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Tolerance = sallivus

April 15 is a day to celebrate diversity in Estonia

April 15 is mitme/kesisuse/päev, Diversity Day all over Estonia. Mitme/kesisus is diversity. Mitme/mitu is many or multi; as in multifaceted. The poster says “You can’t make an orchestra out of only violins”, “Every member of the team is important!” and Tegutse, kui märkad diskrimineerimist – Do something, if you witness discrimination. They have used the anglicism tiim for team. Synonyms are mees/kond (mees = man, i.e. literally a team of men),nais/kond (naine = woman, a team of women) or võist/kond, a gender neutral "competing team". You can see why tiim is a tempting alternative, although it's not used very widely.


Diversity Day events are being led by the project Erinevus rikastab – Diversity enriches, whose website at HYPERLINK “http://www.erinevusrikastab.ee/”www.erinevusrikastab.ee is trilingual. They also have a Facebook page of the same name.

Võrdsed võimalused kõigile sallivas ühiskonnas – Equal opportunities for all in a tolerant society. You wrap a sall (scarf) around your neck to keep you warm. That’s a nice way to imagine tolerance – caring for one and all, wrapping a common sall around them. Tolerance is sallivus. Estonia knows sallid and is befriending sallivus.

Riina Kindlam, Tallinn

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