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Message of greeting from the President of the Republic to the Forum "Viimane eestlane" (The Last Estonian) on September 14, 2002, in Tartu
14.09.2002


Honourable Professor Aino Järvesoo,
Dear Participants in the Forum,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The President's Academic Council at its meeting on the current year's September 6 made a fundamental decision - to launch in Estonia an initiative aiming at concluding a national pact.

Finnish Professor for culture Jarmo Virmavirta has summarized the task lying ahead of us in following words - we have to couple the liberal economic policy with the idea of affluent society: "This is just the third way of Estonia - demanding, and deserving attention on an international scale."

But before concluding the pact, we have to very carefully review the resources at our disposal, the most important of them being our human resource. Unfortunately, we have realized only recently that this is the very decisive capital in terms of our future.

Up to this day, we have been acting like sprinters who apply all their strength right from the start. And should analogies from athletics be appropriate at all, I would compare the activities of a nation with an unending marathon or relay race. It means that one would calculate his resources of strength for each stage and also think about the relays.

You, Professor Aino Järvesoo, for all these years have reminded us about the simple fact that this is the people and each individual where the Republic of Estonia actually begins. The more vital our people, the more firmly our state is standing. Not the size of a nation but its vitality is decisive. I really do hope that our national pact being prepared would be a match for your inestimable contribution and hope that the Estonian people survived.

I wish strength to all participants in your brainstorming!


Arnold Rüütel

Veszprém, 14 September 2002


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