Toothless Tiger

Late Tuulikki Ukkola
(Photo from ALMA Media)

 Today I visited Dentopolis, the Dental Clinic run by the University Central Hospital, and had the last of my 7 teeth in the lower jaw removed by two 4th year students who were named, Jaakko and Aino. 

Jaakko is the name of our eldest son and Aino is my late sister-in-law, Annikki's younger sister, who travelled around with Annikki before we were married!. 

The students were  guided by their teacher, Juha. 

It was very painfuld although a large amount of anaesthetic for each tooth was used, but I did not complain. 

On two earlier visits, first to a dental surgeon, who took out 4 teeth,  and then to 4 students, all my other teeth had been removed. 

The first lot of teeth were a problem as I had infection in the gums, but the second, done by 3 students guided by their teacher was no problem. 

As I came from the clinic, Annikki, who had been waiting paitiently for me, asked me whether I was now finally the  "Toothless Tiger”.

This aroused my memory about the famous Finnish journalist from Oulu, the late Tuulikki Ukkola, 

Tuulikki Ukkola, was born on November 28, 1943, in Taivalkoski, Finland. She started her journalism career at the newspaper Kaleva in 1962. Ukkola served as a Member of Parliament for the Oulu constituency from 1991 to 1995 as a member of the Liberal People's Party and later became the leader of the party from 1993 to 1995. She was re-elected as an MP for Oulu for the National Coalition Party in 2007, serving until 2011. Tuulikki Ukkola passed away on May 28, 2019, in Oulu at the age of 75.

In her political career she tried to bring forward the criticisms she had been writing about, but she met a brick wall and achieved very little.

When she came back to the newspaper in 1995 I wrote to her whether she had become a Toothless Tiger.

She thought it was very funny and added Annikki and me to her Christams card list, a great honour! .

Christmas card from Tuulikki Ukkola!

But that comment helped her back to her powerful writing and it was, thereafter, more constructive.

I may be the Toothless Tiger no,  but my friend in Helsinki, Christian Thibault carries on the Annikki and my legacy of fighting for the minorities in Finland. 

Christan Thibault

Christian resigned his membership from the Swedish Party in Finland after the last elections when they compromised their principles and joined the present government  as he felt that it was a violation of his life-long principles.

We value people like  Christian who adhere to their principles rather that follow the power trail to achieve their ends. 

Tuulikki learnt it the hard way! 

Tuulikki learnt her lesson that just by joining a political party and serving in Parliament would not achieve her dreams of improving society. The pen was the mightier power.

The Saacred Trust

The same was true of my grandfather, the late K. C. Mammer Mappillai, who then gave us the Sacred Trust followed by his sons, the late Padma Bhushan K. M. Cherian and Padma Bhushan K. M. Mathew and now followed diligently by his grandson, my cousin Padma Shri Mammen Mathew (Rajen).

1989 Delhi Rajen and Jacob
An everlasting brotherly bond of 75+ years.

Have I become a Toothleess Tiger?

Anatomically yes, but 

hopefully not with my brain! 

Has O-India Ry been involved with Tax Fraud?

Annikki and I are not members of O-India Ry as we terminated our membership with immediate effect when we witnessed criminal behaviour towards us by Board Members of the Association. 

Just a few days ago, after the visit of our friend Shashank Subramanyam to Oulu, which we did not attend, we were sent a copy of the accounts of the performance by some friend as he wanted our comments. 

The accounts appear to have been circulated to the Association members.

These accounts make hilarious reading!

How can an Association give a grant to itself? 😂

If that was the extent of the problem, that could be passed off as just ignorance.

There is a more serious problem with these accounts.

Tickets were sold for this performance, directly and through the ticket sales service.  

When any tickets are sold in Finland for a public performance, there is an important aspect that value added tax (ALV) has to be collected and remitted to the tax authorities. 

Withholding of such tax is tax fraud.

Where is this liability shown in these accounts?

Additionally, when an entertainer performs in Finland and is paid a remuneration, income tax has to be deducted and remitted to the tax authorities. 

Why is this liability not shown in the accounts?

This can also be a case of  tax  fraud!

Recently, one prominent O-India Ry member posted a Facebook post which is very interesting!

Certainly, we too would wish this, but luckily being pensioners, we have paid our taxes while working and are thus enjoying the benefits of having paid our taxes in full, and quite in excess of what we paid!

In May 1988, the Indian Ambassador HE  K. P. Fabian called me and said that a well known Kathak dancer would be visiting Finland. He asked whether would I be interested in organising a performance in Oulu. 

As we already had a performance by Daksha Seth organised by Martti Antila,  a well known photographer in Oulu, the previous year and the Oulu City Hall was packed to the brim with an appreciative audience, I said I would take on the challenge.

The first problem was to get a suitable auditorium. As the City programme for the year had already been finalised, no regular auditorium was available. 

I looked around and found that if we did some adjustments, the main lecture hall L1 in Oulu University could be used. It had a capacity of around 500 - 600 seats.

Annikki and I set about the task of meeting all the right people and organising the budget. 

With the cooperation of all the appropriate people we decided that we would not charge any entrance fee, because of the tax implications, and as we felt we could underwrite the expenses as the lecture room was free for me and I could get the appropriate sound system from my local friends in the business. Also I got three furnished guest room apartments in the University for them to stay.

Shovana Narayan and her troupe of 5, including her singer sister, Ranjana Narayan, a Supreme Court Advocate, arrived in Oulu. I made sure they met all the important people of Oulu when they arrived.

Shovana Narayan

Shovana Narayan is one of the outstanding classical dancers of India. For her incomparable contribution to the Kathak style of classical dance, she has been decorated with several awards, including Government of India's coveted Padmashri and Sangeet Natak Akademi awards. She has bestowed Kathak with dignity and enriched it with a deeper and wider canvas of expression and dimensions. She is at once, an explorer, a performer, a choreographer and an artiste par excellence, with values and a cause. The explorer and researcher within her have seen her author six books on Indian dance, which bespeak of intensity, depth and gravity. She has also worked closely with nationally and internationally acclaimed Indian and western dancers and musicians from various streams of art. Shovana's palette contains other media, including films and operas as well as being a dedicated guru whose disciples are creating their niche in the world of Kathak that once again bears testimony to the intensive training being imparted by her. She is also a senior serving civil servant belonging to the Indian Audits and Accounts Service (1976 batch). Married to Dr. Herbert Traxl, Austrian Ambassador, the two have a son, Erwin Ishan Traxl. Her younger sister, Ranjana Narayan, is a lawyer and a classical singer. Other books by the author: ˜Kathak: Rhythmics Echoes and Reflectioin- (Roly Publication); ˜Dance Legacy of Patliputra' (Publications Division, govt. of India); ˜Indian Theatre and Dance Traditions" (Harman Publications); ˜Performing Arts: A Policy Perspective" (Kanishka Publications); "Kathak" "A Handbook (Wisdom Tree Publication); "Indian Classical Dance" "A Handbook (Sterling Publication).

That paid dividends as the auditorium was full, as Finns turned up for the performance. 

We were even able to have the University restaurant open during the intermission. We had a children’s play area for those who came with small children. We had a Red Cross facility on hand for any emergency.

Shovana performing with Rev. Patrick Dickson 

during the performance.

Shovana’s troupe.

Shovana’s accompanists

(All above photographs by Jacob Matthan.)

Picture from Kaleva newspaper reporting on 

Shovana Narayan’s performance.

Report from Kaleva which covered 

Shovana Narayan’s performance.

The whole event was a success. It was duly reported by Kaleva. 

Although the costs were minimal, we had important sponsorships in kind for the group, as we were not an official organisation, but whomsoever we asked put their hands out, generously, to help us. 

Our Finnish friends took care of all the formalities so we stayed within Finnish law!

Four years of groundwork by Annikki and me amongst the community had paid off. 

From there onwards, whatever we arranged were successful events, always involving the whole of Oulu, which at that time covered just under 100000 people. 

Every ethnic community joined us in making this and all other events successful, fostering the multicultural  attitude we were promoting. 

And remember, at that time the only Indians in Oulu were my two children, aged 17 and 15, and myself!

That comfortable situation prevailed for many years as no one was seeking glory. We were all working for our communities to be integrated into Oulu society.

The performance of our friend and international superstar, Shashank Subramanyam, in August 2011 was to a packed audience in Valve in the Oulu City Centre, where the hall of 175 was filled with even people standing at the doorway to hear him play.

Shashank Subramanyam 

Shashank Subramanyam (born October 14, 1978) is an accomplished flutist from India, specializing in Indian classical music. Having displayed exceptional musical talent from a young age, Shashank began performing at the age of 6 in 1984 and has continued to showcase his artistry for over three decades.

In recognition of his contributions to the arts, the Government of France honored him with the prestigious title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for the year 2022.

Shashank is also noteworthy for being the youngest recipient of the Government of India's Sangeet Natak Akademi's senior award for the year 2017, and bestowed by the President of India at an investiture ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

We had active participation from not only O-India Google Group (not O-India Ry, which did not exist then) participants and wonderful suggestions from the local Indians to make the event appeal to the Finnish audience.

Yrjö Mikkonen (from the Finnish music academy) and his wife, Shahnaz (Head of the organisation looking after migrants to Oulu), made sure that all the technical and organisational arrangements were perfect.

Oulu City officials cooperated with us fully as they realised an international superstar had agreed to come to Oulu. 

We even had the cooperation of the airline to ensure everything was perfect with no cost to our small community. 

And the cooperation of our Indian Embassy was of paramount importance, although we did not request any financial assistance as we were not a registered society at that time.

We were all working for one goal to ensure that we had a perfect performance in Oulu. 

No one was working to further himself or herself. 

We had an Organising Committee headed by a Finn and composed primarily of Finns, those mainly in the Oulu music business. We had the cooperation of all the media, print and radio,.

The success of the event was evident.

After that, the series of problems with my health from 2014 onwards caused Annikki and me to quietly withdraw from the organisational  scene, but we continued to take part and help  the organisers to conduct successful events.

But things changed!

In our post “Why we terminated our membership to O-India Ry" speaks for itself.

 

The doom we predicted has hit the Indian Community of Oulu faster than we thought, and it has been brought on by itself. 

It was decided to bring Shashank Subramanyam again to perform in Oulu. 

As we did not want to associate with O-India Ry, we opted out of taking part in the event and informed Shashank the reasons, so our absence would not be misunderstood by our friend!

After pressurising every Indian in Oulu, night and day, less than 100 Indians (out of 500) turned up for the Shashank performance. The auditorium was less than a quarter full.

And out of 180000 Finns in the Oulu region, not even 30 turned out for this show!

There was utter confusion in ticket pricing (Euro 21, 23 and 28?), and also who could or could not attend. 

Finns are cost conscious and not fools. They know when one is being cheated! 

And advertising in Flea Markets and in Oulu University showed total absence of sanity in the organisers. 

People who go to Flea Markets go to save money! 

Two Indian Oulu University students who visited us told us that they could eat pizzas for three days for that amount of money!

The poster they produced for the event was fine but how many Finns know the meaning of Raaga Murali? 

Is it a common term as Classical, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop, Rap or Rock?

This was a true case of the blind leading the blind!

Such an event flop may have destroyed all the good work that has been put in for 40 years to get our Indian Community appreciated in Oulu. 

Did Kaleva or any media even cover this event, (pre- or post) of an international artist.

Shashank, an international superstar,  performed to an empty hall. 

I was told that the sound equipment was sub-standard or the people handling it were not able to understand the demands of this type of music.

Who takes the blame for such shambles?

Anyone of O-India Ry willing to stand up?

We noted that some were patting their own backs on social media trying to avoid telling the world the truth and what a mess they had made of this event!

These people have been ready to take glory for someone else's work but when it came to failure, everyone is running the 100 metres backwards at twice Usain Bolt's record.

In our case the behaviour of O-India Ry was criminal by the Board Members of O-India Ry. That made Annikki and me to take the drastic step of terminating our membership with immediate effect.

In the case of the Shashank performance, 

O-India Ry appears to have gone a step further in possibly committing tax fraud in Oulu.

Is worse still to come?

Was it prudent on Annikki and my part 

to distance ourself from O-India Ry?

Finland: Oligrachy?? = Democracy??

Oligarchy?? = Democracy??

Many years ago, when Annikki and I were running our fortnightly newsletter on the internet, "Findians Briefings", I had a wonderful Finnish lady called Sinikka Ikni who wrote a column for us with the title "Democracy ?? = Oligarchy??"

She used to write a short piece which really exposed what was the "real" Finland like! I would edit her English. We would then run an English and a Finnish version of her article.

We also had a young student, Ilari Sohlo, who also wrote a column for us called "Going Sohlo". In it he captured the mood of Finnish universities and the youth. Some very surprising facts were uncovered by him.

Out newsletter was read in all parts of the globe. In those days a readership of 20000 was good. However Findians Briefings had a readership going well over 80000. I used to monitor the readership virtually on a daily basis to see where our readers were coming from.

We had no advertising except our own. Still we were making a lot of money as an Amazon.com associate, one of the very first to follow that route. Our pages on books in the Findians Paradise Book Store were only about subjects that we were competent in. That included India, Finland, Plastics, Rubber, Adhesives, Microelectronics, Stamps, and many other hot topics and hobbies.

So with this new approach, we thought we would see if this FanBox was really what it claims to be. This Blog is a trial to see whether that old magic we created in the mid-Nineties still exists.

Come back to this blog and spend some time here to see whether what we were writing about a decade and a half ago can still pull in the numbers.

We think it can!

Risto Uimonen: Raise your blinds!

The other day, the Oulu local newspaper, Kaleva, carried a small news item covering a book by Professor Heikki Patomäki of Helsinki University on neoliberalism. The contents of this book follows rather closely that of David Henry’s book “A Brief History of NeoLiberalism”, which can also be referred to as Reagan Conservative Economics.




“The freedom of neoliberalism is the glory of unfettered, free market economics and the rights of corporations and financial institutions over individuals and governments. It's the freedom to fully exploit resources and workers.”

A couple of days later, the Chief Editor of the Kaleva, Risto Uimonen, wrote a scathing attack on the book, its contents, and also Professor Patomäki. Risto Uimonen was of the opinion that there was no evidence of neoliberalism in Finland and that Professor Patomäki was jousting with ghosts.

It is our opinion that Risto Uimonen is sitting in his Kaleva office room with his blinds drawn down. All he has to draw up those blinds that overlook the Höyhtyä Shopping Center on the other side of the road. If he looks out of the window he will see the backs of two offices, one which is closed while the other which is thriving by taking over the work of the office which has been closed.

There was no major outcry when that office was closed. It was the former Post Office which served a very large area in our neighbourhood as it had inherited much territory since Post Offices in various local areas had been closed.

It is strange that not even the Unions representing the workers of the Post Office were allowed to raise concerns about the handing over of their jobs to a private organisation, the R-Kioski, which is one of the cartels which skins the backs of ordinary citizens with its ridiculously high prices for day-to-day commodities.

This is one of the first steps in the dismantling of the Postal Services from a service into the neoliberal agenda of privatisation, which was the agenda formulated by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and then to Tony Blair.

"How many column centimetres of your newspaper did you give for your readers to discuss the closure of the Höyhtyä Post Office, Mr. Uimonen?"

People think that Bill Clinton was a Democrat. But the way he dismantled the media corporations in the US by getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine has been the primary reason for the concentration of the American mainstream media in the hands of 7 major corporations, whose agenda is on the opposite side of the citizens.

The neoliberalism steps in Finland have been going slowly and steadily in the hands of corrupt politicians right from the days of President Mauno Koivisto (Left 1981 - 1994) and through other Presidents, Marttti Ahtisaari (Left 1994 - 2000) and Tarja Halonen (Left 2000 - ).

There are many skeletons iin the cupboard here in Finland!

It has not mattered which coalition Government has been in power, as all of them have been equally corrupt. Barring Anneli Jäätteenmäki (Centre 2003 for a few months) who was removed from power by a bloodless coup engineered by all three major parties (supported by people such as Risto Uimonen) as she would not have permitted the growth of neoliberalism, Kalevi Sorsa (Left 1982-87), Harri Holkeri (Right 1987-91), Esko Aho (Centre 1991-95), Paavo Lipponen (Left 1995-2003), and Matti Vanhanen (Centre 2003 -) have all been part of the corrupt neoliberal agenda.

The Valko Scandal was the legacy of Kalevi Sorsa, but yet many years after that horrendous corruption issue, he was able to be appointed as Prime Minister. Harri Holkeri continued that neoliberal agenda and that was followed with great show by Esko Aho and Paavo Lipponen, who completely sidelined the people of Finland in handing over the family silver to the hands of the corporate giants.

One need only look at the Post and Telephone Department which was split into Posts and Sonera, the latter of which was handed over to the Swedes with lots of Government officials making a whole lot of money in that deal. Anyone remember the "optio" scandal surrounding Sonera?

Look at the corrupt practices in Neste (the Finnish State Oil and Polymer giant run by a third rate Diploma Engineer just because he was the son of a politician), or the corruption scandal of the Chairman of the Social Democrat Party, Ulf Sundqvist who was left scot-free after his swindling of a whole lot of money, and one realises that the neoliberal agenda which is scoffed at as being "visions of a professor" by a compliant and cooperating media editor, and one sees the cooperation between the Big Brothers in Finland walking their countrymen to the noose of neoliberalism as they undercut the power of the unions and therefore the power of the people.

Risto Uimonen - raise those blinds in your room and look out of the window to see what you choose to now ignore in the interests of your corporate colleagues!

India in the Finnish news

Here in the near Arctic Finland, India, and especially Karnataka, appears to be much in the news.

There was an article in the Business Section of our local newspaper, Kaleva, the other day of an Oulu based company, INCAP, and its tie up with a facility in Tumkur, a town one hour north west of Bangalore. It is near enough to Bangalore to draw on the benefits of India's IT explosion, and yet far enough to get the benefit of lower costs than the exploding Bangalore.

(Bangalore is not just an IT centre, as it has developed during the last decade, as it has been long established as a major heavy, medium and light engineering centre in India.)

There was an almost full page section about Karnataka in another issue of the Business Section of the Kaleva. Much of the old stereotyping of Indian cities continues, and it was difficult for the writers, who had no idea of the past, to accept that there is continued great growth going on along with the the continuing poverty.

The figures about poverty levels indicated are nowhere near the claims of the Indian Government, but as it is still visible means that I do not give equal credence to the Indian Government hype, either.

Karnataka is no longer the same as when I grew up 60+ years ago. In my time, I have seen a beautiful garden city grow and be destroyed and made into a concrete jungle. I have also seen the level of corruption sky-rocketing that would make my grandfather turn in his grave. He had been the First Member (Prime Minister) to the Mysore Maharaja in the State of Mysore, pre-Independence. Mysore was reputed to have the cleanest and most forward looking and efficient Administration under the Maharajas.

My father, who was an engineer in the Mysore Electricity Board up until the early 1950s, migrated out of Mysore and moved to Bombay because of corruption at the highest political level in the State.

Similarly, one of the reasons that I quit Bangalore in the mid Eighties was because we could no longer live with the corruption in almost every walk of life in the State.

Another article that appeared a few weeks ago (2nd September 2007 - no online link available) about India was written by the Chief Editor of our local newspaper, Risto Uimonen.

He and I have not been on the same page for many years. I think he is arrogant, just as much he thinks the same about me!



The article on the whole is well written.

However, as can from the picture and the inset, he uses a term "neekerityttöjen" in the text, which is equivalent to using the derogatory "n----r girls" in the USA.

It shows a lack of diplomacy and language (his own) control by this individual.

Also, it shows his lack of understanding about the history and culture of India.

The Negritos, who are the broad-headed Negroids from Africa, were the oldest people to have come to India. These people are now only found in patches among the hill tribes of South India (Irulas, Kodars, Paniyans and Kurumbas). They survive in the Andaman Islands where they have retained their language. They are an inconsequential element in the population of India.

The use of the offensive language, totally without a basis for use, shows the crudity to which was stepped to and it reinforced my previous opinion of this individual.