Actor reads through entire UN Global Migration Compact, takes 2 hours
The UN Global Migrant Compact has been at the centre of much heated political debate in Estonia over the last week and a half, to put it mildly. But who has actually read the document – which was not even translated into Estonian until recently? One person who most assuredly has not scrimepd on the issue is actor Gert Raudsep, who read through the entire text as part of ETV's ''Ringvaate'' broadcast on Thursday, a task which took him over two hours to complete.
Before embarking on the marathon read, Mr Raudsep estimated the 44-page, 14-section document would take around 90 minutes (bear in mind modern, albeit abridged, productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth would run to about two hours).
In fact it took two hours and seven minutes, to be precise, after which the actor explained to presenter Marko Reikop that he'd never before had to tackle such a lengthy and idiosyncratic script.
''The jaw didn't get tired but the eyes certainly did,'' said Mr Raudsep, though he praised the quality of the translation.
Practical exercise
He also noted how during the herculean reading effort, summoning up mental images from far afield locations such as India, Africa, and South America seemed to help.
''I started to visualise these people, who are most affected [by the UN compact],'' he said on the show.
Actually reading the compact in its entirety may also make Mr Raudsep one of the better informed people on what it actually is.
"In my opinion, it determines, or attempts to, as with the universal declaration of human rights, a general principle on the treatment of those who move from one country to another,'' he said.
The Ringvaate team invited Mr Raudsepp on the show to give the full overview of what had caused the Estonian governmental crisis.
The full-length video of the feat is here.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
