Dear Graduates,
Dear Ministers and Rectors!

I intend to leave all fancy words for the Minister of Education and tell you something that is perhaps worth repeating. These days, you have heard many truths that have been told you over and over again along your way to education. Already Kreutzwald wrote many beautiful words about education and knowledge. Our past has not always been recorded in writing, and if I mention the past, I actually mean quite a short period of time when our culture, our civilisation has been supported by written word. This is only a couple of seconds from our past, if our past be compared to a single day.

Our potential, the strength of our society, the wealth of our society has for the last two centuries been directly dependent on the property of men and the natural resources of the state. This seems quite logical. And in a beautifully poetic, but still a bit masochistic way this is also reflected in Estonia's social awareness, in our song ''our land breeds no cedars, no palms''. We were then prepared to admit that we live in a poor country. But now you must forget this. Because if the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century have brought us anything new at all, I mean principally new and unknown in the earlier history of cultures and civilisations, then it is the idea that knowledge determines the wealth of a society.

In old times, the base of knowledge was like an Egyptian pyramid, with the knowledge itself as the top. And the base were those who erected the top high in the air with their physical work. Today, the image is different. Knowledge should reach the homes of all Estonian citizens with their morning cup of coffee. We are only making our first steps in this direction. And as always, we are overjoyed with our first steps. I mean all this information revolution, that we tend to connect with the Internet and the tiger leap.

I assure you in all peace of mind that the same kind of delight was once felt when Gutenberg, when caringly but with curiosity, he held in his hands his first Bible. At that time, many believed that the invention of printing - which meant that written word, which had never been printed before, would now spread ten, a hundred and a thousand times more widely with the help of printing than it had been possible ever before to spread hand-written words or even treasures hoarded only in the memory of people - many believed then, that Gutenberg's great invention would bring paradise to mankind. We know this was not the case, we know that every new invention can be used for the greater good of humankind but also for its destruction. And yet, if knowledge is the most resourceful productive power today, it is only so if you distinctly know the difference between knowledge and pseudo-knowledge.

What gives us our humanity - the need to distinguish between good an evil, between knowledge and pseudo-knowledge, has been man's companion ever since the beginning of times. Do not think that astronomy, zoology, biology and anatomy were invented on the last five centuries. Without this knowledge the ancient fisherman and hunter would have been unable to feed themselves and become extinct without successors.

And yet today the mass of knowledge is so overwhelming that gives an opportunity to everyone, and every one of you has this opportunity now, as do those for whom we did not have room in our garden.

I will read you some short lines by Karl Ristikivi, a poet who was born in a sauna:

''I too was on the road to Arcadia once
with a marshal's truncheon in my bosom''.

Today, the verse sounds different:

''I too was on the road to Arcadia once
with an Estonian Nokia in my bosom''.

There are some fools who thought that by Nokia I mean a small black box that you press to your ear and talk into. This was invented long ago. I mean the Nokia that has not been discovered yet, and is still waiting to be released from your bosom. In the name of what would you do this? I could here recall the words of Doris Kareva, which I really enjoyed to recall in the Soviet times, but which I only provisionally will recall today: ''Our life is the only meaning of our life''. At the time of totalitarian regime, when the only meaning of life was the restoration, strengthening, developing, re-establishment of totalitarianism, these simple words of Doris Kareva were like spring water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the currents are strong as you may have heard. I do not think that Doris Kareva would use the same words to outline her vision today. I think that human being, and above all another human being, who is unable to put this idea into words, is the sole meaning of our life. And this extends our responsibilities, and also to what we call patriotism and altruism. This may seem strange to you, but I can tell you already now that you are not going to be happy when your neighbour is miserable. In this we differ from inanimate nature, but not from animate nature.

If this should ever be of interest to you: I am not certain whether this is in any way connected to the biblical truths, it should be in some way, but this is connected to the secrets of life, and you will find the answer from a very interesting book, although it was published some time ago. This book is Wilson's ''Sociobiology'', and I recommend it to those who are above all interested in biology, and to those who are above all interested in history. In this charming book, the two extremes meet in a beautiful and convincing manner.

I wanted to tell you about this readiness to love, to sacrifice yourself, to think of your home, which for Karl Ristikivi meant a sauna, and in Estonia a sauna was not a bathroom, but a poor man's home. I wish you to have this responsibility right in your bosom, where you also have, I hope, the Estonian Nokia instead of a marshal's truncheon.

All the rest that I would like to tell you has been told over and over again on the countless graduation ceremonies. You are tired of this. Take with you the breath of spring that has finally turned into the sun of Estonian summer today, take with you the wild hope that reminds me a little of the year 1988, when I suddenly discovered myself on the Town Hall Square, hand in hand with someone I did not know, there was also someone behind me, and we all repeated one simple sentence, I do not know how it had been born: ''Estonia is in our hands''. Now, Estonia is in your hands, and in twenty, thirty, forty years time some of you may be speaking these words to other people, as young as you are now - then you should repeat this, because Estonia will always be in our hands, but it must also be a little more of Estonia every year, which also means that it must be a little more of Europe. Treasure this Estonia, as it means yourselves, treasure your future, because it is the sole meaning of your parents' and grandparents' lives. And doubt, learn to maintain your doubt. Only by doubt can doubts be overcome, and only by overcoming your doubts can you do the deeds that really have substance and will grow as high as the ancient oak behind me, which is 450 years old and has witnessed the arrival of Ordermaster Plettenberg in Tallinn. Everything is contained in a single junction, and Estonia's future is now contained in your bosom.

Thank you all, and smile please, and be tough, as your work is only just beginning.

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