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!