Thursday, April 28, 2005
More Finn Facts
Hi Everyone,
For these Finn Facts, you need a short history lesson. Here goes:
In spite of its ancient history, Finland as we've been describing it has really been built in the last 10 years. It was occupied from the 12th to the 18th century by Sweden and in the 1700s, when the King of Sweden was involved elsewhere, Russia took over and held Finland until 1917.
After Finland declared its independence when the Tsar was toppled in Russia, there was a Civil War between those who favored a socialist regime and those who favored a monarchy based on a German model. The monarchy forces won with the help of Germany. But the king only ruled about a month when Germany was defeated in WWI, and the monarchy collapsed. Then Finland established a republican form of government and elected a president. But there was still internal unrest between Swedish and Finnish speakers, and Civil War skirmishes continued into the 1930s.
During the ‘30s Finland formed ties with Germany because it was so afraid of its huge neighbor to the east, but a secret pact between Germany and the Soviet Union allowed the Soviets to invade Finland, and in 1939 the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland began. This was when the Karelia region was taken by the Soviets, and 500,000 refugees fled into the western parts of Finland. (I mentioned the displacement of the Karelian people in an earlier entry.)
The Soviets became hungry for even more land, and because Finland was cut off from the help of the Allies, they turned to Germany for help, allowing their troops to cross Finland on their way to Russia. Finally, an armistice was reached with Russia, and then the Finns had to fight the Nazi troops in Lapland to get them out of the country.
In 1945, a general peace was negotiated, and Finland remained independent, but at a terrible cost in territory and war reparations to the Soviets. The monetary debt was paid primarily in ships and machinery, but it drove Finland into rationing and poverty. And as late as the 1980s, the Soviets tried to infiltrate Finnish politics to drive Finland away from Western influence. Even in the early 1990’s, Finland was in a depression with 20% unemployment.
But joining the EU in 1994 was a huge boon to Finland, and the EU has helped them with infrastructure, tourism, and rural development. Today, with technology firms seeking Finnish expertise, a profitable lumber industry, and a United Nations “quality of life” ranking of #5 in the world, Finland is at last solidly on her feet and thriving in the new millennium.
This history affects many of this entry’s Finn Facts.
Language and Literature: Because it was the language of a conquered people through most of its history, the written Finnish language is rather recent, and therefore quite pure – meaning that pronunciation vis à vis spelling is very consistent (as opposed to English where “ough” has at least 6 pronunciations). The intricacy comes in the way words are put together in their 14 or 15 case structures (there are 3 in English), the plethora of double letters (which the Finns can hear when they talk but I can’t), and the very unique vocabulary I secretly think was devised as code to keep their conquerors from understanding what the Finns were saying about them.
The first book written in Finnish wasn’t published until 1870, and today the Finns take great pride in their literature, especially the epic poem The Kalevala which catalogs the mythic deeds (and very bloody warfare) of witches, wizards and strongmen.
As an offshoot of this, it is very important to the Finns to retain uniquely Finnish given names as I mentioned in the last entry. One priest refused to christen a baby unless the parents used the Finnish spelling “Niko” and not their preferred spelling – “Nico”.
National Crafts: Finnish crafts are treasured and encouraged. There is a system of continuing education courses throughout the country where masters of Finnish crafts (like those trained in the craft school on Pikisaari Island) pass on their knowledge. This system is subsidized by the government, and the courses are very inexpensive. A three day needle felting class I took recently cost only 21 euros (about $25). Last weekend we went to an exhibition of some of the work done in these classes, and as the following pictures attest, the work is incredible. The nominal fee also allows people to take advanced classes in their interest area, which of course improves the quality of their work over the years.
The continuing education program also solicits ideas for other courses (only 10 participants are needed for a course to be set up), and in the school where I took my felting class, there are also courses in 15 different foreign languages. Last week I was the guest “native speaker” in my friend Rauni’s advanced English class which has about 30 class members of all ages who pay only 45 euros for 27 weeks of instruction!
Salaries and Taxes: The Finnish government – voted the most ethical in the world – is based on a social democratic system rooted in egalitarian values.
When someone is hired in Finland, he or she is guaranteed a living wage, so there’s no need to tip waiters, taxi drivers, hair dressers, etc. There’s even a kind of pride attached to not tipping, which is seen in a way as begging, or at least having to “act” nice so you get rewarded. We have been universally well-treated in restaurants, etc. even with the ‘no tipping’ policy.
And teachers are paid well here! Now THERE’S a first!!
Salaries are more equal here too. It is assumed that everyone contributes to making the country run, and therefore has worth. You become a doctor because you are smart and really want to become a doctor – not to make a fortune! They follow my philosophy of asking if the president of the company and the janitor were gone for a week, whose absence would you notice?
When Marja-Liisa and I were downtown one day we passed an old drunk who was begging. She told me to ignore him because he drew a good pension from the government and had no need to beg. There are no homeless people in Finland either, although Roy insists it’s probably because they all freeze to death in November.
Taxes are high in Finland, there are few loopholes, and they are pro-rated according to salary. Thus a pensioner’s tax burden might be only 5% while the wealthy may pay 60% in taxes. There are few ultra wealthy Finns, and no Finn lives below poverty level.
There is a high sales tax here too – 22% -- standard in EU countries. However, the VAT tax on goods is added into the price advertised for a product. If something is marked 50 Euros, that’s what you pay. Not a penny more. No surprises at check-out time in hotels either. Your room rate always includes tax. Not only does this make it easier to plan, it also cuts way back on societal grousing about taxes on goods, because in a way, you never see it!
And speaking of grousing, Finland has devised a system to guarantee that university students take care of school property and don’t complain about food, because the students themselves own the cafeterias and the dorms! A board of students oversees the operation of both. Grousers and defacers are dealt with by their peers. Gives real meaning to the Pogo quote, “We have met the enemy and they are us!”
We haven’t heard a single person complain about their taxes because Finns see what they get for their money – health care, free education through university, good salaries and pensions, a great infrastructure, etc. To celebrate Oulu’s 400th anniversary, the city council announced that the wireless local area network would be extended citywide with 400 new base stations. In addition, all Oulu citizens will get their own free e-mail address and diskspace for individual Web pages. Oulu will also offer a helpdesk for this technology. This will make Oulu one of the most advanced information society communities in the world! These are halcyon days in Finland, and the people really take pride in the country they’re building.
Incentives: Finland has a cup-half-full philosophy to encourage people to do the “right thing,” using incentives to get the job done. We already told you about recycling here. Well, people do it because it makes their trash pick up bill lower. From everything I’ve seen it’s sort of an honor system, at least in our townhouse complex since I don’t see the trash police coming by to see how much garbage we have.
As an aside, Juha told us a great story about the start of the recycling project here. There was a big media campaign to get everyone geared up for separating light cardboard, cans, plastic, newspaper, etc. It seems this media effort reached everyone except the actual guys picking up the trash. The first week of the new plan, along came the garbage truck systematically picking up the bins and dumping them all into the same truck. Juha said Oulu citizens’ complaints could be heard all over Finland, and by the next week the garbage guys had figured out how to make the new system work!
Other incentives: You pay for the bottle or can up front! Therefore, it behooves you to bring the empties back. And if you don’t, the extra collected pays for someone to clean up after you.
At the university, Roy reports that a cup of coffee in the university’s cup costs 90¢. In your own cup it costs 60¢!
Doctors charge by the time they spend with you. If you want to sit and tell them the begats of your latest illness, it’ll cost you – an incentive to keep your talks with the doctor focused on the business at hand!
And in the most ingenious incentive of all, at the big supermarkets the shopping carts are hitched together with a chain between each one (sort of the trunk-to-tail idea). When you insert a one Euro coin, the coin stays in the slot, but it pushes the chain out so you can use the cart. When you’re done with the cart you put it back in the queue, insert the chain from the cart in front of yours, and your coin comes out. Since you also bag your own items, there are no baggers and cart retrievers employed at the grocery stores. Finland doesn’t have these workers because they simply can’t afford to pay a decent salary to people who are really unnecessary in the supermarket experience.
All for One and One for All: Because of their history, the Finns know they need to pull together and that their nation has to be united to remain strong. This mentality permeates everything. I gave one example awhile back about the compulsory military service until age 60. Here are some other examples:
Finland has a “Public Domain” policy. As long as you respect people’s property, you have the right to hunt, berry pick, and hike on their land.
None of the mailboxes in Oulu are secured. Instead they are plastic bins with individuals’ names to identify whose is whose. It’s just taken for granted that no one will steal the mail. Of course stealing the mail would be a problem anyway, since there are no checks in Finland. Salaries are electronically deposited, and bills are paid the same way. Today I saw a “Mail Bike” parked outside a café with 2 large unsecured saddlebags of mail slung over the back fender. The mailman was in having a cup of coffee, certain that no one would steal anything while he was away.
At least here in Oulu, few bikes are locked either. It’s not uncommon to see a bike or two sitting by a bus stop, left by owners who are 99% certain that the bikes will still be there when they return for them.
Parking lots have posts with electrical boxes on them to plug in engine block heaters during the cold winter months. People leave their cars plugged in, with the car hood ajar, certain no one will tamper with their vehicles.
A final example here seems to sum up all of the Finn Facts I’ve been talking about today.
There is one woman in our doll ventures who became a millionaire when she and her husband sold their business. When people mentioned her before I met her, 4 different references to her name also included the fact that she was a millionaire. This wasn’t said in a pejorative way, but as something that really set her apart. This woman gives classes in making teddy bears, but because she is a millionaire she doesn’t charge students for the classes. See? The system works if everyone is on the same page about what’s important…
There are now 19 hours of daylight, the buskers are appearing on Oulu’s walking street, ice cream vendors are setting up for the summer, and outside seating areas are sprouting at the cafes. Justin’s coming in on Friday, so our next entry will cover May Day in Helsinki, a trip to Tallin, Estonia, and Justin’s insights. Stay tuned.
I’ll leave you with some pictures we took last weekend of Haukipudas, a village just outside Oulu.
Cheers!
Sarah
