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President of the Republic Address at promotion dinner on the occasion of election Doctor Honoris causa, University of Helsinki 7 June 200207.06.2002
Rector!
Academic colleagues!
Knowledge must be held
as higher than a silver treasure,
more precious than heaps of gold!
This is a quote from Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg. This is a quote each child learns by heart starting school as it is also in the primer. We know it by heart also in old age as respect for knowledge is deep in our blood.
However we should ask what kind of knowledge must be held higher than silver and gold. Anyway it has to be something significant if it is in our national epic. This knowledge must have grown out of our vitality, contemporaneously also sustaining it. Otherwise we, Estonians and probably you, Finns, would have disappeared into history already. In order to survive as a nation and a state one has to master both strategy and technology.
But before one has to become a people, a nation and a state. For centuries our knowledge focused on survival in the cruel environment Providence had taken us to. Today we call it traditional knowledge. The world of our ancestors was small, limited but we desperately clung to it. It is general knowledge that Baltic-Finnish tribes, including Estonians are among the least migrant ones in Europe. We have fields thousands of years old. The Estonian word for "põlluharimine" (cultivation, "maanviljellys" in Finnish) hides a magic word "to educate" ("to educate the field"). Sending our children to school we say that they go to plough the field of knowledge.
In modern Estonia there are less and less fields and brushwood takes over. Fortunately we still have enough people who can charm the nature into providing everything necessary to sustain life. It is a big mistake to think that farming and cattle breeding are just jobs. No, this is a mode of live, modus vivendi. If you want to maintain this mode of life, above the sixtieth latitude for the next generations as well, both traditional folk knowledge and academic knowledge should be involved. As a scientist and President of the Republic of Estonia I am worried that our ancestors' knowledge would not disappear for Estonia, so that there were still people dedicated to rural life and sustaining research of that life. Otherwise we would end up like some urban kids who truly believe that milk and bread come from a shop.
Today it is customary to speak about sustainable and balanced development. This should save us from consumer society's amuck. If the entire world were to produce and consume in the same amount as developed economies, natural resources would not last another century. Rio de Janeiro and Kyoto agreements should save the lungs of the Earth. The very idea of sustainable development is based on knowledge to survive in the boreal environment, in which taking from and giving to the nature should be balanced. This is the traditional knowledge of the Nordic people. We have what to offer to the world.
I can bring an example of sustainable development from my childhood. Each farm baked bread for the entire week. On the island of Saaremaa, my home, forest was scarce; the firewood for making bread was precisely accounted for. Not a piece more. I can really say that our bread depended not only on the field but also on the forest.
Traditional knowledge had also a layer of peasant knowledge. We say "measure nine times but cut once". I am convinced that peasant knowledge was the foundation for Estonian national movement and independent statehood. "Become a master of your own house," said peasants in the second half of the nineteenth century buying out farms and this principle is reflected also in our constitution. Just like the farmer has to wait for the best moment for sowing, making hay or harvesting, we have also had to make use of the favourable opportunity to realise ourselves as a people and a state. This necessity will not disappear in future either.
Today Estonia is steadfastly moving towards the European Union and we should think how to use the new challenges in ensuring Estonia's viability. It is possible only if this union will maintain equal opportunities and consider higher threats endangering small states and nations. Common standards so significant in democracy may not always yield a just result in foodstuff industry. Several of my colleagues are genuinely concerned - what would happen to famous Baltic sprats and mulgikapsas - this is the food said not to be fit for the average European. Just like cottage cheese which is of a specific taste in Estonia according to many Finns. We will probably have to find a side door to get our Baltic sprats, mulgikapsas and cottage cheese to the European table.
Estonian peasant knowledge has its own nuance. Unlike Finns, Estonians have never been yeomen. Master's experience is really thin in our culture. We have had others governing us, for centuries we have even been serfs. Such history has taught Estonians to be shrewd, maybe also secretive. Barn-keeper and Sly-Ants are heroes of Estonian folk tales - they can swear that black is white and make maximum of the worst plight. It is also said sometimes that you can trust Estonians insofar as they thrust themselves. The point is - we cannot afford extra risks. We have to be sure. The Estonians just like the Finns need challenges to test their self-confidence. And then we can move mountains. By the way, look around in Estonia - there are not too many mountains left.
There is another kind of knowledge in Estonia called the wisdom of the four winds. Due to Estonia's geographical and geopolitical position it is always windy here. We should know where the wind blows. We have a popular saying: "to smell the wind". In its modern usage it means knowing and making best of trends. By the number of mobile phones and Internet connections Estonia is together with Finland among the leaders in the world. Well, we have probably "smelled the right wind".
The dark side of the coin is that in the past this has been called collaborationist attitude, adjustment. We have learned our lessons as well written in our national epic. Kalevipoeg drops its sword light-heartedly in the river and later it cuts his feet off. This is a warning to be considered in today's world full of danger as well.
These three types of knowledge, traditional and peasant knowledge and wisdom of the four winds cannot be learned even in the best universities. Each one and everybody, who want to remain Estonian in Estonia and in the world, have to know the origin of this knowledge. Education is significant only if it is a part of the viability of the nation. I believe it applies not only to the Estonian but also to the Finnish and other nations.
I toast the survival of our nations, as education is the guarantee of survival.
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