Category Archive

The Assembly of Swedish-speaking Finns, Folktinget, is to create a new job position. Folktinget will employ a full time member of staff as (liberally translated) Language Protection Secretary.

This person will create a central point of contact at Folktinget for the collection of complaints from the public on language services. This person will then have the job of following up with authorities that have been accused of not provided services in Swedish that are provided for according to Finland’s law.

According to Folktinget’s press release, the ongoing municipal structural reforms have created an increased need to monitor the language law is being followed in new administrative units.

The salary of this new position is being funded by Finland’s Swedish Culture Fund, Svenska kulturfonden.

Our blue and white national flag celebrates its 90th anniversary today. The law determining the Finnish flag as the familiar blue cross on white was made on 29 May 1918. It is said that the blue represents the numerous lakes of our country whilst the white represents the snow in winter that blankets the landscape (an alternative, more controversial view, would say it represents the victory of the whites in the civil war). The cross design represents unity with the other Nordic countries.

My flag is flying high outside my house today, as it is outside homes, apartment blocks and on public buildings throughout the nation. It’s a symbol that represents all Finnish people.

And yet historically, it has been the role of an organisation called Suomalaisuuden liitto (Finskhetsförbundet - Finnish alliance) to give information on Finland’s flag to the public. This organisation is a Finnish extreme right nationalist group that has, in recent years, become yet more extreme. These days, under the chairmanship of the controversial Heikki Tala, the organisation campaigns for the elimination of Swedish in Finland. Even longing for a future where Åland is Finnish speaking. According to Suomalaisuuden liitto, there is a campaign to ‘Swedify’ Finland - apparently this is being carried out by us Swedish speakers with help from Sweden’s government (the suggestion is so self-evidently ludicrous it’s not even worth making further comment upon). In the past, the organisation received a grant from the state to fund its work in promoting our national flag. Finally, after many protests from politicians from both language groups, the parliament voted in 2002 to end this subsidy. This came after a scandal where it turned out Suomalaisuuden liitto was absolutely refusing to give any information on Finland’s flag in Swedish. The move to increasing extremism has been largely because of extreme right wingers taking over positions of power in the organisation. Even former chairman Martti Häikiö said that “the association has ended up in the hands of the mad fundamentalists”. Today, the organisation has slightly over 1000 members.

Why do I make this point? Still, on the morning of Independence Day (6 December) it is Suomalaisuuden liitto who has the honour of organising raising our national symbol, the flag, at Tähtitorninmäki - Observatorieberget in Helsinki. This is usually done in the presence of the President of the Republic. In my opinion it is time for this to end. A more unifying group should be chosen. Finland’s flag is a symbol of the entire Finnish people. To have a group of extremists who are openly intolerant against one group in society organising the raising of a flag that represents everyone is deeply inappropriate and offensive. The President of the Republic’s presence also affirms recognition that this group is somehow appropriate and representative. I think this December, in our 91st year of independence, and 90th with our national flag, it’s time to invite a more unifying group to organise the raising of our flag. Perhaps veterans from the wars, today’s military, representatives from cultural life (maybe from the Finnish, Swedish and Sami language groups together). The options are numerous. But certainly not a group that represents only the views of a very narrow and small xenophobic minority.

“Most Finns are nuts”.

http://masksoferis.wordpress.com/guide-origins/

Via WordPress’ impressive array of statistics on similar blogs, I found this amusing blog entry that made me laugh quite loudly.

I recommend it for a humorous take on just who the Finns are.

The Foreign ministry has released a new publication called Suomi ulkomaisissa tiedotusvälineissä 2007 (Finland in the foreign media 2007) which details what the foreign media reported from Finland during last year.

According to the foreign ministry report, Finland’s success in the annual PISA survey of education quality again earned Finland the title of education superpower with journalists worldwide wondering if their countries could reach the Finnish level of education.  The global media also noted that Finland has the most female dominated government in the world, with more women ministers than men. The large number of women parliament members also gained admiration.

There was a more negative tone in some of the press’ coverage when the well-regarded prominent Financial Times reported that Finland was on the way to an economic crisis. The shooting drama in Jokela and the negative coverage surrounding it left a mark at the end of the year.

Today between 11.00 - 13.00 there is expected to be notable reduction in the force of gravity and at a number of places worldwide gravity will nearly completely disappear due to extremely rare astronomical conditions.

Astrophysicists studying Jupiter at the Keck-telescope on Hawaii received the surprise of their life last night when they observed what’s known as a planetary puncture. Jupiter is a gas-giant with enormous pressure and due to some reason has begun leaking a large amount of gas.

“It’s spewing out gas clouds as large as the Earth” , said the physicist Alex Filippenko.

This caused a gravitation wave to move out in all directions from Jupiter. It’s this that is to cause a bump in the otherwise even gravity field when it reaches earth at around midday today. The effects are expected to be strongest in the northern hemisphere and especially in Scandinavia because we’re right now situated in a direct line from Jupiter.

“It’s impossible to say how strong the effects will be, but we recommend that you attach yourself to something solid with rope during the mentioned times. It won’t help to attach yourself to a chair or bed if they’re not anchored to the floor”

Vasabladet advises its readers who do wish to experience the dream of weightlessness to keep indoors with the doors and windows closed. It’s also recommended to have mattresses ready on the floor for when the gravity returns. Apparently weightless can make one feel a little ill, so one should have a bag ready to hand. Unless Jupiter gets some kind of cosmic diarrhoea, the whole effect should not last longer than two hours.

... and you can read more about this story in today’s edition of Vasabladet, 1 April 2008.

The human rights organisation Amnesty International has said it is disappointed as to how Finland has reacted to the events in Tibet.

Amnesty Finland’s operation leader Frank Johansson said that he was disappointed that Finland had not raised the Tibet question during the UN’s human rights council’s meeting. Many other UN members have. According to Amnesty Finland, the debate in Finland has varied between two extremes; a total boycott of the Olympic games and the fear of insulting the Chinese authorities.

Amnesty hopes that Finland will demand that a UN inspection group is sent to Tibet to observe the situation. At the current time, Amnesty does not support a boycott of the Peking Olympics games.

As a mentioned in my introductory first posting about a month ago, part of my inspiration for joining the world of blogging was the blog Finland for Thought - the viewpoint of American Espoo resident Phil Schwarzmann on Finnish politics and life.

Schwarzmann mentioned the author/publisher Alexis Kouros in several articles in his blog during the last year or so. Kouros clearly is not one to take any criticism of himself and so decided to make mischief for Finland for Thought, according to that blog itself. According to Schwarzmann’s blog, in 2007 Kouros wrote to Google’s advertising service falsely claiming he was acting for several Finnish organisations (including the national broadcaster Yle and the news agency STT-FNB) in an attempt to convince Google to pull their adverts from Finland for Thought. Finland for Thought reported that after this smear failed, he reported Schwarzmann to the police who swiftly concluded that there was nothing worth investigating.

This year, 2008, Kouros launched legal action against Schwarzmann in the Helsinki court. Schwarzmann, via Finland for Thought, described that in this process Kouros refused to meet with Schwarzmann or his legal team or to enter into any negotiations. Schwarzmann, via his blog, stated he would fight Kouros’ action, writing in Finland for Thought on 2.3.2008 (in an entry as of 24.3. deleted):

“I hired the best lawyer in Finland when it comes to defending the rights of bloggers, Herkko Hietanen of Turre Legal, co-founder of EFFI (Electronic Frontier Finland), a non-profit advocacy and legal organization with the stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving free speech rights in the context of today’s digital age.

Finns are strong believers in free speech and Finland has an excellent judicial system, I couldn’t be in a better place for a situation like this. I’d be scared if I were in the U.S. where big money and big businesses like Kouros’ can always beat a little guy like me in the courts. The Finnish police have already dismissed these charges, and I know a judge will too. Justice will be served!!”

Yet, mysteriously on the day before the actual trial, Schwarzmann agreed to an out of court settlement with Korous (although notably not even mentioning him by name in the announcement of this) - the terms of which they have agreed to keep secret for 20 years. It has become immediately apparent that the terms must include the removal of all references (no matter how minor) to Alexis Kouros from Finland for Thought. Indeed, all the entries that mention him and even the court case (other than the settlement announcement) have been removed. Hardly living up to the ideals of free speech that Schwarzmann has claimed he would defend.

It’s hard to know what to make of this. Disappointment perhaps. A feeling that Finland for Thought, which had previously allowed freedom of speech on all sorts of controversial matters, is now tainted. Perhaps both of these but also a certain sympathy for Schwarzmann. It is very easy to condemn him for not standing up for free speech but only because it’s easy also to forget that he is one private person who has had to face action from a more influential individual with more resources to fight his case. Finland for Thought will doubtless suffer from a loss of credibility for at least a short time amongst its regular contributors and commentators. Let’s not forget though, that this attempt to prevent the freedom of expression did not start with Schwarzmann.

If you’re really stuck for something to do, Radio Extrem is currently running a competition to chose which Finnish company/organisation has the best telephone hold music.

If you want to hear the entries (and indeed the various organisation’s motivations for their choice, although this is in Swedish) and vote, go to http://www.yle.fi/extrem/x3m/vanterostning.php. Just click on the organisations name to listen. (Riksdagen is the parliament, TV-förvaltningscentralen is the tv-fee collection body, Itella is the new corporate name for the Finnish post office - hopefully the other firms are familiar).

Welcome to this first entry in my new blog. Everyone seems to be doing it, so I’ve decided to join the 21st century way of communicating.

I’ve always been politically active and interested in current affairs in both my own country and the wider world. Perhaps living abroad has contributed to that fact. This blog will be a place for me to air my views on the events of the day, predominately those in Finland - but also those global happenings that effect us all. As a Swedish-speaking Finn, this blog will also focus slightly on happenings within Svenskfinland - the Swedish-speaking Finland. We are not a widely known minority outside of the Nordic countries and there is therefore little in English coming out of our community. This will be an extremely small effort to correct that fact. However, I shall attempt not to be to parochial in my writings.

Part of the inspiration for my starting a blog comes from the fact that for about the last 2 years, I have regularly visited a blog published in English by an American living in Finland. On his blog, entitled Finland for Thought, I have contributed regular comments under the signature ‘JG’.  Finland for Thought is an excellent  site and it’s been very interesting following the author Phil and his guest writer’s thoughts on Finland’s current affairs. I must confess to seldom agreeing with them! But they are thought provoking. It’s fascinating to read about one’s own country seen through the eye’s of those with a less conventional view.

Please feel free to comment on my entries! The more audience (should there even be one!) participation, the better!

Welcome!