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The American Navy is to begin searching for the Kaleva today. The Junkers JU52 aircraft belonging to Aero (the predecessor of today’s Finnair) disappeared a little north of the Estonian coast in June 1940 after being shot down by the Soviet airforce. There were nine people on board. The plane had taken off from Tallinn for Helsinki.
At the time, Finland and the Soviet Union were not yet at war. However, the USSR was already planning its occupation of Estonia by blockading it. It’s been reported that a Soviet navy submarine picked up diplomatic post and other wreckage from the surface of the sea after Kaleva was shot down.
According to Yle, one of those on board was the courier of the American Embassy in Helsinki. He had been in Tallinn to collect vital diplomatic post and items from the USA’s embassy in the Estonian capital.
Estonian defence minister Jaak Aaviksoo requested the search effort from his US counterpart, defence minister Robert Gates. The wreckage of Kaleva is believed to be approximately 30 km north of Tallinn.
Finnish politicians, or at least those in the governing coalition, appear to be split on whether or not they should boycott the summer olympic games in Beijing.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (centre party) has made it clear that he will attend the opening ceremony and stay for a few days to watch events with Finns competing in them. He made it clear that he thought that Olympics is a sporting event and not a political one. Vanhanen’s decision has been criticised by all of the candidates for the chairmanship of the opposition SDP. Although, interestingly, it seems that President Tarja Halonen (who is a nominal social democrat, although Finnish presidents resign party membership when elected) will attend.
The Minister of Culture and Sport Stefan Wallin (Swedish peoples’ party Sfp) has made it clear that he will be on his summer holiday during the period of the Olympics, with no further comment, clearly trying to avoid entering into the controversy.
Today, in a prominent difference of opinion with the prime minister, the foreign minister Alexander Stubb (coalition party Kokoomus) said that he wouldn’t attend if he were invited. He did say he thought it would be ok to participate if China began negotiations with the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama. Clearly, Stubb does not share Vanhanen’s opinion that the olympics is just a sporting event.
From both the statements and the actions of the Chinese government, it’s hard to see how the games are removed from politics. The Chinese domestic media’s coverage of the worldwide torch relay has clear propaganda undertones, with the protests that dogged the torch’s progress in places like London, Paris and San Francisco glossed over and choice pictures of the flame with dignitaries emphasised (and often the only pictures shown). The Chinese government were probably hoping to use the Beijing Olympics as the ultimate propaganda tool - a way to make China look great and impressive on the world stage and show their own people that China is popular abroad, with world leaders there sharing in China’s achievement. Their plans for this have horribly back-fired, with it instead focusing the world’s gaze towards China’s human rights abuses. It’s hard not to imagine the Communist party’s top officials cursing over ever applying to host them.
Sport, ideally, should be apolitical. It would be grossly unfair to prevent the athletes from attending and competing at the games. After all, many of them will have spent the entirity of the last 4 years (if not longer) preparing for olympic competition. It would be cruel to deprive them of their chance to compete. However, politicians do not need to be at a sporting event for it to take place. In fact, politicians - who are, to state the obvious, political in nature - give the event a political aspect by their very attendance. People like Vanhanen and Halonen are, after all, not going as private people to spectate. They’re going to represent Finland by virtue of their political roles. So, it’s rather rich for them to suggest there’s nothing political about the games in that context. Thus, I do think they should reconsider their decisions to go. They can send a message to the Chinese regime that they will not endorse a country which is grossly violating human rights by staying at home. Better still, they can use the Olympics as leverage. Tell China they’ll come - but only if China improves its human rights situation markedly and starts talking to the Dalai Lama. This event might be the only opportunity the rest of the world has this much leverage over China for a long time. Perhaps our politicians use take it.
The mayor of Easter Island Pedro Edmunds Paoa says that the Finnish tourist that cut part of an ear from one of the island’s famous Moai-statues should pay for his crime with his own ear.
“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth as the saying goes. An ear for an ear, that would be justice according to my understanding”, the mayor said to Chilean radio yesterday, according to the the Finnish news agency FNB-STT via Vasabladet’s website.
The mayor was clearly not placated by the Finnish tourist’s letter of apology in which he wrote that he deeply regretted his actions and apologised to the Chilean authorities and Easter Island’s residents.
The 26-year old Finnish tourist cut a part of the ear off of the 4 metre high statue on Easter Sunday and is now waiting to find out his penalty on Easter Island. In similar cases this has been a fine.
Yle is reporting on a piece of American research from Nebraska University that shows a significant growth in the differences in life expectancies within the American population. The lack of equality between groups is staggering.
In the early 1980s, the life expectancy of the richest groups was on average 2,8 years more (75,8 in total) than the poorest (73,0).
By the turn of the millennium, this difference had increased to 4,5 years (79,2 vs 74,7). The largest gap, more than 14 years(!), was found to be between black men (66,9 years) and white women (81,1 years).
Income, education level, ethnic and religious backgrounds could all be clearly seen to have a differentiating effect.
The researchers attribute the figures to better access to health services and more effective treatments/medicines amongst the middle- and upper classes. These groups are also more likely to take heed of health advice regarding food, drink and exercise and to smoke less.
