Brunnen

I'm getting old, this is on safety issues

Would this be news in Russia?

I remember the day when the major traffic accident in Finland's history happened in March 2004 (read
this )I told about this to a Russian friend of mine and her first reaction was full of sorrow: she told me that kind of accident would not even be mentioned in the news in Russia.

Another thing that I occasionally think of is that, in Finland there are organizations such as Poison Information Center and Finnish Food Safety Authority. When a truck gets into an accident and some chemical leaks out, there is instantly information about it in the radio and the Emergency Response Center informs inhabitants of the area. For me, it is very important such organizations are present in the every day life. They are structured, trustworthy and reliable. Thanks to them, I know I can jump into any pond in the whole country and not get killed by some chemical that some people let run into the nature just because they didn't feel like paying for the bill of proper waste handle.

Before such organizations are present, I guess it's even hard to imagine how great they are. I hope people in every country would demand for such services. Once you explore a world without them, you notice what a treasure they are.

posted by Anicko @ 1:34 PM 0 comments

Stable but poor?

I've known this for a long time. This is the other side of the coin.

This article is in Finnish. It says: "Finnish Households are the Poorest in Europe".
The average wealth of Finnish households in 2000 was at approximate 29,000 euros - - this is about half of the wealth of Swedish and German households.
Finns do not achieve the highest wealth class of around 40,000 euros, to which all the old EU countries excluding Portugal belong.
According to the Wider-Institute the reason for this might be the generous social care system and the fact that Finns themselves do not save for their pension.
Wider-Institute compared wealth of households globally and included finance, stock and land property into the research.

Why am I posting this? 1) Because Finland is not exactly like other Nordic countries. The system brings food to everyone's table, even medicines and library books to read. The system is a choice that lies on heavy taxation. It's not about being rich but about sharing.
2) Knowing this, it's painful to speculate what's gonna happen if the economy will blow off.

posted by Anicko @ 7:22 AM 2 comments

Finland, the fridge unplugged

1987. The first year I remember and witness. The snowdrift looks huge since I'm small but let's forget about my subjective judgement. In reality, the snowdrift was still huge. There was 1,5 metres of snow in February and the Christmas was white.
1993. White Christmas was a certainty.
1996. There was snow to ski on but people in the neighbourhood had a topic to discuss: will the snow come until Christmas? That would be nice, our children are looking forward to seeing white christmas. Yeah, and we've got plans to go skiing over the weekend...
1999. The local skiing center is investing in fancy new lifts at the same time when the amount of snow coming down from the sky has fallen dramatically. My height: 1,60 M. In 1987 there was snow as much as 1,50 M. I don't remember I saw such huge snowdrift in 1999.
2002. People are gossiping. It's been raining in Central Finland in December and February. A young mother in the neighbourhood doesn't know what kind of clothes to buy for the children - rain coat or ordinary winter pants.
2003. I'm off in Norway where it rains in the winter too. Going back to Finland for X-mas break. Suddenly extremly freezing, -30 Celcius, three days later +2 Celcius. Sweating in my winter pants, but insist to accept that I could well wear a T-shirt in early January and go out for a walk.
2005. Grass found in the back yard.
2006. Living in northern Finland. It is a part of the globe where people are proud of being survivors in the chilly climate. It's +7 degrees Celcius, December 2nd 2006. No hope for going to ski. Raining.
Climate change has proven to me it is happening. Very few people have the courage to care about it. We need to do something. Some people say we need to do sth to save the planet but it is not so. We need to do sth in order to save the planet where WE can live. If we destroy the planet where human being is able to live, we'll just leave it to some other species stronger than us.

posted by Anicko @ 8:47 AM 0 comments