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Welcome to my space! Life in Finland (and beyond)Odds and sods of an ex-pat in Finland 19 November Say goodbye to Sunday peace...The last bastion of freedom from endless consumerism in Finland has fallen. YLE News reported yesterday that members of Parliament were set to vote to approve Sunday shopping year round. http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/11/parliament_votes_on_sunday_shopping_1166540.html.
Up until yesterday Sunday shopping was only in effect in the summer months and in the weeks leading up to Christmas, which in my opinion was a model that worked well. In addition smaller shops (under 400 square metres) were able to open on Sundays, which is also convenient. Year round Sunday shopping will just add to the consumer gluttony that exists in many western countries.
Personally I'd rather spend my Sundays doing other things - skiing, hiking, playing with my kid - not elbowing my way through the aisles to get the last loaf of bread or carton of milk...
But <sigh> the news is out - in a vote put to parliament MPs voted 107 to 53 in favour of year round Sunday shopping: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/11/sunday_shopping_becomes_reality_1166540.html
So much for peace and quiet on Sundays...  16 November Information sharing is not equalI am constantly amazed when I look for information on websites in English in Finland. Quite often things that will make the lives of immigrants much easier are not translated from Finnish to other languages. A prime example is Enterprise Finland. Take a look at their Finnish pages under Business development and you will find a link "Rahoitus"(http://www.yrityssuomi.fi/default.aspx?nodeid=14428), which links to sources of funding for new entrepreneurs. Look for the same kind of information on business development funding for entrepreneurs in English and it is non-existent. (However, if I am missing something - please tell me!)
Why is this critical information not shared? For those of us that struggle with the Finnish language on daily basis this is a real frustration. After 11 years here, I still will not negotiate anything that involves a lot of money or legal matters without the Mr. or some other Finnish speaker by my side. More than once I have been shafted because someone in authority has withheld critical information that would have saved me money and time or caused fewer headaches.
 11 November Unacceptable: The carnage on Highway 51(My apologies for the long absence, I was having some technical problems and wasn't able to log in here for a long time.) I am back though!
Highway 51 runs westwards for about 75 kilometres from Helsinki to Karjaa and on a daily basis is one of Finland's busiest highways. From Helsinki to Kivenlahti in Espoo, the highway, also known as Länsiväylä, is double-laned and sees some 15,000-20,000 cars in its lanes every week day. The pace doesn't slow much on weekends as highway 51 sees thousands of people heading out to their cottages in the spring and summer.
In mid-August a young woman became the latest victim when she lost her life on highway 51 near Kirkkonummi in what was described by an acquaintance (he is a volunteer fire fighter) as a 10-car pile-up. She was apparently preparing to turn left onto the highway from Tolsa when she was hit from behind by another larger vehicle and pushed into on-coming traffic. She didn't have a chance. Condolences to her family and friends, in this time of grief.
For anyone who has driven on highway 51 on a daily basis between Kivenlahti in Espoo and Kirkkonummi, you might agree that it is a dangerous stretch of highway. It has been the subject of numerous letters to the editor of various newspapers and discussion boards on the internet over the years.
A report in the August 22 edition of Helsingin Sanomat reports that since 2000, more than 110 traffic accidents resulting in injuries and deaths have occurred on the stretch of road between Kivenlahti and Karjaa. Most of the deaths on highway 51 have occurred in a very concentrated stretch of highway. That is some 75 km and a lot of lives. Could it be that highway 51 is one the most, if not the most dangerous stretch of road in all of Finland? I posed the question to a fellow who has a website that describes various facts and figures about roads all over Finland. He reminded me that depending on the method of compiling statistics, even one major accident can skew the "reputation" of a road. He was referring to the horrific accident that happened in Konginkangas on March 19, 2004 in which 23 bus passengers died in a collision with a transport hauling paper rolls. And thus, that one accident could qualify the E4 (E75) highway as a very dangerous road.
The problem with highway 51? Well, there are a few:
Too little too late, perhaps, for the victims of horrendous accidents on this road.
  30 September Getting old is getting ugly in FinlandA few years ago I was listening to Radio Suomi (YLE) and a program about the elderly revealed a very shocking statistic. Every two days, a Finnish person over the age of 60 takes their own life. How does one respond to that?...
Another shocking story related to the elderly and suicide hit the news waves today: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/09/illness_and_loneliness_drive_elderly_to_suicide_1042116.html. Growing old should not be a sad and lonely time!
A 2006 poll commissioned by the Tampere-based Aamulehti indicated that only 14 percent of Finns believe they will receive adequate medical care from the public health care system as they age. YLE News reported on this more extensively: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2006/05/government_concedes_elderly_care_needs_improvement_204031.html
Now care for the elderly is about to be debated in Parliament, as there is one thing for sure in Finland - it is terrible and getting worse! The reasons vary: a rapidly aging population, Finns live longer and there are fewer resources to handle the increasing number of elderly people that need care and support.
With the current kerfuffle over election campaign funding dominating politics these days, elder care gets a scant mention for debate in Parliament: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/09/government_faces_grilling_by_parliament_over_campaign_financing_1041979.html
24 September Finland: 11 years onOn this date 11 years ago, I arrived in Finland!
Back then I had no idea whether I was going to stay or not, but wow... I am still here!
I like living here, plain and simple. I've had my challenges over the years - learning Finnish (a project still in progress - probably for the rest of my life), navigating the tax system and other bureaucratic red tape.
I can be very thankful for a few things during my time here:
Plenty of things have changed in 11 years let me tell ya. There has been a massive infrastructure boom with big, multi-million Euro projects changing the face of Finland, many of them in the capital area and southern Finland - including Ring II, the Sello, Iso Omena and Kamppi shopping centres, the Lahti-Heinola motorway, the Turku (E1) motorway, the transformation of Ruoholahti and major road work in Tampere and Oulu. I could go on... A lot more people speak English now than when I first moved here - or their English has improved and my Finnish has gotten better. :) Finland switched to the Euro at the beginning of 2002. Now Finland recognizes dual-citizenship. The media has gone through a massive transformation with the deployment of Nelonen and lots of other new television channels. Now we get more channels in Finland than I did when I was in university in Thunder Bay!
 Finland seems to have lost something at the same time in that it is much more North American in character. Things have to be big, overdone and sensationalized in order to catch people's attention. I don't like the materialistic society Finland has become. There used to be something so simple about Finnish life in the past, but it has changed.
In recent months I've actually been suffering a bit of an identity crisis. It's not a matter of where I belong; because I am pretty sure I belong here. Yes, I am a wife, a mother, a student and an average thirty-something who tries to make a difference; but it is more of a "who am I?" with regards to my nationality. I'm a Canadian, yes, but I have been away so long that I feel like I don't identify with other Canadians in the same way anymore. (Okay - with HOCKEY - but that is hardwired into my identity!!) I'm not a Finn, I fit in on the surface because I can speak some Finnish, I get some of the jokes and I participate in Finnish society on many fronts, but there is something missing that I can't put my finger on. I feel stuck in the middle of something. This is an issue that will take some to resolve itself I think... If I find myself, I will let you know!
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