Is Finland the BEST country to LIVE IN?

Is Finland the best country in the world to live in?

That is what a recent Newsweek report said.

It is obvious that none of the Newsweek Team have never lived in Finland!

Finns are the “Masters of Spin”. The country is controlled by an oligarchy of about 50 powerful families (It used to be 5 but the base has widened slightly during the three decades.)

The Oligarchy control the Media. That is the most powerful weapon in the arsenal.

The judiciary, police, bureaucracy, lawyers, and politicians are primarily corrupt. The laws of the country are written to run such a system, so the word corruption does not exist in their little world.

How else can the proportional system of Government exist. In one election it may be a coalition of right and centre, while in the next it may be left and centre, while in the next it could be right and left! The promises made in any election campaign are just words for the masses to consume. The real wheeler dealing occurs in the chambers of power after the election where the poor are sacrificed at the expense of the rich!

The politicians do what the Oligarchy tells them. In the process they throw a few crumbs to the Finnish Public!

The schooling system is a joke in that the students are not permitted to question their teachers. This takes the student to adolescence where the Finnish male is forced into compulsory military service which makes them into zombies. (Exceptions do occur, but they are exceptions!)

To not take part in the army service was considered traitorous till one son of a Finnish sitting President decided he world not join the army. A dilemma but it gave relief to some who were not the zombies of Finland.

The country has been run by a cartel system. There is no maximum retail price law. The Finns are fleeced. The Oligarchy convinced the Finnish Public that just because they paid highest prices, they had the “Highest Standard of Living”. Whereas the Finns just had the “Highest Cost of Living”.

As a result Finns have been the top “Economic Migrants” to every corner of the globe, starting with their neighbour Sweden.

On the other hand Finns do not tolerate migration into Finland, except when it serves their purpose as allowing prostitutes from third world countries to enter freely!

Even the word for migrant - immigrant or emigrant, was demonized in Finland!

Every country has its good and bad points and so to Finland. Finland is a good country to live in, but certainly not the BEST! The grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence. The Newsweek team should live in Finland for a short while and then they will realise the error of their conclusions.

Finland best for living?

Posted on my Jacob's Blog, the Cathedral School Seventh Heaven Blog and the St. Stephen's College Kooler Talk Blog.

In a Readers Digest report just released titled Study says Finland best for living and which was covered by Reuters, caused Annikki and me to think about our combined life in India, Finland, Sweden, Germany and England over the last 60+ years.



This evening, we went to the Nallikari beach for Annikki to collect stones. (I just walk around doing some photography with my lousy camera) and help her carry the collection to the car!




The yellow, gold and red autumn leaves were strewn all around, truly beautiful.




The autumn sunset was glorious. It felt as if we were lifting off into space!

Looking at these photographs of today and the peacefulness that surrounded us on this beautiful autumn evening, maybe you and we can agree with what has been claimed in the report!

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The Nordic countries are the world's greenest and, despite the cold winters, Finland is the best country to live in, according to a Reader's Digest study released on Friday.

Finland was followed by Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Austria.

"Finland wins high marks for air and water quality, a low incidence of infant disease and how well it protects citizens from water pollution and natural disasters," the study said.

My having lived here for the last 23+ years (of course, Annikki was born here and lived the first 18 years of her life here) makes it difficult for us to either agree or disagree with even this specific conclusion.

Annikki said that when we came to Finland there were several reports saying how unhealthy the tap water was in Finland as it was over-chlorinated. In her opinion, things have not improved since then.

She queries the validity of this report as the source of the data is not known to us. If it came from Government sources, then both of us agree that it is a load of bull!

Finns are great at creating a golden image like a beautiful polished apple, but remove the skin and we will find many worms gnawing away inside.

Many environmental activists also may not agree with this study done by U.S. environmental economist Matthew Kahn, who looked at issues such as quality of drinking water and greenhouse gas emissions as well as factors such as education (totally stereotyped) and income (low after high taxes without corresponding benefits).

When we look at education in Finland, there is nothing even coming close to the level of "education" provided by my alma maters, Bishop Cotton School (Bangalore), which had 7 playing fields for its student in its town centre campus, Cathedral and John Connon School (Mumbai) and St. Stephen's College (Delhi).

Incomes are certainly not high. Retained income is low. Savings are virtually non-existent.

But people feel they are rich because of the easy accessibility to long term low interest loans that enable them to enjoy their "own" homes and new cars and other material benefits!

But that is certainly not a reflection of the income standard in Finland.

Certainly, I do not drink anything but tap water. Annikki and many others tend to buy bottled water. Many go to bore well taps located around the city to collect their drinking water as they do not think the tap water is healthy.

My philosophy has always been that tap water contains all the germs and bacteria that our bodies require to build resistance to the local environment. Avoiding that diminishes our natural resistance.

It used to be said that India had the greatest advantage with regard to germ warfare as all the Indian Government had to do was export water from Calcutta!

My health over the last 23 years compared to most others I know in Finland proves my point of view. I have had no major or even minor illness during that time and never lost a day of work during my working life.

Mathew Kahn obviously did not meet the many thousands of Finns who suffer terrible allergies to dust, pollen, cat fur, dogs and many edible items as nuts, milk, etc. etc. Our grandson, Samuel, is a typical example - allergic to tens of things!

This is a direct consequence of a bad environment and living practices, so this would contradict his conclusions.



Finland is a great place to live if you follow the rules we have laid out in the book "Handbook For Survival in Finland" written by Annikki and me which was published in 1994.

But for others - life can be very very difficult on all fronts.

Our new Findians Google Group, which should go online in a few weeks, will tell you many of the pros and cons of working and living in Finland and the changes that have occurred during the last two decades.

So stay tuned!

Live Audio Cricket Commentary

I think I have found a rogue site which is broadcasting the live audio cricket commentary from the semi-final between India and Australia.

You can listen at

http://stanjames.teamtalk.com/StanJames/Cricket_Popup

Here is a screen shot of the site (it is not a link),



I think you may have to have Windows Media Player a a plugin.

Adam Gilchrist has just been bowled by Sreesanth.

On one computer I have the text commentary from the cricinfo.com site and with the live audio, I am quite content.

However, the commentators are not quite professional. At one point he was talking about the life and loves of Mark Ramprakash rather than what was going on on the field.

The descriptions are not truly cricketing, but at least it is better than nothing.