Eesti in brief - 2011-03-17

A Soviet-era store in Tallinn has been memorialized as an architectural monument, reports ERR. Estonian Minister of Culture Laine Janes said the building is valuable because it is one of the only extant Soviet-era structures in downtown Tallinn that is not based on a standardized design, and has largely kept its original floor plan. The Heritage Conservation Board made the proposal that the structure be placed under conservation. The expert assessment states that keeping the building intact would preserve different eras of city planning in one stretch of street. The former store, currently a night club, stands near an area of high-rise bank and commercial buildings, and the contrasting heights and scales of the structures comprise a “historical curiosity.” The store was built in 1982 and designed by Peep Janes and Henno Sepmann.

Estonian MP Tonu Juul - a medical doctor - let pharmaceutical company GSK pay for his 120-euro membership fee in a medical association of urologists, reports Aripaev. Juul, who earns 3,000 euros a month as an MP, saw nothing wrong with such practice: “It’s normal for them to pay for such membership. This is common practice.” Juul’s fellow member in the Reform Party, Hanno Pevkur, who is minister of social affairs, condemned his behavior and said: “For instance, I pay my party membership fee myself, instead of letting others pay for it.” Also Alar Irs, the deputy head of the Agency of Medicines, said that a doctor’s self-esteem should make sure that such costs are not paid by a pharmaceutical company. In October 2010, Juul participated in the annual urology congress in Morocco and let his travel expenses be paid by two pharmaceutical companies: GSK and Berlin-Chemie.

While generally men and women say they sense discrimination equally in Estonia, UK, Ireland and Ukraine, men feel they suffer from unfair treatment more, reports Postimees Online. In Estonia, a bit over 12 percent of men and 10 percent of women sense unequal treatment. The biggest problems for men are problems concerning race, citizenship, language and nationality. Then, discrimination concerning religion, age and disability follow. Among Estonian women, problems concerning race, citizenship, language and nationality are also in an important place, but discrimination on the basis of religion, age and gender closely follows. Less than 1 percent of women feel they are being discriminated because they are women. 1.3% of women feel they are being discriminated because of their age. The analysis was based on European Social Study 2004-2009 data in the framework of Innove’s project “Gender inequality in work life.”