‘Excellent Finnish and English skills’
Since coming to Finland five years ago, I’ve been a frequent visitor of job vacancy and recruitment websites. One of the phrases I’ve come across the most during these sessions has been the requirement...
View ArticlePyhäjoki, we have a problem!
The energy company Fennovoima finally announced last Wednesday that it would be locating a nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki, northern Ostrobothnia and not Simo, Lapland, the other possible site....
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Easy when you know how
Another week, another eagerly awaited planning decision made. Well, that was the idea, at least. In last week’s Helsinki Times, the siting of Fennovoima’s proposed nuclear power plant was the topic of...
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Big is beautiful?
For the umpteenth week running, euro-related matters have dominated the Finnish press, making it easy to miss developments in matters closer to home, like the debate surrounding proposals for...
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Neither seen nor heard
LAST WEek, experts addressed the Ministry of Education and Culture, detailing their suggestions for the reform of lesson allocation in the first nine years of school. One of these suggestions was the...
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Confusing cause and effect
Saturday’s Helsingin Sanomat contained the results of a poll it commissioned about racism in Finland (see page 6). Then on Sunday, the paper published the reactions of President Tarja Halonen, Prime...
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It’s a pig’s life
The release of unseen video footage taken inside 15 Finnish piggeries made the news at the beginning of the week. The videos, taken by the animal rights group Oikeutta Eläimille, were broadcast by the...
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The birth of a nation
Although it’s all the nonsense that surrounds the President’s Independence Day ball that gets most of the media’s Independence Day-related attention, 6 December is a convenient occasion for newspapers...
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Fools and their money
Two stories dominated Finland’s media over the weekend and into the beginning of the week. Well, it was more like one story dominated and the other was given token treatment, but more on that in a...
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Impartiality guaranteed
Editorial space in Friday and Saturday’s papers was hogged by thoughts on the new Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) tax. The tax will replace TV licences in 2013 as the means by which Yle is funded....
View ArticleThe world according to Halonen
On Sunday, President Tarja Halonen gave her last ever New Year’s Speech, which was commonly referred to in papers at the beginning of the week as her “political testament”, “societal testament” or...
View Article100% accuracy guaranteed
No one theme dominated the editorial pages of the Finnish press over the weekend and into the first half of the week. The City of Helsinki’s bid to host a Guggenheim Museum garnered some attention in...
View ArticleLooking to the future and the past
As you’d imagine, this coming Sunday’s presidential election has dominated the Finnish press this week and last. Alongside coverage of Sauli Niinistö (NCP) and Pekka Haavisto (Greens) gallivanting all...
View ArticleIt’s all over bar the presiding
Finland has a new president. It’s true! For anybody who’s moved to Finland since 2000, Finland without Tarja Halonen as head of state will seem like a strange place once Sauli Niinistö moves his...
View ArticleAll quiet on the home front
Until about a week ago it had felt as if Finland’s media had been totally consumed by domestic-election fever for over a year. So, with the presidential election over and local elections a whole eight...
View ArticleGood but could be better
While doing a Bachelor’s degree at my local university in Aberdeen, Scotland I made friends with a number of Finns, including my wife-to-be, through my involvement in a student society with an interest...
View ArticleDo as we say, not as we do
Most organisations with a chairperson who has been accused by a staff member of bullying would probably try their upmost to keep a low profile while an investigation into the matter was ongoing. Not...
View ArticlePolitics for dummies
Minister of Defence Stefan Wallin (SFP) stands accused of having lied about the grounds for leaving Dragsvik in Raseborg off the list of garrisons earmarked for closure. Whereas both he and Prime...
View ArticleKiviniemi bites the dust
Hot on the heels of Minister of Defence Stefan Wallin’s announcement on Friday that he won’t be standing for re-election as leader of the Swedish People’s Party, Mari Kiviniemi, leader of the Centre,...
View ArticleNothing to write home about
According to guidebooks and Finns themselves, not a great deal happens here, so it’s understandable that, after a big news story like last week’s sentencing of Ilkka Kanerva (NCP) and his cohorts, the...
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