Spreading like wildfire

The article which appeared in the Readers Digest Living Green: Ranking the best (and worst) countries: By Matthew E. Kahn, PhD, and Fran Lostys has been spreading like wildfire as Reuters carried it in all their language distributions.

Sunset Splatter

Western Sunset Sky

Jacob's ladder of Clouds

Sunset in the Southern Skyline

To calm our nerves we again went to enjoy the great autumn sunset.

Contemplation forced us to send this comment to the Editors of Readers Digest and also post a similar comment on one of their country editions (Australia).

As current residents in Finland, we (authors of "Handbook for Survival in Finland) disagree with ranking of Finland as No. 1.

It is far from reality.

It is a great country viewed from outside.

It polishes its image like an apple.

Peel the skin.

You see a core filled with worms.

Public sources used are those which only show the polished outside. See our blog entry at

http://jmatthan.blogspot.com/2007/10/finland-best-for-living.html

Annikki & Jacob

The sources used are given here:

We analyzed data from two top sources covering 141 nations to rank the planet's greenest, most livable places. Our analysis delved into social factors (income and education, for instance) and environmental measures (see our chart for who scores highest and lowest for some of them, and how the United States, the best overall, and the worst overall stack up)......

.....The World's Greenest, Most Livable Cities
Using different data, we analyzed 72 major international cities and ranked them in terms of being green and livable. The sources included The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport (2001) by Jeff Kenworthy and Felix Laube of Australia's Murdoch University, the World Bank's Development Economic Research Group Estimates, and our own reporting on local environmental laws, energy prices, garbage production and disposal, and parkland.

Paul Wolfowitz's, the creator of a beautiful Green Zone in Baghdad, World Bank as a source - a laughable idea!

Was there any consideration of the ghastly smell that covers many cities in Finland from the pulp production chimney stacks. One professor could not even stay a full day in Oulu as he would break out with a rash!

And here is a totally ridiculous statement:

To get greener, countries must do more to capitalize on national strengths. Finland, among the world's largest exporters of wind-power technology, produces less than 1 percent of its own electricity via wind power, despite average coastal wind speeds of 15 mph, 50 percent stronger than those in Chicago.

Finland has one major wind-power technology producer making 1 - 3 MW units and it is owned by an Indian company!

A look at the cities rankings shows only one Finnish city, Helsinki ranked at No. 21, and we would not like to live in Helsinki. Having lived in three other ranked cities, London (27) Chennai (65) and Mumbai (70), none of them could be ranked even close to another city where Jacob lived, Delhi and New Delhi, which is not even in the rankings!

This is a true case of "the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence".

How we wish the authors had stepped across that fence to check their facts with some ground level investigation!

As they say, a little knowledge is dangerous.

It is sad as this article will be quoted a million times around the world for a publicity hungry small country as Finland. The myth will be propagated while the truth is left far far behind!

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!