I accompanied my wife to New Orleans recently while she worked at a convention event. I secured my laptop in the hotel room using an old combination cable lock. When I tried to remove the lock later, it would not come out. A quick internet search revealed that this type of lock was prone to resetting itself and was generally a lock to stay away from.
There’re not too many things worse than a writer having their laptop permanently attached to a hotel room in a distant city. The front desk was very polite, and sent a maintenance man up to help.
Alex brought some light-duty wire cutters and a pair of needle nose pliers. While he went back to look for heavier cutters, I managed to twist the lock’s cable wires off with the pliers, and covered the sharp remaining stubs with electrical tape.
You never know who you will meet on a given day. I was short on cash for a tip, and offered to give Alex a copy of Molly O’Malley and the Leprechaun. He eagerly accepted, and we started to talk about where he was from.
Alex hailed from Estonia, one of the former Baltic Republics. Estonia, along with Latvia and Lithuania, has been ruled for centuries by Russia. The three states achieved independence briefly in 1917 with the simultaneous collapse of the Russian and German empires at the end of World War I. They were re-annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939-1940 as Stalin prepared to fight the Nazi war machine.
Not until 1991 did the Baltic States regain a measure of independence. They have but a short history and tradition of existing outside the Russian sphere of influence.
Alex was more than willing to speak of his native land in his thick Russian accent. He told me that when Estonia declared independence from Russia the Russians cut the flow of natural gas into the country. The Russians said in effect, “You want to be independent? We will show you what it is like to be independent from Russia!” It was very cold, and the Estonian people suffered greatly. Alex had a portable radiator he used to keep warm. The Germans, Finns and Swedes sent old tires to burn for fuel in the power plants.
Even before independence while Estonia was still part of Russia, the economy was caught in the throes of sweeping changes. When Russia moved to a private economy, all of the state-owned assets were given as certificates, or shares to the people. The average person knew nothing about finance, however, as the state had planned everything for them their entire lives. Some of the people who understood finance went around the country and bought these certificates in exchange for a bottle of vodka or a carton of cigarettes. In this way they accumulated control over the Russian industry, and the Russian people got basically nothing.
Alex was something of a dissident in his country. Now he is in America, free to speak his mind. Life has not been easy for him, but freedom is precious to him.
As a writer I look for opportunities to find meaning in the things I experience. I did not expect to find an Estonian maintenance man in New Orleans, any more than I expected to have my laptop accidentally locked to my hotel room.
It’s a wonderful feeling to hear Alex’s story of Estonian independence, even as I regained independence for my laptop. I am happy for both of us.
Duane Porter, March 16, 2008 – New Orleans
