TERVE - - - NAMASTE

FINDIANS BRIEFINGS

Editorial

• Scientific Fraud in Finland

• • BBC World Service had a special report in its World Today programme on Monday 16th Septmber covering the subject of Scientific Fraud. In this report a key statement was made that in several countries mechanisms for detecting and tackling fraud in the scientific community had been established. In the list of these countries was mentioned, Finland.

    Finland is probably the country where scientific fraud is MOST rampant in every university and almost in every department in these universities. There is ABSOLUTELY NO MECHANISM IN PLACE for its detection since those who commit the fraud are the ones in charge of the system. They are hardly likely to cut their own throats.

    The very first whistleblower was when, in 1994, Jacob Matthan wrote a book called "Seven Years Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish University" (which incidently became the most pirated book of 1994) in which he described all the different methods of fraud that were being carried out by the professor under whom he worked. He was then under the impression that this was just an isolated case. The publication was delayed a full two years while he tried to get the university to investigate the cases which he had highlighted, but the rector refused to carry out any investigation against his colleague.

    When the book was released, the first ever in Finland to name names (at a great risk of a libel action being instituted against him), places, dates and times and give specific instances of the fraud being practised, it was ignored by the university authorities and the gutless local press (self-censorship inherited from Finlandisation) as they thought his ravings and rantings would just blow away. That was till a national evening paper (Iltalehti) ran the story. This was followed by the story in one of the smaller local papers.

    In panic the new university rector organised an internal enquiry in which he appointed the colleagues of the fraudster as the investigators. Great Mechanism!!

    After a mock investigation, a report was duly produced which simply white-washed the event with a statement that whatever was not wrong had now been put right and the show continued as usual.

    Jacob was then surprised when reports from all around Finland started reaching him that his was not an isolated case. In many departments in every university in Finland, professors and associate professors are involved with mass fraud, especially theft of the work of their students and researchers. This has been done openly by using a very effective system called coercion, with ultra short term work orders for students and researchers. The tenure of students and researchers is kept to very short periods so that if anyone threatens to blow the whistle - that person was surely out of a job. Hence, one kept quiet if one wanted to earn a salary (and with 700000 unemployed - or 25% of the workforce - who would not) and one co-operated if one wanted to remain in the inner circle.

    In Jacob's particular case, in his seven years at the university under this particular professor, he did not carry out a single day of research, never wrote a single line of a paper to be published in English in international journals or presented at international conferences (as Jacob edited all the scientific papers for his colleagues) and yet he had the audacity to put his name as sole author on several papers and also as the first author on others where he had not not so much as lifted one finger towards the research or analysis work contained in these papers. He blantantly pilfered figures from other papers and articles without so much as a "by your leave".

    So long as it involved other research workers and their students, Jacob tried to defend their rights, but his colleagues were too scared to raise their objections. Either they quit their jobs in disgust or just grinned and bore it. When, however, he tried to steal Jacob's work and that of his research students, he had no option but to put his foot down, which meant that he had to quit my job.

    The real gem of the fraud was that this particular professor even collected, as his fee, all the money for a lecture delivered by Jacob!

    If that is not fraud, then what is?

    And all this was condoned as acceptable by the investigative committee appointed by the Rector of the University of Oulu - simply because many other professors follow exactly the same practice in this university.

    Needless to say the Professors Union, the Research Assistants Union, the Finnish Academy and the Finnish Ministry of Education did not lift a finger in this case as it involved a professor appointed by the President of Finland vis-a-vis an expendable researcher. In every case in Jacob's files presently, the same situation exists, where even the Parlimentary Ombudsman has refused to understand a complaint forwarded to him. That is the extent of Scientific Fraud in Finland - it starts at the very top and the system to protect it is fully implemented.

    One day, justice will be done. However, researchers will have to get the backbone to stand up straight rather than be cowed down by a system which is a legacy of the Czarist/Nazi past of Finland.

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  Finnish Bonded Child Labour

  • There has been much publicity about the bonded child labour being employed by some Indian industries. There is an international outcry. Western media has cried "foul", very rightly, about this illegal act being carried out by unscrupulous industrialists in order to keep pace with the growing capitalistic demands of the market economy.

    Indian law guarantees that anyone found guilty of misusing Bonded Labour, not just Bonded Child Labour, has to be hauled before the courts and punished.

    A recent programme on BBC Radio 5 revealed that a similar situation of misuse of child labour exists in the UK where exploitation of children has been rampant.

    We wonder what those same watchful institutions and the vigilant fourth estate are doing about the steps now being taken to legalise Bonded Child Labour in Finland?

    Did you read correctly?

    Yes, steps are being taken by the Finnish Government to legalise Bonded Child Labour in Finland - with particular reference to children between the ages of 15 and 17!

    There is mass unemployment in Finland. The official figures from the Ministry of Finance reveal that it is that 25% of the work force (700000 persons). Technically, there is no work available for these unemployed in Finland, especially the young. The young are, therefore, being denied their legitimate right to find work, especially work that they would like to do. Instead they are being forced to join courses and get standardised and then join the dole queue.

    At the same time, a new form of punishment is being proposed by the Finnish Government for young offenders. This is under debate in the Finnish Parliament. The principle will be to put these young offenders to do forced labour.

    It has been suggested that for an experimental period of 3 years this would be carried out under the jurisdiction of the lower courts. This punishment is proposed to be applied to those offenders whose degree of punishment lies between a fine and imprisonment. It would consist of two elements - youth service and from 3 months to one year of observation. The objective, it is claimed, to be to prevent these youngsters being drawn into the circle of crime.

    This is what is called Bonded Labour. The recent visit of Finnish President Matti Ahtisaari to China seems to have brought rich dividends to Finland by way of ideas to be introduced from the Chinese system. There, forced labour by prisoners is used to produce goods for the massive expansion of Chinese products into the world market. Is this the intention of the Finnish Government?

    Children in India work to earn a living to survive. They learn a profession and become skilled in their task. Here in Finland, like in China, it is the worst possible form of human bondage - to make children to work to pay a debt to society.

    Let us understand that these are children and their punishable acts are the responsibility of the society around them and their parents and teachers. It is those aspects that have to be addressed - not by forcing children to work as a punishment.

    According to majority of psychologists, work should be a pleasurable experience. Anyone who is forced to work will find it a drudgery and will not commit himself/herself to the task on hand. Can anyone who is punished with work be ever expected to enjoy work?

    Forced labor results in a long term phobia to work, especially in these young offenders, and instead of a corrective psychological effect, such a system will develop malformed individuals who detest work. In most cases they are, also, being punished for no fault of theirs. Had they found work (which was not available) they enjoyed, they would not have been drawn into becoming young offenders.

    Maria Montessori, in her study of children, found that children love to do work, so long as it is not forced on them. They enjoy work and develop their working habits as they grow up. The Montessori system of education has work as its focus as children develop their personal skills by repetitive work of what they enjoy, the teacher only guiding the child to achieve goals that the child sets for itself.

    A recent study of Indian children found that the practical intelligence of the working children to be substantially better developed than those children who had sat in classrooms and swallowed a lot of book knowledge of little use to their future survival. In the concept of education, these working children were far more educated than their classroom counterparts. By removing work from the curriculum of a child, it is the destruction of the natural characteristic of the child. Hence, although bonded labour is detestable, any system of education that is applied should be such that it helps a child in developing various work skills. Which form of western education encourages this ethos?

    What happens in present education systems being spread through India is that children are pushed through with a form of education, which, after a period of 10 to 15 years, puts that child among the thronging millions of unemployed who want to migrate from their rural surroundings to (better?) urban pastures. False values are instilled in them, leading to millions of disillusioned individuals incapable of doing an honest day's work. In a rural district in India where we started a small factory, for a 100 jobs available, we had, from the immediate local area, 50000 aplications from unemployed graduates. Only one in a thousand was interested to do the real work on the factory floor, all the others clamouring for an office job where they could put their feet up and be the bosses directing operations.

    We hope that the same organisations that are standing up against bonded child labour in India will raise their voices even more strongly against this new move to dehumanise and exploit the child.

    Prevention is better than cure. Steps should be taken not to deny young people the right to work and to give them work that they enjoy doing. This would keep them off the streets and be part of the contribution to their personal and social well-being.

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Letters to the Editor

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  Date: Mon, 09 Sep 1996 13:24:18 -0400

  From: Raj Nair

  Subject: Editorial - Indian CTBT Stand...

  To: findians@friendly.netppl.fi

  Bravo! I completely agree with you. USA has no reason this time to attack Iraq. They are interfering in Iraq's internal affairs. US is extremely reluctant to even talk about inhuman things that are taking places daily in China and Russia. Instead they will be given "most favoured nation" status. Clinton is doing all this just to win the election, and he may indeed. But is it really worth it? Britain supports US blindly. Because it is another country ruled by a bunch of crooks. These countries do not care about the consequences their actions can cause to other poor nations. I am glad that you had the courage to write an editorial exposing the US mentality.

  Raj Nair, USA

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  Editorial Comment:

  We had a lot of mail stating that we had pulled out our figure of 700000 unemployed in Finland from our magician's hat and we were talking a load of bull. Almost all quoted either the Ministry of Labour statistics that says it is 460000 or the Central Statistics Organisation which says it is 420000.

  We are fully aware of these figures

  Our source for the figure of 700000 is none other than Martti Hetemaki, Chief Director at the Ministry of Finance. He was quoted in the major Finnish evening paper Ilta Lehti on Monday 26th August 1996.

  Why we drew attention to this figure is because it is this same Ministry, under Finance Minister Sauli Niinisto, that put out the 1997 budget a week later where they based their calculations on an present unemployment figure of 460000.

  We hope our ctitics will accept our view that, in the Finnish Government and Bureaucracy, the left hand does not know what the right hand does and vice versa, and hence the mess gets worse hour by hour.

HOT NEWS ITEMS OF THE LAST FORTNIGHT

• Finnish Police to Harpoon Motorists?

  Dateline: 16th September 1996

  [This item came back to Finland after encircling the globe, thanks to friends of the Findians from Richmond, Virginia, USA, Manuel and Manorama Talavier. When Manuel visited Finland a couple of weeks ago, he took the trouble to ring through to us. We love to hear from our friends world-wide. They took the trouble to bring us some beautiful gifts - a couple of books - one called "North American Indians" by Norman Bancroft-Hunt and another by Jeffery St. John called "Forge of Union Anvil of Liberty", a fascinating account of a correspondent on the first Federal elections, the first Federal Congress and the creation of the Bill of Rights. We also received the 1997 Calendar "Virginia Places" with the superb photography of Charles Gruche depicting the different faces of Virginia.]

  Published on the 31st of August 1996 edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch was a story from Oulu, Finland. It reported that Oulu Police Sgt. Markku Limingoja had designed a harpoon with which it was intended to grab runaway drivers and speeding motorists. Fitted to front bumper of the police vehicle, it is not fired. The police car would ram it into the back of a vehicle trying to get away. A hydrauclic mechanism would operate the claws which would grab the car and stop it as the police car applies its brakes. If the driver of the get-away car refuses to get out, tear gas could be intoduced into the car through the hollow shaft of the harpoon. The 1 metre log harpoon could be swivelled for a precise hit and it would be equipped with infra-red sights for night use.

  The device is reported to have taken two years to develop but it was not yet known how much it will cost. Just think what would happen when the harpoon rams into a high-powered rear engine vehicle! Some sparks will surely fly.

  Our 1963 antique Red Beetle, however, does not cross 80 km per hour, even if we press the accelerator pedal to the floor, so for sure we will not be the ones being chased!!

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• Rupert Murdoch Nets Stephanian

  Dateline: 16th September 1996

  This weeks hotest news story is about a very dear friend of the Findians, Stephanian Rathikant Basu.

  Rathikant has been nabbed by Rupert Murdoch to take over from Gene Swinstead as the head of the Hong Kong-based Star TV's Indian arm, News Television India.

  For an intimate personal picture of this great individual, much more than any other reported news story, do visit Kooler Talk (Web Version) Issue 12 for this Findians Briefings exclusive background.

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• Finlandisation and Lipponen

  Dateline: 21st September 1996

  This last fortnight there has been much mud-slinging in Finnish politics, primarily related to the word Finlandisation. The Conservative Party of Finland equated this process to the military subservience of the East European countries. The defence being bandied was that Finland was never a satellite of the Soviet Union but a neutral country.

  Many Finns would like to believe this was so. History tells quite a different story. The Finns were cleverly used by both the superpowers for their own objectives - the Finns being clouded to think that they were so important to be of importance to the superpowers. While this was going the Finnish politicians were crawling on all fours to get favours from their Soviet Bosses. For this they paid the Soviets with whatever was desired - funny sort of neutrality.

  Similarly, in India, there was a concept that India was a neutral country. That was the perception being set out for the people. On the other hand there had been a clear decision taken at the very top that alliance with the Soviet Union was the lesser of evils for the Indian economy.

  Whether it was better is debateable, but looking back to those days in the sixties, except for a very short period when President John F. Kennedy was in the Presidential seat, it would have been disastrous for India to have been an ally of the US. It would have destroyed the very fabric of the Indian economy which today has a better infra-structure than most of those Tiger economies that are presently growing at 10 to 15% per year. When the present growth bubble collapses, which it will surely do in a short while, these Tiger Economies will collapse simultaneously.

  India has a far better system of democracy than many western nations and there is a sense of freedom within the country which it is difficult to experience anywhere else in the world. This was shattered for a brief period during the time of the emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid-seventies.

  India was not subservient to the Soviet Union like Finland was. India was not Finlandised like Finland was. Indian politicians were not spies against their own country for the Soviet Union like some Finnish politcians were. Choice of candidates for Indian elections was not dictated by the Soviet Union like in Finland.

  If Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen feels proud of this past - good luck to him, but many Finns, whose fathers also fought in the front-line and sacrificed their lives and the lives of their immediate family certainly do not agree with his views. And just because he is the Prime Minister he does not have (like he believes he has) the monopoly on the views of the people. It was courageous of Sauli Niinisto to have stated part of what was a fact. It is hoped that others will stand up and be counted so that Finland will see history in its true light, not just in the light that Finnish politicians have always wanted them to see.

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• Why are Finns Great Rally Drivers?

  Dateline: 17th September 1996

  In 1981 it was Ari Vatanen, in 1983 Hannu Mikola, in 1985, Timo Salonen, 1986. 1987, 1991 and 1993, Juha Kankkunen, and now in 1996, Tommi Mäkinen. These Finnish rally drivers have captured the World Championship so many times that many have asked what is it that makes Finns such great rally drivers. If one adds the performance of K. K. Rosberg and others in the field of Formula One, it is necessary to find an answer this question.

  The answer lies in the harsh climatic conditions in Finland and the absolutely terrible state of many of the roads in Finland, especially the many back roads. This, plus the fact that one could have an elk streaming across a main highway totally without any warning, has caused Finns, as a breed, to be very quick in their driving reflexes. On top of this, the constant changing of light conditions as one drives through the Finnish forests results in a very sharp vision.

  Finnish kids who spend time in their parents summer cottages, in summer and winter, learn to handle these diffcult road conditions and then pass on their knowledge to the less fortunate city-dwellers. As a result, the driving competence of most Finnish youngsters far exceeds anything seen elsewhere in the world.

  Handling a car, not just on ice, but in a variety of conditions from slush to deep snow, has resulted in this remarkable driving skill, and this in turn has produced the great rally drivers seen on the world circuit.

  This year Tommi Mäkinen won the Swedish, Safari, Argentinian, Finnish and Australian rallies and was second in the Greek rally. This has given him the unbeatable lead in the championship table with 115 points, his closest rival being Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who has just 74 points with only the San Remo and Catalonian rallies to complete this years championship.

  If their is an improvement in Finnish backroads (which is unlikely as the Finnish Government spends its enormous tax revenues from the motorists on everything but road improvement) then there will be a dramatic drop in the performance of Finns in international rallies. As things stand, however, that is a long way off so we will see many more Finns dominating both the Rally and Formula One circuits.

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• End of the Day for Internet Anonymity

  Dateline: 20th September 1996

  It is a sad day for many on the Internet as Johan Helsingius of Finland who ran the anon.pet.fi anonymous service for the internet decided to close his service rather than hand over the names of the 500000 people who had used his service. The request was made by a Finnish Court as it was suspected that in the recent phedophile scandal that numerous organisations involved with this practice used the service established by Johan.

  Certainly misuse of this service was widely prevalent, but it also provided a facility in Finland for those oppressed to have their say - especally foreigners who had no freedom of speech in this country till a few of years ago. The service provided by Johan was a vital link for these foreigners to bring to light the injustices being carried out by the Finnish Government on many sections of society in Finland, especially the minorities.

  Internationally Johan sprang into the spotlight when the Finnish Police raided his facility a year or so ago at the prompting of Scientology organisation when some anti-Scientologists used his service to bring to light certain aspects of that organisation. The Finnish Police were certainly not within their rights to have raided the premises of Johan and it took a while for things to come back to normal.

  However, as a result of this, other underworld characters thought they had a good thing and used this service very effectively. Sad that misuse of something so important has resulted in its closure - and one must applaud Johan for having stood his ground - even when his concern for freedom of speech was misused by these crooks.

  Hopefully a better and more scientifcally organised anonymous service on the internet will develop which will permit the many hundreds of thousands persecuted individuals to express their views anonymously on the internet.

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• EU Punitive Anti-Dumping Levy on Indian Plastics Industry

  
  Dateline: 20th September 1996

  The EU has placed various anti-dumping levies against numerous producers of plastics sacks in India. Whether this levy is justified is questionable as even without any financial assistance it is possible to produce plastics sacking in India at costs far below anyone in Western Europe, given the same raw material input price.

  The level of technology used in India is such that coupled with the low but fair cost of labour and the great skill and efficiency of the Indian worker, both on the plastics extrusion line and in the weaving section, the high tech producers of sacking in Western Europe can never match the productivity costs of their highly flexible "inefficient"l low tech Indian producers.

  Here is a question of unfair levies being foisted on a low tech industry which provides employment for several thousands at a fair wage and produces goods at a fair price for the international market.

  An obvious retaliation should be for India, and other developing countries, to put up an anti-dumping levy on high tech products which cost less than the corresponding low tech ones!!

  Will the EU accept such a practice?

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• Stockmarket Analysis

  Dateline: 7th September 1996

  (Before you decide on your next computer purchase visit our page David vs Goliath)

  1. Finnish Companies Look for Foreign Lenders

     There has been much speculation this week about the artificial strength of the Finn mark as Finland tries to get the Finn mark into the ERM at the first round. The Finn mark has been kept artificially high for several reasons, not the least being that with such enormous foreign borrowings every week to meet its committments to the fattened bureaucrats whose thirst for more money never ends, a weakened mark would cause the dramtic collapse of the economy of this country. However, this has had other consequences, as Finnish industry seeing that the interest rates being offered by foreign lenders was considerably lower than that offered by Finnish banks, started to borrow abroad and reduce their borrowings from Finnish banks. This had a disastrous effect on the Finn mark causing the Bank of Finland to reduce the bank rate in an effort to stem this flow of foreign loans to Finnish industries. This caused further speculation and caused the Government to press harder to get into the ERM as quickly as possible - and definetly before Sweden, which has been moving at a slow but steady pace in ts bid to enter the ERM mechanism.

     It is yet another case of stupidity on the part of the Finnish Government who does not know what is good for the country but only what is good for the individual politician. The country is being driven deeper into the mire as these nonsensical policies continue.

     And to divert the attention of the public there is now an all out drive to find out and dislodge the "grey economy". Do they not realise that this grey economy exists only because the one being run by them is unsound and that no-one in his right mind has any trust of this Finnish economy. Those who have the means have already moved out of Finland and what will happen in this thrust against the grey economy will be to drive more of those enterprising individuals who can turn around this country out of Finland to safer and kinder pastures.

     The Government has caught the bull by the tail and is being spun around by the bull. Hang on, as more fun will be seen on this front in the coming weeks.

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  2. Samsung Rings Further Changes in AST - Market is unimpressed

     Korean giant Samsung thought they would get a cheap buy by acquiring AST Research Inc. It has bitten off far more than it can chew as they have already lost over a billion dollars over the last year with the collapse of the stock value of AST and over 35% drop in sales of this American computer company. The stock value of Samsung (in the Korean stock market) and the AST continue to writhe at the bottom of the ladder.

     Here are some interesting dates and events about these two companies:

     November 2nd 1995: Ian Diery, formerly of Apple Computer Inc. takes over as CEO and President of AST Research Inc.

     May 2nd 1996: Joseph E. Norberg takes over as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AST Research Inc.

     June 24th 1996: AST Chairman Safi Quereshy is kicked upstairs as Chairman Emeritus and Kwang Ho-Kim of Samsung takes over as Chairman of AST Research July 30th 1996: AST Research announces its fourth quarter of loses totalling another almost US$100 million.

     August 2nd 1996: Ian Diery quits as President and CEO of AST Research and is replaced by Samsung nominee Young-Soo Kim.

     August 27th 1996: Samsung Chairman Mr. Lee Kun-hee is convicted by Korean Supreme Court on bribery and corruption at the same time as the death sentence is passed on former President of South Korea Chun Doo-hwan and the life sentence on the other former President Mr. Roh Tae-woo.

     September 6th 1996: Joseph E. Norberg quits as VP and Chief Financial Officer of AST Research and is replaced by Samsung nominee, Wang Suk Yang.

     September 18th 1996: Dr. Noh Byung Park, Vice President and General Manager of Samsung takes over as Senior Vice President of AST Research in a desperate attempt to try and put some life into this dying company.

     Even with all these moves the market refused to be convinced and the AST stock hit aother low during last week dropping down to just $4 compared to $20 when Samsung acquired its major stock holding of AST.

     No one in their right mind will buy an AST/Samsung product so long as they continue fraudulent activities in the market, as in the case of Findians Oy, where they sold the computer of this company to another party while refusing to refund the money paid for the computer.

     The Stock Analysis shows that while the computer market is firmly behind the PC manufacturers, Dell, Gateway, Zenith and Compaq, their counterpart AST is still wriggling at the bottom. The further negative effects of the changes at the top management level will again be seen in the coming two weeks as the market does not trust a company which has been caught and condemned for taking part in bribery and corruption. Since the Year High of AST Rsearch collapsed another 30%, the actual figure for AST in the table below is substantially worse than the performace shown for Motorola.

     Texas Instruments, Applied Materials Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. have been added this week to our list of stocks analysed. Apple continues to improve its position. The market positive reaction to the Apple/Sun announcement of last week will be seen in a positive move next week as also will be the effect of the Netscape/Apple announcement at the end of this week. Netscape is back along the healthy support trail.

     Motorola seems to be struggling as far as stock market support is concerned and this has, in the past two weeks, shown as instability in the Nokia stock also.

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