for those of you who know Peeter Tulviste or James Wertsch - or
remember Peeter from the ISCRAT at Aarhus, may find the following
interesting.
________________________________________________________________
Candidates for president continue to be named
By TBT staff, TALLINN
Peeter Tulviste was announced as the presidential candidate of the Pro
Patria Union on
April 14. He becomes another name in the growing list of candidates put
forward by
Estonia's major political forces.
Tulviste collected 264 votes against his rival candidate Tunne Kelam's 249
at a Pro
Patria Union congress held in Tallinn.
Both Tulviste and Kelam earlier reassured party colleagues that they would
support the
winner in the presidential elections, which will begin in August, if they
were defeated.
"You can tell Estonian politics are in a healthy state when a newcomer has
a greater
chance of being elected than a politician who has been around for a long
time," Tulviste
said after the vote.
He said the Pro Patria congress made the right decision in electing him.
"I ask that our differences be left right here in this hall and we can
unite, so that Pro Patria
Union's principles can reach the Kadriorg," Tulviste said, referring to
Estonia's name for
the presidential office.
The Estonian market research company Emor carried out polls in January and
April to
measure the public approval ratings of potential presidential candidates.
Both polls were
based on 500 interviews with Estonian residents aged 15 to 74. Shown a
list, they were
asked which of the candidates they would like to see as Estonia's next
president.
Tulviste did not figure in the January list. But according to the April
opinion poll, Tulviste
shot up to second place behind the Reform Party's Toomas Savi as Estonia's
best
presidential candidate. Savi is also parliamentary speaker.
The Reform Party has not yet decided between its candidates Savi, Mart
Rask, who is the
justice minister, and MP Toomas Vilosius.
Savi's rating fell from January's 31 percent approval to 27 percent in
April. Tulviste polled
a 21 percent rating in the survey.
Active media coverage of Tulviste as a presidential candidate and support
by public
opinion leaders has influenced the preferences of the public.
The drop by a couple of percentage points in Savi's approval rating cannot
be regarded
as particularly significant, but if Tulviste's campaign continues at its
present pace a
change in the people's preferences is likely.
Tulviste, born on October 28, 1945, in Tallinn, graduated from Moscow
University where
he got a doctor's degree in psychology in 1987. He had been on Tartu
University's
teaching staff since 1974, and held the post of rector of the university
from 1993 to 1998.
After local elections in 1999, Tulviste became chairman of the City
Council of Tartu.
The opposition Center Party and the Estonian United People's Party have
officially named
their presidential candidates, respectively Peeter Kreitzberg and Yevgeni
Tomberg.
Another party in the ruling coalition, the Moderates, has still not
announced its candidate
for replacing President Lennart Meri, who was elected in both 1992 and
1996. A
president cannot be elected three times.
According to Olari Koppel, the media coordinator of the Moderates, their
official candidate
will be revealed on May 19, at a party congress. "Before that time we'd
rather not
speculate on the matter," said Koppel.
According to media reports, the Moderates' likely presidential candidate
is Andres
Tarand, and of the People's Union Arnold Ruutel.
Matti Pats, grandson of Estonia's revered prewar president Konstantin
Pats, kicked off
his presidential campaign on March 29 with a tour of the southwestern
region of
Parnumaa. Pats has been nominated as a candidate by the Conservative Club,
a
non-party political organization.
Meanwhile, the post of president is becoming more attractive in terms of
payment. The
Parliament adopted on April 17 a law on the president's working
regulations that lays
down the powers of the head of state and prescribes arrangements for the
fulfillment of
official duties. Among these things it raises the president's salary.
Currently six times the national average, the president's monthly salary
will under the
new law be the average multiplied by seven - about 37,000 kroons ($2,100)
- from the
first quarter of 2001.
© The Baltic Times, 2001
* * * * * * * *
* *
The English noun "identity" comes, ultimately, from the
Latin adverb "identidem", which means "repeatedly."
The Latin has exactly the same rhythm as the English,
buh-BUM-buh-BUM - a simple iamb, repeated; and
"identidem" is, in fact, nothing more than a
reduplication of the word "idem", "the same":
"idem(et)idem". "Same(and) same". The same,
repeated. It is a word that does exactly what
it means.
from "The Elusive Embrace" by Daniel
Mendelsohn.
phillip white
third grade teacher
doctoral student http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~hacms_lab/index.htm
scrambling a dissertation
denver, colorado
phillip_white@ceo.cudenver.edu
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