Monthly Archives: October 2008

in english

Municipal elections in Finland

3 Comments


Municipal elections

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

After a couple of months of campaigning, the municipal elections in Finland took place yesterday. The main outcome of this democratic exercise was a general shift to the right in this country, where both the centre-right and populist right parties won more seats in municipal councils across the nation.

Especially the wins by the Perussuomalaiset, or True Finns, are rather troubling for a guy like me, as many of their candidates have openly expressed racist attitudes. I might sound a little paranoid, but I believe in this country, I’ve invested in it and I cannot bear the thought that 1 out of 10 people in the bus or the mall would like to kick me out of this country just because I look different, even if I’ve contributed to this society too.  Sad.

in english

PhDs cleaning toilets

I was reading this article in Helsingin Sanomat, and was quite amazed by the following passage:

The Sokos Hotel in Pasila has 12 cleaners, only one of whom is a native-born Finn.

      “It is surprising”, Thors says.

      Aila Forsström of the cleaning company Sol, says that 80 per cent of the 550 cleaners employed in her district have foreign backgrounds.

     The cleaners include engineers, PhDs, , kindergarten teachers,
bookeepers, teachers, dental nurses, interpreters, and one ballerina.

Just think about the amount of untapped potential in that list.

Reminded me of this study by the Ministry of Labour, where they discuss the adaptation of Finnish society to the presence of immigrants here.  I read it on my last holiday and left me a little uneasy.  Furthermore, the situation won't improve with the current economic downturn.

in english

European Day of Languages

The funniest part of this event is that I probably understand more about Europe and Europeans than your average person hereabouts. After all, I’ve studied their languages and cultures for many years, and have lived here for a few.

There were two very interesting tidbits for me when they had this stand in Kamppi: I could read and understand more than 8 squares in this poster, which was surprising, and I was able to fill their test on European languages with full marks in under 2 minutes… and I’m not even European.