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Heated tent to be erected for smokers at Presidential Independence Day Reception

The new law on smoking introduced in June of this year will also have an impact on the traditional Independence Day Reception hosted by the President of the Republic Tarja Halonen on December 6th.
Smoking is now banned everywhere in the Presidential Palace. Instead, those wishing to have a smoke will be directed outdoors to do so.
The guests will not, however, be obliged to shiver under an open sky in their ballgowns and evening dress while slipping out for a cigarette.
Instead, a heated marquee is to be erected on the Ministry of Trade and Industry courtyard, where the smokers will be ushered through the Mariankatu entrance to the Palace.
In previous years smoking has been allowed in the Atrium of the Palace.

Public Karaoke to Commemorate Independence

Finland has chosen to mark Independence Day, among other ways, with a massive public sing-along.

Starting at noon on Wednesday, a fifteen-minute broadcast will culminate in the karaoke version of a popular song by Jukka Kuoppamäki titled "Blue and White."

The broadcast, called "The Happy Quarter-Hour", will first start off with the ringing of church bells across the country. President Tarja Halonen will then give a short speech. MP's will be in a special session of Parliament and will participate in the sing-along.

The broadcast can be heard on YLE TV channel One, Radio Finland, and Swedish-language channel FST5.

Another day in the life of Mr and Mrs Average Finn

An average Finnish person has now been defined, just in time for the Independence Day celebrations. In the freshly published Statistical Yearbook of Finland, Statistics Finland describes what an average Finn is like.
The roughly 40-year-old Finn is at the halfway point of his life.
He lives in a residential block in a 3 to 4-room flat of 78.4 square metres that he owns and he pays a housing loan on, of which he still has left EUR 22,400 euros owing to the bank. Around a quarter of his income goes to cover the living expenses.
In addition to a housing loan, an average Finnish household also pays off another loan. The household owes another EUR 9,400 for a loan that was taken out to cover general consumption or something more specific. This loan could be cleared off right now, for an average person has savings worth around EUR 11,000.

The key word here is of course "average", for wealth is unevenly distributed: 44,580 credit cards are cancelled each year because of payment defaults.
The statistics also reveal how we Finns spend our average day. In the morning we go to work, a man to his construction, repair, or manufacturing job, and a woman to her job in the services, commercial, or care industry.
He works in the private sector, while she is more likely to be employed by the local authority. He makes approximately EUR 2,300 a month. Her monthly earnings are just under EUR 2,000.
Should today be one of the two days a week when an average Finn exercises, he will either walk, ride a bicycle, or do some cross-country skiing. This is not enough to keep a Finn slim and in shape, however. He (not quite so much she) is likely to be overweight. A good appetite and taste for drinks has to do with this: A Finn consumes 72 kilos of meat and drinks 78 litres of medium-strength lager each year. Of potatoes and fresh fruit he devours 61 and 47 kg respectively.

What else happens today, apart from the midweek lottery draw that might let one average person suddenly become unaveragely wealthy? Well, 161 children will let out their first shriek, and 132 people will close their eyes for ever.
Seventy-seven couples will get married. Another 36 couples have had enough of marital bliss and will untie the knot and divorce.
Some 45 new buildings will get completed, and an average car adds 49 kilometres to its clock.
Just another average day.

Lukutoukka schrieb am 07.12.2007 10:46
Beim gestern vorgestellten Klima-Index 2008 belegt Finnland Platz 36 mit 49.1 Punkten. Ob man da stolz drauf sein kann.

In a way the Finnish government is also a Finnish exception. Our three-party system is the only one in Europe where the left and right are linked with each other through the Centre Party. A comparable political centre does not exist in any other country. Let us remember that in Finland the centre and the left found each other already in 1937.
The government mainly deals with domestic issues and problems. However, international questions are having an increasingly demanding impact.

President Tarja Halonen handles relations with Russia. When citizens taking part in opinion surveys are presented with the statement that it is safer for Finland to be a neighbour of Russia as a member of the EU than to be outside the EU, 58 per cent agree and just 18 per cent disagree.
Seventy per cent say that Russia is "conflicted, multi-faced, and difficult to understand". However, Russia is also seen as an important trading partner, a country with a rich culture, and a significant investment target for Finnish business. The attitude toward the neighbouring great power is cautious.
All the more critical is the view of the United States in world politics: two thirds of respondents want the EU to serve as a counterbalance to the United States. This is the result of the Americans' tragic attempt to create a new Iraq. Gradually the attitude toward the United States is becoming realistic in Western Europe, and in Finland. The French President and the German Federal Chancellor are having an influence on that, and our new government has begun to establish ties with the United States this year.

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen represents Finland in the European Union, and in Brussels I heard that he has working contacts with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. But when I spoke to certain other state representatives I noted that scant attention was paid to the activities of Finnish representatives - except of course in connection with agriculture.
Many former politicians represent Finland in international connections. Martti Ahtisaari is known both in the West and East, and works tirelessly in important tasks around the world - at present on behalf of independence for Kosovo. Paavo Lipponen has numerous international missions. Erkki Liikanen heads the Bank of Finland and takes part in the leadership of the EU's Economic and Monetary Union. Esko Aho is the head of the Finnish Innovation Fund (SITRA) and operates in international connections.
In addition, Chief of Defence Juhani Kaskeala is known and respected in both Europe and the United States - and even in Russia. Jorma Ollila, who chairs the boards of both Nokia and Shell, leads economic policy associations of our country, and takes part in numerous important international tasks. Naturally there are numerous corporate managers, scientists, and cultural figures with an international field of activities.

Politics no longer attracts talented men, but it does have an appeal to intelligent women. The economic side continues to use men almost exclusively in leading positions. Politics and business are clearly distinct entities. Many companies operate independently on the international market; the government and official institutions concentrate on domestic matters. Naturally politicians and corporate managers meet each other from time to time and seek to agree on various tasks, but hopefully they can engage in unofficial contacts in order to achieve a common national vision.

Finland's road to the West - Part II
COLUMN

By Max Jakobson

"Finland is an exception" - and it still is, although now we are living in an open world. When I have visited numerous European countries I have noted that Finland is not well known.
Finland differs from other European countries above all with respect to the number of immigrants living here. In Finland they comprise just two per cent of the population. The largest groups are Russians and Estonians. There are about 20,000 Muslims.
In our neighbour Sweden, immigrants belonging to different groups have risen to 12 per cent of the population, in Ireland it is 11 per cent. In Western Europe Muslims comprise the majority of immigrants: there are about six million in France, 1.6 million in Britain, 800,000 in a country as small as The Netherlands, and Germany has 2.5 million Turks.
Currently large numbers of citizens of new member states of the European Union are moving in large numbers from east to west: More than a million from Poland to Germany, France, and Britain, a significant number of people from Latvia and Lithuania have gone to Ireland, and many citizens of Bulgaria and Romania are seeking to move west.
In Finland a majority are relieved that not very many foreigners have come here. Correspondingly, we can assume that Finland is not a very attractive country for foreigners. People living further south shun the northern darkness and the cold, and the strange language.
What will happen to us when the population ages rapidly? The average age rises, and the number of pensioners and elderly grows, while that of the working age population declines. When will we hear a realistic assessment of the implementation of demographic policy?

Another significant exception is Finnish national defence, which leans on conscription. Ten European countries, which were either part of the Soviet Union or in its sphere of influence, are now members in the US-led NATO alliance.
Apparently many Finns still accept the statement which Augustin Ehrensvärd had carved in stone at the King's Gate in Suomenlinna, declaring that Finland must not depend on help from strangers. According to interviews, 90 per cent of Finns trust the Defence Forces, and a significant proportion of young men say that they would be ready to do military service even if it were no longer mandatory.
At the same time, the leaders of the Defence Forces are taking part in the technological development of our country. A common product of research implemented jointly by the Defence Forces, industry, and academic research has been an information system that creates an electronic situational picture shared by the aircraft of the Air Force and the command centre, as well as between the planes. The effectiveness of fighter plane deterrence has advanced considerably.
To develop regional defence, a so-called network defence is being created, which means that an intelligence, surveillance, and command system covering the whole country relays a unified, real picture of the situation to all forces and links in the chain of command.
The system comes from modern Finnish information technology. In other words, Finland continues to flexibly maintain conscription-based national defence - which is, again, exceptional in Europe.