Life is not moving to the slow lane

As each day of 2006 dawns, I find I am getting to a more and more hectic schedule. Today I had an early morning call from Pondicherryite Kannan from Rauma (south western Finland), where he was negotiating his new work contract as Site Engineer at the 5th Nuclear Power Plant to be built in Finland. He was also going to go to the Police Station to get his Residence and Work Permit ratified. (In the evening I caught him in the train on his way back to Oulu - SUCCESS.)

I had a meeting at the University at 07:30 and then another at 08:30. By 09:30 I picked up Paneer, our visitor to Oulu from Villipuram, Tamilnadu, and we met Kati Hjerp, the Chairperson of the Swallows of Nothern Finland who is also a Board Member of the Finnish Association of World Shops.

Kati is on her way to India on Monday - and so I rushed out an SOS to Malathi Khembhavi to meet up with her when she passes through Mumbai.

Finnophile Malathi Khembhavi, Oulu, 2004

Kati and her friend are going to Machlipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. I was able to inform her of the work of the late Aune Hyny who passed away in 2004. She had run an orphanage and school in Machlipatnam with the help of the Pentecostal Church.

I also pointed out that Machlipatnam was the home of another Oulu-ite, Tuulikki Teppo, whom Annikki and I took out to India in 1991. She too runs a small orphanage in Machlipatnam.


Indophile Tuulikki Teppo at Mother Theresa's Home for
abandoned children in Hyderabad in 1993, Copyright Jacob Matthan, 1993

Vamsi Krishna Palukuru, whom I had found on Monday sitting in my former laboratory in Oulu University, the Microelectronics and Material Science Laboratory, is from that area. At my request he is trying to find an interpreter for Kati and her friend when they visit that area. Vamsi is doing his doctorate under Professor Heli Juntunen.

Paneer had his heart set on buying a digital camera. His budget was Euro 200 and he had located a Canon at that price. I took him to the store and found that the one he had chosen was just a 4 Megapixel camera with ordinary batteries. There was a better one, 5.3 megapixels, with a Lithium Ion rechargable battery capable of being directly mains charged at the same price - knocked down from Euro 319 to Euro 199.

So he bought that. I was so happy to see the feeling of glee of a small boy getting what he had wanted to possess all his life. Paneer will now be able to record the rest of his visit to Finland using that camera!!

The afternoon was spent going through the legal and financial problems of another foreign couple in Oulu. I hope we can help them pull out of their disastrous route where they had been cheated by a Finnish businessman.

And finally, there was a recent letter to the Editor of our local paper about how Multiculturalism was all rubbish and Finland should be an unicultural nation. Annikki was furious with that article. She wrote a powerful short rebuttal which I sent off to the newspaper by the afternoon.

i am sure the newspaper will not publish Annikki's letter as they are prejudiced. The real complaint that Annikki and I have is not about the fool who wrote that letter but that a national newspaper like the Kaleva could publish such rubbish.

For those that can read Finnish, here is Annikki's letter to the Editor of Kaleva. to get the English version, please contact me.

Yksi yhteinen maailmamme

Esa Holappa (Kaleva 30.12.2005) sohaisi väitteillään monikulttuurista "muurahaiskekoa", joka on koko maailma. Meillä on vain tämä yksi maailma. Se on monikulttuurinen, elävä ja alati muuttuva ja ollut aikojen alusta. Se pitää sisällään elämän eri alueet, kuten kielet, tieteet taiteet ja suuret keksinnöt. Aika on hävittänyt monet ikivanhat kulttuurit. Ne ovat jättäneet jalkeensä merkittävät jäljet ja toimineet perustana muille maailman kulttuureille. Ilman niitä monikulttuurisia perintöjä, ei olisi nykyisen kaltaista maailmaa.

Suomi on aina ollut ja on monikulttuurinen maa. Yksikulttuurista maata ei todella ole olemassakaan. Sellainen on täysi mahdottomuus. Ainoastaan diktatuurit ja hirmuhallitukset pyrkivät siihen pakkokeinoin.

Suomalaiset ovat taustoiltaan ja tavoiltaan alunperin täysin muukalaisia täällä. Pyrkimällä keinotekoiseen yhtenäisyyteen jakamalla kansa, kuka tänne jää jäljelle? Ehkäpä edes alueellinen maisema, metsät ja järvet.

Suomalaiset ovat perimältään ja tavoiltaan maailman kansojen sekoitus.

Eurooppa on aina ollut eri aikoina kukoistava monikulttuurinen alue, mikä vaikuttaa vahvasti tämän päivän Suomeen. Eurooppa sisältää koko maailman kulttuuria ammoista ajoista.

Suomi kuuluu maailmaan ja on kansoihin nähden pieni vähemmistö. Eikö sellainen vähemmistö kansa saisi olla olemassa, näkyä ja kuulua?

Esa Holapan ihannemallin mukaisesti näin pienellä vähemmistö kansalla ja maalla ei ole oikeutta kuulua osana samaan yhteiseen maailmaan. Hänhän vastustaa juuri erilaisia vähemmistöjä.

Huomioimalla myönteisesti jokaisen ihmisen olemassaolon oikeudet rakennamme myöskin itsellemme parempaa Suomea ja koko maailmaa.

Annikki Matthan

And so on....

Have WE really retired?