent. This is an excellent premium Saku called Kuld. Cheers!

I can see the clouds…

Somewhere over Holland – 12/3/05 8:09 GMT

Well this is the first time I have flown easyJet and I have to say it’s not all bad. It’s a modern Airbus A319; and while we sit like battery hens in tight rigid seats, the airhostess does an excellent job of pretending not to hear me ask if I can warm my baby’s milk. She may be ignoring me, but at least she ignores me professionally. Luckily warm sweaty loins provide an excellent insulation and will turn cold milk into an acceptable - if tepid – mode of sustenance. My baby’s hunger is finally sated, and much to the fellow passengers relief, he is now cradled in his mothers arms as they both try vainly to ignore the drone of the Airbus’s jet engines and sleep.

For travel insomniacs like myself, easyJet kindly provide an in flight magazine imaginatively titled easyJet IN-FLIGHT; well at least they are not squandering my fare on focus groups. The magazine also functions as a catalogue for the perfumes, spirits, and cheap tat that they sell on planes. Seriously who buys gear on a plane? Well actually on a trip to Porto last year I did buy a Samsonite travel wallet to hold passports and travellers cheques, but apart from idiots like me who buys this rubbish when you have just spent two hours traipsing around shops at the airport?

easyJet IN-FLIGHT ambitiously suggests on its front cover that it contains articles on fashion, sport, business, destinations, and property; well it certainly covers fashion and there is a basic city guide to easyJet’s destinations, but there is little to constitute a business or sport section which means - to me at least - the magazine is about as useful as the airhostess. I gaze at an insulting article explaining how to drink wine, and one on oysters, but I reach the conclusion it’s a waste of time

As the plane noisily careers towards Estonia I take a look around at the other desperately uncomfortable passengers who have sacrificed ergonomics for prudence. It’s the usual Tallinn crowd of young travellers looking interesting, as they too take the Da Vinci Code plunge and pour yet more money into the bulging pockets of thriller writer and international heretic Dan Brown. We also have the obligatory Tallinn stag party, but they are a subdued group in their mid-thirties who you just know are knackered already and can’t wait to get home, make a cup of tea and settle down in front of the box. There is also a rather bedraggled and desperate looking Russian family, several couples spending their children’s inheritance on a city-break, and others mostly reading other Dan Brown books.

It’s –4ºC in Tallinn so I’m relived to have packed my hat and gloves in my hand luggage. And I’m equally relieved Tony Blair left Tallinn two days ago, busy on one of his sojourns around Eastern Europe trying to persuade emerging economies to take a hit in the budget while old-Europe has another fit of pique; such proximity to the PM would undoubtedly leave me with a case of hives.

Off to Tallinn

I fly to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia early tomorrow morning for a week, and I hope to be able to post from Wi-Fi hotspots around the city.

This will be the fourth time I have been to Tallinn in the last couple of years, and I hope to be able to give readers an insight into how the country is progressing as a new member of the EU.

I also hope to give an insight into the city, the people, and culture. Estonia is an excellent example of a post-soviet nation engaging with the global economy and one grasping opportunity with both hands. Tallinn is also a stunning city with the ‘Old Town’ being one of Europe’s best examples of medieval architecture.