NordenBladet — Brennuold Festival, a new arts and music festival, has been announced to take place in the heart of downtown Reykjavík, Iceland, which is set to bring together the arts and music community for a full day of art exhibitions and live music performances.
Brennuold Fest is a small independent festival built on the DIY ethos of bringing together the like-minded art & music community to create a space in which those local artists and musicians can engage, collaborate and inspire.
Through art exhibitions, live music performances, and an artisan marketplace & local food, the event also strives to support female artists working in a predominantly male sphere of the music and art world. Drawing on the theme of darkness and all that this can encompass, attendees are invited to step into the darkness while in the land of the midnight sun during the final weekend in August.
Headlining the event are the dark and mystical KAELAN MIKLA alongside the oppressively heavy doom drone duo Bismuth from the UK. Additionally, Amy Haslehurst & PrintHaus will be exhibiting their works with more artists and bands to be announced in the coming weeks.
The festival will be held in Reykjavik’s historic Kex Hostel, a biscuit factory come hostel, come music venue for major events such as Iceland Airwaves in downtown Reykjavik. The festival itself is open to the public for a low entry fee to encourage locals and those traveling from abroad alike. Tickets are limited due to the small capacity of the venue.
The inaugural event will be taking place on 28th August 2021 at Kex Hostel, Skulagata 28, Reykjavik 101 from 13:00 – 00:00. Cost of entry is 3500kr online and 4000kr at the door.
NordenBladet — Preliminary results of the municipal elections to be conducted on Sunday 13 June 2021 will be published online in the Result Service of the Ministry of Justice starting at 20.00 on election day.The preliminary results will contain information about the number and percentage of votes received by each political party in the entire country and in each municipality and voting district, and they will be updated as the vote count progresses. Once all the votes cast in a voting district have been counted, the number of votes received by each candidate in that district will be published. The names of the elected councillors will be published after the preliminary vote count is complete in each municipality.The final results will also be made available as downloadable files. The constituency electoral committees will confirm the final results of the elections in their meetings that will begin at 18.00 on Wednesday 16 June at the latest, after which the confirmed results will be published in the Result Service.Result Service for the 2021 municipal elections online
Today, June 10th Estonia launched the EU digital COVID certificates. In addition to the immunisation certificate the Estonian people can now also create a COVID recovery certificate and negative test certificate on the national patient portal (digilugu.ee). Counterfeit-proof certificates will enable safer travel in the European Union. The European Union’s digital COVID certification gateway will be fully operational from July 1st.
As of today, it is possible to create three new certificates on the patient portal to prove your vaccination, COVID-19 recovery or a negative coronavirus test result.
“More than half a million Estonians have been vaccinated against COVID-19, either partially or completely, and this number is growing by tens of thousands every week. In addition, we have more than 100,000 people who have recovered from COVID-19. The new COVID certificates make it easier and safer to travel and also to participate in major events in Estonia,” said Tanel Kiik, the Minister of Health and Labor.
“We introduce a complete solution of three different certificates – confirming vaccination against COVID-19, a negative test result or recovery. At the moment, all three certificates are still used in only a few countries across the EU. The countries will gradually join by July 1,” explained Katrin Reinhold, the director of Health and Welfare Information System Centre.
Previously established national vaccination certificates are still valid and remain in the patient portal. A certificate that meets the requirements of the EU digital COVID certificate framework will be created during June.
“As there may be a lot of interest in creating certificates on the first days, we ask you to create it when the need arises. Primarily, the certificates are intended for travelling in the EU, “added Katrin Reinhold.
The EU digital COVID certificate is neither a passport nor a travel document and is not a precondition for crossing the border, but may, for example, provide an exemption from self-isolation, depending on the requirements in the country of destination. When traveling, one should always look up the requirements in force in the country of destination. Additional information can be found on the website: https://reisitargalt.vm.ee/
Last week, the government approved the proposals of the Minister of Enterprise and Information Technology Andres Sutt for the national use of the COVID certificates. “The use of digital certificates gives entrepreneurs more freedom to offer their activities and services to a larger number of people and ensures that the easing of restrictions does not lead to a new wave of infection,” said Minister Andres Sutt. “In order to ensure the safety of all participants, as of 14 June, up to 3,000 people indoors and up to 9,000 people outdoors per calendar day may take part in activities without an additional limit.”
To ensure the safety only people who have been fully vaccinated against the disease, have received one dose of vaccine and recovered from COVID-19, have taken a negative PCR test within 72 hours or have done a rapid on-site negative antigen test are allowed to attend. If a person does not have a digital certificate or does not want to use it, the organizer must ensure that rapid antigen tests can be performed on site.
Similarly to the current immunization certificate, all three certificates can be created and downloaded on the patient portal. The certificate can be used both on a smart device and be printed out. the Health and Welfare Information Systems Center has created a website https://kontroll.digilugu.ee/ for the verification of the certificates.
According to the government regulation vaccinated people are free from the obligation of self-isolation when they enter the country or become close contact with the infected person within one year after the vaccine course. The isolation exemption for people recovered from COVID-19 is valid for six months from the date of recovery.
The technical solution was developed in cooperation with the Health and Welfare Information Systems Center, Nortal, Industry62 and Guardtime, as well as the Information Technology and Development Center of the Ministry of the Interior.
NordenBladet — The Ministry of Finance has set the base rate to −0.50 per cent as of 1 July 2021 until the end of December 2021. The base rate has been at −0.50 per cent since 1 January 2021.The base rate, calculated twice a year, is determined based on the average for the 12-month market interest rate quoted over the three months prior to the rate being set. The Ministry of Finance sets the base rate to the nearest one quarter of a percentage point.
NordenBladet — According to preliminary data, more than 1,470,000 votes were cast in advance in the 2021 municipal elections. This means that approximately 33 per cent of all eligible voters voted in advance.These figures will be specified once the advance votes cast abroad have been added to the register.In the previous municipal elections in 2017, the corresponding figure at the end of the advance voting period was approximately 26.3 per cent and the final advance voter turnout was 26.6 per cent.Numbers of advance voters in the Result Service
NordenBladet — Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen will take part in a video conference of the Northern Group’s defence ministers on 9 June 2021. Northern Group is a forum for addressing security in Northern Europe. Apart from the Nordic countries and the Baltic States, the Northern Group consists of the Netherlands, Great Britain, Poland and Germany. The agenda for this week’s meeting includes the regional security situation, sustainable development in the defence sector and Green Defence. The ministers will also discuss military mobility. The meeting will be hosted by Estonia. After the meeting, Finland will take over as Chair of the Northern Group for the rest of the year.
NordenBladet — The Government has amended the decree restricting the activities of restaurants and other food and beverage service businesses due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The restrictions will be eased as proposed by the Ministerial Working Group on Health and Social Services last week. In addition, Central Ostrobothnia will move from the community transmission phase to the acceleration phase.In areas where the epidemic is in the baseline or acceleration phase, the specific ban on dancing and karaoke will be lifted. In areas in the baseline phase, customers will no longer need to be seated at a table when served outdoors. This will make it possible for food and beverage service businesses to operate particularly at public events. The restrictions on opening and licensing hours will also be eased in areas where the epidemic is in the baseline or community transmission phase.Restrictions on food and beverage service businesses in baseline areas in the regions of Åland, South Ostrobothnia, Kainuu, North Ostrobothnia, North Savo, North Karelia, Central Finland, South Savo, Ostrobothnia, Satakunta, South Karelia and Lapland from 9 JuneFood and beverage service businesses may serve alcoholic beverages between 7.00 and 1.00 and be open to customers between 5.00 and 2.00.Restrictions on food and beverage service businesses in areas in the acceleration phase in the regions of Southwest Finland, Kymenlaakso, Pirkanmaa and Central Ostrobothnia from 9 JuneFood and beverage service businesses may serve alcoholic beverages between 7.00 and 22.00 and be open between 5.00 and 23.00. Restrictions on food and beverage service businesses in areas in the community transmission phase in the regions of Päijät-Häme, Uusimaa and Kanta-Häme from 9 JuneRestaurants that primarily serve alcoholic beverages may serve alcohol between 7.00 and 18.00 and be open to customers between 5.00 and 19.00. They may have in use half the normal number of customer seats in indoor premises. Exceptions to restrictions remain unchangedThe restrictions laid down in the decree do not apply to the activities of staff restaurants or to takeaway sales of food to customers. The restrictions on opening hours do not apply to food and beverage service businesses on vessels and aircraft that operate between Finland and other countries or abroad or to food and beverage service businesses that operate at distribution stations for liquid fuels.
NordenBladet – Life in the countryside is ticking in a completely different rhythm than in the city. Everything will be accomplished, yet there is no hurry and no haste. A calm morning with a plentiful breakfast is the basis to a successful, happy and active day. A morning spent without haste will guarantee your wellbeing for the entire day! This is just the reason why NordenBladet’s main mission alongside the maintenance and strengthening and passing on of the cultural heritage is the enlivening of country life and understanding of the beautiful nature. We foster and encourage moving to the countryside and we call everyone for consuming local products! To those more interested, I have depicted the issue of NordenBladet’s mission in length in my 2018 blog post HERE.
But back to today’s morning! For whom a whole white bread toast, for whom oat porridge, for whom smoothie. Estella Elisheva is a great friend of smoothies. Recently she discovered a new gluten-free blueberry-vanilla flavoured protein powder “Fast Whey80” that she now loves to use for preparing nourishing health drinks. Whey protein will support muscle growth and will protect the skeleton. We mix the drink with berries grown in our garden (currently the raspberries gathered last year, as well as strawberries, red and white currants, buckthorn, black currant) and berries that were hand-picked from the woods, the cowberries, cranberries and blueberries. Certainly the good smoothie ingredients are also any of the good green stuff (baby spinach, basil, etc), Estella Elisheva has been experimenting in the past few years and has been creating so many different smoothie drink and bowl recipes that these would easily populate an entire book!
(blog continues in several parts also in between the photo gallery)
School year will be ending this week, on Friday (11 June) both girls will have their class graduation ceremony. Estella Elisheva will complete eighth grade in the Russian-speaking Tallinn Jewish School, and Ivanka Shoshana will complete sixth grade in the school for pupils with special needs, Tallinn Tondi School. Today Ivanka will have the final pottery class of this school year. I join her in Saku manor private one-on-one ceramics lessons supervised by Hedwig Seaver, as the ordinary classes will be too challenging (impossible) for her. An autist will need a “smooth schedule”, since not all days are brothers and you will never really know the mood that hits in the morning. Thus private classes are really good and support development!
Whittling with clay is a great hobby for both Ivanka as well as myself and it is a pleasant common activity for us together, the ceramics tableware is also in use in our home on a daily basis. A luxury that we enjoy every day! Super! Our most recent joint work has been a green-and-blue tableware set with lilacs, named “Ivanka”. Ivanka made and coloured them, and I supplemented the set with paintings of lilacs. Bowls with two candle holders from the same line are my creation. I am adding some pictures here, too, and a little talk about the collection can be read from the blog HERE! By the way, it is one from the many of our collections that will soon be displayed at the exhibition in Estonian National Museum! Yessss… pinch me, I still cannot believe it myself that we will have our own exhibition in ERM! Therefore this handmade tableware set is of double value and much treasured!
What else? Today we replaced our old shabby yet still functioning lawn tractor Green Cut with a new one. Thank you our friend for having served us for years in our garden, now for 75 EUR you will soon be in new hands, those that will know how to repair you and pamper you. The replacement is a MTD SMART RG 145 brand new tractor (1699.-EUR), that we ordered from Bauhof and that arrived just today. I also bought a pile of garden soil, and miraculously the transportation cost of the order dropped significantly. Today I also mowed by hand a bit (I tidied up the front yard) and then proceeded to prepare dinner.
For dinner I made fresh potatoes in uniform, minced meat sauce with tomato dressing from Rakvere homely minced meat, and fresh cucumber-tomato-lettuce salad with sour cream. It tasted delicious and that was especially because the meal was served on our handmade ceramic tableware set “Ivanka” plates. Since Estella Elisheva didn’t want minced meat then for her I prepared a special wrap sandwich as an extra. Today the Coop magazine HETK reached our mailbox, this edition was devoted to Hiiumaa (at least was very Hiiumaa-centered), and yet it was very nice reading. Good articles were plenty, I would emphasize two of my favourites: Gerli Ramler’s “Old house needs renovation. Where to start?” and Irmeli Karja “To mow or not to mow? And how much?”. Both articles spoke to me personally.. I like to whittle and mend, repair old things, and it gave me a good feeling to read that all of the recommendations and instructions by the vice president of the Environmental Board Leelo Kukk about maintaining biodiversity have been fully met in our garden. 🙂
Now a few hours of home office work awaits me and for tonight I have promised to Ivanka that I will make pancakes with raspberry jam!
NordenBladet — Iceland and Norway have struck a trade deal with the UK for digital paperwork that will reduce time and costs that now come with border bureaucracy post-Brexit.
The trade deal came after months of tough talks between the UK and Norwegian governments and has been labeled as pioneering in its scope and measures by securing tariff-free trade in industrial goods.
As part of the deal, Norway has reduced its duties in twenty-six areas of agriculture, such as cheese. The deal also allows caps on the charges mobile operators can charge each other for international mobile roaming, which is a world-first in a free trade deal.
Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, stated that it was vital to secure an agreement with the UK as the UK is Norway’s second-biggest trading partner outside of the EU.
The trade deal also allows highly skilled UK professionals to enter Norway and Iceland for business motives and includes recognizing various professional qualifications, including nurses, lawyers, and vets.
NordenBladet — The Ministry of the Interior has sent a draft government proposal for supplementary legislation on the Entry/Exit System (EES) and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) out for comments. The purpose of the proposal is to make amendments to the national legislation as required by the relevant European Parliament and Council regulations. The Ministry of the Interior proposes that the following acts be amended: the Act on the Processing of Personal Data by the Border Guard, the Border Guard Act, the Aliens Act, the Act on the Processing of Personal Data by the Police, the Act on the Processing of Personal Data by Customs, and the Act on the Enforcement of Fines. The package is referred to as ‘Smart Borders’. “The term ‘Smart Borders’ refers to automation and new technology to be introduced in border checks. This means, for example, the automation of border crossings, the EU-wide registration of entry and exit data, and the prior registration of visa-free travellers from third countries, namely non-EU countries, on the internet. The amendments do not concern citizens of Finland or other Schengen countries,” says Anne Ihanus, Senior Adviser for Legislative Affairs.The EES aims to improve identification of persons at external bordersThe Entry/Exit System Regulation will establish a new EU-wide information system with the primary objectives of improving the management of external borders, preventing irregular immigration and facilitating the management of migration flows. The purpose is to register electronically the entry and exit data of third-country nationals who are authorised to stay in the territory of the Member States for a short period of time and to calculate the duration of their authorised stay. The system will replace the obligation to stamp the passports of third-country nationals.The EES data may be processed by border authorities, visa authorities and immigration authorities. In addition, the police, the Border Guard and Customs will have the right to access the system for the purpose of preventing, detecting and investigating terrorist offences and serious crimes.According to the current plans, the EES will be introduced in May 2022.The European Travel Information and Authorisation System will determine in advance the conditions of entryThe European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is a pre-registration system for visa-exempt third-country nationals. It aims to determine in advance whether a person fulfils the conditions of entry into the country. The system also aims to enhance the effectiveness of border checks and support the objectives set for the Schengen Information System. The system will allow for advance assessment of potential security, irregular immigration or high epidemic risks already before the person arrives at the border crossing point.The Finnish Border Guard is the national ETIAS authority in Finland. ETIAS applications will mainly be processed automatically. The ETIAS Central Unit, maintained by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), will forward applications requiring further clarification to the national units for manual processing. Data in the ETIAS Information System may be processed by border authorities and immigration authorities. In addition, the police, the Border Guard and Customs have the right to access the system for the purpose of preventing, detecting and investigating terrorist offences and serious crimes.ETIAS is expected to be operational at the EU’s external borders at the end of 2022.The deadline for submitting comments on the proposals is 10 August.
