The oaks of Sweden-Finland: bikepacking to Porkkala, west of Helsinki.

 

This is a nice video you can also see on the Visit Finland cycling pages, that good give a good impression of some of the areas I write about below.

An old colleague and friend, who masqueraded as an international relations analyst but I always felt was really old-school liberal historian at heart, taught me a lot about how to see Finland. When I was studying how Finnish security policy has changed since the end of the Cold War, he was always telling me to really understand it I had to look backwards.

Disaster strike early! My rack breaking - but necessity is the mother of invention, the rack was binned and my dry bag strapped reasonably well to my saddle.

There's nothing radical in that of course, and I was always fascinated by the unique and often uncomfortable position Finland found itself in after WWII. But my friend kept telling me to look far earlier than that: before independence, before Finland's time as a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, to when it was part of what he always called “Sweden-Finland”.

Your correspondent, proud in his unique "Duckboards are evil" bike cap.

Packed up for the second day of riding.

Great riding on forest paths in Porkkala.

Nationalism is a modern phenomenon, we tend to see history through that prism but it is invariably inaccurate to do so. Just like most countries, there is very little natural about “Finland” as a socio-political entity despite what the nationalists would have you believe. “Finland” as an idea is a product of writers, poets, artists and philosophers. The idea was built in response to Russian rule over these lands in the 19th Century, using the intellectual tools provided by the concepts of nationalism that swept through Europe – at the time a radical and often progressive idea that emancipated people from old feudal bonds to kings, princes and clerics.

Of course evidence of Sweden-Finland is on most signs still in Finland.

Espoo Cathedral, an obvious way point on the King's Road.

What came after "Sweden-Finland".

My colleague's point was always that it was wrong to think of Finland before Russian-rule as simply being under Swedish rule; there was no Finland then as we think of it now, it was an integral and important part of the Swedish kingdom, hence “Sweden-Finland”. Arwidsson's now famous saying of “Swedes we are no longer, Russians we do not want to become, let us therefore be Finns!” will be linked forever with the rise of Finnish nationalism, but it is perhaps a more plaintive cry than it might at first sound. Russian rule ripped people away from their past relationship to the Swedish crown. A near-century of Russian rule, and the urgent need to create Finland as an independent entity in response, means the past of Sweden-Finland retreats into the distance, often lost in the nationalist gaze. But it is still there if you look and here we finally get to the bikepacking.

Simple supper for a lightweight ride.

Last week I went out for an overnight ride with the aim of reaching the nature reserve and camping areas at the Porkkala, the peninsular jutting out into the sea west of Helsinki. Porkkala's history is interesting in its own right – the Soviet Union demanded it as part of the peace treaty to end it war with Finland during WWII, so from 1944 to 1955 it was under Soviet control. Finns who lived and farmed the area given to the USSR were evacuated.

Camp for the night.

 But before getting to the peninsular, my ride took me through other areas. First I skirted north west of the Greater Helsinki sprawl, riding mainly on forest recreation tracks and back roads, ending up in Nuuksio national park. Coming out of Nuukiso's southeast corner there was no more obvious off-road route to take to get me down towards Porkkala.

 
A massive flock of some water birds I couldn't identify, but quite a sight, near the end of the Porkkala peninsular

Instead I started following the King's Road, through the fringes of Espoo (really just a series of suburbs to Helsinki but due to the idiosyncrasy of Finnish municipal politics, it gets to call itself “Finland's second city”) and back out into the countryside towards Kirkkonummi. From here it was more empty country roads all the way down to the beautiful nature reserves and recreation areas at the end of Porkkala where I camped for the night. The next day it would have been nice to carry on westwards on the King's Road towards ultimately Turku/Åbo – the capital of the Finnish realms during the time of Sweden-Finland – but that will have to wait for another trip. Rather, I had to turn back north taking roughly the same route back again, although skipping some of the forest riding closer to my home in favour of some less interesting urban bike paths to save time and make it to an event at my kids' school I had promised to attend.

But what of the oaks and of Sweden-Finland? Well, as some might have guessed by now the king of the “King's Road” was the king of Sweden. The road ran from the eastern fringes of the Swedish medieval kingdom, roughly the current Finnish-Russian border, all along the southern shores of Finland to Turku, over the sea and Åland Islands, to Stockholm and on westwards to the Atlantic in what is now Norway. Now set up for tourists, particularly cycle tourists, the King's Road west of Helsinki shows that half forgotten Sweden-Finland past. Helsinki is mainly a city built in the Russian era and after during independence, but just a few miles to its west, out in the countryside, there is much to remind you of the links to Sweden and for me the oak trees are central to this.

The total for a 24 hr, one night trip.

Go north into the Finnish interior and there are few deciduous trees beyond the ever present birches. But along the south coast of the country, often clearly planted centuries ago, lining old roads and driveways to manor house for example, you find oaks much like I've seen in the areas outside of Stockholm. Buildings like the manor houses and churches – Kirkkonummi church for example – are also clear indicators of those earlier times, but I love the long rows of oaks. Like the English countryside of my childhood, they are both beautiful parts of the natural world and also constant reminders of how people have for millennia managed and shaped that natural world. The oaks of “Sweden-Finland” are both beautiful trees, on the very geographical limits of where they naturally can grow, but also texts in which to read our social history.

Dressed to distress; borders, bikers, Bolsheviks and black fingerless gloves.

There was a little story from the AP yesterday that I'm sure will have been read more closely in Finland than in most other countries;  Vladimir Putin wants to commemorate the Soviet soldiers who died in the Winter War against Finland in 1939-40. According to the AP:

Putin said Thursday at a meeting with military historians that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin launched the war to “correct mistakes” made in drawing the border with Finland after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

I'm not sure if many historians would agree with that analysis but that's by the by. Anyway, the Washington Post had illustrated the story with the somewhat tangentially connected picture of Putin giving an award to the head of some Russian biker group, Alexander "the surgeon" Zaldostanov for his patriotic youth work or some such. A quick google on Mr. Zaldostanov shows that he and Mr. Putin have been friends for some time, but more to the point the both seem keen on black fingerless gloves!

It's a long time since I last noted the black fingerless glove issue in these pages, but it's a 'thing', honest guv'! My global-mayhem-fashion/black fingerless gloves all-encompassing theory of international relations is still developing, but tentatively I'm will to say, when they are worn (or worse - when just one is worn) be nervous.

(There are more images of Putin with fingerless gloves on in this photo essay along with some frankly disturbing shirts-off imagery.)

Engaged with the world

I found some old notes today, typed hurriedly years ago whilst I was reading My Trade: A Short History of British Journalismby Andrew Marr - a good book for anyone interested in journalism, journalists and how their work interacts with and mediates our world. I remember reading on climbing forum a couple of summers ago someone asking "why is everyone talking about riots?" This person wasn't interested in the news; cynical about all politics, she had made a conscious decision simply not to watch or read any, and as a result was unaware that there were major incidences of public disorder breaking out across the UK including, if I remember correctly, in the centre of the city where she lived. Whilst this struck me as misguided, it also seemed an almost heroic decision to make - it must take quite some mental effort to ignore all news, not to absorb any. I feel I get news, and hence am engaged in politics, almost by osmosis these days - what you eat, how you travel around, using a library, paying a bill all seem to be political acts in some way as a result. Anyway, Marr writes:

I know people who barely read a paper and who think most broadcast news is mindless nonsense. I think, however, they are wrong. They might go through their weekly round, taking the kids to school, shopping, praying, doing some voluntary work, phoning elderly relatives, and do more good than harm as they go. But they have disconnected themselves from the wider world; rather like secular monks, they have cloistered themselves in the local. And this is not good enough. We are either players in open, democratic societies, all playing a tiny part in their ultimate direction, or we are deserters. (p.63)

Sometimes it is nice to switch off; to go for a walk in the mountain, for a ski in forests - but switching off forever? Is Marr right that this is desertion?

"No, not him": the new Tiitinen list.

Of course throughout the Cold War, Finland could never admit that there was a Cold War. That was something the nasty superpowers did; studiously ignored or denied up in the north where neutrality supposedly meant good relations with all. Those who were involved in the Finnish end of that conflict (or who looked on from the sidelines) are still very much with us. They fill the upper echelons of political, economic, media and cultural life in the country, and whilst things stay that way, stories around the Tiitinen list aren't going away.  Until the list is made public, or another generation or two retire and die, the story will hang around Helsinki political circles like a bad smell.

But this week saw the publication of Alpo Rusi's book about the list - the book being the result of his legal battle to refute the story that his name was on the list. Rusi announced that a former Finnish prime minister (now deceased), Kalevi Sorsa, was on the list. This was one of the first bits of political gossip I heard when I started working as a researcher, on the outer fringes of the Helsinki political life, a decade ago. I had always presumed that if a fresh-off-the-boat foreigner had heard such a thing it was one of those open secrets that most had heard but no media would publish. Now Tiitinen (previously the head of the Security Police, now Secretary General of the Parliament) has denied that the former-PM was on the list. This must be a great thing for Sorsa's friends and family - in effect exonerating him, but an odd way to go about things.

Can we expect journalists now to suggest names to the secretary general every time they corner him in the corridors of the Eduskunta (parliament) in order to collect his denials? Perhaps they should start with the President, every current government minister over the age 40, the heads of the ministries of state and perhaps the editors-in-chief of the biggest papers and TV channels. If Sec. Gen. Tiitinen denies that those people are on the list, the next journo can try the ministers and prime ministers of the last few governments.

Alternatively, they could just publish the list, end the rumours and let people make peace with the past.

Dispatches from the northern front. The Finnish general election of 2011

What it's all about

So most people will have seen the Finnish election result by now. The success of the populist-right wing True Finns has made the headlines around the world, particularly in relation to whether they will enter government and block the EU financial assistance package to Portugal. But here are a few thoughts on the election from an outsider who has been watching Finnish politics for quite a long time now.

Firstly, this is PR – everyone’s a winner or loser depending on your outlook on life. Yes, the True Finns hugely increased their vote, but they still only got 19% of the vote. Less than one in five voting Finns agrees with them. If you think the True Finns are scary or wrong or silly, then don’t worry – 4 out 5 voting Finns agree with you.

The leader of the SDP said that “there’s no shame in getting silver”. She’s right – they came second, not too bad considering how poor the SDP has been looking in recent times. But let’s not forget, they came second by 0.1% - hardly clear blue water.

There's a foreign minister lurking in my local coffee shop! Seemed to work though, he got the second biggest personal vote in the country.

Likewise, the leader of Kokoomus, the National Coalition Party, was proud to announce that it was a historic night for them becoming the biggest party in the country for the first time. And this is also true, so congrats to Kokoomus, but they also lost votes from the last general election, and were only clear of the second place SDP by 1.3%.

So as I said: that’s PR for you – it’s fair but no one is even close to being a majority on their own and even the winner can only fairly claim to speak for one in five of the electorate. No party has a ‘natural’ right to be in government in such a system – if the second, third and fourth placed parties got together they would have a simple majority in the parliament, and could exclude the party that actually ‘won’ the election. This is unlikely to happen due to tradition and expectation, but it could happen.

Standing around in the rain, getting ignored. Isn't politics great?

At the moment it is suggested that Kokoomus, the True Finns and the SDP will try to form a government if they can agree on a programme. This is likely to produce all sorts of odd dynamics. Timo Soini, the True Finns leader, has said that he sees his party being close to the SDP, and economically this is true – both want to defend the welfare state and are happy to raise taxes to do so. It’s just that the True Finns don’t want any outsiders joining that welfare state (“this is a local welfare state for local people! There’s nothing for you here.”). The SDP have also been playing with Euroscepticism in the last Parliament – voting against the Greek bailout for example. There is nothing new about leftwing parties positioning themselves against the EU – as anyone with a passing knowledge of the history of the British Labour Party well knows. The SDP were from early 90s to 2003, under Lipponen’s prime ministership, very pro-EU, but the left of party such as President Halonen and former foreign minister Tuomioja always had their doubts. SDP watchers can perhaps correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the current leader Urpilainen and party secretary Jungner are identified more with the Lipponen-wing of the party, so are perhaps not particularly eurosceptic, but nevertheless the party has tacked that way, and it will make a government with Kokoomus and the True Finns ‘interesting’ when EU matters will be so central.

Anti-politics in Vantaa. I think we can put the perpetrator down as a "non of the above" type of guy.

The True Finns in government are the proverbial wild card. Tomi Huhtanen neatly puts it: “The True Finns’ party programme is actually rather mainstream; the problem is that hardly anyone in the party adheres to it.” So much focus was on Timo Soini (who as a result took the biggest personal vote in the country), less attention has been paid to those who came in on his coat tails. Quite possibly some will be hardworking, attentive MPs who regardless of their politics, will be doing their best for the people who voted for them. Others, well, perhaps less so. A number of times in the past Soini has had to distance himself from the antics, at times openly racist antics, of others in his party. Now with more media attention, there is a good chance similar will be seen and even if they do keep discipline, virtually all are new to national politics and the media will be happy to show up gaps in their knowledge.

Perhaps more importantly are the tensions within the party. Jussi Halla-Aho did well in the elections with a strong personal vote, and is well known for his outspoken anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim views. Halla-Aho’s association with the True Finns is complex, in the past he has stood on their ticket, but without being a party member – but now he seems to be in the party with both feet. His internationally influenced anti-Islam politics is closer to the politics of Geert Wilders in Holland or Vlaams Belang in Flanders, than it is to the rural-populist tradition that Timo Soini comes from. There have been and remain some tensions within the True Finns between the young Turks (yes, there is some irony to calling them that) who are Halla-Aho’s supporters and I guess what you can call the old guard. Soini is the man of the moment, but as Taneli Heikka perceptively notes that whilst “Soini has said he is happy with the current state of affairs with immigration policy, […]seven out of 39 [new True Finn] MP's have signed a staunch anti-immigration manifesto, and they want more. A government with True Finns will have to go for tougher measures on immigration, or the party (and the government) faces collapse. Mr Soini knows this.”

Finland, NATO and terrorists

I spent a lot of time at the start of week commenting on the Stockholm terrorist attack to the Finnish media. Of course they all ask the unanswerable questions like "will there be a terrorist attack here?" For various reasons my answer has evolved to "not likely, but you can't say that it is impossible"; so it was quite surprising to hear the Finnish president say mid-week that it is only a matter of time before there is a terrorist attack in Finland. But by the end of the week, YLE reports the government doesn't agree with the President and is saying that the risk of terrorism is low, although they note that:

"...the embassies of large Nato members may become terrorist targets"

Which is odd, considering that whole not-being-a-NATO-member-saves-you-from-the-terrible-terrorists thing doesn't seem to be working so well for Sweden currently.

If Christine O'Donnell didn't exist we would have to invent her

The more I read about Christine O'Donnell the more I think she is great. American politics is just so much more fun than British or Finnish politics. She's kind of cute and she is famous for masturbation (I don't even know how to make a smutty joke out of that, but don't worry the Bugle had already won that race to the bottom last weekend) and she was into witchcraft, she had date on a occult alter or something, but she is also a conservative Christian, but she perhaps has or hasn't paid all her bills. What character! What flair!

We have lots of Finnish politicians who may or may not have been up to financial shenanigans, but that's always the lead. It's not, like, the fourth point of interest, only after a spooky resemblance to Sarah Palin, masturbation and witchcraft.

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So Christine O'Donnell, we salute you. You might be completely nuts and a bit scary, but you brighten up the day.

What floats? The True Finns are all at sea.

Timo Soini, leader of the populist-nationalist True Finns party just can't catch a lucky break. Soini himself has developed a good reputation for being honest, witty, and willing to at least talk with all. Yet he is struggling to show the True Finns to be moderate populists and nationalists, not nasty racists like the British National Party and other European far-right parties. Soini was just last week bemoaning to Helsingin Sanomat that 'he was thoroughly fed up with having to answer for the doings of Internet troublemakers and a former “not-quite councillor”' who had been making death threats towards a Finnish government minister. Soini's problem is though that his supporters and party activists keep showing themselves to be idiots. Now we have the comically absurd story of a True Finns seminar-cruise on the ferry to Sweden which happened to coincide with large numbers of Iraqis resident in Finland taking the same ferry to Stockholm where they could vote in the Iraqi general election. Alongside reports of racist abuse to other passengers from seminar attendees, one True Finn MP even felt the need to perform on the ship's night club stage where he ended up getting his microphone cut off for singing racists songs. Ho hum. Soini's recent suggestion that candidates standing for his party will need to go through background checks seems sensible, but perhaps they should do a basic IQ test whilst they are at it.

Making jokes about race

Last weeks Hesari International has an interesting story about Finland’s first black citizen – it’s an good piece that recounts how perhaps unsurprisingly with attitudes prevalent across Europe at the time that the woman concerned decided eventually to leave Finland, finding a more happy life in the immigrant melting pot of the United States. It is obvious to an outsider who has been here some time, that Finland is still very much coming terms with being a multiracial society more than a century after Rosa Clay left her adopted homeland. The real changes in the make-up of the Finnish population have taken place in the last 20 years, so are comparatively speaking, recent. Many have no problem with the changes – indeed, a younger generation growing up particularly in Helsinki knows no difference – but society does not adapt quickly overall. Of course there is some outright racism in Finland as there is everywhere, but then there are many others who just can’t quite get their heads around what the change means and how to think and talk about it.

This thought was sparked by another Hesari article I read a couple of weeks back. President Halonen was speaking at a high school about her role in Finland’s international affairs and showing a presentation of her with various world leaders. There’s a picture of her between the French and American presidents – who I guess are amongst the two most well-known political figures in the world. According to Hesari, Halonen joked: “Obama is the darker one of the two”.

I don’t agree with President Halonen politics on a number of things, but I’m certain she is not a racist. The ‘joke’ isn’t really particularly offensive – more just a very odd thing to say. It is though a rather ungallant and coarse thing to say. Firstly you wouldn’t think that heads of state would make jokes about each other in public (“the Queen is the one in the funny hat!”, “Prime Minister Berlusconi is the one pinching the young lady’s bum!”), they can leave that to the rest of us. But to pick the first black American President’s skin tone as the subject of your throw-away laugh line seems a quite remarkably unsubtle thing to do that reflects both a fascination with, and a condescension to, the ‘otherness’ of non-white people that is common in Finns of a certain age (and of Brits of a certain -older- age). It's almost as if she just couldn't discuss the President of the United States with out mentioning that he is black. Why the need to say anything at all?

I should add I wasn’t going to blog about this at first thinking Halonen’s line might have been translated badly or taken out of context, but the article came up in conversation with Finnish friends who had read the Finnish original and had had exactly the same surprised and bemused reaction to the direct quote from President in Finnish.

Finland doesn't work (3)

Despite being a regular listener to the BBC's "From our own correspondent" for many, many years, I don't think I've heard a story from my home town - Helsinki - before. So it was good to hear one this week - Nick Higham looks at the controversial new music hall and points out the old one, well, doesn't work and never really has. I'm not sure if I've written about it here before, but I'm inclined to agree with Leif Jakobson the new head of the Finnish Arts Council, quoted in the FOOC piece as saying that there are plenty of other places they could have used. The new music hall is one of those sort of high culture temples that there is always money to build because a certain class in the capital supports it. Perhaps 'class' is the wrong word - I don't mean "the bourgeoisie" - more the political class (the music hall is literally across the road from the Parliament). It's a white elephant to national pride. Meanwhile our kindergarten has one teacher looking after 30 odd kids because they can't get anyone in for sick cover. It's a cheap shot, sure. But it's true as well.

I wouldn't have necessarily gone back to the whole "Finland doesn't work" thing, but the BBC reminded me and I liked this Hesari headline from earlier in the week: "Yet another flood in Helsinki".

...Oh, and the trains have broken down again.

Disarming military conscription

(Your country needs you... to stand around in the cold a lot. An honour guard of some sort outside the Presidential Palace, snapped from the tram)

The politics of the Finnish conscription system, I have to admit, is something of a specialist interest of mine. I guess if you're a 17 year old Finnish bloke looking at giving up the next 6 months of your life to the fatherland, its kinda interesting - but less so for the other 99.9% of the world's population. Nevertheless, YLE reports an interesting statement that the President made Monday, opening a National Defence Course - a common venue for making major policy proposals on defence and security related issues. YLE reports:

"[President] Halonen [stated] both international and national defence scenarios had changed sufficiently in nature to allow for a common training period at the start of both military and civilian national service. Following an initial common training period, both forms of service would carry on as before".

I have a chapter in my PhD where I argue that the Finnish military conscription system has very little do with the military defence of Finland, and far more to do with reproducing ideas of what it is to be Finnish. It seems that the President agrees, even if she wouldn't put it in those words, as the suggestion seems to be that basic training in the Finnish army now doesn't need to have anything to do with being a soldier because it will be done by conscientious objectors as well who want nothing to do with being a soldier. That's kinda weird isn't it?

Finland doesn't work (2)

I don't normally go back to my previous posts, but my "Finland doesn't work" entry from last week now has three very interesting comments left by a Finn, a Brit and a Spaniard who lives in the UK and regularly visits Finland, respectively. All three comments are well worth reading if the original post was of interest to you, and thanks to the three chaps concerned for taking the time.

Finland doesn't work

Helsinki central metro station. Closed for months due to huge cock-up.

Actually Finland works rather well in many respects, but not nearly as well as its boosters would have you believe. I’ve noticed over the years how the BBC tends to portray Finland as techno-social-democratic-nirvana, the Guardianista’s wet dream. This portrayed perfection is often used as a foil to Daily Mail-worthy moans about how bad things are in the UK: “why can’t Britain be more like Finland?” the correspondent opines during his or her 24 hr reporting trip to downtown Helsinki where they are shown about by the press officers from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

A long wait at -15 for a tram that isn't coming

This is a major difference between Britain in Finland – in the UK most people are conditioned to resolutely refuse to believe that anywhere else in the world could be worse than ole’ Blighty, whilst Finns are taught to believe that there is nowhere that could be better. But the Finnish press and government love to bathe in that reflected glow of just how astoundingly good they are seen to be at everything, and then in turn send those smooth vibes back out to the world in their tourist and international trade and investment marketing.

Crashed train at Helsinki Station, via HS International

So when things don’t work the cognitive dissonance is severe. The British media is full of stories questioning why the country can’t operate smoothly in the once-in-30-year-conditions of snow, ice and temperatures into the minus 20s. The obvious answer would seem to be that it happens once every 30 years so it would be ridiculous to invest to deal with something so rare. Build a snowman, have fun on the sledge and wait for the inevitable thaw. But the pundits have to ask “if Helsinki and Moscow can deal with these temperatures, why can’t London?” But another answer is that Helsinki can’t deal that well with these temperatures either. I’ve walked the last mile to work for the last two days because the bloody trams keep derailing or breaking down because of the snow. Trains services have been also badly affected by the weather and these problems have been made even worse by the damage done by a runaway train that on Monday smashed into Helsinki central railway station – after its failsafe systems, well… failed (if you haven't seen it - check this video out).

The central metro station is still closed months after it was flooded by the a burst water main. It never should have flooded because the water mains were inside a separate concrete tunnel to prevent exactly that disaster. The only problem was that someone drilled a series of large holes through the protective wall for what appears to be imbecilic reasons – in fact so imbecilic that as one distraught expert put it, this is the sort of thing that only happens in "other countries". Meanwhile Finnish politicians show themselves to be, on average, as venal and corrupt as politicians in other countries, and no one seems to suggest that the minister of interior who has served in that role for a period of time that has seen three mass shootings should perhaps consider her position. And just to chuck in a few more recent stories; the food is rotten, the kids are anti-social little gits, the doctors aren't real, nurses keep murdering their patients and the weather is getting crappier. So overall, Finland – it’s a bit rubbish. Just like everywhere else really.

But go for a walk on a quiet lake, and you'll feel better.

Another day, another Finnish mass killing

A guy walks in to a shopping centre with a hand gun and it seems that at least four people have been killed as a result. After the mass shooting last year in Finland where 10 were killed before the killer shot himself to death, the government considered a legislative change, but as far as I'm aware nothing substantive has happened yet.

At the time I wrote on this blog:

...either just ban the public ownership of handguns and be done with it (as many seem to want), or carry on as before and accept the chance that once every few years some nutter is going to butcher a handful of his or her fellow citizens. Those who want to keep their hand guns should just man-up and say that's a risk they're willing to take with theirs and others' lives.

It seems that the gun fans have got another four families to justify their position to now.

A multilingual Finnish political history

I forgot to mention this last week: Helsingin Sanomat International had a great piece by Unto Hämäläinen looking at the language skills and language needs of various Finnish political leaders from its independence to the present day. It's one of those great articles which is actually much more profound than it sounds at first. It uses one specific prism, in this case what foreign languages were spoken and needed to be spoken by leaders involved in the country's international relations, to show the profound changes in Finland's geopolitical situation and internal political culture during the period. I won't try and sum it up, if you are at all in interested in Finnish politics or history just read it. Overall though I was left with the image of a tide of cosmopolitanism that went out from Finnish shores after independence leaving all sorts of strange things lying on the beach. But the tide always turns and that lost cosmopolitanism has returned again in the form of Finland's European vocation and its globally competitive economy.

The Finnish Afghan "debate"

(A Finn on patrol in Afghanistan via YLE) So it's been a big few weeks for Finnish politics, what with the planks an' all. A mate was filling me in this morning on the debate in the Eduskunta (Finnish parliament) he went to watch last Thursday evening - a debate that he reckoned a whole 20 MPs had found the time to turn up to. Regardless of what your position is on the point and purpose of the mission, if troops from your country are volunteering to go out to do a dangerous job in a dangerous place, it strikes me that the elected representatives of that country could at least turn up and hear what the government has to say on it and think about whether it is a wise policy or not.

As recounted to me, the debate amongst the 20 who did make it was acrimonious to say the least, with former chair of the SDP, Eero Heinäluoma, using a rather insulting term for coward from the end of WWII* about Jaakko Laakso of the Left Alliance. From what I've heard Laakso say over the years, the old tankie almost certainly deserved it. The SDP also accused the Left Alliance of knee-jerk anti-americanism, which makes me think this was a certain strain within the SDP talking (which fits with chosen aphorism for the Left Alliance). This is interesting because amongst the other SDP member at the debate was Jutta Urpilainen, the current chair of the party. I don't really know anything about her foreign policy thinking, but she did beat Tuomioja who is from the left-pacifist wing of the party to win the chair. If she had taken the time to be at the debate, and the SDP position is reflected in Heinäluoma's comments, it marks a change in the party's foreign policy thinking from the Tuomioja/Halonen axis perhaps?

Anyway, with sad timing, a Finnish patrol in Mazar e Sharif got blown up by an IED the next day. Two soldiers were seriously injured and have been brought back to Finland, two other are in a German hospital in Afghanistan with less severe injuries. Get well soon guys. Had the poor buggers got blown up the day before, I wonder if a few more MPs might have troubled themselves to turn up to discuss their deployment.

*The insult, käpykaartilainen, or "Pine Cone Guard" was aimed at deserters who hid in the forests and seems to have particular resonance within the different factions of the Finnish left dating back to the civil war. I'm glad I looked that up because just like my teachers said when I was about 7, you learn something new everyday!

Finnish corruption: the plank edition

There might be a few readers of this blog who wouldn’t know about the “Great Finnish Election Funding Scandal of 2009”™ if they hadn’t read about it here. So with this sense of grave responsibility, I thought I should do an update. It has got worse. The latest news is the spin off “Great Finnish Birch Plank Bribery of Scandal of 2009”™. Don’t let anyone tell you that Finnish politics isn’t gripping stuff.

Actually, it is getting rather serious because YLE, the national broadcaster (think: BBC, just a lot smaller and a bit more 80s looking) dedicated a current affair programme to accusations from an anonymous source that Matti Vanhanen, the prime minister, accepted free construction material from a building firm back in the 1990s. Firstly, the PM categorically denies this. I’m no big fan of Vanhanen – his party, the Centre, is a rather alien concept to many non-Finns – but nevertheless he has been so firm in denouncing the reports I can only conclude there are two possibilities. The first is that he’s completely innocent; or secondly (and for the cynics) he knows there is no way YLE can prove it. Anything else and he is political toast.

The context is that Vanhanen is very closely associated with the foundation (for British readers I think it is actually a housing association in our terms) that is at the middle of the Centre party's recent trauma. It’s purpose is to provide housing for disadvantaged young people, and the accusation against it is that it has received money from the government owned gambling monopoly (think: National Lottery in the UK) for this, but also channelled relatively large amounts of cash to campaigns of Centre Party candidates and MPs. Vanhanen has been a board member of the foundation through his political career and its chairman during the 1990s. He has also received campaign funds from it. YLE’s mole claims that whilst he was building his own house, the now-prime minister accepted free but valuable building materials from a construction company that wanted more big building contracts from this foundation that Vanhanen chaired at the time.

As stated above, the PM totally denies this. He say the only thing he got from the company in question was a pile of birch planks that he built a book shelf from and the lumber was fully paid for. I think the PM should let the media inspect the bookshelf in question – I don’t think he can lose. If it is endearingly amateurish and wonky, the Finnish electorate would see the PM even more as the unpretentious Finnish everyman – an image he has tried to project. If the bookshelf is Germanic in its precision and looks very professional, the PM will be seen as an accomplished jack-of-all-trades: exactly the type of man you need to oversee the various and complex portfolios, egos and interests of a coalition government. We need to see your bookshelf Prime Minister! Democracy itself demands its.

I live in a country where planks might bring down the government. Go figure.

More Finnish corruption

I've given up on trying to think of another word for it, so corruption it is. This is a quick look at what is currently rocking the Helsinki political scene for the non-Finnish politics geeks:

1. The state taxes the poor and stupid by having a monopoly on slot machines in the form of an "association" called RAY .
2. The head of RAY is appointed according to a stitch-up between the political parties.
   
3. RAY then gives money to charitable foundations to do charitable works.
4. Some charitable foundations decided that charitable work included funding political campaigns such as that of the Prime Minster when he ran for the the presidency.
5. The head of one of the foundations that gets money from RAY and that also funnels money to politicians, used to be the administrative director of RAY. So, nothing dubious there then.
6. The chair of the foundation that is most at question, Nuorisosäätiö, is also a Centre Party MP. The foundation he chairs himself gave him money for his municipal, national and Euro political campaigns. So ABSOLUTELY nothing dubious there then.

So have I forgotten anything?

STT reports that in comments to reporters at the airport today: "[Prime Minister Matti] Vanhanen went on to fault the overall atmosphere of the Finnish election campaign funding debate. 'Everything has been somehow rendered morally suspect'."

I wonder why Matti?

More Finnish election funding scandal

Finland has had a good rep for years of being an open, honest and transparent sort of place where corruption doesn't exist. Having a job on the margins of the Helsinki political scene, I keep seeing things that seem to contradict this. I guess there is very little out and out corruption - backhanders of used banknotes stuffed into brown envelopes and that sort of thing - but there is a hell of lot of cosy little deals, unwritten rules, and you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours that goes on. If parties have some involvement, you're left never really knowing why any decision was made and you end up paranoid that the given reason for something can't possibly be the real reason. So, just like politics anywhere else in the world I guess.

But the continuing party funding scandal rumbles on as it has been all summer. And I was looking for some Finnish opinions on how some of it is being reported. YLE reports that the speaker of parliament is returning money from the dodgy company Nova Group that is at the heart of this scandal. But the article also mentions that another conservative MP, Marja Tiura, has returned some money. But perhaps more interestingly it notes that Tiura denied earlier that Nova Group had paid for her to go to Thailand, but is now admitting that they did pay. YLE are perhaps to polite to say, but did she lie previously? Or is she claiming to have been confused or mistaken or similar? This is, after all, a week where lying has been quite big political news.

YLE rather deliciously underplays the final section: that Tiura's husband, who just happened to be the head of YLE's political news section, has also stepped down from his position. I don't think you have to be particularly cynical to wonder whether these events are somehow connected.

Update: Helsingin Sanomat International has more on the story. Tiura seems to be saying when she denied Nova Group paying earlier on, she actually just didn't know who had paid. That isn't quite the same thing, is it? They have a bit more on her husband stepping down as well - you sort of feel sorry for him. I bet things are a bit frosty in their house right now.

Conscription politics

I noticed a little news article last week, from the STT wire, which I've been meaning to write about for ages. The new commander of the Finnish defence forces, General Ari Puheloinen, stated that Finland's wartime force numbers are going to fall due to budget cuts and demographic changes. General Puheloinen mentions the magic 250,000 number. Now 250,000 men under arms sounds and huge amount, and indeed it is. But currently Finnish wartime forces are meant to be an incredible 350,000 men. If you ask Finnish military officers and senior people in the MoD what they think about this, they seem willing to say even on the record that it is a bit of a joke. Finland has a reserve military, so to get to that sort of number you would be calling up reservists in their 40s who haven't had any contact with the military for decades and its questionable what weapons there would be for them to use, even if they could remember how to use them. If there ever was a war, the real defence would be based on the air force, navy and the so-called readiness brigades of Kainuu, Pori and Karelia. These brigades would account for less than a tenth of that number but would have the best equipment, and the best trained and youngest reservists.

I've written before about how Finnish conscription isn't really about the military, they can't say it publicly but off the record there are some (but by no means all) officers and policy makers who support professionalisation and getting rid of conscription. But support for conscription remains so high in the public, and hence amongst politicians, I really don't see this happening soon. My oldest son has well over a decade before he gets called up, but there is a good chance things won't have changed much by the time he is old enough.

The General's comments are interesting because clearly the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) know that they can't run a serious military under the current structure (one foreign military attaché described the Finnish systems as antiquated and poor, saying the FDF simply couldn't run modern combined arms operations because the airforce can do next to nothing in support of ground forces). There are three major upgrades process coming up in the next couple of decades as equipment in the air force, navy and army all becomes obsolete and MoD planners will tell anyone willing to listen about military inflation - that all weapons systems are getting more and more expensive. There appears to be no public support for more of the budget being spent on defence, so the FDF knows they need to make do with what they've got. And they seem to think that this means less men and more machines but the public and politicians feel differently.

The irony is 250,000 remains a massive amount of men, and so far they still can't get even that past the politicians. Civilian democratic control of the military is wonderful thing but if the military are the experts on this war-stuff, its worth listening to what they actually have to say on the matter.

Here's the Finnish army deployed in central Helsinki (snapped from a passing tram) they are involved in an important military activity - shaking charity collecting tins. Ho hum.