Conference turris::scandia

  One might add that of the Soviet imports, a large part is oil
  [crude] which isn't so bad at all... the problem in the
  Finnish-Soviet trade today seems to be the lack of goods to import
  from the USSR (<5 million people cannot use an indefinite amount
  of oil).
  
  Also, it would be more reasonable to compare the Soviet (or maybe
  the whole Comecon) trade with the trade with EC, a more comparable
  economic entity.
  
  

  The 1985 statistics have now been published (but I forgot to
  take the newspaper with me to work). Anyway, some interesting
  numbers: 70% of the imports from USSR is oil. USSR is still No.1
  in the foreign trade volume, Germany is #2 in imports to Finland,
  Sweden is #2 in exports from Finland. I guess the total volume
  (import+export) was about the same for both Sweden and Germany
  (and just slightly less that the USSR volume).
  

Associated Press Wed 11-MAR-1987 00:13                      Finland-Elections

          Socialist Domination Threatened in Parliamentary Elections
    
                               By RISTO MAENPAA
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Conservatives are making an election bid to
    steer Finland away from socialism, and if they succeed it could mean
    some unprecedented changes for this neutral country in the shadow of
    the Soviet Union. The conservative National Coalition Party is hoping
    to lead the field in next week's voting and to woo other non-socialist
    parties from their alliances with the dominant Social Democratic party. 
    
    Voter interest has been only moderate. To bring out young voters, a
    bawdy campaign is under way featuring posters of undressed and
    embarrassed-looking men and women asking if the public is "naked of
    ideals." 
    
    A split in the leftist ranks could hamper the chances for Prime
    Minister Kalevi Sorsa's ruling center-left coalition and give Finland
    its first non-socialist government since 1944 when the Soviet Union
    overran Finland and forced it to sign an armistice. Even if the Social
    Democrats are ousted, there is little likelihood of major change in the
    cautiously neutral foreign policy of Finland, which has a 793-mile
    border with the Soviet Union. Foreign affairs are by law the province
    of President Mauno Koivisto, who faces a separate election next year.
    Any changes are likely to be internal. 
    
    The conservatives want to lower taxes and to make Finnish industry more
    competitive on world markets and to attract greater foreign investment
    in this arctic nation. The conservative party, which has gradually
    increased its strength over the last few elections, has been locked out
    of ruling coalitions at least partly to satisfy Soviet sensitivity. 
    
    More than 1,800 candidates from 12 parties are contesting seats in the
    Eduskunta, the 200-member parliament. More than 3.9 million Finns are
    eligible to vote. "A loss at the polls would take the Social Democrats
    into the opposition," Sorsa said in an interview with the Uusi Suomi
    newspaper. He said a non-socialist victory "will have a long standing
    and broad effect going well beyond the (four-year) term of office." 
    
    Women also could emerge big winners from the two-day balloting on March
    15-16. Polls predict that nearly 45 percent of the members of the next
    legislature will be women, surpassing Norway with the highest
    percentage in the world. 
    
    Max Jacobson, a former ambassador to the United Nations, wrote that he
    saw "a turning point like the one in 1966, when the emphasis shifted
    from the center to the left. Now it has shifted back to the right." But
    whether the next government reflects the drift of public opinion
    depends on the coalition negotiations following the vote, he cautioned. 
    
    Koivisto has wide discretion in choosing a party to form a government,
    but he is most likely to pick the party which has the best chance to
    assemble a majority coalition. 
    
    The final pre-election Gallup poll of 1,528 Finns published Monday gave
    the National Coalition Party 23.9 percent, just half a percentage point
    behind the Social Democrats. The conservatives, led by Ilkka Suominen,
    have gained 1.8 percent over their showing in the 1983 election, while
    the socialists dropped 2.1 percent, according to the poll commissioned
    by the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper. The Center party, a non-socialist
    agrarian party which has supported the Social Democrats in the past,
    polled 18.3 percent, a gain of 1.7 percent from four years ago. 
    
    The issues are fuzzy since Finns are enjoying relative prosperity and
    political life has been unusually calm. Two weeks ago Sorsa's
    four-party coalition became the longest-serving Cabinet since
    independence in 1917 and the first to survive a full four-year term. 
    
    But many Finns seem to be in the mood for change, as reflected in the
    rising strength of the Greens, a loose alliance of independents
    campaigning on environmentalist and anti-nuclear platforms. The Greens
    could be the wild card of this election if they increase their seats
    from two to 10 as predicted, largely at the expense of the socialist
    parties. 
    
    The socialists were hurt last year when the long-feuding factions of
    the Communist Party finally split. Polls show that the Communists and
    the splinter Democratic Alternative lost a total of three percentage
    points after their bruising internal fight. The Gallup poll gave the
    three socialist parties 37.1 percent support, their lowest rating in
    decades. 
    
    The non-socialist Rural Party, which is allied to the Social Democrats,
    fell to 4.8 percent from 9.7 percent, the poll showed. The other major
    parties are the Swedish People's party, which showed a moderate gain to
    4.8 percent, and the Christian League which fell slightly to 2.7.
    Smaller parties polled less than one percent and probably won't gain
    Parliament seats. 

    re: .3
    
    I bet 10 FIM that the author of the article votes for conservatives
    himself...
    
    No wonder that foreigners often (?) think that we have in Finland
    a communist government and lots of icebears, if the information they
    get from here is like this.
    
    I don't bother to comment on the article further but I'll remind
    you of one thing: both the Finnish Social Democratic Party and the
    Labor Party in Israel belong to the same organization: Socialist
    International. And Israel is a communist country as we all know, 
    isn't it ? 

    The writer's name is Finnish, but.... somehow this is typical
    AP BS.
    
    I'm not very good in history but I doubt whether a potential new
    government would be the first non-socialist government in Finland
    since 1944 as stated.
    
    Also calling an SDP governed Finland 'socialistic' is twisting the
    words... I don't seem to recall the German Federal Republic being
    called a socialistic country when SPD was in power here...
    

    On behalf of the relatively 'unenlightened' North American masses,
    I congratulate the two previous contributors for their commentary
    on the AP new item.  I have often suspected that the U.S. doesn't
    necessarily get the whole story; that is one of my main reasons for
    posting the news articles in this conference.  As least the
    participants in this conference have the advantage of seeing broader
    points of view.
    
    Your replies have been a great service to our readers. Thanks!

One problem is that Americans don't distinguish between Western European
Democratic Socialism (Willy Brandt, Olof Palme, etc.) and Eastern
European "People's Republic" Socialism.  One can make a superficial case
for equilvalence (the bus companies and iron mines are run by the
state), but this would hardly be in agreement with the realities of the
situation. 

And, of course, calling a country "socialist" is like waving a red
flag in front of some of our politicians.

Martin.

    AP news is very one-sided and all articles published by them follow
    strict guidelines.  Unfortunately for the ENET, AP news is the only
    news available.
    
    I think Europeans get much broader news coverage than
    Americans, at least as far as newspapers are concerned.
    I'm not sure about TV and would like comments on that since
    I think most European TV is state-run.
    
    There are 3 major TV networks in the US.  The political slant of each
    network is the same.  One get's the same news from different channels.
    While we are a free country (and there's a lot to be said about
    that), the views of the masses are subtly molded by a powerful media.

    Aaahhh... we're coming to one of my favorite subjects... though
    this has been flamed to death in umpteen SOAPBOX topics.
    
    Government run/financed TV doesn't necessarily mean government
    controlled TV - formally, in most Western European countries, the
    'public' TV networks are independent from any direct government
    control (though practice may be a bit different, as some recent
    cases with e.g. BBC show...).
    
    Also, the fact that most European contries have private TV
    stations/networks also seems to escape the knowledge of many Americans
    (probably as a result of this same one-sidedness of information).
    Though in all honesty (this being the SCANDIA conference) I must
    say that Finland is the only Scandinavian country I know that allows
    non-government TV and radio. But elsewhere in Europe, Italy, France,
    UK and Germany immediately come to mind as the larger European
    countries with private radio and TV.

    Nevertheless, running a radio or TV station is not free; so you
    have to get the money somewhere, either form the advertizers or
    the government (via taxes or mandatory licence fees) so one tends
    to be somewhat reluctant to exercice extrem criticism towards
    ones financers. I think this is the case on TV anywhere; I would
    like to see one of the major Amierican networks getting really nasty
    with any of their major advertizers!

    BTW, there *are* other news available on EASYnet - there's a Siscom
    server running on REDFSH, but it is very shaky and has less uptime
    than downtime.. nevertheless, whet it is up, you get also AFP, DPA
    UPI, Kyodo, Xinhua, TASS (!) etc. etc.
    
   To access, use object 249 on node REDFSH (see the little command
    file attached...).
    
    
$p1:=redfsh
$WELL:
$ if p2 .nes. "" then goto allwell
$ p2=249
$ allwell:
$DEF VTX$SERVER ""'p1'::"""''p2'=""
$!
$mcr VTXPAD
$EXVTX:
$EXIT
    

    re .?: incidentally, there was an article in the 'S�ddeustche Zeitung'
    last weekend, which covered the election and political situation
    in Finland. One might think they were not talking about the same
    country at all when comparing to the AP article!
    
    I did a quick check (though I do not have any really good reference
    books) but the article is definitely in error with some of the facts:
    
    - the communist party (SKDL) didn't participate in any governments
      from 1948 until very late (my source doesn't give the date; I
      guess it was late 60's or early 70's).
    
    - There have been several governments over the time with no left
      parties (notably, the current center party, previous agrarian
      party, formed some minority governments). The social democrats
      were excluded from all governments for quite some time also.
    
    

Associated Press Mon 16-MAR-1987 20:26                       Finnish Election

                     Finland Shifts to Right in Elections
    
                                By ARTHUR MAX
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Finns shifted to the right in parliamentary
    elections Monday, but Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa's Social Democrats
    kept a narrow edge over the conservative National Coalition Party. With
    nearly 99 percent of the vote counted, the farmer-based Center party
    and its traditional allies emerged holding the balance of power between
    the two major parties. 
    
    The final and official results from the balloting Sunday and Monday
    were to be published later this week after a mandatory recount.
    Computer projections by state television, working with election
    officials, predicted Sorsa's party would have a net loss of one seat in
    the 200-member parliament, the Eduskunta, leaving it with 56. National
    Coalition candidates were expected to win 53 seats, a gain of nine from
    the 44 it carried in the 1983 vote. 
    
    Conservative leader Ilkka Suominen said his party deserves a top
    Cabinet post. The conservatives have been kept out of government
    leadership for 40 years in deference to the neighboring Soviet Union.
    "The shifts in the parliament should be reflected in who holds the key
    posts in the Cabinet," said Suominen, who has led the conservative
    party since before the 1983 election. 
    
    A four-party alliance of the Center, the Swedish Peoples Party,
    Liberals and the Christian League was projected to win 58 seats, which
    could allow it to dictate the next Cabinet's makeup. The breakdown
    among the centrist partnership was not immediately clear. 
    
    Center Party leader Paavo Vayrynen, foreign minister in Sorsa's
    outgoing government, declined to say which party he would support to
    lead the new government. He was asked which he preferred and replied,
    "both." But he also said the Conservatives' gains and modest loss by
    the Social Democrats "supports the idea of having a broad coalition"
    that would include all three blocs. 
    
    Formation of a government is expected to take weeks, with serious
    bargaining starting only after the new parliament convenes April 1. 
    
    Erkki Liikanen, the Social Democrats' secretary, said his party "has
    lost the election. But we can live through this loss pretty well." 
    
    Partial results indicated the Rural Party would drop to eight seats
    from the 17 won in 1983. The Communist Party was projected to win 16
    seats and the pro-Moscow faction Democratic Alternative, which left the
    party last year, was winning four. In 1983, the united party won 27
    seats. 
    
    A low turnout of young voters appeared to hurt the environmentalist
    Greens, who were projected to win four seats, double the 1983 total.
    Sorsa told state television his party was hurt by a low voter turnout,
    which the television estimated at 75 percent, about five points below
    average. 
    
    The Soviet Union, which occupied Finland during World War II, has said
    during previous election campaigns that including the conservatives in
    the government could damage relations, but this year its news media did
    not comment. 
    
    President Mauno Koivisto has broad discretion in choosing someone to
    form a government and become prime minister. He does not have to pick
    the leader of the party with the most seats. The campaign was fought on
    domestic issues, since foreign policy is in the president's hands, and
    was viewed widely as a barometer of next January's presidential
    election. 

    Ha, you beat me by 10 minutes - I was just going to insert that
    article...
    
    Anyway, a couple of comments are in place, I think.
    
    I'm really pissed off by the AP commentary - usually I don't know
    enough facts to point out any untruths in their articles, but this
    time I might as well...
    
>The conservatives have been kept out of government
>leadership for 40 years in deference to the neighboring Soviet
>Union.

    This is very cleverly said... the conservatives have certainly been
    in the government in the last 40 years; whether they have had the
    prime minister, I cannot tell off the top of my head (maybe one
    of our resident Finnish readers could check?).
    
    I am not claiming that the relations to the Soviet Union have no
    influence in Finnish politics (as little as I claim the US don't
    influence e.g. Nicaraguan politics, but that's of course a completely
    different matter) but it was in fact for a long period of time that
    the social democrats were not on good terms with the USSR and didn't
    participate in governments (at that time, even the conservatives
    were liked better by the USSR, they were very suspicious of any
    leftism movements that were not under their control).
    
>The Soviet Union, which occupied Finland during World War II,
>has said during previous election campaigns that including the

    Not true, Finland was not occupied by the Soviet Union after WW II
    (nor at any other time in history). We lost the war, though...

    
    

    P.S. I just read an article in Financial Times about the election...
    a few excerpts (I don't have time to type it all in):
    
        'Kokoomus party gains as Finns shift to right'
    
    ....'Kokoomus [the conservatives] is now almost certain to get into
    a coalition government after 22 [note: not 40] years in opposition...
     ...    
    Finland's communists, who split in two separate parties last year,
    suffered sever setbacks as expected. The more pragmatic majority
    appear to have held to their 17 seats, while the pro-Moscow minority
    lost 6 seats, dropping to only four.
    .....    
    The socialist parties lost 7 seats and came down to 77, while
    non-socialists now have 123 seats.

    [Maybe someone should write to straighten out this fellow.]
    
    Associated Press Wed 18-MAR-1987 00:22                   Finnish Politics

          Conservative Gains Indicate Finland Leaving Soviet Shadow
    
                                By ARTHUR MAX
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - The campaign issues were tax reform and child
    care centers. But the results of this week's parliamentary elections
    may be an added sign that Finland is emerging from the shadow of its
    neighbor to the east, the Soviet Union, and turning westward. 
    
    The backdrop to the elections was a mounting crisis in Finnish-Soviet
    trade that may rebound onto Finland's relations with its Nordic
    neighbors and with the rest of Europe, according to a Western diplomat. 
    
    The conservative National Coalition Party pulled within three seats of
    the long-entrenched Social Democratic Party of Prime Minister Kalevi
    Sorsa. It won 53 of the 200 seats in Parliament, nine more than in the
    last vote in 1983. 
    
    Though still No. 2, conservative leader Ilkka Suominen jubilantly
    claimed victory. "The others will have quite a job if they try to cast
    us aside now," he said. Suominen, a bespectacled 47-year-old engineer,
    said the vote was a mandate for change - "The people want to get fresh
    winds in politics and in government." 
    
    The National Coalition, which governed in 1944 when the Soviets invaded
    Finland, has been kept in political isolation by a virtual decree in
    the 1950s of the late President Urho Kekkonen, acting in deference to
    the Soviets. 
    
    In Finland, the president is responsible for foreign policy and can
    influence the makeup of government. He is elected separately for a
    six-year term. 
    
    During World War II, Finland was forced to cede the Karelia isthmus to
    the Soviet Union and relocate 400,000 Finns, and Finland and the Soviet
    Union signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation in 1948. Soviet
    intimidation in those years largely explains Finland's policies today. 
    
    One Western diplomat, speaking on condition he was not further
    identified, said the election may indicate that "the Finns are not as
    worried as they used to be by the Soviets." 
    
    The conservatives have tried, without complete success, to shed their
    anti-Soviet image by pledging allegiance to Kekkonen's policy of
    neutrality. That policy is still the unquestioned cornerstone of
    Finnish foreign affairs. 
    
    But the conservatives' economic policy may be a truer reflection of
    their attitude. Suominen called for restructuring the Finnish economy,
    encouraging more Western investment and building a more competative
    industry. He also suggested lowering the tax rate on extra income which
    helps finance Finland's cradle-to-grave welfare society. Under Finnish
    tax laws, income from overtime, second jobs and the like is taxed at a
    higher rate. Critics complain that this discourages incentive. 
    
    The conservatives' unstated goal is to break Finland's dependence on
    its barter agreement with Moscow. The pact calls for a balanced
    exchange of goods with no cash passing hands. Finland's main import has
    been energy. But the plunge in world oil prices means the Soviets
    cannot pay for all their Finnish imports with oil equivalents and have
    run up bills. Finland experienced a decline in exports which helped
    push unemployment up to 6.4 percent. 
    
    The last five-year trade agreement went into effect Jan. 1, 1986, and
    was signed when the oil was $28 a barrel, according to a report by the
    Bank of Finland. The world price range today is $17 to $19 a barrel. 
    
    Sorsa has said the trade gap betrween Finland and the Soviet Union can
    be overcome through such ideas as joint ventures. But even the
    centrists in Sorsa's outgoing coalition have accused him of seeking
    artifical solutions. The centrists agree with the conservatives that
    Finland will have to tighten its coordination of policies with its
    Scandinavian neighbors and to focus on selling to Western Europe. 
    
    Kekkonen, author of the deferential policy toward Moscow, retired in
    1981. Since then, Finnish news media have reported more freely on
    Soviet affairs than in Kekkonen's day. The late president was reputed
    to have called editors onto the carpet for anti-Soviet articles. 
    
    Finland also was the first country to evacuate its citizens from Kiev
    in the Soviet Ukraine after the April 1986 nuclear accident at
    Chernobyl - before the Soviets admitted the extent of the disaster.
    Soviet news media complained about Finland's haste. 
    
    The Soviets seem to be less wary about Finland. For the first time the
    Soviet media issued no appeal to Finns to support "progressive parties"
    instead of the conservatives. Voters apparently ignored the Soviet
    appeals in any event, since the National Coalition gained votes in
    nearly every election since 1955. 
    
    --- EDITOR'S NOTE - Arthur Max is The Associated Press news editor for
    Scandinavia. 

    re .-1: We have. A letter is on its way to the AP Helsinki office.
    
    The attitude in these articles is strange to say the least; but
    I wish the guy had at least his facts right!

    >The National Coalition, which governed in 1944 when the Soviets invaded
    >Finland, has been kept in political isolation by a virtual decree in
    
    Tho Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939, not 1944. (I wouldn't
    say they 'invaded' Finland, they were busy enough with the Germans
    later). There was a short peace inbetween; later [1941?], Finland decided
    it might have a chance to recover the lost teriitories (and succeeded
    at first); peace was made again in 1944.
    
    
    >He also suggested lowering the tax rate on extra income which
    >helps finance Finland's cradle-to-grave welfare society. Under Finnish
    >tax laws, income from overtime, second jobs and the like is taxed at a
    >higher rate. Critics complain that this discourages incentive. 
    
    Yes, the taxes *are* quite high in Finland (as in other Scandinavian
    countries); however, there's no special treatment of extra income,
    it is a standard progressive tax scheme used in almost every
    Western country (including US I believe) so that any additional
    income (no matter whether from a second job, or e.g. a salary raise)
    will get taxed at a fairly high percentage.
    
    The current foreign policy is usually called something like
    'Paasikivi-Kekkosen linja' (the Paasikivi-Kekkonen line) and was
    originally initiated by Paasikivi, Kekkonen's pedecessor as 
    President (if memory serves me right, Paasikivi was the Presindent
    in 1950-1956). Incidentally, Paasikivi was from the conservative
    party!
    

    P.S. 'Soviet intimidation...' after the war... Finland lost the
    war and had to pay reparation payments to the *allied* - there was
    an *allied* control commission in Helsinki after the war to control
    all this and to make sure Finland obeys the terms of the peace treaty.
    

    Still a few words about the results:
    Social Democrats lost about 100 000 votes but only one seat in the
    parliament.
    Conservatives won 6000 votes and increased their seats by 9.
    Christian League lost xx votes (don't remember how many) and won
    2 places.
    And so on...
    So the number of the seats don't tell you the whole truth.

	The price of oil depends on world price and the value of dollar,
	it's not stabile. Just now it's something like $ 19 or $ 20.

		Asko

    Propaganda Warning: The following may contain statements of doubtful
    objectivity. Suspect segments have been flagged with a ">" by the
    contributor. 
    
 Associated Press Thu  2-APR-1987 19:17                     Finland-Parliament

              Conservative Speaker of New Finnish Parliament
    
    HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Ilkka Suominen was elected speaker of
    Finland's parliament Thursday, reflecting the victory of his
    conservative National Coalition Party in national balloting two weeks
    ago. The speaker's job will give Suominen a formal role in negotiations
    beginning Monday for a new coalition government and an advantage in
    trying to bargain his own party into the Cabinet for the first time in
    21 years. 
    
>   The National Coalition Party was left out of Helsinki's consensus
>   governments for many years in deference to the Soviet Union, which
    shares a 793-mile border with Finland. 
    
    Suominen, 47, won 171 votes from the 200-member Eduskunta, or
    parliament, with only the communists opposing him. 
    
    About 20 black-garbed women briefly disrupted the procedings when they
    staged a rare demonstration protesting attempts to use women in the
    military service. They were ushered out peacefully after they threw
    protest notes down from the public balcony. 
    
    Though the conservatives came in second in the voting March 15-16,
    Finnish tradition calls for the party which made the largest gain to
    get the speaker's post. Suominen's party boosted its representation
    from 42 seats to 53, challenging the long-time domination of Prime
    Minister Kalevi Sorsa's Social Democratic Party which won 56 seats. 
    
    The Social Democrats fell by more than 100,000 votes from the previous
    election in 1983, but they lost only one seat under Finland's complex
    mix of direct elections and proportional representation. The
    conservatives' nine-seat gain resulted from an increase of just 6,000
    votes. 

    BTW (re .??), the letter sent to AP Helsinki by Hannu ECC::LEINONEN
    resulted in them promptly calling him back (by the author of the first
    article in the series).
    
    At least they react to criticism...
    

Associated Press Mon  6-APR-1987 19:49                     Finland-Government

                Social Democrats Offer to Give Up Premeirship
    
    HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - The long-dominant Social Democratic party
    offered Monday to relinquish the prime minister's post in the next
    coalition government because the party suffered setbacks in elections
    three weeks ago. The offer came as President Mauno Koivisto summoned to
    his palace the representatives of the nine parties in the 200-member
    Eduskunta, or parliament, to formally begin building the next coalition
    government. 
    
    "The role of pacesetter in the government negotiations belongs now to
    the election winners, and the prime minister should be a competent
    person from the non-socialist side," Pertti Paasio, the Social
    Democratic parliamentary chairman, told reporters after meeting the
    president. 
    
    The announcement appeared to clear the field for conservative leader
    Ilkka Suominen of the National Coalition Party or Paavo Vayrynen of the
    Ceter Party, who is foreign minister in the outgoing government. 
    
    Although the conservatives came in second in the voting March 15-16,
    the party got the largest increase in seats. Finnish tradition calls
    for the party with the biggest gains to get the speaker's post. The
    National Coalition Party has been in opposition for 21 years and has
    not held a major Cabinet post in more than 40 years, largely because
    the neighboring Soviet Union considers it hostile.  [AP's opinion]
    
    Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa's four-party coalition, which governed for
    four years, resigned on Friday, but will continue as caretaker until a
    new government is formed. The coalition bargaining could take several
    weeks. 
    
    In the elections last month the Social Democrats, who have held the
    premiership since 1976, lost one of their 57 seats. They will remain
    the largest party in Parliament. The conservatives gained 9 seats for a
    total of 53, and the centrists added two seats to the 38 they held. 
    
    The conservatives and centrists have advocated a coalition with the
    socialists. But Paasio said his party also was not interested in
    joining a coalition of "the big three," because it would strip
    Parliament of an effective opposition. 
    
    Sorsa's outgoing coalition included the Social Democrats, the Center
    Party, the Rural Party and the Swedish People's Party. 

    
    It is very likely that Finland is going to get a new Government
    next week. President Koivisto appointed Harri Holkeri (conservative
    director of Bank of Finland) to be former of the next government.
    
    The government is going to have 7 conservative, 8 social democratic
    and 3 other ministers. Harri Holkeri is going to be the prime minister
    and Kalevi Sorsa the foreign minister ( Kalevi Sorsa
    is currentrly the prime minister)

    Yup. This is the first time I recall Finland made it to the
    front page of 'S�ddeutsche Zeitung" (one of the leading german
    newspapers) as well as to the editorial... but maybe it was just
    lack of interesting news for a Monday issue...    :-)
    

Associated Press Tue 28-APR-1987 19:01                       Finland-Politics

                       Conservative Forming Government
    
                               By RISTO MAENPAA
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Harri Holkeri, one of the national bank's five
    governors, said Tuesday he is forming the first conservative-led
    Cabinet since World War II and expects it to be approved. Holkeri, 50,
    said he will lead a four-party coalition controlling 131 seats in the
    200-member Parliament, two short of the two-thirds majority needed to
    pass major legislation. 
    
    Each coalition party must endorse the proposed Cabinet in a separate
    vote, but Holkeri told a news conference he expects to win approval and
    obtain President Mauno Koivisto's formal appointment as prime minister
    Thursday. "Tomorrow I will take the program and makeup of the
    government to the president," he said. Holkeri will replace Kalevi
    Sorsa, a Social Democrat who has been prime minister since 1976. 
    
    The Soviet Union, Finland's huge neighbor to the east and its enemy in
    World War II, has exerted strong influence on domestic politics.
    Kremlin leaders have said in the past they would disapprove of a
    conservative governnment, but remained silent before last month's
    elections. 
    
    In an apparent reference to the lack of Soviet comment, Holkeri spoke
    of "a new opening" for Finland and said "negotiations leading to this
    solution reflects the optimism we have for our country." Any policy
    differences under a conservative-led government probably will be
    minimal because foreign affairs are in the president's hands and the
    government acts by consensus. 
    
    Holkeri said his National Coalition Party, which controls 53 seats, was
    joining with the Social Democrats with 56 seats, Swedish People's Party
    with 13 and Rural Party with nine. His coalition excludes the Center
    Party, which holds 40 seats and has been in nearly every government
    since independence in 1917. 
    
    Social Democrats have dominated most governments of the last 50 years.
    Holkeri said the Social Democrats will have eight seats in his Cabinet
    compared with seven for his own party. 
    
    In 1983, Holkeri stepped down as party chairman and sought membership
    on the Bank of Finland board, which has produced all the nation's
    postwar presidents. He already has announced plans to challenge
    Koivisto in next January's presidential election. 

	re: -1
    
>    The Soviet Union, Finland's huge neighbor to the east and its enemy in
>    World War II, has exerted strong influence on domestic politics.
>    Kremlin leaders have said in the past they would disapprove of a
>    conservative governnment, but remained silent before last month's
>    elections. 


    	This AP guy seems to continue feeding same bull for ever.
    	His statements are totally untrue and i think most people
    	who know anything about Finland understand it.
    
    	His statement that Soviet Union controls Finish domestic
    	policy is ridiculous. It's obvious that the 
    	geoplitical facts have influence on our Foreign policy
    	(after all there is 250 + millions of them and only
    	5 - million of us), we'll have to live in peace with them
    	but it certainly doesn't mean that the Russians
    	run our domestic policy.

    Re: .15, .20 and -.1:
    
    I guess the letter and the callback didn't have any effect, huh?
    Maybe I should go back to posting a 'propaganda' (or should it be
    a bull excrement) warning with each AP newswire about Finno-Soviet
    relations?

    
    re: -1
    
    Please continue to post all AP stuff related to Scandinavian countries
    here. Propaganda warnings are not necessary.
    (at least for me this file is the only source to see what
    AP is speaking of us, I don't follow AP news elsewhere). I perhaps
    sometimes say unkind things of AP here but that doesn't mean that
    I am against posting AP news here.

    I guess the letter had *some* effect - at least he corrected some
    of the real facts. How much Soviet influence is visible in domestic
    policy is of course a very subjective thing - though I don't think
    a news agency should be subjective.
    
    In fact, there *has* been a Soviet reaction. They guy who writes
    in Pravda as 'Yuri Komissarov' (I forget his real name, a very
    prominent Soviet politician) was asked about this: his comment was
    something along the lines 'Waht's good for Finland, is good for
    us'.
    

 ANI23***             Copyright 1986 The Associated Press        SISCOM IP
    
                         Finland Seeking Western Ties
      
    HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Finland's new conservative government, looking
    increasingly away from the Soviet Union, hopes President Francois
    Mitterrand's visit will deepen ties with France, which has become a key
    to Western Europe. 
    
    Franco-Finnish commerce has boomed in the last year and is likely to
    top the agenda of Mitterrand's two-day visit starting Wednesday.
    Mitterrand shares a common political lament with his host, President
    Mauno Koivisto: both socialists, they worked with socialist prime
    ministers who subsequently lost their jobs to co.servatives. Premier
    Jaques Chirac will not be with Mitterrand, but the 19-member French
    delegation will include Foreign Minister Jean-Bernard Raimond. 
    
    The Finnish conservative party of Prime Minister Harri Holkeri made
    gains in a March election on a platform of restructuring the economy
    and encouraging Western investment. 
    
    The Finnish economy traditionally has relied on a barter agreement with
    the Soviet Union under which Finland exchanges goods for Soviet oil.
    But the plunging price of energy has reduced Soviet buying power, and
    Finland has had to turn to more competitive Western markets to sell the
    products of its rich forests. 
    
    France has become Finland's sixth-largest trading partner, and
    industrialists are hoping for an injection of French technology in
    future deals. A Foreign Ministry report said exports to France, mostly
    paper and pulp, rose last year by 12 percent to $829 million. 

                         Received:  28-JUN-1987 11:15

Risks digest (subscribe via DECSRC::RISKS_REQUEST) discusses risks
to the public in computer systems.  A few weeks ago, a Finnish writer
discussed a computer game called Balance of Power, suggesting that
its approach to global politics (especially conquest of Russia)
was somewhat naive.  He continued the discussion in today's edition:


RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest  Sunday, 12 July 1987  Volume 5 : Issue 11
 
           FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTER SYSTEMS 
   ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator
 
....
 
Date:         Sun, 12 Jul 87 21:53:53 FIN
From: Heikki Pesonen <LK-HPE%[email protected]>
Subject:      More on Risks in "Balance of Power"
To: Risks Digest <[email protected]>
 
Many thanks to all who commented on my contribution in RISKS DIGEST 5.8,
"RISKS in Balance of Power".  In this contribution I hope I can make it
clear, why I dislike the game, although my adult children found it funny
when they played it.  Also in the journal Byte, May 1987, Chris Crawford's
book about his game is reviewed and appreciated.  In a Finnish home computer
magazine "Balance of Power" received "****" (the maximum is 5 stars).
 
In the Instruction Manual the goal of playing is defined as "increase your geo-
political prestige and weaken the geopolitical prestige of the Soviet Union."
 
As a beginner you proceed to the goal by 
BLOWING INSURGENCY AND TERRORISM TO FLAMES.
 
When you master the beginner's level you can try the more difficult
"intermediate level".  On that a new channel of geopolitical interaction is
introduced:  THE SUBVERSION AND DESTABILIZATION OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENT.
 
You destabilize a government by sending in the CIA to encourage dissidents,
fund the opposition, incite riots and create other domestic political mayhem|
 
After you master these affairs (besides now and then sending money and
troops either to rebels or to governments) you become an expert.  The Expert
Level game introduces a new vehicle for governmental change, FINLANDIZATION.
 
Chris Crawford describes the term Finlandization by giving a short description
of the history and political situation of Finland.  The story is quite foolish
being on the level of the tourists jokes about the polar bears they have
met on the streets of Finnish cities.  For example, according to Crawford:
 
  "Finland is effectively under strong Soviet influence." and
  "Finland's relations with the USA are poor."
 
If things are so bad, how is it possible that our recent Prime Minister
and many other ministers are from the Right Party (Kokoomus).  How is it
possible for me to send this letter through a Finnish computer net with
many IBM and Digital computers, not allowed to export to countries connected
with Soviet Union?  How reliable are other so called facts in Crawford's game?
 
In "Balance of Power" you can Finlandize a country exerting diplomatic
pressure.  Pressure is an attempt TO INTIMIDATE A COUNTRY WITH WORDS AND
PROVOCATIVE ACTIONS, for example, holding naval maneuvers off the coast of
the victim.  (US Navy probably tried to Finlandize Libya when holding
maneuvers on the Gulf of Syrt.)
 
The errors and oversimplifications of Balance of Power are not its dangerous
features.  What irritates me is the worldview and the type of behavior the
game reinforces.  Thanks to the game certainly a lot of new Oliver Norths
are growing up in America. I am very glad to know, that Russians have only a
few Amigas and Macs, so that their youngsters are not playing this
geopolitical game.
 
The term "Geopolitics" is from German origin. "Geopolitik" was the strategic
methodology of Nazis. Hitler was a Master level player of a game very
similar to "Balance of Power".
 
 
I have written this letter in my Summer cottage not far from Russian
border using my old Commodore-64 sending it through telephone lines.
 

    Group soc.culture.nordi
    article 265          
    
    From: [email protected] (Aaltonen Tiina)                
    Subject: Re: Where to go by train in Finland?      
    Organization: Tampere Univ. of Technology, Finland.
    
    Tampere is the second largest city in Finland. It is     
    sited about 150 km north of Helsinki between two lakes.  
    Tampere is a very beautiful city with many good museums, 
    like Sara Hilden museum, Moomin Troll Valley, Verkaranta 
    with Finnish hand made textiles, and Haihara Doll Museum.

    Group soc.culture.nordic
    article 268          
    
    From: [email protected] (Kent Boklan)                
    Subject: Re: Where to go by train in Finland?              
    Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor 
    
    Frankly, if one is to visit Finland, may I reccommend a good
    dictionary.
    
    On Midsummer in 1986, I was in Turku and wanted to visit my friend
    Niina. Well, I was told that the bus (linjeauto) was not running and so
    I had to call a taksi (taxi). In any case, I called up and the
    conversation went something like this;           
    
    "Do you speak English?"
    "Ei"(No)
    "Kan du svenska?"(Can you speak Swedish...I can, for the most part)
    "Ei, mitaan"[I hope this is the correct spelling](No, nothing)
    ...(many voices in background)                                
    (someone new comes on)"Can I help you?" 
    "Yes, please send a taxi to Rusthollinkatu_____,I am going to
    the market place"                                            
    "Fine."
    
    OK, I was all set. But before the taxi came, I was not going to take 
    any chances...so I looked up the word for 'marketplace' in the       
    dictionary (the friends that I was staying with were out). Niina     
    was to meet me at the center of said Marketplace at noon (it is      
    pretty much in the center of town).                                  
    Well, the taksi comes,...I get in (50 year old guy at the wheel);    
    
    "Can you speak English?"
    "Ei."
    "Kan du svenska?"
    "Ei. mitaan."
    "Oh, great."(He's waiting for me to tell him where to go)
        ..                                        
    "Mina...kauppa" (I say in my best Finnish accent--trying to say
    "Me...market-place"--for the dictionary gave me the word 'kauppa' [I
    hope I spelled that correctly]) -He looks at me like I am crazy.
    I repeat the expression...gesturing in the most Finnish expressions    
    I know (and am able to do in public). I try variants on the word kauppa
    since I am now convinced that i am pronouncing it incorrectly.         
    "Kauuuuuuuppaaaaa, kauuuupaaa, kaaupa,..."                             
    He looks at me. "What a dumb American", he is assuredly thinking.      
    Well, the taksi starts to move...he doesn't know where to go...        
    I am directing...(I do know the town rather well)...and finally he     
    mutters his first words of English, "Kauppa closed". That, I know      
    (that is, that the market is closed) and retort,                       
        ..
    "Mina tieda, Niina kauppa" (I know, Niina market)                
    Finally, we arrive...15 minutes late and my owing many markaa.   
    I tell this story to Niina and she, of course, laughs.           
    I had not looked carefully enough in the dictionary. Kauppa means
    store...I had been telling the poor guy to take me to the store. 
    Kauppatori (spelling?) means market.                             
    Great language, Finnish.                                         
    
    The moral of my sad tale is this; If you go to Finland, make sure
    you have a good dictionary.                                      
                                             ..      ..              
                                        Med Vanliga Halsingar,       
                                        Kent D. Boklan               

     Group soc.culture.nordic                                           
     article 346                                                        
                                                                        
     From: [email protected] (Leonard Norrgard)                          
     Subject: Re: Finland                                               
     Organization: Computer Centre, Abo Akademi University              
                                                                        
     >Is is true that Finland sends russian defectors back to the Soviet
     >Union?                                                            
    
    Yes, Finland has a (in my opinion) bad habit of sending escaping
    Soviets back It has been a while though, I haven't heard of any recent
    cases. Apparently this is well known in the SU, as "many" tries to
    cross the finnish Lapland to get to Sweden instead. This occasionally
    leads to front-page stories, with heavy criticism of the returns while
    others think that it is best to not make our eastern neighbour angry.
    If you compare Finland to other SU neighbours, we appearantly have
    something to be careful with.  I suppose someone with more recent
    info could tell us more on this subject. Has the practice been modified
    in any way the last few years?  
    
    >How much political and economic influence does Russia have in Finland?
    
    About none, I'd say. The SU have problems paying for our products, both     
    in convertible currencies and in reasonably good quality products. Ever
    seen a russian car? :-) Better look quick, while it still works!  
    
    Leonard Norrgard, [email protected], [email protected], +358-21-654474,
    EET.

    Group soc.culture.nordic                            
    article 368 [excerpted]                             
                                                        
    From: [email protected] (Gary Benson)                
    Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
    
    ...I am married to a native Finn, and since meeting her, have become
    more than casually interested in Finnish language and culture.              
                                                                           
    ...                                                           
    
    I have been intrigued by the questions and responses about the reason
    that Finland has been "separate" from Denmark-Norway-Sweden, and would
    add this: in my reading of Finnish history, it appears that Finland has
    been fought over by Russia and Sweden for centuries. One castle
    (Olavinlinna, in the town of Savonlinna) was originally started by
    Sweden sometime in the 1300's, and has changed hands among Sweden,
    Finland, and Russia something like 17 times. The town was established
    in 1639 (or at least around then...this year, 1989 has been chosen for
    the 350th year celebration).                      
    
    This continual battering between east and west has tended to make Finns
    not  only fiercely independent and patriotic, but also today to make
    them wary of taking too much of a side between the superpowers. While
    they value their "western"-style freedoms and lifestyle, they also
    travel a lot in the Soviet Union, keep ties with friends and relatives
    there, and carry on an active trade there, providing building materials
    and expertise, icebreakers and research submarines in trade for lumber,
    hydroelectic power and oil.                    
    
    An intersting side-note to all this: my wife is from a tiny town called
    Simpele which is quite close to the Russian border. The area that many
    here have talked about, Karjala (or as we in the US spell it Carelia or
    Karelia), was almost in  its entirety taken by the Soviets at the end
    of the war. Not one Finn stayed. To the last person, they all moved
    from their homes to the west side of the new border to remain part of
    Finland rather than undergo the oppression of being part of Russia.
    When I first heard that, I was a bit surprised. "Every single  
    person?" I asked. The reply was without hesitation, "Of course". 
                                                                    
    One last observation, this one about the Finnish character. There is a
    word in  Finnish, "sisu"... supposedly it is an untranslatable word
    that describes a character trait that is much admired. From what I can
    tell, the word is like our "grit"... which I take to mean stubborn
    determination, but not necessarily  stubborn-mindedness; to get the job
    done regardless of the price or how hard it is, all the while keeping a
    positive outlook. And though all that, the ability to take setbacks in
    stride, and wait patiently for the opportunity to try  again. I think
    sisu may be the Finnish equivalent of zen.                 
    
    An average Finn is probably way too modest to admit to this kind of
    definition  (because I believe ALL Finns strive to develop their own
    personal sisu), and so that is why it is "untranslatable". But I think
    this reading is at least partly accurate, and may help others to better
    understand the "separateness" of Finns.
    
    Iloiste Suomesta!
    
    ps: to the person travelling soon in Finland. Go to Punkaharju! Lots to
    see there! At the old railway station is a woodcarver who makes giant
    carved woode murals depicting scenes from Kalevala. the Finnish
    national epic; nearby is a  place called Retretti, an art center now
    displaying work by the master Russian portrait artist Ilya Repin, as
    well as an underground group of very large cave lit exclusively by
    pieces of art made of light. Very beautiful. The caves also feature a
    laser light show to the accompaniment of "Finlandia" by Sibelius. It is
    only 8 minutes, but quite memorable and lovely.                            

Group soc.culture.nordic
article 380

From: [email protected] (Jussi-Ville Heiskanen)
Subject: Re: Finland
Organization: City Lines Oy, Helsinki, Finland

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Edgar Leon) w
ites:

>
>Is is true that Finland sends russian defectors back to the Soviet
>Union?                                                                       

    Well It used to be that there was some controversy over this point. In
    Finnish law it is stated that Finland will extradite criminals, and
    return them to the country in which they committed their crimes. The
    Finnish "foreigner-office" (yes, we actually use such a racist term of
    it) which works under the Finnish ministry of the interior politics
    used to recommend to their underlings in the police department that
    they do the utmost to hassle and hustle *all* foreigners who come to
    Finland. (Note that you are as unwelcome as an immigrant if you are an
    american, british, or chilean or even Russian, In their racism they do
    not differentiate, our so loved officials!)

    The policy was that if it was possible to make even a minimally
    plausible case for legal extradition, it would be carried out, no
    matter what the result would be for the poor immigrant/defectee.
    *IT*IS* also true that there where cases where the police were the
    first to catch the poor defectees, and, without making too much noise
    about it ;-) :-( returned the folks over the border.

    However, *WE* *DO* have a free press here, and they did raise a stink,
    as soon as they found out about these cases, and it caused such a furor
    even in the finnish "das boot ist full" racists, that the situation has
    improved markedly...

    As A final answer to your question, No, Finland does not return russian
    Refugees -- Any more. On the other hand, Finland has such a bad record
    regarding this, that we hardly get any refugees anymore, even though
    they would probably (?) be quite safe here. Peachy for the officials,
    eh?

>
>How much political and economic influence does Russia have in Finland?
>

    I'm sorry, man, but this question would best be turned the other way
    around.

    There was a time when having good relations with the Kremlin was a
    political asset, but being affected by russian views on how our country
    should be run has always been more of kamikaze tactic for Finnish
    politicians.

    The only "economic influence" they have is that the finnish politicians
    have quite skillfully "greymailed" them into selling us cheap oil, and
    buying second grade goods at top dollar prices from us.

    It could also be argued that the current perestroika might be taking
    some lessons from the finnish "social democracy"...                      


Group soc.culture.nordic
article 386

From: [email protected] (Defee Ireneuz)
Subject: (Official)Finland  and Foreigners
Organization: Tampere University of Technology, Finland

    Wait a moment. I, ( poor foreigner) heard that "foreigner-office"
    (ulkomaalais toimisto) has been renamed into "foreigner-center"
    (ulkomaalais keskus). This is not only purely semantic change but
    reflects some new trends in this matter.

    There is ongoing preparation of reform of law for foreigners which is
    going to make it more in line with other European countries since this
    is required by European Council which Finland joined recently. For
    example, foreigners will get rights for political activity. There will
    be changes in work permit beaurocracy. Parliament is  going to discuss
    this in autumn. The number of offical refugees, mostly boat people,
    will  be in next few years increased to 1000 per year which is in the
    same order as in other Nordic countries.

    Finland spends now 0.7% (0.8%?) of its GNP on programs for developing
    nations and is one of few countries which meet the level estblished by
    UN. 

    But I still don't expect at present opening Finnish borders for mass
    immigration as it happened elsewhere. I don't blame this for official
    racism but rather on the fact that Finland had bad history in dealing
    with foreigners, developed later than others, and some parochial
    attitude toward foreigners will go only after present old generations
    will step down and present young take control.

    I think that the "defectors" policy of Finland was dictated by some
    kind of "Friendship" agreements with Soviet Union which could be hided
    as "illegal border crossing people" exchange. Under circumstances the
    agreements were signed I don't consider them very offensive. Ever heard
    about Soviet military base in Finland till 1955 ?

    I heard also years before about a case when a guy got prosecuted in
    Finland after mass-smuggling bibles to the Soviets. The sentence was
    for "export without a licence". Everything which is exported to SU
    needs a licence, you know. This prevents smuggling of hi-tech but not
    only... At present this is also closed chapter - after Soviets made
    some $ from cover story of a Russian actress in Playboy - they ask for
    sending all kind of printed stuff. Maybe they think of getting $$$ by
    praying ?.

    Disclaimer: I don't pretend to be expert in arcane Finnish politics.

                                                 Irek Defee
                             @: Signal Processing Laboratory,
                                Tampere University of Technology,

                                                                        

From: [email protected] (Tom Haapanen)
Organization: WATMIMS Research Group, University of Waterloo
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic

Subject: Questions about Finland
Date: 2 Jan 90 18:30:55 GMT

This is excerpted from "Samassa Koneessa" 4/89, Finnair's freebie
magazine.  The article is "Vastauksia Suomesta" by Juhani Makela.
There is no copyright notice.  Translation by me...

Here are some common questions about Finland, and the correct answers.
Make sure you use these so foreigners won't be confused by conflicting
answers.

Q:  Excuse me, sir, but where is Finland?
A:  Finland is located in centre of the world.  It is very easy to find.

Q:  What kind of a political system does Finland have?
A:  Very good, thank you.

Q:  When did Finland become independent?
A:  Finland has always been independent.  Until the 1800s Finland also
    included Sweden, but that was given up when Finland annexed the
    Russian Empire.  When unrest grew in Russia, FInland also decided
    to allow independence for the Russians.

Q:  What language is spoken in FInland?
A:  These days, mostly English.  Some older people do still know some
    Finnish or Swedish.

Q:  I have heard of Finlandization.  What is it?
A:  It is a spiritual state attained by a Finn in a summer evening after
    a sauna, while cooling down and watching the sun set behind the lake.
    His/her mind Finlandizes to a quiet and peaceful state and he/she
    accepts things as they are.  He/shee concentrates on listening to
    the cuckoos and thanks the Finnish foreign policy for all this.

Q:  Is Finland too expensive a country for a tourist?
A:  A person who has to ask such a question, sir, can not afford to travel
    to Finland.

Q:  What type of nightlife and entertainment is there in Finland?
A:  No entertainment per se is required, since life in Finland is all
    fun anyway.

Q:  What tourist attractions are there in Finland?
A:  Oh, there are numerous, I could list a few of the most popular.  First
    we have the Sibelius Monument ...  and what next?  Oh, yes, we do have
    the Sibelius Monument ...  and then ...  Which one should I pick ...
    Did I mention the famous Sibelius Monument yet? ...

I hope you found this as amusing as I did...

    [This following is a repy to statements in the newsgroup regarding
    Finnish racial and cultural affinities  and the world status of the
    country. TT]
                   
    From: [email protected] (Miriam Eldridge)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    
    Date: 20 Feb 90 17:28:48 GMT
 
    Finland is in no sense a Third World country; in fact, it enjoys one of
    the highest standards of living in Europe. As for being more oriented
    toward the Russo-Baltic countries (whatever that means) than the other
    Scandinavian nations, I would dispute that as well.  The Finns feel
    some linguistic kinship with Estonia because the languages are so
    closely related, and by the same token, the non-Scandinavian origins of
    the Finnish language might be expected to create more distance between
    the Finns and the speakers of Germanic- origin Scandinavian languages
    than between any two of those countries. However, culturally Finland is
    fully a Scandinavian country and very Western-oriented.
 
    The people in eastern Finland do tend to have a higher proportion of
    short, dark people with "Oriental" eyes than do those in western
    Finland, or, to put it another way, in my experience most of the people
    I've met with such characteristics have originated in eastern Finland. 
    In western Finland the blond, blue-eyed type predominates.
 
    The Finnish language is (by contrast with most other European
    languages) non-Indo-European.  It belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of
    the Ural- Altaic language family.  Aside from Estonian, its closest
    European relative is Hungarian, but the languages are mutually
    unintelligible, they have grown so far apart.  More distantly, it is
    related to Turkish. The word order, however, is completely
    Indo-European, and so is much of the semantic content, reflecting a
    long residence in Europe.
 
    Miriam Eldridge

    From: [email protected] (Ari Ollikainen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Americanization of Finland?
    Date: 24 Feb 90 05:45:58 GMT
    Organization: Stanford University
 
 
    An interesting sidebar to the notethreads on Finnish language skills
    (or was it inferiority complexes...) is the following "Point of View"
    from last Sunday's (2.18.90) Helsingin Sanomat by Olli Kivinen, loosely
    translated without permission:
 
		THANKSGIVING DAY CELEBRATED SOON IN FINLAND
 
    In the recently developing discussions in Finland on European
    unification the strangest argument is that a closer relationship with
    the European Union, EU, is dangerous to our country's national culture.
    The opposite is closer to the truth - our country will not be flattened
    by any strange "euroculture" but by our becoming Anglo-American.
 
    Our country's external cultural stimuli have become one-sided year
    after year particularly because English has seized an overwhelming
    position as the most used foreign language. At the same time our
    relations with central Europe and even the Nordic counties have
    degenerated rapidly. The same is true of the Soviet Union where, except
    for our trade and vodka-tourism, we have a lessening amount of other
    connections. 
 
    A rich Anglo-American culture is, of course, good for our remote,
    forested land, enough is enough. Finland has developed into a
    little-America, where the view from many windows doen't include a
    finnish word, as one chance foreign tourist put it while examining the
    unfolding cityscape from his hotel window. [ he was referring to the
    visible signs, of course...]
 
    Language regulates all connections with people and cultures from TV
    series to travel, which increasingly tends to be directed over
    Central-Europe to sunny or English speaking countries.
 
    Additionally, everyone can see that the one-sidedness has accelerated.
    Staying out of the way of the mainsteam of European integration risks
    driving our country ever farther from the central european,
    multicultural world, which has long been a natural source of cultural
    stimuli.
 
    It's easy to imagine that Finland remaining outside of the spreading EU
    will cause new difficulties here. There has already developed among the
    EU members a clear feeling of togetherness which is felt in all areas 
    of endeavor. Inclusion in EEC-like programs is not enough to prevent
    the difficulties which result from, for example, the school system, the
    universities and research establishment remaining outside the advancing
    solidarity of spirit within the EU.
 
    Adding to our troubles is the fact that our country is out of the way.
    The old saying about not being able to do anything about geography also
    applies to differentiation of culture.
 
    Fear of "Euroculture" reflects both our weak selfknowledge and our
    selfcenteredness: we manage better by isolating ourselves, nor can
    european influences be allowed to corrupt our national purity. There is
    no logic to this position, since at the same time we have jumped neck
    deep into cross-Atlantic "CocaCola culture".
 
    Nowadays we already celebrate the below mentioned "friendsday", and
    surely soon will follow the proclamation of the guaranteed genuine
    American Thanksgiving day as a flag day. 
 
    --------------------------------

    
    
    
    Re: .33 & .35:
    
    From: [email protected] (Markku Sakkinen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Glasnost/Perestroika & Neutrality
    Date: 27 Mar 90 10:48:12 GMT
    Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Harold Stuart) writes:
> ...
>When I lived in Finland I heard stories about people being caught trying to
>defect through Finland and being immediately sent back to the USSR, although
>I do not know how accurate these stories are.
 
    They were only too true - I think our authorities even tried to hush
    down publicity so that the true number of such cases may have been
    greater than one would know from the newspapers. Some years ago (thanks
    to Glasnost and Perestroika) the Finnish government got the courage to
    stop this shameful practice.
 
>If the stories are accurate, could the USSR consider an Estonian refugee that
>escaped to Finland a "defector" and demand that the individual be returned?
 
    Well, earlier they did not even need to make any demands, since the
    return was automatic. Today (as far as I know) they don't make such
    demands, in part because they would not be successful.
 
    Markku Sakkinen
    Department of Computer Science
    University of Jyvaskyla (a's with umlauts)
    Seminaarinkatu 15
    SF-40100 Jyvaskyla (umlauts again)
    Finland
          [email protected] (alternative network address)

    re . 39
    
    Is it not true, however, that the Finish policy of not accepting
    defectors applied to ALL countries (although for practical purposes,
    the most likely country would be the USSR at least 95% of the time)?
    
    Mauritz
    

    From: [email protected] (Karl R. Tigerstedt)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Date: 26 Sep 90 10:00:47 GMT
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, FINLAND
 
 
    Since there obviously is a demand for news from Nordic countries, I'm
    going to post news about recent events and public discussion in
    Finland. This posting is not OFFICIAL in any way, just my points of
    view of what's happening here.
 
    - There's been some talk of Finland "buying" back Karelia, i.e. the 
    parts of Finland that the USSR took in WW II. One politician, who is
    very anti-swedish (against the minority of swedish speaking finns,
    which I am), actually said that we should exchange the �land islands
    (Aaland) for Karelia. She(the politician) also suggested, that swedish
    no longer should be an official language in Finland.      
   
    What can I say: Finland being linguistically isolated		 
    already ----> She's nut's.
 
 
    - A finnish mining company called Outokumpu has finally been given a
    green light from the Soviet authorities to clean up the mining
    factories near Murmansk, which have killed the entire nature in those
    parts of Soviet (looks like a moon-landscape) and are now endangering
    the nature in finnish Lappland. 

    	As far as I understand, we are fixing their factories for free, in
    order to save our nature. These (few) factories actually pollute 3
    times as much as all of Finland. The other Scandinavian countries are
    also economically supporting this project.
 
    - Finland is going to alter the so called YYA treaty that states
    military, political and cultural relations to the USSR.  Formerly,
    Germany (West) was considered to be a special threat to the USSR.
    Finland agreed that it would resist a possible attack by Germany, if it
    were to attack the USSR through Finland.

    So now Germany is no longer mentioned in the treaty and is apparently
    not anymore considered a "potential" attacker. To me, this is all
    academic. I'd throw the whole treaty down the toilet anyway.
 
    - Gas prices are steadily rising here, due to Saddam's mess-up. The
    cheapest gas you can get now, is about 3.85 FMK/liter. That's normal
    unleaded. Our NorthAmerican (presumably non-metric thinking) readers
    can translate that into about $3.7/gallon. That's NOT CHEAP.  I think
    I'd better sell my VW Beetle...
 
    - Finland got a straight NO, in the EC (European Community) discussions
    about maintaining finnish forests in domestic hands.  It's simple to
    me, if we buy up most of the paper industry companies around Europe,
    how can we expect that no one is allowed to touch our forests...? It's
    a give-and-take deal, Finland!
 
 
    It's rainy and cold in Helsinki today, about +8 C. Don't even
    considering entering this country without an umbrella....
 
 
    That's it for now, more news next ..... , well, let's see.
 
    ----------------------
    "I have only come here seeking knowledge.
    Things they would not teach me of in college"    - The Police

    From: [email protected] (Hannu V{is{nen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Date: 1 Oct 90 06:21:08 GMT
    Organization: University of Joensuu, Finland
 
    [email protected] (Anders Engwall) writes:

   >Is Swedish mandatory in *all* Finnish schools or only those in the regions
   >where the swedes have more than X % of the population?
 
    In *all* Finnish schools. And in all universities, too. You can't get a
    degree in university if you don't know Swedish. And many government
    jobs are off-limits if you don't know Swedish -- whether you need
    Swedish in your job or not.

    From: [email protected] (Karl R. Tigerstedt)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Newsreport Finland II
    Date: 24 Oct 90 08:21:31 GMT
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, FINLAND
 
                NEWSREPORT II
 
    - The Finnish economy is predicted far and wide to be heading for a
    real dive. Everybody's talking about bad years to come. So far, only
    the banks have "messed up" really badly. 

    Several Finnish banks have raised interest rates of loans, especially
    real estate loans, which has resulted in a number of angry young
    families raising lawsuits against banks. The public opinion is very
    "anti-bank" ---> looks like the banks have a lot of pr-work to do
    before they can become "socially" accepted again. Right now, banks are
    more or less "criminal", in the eyes of most Finns.
 
    - Yesterday, 5 Finnish hostages were released from Bagdad. This was the
    result of an effort from some member's of parliament that went to
    Bagdad to negotiate with the Iraqis. They were promised that all Finns
    would be released, if the Finnish delegation would "put in a few nice
    words in the press" about Iraq. I'm happy to see, that the Finnish
    politicians haven't sunk that low yet (compare the Kurt Waldheim trip). 
    The result --> 9 Finnish hostages still remain in Iraq.
 
    - Finland is not willing to abandon visas for Soviet citizens
    travelling here. Even if the USSR would change its visa policy, the
    Finns are reluctant to open the East border for anyone with just a
    passport. The reason: The worsening economic and food supply situation
    in the USSR is feared to drive millions of Russians to Finland, if the
    border opens. Remember, we're only about 4.9 million and Leningrad
    alone is about 5 million...
 
    - There is discussion about whether or not to harvest forests in the
    very northern part of Finland (Kessi, Lappland). These forests are very
    near the tree-line (north of which, no trees survive). Therefore, heavy
    harvesting up north results easily in erosion, because of the slow
    growth and the arctic climate. Even German Greenpeace activists are
    protesting and planning actions against Finnish paper industry
    companies, in case harvesting starts.
 
    - A old naval shipwreck is found in the Lake Ladoga by russian
    officials. The shipwreck was used for nuclear test after WWII and is
    reported to contain several thousand liters of  strontium contaminated
    water. Strontium, as you know, is a highly radioactive element with a
    long decay time. 

    The shipwreck resides on the western shore of Ladoga,  only some 30-40
    kilometers from the Finnish border. Finnish nuclear safety officials
    are demanding an inspection by themselves. 
 
    - The current gasoline price is 3.85 FMK/liter (regular unleaded 97E).
    It's supposed to go down 0.15 - 0.20 FMK/liter tomorrow. 
 
 
 
    Autumn is really here. Most leaves have already fallen. Normal day-time
    temperature 3-5 deg C. Occasional frost in the night.
 
 
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "I have only come here seeking knowledge.
 Things they would not teach me of in college"    - The Police
      *** Karl Tigerstedt , email [email protected] ***

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: [email protected] (Jim Reilly)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Newsreport Finland II
    Date: 25 Oct 90 08:11:48 GMT
    Organization: Technical Research Centre of Finland

    In-reply-to: [email protected]'s message of 24 Oct 90 08:21:31 GMT
 
    I heard on Radio Finland that one result of the worsening economic
    situation in Finland is that it may be more difficult for Ingrian Finns
    living in Russia to come work/emigrate to Finland, and in general there
    might be stricter limits on the number of foreigners allowed to work in
    Finland.
 
    Some much smaller news items not mentioned in the original posting are:
 
    - Estonian fisherman took part in the Baltic Herring Festival in
    Helsinki for the first time in 50 years this month.  (The Baltic
    Herring Festival is about a one week event where fisherman from the
    ]land islands and other islands come and sell homemade goods such as
    all sorts of herring and smoked fish, Svartbrod (bread that looks like
    a big black potatoe), pickles, etc.)  It was a real party the Sunday I
    went, (I still haven't tried the sinappi-silikka (mustard-herring) I
    bought yet though :-). What does Svartbrod actually mean ?
 
    - The Finnish Foreign Minister has officially declared to re-united 
    Germany that Finland won't seek any compensation for damages done by
    Germans to Finnish towns in Lapland during the second World War.
 
    - Finnish money is changing.  The 5 penny (~1 US cent) and 20 penny
    coins will disappear.  Also the Finnish 10 mark note will be replaced
    by a coin.  The new coins will have pictures of animals on them, which
    is a good thing since Finnish coins are IMHO less interesting than 
    coat buttons :).  Does anyone know what animals will be used ?  I would
    vote for a hedgehog.
 
    - On the sports scene, Finnish long distance ski jumper Matti Nyk�nen
    is retiring from skiing and will take up speed boat racing.  (But how
    will he get the speed boats to the top of the ski ramp ? :-)
 
 
    Someone asked recently about famous Finns,  isn't Renny Harlin
    (director of "Die Hard 2") a Finn ?
 
   - jim
   --
   Internet Mailbox: 	[email protected]
   UUCP Mailbox:		...!{mcsun, uunet}!tel.vtt.fi!reilly
   	G'Day from the land up over !

    From: [email protected] (Karl R. Tigerstedt)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: The History of Finland (It's Independence Day, today!)
    Date: 6 Dec 90 11:36:44 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Cnews - USENET news system)
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, FINLAND
 
 
                   It is Independence Day today!
 
    Finland became independent in 1917. So it's our 73rd Independence Day.
 
    Since I'm feeling so patriotic today, I'll enlight you (briefly) on
    the:
 
    THE HISTORY OF FINLAND
 
400-	The (to be) Finns immigrate from the east. The Finns are part of 
800 	Fenno-Ugric people.
 
1100	Erik the Holy makes a crusade to Finland in approx. 1150
 
The Swedish Era
 
1200 	Birger Jarl conquers part of Finland in 1249. Tyrgil Knutsson conquers
	most of Karelia (eastern Finland) in 1293. The castles in �bo (Turku), 
	Tavastehus(H�meenlinna) and Viborg(Viipuri) are built.
 
1300	The treaty of peace is established in N�teborg in 1323. The border 
	between Sweden (Finland being part of) and Russia is defined. 
	Swedish Law is imposed on Finland. 
 
1400	Finland being one of many l�n (territories) in Sweden is governed by
	different swedish l�nsm�n. (governor). The Castle of  Olofsborg
	(Olavinlinna) is built  in 1477.
 
1500	Economic growth during the Gustav Vasa period. The Reformation 
  	(Lutheranization, if you will) is lead in Finland by Mikael Agricola,
	who translates the bible into Finnish. 
	War against Russia in 1555-57 and 1570-95.
 
1600	After the wars, peace is established in Stolbova 1617. 
	Per Brahe becomes governor of Finland. Rapid cultural development.
	�bo Akademi (University of �bo) is founded in 1640. 
	(** My own ancestor moves from Sweden to Finland **)
 
1700	The great nordic war 1700-21, known as "Stora ofreden".
	More war against Russia 1741-43, "Lilla ofreden". Southeastern
	parts of Finland are conquered by the Russians. Yet another war against
	Russia 1788-90.
 
The Russian era
 
1800	After the Finnish War 1808-09 Sweden loses Finland to Russia. 
	Helsingfors (Helsinki) becomes the new capitol in 1812, instead of ]bo.
	Nationalistic movement against the swedish upper class. The Finnish
	national poem Kalevala is written by L�nnrot 1835-49.
 
1850	Russian reform policy , the Finns gain a certain autonomous state.
	The Finnish language gets equal status with Swedish, which until
	now has been the official language, in 1863.
  	The Workers Union is founded in 1890.
	In 1898 a so called "Russianization" policy is started, led by the 
	Russian governor Bobrikov.
 
1900	1904 Eugen Schauman single-handedly shoots Bobrikov. 
	In 1906 a new parliament (enkammarsriksdag) is formed and the
	general right to vote is made to include also women.
	During the Russian revolution in 1917 Finland declares Independence.
	1918 the Finnish civil war starts, which is more or less a war between
	the classes: "the reds" (mostly peasents) supported by some russian
	troops against  "the whites", led by Mannerheim. The whites eventually
	won, partly helped by some german troops. (WW I comes into the picture).
 
The Independent era
 
	1920 Finland acquires an area at the Barents sea called Petsamo, in
	the treaty of peace with the russians. 1921 the �land Islands are
	declared part of Finland by a UN(or, actually the predecessor of
	the United Nations, don't know what it was called in english;
	Nationernas F�rbund in swedish).  The �land Islands have an 
	autonomous, demilitarized relation to Finland. Their foreign policy
	is however that of Finland.
 
	Nov 30 1939 the USSR attacks Finland. The Finnish "winter war" 
	(vinterkriget) ends 12 Mar 1940; and Finland loses some parts
	of Karelia (including Viborg). The war continues 1941-44 and
	Finland is partly supported by the germans (forts{ttningskriget).
	In the treaty of peace in 1947 (in Paris, I guess), Finland loses
	Petsamo and most of Karelia (incl. the city of Viborg).
	Porkala (a cape near Helsinki) becomes a russian military base.
		
	In the 1950's the relations to the USSR improve, and the russians
	leave Porkala in 1956. 
 
	Since then, nothing very dramatic has happened in the Finnish
	foreign policy. Economic growth has been the great change
	in Finland the last couple of decades.
 
	And here we are, 6 Dec 1990.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    "I have only come here seeking knowledge.
     Things they would not teach me of in college"    - The Police
    *** Karl Tigerstedt , email [email protected] ***

    Re: .45 by PULPO::RAMOS_J:
    
    Karl does not participate directly in this conference, but perhaps
    someone who does (and knows Finnish history) will help here.

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: The History of Finland
    Date: 7 Dec 90 16:11:53 GMT
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
    (Karl R. Tigerstedt) writes>  

 > THE HISTORY OF FINLAND
 >  
 > 400-	The (to be) Finns immigrate from the east. The Finns are part of 
 > 800 	Fenno-Ugric people.

    Studies in archaeology tells us that Fenno-Ugric people came to 
    Finnish territory about 3000 b.C. Linguists claim that their results
    give reason to think that occurred 1500 b.C. We can be sure that 500
    b.C. Finnish language was separate from eastern baltic languages. 
 
    From 550-800 is the highlight of merovingtime, guns were made here and
    there is artistic culture available. Society is already differentiated,
    even classes among people are clear. There were lot of contacts to
    Europe.
  
 > 1100	Erik the Holy makes a crusade to Finland in approx. 1150
 >  
 > The Swedish Era
 >  
 > 1200 Birger Jarl conquers part of Finland in 1249. Tyrgil Knutsson conquers
 > 	most of Karelia (eastern Finland) in 1293. The castles in ]bo (Turku), 
 > 	Tavastehus(H{meenlinna) and Viborg(Viipuri) are built.
 
    This crusade may have happened earlier (1238) and it is not sure if
    Jarl Birger was the leader. It is difficult to say if Tyrgil Knutsson,
    the leader of Sweden, was actually with in Carelian crusade in 1293.
    The first Finnish bishop, Maunu I, ruled in �bo (1291-).
 
 > 1300	The treaty of peace is established in N�teborg in 1323. The border 
 > 	between Sweden (Finland being part of) and Russia is defined. 
 > 	Swedish Law is imposed on Finland. 
 
    The peace was made by Sweden and Novgorod.  Finland was established as
    an equal part of Sweden 1362.
 
 > 1500	Economic growth during the Gustav Vasa period. The Reformation 
 >   	(Lutheranization, if you will) is lead in Finland by Mikael Agricola,
 > 	who translates the bible into Finnish. 
 > 	War against Russia in 1555-57 and 1570-95.

    First time Russians attacked here was 1495. Peace was made 1497. Danish
    attacked ]bo and conquered �land for some time 1509. The peace
    concluded in 1595 gave Sweden right to Estonia and the border went up
    to the Arctic Ocean
 
 > > 	the classes: "the reds" (mostly peasents) supported by some russian
 > 	troops against  "the whites", led by Mannerheim. The whites eventually
 > 	won, partly helped by some german troops. (WW I comes into the picture).
 
    The reds were of course workers and people without land, and whites
    mostly peasants. Mannerheim asked the Germans to help whites, and
    Germans came and occupied southern Finland 1918. Economically Finland
    was sold to Germany, but luckily Germany lost the war... That was also
    the reason Finland didn't get a German king but presidency.
 
    Jari Sedergren
    [email protected] (INTERNET)
    SEDERGREN@finuh          (BITNET)

    re: .45
    
    As the article of .44 originated from News Karl cannot see your
    question nor answer i'll try to add something.
    
>	1918 the Finnish civil war starts, which is more or less a war between
>	the classes: "the reds" (mostly peasents) supported by some russian
>	troops against  "the whites", led by Mannerheim. The whites eventually
>	won, partly helped by some german troops. (WW I comes into the picture).
    
    	The Civil war, even after more than 70 years is still a 
    	difficult question to some Finns (not all the wounds have healed).
    
    	There was a lot political content in the war. The "reds" were
    	socialists (mainly factory workers and farmers who did not own
    	any land). The "whites" naturally were the anti socialist side.
    	
    	The war did not last for long, but it hurt the nation badly.
    	In the beginning the "reds" ruled the souther part of Finland
    	(including Helsinki). There was lots of so callad "red terror"
    	during the short period of their rule, but after winning the
    	war the "whites" took their revenge (lots of the "reds" were
    	convicted in military courts and shot, even more died for hunger
    	in prison camps after the war.)
    
    	The military leader of the "whites" was Carl Gustav Mannerheim,
    	who also lead Finland in the WW2 against the russians. The
    	"whites" had no difficulty in winning the war. The "reds"
    	had hardly any qualified military leaders while the core
    	of the white army was trained in Germany and lots of the
    	officiers had served in the Russian army during the rule
    	of the zar (sp?, anyway the emperor of Russia, even Mannerheim
    	was one of his generals). 
    
    	Wheter the war was a war between classes (as Karl says in .44)
    	is a matter of debate. Some of todays socialists in Finland think so,
    	they don't even call it civil war, but "class war" (luokkasota
    	in Finnish).  The anti socialists call it "war of freedom"
    	(vapaussota ), indicating that the "reds" did not want an
    	independent Finland (which the reds naturally deny).
    
    		
    		regards
    			Pekka

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: The History of Finland (1918)
    Date: 10 Dec 90 18:44:17 GMT
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
    (Pekka Pessi) writes:

> In article <[email protected]> [email protected] writes:
>< Mannerheim asked the Germans to help whites, and Germans came
>< and occupied southern Finland 1918. Economically Finland was sold to Germany,
>< but luckily Germany lost the war... That was also the reason Finland didn't
>< get a German king but presidency.
> 
> 	Mannerheim didn't invite the Germans, but the exiled Prime
> 	Minister Svinhufvud. Actually Mannerheim was against inviting
> 	Germans, propably because he was a general from Russian army.
> 	I'd like to say that Lenin sold Finland to Germany -
> 	bolshevick governement gave independence to Finland and
> 	Ukraina (sp?) in treaty of Brest-Litovsk.  Anyway, all the
>   	transactions made by exiled Senators (minister) and Finnish
> 	ambassador in Germany were legally questionable.
 
    You are right about Mannerheim's attitude against Germans. He wanted
    that "liberation war" is fought by own people. And he understood well
    global political situation - propably knew that German cannot win that
    war. He didn't know about preparations, what Gripenberg made in
    Stockholm and what Hjelt made in Berlin until 2.3.1918. Senat accepted
    German help 3.3.1918. 4.3. Mannerheim send a telegraph to general
    Ludendorff and asked him to thank Kaiser for the help which has been
    sent to Finland and without which liberation fight cannot be won. In
    his memoirs Mannerheim remembers this telegraph wrong. 20th of Mar.
    1918 Mannerheim  sent again a telegraph to Germany and asked Thesleff
    no to delay with German troops. "Delay is fatal", Mannerheim wrote.
    Again Mannerheim forgets those two words  (Verzo"gerung
    schicksalsschwer) from his memoirs. Mannerheim was against Germans in
    principle, but didn't resign after all (as he first told to do if
    Germans will come), and asked for more troops to Finland!
 
    Maybe the first idea to send German troops to Finland was Kaiser's own.
    Question was how to have a good reason to attack to Estonia, Latvija,
    Ukraina and Finland. Germans didn't want to look as belligerent but a
    helper pushing bolshevism back. They needed somebody to ask help.
    (Sounds familiar...). As Hindenburg said: "Crys for help must be here
    before 18. March". So it happened. Hjelt and Erich send a letter next
    day after Hindenburgs demand and asked German intervention to Finland.
    First thing to do was to occupy Aland. But Swedish troops were there
    first. Germans were invited exactly same way to Ukraina and to Baltic
    countries.
 
    You mentioned Svinhufvud. He was in Berlin in March but not in
    February. But he could have been the person to accept the German idea
    to come to Finland.                        
 
    It is very difficult to say Lenin sold Finland to Germans. What was the
    price? I'm sure Lenin wanted Finland to became a socialist country,
    certainly not a German protectorate. Buharin said that they were
    betraying working class in Finland, but Lenin said revolution is still
    not lost. Trotski, Stalin, Sverdliov, Sokolnikov, Zinovjev and Zilga
    voted for Lenin. Against peace were Buharin, Joffe, Lomov, Krestinski,
    Dzerzinski and Uritski. "Ukraine and Finland are lost, but we could not
    do anything now..." Lenin said in IV partycongress.
 
    You tell Svinhufvud and Hjelt did something 'legally questionable'.
    Which law You have in your mind?
 
    I hope I have not been boring. 
 
    [email protected]. fi (INTERNET)
    SEDERGREN@finuh           (BITNET)    

    From: [email protected] (Karl R. Tigerstedt)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: News from Finland
    Date: 10 Dec 90 15:13:31 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Cnews - USENET news system)
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, FINLAND
 
 
    News from Finland
 
 
    - Finland voted for allowing military sanctions against Iraq.  The
    decision was made by the president himself, which raised some
    discussion of whether or not he had exceeded his  autohorities. The
    president replied by saying that a decision had to be made quickly,
    even though just about everbody in Finland knew a couple of weeks in
    advance that such a resolution was being made in the UN.  My opinion is
    that there would have been plenty of time for discussion in advance.
 
    - Finland was more or less taken by surprise when the Swedish foreign
    minister Sten Andersson suggested a united nordic application for EC
    membership. President Koivisto said something like "let's not make any
    hasty decisions" and foreign minister Paasio just added that "the
    ongoing wild EC discussions are very disturbing", implying that the
    current discussions between EFTA and EC of a united economic market
    might fail due to this. My opinion is that the Finnish politicians
    think that "storebror i v�st trampade p� t�rna".
 
    - A lively debate concerning compulsory Swedish taught at schools was
    held in the Parliament. Swedish is mandatory for all Finns for a
    certain period of time in school. The result - no change. If mandatory
    Swedish would have been abolished, so would mandatory Finnish, for
    those pupils with Swedish as their mother tongue and Swedish school.
    That would have been a nice situation - people in Finland going to
    school without having to learn Finnish! (this is ingredients for yet
    another FIN-SWE- flame war)
 
    - Finns are getting more concerned about the possible free travelling 
    law for Soviet citizens. There was semi-official news from the USSR
    stating that several million russians would be leaving their home
    country if and when the new law is approved. 

    My guess is that the Finns will put up an iron curtain against the
    east, much like the US has against Mexico. I also believe that visas
    are going to remain for people travelling between the USSR and Finland,
    in order  for the Finns to be able to "control the flow".
 
    - November was pretty cold here in Helsinki, with lows of about -15 C.
    We got some snow, but December has been warm so it melted away. Right
    now there's a couple of centimeters of new snow that came down 2 days
    ago. Temperature outside right now +1 C.
 
    - Gasoline prices have dropped a couple of times since the high of 
    about 4mk/liter. You can now fill your tank with 95E (normal unleaded) 
    for about 3.45 mk /liter.
 
    That's all for now, more news...who knows when?
 
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   "I have only come here seeking knowledge.       
    Things they would not teach me of in college"    - The Police
   *** Karl Tigerstedt , email [email protected] ***

    From: [email protected] (Kimmo Saarinen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: The next president of Finland, speculations (was Re: Lithuania)
    Date: 24 Jan 91 08:44:08 GMT
    Sender: [email protected]
    Organization: Technical Research Centre of Finland
 
    [email protected] (Sirpa Saarinen) writes:
                 
   >I can only add here another jovial comment: What about Johannes 
   >Virolainen as the next president of Finland? He would have treated this 
   >situation differently than mr Koivisto! The problem with mr Donner is that 
   >you never know on what side of the issue he stands!
 
    Well, mr Virolainen is getting too old for that job. He is among the
    ones who want to get the Karelia Isthmus back from the Sovjet Union.
 
    Candidates for the next president is not stated yet. Some speculations
    are made already, the problem is that the parties name the candidates
    and their opinion is not clear yet. From the National Coalition Party
    (?  Kansallinen Kokoomus) two persons seem to be possible candidates,
    Harri Holkeri (present PM) and Ilkka Suominen (the leader of the
    party). The Social Democrates seems to select Pekka Sorsa, the
    communists or the Leftist Union (Vasemmistoliitto) will have Ilkka
    Kivist�, but the Center Party of Finland (Suomen Keskusta) have some
    troubles to  select their candidate. Paavo V�yrynen have been the
    former leader  of the party and he wants to be the next president. The
    problem is  that most of the Finns don't like him at all (not even all
    the members  of the party). So Eeva Kuuskoski-Vikatmaa has been favored
    more than Paavo V�yrynen even among the party members. It may happen
    now, that we may have the first female candidate who has realistic
    possibilities to be voted for president.
 
    Finland has changed the selection system of the president. Next time
    the president is selected by direct voting, and if nobody in the first
    round got 50 % of the votes, next round will be arranged between the
    two best supported from the first round. 
 
    In the speculations (based on the Gallup interwievings) nobody will get
    selected in the first round. The next round will be between Eeva
    Kuuskoski-Vikatmaa and Pekka Sorsa. Pekka Sorsa wins that. But this has
    been just speculations.
 
    One notion, here is a habit to put the candidates to 'safe' for a while
    before the campaign, i.e. they are in such positions that they don't
    get any 'dirt' from the day to day politics. For  example Mr. Koivisto
    was in the Finland's Bank, away from the politics before he became a
    president of Finland.
 
    About the selection of the new Parliament this spring, one expert said
    yesterday, that the present war in the Persian Gulf may affect to the
    behaviour of the voters, i.e. they will vote the big parties instead of
    the smaller ones. The foreign policy seems to arise the most important
    issue in campaigns, the inner policy (the food prices, the lack of
    housing etc.) are getting less importance, and this is not a good thing
    from my mind.
 
  
 -- 
 ========================================================================
 Kimmo Saarinen                         ! e-mail  [email protected]
 Technical Research Centre of Finland   ! ... here ... and there ...
 Medical Engineering Laboratory         !       ... usually nowhere ...

    From: [email protected] (Jorma Korkiakoski)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Elections in Finland
    Date: 24 Feb 91 14:08:21 GMT
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Juha SALIN)
    writes:

    > What are going to be the main issues in the coming elections
    > in FInland? Has there been any talks about possible EC
    > membership, who is for/againgst? Refugee problems?
 
         Main issues ... Well, Kokoomus (Conservatives) are blaming Social
         Democrats and vice versa despite they were the main parties
         in government. I think this may be a well-devised plot to
         sharpen up their image. 
 
         Keskusta (Center???) is - naturally - attacking them.
 
         SMP (Finnish Rural Party?) attacks refugees. (not officially,
         though)
 
         Greens are green. (two green parties, BTW)
 
         But on the whole, campaigns are rather mellow. (as usual!)
         Economical issues are on the top: Rates (housing loan rate
         15%, negative GNP growth this year, after some over-heated 
         years (1988: 5.3%, 1989: 5.2%, 1990:0.3%, 1991: -1% ?), 
         unemployment (5% at the moment), price of food (far too much,
         if you ask me!) and agricultural policy ($ 5 bil of export
         subsidies a year)
 
 
 
    > Who is expected to win/loose most? Who are the main 
    > candidates for prime minister (Will Holkeri still
    > continue?)?
 
         Polls indicate that Greens and Keskusta might win more seats. 
         Kokoomus may loose some, as well as communists. 
 
         PM candidates ... dunno. Probably not Holkeri.
 
    -- 
 
	--jk--> ! [email protected] ! K{pistelij{. "Humanisti".
		! [email protected]   ! "Eheti-ehkis" - R.S.S.V.  

    From: [email protected] (Jorma M�ntyl�)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Elections in Finland
    Date: 19 Mar 91 07:29:56 GMT
    Organization: University of Tampere, Finland
 
    RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN FINLAND
 
    General elections were held in Finland on March 17. About 72% of the
    Finnish  voters used their vote.  Here are the results:
 
 PARTY				VOTES		SEATS
 Social Democrats		600498/22,1%	48 (-8)
 Kokoomus (Conservative)	524520/19,3%	40 (-13)
 Keskusta (Center)		675041/24,8%	55 (+15)
 Vasemmisto (The Left, ex-com.)	273558/10,1%	19 (-1)
 Swedish People's Party		148730/5,5%	11 (-1)
 SMP (Agrarian party, populist)	131694/4,8%	7 (-2)
 SKL (Christian)		83020/3,1%	8 (+3)
 Vihre�t (Green party)		184969/6,8%	10 (+6)
 LKP (Liberal party)		<10000/<1%	1 (+-0)
 
    Generally this was a crushing defeat for the present government which
    was formed by Social Democrats and the Conservative Coalition Party. 
    The Center Party is now the biggest party in Finland and it seems that
    they are in key position when the next government is formed.  
 
    #Jorma Mantyla

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: [email protected] (Bjorn Ellertsson)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Elections in Finland, results?
    Date: 19 Mar 91 17:02:53 GMT
    Sender: [email protected]
    Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
 
    The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, that Finland's main
    opposition party made strong gains in elections to Parliament. The
    ruling coalition of Conservatives, Social  Democrats and a small ethnic
    party lost its majority; political leaders said it would probably fall
    apart. With all votes counted, the center Party won 55 of 200 seats and
    was poised to form the next government.
 
    Today's edition adds that the Center Party (said to be
    farmer-dominated) won 15 new seats and is now the biggest political
    party, but that none of the three major parties can claim a majority.
 
    I am not sure if this means that The Wall Street Journal satisfies
    Kari's requirements, but it has reported on language policies in
    Iceland.
 
    Bjorn
    -----
    Bj"orn Ellertsson, Program in Computing, UCLA (213) 825-2251
    Internet: [email protected]            BITNET: bje%math.ucla.edu@INTERBIT
    UUCP:...!{ucsd,purdue,rutgers,uunet}!math.ucla.edu!bje

    From: [email protected] (J�rvinen Hannu-Matti)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Elections in Finland
    Date: 28 Mar 91 07:10:34 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (#Kotilo NEWS system )
    Organization: Tampere University of Technology
 
 
    In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Juha SALIN)
    writes:

    >What has happened to Paavo Vayrynen? Wasn't he the strongest candidate
    >after the last elections, 4 years ago? Didn't he almost declare himself
    >to prime minister after the last victory? How did the fairly negative
    >publicity lately (about talks with the Soviets before Mr. Koivisto
    >was elected to president) affect Paavos popularity?
 
    Paavo got over 20000 votes; nobody got more. So he's going fast ... in
    a way. But still, predisdent Koivisto doesn't actually love him, so I
    suppose he will not be the Prime Minister, perhaps not a minister at
    all. He has supporters in Central Party, but he's not very popular
    outside CP.
 
    >How about the presidential elections? Is Paavo out of the game? Who
    >are going to the other candidates (Holkeri, I suppose for Kokoomus,
    >and Sorsa for the Social Democrats)?
 
    Paavo is not out of the game. EKV (Eeva Kuuskoski-Vikatmaa) has many
    supporters, and she is more popular than Paavo outside CP; however, in
    CP Paavo has more supporters. I don't think CP has currently other real
    candidates than these two for the president.
 
    Holkeri has lost (some of) his popularity. The rows inside Kokoomus are
    not clear - anyway, it seems that any candidate from Kokoomus will get
    less votes that e.g. EKV.
 
    Sorsa is on the game, and currently we may expect that we are going to
    choose between Sorsa and Paavo (or EKV) on final election.
 
    (BTW, Paavo is the first (given) name of Paavo Vayrynen, and Sorsa is
    the last name of Kalevi Sorsa. Normally (for politicians), the last
    name is used, Paavo is an exception.)

    -----
    Hannu-Matti Jarvinen, [email protected]
    Opinions of tut != opinions of mine, and vice versa.
    TTKK on samaa mielt� kanssani siit�, ett� en edusta sen mielipidett�.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Elections in Finland
    Date: 28 Mar 91 13:32:38 GMT
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Juha SALIN)
    writes:
 
    > What has happened to Paavo Vayrynen? Wasn't he the strongest candidate
    > after the last elections, 4 years ago? Didn't he almost declare himself
    > to prime minister after the last victory? How did the fairly negative
    > publicity lately (about talks with the Soviets before Mr. Koivisto
    > was elected to president) affect Paavos popularity?
 
    Vayrynen got the largest amount of personal votes in the elections, and
    Eeva Kuuskoski the second largest.  (She married a couple of days ago
    and changed her name from Kuuskoski-Vikatmaa.)  Since the president
    names the prime minister, and there is a certain amount of animosity
    detectable between Koivisto and Vayrynen, I doubt that Koivisto will
    name him.
 
    Oddly enough, the popularity of the Center Party stayed about the same,
    even rose a little, during the Vladimirov scandal, and Vayrynen's
    personal popularity has not been affected, as can be seen from the
    election results.
 
    > How about the presidential elections? Is Paavo out of the game?
 
    Paavo elicits strong emotions, and a larger part of the people are
    disgusted by him (myself included) than are his faithful followers.  If
    the next presidential election is conducted according to the two-stage
    French model, as it almost certainly will be, Vayrynen might get to the
    second round, but would get only about 30% of the votes against Sorsa
    (an opinion poll a few months ago).  But the latest opinion poll showed
    Eeva Kuuskoski winning Sorsa by a few percentage points in the second
    round, so the best bet for the Center Party would be to name her as
    their candidate.
 
    > Who are going to the other candidates (Holkeri, I suppose for Kokoomus,
    > and Sorsa for the Social Democrats)?
 
    If Koivisto does not continue for a third term (I don't think he will),
    Kalevi Sorsa will probably be the Social Democratic candidate.  As for
    the Conservatives (Kokoomus), the election setback has upset their
    plans.  They have two contenders for the candidacy, Harri Holkeri and
    Ilkka Suominen.  Holkeri was the prime minister for the last four
    years, and Suominen is the party chairman.  It would seem to me that
    Holkeri is out of the game; he has stood in two elections already, and
    in the last one only came third, and now there's this defeat.  I don't
    think the Conservatives have a chance for the presidency; it'll be
    either Sorsa or Vikatmaa.
 
    As for the cabinet negotiations, the Social Democrats have now declared
    irreversibly that they will go into opposition, so the next government
    will have to be formed around the two remaining big parties,
    Conservatives and Center.  Center doesn't like this, of course, because
    with both the other two big in the game, it could have run a kind of
    competition of offers between the other two and gotten a cabinet
    program better suited to itself.  Now the only remaining question is
    which small party or parties will be taken in to bolster the coalition. 
    The Greens and the Left Alliance have stated their willingness to be in
    a coalition with the "bourgeois" parties.  What an unholy alliance that
    would be.
 
    --
    Teemu Leisti                    Reality is for those who
    U. of Helsinki, Finland          can't face science fiction.
    [email protected]

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Finnish system of government (was Re: Elections in Finland)
    Date: 1 Apr 91 16:28:34 GMT
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Gail Halverson)
    writes:
 
 > I've noticed something I don't understand.  There seems to be an implication
 > that the president has something to say about the selection of the prime
 > minister.  (Someone mentioned that the president didn't like a certain
 > candidate, so he probably would not be chosen.  There was also some
 > similar statement in an earlier posting.)  Will someone please explain the
 > relationship of these two offices for me?
 
 > I had assumed that they were something like our president and the speaker
 > of the senate (in other words, heads of two separate branches of government,
 > with totally separate election processes).  But from the statements
 > mentioned above, I guess may be wrong about this.
 
    In Finland, the president has quite a lot of power.  This is because
    our constitution is a compromise between monarchy and democracy, and
    the office of the president is a kind of semi-monarchy.  Among other
    things, he makes all the top appointments and has the power to dissolve
    the parliament at any time without even having to explain his decision. 
    (There is a constitutional change limiting the powers of the president
    that was approved by the last parliament and must now be approved by
    the just-elected parliament to become effective.  It also limits the
    terms of one person to two of six years each.  Koivisto has now served
    1 1/2 terms, or 9 years.)  One thing he also does is name the person
    who will start the cabinet negotiations with the parties.  The
    president also has to listen to all the parties represented in the
    parliament, as a part of this process.  This negotiator usually becomes
    prime minister.
 
    Example:  After the 1987 parliamentary elections, Koivisto first named
    a friend of his to attempt to create a wide coalition with all the big
    three parties (Conservatives, Center, and Social Democrats).  That fell
    through, as expected, and Koivisto then named Harri Holkeri, of the
    Conservatives, to "explore primarily the possibility of forming a
    government around a Conservatives - Social Democrats coalition", which
    is then what happened, with Holkeri becoming PM.  This represented a
    totally new coalition base.  The small supporting parties were the
    Swedish People's Party (an eternal supporting party) and the
    aforementioned (in another posting) SMP.  The voters soundly rejected
    this coalition in the recent election, with reason, because they have
    failed miserably, IMHO.
 
    The cabinet coalition must enjoy the confidence of a majority of the
    parliament, and the wider the majority is, the more room the cabinet
    has to operate, so wide coalitions are desirable.
 
    The cabinet runs the day-to-day politics, but laws approved by the
    parliament have to be signed by the president.  There are also some
    other decisions the president has to approve in weekly "presentations"
    by the cabinet.  I'm not an expert in political science, so I'm not
    quite sure about all this includes.
 
  --
  Teemu Leisti                     Jesus saves.  Do the same at
  U. of Helsinki, Finland              JESUS SAVINGS & LOAN
  [email protected]            (with apologies for my sick sense of
                                  humor to all where it's appropriate)

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Finnish cabinet
    Date: 19 Apr 91 11:21:33 GMT
    Organization: University of Helsinki
  
    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] writes:
 
    > I heard that Finland got another right-wing cabinet -
    > someone please post the names & affiliations of the
    > ministers and main points of the platform!
 
    Not yet available since cabinet negotiations are still underway.  What
    is clear by now is the parties forming the cabinet and the probable
    number of ministers for each:
 
    Center         8
    Conservatives  6
    Swedish        2
    Christians     1
 
    The Center and the Conservatives are arguing over which gets the
    treasury ministership.  The prime minister will be Esko Aho, Center.
 
    The Greens participated in the negotiations but left because of
    fundamental disagreement in the energy question.  (The Greens wanted no
    new nuclear power and a 2% yearly reduction in energy use.)
 
    --
    Teemu Leisti 
    U. of Helsinki, Finland
    [email protected]

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: NEW FINNISH CABINET (with a Nordic angle at the end)
    Date: 29 Apr 91 11:38:07 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Uutis Ankka)
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
 THE AHO CABINET
 
 Prime Minister:                         Esko Aho (cen)  [1]
 Foreign Minister:                       Paavo Vayrynen (cen)  [2]
 Minister of Development Cooperation:    Toimi Kankaanniemi (chr)  [3]
 Treasury Minister:                      Iiro Viinanen (con)  [4]
 Minister of Justice:                    Hannele Pokka (cen)
 Minister of the Interior:               Mauri Pekkarinen (cen)
 Minister of Defense:                    Elisabeth Rehn (swe)  [5]
 Minister of Education:                  Riitta Uosukainen (con)
 Minister of Culture:                    Tytti Isohookana-Asunmaa (cen)  [6]
 Minister of Agriculture:                Martti Pura (cen)
 Minister of Traffic and Communications: Ole Norrback (swe)
 Minister of Trade and Industry:         Kauko Juhantalo (cen)
 Minister of Foreign Trade:              Pertti Salolainen (con)  [7]
 Minister of Health and Social Matters:  Eeva Kuuskoski (cen)  [8]
 Minister of Labor:                      Ilkka Kanerva (con)  [9]
 Minister of the Environment:            Sirpa Pietikainen (con)
 Minister of Housing:                    Pirjo Rusanen (con)  [10]
 
    cen = Center = Suomen Keskusta (8 portfolios);
    con = Conservatives = Kansallinen Kokoomus (6 portfolios);
    swe = Swedish = Ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (2 portfolios);
    chr = Christians = Kristillinen Liitto (1 portfolio).
    Total: 17 portfolios.
 
    Notes:
 
    [1]  At 37, Aho is the youngest Finnish prime minister ever, and this
    is his first time as any minister!  A political rocket that no one had
    heard of a year ago.  Rose to the position of chairman of Center last
    summer, after Vayrynen quit.  Was the competitor of Eeva Kuuskoski for
    this position.  Denies firmly wanting to become a presidential
    candidate. Has always been a professional politician, or a "political
    broiler".  Has been called a smiling cobra and the Kennedy of Kannus
    (his hometown, I suppose), because of his looks.
 
    [2]  Foreign minister (and other kinds before that) for many years,
    Vayrynen is the most experienced of the lot.  Proves that when you rise
    high enough in Finnish society, you're virtually untouchable (there was
    a scandal last year involving his conduct as the foreign minister
    during the 1982 presidential campaign for which he could clearly have
    been convicted of treason or something like that, but in the end the
    noise died down and nothing further became of that).  Demure about his
    presidential ambitions, which have been proved to be great.  His
    popularity among the general public is not high enough for that,
    however.
 
    [3]  A new post created for the chairman of the Christians.  The first
    Christian (party) minister ever.  Has also alcohol policy in his
    folder, taken away from the minister of health and social matters!! 
    Alchohol policy is not expected to be liberalized.
 
    [4]  Departing from custom, there is only one treasury minister this
    time.  Will have his hands full dealing with the bad recession.
 
    [5]  Rehn, Europe's first and the world's second female minister of
    defense, continues in her post, even though the Swedish would have
    preferred to get the culture portfolio instead.  Rehn has been
    phenomenal PR for the armed forces, giving a grandmother's touch to the
    machinery of violence.
 
    [6]  The culture portfolio is usually considered one of the "leftover"
    posts, given often people from the right area or faction or whatever 
    (underrepresented otherwise) rather than because of their abilities.
    This was especially true of the previous minister, and seems to apply
    here too.  T. I.-A. has no special qualifications for the post (is a
    PhD of political science, though.)  The Swedish would have wanted to
    get their Jorn Donner, who is eminently qualified, in the post.  He is
    an author and a director and producer of films, multilingual, smart,
    arrogant, outspoken, and one of the few, if not only, real
    personalities in Finnish politics.   What a shame that political
    convenience reigns over qualifications again.  They won't get far with
    their "new political culture" this way.
 
    [7]  Continues in his old post.
 
    [8]  The first pregnant Finnish minister.  How will the cabinet get a
    maternity leave replacement for her?  What if she takes the full three
    years she is entitled to?  Seriously, probably won't be away from power
    for too long.  Another ministry with traditionally two ministers but
    this time only one, because of her insistence.  A favorite of the
    general public out of possible Center presidential candidates.  Has a
    real chance to become president.
 
    [9]  Vice-PM.  Another tough post, because of the recession.
 
    [10]  Because of the historical lack of general housing policy in
    Finland, and the resulting near-catastrophical situation in that
    sector, a full-time portfolio has been created to deal with this
    matter.  At 31, Pietikainen is the youngest in the cabinet.
 
    The cabinet's main attention and job will have to be on the economy.
    The recession is the worst for decades, and austerity measures are
    being drafted.  They will of necessity be controversial and unpopular. 
    It seems to me that judging from the ideas so far, they are trying to
    save in some of the wrong places, too, like public construction and
    investment.  I learned already in the ninth grade that during hard
    times, the government should do the exact opposite to relieve the
    employment situation.
 
    The cabinet has 7 women out of 17, a Finnish record.  At least Norway
    has even a greater percentage of women ministers.  The percentage of
    women in the Finnish parliament is a world record, however (38.5%, or
    77 women out of 200 MPs).
 
    President Koivisto did not participate actively in the formation of the
    cabinet this time, since it was pretty clear from the beginning that it
    would be built around Center and Conservatives, since Social Democrats
    announced that they would go into opposition, and perhaps also because
    of criticism of his heavy-handed conduct during the last time.
 
    The former prime minister and former presidential candidate of
    Conservatives, Harri Holkeri, is not in this cabinet, and neither is
    Ilkka Suominen, the chairman of Conservatives.  He will quit his job
    this summer.  Holkeri has probably lost all presidential chances he has
    had.  Suominen's public image is not quite as tarnished as Holkeri's,
    and he is a possible candidate.
 
    Suominen got the post of Speaker of the Parliament, since the Social
    Democrats didn't want it (but later denied having said that, but too
    late.)
 
    The "new political culture" they're now trying is off to a bad start: 
    it's been promised that ministers would not take anymore jobs in the
    boards of big companies, something that is self-evident in most other
    democracies, but lo and behold, two or three such appointments have
    already been made.  Including ministers of Center, which campaigned
    aggressively against such practices (after having done the same thing
    for decades).  The people must have a short pretty memory for having
    thought that the Center is some kind of an alternative.
 
    The internal tensions of the cabinet are already showing:  three
    possible Center presidential candidates, three possible Conservative
    candidates for their party's chairmanship, mutual unease between Center
    and Conservatives.  This cabinet might not be so long-lived as its two
    predecessors, who served full four-year terms and achieved the no. 2
    and 1 places in longetivity statistics, and indeed Aho has said that
    the cabinet will resign after the 1994 presidential elections at the
    latest.
 
    My guesses for the presidential candidates of the three major parties:
 
    Conservatives:  Ilkka Suominen, barring a surprise name (a woman in the
    current cabinet?)
 
    Center:  Eeva Kuuskoski.
 
    Social Democrats:  Kalevi Sorsa.  Has currently a directorship in the
    Bank of Finland, a traditional holding tank for top politicians in
    Finland.
 
    And the winner:  Eeva Kuuskoski.
 
    In other Finnish political news, both the chairmen of Social Democrats
    (Paasio) and Center (Aho) have said that full membership in EC is worth
    consideration.  This has sent tremors through Norway, which now has to
    take this possibility into account more seriously, since now it looks
    like that Sweden certainly and Finland very probably are going to apply
    for membership.  Of the other EFTA countries, Austria has already
    applied and Switzerland is considering it more seriously, traditional
    neutrality notwithstanding, I hear.  The deciding question for Iceland
    will be the continuing protection of its fishing area.
 
  --
  Teemu Leisti                     What does Arnold Schwarzenegger have that
  U. of Helsinki, Finland          is long, president Bush has that is short,
  [email protected]            Madonna doesn't have, and the Pope has, but
                                   rarely uses?
 
                                   Answer:  last names.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Maternity leave for a minister? (was: Re: New Finnish Cabinet)
    Date: 30 Apr 91 10:12:40 GMT
    Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
 
    Teemu Leisti wonders, in his very good acount about the new finnish
    cabinet, about how Eeva Kuuskoski is going to manage both childbirth
    and her post in the cabinet. I myself a mother-to-be this summer 
    propably have read the news about her pregnancy with a little bit more
    care than Teemu has. 
 
    Eeva Kuuskoski said, the same time she "announced" her pregnancy,  that
    she would *not* use her right to have a maternity leave. She also said
    that no-one should worry, her child would be taken care of anyway. That
    should be true, as she is married now, so she is  not going to be a
    single parent. Maternity leave for health reasons, if everything goes
    well, is needed for 2-3 weeks. The rest of the leave is needed for
    childcare reasons, to enable breastfeeding etc. But I suppose that
    Kuuskoski as a medical doctor specialized in pediatrics is able  to
    consider all the aspects. She can propably take her summer leave when
    she wants to, I guess. She has also got a lot of experiance from her
    post as she also held the post of Minister of Health and Social 
    Matters 1983-87. I think she will manage; I'm very happy to see that
    pregnancy doesn't keep women from the topjobs. I should very much like
    to see Finland to be the first country with a pregnant president !
 
 
    Sirpa Wrede

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Finnish housing
    Date: 1 May 91 11:39:47 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Uutis Ankka)
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
    (Jyrki Kimmel) writes:
 
    > If Finland had had a socialist housing policy, a lot more economical
    > rental houses would be available. Instead, the non-policy in housing
    > has led to the situation where you practically (eventually) have to
    > own your apartment/house, which escalated the prices 2 years ago.
     
    > I guess with the resulting construction boom and then Kullberg's 
    > bank interest raise and now the recession, prices have gone down.
 
    Yes, the price of housing (ownership) has been going down for about a
    year now.  This has also ended the worst speculation on the market,
    which helped push up prices during the worst run-up.  (Some people used
    houses or apartments simply as objects of speculation, like stocks,
    without caring much about the housing situation.  These apartments
    would often simply be empty, having only a potential value.)
 
    > I bet the next thing the banks figure out is that people have now too
    > much debt since they bought the houses at high prices, and don't have
    > the property to back up the loans... Then they'll really get in trouble.
 
    The system is pretty screwed all right.  People have to work their
    whole lives to pay off the debt on their bought housing, becoming
    effectively vassals of the banks.  Then we have the situation of people
    who bought a new apt. when prices were high, then found out they
    couldn't get rid of the old one at the price they originally
    calculated, leaving them in a real trap.
 
    The original reason for the situation might be the little too cosy
    relationships among construction companies, politicians, and banks.  I
    wonder if one of the aims isn't to make sure people don't get too much
    out of line, having to work their whole life for the banks.  I wouldn't
    call this a socialist housing policy.
 
   --
   Teemu Leisti                  Happy May Day!
   U. of Helsinki, Finland       Workers of the world, having a nice hangover?
   [email protected]

    From: [email protected] (GERALD NADLER)
    Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.politics.people,
	clari.news.hot.east_europe,clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.news.europe
    Subject: Finnish president "hopes" Yeltsin will visit
    Date: 25 Jun 91 11:29:46 GMT
 
 
	MOSCOW (UPI) -- Finnish President Mauno Koivisto said Tuesday
representatives of the Russian republic would travel to his country for
talks and added he hopes Russian President-elect Boris Yeltsin will
visit.
	But Koivisto, who met with Yeltsin Tuesday, said he did not invite
Yeltsin officially because protocol prevents the president of a country
inviting one of a republic.
	He did not explain, however, why the president of the Finnish
parliament might not invite Yeltsin, beyond saying Finland is a unitary
federal country.
	The U.S. Congress invited Yeltsin this month for his just concluded
successful visit to the United States.
	"I did not invite Yeltsin, but I hope he will visit," Koivisto
said.
	Koivisto, however, spoke publicly of the dilemma, of now having to
deal more with presidents of the various Soviet republics who are
becoming more active.
	President Bush alluded to the same problem when he received Yeltsin
at the White House. The problem is expected to grow as Yeltsin has
promised to develop a corps of Russian republic diplomats.
	Koivisto, who arrived Monday for an official two-day visit at the
invitation of Gorbachev, devoted the first part of his second day to a
meeting with Yeltsin and a news conference.
	"We agreed that the Russian (republic) government will send
representatives to Finland for discussions of many topics," Koivisto
told reporters. He said the visit would likely be soon.
	Koivisto went out of his way to say Finland, traditionally a major
trading partner of the Soviet Union, cherishes the long tradition of
links with the central Soviet government.
	But he let it be known Finland, the Soviet Union's northern neighbor,
was aware of the more vigorous role the republics were starting to play
on the international stage.
	Yeltsin, who received Koivisto in what the president-elect calls his
"White House," said that before, "foreign governments only dealt with
the center and not the republics."
	Koivisto said his visit to the Soviet Union was mainly of a political
nature, but he apprently devoted a great deal of time to trying to iron
out growing trade problems with the Soviet Union.
	The difficulties emerged at the start of the year when the Soviet
Union went over to trade in free currencies, dropping the barter system
under which Finland received natural gas and oil as payments and sent
Moscow finished products.
	As a result, the Soviet share of Finland's overall foreign trade has
fallen from 30 percent to 5 percent, and Moscow currently owes Finland
$1.25 billion.
	Koivisto said repeatedly there was much discussion to try to iron out
the problems, but he did not specifically say any single solution had
been found.

    From: [email protected] (Pekka J Taipale)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: "Three little Finlands..."
    Date: 2 Sep 91 11:00:23 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet pseudouser id)
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
 
    In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Hans
    Rancke-Madsen) writes:

    >>State James A. Baker stated that the U.S.S.R. would be better off with 
    >>"three little Finlands" on its border rather than hostile Baltic 
    >>republics...  Besides being humourous, does this strike any Finns as 
    >>offensive??  Any Latvians, Lithuanians, or Estoninans??
 
    Not really (for Finns). After all, it implies that we're "the big
    Finland" which is music to the ears of a nationalist in me...
 
   >On a related note, will Finland be trying to get Karelen (?) back
   >now that the Soviet Union is fragmenting in all directions?
 
    There's impressingly little talk about it. Some older people - those
    who were born there and left their homes during WWII - would like to
    get it back, but most people think that Karelia is ruined, destroyed
    wasteland. It's better to have good memoirs of it, rather than the ugly
    realism. Karelia is incredibly polluted. If we were to get it back,
    we'd have to do massive investments to stop destruction of the nature.
 
    On the other hand, pollution from Karelia is already creeping to our
    side of the border. So, it sounds pretty justified that because we'll
    just have to put a lot of money and work to make things better, it
    would be reasonable that in return we get Karelia (And Petsamo) back.
 
    Karelia is only usable for us as resources for forest industry - and
    there's not much use for that, because our forests are growing faster
    than we can chop them, anyway. Besides, in many areas in the Soviet
    side the trees are unusable. There are so much bullets, grenade
    fragments etc. from the wars in 1939-1944 in the trees that they're
    useless as timber or pulp material.
 
    Petsamo area (Finland's second hand that used to reach to the Arctic
    Sea) had great nickel mines, but the factories there pollute so much
    that they should be closed down immediately.
 
    But yes, I still think that it would be right if we got back the areas
    that were taken from us by force. After all, the land occupied by the
    Russians had over 300,000 people living in there. All these refugees
    had to be given a place to live elsewhere in Finland. Not many would be
    moving back - because the Russians have been treating our beloved land
    as wasteland - but still, the Russians would do the right thing if they
    were to give it back to us.
 
--
[email protected]     "Where were you born?"        -- "In St. Petersburg."
                         "Where did you grow up?"      -- "In Petrograd."
                         "Where did you work?"         -- "In Leningrad."
                         "Where are you going to die?" -- "In St. Petersburg."

    From: [email protected] (Janne Kivel�)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: I guessed!!
    Date: 24 Mar 92 08:56:13 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet pseudouser id)
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
  
    Removing compulsory Swedish language from Finnish schools does not
    threaten the status of Swedish-speaking Finns in any way. I think what
    the Swedish- speaking Finns fear is that this would lead to further
    actions that would gradually remove the official status of Swedish
    language altogether. The main job of SFP (Svenska Folkpartiet) is to
    prevent this from happening. 
 
    The majority of Swedish-speaking Finns living in the coastal areas are
    not and have never been any upper-class citizens. The so called upper
    class was Swedish-speaking because the only way to get education back
    in the 19th century was to speak Swedish. And the majority of Finnish
    activists were originally Swedish-speaking too. Our former president
    Paasikivi changed his name from Hellsten by the way.
 
    There are simply so many foreign languages to learn in Finnish high
    schools. Increasing alternatives automatically means removing
    compulsory Swedish.
 
    I still would like to see the Swedes recognize the status of Finnish
    language in Sweden. I think Jarmo is right when he says that you can't
    say it's simply the language of some immigrants (like Turkish,
    Serbo-croat or other). Finnish minority has existed in Sweden for
    centuries. First Finland was part of Swedish 'empire' and later there
    was a large Finnish-speaking  minority living within the borders of
    present-day Sweden.
 
    The Swedes should understand that though the policy of assimilation has
    been a 'success' it's still not acceptable.
 
    Janne Kivel"a

    From: [email protected] (Teemu Leisti)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Finnish Economy
    Date: 7 Apr 92 09:22:02 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Uutis Ankka)
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    [email protected] (Jon Bell) writes:
 
 > Buried in the inside pages of today's (5 April) newspaper ("The State", of
 > Columbia, South Carolina) is the following bit of news from Finland:
 > 
 > 
 > "Prime Minister Esko Aho's year-old Cabinet called an emergency session
 > on Saturday in an attempt to stabilize the economy and support the weakening
 > currency.
 > 
 > "Aho called the meeting after up to $2.2 billion flowed out of Finland on
 > Friday.  Currency dealers, lacking confidence in the weak Finnish economy
 > and fearing a devaluation, traded markkaa for foreign currency from the
 > central bank and deposited it abroad.
 > 
 > "The transfers cut central bank reserves by a third and fed speculation that
 > the currency would have to be devalued on Monday."
 > 
 > 
 > When _any_ news from Finland appears in a South Carolina newspaper (or for
 > that matter in most U.S. newspapers), that usually means it's _big_ news in
 > Finland.  Can anyone provide some details?   My newspaper probably won't
 > bother to print a followup report...
 
    The newspaper got it right.  The Finnish economy has been falling for
    the past year and a half.  Unemployment is up to about 12%, or well   
    over 300 000 people, and rising.  A couple of months ago there was a
    run on the markka which finally forced the central bank to devalue by
    14% (if I remember correctly).  Another similar devaluation would have
    meant the fall of the current cabinet and a serious blow to the
    credibility of Finnish macroeconomic policy, or what's left of it.
 
    During the weekend, the cabinet cobbled together a package of budget
    reductions for the next few years.  Social security expenditures are to
    be cut across the board.  However, the huge export subsidies for the
    farmers remained untouched, and no structural changes are proposed. 
    The cabinet seems to be simply responding to crisii, not showing very
    much initiative or vision.
 
    The director of the Bank of Finland was also dumped during the weekend,
    and another person (a woman, by the way) appointed in his place.
 
    Unlike the last time, the Bank of Finland had secured the support of
    other central banks, including that of Germany, in its bid to keep the
    markka stable.  Yesterday this seemed to be working, and another
    devaluation within a short time may be avoided.
 
    --  Teemu Leisti  /  U. of Helsinki, Finland  /  [email protected]
 
 The Net:  A wonderful invention enabling one to make enemies
           quickly and easily across the globe.

    From: [email protected] (Teemu Leisti)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Ruling parties in Norden
    Date: 15 Apr 92 13:13:36 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Uutis Ankka)
    Organization: University of Helsinki
 
    [email protected] (Armagan Ozdinc) writes:
 
  > Could someone tell me what the current ruling parties in Nordic countries
  > (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark) are? Where do those parties
  > stand in the political spectrum (social democrat, socialist, far-right,
  > center-right, etc.)?
 
    In Finland, the cabinet is a coalition of four parties.  The two main
    ones are the Center party and the Conservative party, which is
    right-of-center, but the same caveat made of the Danish parties has to
    be made here:  What's right-of-center here may look distinctly leftist
    from the US.  On some issues Center seems even more conservative than
    the Conservatives; notably on the support system for the farmers, whose
    special interest lobby Center has mostly been.  The PM is of Center.
 
    The three main Finnish parties -- the two mentioned above and the
    Social Democrats, currently in opposition -- are in fact rather hard to
    tell apart these days.
 
    The two small supporting parties are the Swedish People's party, which
    has been in most coalition governments in recent memory, and the
    Christians, who have one minister, who's a joke.  His fields of
    competence are development cooperation (as in the Third World) and
    alcohol policy.  Yes, that's right.  He doesn't speak any foreign
    languages.  The Swedish are a special interest lobby of the Swedish-
    speaking minority, and encompass a wide political spectrum.  The
    Christians are very conservative, but fortunately they're a just a
    joke.
 
    --  Teemu Leisti  /  U. of Helsinki, Finland  /  [email protected]
 
    The Net:  A wonderful invention enabling one to make enemies quickly
              and easily across the globe.

    From: [email protected] (Jyrki Kuoppala)
    Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Estonia, Carelia, Finland
    Date: 30 Apr 92 11:21:19 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet pseudouser id)
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
 
    In article <[email protected]>, vadim@bolvan (Vadim S. Kaplunovsky)
    writes:

   >Finland was _never_ a part of Russia --- like Poland, it was a separate
   >kingdom ruled by Russian emperors.  Unlike Poland, Finland was retained
   >an almost complete autonomy of internal affairs, had a completely different
   >legal system and by the early 20th century was about as dependent on Russia
   >as Canada was dependent on England.
 
    Hmm, talking about human right violations and such, this brings to my
    mind the refugee "question" in Finland (Finland takes less
    refugees/foreigners than just about any country).
 
    A lantalainen (person from Southern Finland) was having a beer in a bar
    in Northern Lappland, talking with a local of Sami descent.  The
    converstion went like this:
 
    "So, what do you think about the refugee question?" asks the
    lantalainen "Well, I say let's be cautious - we've got nothing but
    trouble from the last ones, those who came from the Ural"
 

 
    (for those who need explaining, Finland was populated by the Sami
    people who the Fenno-Ugric people pushed to the North when they came to
    the area.  Only a few years ago has the Sami language been given at
    least some status in the laws, and there are many other things where
    Finland doesn't stand very honorable concerning the rights of the Sami
    people)
 
    //Jyrki
    
    [for more on the Sami people and their language, see note 352.]

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Jarmo Ryyti)
    Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
    Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1992 06:36:48 GMT
 
    What about Republic of Karelia? 
    
    What you think about it? 
    Is it a part of Norden I mean in new Europe? 
    
    I know they want more contacts and co-opration now the with the
    Scandinavia and for instance University of Petrozavodsk in specialized
    in Scandinavian history  of the C.I.S. universities and swedish is
    teached over there. They also have the largest institute of Finnish
    language outside Finland over there.

    Regards,

    Jarmo Ryyti

   Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
   From: [email protected] (Jyrki Kuoppala)
   Subject: CIA World Factbook 1991 on nordic countries
   Sender: [email protected] (Usenet pseudouser id)
   Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
   Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 14:41:44 GMT
 
    Copied from the gopher server tree, definitions for terms available
    there.
 
 
Finland
------------ Geography
Total area: 337,030 km2; land area: 305,470 km2
 
Comparative area: slightly smaller than Montana
 
Land boundaries: 2,628 km total; Norway 729 km, Sweden 586 km,
USSR 1,313 km
 
Coastline: 1,126 km excluding islands and coastal indentations
 
Maritime claims:
 Contiguous zone: 6 nm;
 Continental shelf: 200 m (depth) or to depth of exploitation;
 Exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm;
 Territorial sea: 4 nm
 
Climate: cold temperate; potentially subarctic, but comparatively
mild because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current,
Baltic Sea, and more than 60,000 lakes
 
Terrain: mostly low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes
and low hills
 
Natural resources: timber, copper, zinc, iron ore, silver
 
Land use: arable land 8%; permanent crops 0%; meadows and pastures
NEGL%; forest and woodland 76%; other 16%; includes irrigated NEGL%
 
Environment: permanently wet ground covers about 30% of land;
population concentrated on small southwestern coastal plain
 
Note: long boundary with USSR; Helsinki is northernmost national
capital on European continent
 
------------ People
Population: 4,991,131 (July 1991), growth rate 0.3% (1991)
 
Birth rate: 12 births/1,000 population (1991)
 
Death rate: 10 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
 
Net migration rate: NEGL migrants/1,000 population (1991)
 
Infant mortality rate: 6 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)
 
Life expectancy at birth: 71 years male, 80 years female (1991)
 
Total fertility rate: 1.7 children born/woman (1991)
 
Nationality: noun--Finn(s); adjective--Finnish
 
Ethnic divisions: Finn, Swede, Lapp, Gypsy, Tatar
 
Religion: Evangelical Lutheran 89%, Greek Orthodox 1%,
none 9%, other 1%
 
Language: Finnish 93.5%, Swedish (both official) 6.3%; small Lapp-
and Russian-speaking minorities
 
Literacy: 100% (male NA%, female NA%) age 15 and over can
read and write (1980 est.)
 
Labor force: 2,470,000; services 38.2%, mining and manufacturing
22.7%, commerce 14.9%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 8.8%,
construction 8.0%, transportation and communications 7.2% (1989)
 
Organized labor: 80% of labor force
 
------------ Government
Long-form name: Republic of Finland
 
Type: republic
 
Capital: Helsinki
 
Administrative divisions: 12 provinces (laanit,
singular--laani); Ahvenanmaa, Hame, Keski-Suomi, Kuopio, Kymi,
Lappi, Mikkeli, Oulu, Pohjois-Karjala, Turku ja Pori, Uusimaa, Vaasa
 
Independence: 6 December 1917 (from Soviet Union)
 
Constitution: 17 July 1919
 
Legal system: civil law system based on Swedish law; Supreme Court
may request legislation interpreting or modifying laws; accepts
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
 
National holiday: Independence Day, 6 December (1917)
 
Executive branch: president, prime minister, deputy prime minister,
Council of State (Valtioneuvosto)
 
Legislative branch: unicameral Eduskunta
 
Judicial branch: Supreme Court (Korkein Oikeus)
 
Leaders:
 
Chief of State--President Mauno KOIVISTO (since 27 January 1982);
 
Head of Government--Prime Minister Esko AHO (since 26 April 1991);
Deputy Prime Minister Ilkka KANERVA (since 26 April 1991)
 
Political parties and leaders:
 
government coalition--Center Party, Esko AHO;
National Coalition (Conservative) Party, Ilkka SUOMINEN; and
Swedish People's Party, (Johan) Ole NORRBACK;
 
other parties--Social Democratic Party, Pertti PAASIO;
Leftist Alliance (Communist) consisting of People's Democratic League and
Democratic Alternative, Claes ANDERSSON;
Green League, Heidi HAUTALA;
Rural Party, Heikki RIIHIJAERVI;
Finnish Christian League, Esko ALMGREN;
Liberal People's Party, Kyosti LALLUKKA
 
Suffrage: universal at age 18
 
Elections:
 
President--last held 31 January-1 February and 15 February
1988 (next to be held January 1994);
results--Mauno KOIVISTO 48%, Paavo VAYRYNEN 20%, Harri HOLKERI 18%;
 
Eduskunta--last held 17 March 1991 (next to be held March
1995);
results--Center Party 24.8%, Social Democratic Party 22.1%, National
Coalition (Conservative) Party 19.3%, Leftist Alliance (Communist)
10.1%, Green League 6.8%, Swedish People's Party 5.5%, Rural 4.8%,
Finnish Christian League 3.1%, Liberal People's Party 0.8%;
seats--(200 total) Center Party 55, Social Democratic Party 48,
National Coalition (Conservative) Party 40, Leftist Alliance (Communist)
19, Swedish People's Party 12, Green League 10, Finnish Christian League
8, Rural 7, Liberal People's Party 1
 
Communists: 28,000 registered members; an additional 45,000 persons
belong to People's Democratic League
 
Other political or pressure groups:
Finnish Communist Party-Unity, Esko-Juhani TENNILA;
Constitutional Rightist Party;
Finnish Pensioners Party;
Communist Workers Party, Timo LAHDENMAKI
 
Member of: AfDB, AG (observer), AsDB, BIS, CCC, CE, CSCE, EBRD,
ECE, EFTA, ESA (associate), FAO, G-9, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC,
IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LORCS, NAM (guest), NC, NEA, NIB, OAS
(observer), OECD, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNFICYP,
UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIIMOG, UNMOGIP, UNTSO, UPU, WHO, WIPO,
WMO, WTO
 
Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Jukka VALTASAARI; Chancery at
3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington DC 20016; telephone (202) 363-2430;
there are Finnish Consulates General in Los Angeles and New York,
and Consulates in Chicago and Houston;
 
US--Ambassador John G. WEINMANN; Embassy at Itainen Puistotie
14A, SF-00140, Helsinki (mailing address is APO New York 09664);
telephone [358] (0) 171931
 
Flag: white with a blue cross that extends to the edges of the
flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in
the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)
 
------------ Economy
    
    Overview: Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free market
    economy, with per capita output nearly three-fourths the US figure. Its
    main economic force is the manufacturing sector--principally the wood,
    metals, and engineering industries. Trade is important, with the export
    of goods representing about 30% of GDP. Except for timber and several
    minerals, Finland depends on imported raw materials, energy, and some
    components of manufactured goods. Because of the climate, agricultural
    development is limited to maintaining self-sufficiency in basic
    commodities. The economy, which experienced an average of 4.9% annual
    growth between 1987 and 1989, leveled off in 1990 and is now in a
    recession facing negative growth in 1991. The clearing account system
    between Finland and the Soviet Union in the postwar period--mainly
    Soviet oil and gas for Finnish manufactured goods--had kept Finland
    isolated from world recessions; the system, however, was dismantled on
    1 January 1991 in favor of hard currency trade. As a result, Finland
    must increase its competitiveness in certain sectors, for example,
    textiles, foodstuffs, paper, and metals, and has already begun to shift
    trade westward. Finland, as a member of EFTA, is negotiating a European
    Economic Area arrangement with the EC which would allow for free
    movement of capital, goods, services, and labor within the
    organization.
 
GDP: $77.3 billion, per capita $15,500; real growth rate - 0.1%
(1990)
 
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.0% (1991 est.)
 
Unemployment rate: 5.7% (1991 est.)
 
Budget: revenues $35.1 billion; expenditures $33.1 billion,
including capital expenditures of $1.4 billion (1990)
 
Exports: $23.3 billion (f.o.b., 1989);
 commodities--timber, paper and pulp, ships, machinery, clothing and
 footwear;
 partners--EC 44.0% (UK 12.0%, FRG 10.8%), USSR 14.5%, Sweden 14.3%,
 US 6.4%
  
Imports: $24.4 billion (c.i.f., 1989);
 commodities--foodstuffs, petroleum and petroleum products,
 chemicals, transport equipment, iron and steel, machinery, textile yarn
 and fabrics, fodder grains;
 partners--EC 44.5% (FRG 17.3%, UK 6.6%), Sweden 13.6%, USSR 11.5%,
 US 6.3%
 
External debt: $5.3 billion (1989)
 
Industrial production: growth rate - 3.0% (1991 est.); accounts
for 28% of GDP
 
Electricity: 13,324,000 kW capacity; 49,330 million kWh produced,
9,940 kWh per capita (1989)
 
Industries: metal manufacturing and shipbuilding, forestry and wood
processing (pulp, paper), copper refining, foodstuffs, chemicals,
textiles, clothing
 
Agriculture: accounts for 8% of GNP (including forestry); livestock
production, especially dairy cattle, predominates; forestry is an
important export earner and a secondary occupation for the rural
population; main crops--cereals, sugar beets, potatoes; 85%
self-sufficient, but short of food and fodder grains; annual fish catch
about 160,000 metric tons
 
Economic aid: donor--ODA and OOF commitments (1970-89), $2.7
billion
 
Currency: markka (plural--markkaa); 1 markka (FMk) or
Finmark = 100 pennia
 
Exchange rates: markkaa (FMk) per US$1--3.6421 (January 1991),
3.8235 (1990), 4.2912 (1989), 4.1828 (1988), 4.3956 (1987), 5.0695
(1986), 6.1979 (1985)
 
Fiscal year: calendar year
 
------------ Communications
Railroads: 5,924 km total; Finnish State Railways (VR) operate a
total of 5,863 km 1.524-meter gauge, of which 480 km are multiple track
and 1,445 km are electrified
 
Highways: about 103,000 km total, including 35,000 km paved
(bituminous, concrete, bituminous-treated surface) and 38,000 km unpaved
(stabilized gravel, gravel, earth); additional 30,000 km of private
(state-subsidized) roads
 
Inland waterways: 6,675 km total (including Saimaa Canal); 3,700 km
suitable for steamers
 
Pipelines: natural gas, 580 km
 
Ports: Helsinki, Oulu, Pori, Rauma, Turku; 6 secondary, numerous
minor ports
 
Merchant marine: 83 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 807,020
GRT/831,774 DWT; includes 3 passenger, 10 short-sea passenger, 16 cargo,
1 refrigerated cargo, 23 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 14 petroleum, oils, and
lubricants (POL) tanker, 6 chemical tanker, 2 liquefied gas, 8 bulk
 
Civil air: 42 major transport
 
Airports: 160 total, 157 usable; 57 with permanent-surface runways;
none with runways over 3,659 m; 23 with runways 2,440-3,659 m;
22 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
 
Telecommunications: good service from cable and radio relay
network; 3,140,000 telephones; stations--4 AM, 42 (101 relays) FM, 79
(197 relays) TV; 2 submarine cables; satellite service via Swedish earth
stations; earth stations--2 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT and 1 EUTELSAT
 
------------ Defense Forces
Branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Frontier Guard (including
Sea Guard)
 
Manpower availability: males 15-49, 1,313,346; 1,089,217 fit for
military service; 32,866 reach military age (17) annually
 
Defense expenditures: $1.1 billion, 1.5% of GDP (1989 est.)
 

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Jonne Henrikki Kolima)
    Subject: Re: Reflections on jury duty
    Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
    Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1992 12:25:43 GMT
 
 
 
	Here's a briefing of the Finnish juridicial system.
 
	1. The lowest court of justice is either the City Court ( for the
	   bigger cities) or the Rural District Court ( for rural areas)
	   There are 27 City and 145 Rural District courts.
 
		from these you can appeal to 
 
	2. The Court of Appeal. 6 of these.
 
		and if we're talkin about a possible precedent,
		you can appeal to
	
	3. The Supreme Court. Only one of these (as you propably guessed).
 
	Now the main difference between the Finnish and US systems is that
	we have no people's jurys (thank God). The courts are run by judges
	(1-5 in number) and they are usually officials too (there's also
	non-lawyer judges). Official judges work on permanent basis and
	non-lawyer judges are hired for a certain duration (4 yrs. usually).
	
	The nearest thing to jurys would be the panel of lay assessors in
	Rural District courts. This panel is formed of 7 lay members who
	each have one vote when deciding the matter. The single judge in
	Rural courts has the last say in the matter and the panel can't
	overrule the judge's decision unless all 7 are agains it.
	Note that this panel is part of ONLY Rural District courts.
 
	Yes, the juridicial proceedings are different in civil and criminal
	cases. In the criminal cases the state (i.e. the prosecutor) basically
	always files a suit against the criminal, and the cases cannot be 
	settled.
 
	The civil cases can be settled between the persons concerned and it's
	up to the plaintiff to file a suit if he wants to.
 
	This is all so very general and if you want further information 
-- 
                 -jhk- 

    With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the general world-wide
    economic downturn, Finland appears to have been hit very hard in the
    last few years, with high unemployment, etc.  Wondered if any Finnish
    readers could comment on how retirees and farmers (dairy, particularly)
    have been affected?  What has happened to food, gasoline, and other
    prices?  How about interest rates?  Kiitos.  Terveisia, Pauli

>             -< Kuinka menee Suomessa - How is Finland doing now? >-

In short: Not very well.

You could try also the EEMELI::FNO conference to get a larger Finnish
audience (a few of us reads this conference, but there'll be a couple
hundred more in the FNO conference).

...petri

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Olli-Jukka Paloneva Tkkk)
    Subject: Re: Finns on Internet
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet NEWS)
    Organization: ABO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY, FINLAND
    Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 15:12:18 GMT          
 
    Finland is one of the most computerised and mobiletelephonisized
    countries. In Finland, use of Internet is financed by the Ministry Of
    Education to promote email-culture. In Turku School Of Business
    Administration for example there are about 440 email users and almost
    half of those are currently active users. Here in Bergen for example,
    an email address is given to everyone, however they tend not to be
    enthusiaists (Norwegian School Of Economics and Business Administration
    - NHH * Norges Handelshoyskole). I have sent some of my email posting
    to mountain hiking, which seems to be healthy too.
 
    In Finland there are about dozen or two everyday-net-commentators, who
    tend to promote discussion introducing new items to confirm their
    well-known ideas. Something like 100-1000 netters follow the discussion
    and many have casual comments. The professor level comments are
    delivered from the University of Vaasa, which is situated in a region
    well-known for its straight-speaking people.
 
    Hej,
 
    Olli-Jukka Paloneva - [email protected]

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Tony Matti Juhani Paso)
    Subject: Re: Cultural aspects of Finland 
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet News admin)
    Organization: University of Turku, Finland
    Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 20:39:23 GMT
 
    I don't claim to be an expert on this, but one thing to expect with an
    100% certainty is that your finnish contacts will take you to sauna,
    whether you like it or not. Refusing can be considered somewhat rude.
    Oh, and one thing: in a finnish sauna you're supposed to bathe nude. We 
    don't feel embarrassed by that, although reportedly some foreign guests
    have been a bit bewildered when their host starts stripping.
 
    In formal/informal occasions alcohol consumption is to be expected in
    some degree. In my opinion we Finns are a bit stereotyped as heavy
    drinkers, although there is national pride in the fact that we are the
    only people capable of drinking the Russians under the table.
    Especially the older generations are legendary at it. The
    yuppie-generation of the eighties is supposed to be a bit more
    temperate.
 
    Comparing us with our eastern and southern neighbours, we propably are
    not as much of a gift-giving people. 'Tuliaset' are given and accepted
    but we are not as lavish with it as the Russians and the Estonians (in
    my experience).
 
    Can't claim to speak with experience on this, but I've heard us being
    compared with the Japanese in the respect, that both peoples don't mind
    being silent for a while. A pause in the conversation doesn't bother a
    finn much. We don't have a compulsion of speaking all the time. If your
    Finnish business partner doesn't nod in unison all the time, it doesn't
    necessarily mean that he/she disagrees with you.
 
    Small talk is not known to be our most strongest suits. Individual
    differences apply.
 
    If you'd really wan't to charm your Finnish hosts, you'd do your
    homework and try to learn something in beforehand. How to say 'thank
    you' (kiitos), the most popular sport (ice hockey), small trivia: name
    three European capitals of war participants in WWII that weren't
    occupied  (London, Moscow and Helsinki. Ours was the only one on the
    losing side. You knowing that, should tickle your hosts pink) and that
    sort of stuff. Generally speaking, we're suprised if somebody out there
    has heard of us. We're not a neighbour of Iran, (we might as well be)
    as I've been informed once.
 
    The proper english word for us is Finn/Finns. In finnish the
    equivalents are s. suomalainen/ pl. suomalaiset. You might encounter a
    term resembling Finlander: in swedish both terms finnar and finl{ndare
    are used. The former is used for finnish-speaking finns (94% of the
    population) and the latter covers all finns regardless of mother
    tongue.
 
    Tony.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: [email protected] (Jarmo Ryyti)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Cultural aspects of Finland 
    Date: 13 Oct 1993 14:25:28 +0200
    Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
 
    I refer shortly on David Marsh's licenciate work at our university  in
    the issue:
 
    * "A reluctance by a Finnish native speaker, to "talk personally" in
    situations in which people do not know each other well may make a Finn
    appear withdrawn,shy,boring, even unfreindly"
 
    * "In formal and semi-formal situations a Finnish native-speaker has
    little tolerance for a person who interrupts or constantly "pushes" in
    when she/he speaks"
 
    * "Indeed the term "silent listener" has been used to describe the
    Finnish conversationalist"
 
    * Social distance: "Once over the initial hurdle of starting a
    conversation with the stranger the Finnish native-speaker may be more
    deferential and self-effacing towards English speaker than vice-versa"   

    jarmo

   From: [email protected] (AP)
   Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.western,clari.world.europe.eastern,
	clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.news.politics.people
   Subject: Zhirinovsky Visits Finland
   Date: Mon, 4 Apr 94 12:30:25 PDT
 
	HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- Russian nationalist leader Vladimir
Zhirinovsky assured his Finnish hosts on Monday, "I am a friend of
your country, not an enemy."
	The comment was made as reporters asked him to clarify warnings
he made on television shortly before boarding a flight to the
Finnish capital in which he said Finland would be "smoked out" if
it joined NATO.
	Zhirinovsky said he merely wanted to warn the Finns of the risks
of abandoning neutrality and said "Finland can join whatever group
it wants. It's their business."
	"But if Finland joins NATO then it would be against the
interests of Russia," he added.
	The Russian extremist politician, banned from several European
countries, arrived as part of a 21-member delegation to attend a
seminar on Russia's possible membership in the Council of Europe.
	Finland is about to join NATO's Partnership for Peace,
continuing a trend away from Russian influence since the end of the
Cold War.
	Partnership for Peace allows neutral countries or those formerly
under Soviet domination to join the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization in military exercises, peacekeeping operations and
other activities, but stops short of full membership.
	Finland, which shares a 780-mile border with Russia, fought two
bitter wars against the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1944.
	In a television interview prior to his departure, Zhirinovsky
warned Finland against joining NATO, asserting that in any future
war involving the NATO allies: "You will be cannon fodder. ... You
will be smoked out."
	Speaking to reporters at Helsinki airport, he toned down his
remarks and denied reports he had demanded that Finland once again
be incorporated into Russia as it was during the Czarist empire
from 1809 to 1917.
	"No. I didn't have this opinion," he said. "Russia wants
Finland to be an independent, neutral state."

    From: [email protected] (Reuters)
    Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.western
    Subject: Finland to Join NATO's Partnership for Peace
    Date: Mon, 18 Apr 94 3:10:36 PDT
 
	 HELSINKI, Finland (Reuter) - Neutral Finland formally
decided Monday to join NATO's Partnership for Peace program.
	 "Finland supports the general goals of the Partnership for
Peace, which serve stability and a development of cooperatively
based security in Europe," a foreign ministry memorandum said.
	 "In the cooperation, Finland is primarily a donating
partner and does not seek any new defense solutions in a
partnership for peace," it added.
	 Partnership for Peace provides for limited military
cooperation between NATO and former Warsaw Pact adversaries. All
non-NATO countries in Europe were invited to join the scheme
launched by the Western alliance three months ago.
	 Finland's widely expected decision to join was taken at a
government meeting chaired by President Martti Ahtisaari.
	 No date for signing the partnership agreement has yet been
fixed but the Finnish News Agency said Foreign Minister Heikki
Haavisto may sign it in Brussels early May.
	 Prime Minister Esko Aho stressed last week that the move was
not a step towards membership of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. Finland's position was different from that of East
European states with security policy interests in the program,
he said.
	 Finland has a policy of independent defense and military
non-alignment but it does not rule out other options in future.
It hopes to join the European Union from January 1.

   From: [email protected] (AP)
   Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.northern,clari.news.labor
   Subject: Finland Leader Donates Raise
   Date: Tue, 10 May 94 11:30:08 PDT
 
	HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- In a symbolic move reflecting the
gravity of the recession, Finland's newly elected president will
donate his pay raise to the unemployed.
	The gift of about $1,600 a month was announced Tuesday by
President Martti Ahtisaari's office, fulfilling a campaign promise
he made in February.
	The money will be given in installments to some of the country's
500,000 jobless, the office said.
	Finland is suffering its worst recession in 60 years, with an
unemployment rate of nearly 20 percent.
	Before the election, the government raised the president's
annual tax-free pay to $103,300.

Newsgroups: alt.politics.ec,eunet.politics,soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected] (Jari Olavi Partanen)
Subject: Re: Elections in Finland
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet News admin)
Organization: University of Turku, Finland
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 08:56:30 GMT
 
Jorma Kyppo <[email protected]> writes:
>The new parliament of Finland, elected 19th March.
>Social Democrats               28.3             63 (48)
>Central Party                  19.9             44 (55)
>Coalition (conservatives)      17.9             39 (40)
>The Left Union (communists)    11.2             22 (19)
>Green Party                     6.5              9 (10)
>Swedish National Party          5.1             11 (11)
>Christian Union of Finland      3.0              7 ( 8)
>Young-Finnish Party             2.8              2 ( -)
>Countryside Party of Finland    1.3              1 ( 7)
>Ekological Party                0.3              1 ( -)
>Aaland                                           1
 
>Swedish National Party did it again. They got pretty many representants,
>though Swedish speaking population is dicreasing. They are able to get
>several good Finnish candidates and Finnish voters. Theuy always fit
>in almost all kind of governements.
 
186 members of the parliament have Finnish as their mother tongue, 
14 Swedish (7%). The Swedish-speaking are from the following parties:
Swedish people's party 9 (from 11), social-democrats 2, green 1,
leftists 1, Aaland 1.
 
>Commonly it seems that CP succeeded anyway to get back it's EU-opponent
>voters (70% of party members), though the pr�me minister, one of the
>main persons in Finnish EU-membership, is amember of party. Just like
>one of the main EU-opponents, who works now in EU parliament!
>Anyway, it seems that the new representants are percentually more
>EU-critical than the former ones. It seems to be same also in other
>parties, but only near future will show how it is going to be.
 
It indeed seems that the EU-criticists would have gained proportionally
more seats inside the center party. However, the center party was the
biggest loser of the elections (-11 seats). There were two parties, which
loudly wanted Finland out of EU: The union of free Finland (no seats),
the communist labour party (no seats). Other EU-critical parties are:
leftist union (22, winning 3), the Christian league (7 seats, loss 1),
the rural party (1 seat, loss 6).
 
The winner of the elections was the social-democratic party, which is
one of the strongly pro-EU parties. Our probable next prime-
minister Mr. Lipponen was one of the most active EU-supporters.
I would not expect any problems between the Finnish parliament and
the EU during the next 4 years!
 
Jari Partanen

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Jari Partanen)
    Subject: Statistics: This is FINLAND
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet News admin)
    Organization: University of Turku, Finland
    Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 10:02:48 GMT
 
 
    In the following I shall tell those statistics, in which Finland was in
    the top (or bottom) of the list of 15 countries of European Union in
    the booklet "Taskutilasto: Suomi ja muut EU-maat" (Tilastokeskus,
    1995). (There were more statistics, where Finland was the extreme, than
    statistics, where Sweden or Denmark was the extreme.)
    
______________________________
 
Finland is EU's most sparsely populated country, only 15 inhabitants
per square kilometer.
 
Does Finland have forests? Certainly, 76.2 % of the area is forest,
which is more than anywhere else in EU.
 
Does Finland have lakes? Certainly, 9.9 % of the area is lakes or
rivers, which is more than anywhere else in EU.
 
This also means that Finland's fresh water reserves are EU's best,
21960 cube meters / Finn.
 
Foreigners have not found their way to the forests: the number of
foreign citizens (46000 in 1993) is EU's lowest.
 
The collapse of Finland's economy in the beginning of this decade was
so severe, that the annual growth rate of Finland's GNP in 1983-1993
was in the average only 1.0 %, the lowest in EU.
 
The depth of the collapse may also be seen in the statistics which
tells that the volume of retail trade was in Finland in 1994 20 % lower
than in 1990 (the biggest drop of EU-countries).
 
The volume of import was in 1993 22 % less than in 1990 (again biggest
drop).
 
Also inflation dropped to bottom figures: in 1994 it was 1.6 %, the
lowest of EU-countries.
 
Of all EU-countries, Finland is the least dependent on EU: only
45.6 % of import and 45.4 % of export takes place with EU-countries
(in 1993; these are the lowest figures of EU).
 
The Finns are real milk-boys and -girls: the consumption of diary
products is EU's record (206 kg /Finn /year, in 1992).
 
Such a bad-tasting drink as wine is despised of: consumption of wine,
8 liters /Finn /year (1993) is EU's lowest.
 
Finnish babies are strong and healthy: only 0.44 % of babies die
during the first year, less than anywhere else in EU.
 
AIDS is uncommon: number of AIDS-cases, 3.5 /100000 inhabitants (30.9.1994),
is by far EU's lowest.
 
Dark forests may also depress: suicide rate, 29.8 /100000 inhabitants
(1991), is EU's highest.
 
Finns appreciate education: 8.3 % of GNP is spent on education, which
is the highest percentage in EU.
 
Especially Finnish girls want to have a good profession: in medium-stage
education there are 34 % more girls than boys (biggest difference in EU).
 
The ambitious Finns have a plan to become EU's most top-educated nation:
3.4 % of the population are at the moment studying for a university degree,
more than anywhere else in EU.
 
Finns are also interested in reading what is happening around: every day
515 newspapers per 1000 inhabitants (1992) are printed, which is
more than anywhere else in EU.
______________________________ 
 
Best regards,                                            
 
Jari P. (a statistics fan)