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Read Findians Briefings - Forthright Fortnightly From Finland
These were the thoughts that passed through my mind while preparing this first issue. Would I be able to make you come back to this site? If so, why?
To find the answers, I looked at the magazines, newspapers that I read, the lists that I subscribe to and the web-sites I have revisited during my years of web-surfing. Which is the magazine that I eagerly wait for to arrive? Which is the one I read through, not missing a word?
I knew that if I could here emulate, in part, what is done by those that I admire, then you may return and possibly even read what is written here.
The magazine that I wait for is not one of those glossies with lots of pictures and advertisements. If fact, there are no advertisements and photos in my favourite. It is an 8-page newsletter called 'commuication briefings' published by
Encoders, Inc., 700 Black Horse Pike, Suite 108, Blackwood, NJ 08012, US.
It is from this that 4 years ago I framed the title Findians Briefings for the company newsletter. Every word makes sense in 'commuication briefings'. It teaches human beings to effectively communicate. It has a statement in the mast-head which reads as:
"A monthly idea source for decision-makers"
and the purpose is described as
"To provide you with down-to-earth communication ideas and techniques you can put into action to persuade clients, influence peers and motivate employees; to help you earn approval, command respect, spur productivity, gain recogntion and win public support."
This is exactly the view that K. C. Mammen Mappillai (KCMM) espoused during his lifetime (1873-1953). It is this principle that resulted in the newspaper that he husbanded, Malayala Manorama, now 107 years old, becoming the largest circulating one in India with a daily print run of just less tham a million copies and a readership of maybe 15 million.
This is where I learnt my basic principles of printing and journalism and life in general when I was just a young boy, and it is these ideals that I want to continue in these web pages. Findians Briefings is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather KCMM
If you want to read something provacative, something sensible and insensible and something I believe is worth fighting for, please do revisit this site. You will not know what to expect, except that you may violently disagree with my opinions or, horror of horrors, agree - but what is important is that, whichever way you react, click the email signature and tell me what you feel. Unbottle your emotions and anger and drive me to a more critical analysis of problems so that this site becomes the most visited one in your web-surfing and one which you will read through, not missing a comma or dot. Get angry with me if I do not provoke you enough or I am tardy with my updating of the site.
Welcome, therefore, to the first issue of Findians Briefings. I hope you will revisit this site. This certainly is not the best site on the web, but I would like to hear from you about the one you think holds that position - and why. It will give me an idea of what I should try to emulate!
Editor
P.S. The list that I enjoy most is the one on
art-glass because of the informality of the 100 or so
subscribers. The web-site I visit most is
IndiaWorld
Unfortunately, this is a commercial site which needs
a monetary payment. If you subscribe, because you have an
interest in Indian news and current affairs, please do not
forget to tell them that you heard of it from their
subscriber <jmatthan>
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Another question that occupies the mind of web-surfers is what was the worst web site visited and magazine encountered? Here are experiences which influenced my decision not to revisit a web site and to stop the subscription to a magazine (not the worst).
Worst web site
Through a newsgroup I was attracted to a web site that claimed to offer a vast amount of shareware for the PC and the Mac. As I am a Mac user, running almost exclusively on excellent freeware and shareware, I decided to pay a visit to encourage the new shareware service provider and, in turn, those authors who have made computing life for me so economic and worthwhile.
There are excellent sources for Mac freeware and shareware - info-mac and umich (Refer - Computing on our Interests page) and all their mirrors, but the more sites that exist for shareware, the better for shareware authors.
I was surprised to find not a single Mac shareware at this site. I dropped a polite note to the site owner querying the absence of the advertised Mac shareware. Although I did not express it, I felt that the site owner could have taken a little more care when he put his announcement in the newsgroup.
For no apparent reason I got back a tirade. I replied politely and got back another deluge. By this time, some other not so gentle souls had also got hell from the site owner for their queries. They posted the information about the attitude of the site owner to the newsgroup.
I do not think that site exists anymore, or if it does, I do not think that anyone revisits it. The attitude shows through from the minute you enter the site - haughty, aggressive, know-it-all and take-it-or-leave-it.
Magazine subscription not renewed
There is only one magazine which I deliberately had to cancel my subscription. It may shock many to know it was "The Economist" of London, UK.
Those who know that I am die-hard Apple Mac enthusiast may say that the reason for my cancellation was that Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft, claims that it is this magazine that he spends most of his days reading! If he had said that while I was a subscriber, it would probably would have been a good enough reason! :-)
The reason was, however, slightly different. A few years ago "The Economist" published a very detailed report about Asia, and in particular about China and India. It was an excellent piece of journalism except for one major factor.
The writers, obviously leading economists, with all their analytical and critical investigative powers, had not asked one simple question. If the standard of living of every Chinese and Indian was raised to that of Western Europe or the US, as seemed to be the focus of the article, where would the world be if 2000 million more people suddenly each had two cars and all the energy guzzling gadgets used in the western world?
No one would like to deny anyone these comforts which we
take for granted while we live here in the west, but what
would be the impact on the environment or on the
non-renewable resources that would be required to feed this
demand? What a catastrophe we would have on our hands!
As "The Economist" exists to broaden the mind and
look with a deeper economic perspective at global issues, I
expected that an article of this intensity would have
touched on this basic issue. I felt that as a mark of
protest against this lack of depth I had to give up my
subscription with a suitable covering letter to the
Editor.
I still routinely get advertising blurb asking me to renew
my subscription but my letter pointing out the reason for my
giving up my subscription has remained unanswered for over 4
years To my mind it is not worth reading a magazine which
does not address the issues raised by its subscribers.
Please do share with me reasons about sites you would not
revisit and why you may have stopped subscribing to a
magazine.
Editor
P.S. In context of the article on GREED) - I learnt from web-surfers that several American Professors had lost their life savings to these fraudsters.
Greed is certainly an international phenomenon. Those involved seemed to have known whom to target - the intelligentsia! I also heard over BBC Radio 5 (Domestic Service) that some of those involved were convicted in the U.K! My escape was not due to any cleverness on my part but the excellent scam exposures being put out, month after month, by Tony Hetherington in The Internationaist, a Financial Times publication.
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Kaleva, the leading local newspaper, reported last Thursday on a thesis accepted by the University of Wales prepared by Juha Rekola, a Finnish reporter, on the image portrayed in the Finnish press about minorities. Rekola researched the ability of minorities, foreigners and refugees to get their views expressed in the media. He studied 9 newspapers and 2 magazines. He concluded that the media did not give any credence to the views of the minority groups. It rather depended on the views of the people in power who represented the views of the majority. 80% of the articles published by the media were based on information provided by the authorities rather than the views of these minority groups or those directly affected. In my opinion this is a very effective form of press censorship against the underprivileged in Finnish society.
It is also interesting to look at the Finnish legal system. In the book "Guide for Aliens Resident in Finland" published by the Finnish Government - 1988 (Ed: this is a pre-EEC membership edition), in Chapter 3, "The Legal Status of the Alien" it states (emphasis mine):
Till 1990 these rights for foreigners were specifically excluded (till Finland signed the European Convention of Human Rights). Even now the Parliamentary Ombudsman is rather busy, as the application is not uniform and singularly directed against the foreigner. Harmonisation is still in progress (Note: India became independent in 1947, Finland in 1917 but a specific clause in the Indian Constitution ensures that is no scope for arbitrariness or bad faith which are the antithesis before the law and the equal protection of the laws - hence every foreigner in India can obtain justice in the eyes of the law.)
I also point to some articles contained in the book published in 1990 by the Finnish Lawyers Publishing Company called "International Human Right Norms in Domestic Law - Finnish and Polish Perspectives":
Take, for example, the problem of a transit visa application by a person from a third world country who wants to pass through Finland. We received a letter from a young Indian lawyer who was apologising because a lawyer friend on her way to Estonia to attend a Young Lawyers Convention was not able to contact us from Helsinki as planned as she was unable to get a visa, even for an overnight stay, in Finland!
What are the Finns so afraid of or is it a form of censorship against the free movement of people?
Press freedom and responsibility
Press freedom has been sacred in India since Independence. There have been several attempts by politicians to gag the press. These have not been successful. Corrupt politicians are, however, continuously being armed by foreign writers and journalists.
At this time when one is looking for freedom of expression on the Internet there is a need to also take a look at irresponsible journalism. It is my contention that the freedom of the press in third world countries is being destroyed, not by an internal press critical of the actions of a current government, but by know-it-all visitors from so-called developed countries trying to make a few extra bucks to pay for their holidays. These amateur journalists return home and write ill-informed sensationalist gossip which is printed by the gutter press to feed its uneducated readership which lives of the notion that they are doing well and the rest of the world is in a state of turmoil.
If this activity were restricted to the gutter press, there would be no need to be worried. However, if national newspapers carry these works of cheap journalism, it lends credence to these writers. This has an adverse effect on the journalistic freedom in third world countries. Politicians in these countries can point to this type of unashamedly bigoted writing. They start their attack by restricting the freedom of foreign journalists, then of journalists in these countries who write for foreign papers, and finally journalists writing for local consumption as well.
Most third world countries have had to fight for their freedom from the colonial powers. In that fight the local press has always proved to be the best ally to reach the masses at the grass roots level. This honeymoon can quickly wear away as the same press takes its responsibility seriously and starts to look objectively at the power installed as a result of freedom. Unscrupulous politicians then look for excuses to gag a critical press, as is evident in Finland even today.
Destructive journalism
I take an example from Helsinki Sanomat, the leading newspaper of Finland. The editors splashed a five column, 1000 word article with a cartoon drawing of an Indian goddess, a shockingly unethical one, under a banner title "BY THE COVER OF THE SEWER". The article was foul-mouthed garbage. The writer was obviously from the very lowest strata of Finnish society (which is certainly not classless as one would be led to believe) whose only ambition in life was to shootout obscenities. He was intent on showing the Finnish readers that he was going to get his own back on a society that did not consider that he was a white knight in shining armour.
The freedom of the press in Finland has been severely curtailed, especially on such aspects of cartooning of politicians. Yet here was a national daily portraying a corrupt and totally non-humorous version of a bizarre looking many-handed bare breasted woman as an Indian goddess. Are Finnish politicians better than mythological Indian goddesses?
In Indian architecture, ancient and modern, there is no insult ever intended of any religion. In this western democracy was an insulting drawing of the goddess of several millions of Indians. Further, in the article there was the mention of young Indians wiping their bottoms with the advice from the Bhagavad Geeta, the religious book of the Hindus. This showed the mentality of the writer. To denigrate whatever little one knew of the country seemed to the objective.
The writer claimed to have visited India several times, totaling a gross period of two and a half months in all the years, which was considered as a great qualification to write about India. He was careful to quote from unknown sources, the common trick of a person having no guts to state his own views. When he quoted from known sources, he took the words out of context, but used just enough of the quotation to try to show that he was knowledgeable about India. If the words which he put in the mouths of others were his own, it would be obvious that he was Hitler's right and left hand.
He called the Governments of Asia swinish. This revealed that he had had problems with his visas or travel arrangements. He made great issue of four million Indians who got on his nerves. He expressed his fear of getting mixed up with authorities with comments on belching near the Houses of Parliament, showing his problems with the Indian authorities. In a direct reference to the then Prime Minister of India, he accused him of protecting good for nothings and pilferers - his request for an interview had been rejected. (Nothing to do with the present hawala scandal).
Coming from an ignoramus, all this could be forgiven and forgotten This sort of article belonged in the gutter press and nobody with reasoning power would have given it a second glance.
What was objectionable was that this article was published by the leading Finnish newspaper, the paper which is claimed to be liberal, and the paper connected with expressing the views of the Government of Finland. The contents were in keeping with the generally accepted views of the Finnish Government. Further, by denying the right of reply to competent readers with several years of experience in India and Finland, and giving the last word to the writer, it was obvious that the newspaper was totally in agreement with the contents.
What are the consequences of an article of this nature?
Use the word "Finlandised" in any newspaper anywhere in the world and it will be followed by a storm of diplomatic protests. Yet, the same Finnish Government hides behind the skirts of press freedom when seditious literature about other countries is published in the Finnish press.
As far as the Finnish newspaper and the Finnish Foreign Office, this matter was closed. The Indian Ambassador filed his report to Government of India. The political lobbyists wanting to curtail the freedom of the press in third world countries had one more weapon to stop foreign journalists from reporting events in their countries. A long and straight nail for the coffin of the free press had been provided by the Finnish Press, probably as a vengeance for the freedom that they themselves do not enjoy.
State control on dessemination of thought
The present thinking in many quarters is that the state must control the dissemination of thought, even if it cannot control thought or the expression of thought. In this information age this is a Herculean task, but several governments are attempting this. In some West Asian countries a typewriter could not be owned privately. A camera was forbidden in the Israeli-occupied West bank. In the former Soviet Union all photocopying machines had to be manned by trusted agents of the KGB. In South Africa all T-shirts used to be banned on the grounds that they might carry subversive messages. The latest American blow against free expression on the Internet (and similar thinking by the French) is aimed at the freedom we now enjoy.
Thought control is actually most harmful to the people who seek to impose it. State control of the media usually leads to it becoming inane and boring as has been the case with radio and television in India. Even worse, credability is lost, which then means power as an instrument of propaganda is lost. In Nazi Germany, hissing at German documentaries by audiences became so common that the Interior Ministry issued a stern warning against this "treasonable behaviour on the part of cinema audiences". Similarly, the press conferences given by some of the highest authorities in Finland being only on the basis of pre-vetted questions is another form of thought control.
Modern governments do not have to resort to outright censorship or book-burning to mock their critics. The most potent ammunition of these are disinformation campaigns through the state-owned mass media and the application of judicial red-tape. The rules were perfected by Dr. Goebbels. Goebbels never told any newspaper what it should print. He merely told them what they might not print.
The best argument against censorship is that it is totally counter-productive. Kennedy banned Newsweek from the White House. The circulation soared. The tortuous prosecution of the former MI5 agent, Peter Wright, made a laughing stock of the British Government. It gave the book worldwide publicity making the author a millionaire.
Censorship in some cases can border on the ridiculous. The possibly craziest act was in the former West Germany when the authorities decided to censor "The Sound of Music" to remove any reference to the Nazis. The last third of the movie, in which the Nazis nearly prevent the Von Trapp family from escaping was, therefore, not shown.
There are all sorts of people who crave to introduce censorship - mostly for their own ends. Some are termed as bible-thumpers, others as religous bigots. The Bible gives no one the right to impose censorship. It clearly says that one should remove the mote in ones own eye before looking for that in others.
I stand for responsible journalism associated with the freedom that goes with this responsibility.
Editor
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I did a search using Yahoo! and turned up about ten items. None raised much hope. I moved to the next search engine, Alta Vista, and found 168 items matching the query (including several railway timetables as there is a place in Finland by this name). A patient search - and hei presto - I found an article (in Finnish) on racism by Juha. I emailed the organisation which had hosted his article.
By the next morning I had a reply from Juha - and guess what - here is a Finn who had lived and worked as a journalist in India for 3 years - another real life Findian. I put our American friend in contact with him and vice versa, but not before finding out that the Yankee Rekola family had migrated from the Finnish towns of Lahti in south Finland and Kajaani in East Central (more Central than North - although several may disagree with me on this point) Finland in 1917/1918, the height of the civil war that had been raging here. In the bargain we hopefully have two more friends for Findians Briefings.
Why is this so important? As I have said, this site is dedicated to the memory of K. C. Mammen Mappillai. His dictate about the use of the Malayala Manorama (now the largest circulating daily in India) newspaper to his eldest son, the equally outstanding individual, the late K. M. Cherian, who inherited the mantle of Chief Editor, was that he had in his hands a tool which was so powerful that it could be used to sway the minds and actions of people - KCMM told his son to use it wisely for the good of the people.
Last week I wrote about Freedom as it coincided with the campaign for Freedom on the Internet. Looking through the mass of articles that were published on this subject I was glad to note that the majority of them had the same view as us - that Freedom and Responsibility should go hand-in-hand and it should not be misused.
Due to the irresponsibility of the few the rest of us have to suffer. This is characterised by the action taken this week by the Government of Singapore to censor Web facilities to that country to protect its citizens from the irresponsible use of the net, especially the pornographic material that seems to permeate from every corner of the globe. My daughter is equally angry as whenever she goes to the local university she finds several of the workstations occupied by students leering at the pornographic pictures on the web - a waste of bandwidth and the taxpayers money for a few minutes of cheap thrills.
The action taken by the Government of Singapore, which will be followed by other countries, confirms the stand I took that irresponsibility by a few in the name of freedom can only cause the rest of us to suffer, especially as it provides the weapon to the politician to act "in the best interests of..!!??!!"
What way can we find to ensure that we do not allow those who want to misuse the web forcing the loss of freedom on those of us who want to use this powerful tool sensibly?
Editor
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Lecturing using web pages
As the institute did not have a single Mac, I prepared all my lecture notes on my trusted PowerBook 170, converted them into html pages on the fly using the Macs standard drag and drop facility (I do not know much about html scripting - I do not need to when I work with a Mac) and put them up at my web site. Lo and behold, I was able to lecture directly using the web. This was the first time I have used this technique. It proved to be an exhilerating experience. The students were later able to download the pages and get their lecture notes directly from the site.
Mac Project Management Software
I demoed two fabulous Project Management Mac programmes - one which I have used for near 10 years, MacProject» from Claris Inc., and another called HyperProject» from HyperProject, Inc.. The latter has a whole heap of fabulous new features not available in any Project Management software that I have tested earlier. I have not used the full version of HyperProject», but judging from the sheer power of the demo, which the students enjoyed (in comparison to the problems they face with simple jobs on Windows/DOS computers), I can certainly vouch that the students and I felt this is a good programme.
The students were also fascinated when I told them of the simple yet powerful FilemakerPro database application that we have available on the Mac. As soon as I got back I sent them a demo version of this programme that I have for the Windows platform for them to play around with.
Unnerving experience
What shook me was that here were students in a technical institute totally oblivious of how they could make life simple for themselves rather than wasting time and struggling to get things set up on the Windows/DOS platform, as not one of them was interested in the computer platform, but rather on getting their work done quickly. They were amazed when I showed them the numerous alternatives that I had available, and for that matter at ridiculously cheaper prices than anything comparable on the PC/DOS platform. I had not a single Microsoft application on my PowerBook and I could still complete all my tasks twice as fast as them working on a superfast Windows/DOS machine, purely because of the efficiency of the MacOS.
Fortune 500 company
At the end of the week I received my usual information from Faulkner (great service to the web community) about what was on new on their web site (http://www.faulkner.com/). I decided to take a look. There was a reference to the web site being maintained by Fortune 500 company, AST Research Inc.
I am in the middle of a legal battle with this company so what follows may appear biased - but I leave that to you to judge. So I surfed across to this site.
Almost every web page of AST Research Inc. has one common feature. What dominates the AST site is the Legal Notice, Information and Disclaimers - especially the disclaimer which says that they have no responsibility to anyone for anything.
AST sold me a dud machine just about 2 years ago. The original computer was sold to someone else without my permission, the replacement, also a total dud is lying in the premises of the dealer, Data Raster, as the Chamber of Commerce computer expert who tested it reported that it was only capable of frying the PCMCIA cards that were introduced into it. All the other defects that existed in the first AST computer that I bought persisted even in thiis replacement, showing it was not a one-off problem. Presently, I have no computer, no money and my legal battle continues. The customer is KING and that is why not a single Apple customer is likely to change his brand loyalty.
Great customer service?
AST who claim to have great customer service refuse to even acknowledge that they have a dud computer lying at the dealer, Data Raster, who, IMHO, is probably one of the most incompetent ones here in Oulu,. They hide behind the skirts of big brother AST and they are unable to provide me with a PC laptop that can work to do the jobs which unfortunately have to be done on a PC laptop! No Mac dealer would ever have hidden behind the skirts of Apple as Apple have always had a great policy on the few customer problems that they have faced over the years.
Those who were reading the newsgroup, comp.sys.laptops, about the middle of last year would have seen the many postings, almost all of them saying one thing - stay away from AST Research Inc. My legal matter has gone to the appeal stage. Hence, I have been keeping quiet till it is resolved. Seeing the AST web site, however, was like waving a red flag in front of a mad bull. I do not want others, even my worst enemy, to face the same experience I am going through with this Fortune 500 company.
Disclaimers predominate this AST site. The message to you web surfers is very clear - be warned of any company, not just AST, who sets up a web site to publicise its disclaimers. If a company does not have the guts to stand behind its product and satisfy its customers and lives on publishing disclaimers, I think the public knows what to do.
The previous quarter loss of $40 million and the last quarter loss of over $120 million by AST Research Inc. shows where that company stands in the eyes of the public - need I say more. They have lost more than half th capital that was pumped in by South Korean giant, Samsung Corporation, to rescue this tottering company - but it seems AST has not learnt the first lesson of good business ethics - respect your customer.
As an epilogue to this story, I sent a email to the AST webmaster using the "mailto" facility at the end of one of their web pages (yes, just below one of their disclaimers). Guess what - it was returned as undeliverable - a Fortune 500 company specialised in computers does not even have the ability to add a simple workable "mailto" facility on its web pages - I, and you also, now know why AST needs to have all these disclaimers!
Editor
P.S. You will not find a single disclaimer on any of our pages - we stand by what we say and do!
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We recently were visited by a leading Finnish expert on the
subject of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) - Tapani
Koivula, who had many interesting tales about these strange
objects that have been seen around at various places around
our globe. (He has promised us a copy of his book!)
BBC, in its April 1996 issue of Worldwide, has a
Cover Story about this subject. Last Sunday Annikki and I
listened to the first part of the series of three programmes
presented by author and broadcaster, Anthony Grey.
What perplexes me is that if Governments around the world
can successfully hide facts about these incidents over
several decades, even with periodical change of Governments
occuring, then it is not political dogma and differences
that are bottling this information. Even with the Freedom of
Information Act in force in the US, the details of these
incidents are being successfully locked up - by whom and
for what purpose?
Considering that an UFO is being sighted every 15 seconds,
what a massive cover up operation must be in force.
What would you do if you saw a UFO?
Would you keep quiet? Would you call the police? Would you inform your local politician? Would you contact the nearest UFO group and inform them about your sighting? Would you go to your nearest place of worship and pray?
What would I do?
I know for sure what would be my action - I would ask my Almighty Father to tell me what I should do - In my 53 years, whenever I have had a problem, I have turned to Him. He has always provided me with an answer. I am sure that at that point of time He will surely give me the right answer to my question.
Editor
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In a recent television program, a leading Finnish businessman stated that it was important for Finnish business to first establish a foothold in China, and then it would be possible to start talking to the Chinese about their human rights record. This attitude was not considered acceptable by the Amnesty International representative on the same programme. He stated that if Finnish companies intended to operate in China, the norms of operation had to be defined initially, rather than operating in acceptance of violation of human rights at the beginning and then trying to change Chinese attitudes.
The attitude of some companies in South Africa were taken as an example. Those companies which had remained in South Africa and operated in contraventon of the apartheid policy were responsible for the ending of apartheid. The ending of apartheid was not assisted by the attitude of those companies (and countries) who had cooperated with the apartheid policy of the South African government. Those companies (and countries) only lent greater strength to the policy of apartheid.
If Finland wants to stand up and be counted in the league of nations concerned about human rights of people across the world, then it must stand up and state its stand on countries that violate the principles of human rights. Considering the long term objective of President Matti Ahtisaari to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations, this trip was a wrong step that he took and it will weigh heavily against him in the coming years.
President Ahtisaari as UN Secretary-General - Did you hear correctly? Yes. That is what I said. If we look carefully at the strategy being followed by President Ahtisaari ever since he took over as Preseident of Finland, the objective is clear. He is a bureaucrat who works out a project plan and executes his plan as best he can, using all the tools and other peoples resources available to him. Which other world leader has travelled as widely as President Ahtisaari in the short time of his presidency, despite the fact that Finland is in deep recession and can hardly afford such extravagances.
The objective and methodology is clear to anyone who has eyes to see. There are about 160 countries around the world that make up the United Nations. It is the objective of President Ahtisaari to travel to each of these during his tenure, not once, but possibly two or three times, at Finnish taxpayers expense, till he is assured that he gets the support of each of these by the time his candidacy for the UN Secretary-General is released.
Will he take on a second term as President of Finland? That will be decided on how his primary strategy has progressed. He cannot afford to take a loss in the local elections. If he sees the tide is against him on the national front, he will move for the UN post as early as possible. If, however, he sees that he is unbeatable for the second term, he will probably consolidate his position both at home and in the international marketplace to get him his post the next time the top UN job comes up for grabs.
A similar move by Elizabeth Rehn to stand for the post of Head of UNICEF was typically another wrong move, for which Finns are famous. There she was, Defence Minsiter of Finland, one day buying guns and planes to destroy and kill, and the next moment she wanted to be in charge of all the children of the world!
President Ahtisaari thinks all of us are just fools and he can pull the wool over our eyes. Not so Mr. President - some of us are watching you.
Editor
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Thinking that this was one of the usual "Hare Ram Hare Krishna" propagandists that one sees all over the world, I declined, telling him that I had many such leaflets. He seemed a bit crestfallen but he smiled and asked whether I was a Hindu. When I told him I was a Christian, he seemed a bit taken aback. Seeing his surprise I went on to explain to him that Christianity had existed in India well before it came to Finland, and India was one of the few countries in the world where it was an Apostolic faith.
He nodded as he seemed to know that the Syrian Christians from Kerala were Indians who had become Christians with the arrival of Apostle Thomas in the 1st Century AD.
He asked me a very pointed question - "Have you given your life to Christ?" I usually do not answer such questions. Seeing his hopeful face I replied in the affirmative. This seemed to satisfy him. He allowed me to go on my way - thinking he did not have to spend time to convert me!!
In India, which is a secular country, religion is something which has been a very personal subject. Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Budhists, Christians and other faiths have lived together for generations in harmony with each other. It is only of late that the fundamentalists, mainly invaders by the sword and the gun, have being playing the religion card in politics to gain their power base.
In an election in the early Seventies, Indira Gandhi, had, in an effort to win it, sent her supporters around the country canvassing with artworks of the various Gods in their files. The canvassers would determine the religous leaning of an individual and then produce the appropriate artwork and ask the voter to commit by it to vote for Indira.
Strategically it was great for Indira. The voter was faced with an inner dilemma when he was just about to cross his ballot paper. It was a most distasteful strategy.
The Indian General Elections are now in progress with over 400 million people casting their votes. The first 2 stages are over and the final stage starts this Tuesday. I hope the electorate is not swayed by religious bigotry to return to power any fundamentalist group, be it Hindu, Muslim or Christian. We have to live together, each one understanding the meaning of religion in his own life, and not allow it to be used as a tool for politicians. It is equally distasteful that, in Finland, the Lutheran church is an arm of the government and its bishops and priests are civil servants. On one hand the State (Church) preaches the Bible and with the other(Defence Ministry) purchases weapons of mass destruction.
Religion is something very personal. It should be for each one by his actions to demonstrate the power of ones faith - not by sticks and stones, swords or guns. As Annikki aptly replied one militarily inclined individual when he said "I am ready to die for my country" she retorted "Rather, you are prepared to kill for it!"
Editor
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As I had mentioned in one of my earlier editorials, the only magazine that i had deliberately given up my subscription was The Economist. When the on-line version of this magazine started, I subscribed to its technology section called d.Comm.
On only my second visit to this web site, when referring to the development of speech facilities in computing, this "knowledgeable" magazine made this statement
In my letter to Mr. Hold I had said:
The reply I received from Mr. Hold said:
Also Mr. Hold had obviously not heard of Mac-in-Talk, Speech Manager, Apple Speech Recognition Manager, which is speaker independent, PlainTalk, Surftalk, Shock talk, Listen Up, Talker and Speech Plug-In. On top of this he and his correspondent had obviously not heard of the best selling CD Rom of 1995 "Star Trek Omnipedia" in which most complex spoken words are recognised. Mr. Hold obviously did not know that there are presently 22 voices available to Mac users - and all this free of cost.
Mr. Hold then went on to say:
Editor
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Considering that this gentleman had discharged most of his company debt he was shocked at this statement as he wanted to generate a clean sheet and rescue his company rather than declaring it bankrupt and causing a lot of people to suffer.
I was thinking about the words of this social worker. What would she tell her paymaster, the Government of Finland. They have been borrowing, at a tremendous cost to every single Finn, about a billion marks per week for the past few years to pay her salary - should not the Government listen to the valuable advice of this ïeducatedÍ social worker and declare itself bankrupt. They surely are not earning their bread as they spend this borrowed money and increase the debt on the head of every single Finn.
Unfortunately such valuable advice is not heeded by those in power. They think they are the unsinkable Titanic even after having struck the iceberg and the people are drowning around them. They Government and their ever so educated bureaucrats are prepared to hang on desperately while they sink all about them. They apply dual standards - one for the rich and powerful and another for the poor.
Combined with this was the news that this week the largest monopoly in the wholesale and retail trade in Finland was buying the second largest group - the K Group was swallowing the T Group - so as to ensure that no other competitor was likely to raise its ugly head against this monopoly. The K Group now controls almost 50% of the wholesale and retail outlets in Finland. All this with the blessing of the Socialist President and Prime Minister and the Trade Unions. Finland now will lose more jobs with "the rationalisation" that has to go hand-in-glove with this takeover. And what good has it been in joining the European Union as the Finnish Government does it damnest to foster the Finnish monopolists!
I am sorry to say that as each day passes the division of the rich from the poor gets greater in Finland. IMHO Finland is not a socialist democracy - it is a political system which dances to the tune of their bureaucratic President and his powerful capitalistic monopolistic friends.
Further, the Finnish Government tries to present a picture to themselves and the world that Finland is a neutral country. The way they treated the Dalai Lama on his recent visit to Lapland showed that the Finns are anything but neutral - they assigned the Minister of the Environment (who does not want to know anything about the environment anyway) to accompany this distinguished world leader as the Chinese Government should not be upset. (After all the Dalai Lama is not going to get any votes for President Ahtisaari in his bid for UN Secretary General.) What a gutless lot these Finnish politicians are - where oh where is the famed Finnish SISU, even if it means Blockheadedness!
A statement by Annikki that the rotund President of Finland should be a satellite daily encircling the globe was most appropriate. All he would have to do his drop down from his high orbit every couple of days to make his non-stop world visits while his country languishes with an unemployment situation which gets worse day by day. It may be cheaper to keep him in orbit rather than paying for his retinue to travel to location with him on his never ending foreign visit programme. Only another 135 countries to go!
One wonders why Finland needs a Foreign Minister, a European Minister and a Defence Minister. By the logic of President Ahtisaari he is, anyway, in charge of these portfolios - such matters cannot be left to Parliament. President Ahtisaari should soon be finding reasons to add the other portfolios to his list, negating the need for an expensive institution as the Finnish Parliament. And his Prime Minister Lipponen continues to pay lip service to his President as his powers are being eroded by his Socialising colleague!
Editor
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They knew they had a story. They snapped away at this busybee. Last Sunday their article was featured in a double prime spot on pages 3 and 4. It was a wonderful tribute to this gentleman.
I was overjoyed when I saw it. He had told nobody about this reporter confrontation. Nothing about the interview had been known till we opened the newspaper.
The man is none other than Matti Ilmari Reinikka, the grandfather of the Findians who celebrates his 80th birthday on Sunday (23rd June).
At 80, Matti is fitter and healthier than most men half his age. He is certainly not a typical Finn. He does not smoke, drink alcohol, tea or coffee, and does not eat foods (eg. pork, prawns, lobsters, crabs, fish without scales) which the Bible has told him not to touch. His bright healthy face reflects not only his healthy eating and working habits but also that he is true to and comfortable with his chosen faith, the Seventh Day Adventists.
Matti has probably had a couple of days schooling in all his life but has wisdom far exceeding that of the Finnish politicians who occupy the Parliament building. If we had people like him in the Finnish Parliament, Finland would not be in the mess it is in today. It woud be wise for the Ihamuotilas (For non-Finns: Ihamoutilas are those who occupy positions of power and prestige, and obtain great decorations, by virtue of the contacts of their father and not by their own deeds) of Finland to take a couple of lessons from this humble man.
Matti has been ecologically correct in all his ways. Experts are now returning to the concept that wood heating is the most efficient and ecologically correct way to go. Matti has, for the last 40 years, faithfully gone on his mopo (which cost him 40 marks), twice a week - come rain, biting cold or searing heat, to the dumping grounds and collected just enough discarded wood to heat his home and sauna.
While others shifted to oil and electrical heating and drove the nation deeper and deeper into debt, Matti stayed with his old fashioned wood burners, keeping them in perfect condition to get the most out of his equipment. Even when he remodelled his sauna last year, he installed only a wood buring stove.
Besides heating his home, the work done in going to the dumping site, collecting, sawing, carting and then chopping the wood to feed his burners, has kept the home warm and Matti healthy. He was busy recycling while others were busy wasting. (See our article Western Recycling Doomed)
Being a forestworker, he was called up for army service training on 7 September 1936 he was taken into regular army service on 3 September 1937 and took his soldiers oath on 2 October 1937. He was just out of his teens and living in one of the most deprived parts of Finland where they made bread out of the bark of wood (Pettuleipa is now a Euro delicacy being exported from Finland - ask me if you want the recipe).
Matti served as a light infantry soldier in Suomosalmi for 7 months and 15 days in 1939-40. From 1941 he served at various places including Vasavaara, Latvajarvi, Vuokiniemi, Poukalahti, Ainassalmi, Vuonninen, Pistojoki, Korpijarvi, Uhtvan lansipuoli, Kiestinki and Ahvenlahti, and was involved with of the final battles at Karjalan Kannas in 1944. He saw his brother, Erkki, killed at his side in this battle just a few days before the end of hostilies in July 1944 a few kilometres from St. Petersburg at Valkeasaari (not June 1944 as claimed by Finnish Army experts), deep inside Russian territory.
They had been driven to fight for Greater Finland (something denied by Finnish historians and stated only to be the ambitions of a few stray Finnish army officers). Some experiences related by Matti are at divergence with the recorded history of Finnish authorities who have tried to hide some aspects the nature of the war that Finland was involved in.
In the last days of the war Matti was involved with chasing out the Germans and the capture of Tornio in north west Finland.
On his release from the army Matti swore never again to lift arms.
Matti found his faith in Lord Jesus after the war. Like Jesus, he took up the profession as a humble and skilled carpenter. He worked for the City of Oulu.
He suffered much because he stoutly kept his faith by keeping the Sabbath.
He built his home with his hands. The home has been hospitable to all who came through its doors. When we moved to Finland in 1984 it was here that we made our home, something for which we are ever grateful.
Matti has worked hard all through his life. He earned his retirement 15 years ago but has, even since then, continued his schedule of working hard six days and keeping the Sabbath holy by taking part in the church of his choice and as a day of rest.
Matti starts his day early with a few moments of reading his Bible. This is followed by prayer. He then moves to his favourite haunts, the cellar or the garage, repairs cycles for friends, attends to all manner of works as repairing discarded vacuum cleaners and washing machines, making shopping bags and gloves from discarded leather, repairing shoes or fixing the plumbing. Last year, at the age of 79, with the help of one co-worker, he remodelled the kitchen, sauna and living room and redid all the windows of the house, calling only for expert outside help when absolutely necessary.
For many years he has grown his vegetables. Since his retirement he has also enjoyed the summer by fishing on the river with his small row boat. He brings in his catch, spends hours cleaning the fish in the garden and then smoking it in his self-designed smoking oven.
Even at this age he is an innovator - he recently attempted to grow his potatoes inside a large barrel to save some of the back-breaking work!
After a full day of the work (broken only for a short nap in the afternoon) which he enjoys, he sits in his rocking chair and watches a few television programmes, laughing loudly at the antics of the animals, as he loves the nature programmes.
All I can add is to say how proud we all are of Matti and hope he will continue his shining example for many years to come. We wish him a Happy 80th Birthday.
Editor
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The first round showed that Boris Yeltsin was certainly not the popular choice of the Russians, receiving just 35% of the votes cast (or less than 23% of the votes of the Russian people of voting age) despite the fact of the ruthless misuse of the Russian media and establishments, the enormous financial support and prop-up given to him by his western supporters, the active support of the Russian mafioso and of those who have enjoyed the privileges and wealth that has come to a few with perestroika and glasnost.
The strong support of 15% for Alexander Lebed, who stood for clean government, showed the real trend of thinking of the Russian people.
Even before the sun had set on that first day, the thirst for power by Boris showed through along with the true colours of the so-called Mr. Clean Alexander. Bribery and corruption won the day. Boris started to throw out his generals, trouble-makers and vote losers (but not his money-grabbing mafiso connections) and bribed his opponent, Alexander, to join him, in the hope the Russian people would be appeased by this move. (How come Boris could not do this during the last four years when they were massacring their own citizens and sacrificing the lives of their soldiers?)
Boris and Alexander are so hungry for power and wealth that nothing should stand in their way. The question is how long Boris will last before he is out-manouevered by an equally corrupt Alenander? I did not see a single western newspaper or journalist refer to this agreement between these two men as a shining example of corrupt behaviour.
I hope the Russians will throw out this consortium of brigands, although the alternate, Communist Gennadi Zjuganov, is not really much of a satisfactory alternative.
Considering that friends of Boris have been taking out $5 million with every plane flight out of Russia, as was recently reported by the Italian newspapers ($6 billion has flowed into the Italian underground), one knows where the hard-earned tax money of the common man of western countries has been going - to line the pockets of the Russian mafioso, the friends of Boris and his western political allies.
What a shameful act when the United Staes does not even pay its dues to the United Nations that this money from the IMF and the World Bank goes into the pockets of these corrupt individuals with the full knowledge of the western politicians.
This leads to the second aspect of my editorial.
In all democratic societies, a member who does not pay his dues loses his voting rights as a first step to being ejected from the society. If that be the case, since the US has not paid its dues, if the US believes in democracy (as it always claims), should it not lose all voting rights in the UN, both in the General Assembly and the Security Council.
Is that not fair, Mr. Clinton and you good Republicans and Democrats? Editor
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Hope you had a pleasant stay.