Sámi dress

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

I won’t go into the whole story of who the Sámi (also known in other languages as Lapps) are, where they live and what their culture is like as Wikipedia already does a much better job than I ever could. However, it was very nice to see a traditional reindeer farm while we were in Levi.

Santa’s mounts were also kind of cute.

Some time ago I argued that the middle classes would help the economic and democratic development of emerging countries.  Again, the Economist takes this subject on with a special report, and Paco Calderón references it with a cartoon.

Will this positive development survive the current economic climate worldwide?

We were skiing in Tahkovuori very recently and I was wondering about the amount of Russian tourists to be found unlike the previous times I’ve been there.  Searching a little bit I found this and this article, where they explain that there is a boom in visits of Russian citizens from last year.

If you are looking for a job in Eastern Finland (currently suffering from difficult times in the wood industry), try hospitality and learn some Russian.

Ленинград (Leningrad) are a Russian ska band that I knew previously, and visited Helsinki a month ago.  The gig was excellent, as you can see below, even if I didn’t understand a word.

St. Basil’s Cathedral

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

A couple of weeks ago we spent a long weekend with friends in Moscow (photos here). The city has very beautiful areas and downtown is just amazing.

One thing that surprised me was that clearly the current price of commodities has done wonders for the local economy and you can see it everywhere you go: people dress better that what I saw 7 years ago in Saint Petersburg, the city looks clean and frankly it’s not the cheapest place on Earth.

Another interesting thing was that we were there while the situation in Georgia was developing, and the points of view in the local media were completely different from what you see in CNN or even the BBC.

Finally, as stupid as this might sound, it was very comforting to get past the usual stereotypes and just notice that the people over there are just like everybody else .

So, last night Spain were crowned (fairly) as champions of Europe.  This tournament, in my opinion, was much, much better than 2004 in the sense that attacking football was rewarded, not only for the Spanish, but also for the Turkish, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese and even for moments German teams.

Pity we can’t have this kind of quality football every day.

Funnily enough, I read that Kotka in southeastern Finland wants more Russian immigrants. After the well-known animosities between both nations, and the prejudices Russians face there, it’s quite a surprising turn.