Lamentable cuts in Culture Capital budget

Tallinn's city council plans to halve the funding allocated to preparing the city for its year as European Capital of Culture 2011. A scandalous measure, according to news portal Delfi: "The city of Tallinn and the Estonian government will be playing with fire if they make such radical cuts in the organisers' budget. You get the impression that both on Toompea (the government's seat) and in the lower part of town [where the town hall is located] everyone is squeezing their eyes shut, and that's very sad. The status of European Capital of Culture is a unique opportunity for Tallinn and for all Estonia. If we could see even a little bit beyond the end of our noses we would quickly realise that the Cultural Capital project provides huge and direct advantages. Even according to the most guarded prognoses Estonia can expect up to 200,000 cultural tourists, and perhaps a lot more - and it's not just the material gains we're concerned about here."

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