The current winter in Finland is the continuously coldest, snowiest I have ever experienced after 9 years here. With temperatures averaging -10 (but reaching -27, without the windchill) and an amount of snowfall that is reaching a metre, the place looks and feels decidedly wintry. I mean, there’s more snow here than in Lapland!
A very controversial Brazilian film following the very violent exploits of Rio de Janeiro military police special forces, it reminded me a lot of situations I’m familiar with as a fellow Latin American.
Apologies for embedding the Brazilian Portuguese trailer to those of you who might not understand the language, but the English one is ridiculous, corny, and gives you completely the wrong idea about the pace, style and atmosphere of the movie.
Was in a lightning business trip to Geneva. Nice little city with quite a big airport (obvious if you think of the amount of international organisations there. The few pictures I was able to take are here.
Oh, Maemo, the promises you bring to nerds like me…
Mobile programmable computers have a new meaning now.
Finally had the chance to watch this French-Belgian-Moroccan co-production, and wasn’t disappointed. The film tells the story of a contingent of North Africans who fight for the liberation of France in the Second World War. The plot and psychological environment is quite interesting as they are quite patriotic for a homeland they have never seen (a scene of them singing the Marseillaise and the Song of the Africans is quite stinging), but are still treated like second-class citizens.
It is very refreshing to watch a WWII movie that doesn’t follow the typical American conventions, that’s for sure, even if I really like Saving Private Ryan.
Furthermore the exercise, the environment and the beauty of it all are gorgeous.
Even if it is geographically and culturally quite close to Helsinki, visiting Stockholm is always an interesting experience. The city is much more cosmopolitan, people are generally more fashionable, and the riksvensk accent sounds quite peculiar to somebody used to the way Swedish is spoken across the Baltic. Always a pleasure to visit, especially now that there is a good Mexican taquería very close to downtown (they even sell corn tortillas!).
I have been involved in two initiatives lately, Finndiversity and the EVA Expat Forum, where professionals of foreign and local extraction come together and discuss what are the challenges faced by this community and what actions can be taken to bring it forward. While a good start (in the sense that this section of society is finally starting to get organised), there is still a very long way to go.
For starters, we are showing that an immigrant is not necessarily a refugee nor on the dole, as is so often claimed here.
One advantage of the huge amount of snow in Finland is that you can ski everywhere. Just avoid gritted streets and you’ll be fine.