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Published: June 20th 2006
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Coast of Finland taken from ferry crossing Gulf of Finland. Hello everyone,
The first thing we learned about Finland is that they do not consider themselves to be part of Scandinavia. They do not have mountains and their language is completely different. They draw closer parallels to the Irish temperment. For example, they share an animosity toward authority--especially the police. They are suspicious of anyone trying to be better--people who wear a jacket and tie. The Finns are also suspicious of anyone who speaks Swedish. They learn Swedish in school, but then forget it as quickly as they can.
Finland is a full member of the European Union--they also use euros. The group most affected by this union is the Finnish farmer. They lost their subsidies and as a result half have disappeared. By the way, Norway is still not a member of the EU, Sweden and Denmark are members, but retained their own currency. What a pain in the neck that has been!
Salaries in Finland are about two-thirds the salary in the U.S. for the same job. They pay high taxes--about 1% for every $1,000. with a cap at 50%. Of course, they have medical care and university covered. Their is no homelessness. As in the other
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Government building in Helsinki. Scandinavian countries, most people are Lutheran, but only 1% attend church. The highest church attendance is in a small community near Helsinki--they boast 9% church attendance. We learned how all these churches keep their doors open. Everyone pays church tax, even if they have never stepped foot in a house of worship. They do that without much complaint because it means that you are a member of a church and can get buried in the church cemetery. To get out of church taxes, you much declare yourself to be an atheist. Not sure what happens to your mortal remains in that case. They talk about the need for separation of church and state, but so far churches continue to be state churches. Finland has more common law unions and the breakups within these relationships is very high. However, people who are married and have children seldom break up. The birthrate is the same as ours--1.7. This is high compared to many European countries.
The biggest social concern here is alcohol. Finns are serious drinkers--especially binge drinking. Rather than having a glass of wine with dinner each night, they buy a bottle of vodka and drink it to the point
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New Lutheran Church in Helsinki built by blasting large hole in middle of rock. All walls are natural rock surface. Ceiling is copper, 40 ft. high. of passing out. Wednesday nights and Saturday nights seem to be the big nights for this. Finns are also the biggest consumers of coffee in the world. This may have something to do with the cold and dark. Finns have the highest percentage of cell phones in the world. They also have one of the highest suicide rates in Europe.
Finns are reserved. Our guide, an American who has lived here for 30 years said that when he moved to a new community, nobody would speak to him. He thought they just didn't like him, but. then right after the first snow fall, the neighbours all brought their snow removal equipment over and ploughed his driveway. The joke he told is, "how can you tell an extroverted Finn?" Answer: "he is staring at YOUR shoes." Another quirk is the Finnish view of nudity. It goes back to their fondness for saunas. In a population of 5.4 million people, there are 2.5 million saunas. Way back before people were born in hospitals, the sauna was a common birthing place--less change in temperature for the baby. The average Finn takes one or two saunas a week. Sitting in the sauna is
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Private Elderhostel dinner in 16th century castle. Only lighting by candle. a family activity. As a result, kids are raised seeing members of their families in the buff. As a result, nudity doesn't bother Finns. The joke they tell is that if someone was walking down the main street completely naked, everyone would say, "I didn't know that there was a sauna around here."
All education is state paid. Most high school students go on to some form of higher education. Their vocational programmes are good. For example, a welder would have learned his or her trade in school, not on the job. Lots of people are educated, but not many are top flight achievers. Our guide told us that school subsidies are based on the number of graduates, so professors are pressured to give passing grades to everyone.
One of the more moving museums that we visited is dedicated to the Lottas. This was a women's group founded in 1921. They were formed to enhance patriotism and to give assistance to the civil guard. It was an organization of women and for women. Their uniforms were grey and similar to the military uniforms that the men wore. Before WWII their main function was fundraising for civil defence. They raised enough money to equip eight field hospitals. When war was threatened in the thirties, they provided training to women for various functions to aid in the protection of the eastern border (with Russia). These trained women worked in hospitals, prepared food for the front line, provided veterinary care to the army's 60,000 horses, and serviced equipment and uniforms. They came up with the idea of using the heat of a sauna to de-louse uniforms--a trick the Russians didn't have. The most important function was to provice air surveillance. They are best remembered for their care of dead soldiers. The Lottas prepared the bodies for shipment back to families--washed the bodies, dressed them and combed their hair. 500,000 men fought on behalf of Finland. In 1944, 242,000 women were active volunteers with Lotta. 95,000 were positioned with the front line troops. 302 lost their lives.
On a lighter note, let me tell you about their president, Tarja Halonen. She was elected in 2000 and again in 2006. She is extremely bright and well-liked--90% approval rating. Thing is, she looks like Conan O'Brien. When she was first elected, he showed her picture and talked about her on his show. She flew over to be a guest and joked with him about their looks. The Finns loved it.
Bye for now,
Donna
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Margaret Barker
non-member comment
; o ) Thank you
Donna, Thank you for writing real-time-in-person Social Studies. Very interesting. More pictures please.