The Golden Age of Mustamäe

In reply to Giustino's missed america

I guess what Giustino is referring to about the simpler times of 1950's is what for some people resembled the Golden Era, a time, probably ending in 1940's when things were good and fine in America. I can't really put a spot on that one, but this might be a span of time before television took hold in the States, so for a similar reminiscense of "old good times", this time before the time of television, I'd tentatively put The Golden Age of Radio as the one.

When I further thought of this and similar terms, I realised that they have a tendency to come to use well after a period of growth and/or progress has (either gradually or abruptly) ended, in a time when people are a whole lot more sober about their outlook and look at the past with some nostalgia.

This is the kind of past that is not always known by today's contemporaries, but passed down by their older brethren and ancestors, through folklore and culture. We may not have a first-hand feeling of what the 1950's were like, but we've seen it in in the movies, read about it from the books.

Perhaps most interestingly, the books and movies that we refer to when reminiscing about an era may have had less significance in their time than now.

Some cultural items that proffer to establish in the minds of masses the way how things felt like at the time fail to do so, IMO, and some don't.

It's difficult to assess nostalgia. Sometimes it's as simple as having a meal with friends (or alone) in a local diner, or that you actually spent quite a lot more time actually talking, discussing, and interacting with friends and family.

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"Nüüd elan Mustamäel...", which Liivimaa parim ratsutaja referred to, is "Mustamäe valss", the lyrics for which can be found here. The page has an inset which says that the song was written in 1971 and explains that Mustamäe was first known as All-Nõmme or Mustamäe-alune (I'm too tired to parse all this into English). The inset explains further that to people suffering from cramped dwellings in "wooden" districts, a spacious property seemed like a godsend.

Historically, before Mustamäe and Õismäe and Lasnamäe, there were more wooden houses and dwellings across all of Tallinn than Kalamaja (which is just representative of the type). A large amount of those wooden houses have been replaced by newer fare both in Soviet and post-Soviet times.

Even in 1980's, upgrading from ühiskorter (communal apartment) in ühiselamu (ühikas) or a one-room flat to a three-room flat anywhere in the city was like a huge stroke of luck. I know there are absurd-sounding, but probably true stories of even three generations living in a one- or two-room flat, and maybe a cat and a dog, too. In those times, a three-room flat was never unreasonable, but a dream not always attainable; well-todo people had a four-room flat and teh rich ppl had a private house, or eramaja :)

More on ühiskorter in Estonian Wikipedia can be read about in article talk about the term.

U.S. tax primer for foreigners and non-U.S. residents

A fine dude named Justin posted a comment at Giustino's blog, only that Justin's comment was lost there, but I still have it, because I subscribed to receive comments to some of Giustino's posts.

Giustino's advice is to consult with an accountant.
My own advice is to also consult the IRS homepage.

And don't forget to consider all of the other comments at Giustino's blog post where the tax topic came up; my favourite was by liimneliivlane, who suggested you register with your embassy and and ask around, if and when they hold an annual 'town hall' meeting.

Justin:

Argh I wrote a long comment and there was some error on Blogger when I tried to post it. Here's a quick summary:

1. File a 1040, not a 1040NR or W-8BEN.
2. Declare your income in Estonia, but also take a credit for income tax already paid (it's on page 2 of the 1040, callled Foreign Tax Credit).
3. No double taxation due to the tax treaty in place. Also because incomes tend to be lower in Estonia than in the US, you may not owe anything to the US since that will put you in a lower tax bracket.
4. Declare all your foreign bank accounts on form TD-F 90-22.1. Don't forget this, as they are really cracking down this year. Remember to mail this to a separate address from your normal tax filing.
5. Read Publication 54 from the IRS as it's specifically for expats.
6. Expats usually get an automatic 3-month extension of time to file (Pub 54 will explain this).
7. Be sure to file a tax return. If you don't this can come back to bite you later like if you need to apply for a green card for a relative -- they check tax filing status at that time.
8. If you own an Estonian business, file a Form 5471. This is the only form not built into Turbotax so just fill in the PDF on the IRS website and print it.
9. Don't forget to declare any substantial interest (I think it's more than $10/year) you earned on your Estonian bank accounts on Schedule B.

I do my taxes every year with Turbotax and it can handle things well. Just keep all your documentation on file in case of an inquiry from the IRS.

Language code

In reaction to “Igal tibil on auto tänapäeval”

@Giustino:
If the two men spoke Estonian with you, then it's best not to switch code.

I can bet the dude who you told "Thank you" to in Russian did understand what you said, yet I am sure was also dismayed that you spoke Russian to him by assuming he was Russian, only because he spoke the language with his lady friend. How and which tongue is he going to use in the public with his romantic interest after such an incident? Their speaking Russian with each other is their thing, even if the lady friend was potentially proficient in Estonian, too.

And in parts of Estonia that are not Tallinn and Ida-Virumaa, Estonian is lingua franca anyway. In Tartu, you don't encounter people asking which language do you speak, because the assumed language is Estonian.

Your situation reminded me of what AnTyx not so long ago wrote about.

I can well vouch as to what most patriotic Estonians now think of your friend Kristjan, who thinks our right-of-centre politicians to be neocons while they are not. I can even guess what party he is supporting.

Giustino's best

Comment to Giustino's writeup "the missionary position" and comments to it, just in case it again fails to appear after I've deleted my original comment.

@Giustino:

I guess The ERR interview, where you describe Estonians to other people who might not know much about us, was odd, yet only so much fits into one article (or a blurb).

Your current writeup is very good and I then realized that your attitude was very Estonian (someone has concurred, also).

Indeed, there are some things in Estonia that can be changed and then some in this country that can't be changed (overnight).

The petty things might change over time; the more pressing stuff may require citizen action. (See the Raha lastele campaign, wherein parents are protesting against the Centrist-ruled Tallinn earmarking more money to its own propaganda-tv thing than the kindergartens, and then also ignoring numerous roads needy of repair and other high-priority stuff.)

I do agree with some of what Piimapukk wrote regarding age, where the oft-youthful need to change the world is replaced with things closer to the heart.

• The Tallinn-Tartu highway tames itself, with speed cameras and reconstructions (there will be less of those around Estonia this year because of cuts).
• "Missionary position" = "The White Man's Burden"... (?)
I remember a very uptight personality who was Swedish and who in late 2007 instead of concentrating on work thought himself to be so much holier-than-thou that he could imply in his lectures to a nice group of fifteen local people about how the way of life here in Estonia was wrong. With this and many other antics I believe he lost all trust of the class.

Fixed a glaring mistake in the original comment, with minor other rewordings and updates.