This is the title of an article that was published in the monthly magazine for families and homes Ajakiri Kõigile (Magazine for Everybody) in October 1938. The article advises its readers on letter-writing, punctuality, interpersonal relations, dancing and travelling and gives guidance for exemplary behaviour for the Estonians who represent their state in other countries.

The members of an Estonian art group F.F.F.F., who represented their country in Cork, Ireland, the European cultural capital, in January 2005, were fascinated just by the ideas related with the image of travelling and travellers, published in this article in a pre-war home-makers' magazine. The article offered thrilling source material for answering the questions that the members of the group had for a long time been thinking about: what do the foreigners remember about Estonia and Estonians after a visit to this country and what kind of associations would Estonian souvenirs or Estonian ways and customs call up in foreign lands?

While reading this piece of text written about sixty years ago, we were surprised to see how much attention was paid in the first Estonian Republic to its citizens' behaviour in abroad, telling them how to leave a good impression of their nation and state and how to be tolerant towards their hosts: "... not everything that differs from the things that you are accustomed to at home is strange and funny...". Such an attentive attitude towards the image of one's own country may come as a surprise to the modern readers, but it also inspires respect. Just the fact how important it was that a traveller represented not only himself in abroad, but also his country. The article also instructed travellers about what to wear and what kind of presents should be brought to their hosts. In modern days, the traveller's behaviour code has been replaced by practical or crisis-preventing instructions about such matters as the visa requirements, vaccinations and how to seek help in case of emergencies. Times have changed.

What do we, the Estonians, want to look like in the eyes of the world, what do we think about ourselves, and what do our guests, friends and colleagues from abroad think about us? We all know that stereotypes can easily stem even from a few meetings with some singular representative of a foreign nation and also from the news that may reach the press of far-away countries.

During the recent decade, the self-consciousness-raising opinion the Estonians have of themselves - that everything is the best in Estonia, and that the Estonians are the best - has obtained a wider geographical dimension. Already at the times of the Soviet occupation Estonia, located on the western extremity of the Soviet Union, was almost like a foreign country, almost like Finland. When independence was regained, the rapid economic development and radical reforms gave us a considerable lead over our southern neighbours. The influx of hordes of shoppers from the north soon belittled the image of elder kinsmen and IT gurus that the Finns had so far had in the eyes of many Estonians. Today, we are sitting behind the NATO table together with the Americans, having, differently from the Finns, assumed the role of decision-makers. However, we have found that even America, which has for a long time personified the myth of the promised land, now seems to have peculiar customs and beliefs...

Such raising of self-consciousness is, without doubt, largely meant as self-defence, which was born from the fear of losing identity during the more than a half of a century-long occupation. Therefore, the new partners, who are important to us as the guarantors of safety and economic development, should also be stamped as peculiar in some way. Within the borders of the European Union there are plenty of such features to be pointed out: the mañana-mentality of our colleagues from the Mediterranean countries, or the arrogance of Frenchmen. We took pretty soon over also the European stereotypes concerning the peoples that we had had no dealings with only a decade ago. And we do not care that, due to the opinions aired by the international mass media, the Europeans think that the Estonians, the unknown blondes from somewhere in the North, (has anybody heard about them at all?), harass the Russian minority and undermine the economies of the older EU members with their too liberal taxation policy.

But obviously, the blond heads, or some silently scowling and now and then suddenly surprisingly straightforward Estonian, who makes cynical jokes in slightly clumsy English, which - thank God! - does not have a Slavic accent, have left an unforgettable impression to a number of foreigners. But at the same time we do not know how much do the Estonians actually care about what other peoples think about them?

In some sense - they care very much. It is essential to explain to the others that we are not Russians and do not speak Russian. Regarding the other Baltic countries, we do not think that we have much more in common than the alien power and injustice that ruled us in the previous century. But what facts can we offer to confirm this opinion? In the souvenir shops of the Old Town of Tallinn, amber and matryoshki are still competing with wooden and linen handicraft, and tourists are offered the regalia of the Soviet Army in the market and near sightseeing objects. In foreign travel magazines, the texts talking about Tallinn and its Old Town are still illustrated with the images of shiny onion domes of the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built at the beginning of the 20th century. We hope that it will change over time...

At the same time, the Estonians who travel around in the world cannot any more be distinguished by the details of their clothing that used to characterise tourists from Eastern European countries. After our fourteen years of independence we are, finally, merging with the unified global family, where the style of people's clothing rather denotes their profession or income, not their home country. Is it our aim to join the mainstream, or should we think which messages do our appearance, behaviour and even our souvenirs actually communicate? For example, would an Estonian, wearing the striped skirt of our national costume, be taken as a freak in the streets of Brussels, or will she be classified as a nationalist and extremist outsider among young and successful Europeans?

Analysis of the image we have created of ourselves for our closer neighbours and other peoples helps us to conclude that the search for the brand of Estonia has not ended. The souvenirs that we offer to our visitors are only a tiny part of our individuality, but they carry a much larger load of memories than a quick shopping tour in the Old Town full of tourists or dancing to evergreen popular melody of "The Saaremaa Waltz" on a Helsinki-Tallinn ferry. By the way, this song was originally written in the minor key, and was polished to become a consumer article only later.

Berit Teeäär (1970) graduated from the Metal Art Department of the Estonian Academy of Art in 1995. Since 1996, a member of the art group F.F.F.F., with whom she has exhibited her works in various countries. Press adviser of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament.