12th May is the birthdate of Johan Vilhelm Snellman.
Born in 1806, he remains one of the most influential architects of Finnish society. Philosopher, scholar, journalist and politician, two centuries after his birth. Snellman studied in Oulu.
It was fitting that school students of Oulu were given centre stage in the Walking Street (Rotuari) on his bicentennial birth celebration, where they performed in front of an appreciative audience on a beautiful pre-summer day which had a sprinkling of cooling showers.
One of those who performed was Soda, who played with a group from his school, and then performed probably the only solo on the bass guitar. It was truly brilliant to hear him. I literally cried when I heard him play. I wish I had had facilities to record it.
When I spoke to him before he went on stage, he was nervous. But it did not show when he was performing. Later he told me that although his head was nodding exactly in time with the music, his knees were trembling at a furious rate!
This is the first public performance of Soda in Finland and I am sure that it will not be the last.
His teacher gave him the CD with the music and the instrument on a Friday evening. He was busy all weekend and did not get a chance to listen till late on the Sunday. He went in on Monday and performed his part without a flaw.
His ear for music is so outstanding that in my life I have met very few youngsters with this talent.
One more comment.
As I reached Rotuari, I realised that his parents were probably busy in the restaurant and would not hear their son on his first public performance. So I rang them on my mobile and asked them to call me so that they could listen to him in about 10 minutes, when he came on stage. Just as the performance was about to start, I had an excited mother standing by my side, even too excited to operate her camera. I managed to get it operating and got a non-professional, non-audio video using that camera. I hope that I can post a link to it on the blog.
Mother Pailin saw her son, while father Unnop listened in on the performance via my mobile.
Both of them are so proud of their son's performance, just as I am of this young teenager facing huge prblems fitting into a new culture in a strange land. But here, with his talents, he was totally at home with his friends. When I went to congratulate him after he came off the stage, he asked me whether I liked his solo. I told him that I loved it. A student friend standing next to him, a young Finnish girl, chimed in, "Soda, the solo was truly wonderful."
Do we want more proof of how we can achieve harmonious integration?
Soda plays about 7 traditional Thai musical instruments. He has learnt to read music at te age of 12 already in Thailand as part of his school's music education programme, and he can play many Western instruments. (The International School in Oulu did not think this talented youngster could fit into the "English-speaking" culture of that school! So much for "international" thinking of Finnish educationists. I am glad he was out of there.)
The question that one must ask is whether this young Thai boy, who will be 15 in a few weeks will be stifled by the Finnish inflexible education system as he is forced along a route of education which maintains that he must do things he is least interested in and cannot fulfil his ambitions based on his absolutely natural talent as an outstanding sportsperson and musician.
I nortmally do not wish anyone "Good luck" as I believe natural talent will get anyone to the top in his competence. But in Finland, unfortunately, "third culture kids" (Refer my earlier blog entry: "Tomorrow..") have to depend on "Luck".
(In the evning Soda dropped in at home. Annikki told him how much she enjoyed hearing about his success on stage.)
So Annikki (who is also thrilled to hear Soda's exploits) and I do add "Good Luck, Soda."
But like all good things, there was one unfortunate part of the Rotuari show.
A dancing drunk dominated the area in front of the stage. I noticed several students looking and laughing at him. Several thought that it was OK. One Finnish man pushing a cycle walked past him, pushed the drunk rudely and then exchanged words with him, telling him that it was no place to be.
Personally, although I like to permit people their personal freedoms, there are some things I do not appreciate. One is inappropriate behaviour. A drunk making a fool of himself in front of many hundreds of students is totally inappropriate. I hoped that someone would come and take this uncouth man away, a man who was making a total fool of himself on impressionable students.
But NO ONE CAME!
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