Finland - Leader in Innovation? Think Again! Suomi - innovaatioiden johtaja? Mieti uudelleen!q

Home  shopping for groceries has been common in most parts of the world for many years. I have been marketing books, electronics and other products as an Associate of Amazon USA and UK from 1996 onwards. These operations have worked seamlessly!

In Finland, online grocery shopping is a relatively “new” phenomenon. One of the largest Finnish groups, SOK Corporation, offers online grocery shopping through is shops as Sale snd Sokos Herkku Oulu (along with their associated S-Pankki banking service) .

 

They have contracted a service, foodie.fi, which belongs to an organization Digital Foodie Oy, to execute the operation on their behalf. 

Online banking and credit card providers as S-Pankki, Nordea Bank, other major banks and credit and debit card providers are involved with the payment operations!

Last Friday I was admitted to the Oulu University Central Hospital for major surgery. I was likely to be hospitalised at least for a week. 

My wife suffers from Alzheimer’s. She is the caregiver for our 47 year old youngest son. (Other children live abroad.)

I did the important grocery shopping for my wife and son on Thursday to ensure she was okay over the weekend. I intended to use the foodie.fi app to order groceries from Sokos Herkku Oulu, something which I had done seamlessly in January 2019 when I had a couple of my toes amputated.

I found the updated foodie.fi app to be totally unplanned and cumbersome. I would probably have given it a rating of less than 1 star. For instance, buttons which should be there are not there. 

One of the first buttons on a shopping page would be “Add to Shopping Cart”! Such a button does not exist on the foodie.fi page. One has to figure out how to add an item to the shopping cart! Foodie.fi developers may be very clever but to expect ignorant people like me to have their level of intelligence may be asking too much?

And the  actions that take place when certain buttons are clicked are totally incomprehensible!

With a great deal of difficulty I managed to put 47 items in my shopping basket and I was then ready for checkout. 

In January 2019 it had been a simple process and my VISA debit card from Nordea Bank had been charged automatically when checking out!

Not so this time. When I filled in the card details, I was taken to the Nordea Bank page which gave me three options to enter my bank account to make the payment! The sum was not debited to my debit card!

Nordea Bank has currently three methods to log in. The first is the old tried and tested method of using a paper code card (which has been in use from 1991), the second is fingerprint login, and the third is something known as Nordea Codes which requires one to carry around a plastic gadget called a Code Generator. Danske Bank has also such a gadget. 

Can you imagine anything so retrograde as carrying around half a dozen such plastic gadgets on your key ring to log into banks! 

Certainly not an innovative development from any Finnish Bank. I could devise for them a dozen methods much better than this Code Generator. But, here I am that I must think of carrying a Code Generator for my banks when packing my bag to take to the hospital before major surgery! 

I use the old paper code card on my computer and fingerprint identification  on my iPhone to do my Nordea banking. I have not activated my Nordea Code Generator device till date as it is too backward to even think of using it. 

But here was foodie.fi not offering any of the other two methods of logging in into Nordea Bank except the Code Generator!

So I decided I would use another bank to make the payment. 

My wife and I use our S-Pankki joint account mainly receive the bonus payments earned by shopping is SOK Corporation assspcatedvorgsnisatioms such as buying petrol. My wife also uses it to identify herself for any identification process, as access to medical records and other websites which need such a step. She is the main account holder in S-Pankki. We do not keep much money in the account. 

It takes a day to transfer money from our Nordea Bank account to the S-Pankki account, so I transferred the required funds for my online shopping so that it would be available the next day. 

Early Tuesday morning, after verifying that the funds were available in S-Pankki, from my hospital bed I went into foodie.fi to complete the transaction. 

Lo and behold, when it came to paying the amount from my S-Pankki account, three times after logging in and putting in all the correct passwords from my S-Pankki login card, I was greeted by an error message which did not allow the transaction to be completed. Three times I was confronted by the same error telling me to try yet again!

I decided that next step would be to contact S-Pankki through their online CHAT facility. Since the matter was too complex to explain it in my limited foreigner’s Finnish, I sent the Chat message in English. I promptly got a reply from the Chat responder saying his English was not good enough and giving me the Customer Service phone number of S-Pankki.

I rang S-Pankki at 09:15 on Tuesday morning and explained the issue to the lady, also telling her how critical it was as I was stuck in a hospital bed and my wife was running out of food. She said that as her Finnish was not good enough she would ask someone to ring me back as soon as possible to resolve the issue!

At 11:15 I again rang to S-Pankki Customer Service and explained the matter was rather critical. The lady said that the person who spoke good English had been tied up and would call me back as soon as possible.

At 16:15, as there had been no call back,  I rang again to S-Pankki but they said they had no one available to call me but would I ring  foodie.fi to resolve the issue!

So I called foodie.fi. The minute I mentioned Sokos Herkku Oulu, they told me to call them to sort out the matter!

So I called Sokos Herkku Oulu. The lady handling Customer Service was also handling the bakery, so besides serving patonkis to customers, she listened to my story.

Obviously she was not experienced in these matters so she said she would talk to her boss and call me back.

She called me back after half an hour and said her boss did not know how to handle this and advised me to again contact foodie.fi.

I did this and I was cut off quickly advising me to call webinar foodie.fi Oulu. They gave me the phone number. When I dialled that number I was back chatting to the hard-working bakery lady in Sokos Herkku Oulu.

It was obvious we were getting nowhere, and as it was near 19:00 hours, we decided to end the matter there. I had to take some serious painkillers which would soon put me to sleep!

I was planning an alternate strategy to look after the problem. On Wednesday morning at just before 10 am, I got a call from S-Pankki. I told the lady that I had stopped wasting my time barking up a tree with no fruit on it, and told her to tell her IT team to solve their issues. I was not going to waste my time solving their companies problems.

What was obvious from this incident was that the software “solutions” offered by foodie.fi, Sokos Herkku Oulu, Nordea Bank and S-Pankki are all seriously defective. They would all need a revision from ground zero.

Further, it is obvious that the Customer Service of foodie.fi and S-Pankki need to retrain their personnel in how they deal with their customers. 

In addition, the boss at Sokos Herkku Oulu, who threw up his hands and asked the lady in charge of the bakery to resolve a serious customer issue, needs to go for basic retraining on how to handle complaints.

This incident shows clearly that Finland is nowhere near the top in innovation. The banking software in Finland is obsolete, online service apps are way below anything prevailing even in third world countries, and there is a huge void in something known as customer service!

My advice to the banks is to get some people who know banking to redesign their internet banking service. 

My advice to any retailer planning to do online food delivery is to stop using incompetent organisations as foodie.fi who have no idea what they are doing. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

My advice to Sokos Herkku Oulu is to bring in competent managers who are trained in customer service.

And my advice io S-Pankki is probably to shut down their banking operations until they can provide a workable service to all their customers.

In short, this experience shows that Finland is not the Innovative country it claims to be! 

Coincidence! Wish I was 30 again!

Education time was yesterday!

Ultimate international competition in Oulu.

Day before yesterday, I took the grandkids to a friend's pizzeria. When coming out I saw a shop selling Frisbees.

It had obviously just opened a couple of months ago as I have lived in this locality for 27 odd years and never noticed this shop before.

Grandson Samu told me he was playing a game in his school called Ultimate Frisbee. His school was one of 7 in England which was taking this "sport" seriously!

I promised to buy him one, more about curiosity about the plastic that was being used to make the Frisbees.

Yesterday we went to the shop and I was amazed to see the range of Frisbees available for all sorts of Frisbee related sports, the two most distinguished ones being Frisbee Golf and Ultimate Frisbee!

I asked the shopkeeper about Ultimate Frisbee and its popularity in Finland. He told me it was extremely popular and the National Championships were being held in Oulu this weekend!

When we got home I looked up what information was available about the Frisbee.

I realised that this was one part of my knowledge about a plastic commodity which was woefully lacking!

Samu explained the game to me. It is one which is extremely energetic and also of great skill. It is likely to become an Olympic Sport very soon!

I learnt a lot yesterday about the
origin and technology of Frisbees, and also how it has developed from a cookie tin into a highly scientifically oriented plastic product. The designs these days involves testing the prototypes in wind tunnels. The ordinary plastic disc is an amazing piece of aerodynamic engineering.

In a way I was relieved that as I was retired and do not have to wake up every morning genned up about all that is going on in Plastics. I felt a little naked that since 1984, when I moved to Finland and the field of Microelectronics, I had lost some of my deepest educational roots.

I told Samu that way back in the mid sixties I knew the Chairman of the most famous manufacturer of teets for babies feeding bottles called "Griptight". He had told me then that if I ever invented a new type of ball, he and I would be multibillionaires.

I now realised that I never looked out of the box, as the Frisbee is just one of that "new type of ball"!

How I wish I was back in my
in my "thirties" as this experience has got my development taste buds raring to go again!

Samu and I will watch some of the Finnish National Frisbee Championship in Oulu this weekend with different objectives. Him to develop his game skill, me to fill a large void in my professional life!

Passing of a legend DARA

It is with great sadness that my childhood hero, Dara Singh, wrestler, actor, director, parliamentarian, passed away this morning (12th July 2012) at 07:30 am at his Juhu residence in Mumbai. He was born on 19th November 1928. He was 84.

He suffered a cardiac arrest a few days ago and was on a ventilator at the Dirubhai Ambani Hospital.

Respecting his wish, he was moved back to his home where he passed away surrounded by his family and friends.

The last rites will be performed at 14:00 hours Indian Standard Time.

He is survived by his wife and two children.

Dara never lost a fight in the ring. He was the undisputed world champion. A very gentle personality but a towering fighter, he gave all when he was in the ring.

He served the nation in the Rajya Sabha and will be remembered by all who ever saw him fight in the ring.

May he rest in peace.

Thirteen - 13

I was flying to Helsinki in April, Friday the 13th. When I checked in Online, I found my seat number was 13F. When I reached the airport, the gate number for the flight was 13. Ominous?

Lucky for me that I think 13 is my lucky number.

Then I pondered on this a little longer. The flight was full, so all of us were fellow travellers who must have believed 13 was our lucky number, and more so me and other 5 travellers in Row 13, than anyone else.

So much for 13!

Sheer stupidity - Where will it lead to?

The CSF newsletter contained this a few days ago:

Black beaded mangalsutra with cross.

UK denies Christians right to wear crucifix

United Kingdom, March 11, 2012: The British government asserts that Christians have no right to wear a cross or crucifix at work and is eager to prove it in court.

The case was initiated by two British women Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, after they were punished for refusing to take off their religious symbols.

Nadia Ewedia is a British Airways employee, who was asked to cover her cross while at work, and was placed on unpaid leave when she refused to do so. Shirley Chaplin is a nurse moved to a desk position after she refused to remove a crucifix.

The women claim they were discriminated against when their employers barred them from wearing a cross and crucifix respectively.

The government position is that wearing the cross is not a “requirement of the faith” and therefore employers can ban the wearing of the cross at work.

The case has been taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which is to decide on whether the right to wear a cross is protected under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Article 9 states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

Eweida and Chaplin claim banning the cross and crucifix at work violates their human right to manifest their religion.

But the authorities insist that since wearing the cross is not a “requirement of the faith” it does not fall under the remit of Article 9.

Lawyers for the two women say “manifesting” religion includes doing things that are not a “requirement of the faith”, and that they are therefore protected by human rights.

The case has stirred up British society. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, accused authorities of “dictating” to Christians, saying it was another example of Christianity becoming sidelined.

Many say the government’s position in this case is largely shaped by the British Roman Catholic Church’s attacks on the government’s plan to legalize same-sex marriage.

The plans were announced by conservatives during the parliamentary elections of 2010.

The country’s PM David Cameron himself spoke in favor of ending the ban on same-sex marriage at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2011. People should embrace same-sex marriage because of their conservatism and their commitment to family values and not in spite of it, Cameron said.

This is sheer stupidity.

The Mangalasutra (Thaali, Minnu) is a symbol of marriage among Hindus and Christians in India.

A Mangalsutra (Mangala sutra, Mangalasutra or Thaali) is a symbol of Hindu marriage union in South Asia. It is a sacred thread of love and goodwill worn by women as a symbol of their marriage. Traditionally the mangalsutra is considered the most revered token of love and respect offered to the bride during the marriage ceremony.

The following is also from Wikipedia:

It is called தாலி (thaali) in Tamil, ತಾಳಿ (thaali) or ಮಾಂಗಲ್ಯ (mangalyasutra) in Kannada and thaali (తాళి), maangalyam (మాంగళ్యము), mangalsutramu (మంగళసూత్రము) or pustelu (పుస్తెలు) in Telugu. Konkanis wear three necklaces around their neck referred to as Dhaaremani or Muhurtmani (big golden bead), Mangalasutra with one or two gold discs and Kasithaali with gold and coral beads. In Malayalam it is simply referred to as Thaali in general and Minnu by Syrian Christians.

A Thali (Minnu) is also worn by the brides of Kerala's Syrian Christian community. An engraving of the holy spirit is a distinguishing feature of the Syrian Christian Minnu. According to tradition, the families of the bride and the bridegroom contribute a piece of gold and melt it with the help of the family goldsmith. This is then used to make the rest of the necklace. The process of tying is assisted by a sister of the groom, as it is with other Hindu communities. During the wedding ceremony, the Minnu is held on and tied using a braided thread made with several threads taken from the Manthrakodi (wedding saree) and twisted together,.

Christians attach a cross in the thread and it is a symbol of love and marriage union.

The case registered by these  British Government  against these two ladies has far reaching consequences and is not only against Christianity but all major world religions.

It is an attack by the British Government on love and marriage. No one would be permitted to wear a thread around their neck! I think this extremist views against all religions should end forthwith.

What do you think?

Madman of Norway

Gunnar Toresen, Head of the Child Welfare Services of the city of Stavenger in Norway is nothing short of being a Megolmaniac Madman urgently requiring physcological care.

His kidnapping of two Indian children in Norway and his recent letter to the Indian Government requiring them to respond to him on the laws applicable in India to Indian citizens is truly bizzarre.

His sense of grandoism shows that he cares little about the children but wants to show his Nazi-like power craze as he tries everything in his assumed power to stop the Indian children to be returned to their motherland.

Norway is not the colonial master of India and he is not the King of the World to dictate to India about Constitutional Rights of Indian Citizens within India!

Not only does Gunnar Toresen require to be institutionalised immediately but the case of the children kidnapped by him, besides these two Indian children, needs to be investigated to see who are his advisors and the financial implications of each case.

The jurisdiction of Norwegian Courts and Norwegian Judges also needs to be put under scrutiny by the European Human Rights Commission, as such violation of the Human Rights of innocent children and their parents can be infectious in these Northern Countries.

It is obvious that certain individuals were benefiting financially from this kidnapping.

Were they fellow social workers and psychiatrists and friends of social workers? How were these people vetted to be given a place in this multi-million Norwegian Kroner money rolling scheme?

The case of the Norwegian foster parent who has been convicted of child molestation should be investigated and his relationship to Gunnar Toresen established.

Is Gunnar Toresen the conduit to provide his friends with innocent children to be used as sex toys?

In our 27 years in Finland we have seen many excesses of the bureaucracy and legal authorities in interfering in the lives of the weaker sections of society.

Gunnar Toresen is one example of the madness of this policy.

It takes a perverted madman to carry out such crazy behaviour and destroy the lives of innocent children and their parents.

Please act by writing to the Norwegian Prime Minister to stop this Norwegian Madman NOW!

Budget Battleground

This post is made in three of my blogs as it of interest to all my readers of Jacob's Blog, and more specifically the readers of my Mumbai Cathedral and John Connon School Blog, Seventh Heaven, and readers of the Stephanian Blog, Kooler Talk (Web Version).

I apologize for this multi-blog posting, as many of you are readers of all the three blogs!

Budget Battleground was  event that took place against the backdrop of my alma mater, St. Stephen's College, beautifully lit in the background, had a selected audience of young economists from Delhi School of Economics, Shri Ram College and St. Stephen's College, three of the many premier colleges in Delhi.

The anchorman was NDTV Managing Director, Dr. Prannoy Roy, who was connected with another good friend, great economist with tremendous wit, the person who turned around Doordarshan in the late eighties and early nineties and then went on to head Rupert Murdoch's Star TV and then his own channel, Broadcast Worldwide Ltd.,  and also a Stephanian, 61er/63er Rathikant Basu.

This is from the Wikipedia entry for NDTV Managing Director, Prannoy Roy:

Controversy

On 20 January 1998 Central Bureau of Investigation filed cases against New Delhi Television (NDTV) managing director Prannoy Roy, former Director General of Doordarshan R Basu and five other top officials of Doordarshan under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. According to the CBI charge-sheet, Doordarshan suffered a loss of over Rs 3.52 crore due to the “undue favours” shown to NDTV as its programme The World This Week (TWTW) was put in `A’ category instead of `special A’ category

The two in the hot seats were 63er Montek Singh Alhuwalia, who was very much present in St. Stephen's College during my three years there, and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (difficult to say whether he is an Indian or Bangladeshi as both countries have laid claim to him).

One can never forget 63er Montek, not for his knowledge, but for the unique way he wore his turban and certain mannerisms (the nervous laugh when he knows what he is saying is not what he believes), which have not changed, even as of today. The way he argued a point was always from a point that he could not be wrong, although many times, he was and is!

I give below three extract from the autobiography of Amartya Sen (Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1998). In these extracts you will see the mention of a name - Mumbai Cathedral School 59er Sudhir Anand, my classmate who is Professor of Economics at both Oxford and Harvard, a brilliant economist and undoubtedly a brain who influenced Amartya Sen considerably more than a three time  mention in his autobiography.

59er Sudhir was from our Mumbai Cathedral and John Connon School. Although unable to make it top our 50th year reunion in 2009, he was very much there in spirit.

"I was also fortunate to have colleagues who were working on serious social choice problems, including Peter Hammond, Charles Blackorby, Kotaro Suzumura, Geoffrey Heal, Gracieda Chichilnisky, Ken Binmore, Wulf Gaertner, Eric Maskin, John Muellbauer, Kevin Roberts, Susan Hurley, at LSE or Oxford, or neighbouring British universities. (I also learned greatly from conversations with economists who were in other fields, but whose works were of great interest to me, including Sudhir Anand, Tony Atkinson, Christopher Bliss, Meghnad Desai, Terence Gorman, Frank Hahn, David Hendry, Richard Layard, James Mirrlees, John Muellbauer, Steve Nickel, among others.) I also had the opportunity of collaboration with social choice theorists elsewhere, such as Claude d'Aspremont and Louis Gevers in Belgium, Koichi Hamada and Ken-ichi Inada in Japan (joined later by Suzumura when he returned there), and many others in America, Canada, Israel, Australia, Russia, and elsewhere). There were many new formal results and informal understandings that emerged in these works, and the gloom of "impossibility results" ceased to be the only prominent theme in the field. The 1970s were probably the golden years of social choice theory across the world. Personally, I had the sense of having a ball.

From social choice to inequality and poverty

The constructive possibilities that the new literature on social choice produced directed us immediately to making use of available statistics for a variety of economic and social appraisals: measuring economic inequality, judging poverty, evaluating projects, analyzing unemployment, investigating the principles and implications of liberty and rights, assessing gender inequality, and so on. My work on inequality was much inspired and stimulated by that of Tony Atkinson. I also worked for a while with Partha Dasgupta and David Starrett on measuring inequality (after having worked with Dasgupta and Stephen Marglin on project evaluation), and later, more extensively, with Sudhir Anand and James Foster."

 

Later he says in his autobiography:

"During my Harvard years up to about 1991, I was much involved in analyzing the overall implications of this perspective on welfare economics and political philosophy (this is reported in my book, Inequality Reexamined, published in 1992). But it was also very nice to get involved in some new problems, including the characterization of rationality, the demands of objectivity, and the relation between facts and values. I used the old technique of offering courses on them (sometimes jointly with Robert Nozick) and through that learning as much as I taught. I started taking an interest also in health equity (and in public health in particular, in close collaboration with Sudhir Anand), a challenging field of application for concepts of equity and justice. Harvard's ample strength in an immense variety of subjects gives one scope for much freedom in the choice of work and of colleagues to talk to, and the high quality of the students was a total delight as well. My work on inequality in terms of variables other than incomes was also helped by the collaboration of Angus Deaton and James Foster.

Readers of Seventh Heaven will remember how I have written about Sudhir and the Nobel Prize awarded to Amartya Sen!

The discussion was lack lustre. Montek took the view that he could not discuss the Budget (the whole point of the programme) and gave no real answer for the blazing question how the poor of India had not improved their lot during the time he has been at the head of the Planning Commission. (At one point he says "We have said, the Government has said,…." )

Montek minced  words as only a political chamcha can do!

Roy was not hard-hitting in his position as Anchorman. He was being pleasant to his guests!!

Amartya Sen was his own self and wanted to be nice to everyone.

Not a receipe for a successful  discussion, but for me, being in the setting of our beautiful college was good enough to sit through the 45 minute discussion!

Anyway, it was good to be away from the depressing media coverage of our hallowed institution which has been plaguing us for almost half a decade!

First time (also published my KOOLER TALK blog)

Stephanian S. Y. Qurashi

In my almost 70 years and over 48 years as an adult with deep interest in politics, this was the first time I actually spent a few hours, in Finland, watching an election process in India.

In the 70s I was close with many politicians of all parties and knew exactly how corrupt all of them were. So I kept my distance.

Votes appear to have been cast this time in 5 States over a period of time and today was the counting and declaration of the results. Results were announced from Goa (1.5 million), Manipur (2.7 million), Punjab (28 million), Uttar Pradesh (200 million) and Uttarakhand (10 million).

Over 240 million people were choosing their local politicians to serve them for the next few years. It was a mixed bag of results with the National Parties less successful than the regional parties.

Watching on an Indian internet TV Channel, NDTV 24x7, I was quite intrigued by the mixture of languages being used by the participants. Since I know English, Hindi, Punjabi (a bit), I wondered whether this channel was watched by the majority of Indians who are only familiar with their regional language.

Obviously not.

Quite a few of my juniors from my alma mater, St. Stephen's College in Delhi, were on the box, either as politicians in different parties, as tv anchor men or women, or as "experts". It was quite easy to recognise them as they had a different air about the way they handled the subjects.

I thought to myself whether I was the same! I hope not, as I consider myself as individualistic rather than moulded by my alma mater characteristics, especially with regard to politics!

On the whole, following the election was an interesting experience, especially as I could view it from a distance and not be involved with it in any other way.

The main thing that struck me was that several corrupt politicians fell by the wayside.

The independent Chief Election Commissioner, Dr. S. Y. Qurashi, is also a product of my alma mater, about 10 years my junior. His interview on NDTV was very interesting as he has to keep his head above the murky waters of Indian Politics.

This experience was also followed by an interesting news item I noted in an Indian internet newspaper which said that the top two jobs in the Indian Administrative Service and in the Indian Police Service were also filled by Stephanians.

These are IAS officers Pulok Chatterjee, the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary, and Ajit Seth, the Cabinet Secretary, and IPS officers, Nehchal Sandhu, Intelligence Bureau Chief and A. B. Singh, Central Bureau of Investigation Chief.

Many of my classmates and those who were in College during my years there, have served in very senior Government positions (62ers Mani Shankar Aiyar, Rathikant Basu, Ashok (Tony) Jaitly) and also as Ambassadors (62er Niranjan Desai, 63ers Siddarth Singh and Aftab Seth, etc.) in different parts of the world.

They have also served in the United Nations, 74er Sashi Tharoor, the Commonwealth Secretariat, 62er Kamlesh Sharma, the World Bank, 63er Montek Singh Alhuwalia and 62er Sarwar Lateef,  the Asian Development Bank, 63er Karthik Sandilya, and many many more such world bodies.

It would be interesting to compile a Who's Who of Stephanians!

Kaukkovainio Incident

The "Silent March" on Friday to remember the Moroccan who was killed last Saturday evening at the Monaco Pizzeria brought to mind my last entry on this Blog.

I had mentioned how Hasim and Kasim had turned around a pub habituated by drunks into a wonderful family restaurant.

Next to the Monaco Pizzeria in Kaukkovanio where the shooting took place,  there are two pubs. Sure enough it was from one of them that the shooter went to the Monaco Pizzeria.

The residents of the area have been terrified of the drunks who habituate these drinking houses, so much so that after 8 pm they do not visit the shopping mall.

All of them expressed in the local newspaper how they were not able to use the shopping mall in the evenings. They wanted the drinking houses closed and turned into shops.

A very valid request in the light of what happen last Saturday night.

I wish the City Authorities will stop lip service and have a review prepared and published of all the shopping malls around the city. Then we would be able to see how they can change the culture where there is a problem.

The Rajakylä shopping area is one which stands out a mile, as also the Topila area and Kaukkovainio.

The real exemplary ones are at Ranta Kastelli, where again the Goreme Pizzeria owned by Hasim and Kasim has ensured that the peace and tranquility are maintained.

Did I write too soon? Am I writing too late?

 

Another Jousimies?

If one reads the report about the recent murder of two Moroccans in the Kaukkovainio pizzeria, (Not Racism), the root cause was the alcohol bars in the shopping centre.

Residents of Kaukkovainio specifically tell that the shopping centre is not a safe place in the evenings and the weekends.

I had written how Kasim and Hasim had transfored the Höythyä Shopping centre from a drunken place by changing the traditional drinking hole ito a respectable family friendly restaurant.

This can be done in Kaukkovainio too!

Norwegians amazing behavior

Although I do not know the full story of the Indian children taken away from their parents and placed in a foster home, as it has not been covered in Finland, from what I have seen on the Indian media and have read about this subject, the behaviour by Norwegians of "officially kidnapping" children and placing them in "foster homes" at € 30.000 a pop is truly amazing.

In a detailed article by a Norwegian in The Hindu, the background to this kidnapping is explained.

The iron hand that rocks the cradle

MARIANNE HASLEV SKÅNLAND

I must compliment Indian newspapers, not least The Hindu, for giving a thorough coverage to the case of the Indian couple deprived of their children by the Norwegian ‘child protection services' (CPS).......

This foster home scandal included sexual abuse of the children by one foster parent who has now been convicted in Court.

Norwegians are not told the facts. The parents of the children taken into foster homes are deamonised. And they blindly believe the bureaucratic version as they are brought up to believe that the authority is always right.

Hopefully, the case of the Indian children will make some Norwegians to sit up and look at the way the system is being exploited for profit by a group of corrupt individuals.

In the meantime, please make as much noise as possible to get the children released and sent home to India.

Change from drunkeness onwards

Jousimies was a nice small restaurant in our local community area, but over the years it got taken over by a group of louts who spent the whole day in a boisterous fashion, drinking and puking all over the place.

No local resident could enjoy a peaceful meal at the place.

Last year my friends, Hasim and Kasim, the owners of Göreme Kebab and Piazza Restaurant negotiated a buy out of Jousimies. They renovated the restaursnt and made it an eating house where you had to buy food if you wanted to have a drink.

On Saturday, I had to wait for Annikki when she was at church. I decided to have some freshly baked bread with Garlic Butter at the new restaursant.

I found elderly locals and families with small children eating there in peace.

What a turn around as sober people have reclaimed this restaurants after a period of almost 20 years!

Thank you, Hasim and Kasim.

U Decide : Does This Guy Even Know His Subject?

There are times when you receive a forward from a friend and you laugh of guts out. I laughed at each line while I read through this.

In the evening, I read it to our grandson, Samuel, in Newcastle, with Annikki listening, and had them both in splits of laughter.

Being largely involved with Phyics in my later stage of my career, mainly Solid State Physics, the punch line hit me right between the eyes!

Enjoy!

"This was a question in a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen:

"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."

One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed immediately.

The student appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably  correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide the case.

The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics.

To resolve the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer that showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics.

For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought.

The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use.

On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows:

"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper,drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground.

The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H = 0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on the barometer."

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper."

"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T = 2 pi sqroot (l/g)."

"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add them up."

"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building."

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him, 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'."

(The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane to win the Nobel prize for Physics)"

Web contacts worth following

A few weeks ago, an email arrived in my Inbox. I sort of liked what I read. I decided to subscribe to the newsletter and have been receiving it since then.

The newsletter is called "Passive Panda" (passivepanda.com) and the Editor is sending me regular news postings with excellent advice about how to get better results in a web based business.

I have done most of what the Editor is saying during my 20 years as an active web player. I did it more out of intution and I enjoyed the results and the fruits of my work.

For me to read someone who has quantified this is very satisfying.

If I was 20 years younger, I would have been very excited about this, just as I had fantastic results 25 years ago by subscribing to a newsletter called "communications briefings". (communicationsbriefings.com)

It was that newsletter which resulted in our magaine, first print and then online, being named "findians brefings". Being a subscriber I had the right to print one of thwir articles in our magazine, and they were always well received.

If you really want to organise your working life and start to make some money on the web, I would suggest that you seriously look at these two publications!

Quick trip to Helsinki

I took the Blue1 flight at 09:15 to Helsinki (€ 54 was return fare!). It was bitterly cold, -32 C, and with the slight breeze, it was about -38 C. Helsinki was like summer as the temperature was just -8 C. Finished work and got back to the airport by 15:00 hours; flight at 16:40 and home by 18:00. Temperature was still hovering around -28 C but as it was not windy, it was bearable. Hope the temperature starts to rise and we hope it is sunny bright days ahead.

Finnish Fake Lawyers

23.11.2011

Speak no Evil, See no Evil, Hear no Evil
Motto of the Finnish Lawyer's Association

It was truly humourous to read the reaction of the Finnish Lawyer's Association regarding "Fake Lawyers".

If anything is fake it is the Constitution of this Lawyer's Association, whose sole purpose is to act on behalf of their brotherhood against anyone who dares to question the illegal actions of its registered members.

It would be interesting if this Association would inform the public of how many complaints it has received during the last 10 years and how many of the brotherhood members were made accountable for their illegal actions.

Probably less than 1 %! Probably less than 0.1%!

If my personal experience is anything to judge the situation, my father and mother had no debts and only assets when they died. After 7 years of my father' death, he became the founder of a company, he was taken to the bailiff for debts he incurred 9 years after his death, had all his money meant for his siblings run though by a noted Finnish "Oulu Lawyer" and his friends, and with the connivance of a Notary of the Oulu Magistrates Court and another member of this esteemed legal profession, usurped my parents assets for themselves, sold the inheritors properties and are enjoying their illegal gains, while the inheritors stand there with empty hands!

And what has the Finnish Lawyers Association done?
They have turned a blind eye despite all the volumes of evidence presented to them and they have declared their "brother" totally blameless.
They are nothing more than a Rubber Stamp for the daylight robbery by their brotherhood.
Finland, the least corrupt country on this planet?
Think again as that is only an image.

I say "Better Fake lawyers than Finnish lawyers"!

Finnish Version

23.11.2011
Älä puhu pahaa, älä näe pahaa, älä kuule pahaa
Suomen asianajajaliiton motto

Oli tosi huvittavaa lukea asianajajaliiton reaktio valeasianajajien suhteen.
Jos jokin on vale, se on asianajajaliiton perustuslaki, ainoa tarkoitus on toimia heidän oman veljeskuntansa puolesta ketä hyvänsä vastaan, joka uskaltaa kyseenalaistaa sen liiton rekisteröityjen jäsenten laittomia toimia.
Olisi mielenkiintoista, jos tämä liitto ilmoittaisi julkisesti, kuinka paljon valituksia he ovat saaneet viimeisten 10 vuoden aikana ja kuinka monta veljeskunnan jäsentä saatettiin vastuuseen laittomista teoistaan.
Ehkä alle 1%? Ehkä alle 0.1%?
Arvioin tilannetta henkilökohtaisen kokemukseni kautta. Vanhemmillani ei ollut mitään velkoja kuollessaan, ainoastaan omaisuutta.
Seitsemän vuotta kuolemansa jälkeen isätäni tuli yrittäjä, hänet vietiin ulosottoon velkojen vuoksi, jotka hän aiheutti 9 vuotta kuolemansa jälkeen.
Hänen viimeisen osoitteen postilaatikkoon laitettiin hänen nimellä ja osoitteella ulosottoviraston ulosottouhkalasku kyseessa olevan asianajajan järjestämä omaa tarkoitustaan varten vailla mitään virallista asemaa perässä. Tämä tunnettu oululainen asianajaja vei osakkaiden perintöomaisuudet käräjäoikeuden notaarin avustuksella ja erään muun tämän arvostuksella ja erään muun tämän arvostetun ammattikunnan harjoittajan kautta. He ryöstivät vanhempiemme meille jättämät omaisuudet, möivät perillisten kiinteistön ja nauttivat heidän laittomista saaliistaan samalla kun perilliset jätettiin tyhjin käsin!
He tekivät kaiken sen ilman mitään virallista asemaa osakkaiden suhteen, tietoa tai valtuutusta mihinkään.

Ja mitä asinajajaliitto on tehnyt tässä?
He peittivät silmänsä kaikelle suurelle määrälle todisteita jonka he vastaanottivat kahdelta osakkaalta. Asianajajaliitto julisti hyväveljensä moitteettomaksi.
He eivät ole yhtään enempää kuin kumileimasin heidän veljeskunnan päivänvaloryöstöön.
Suomi, planteetan vähiten korruptoitunut maa?
Ajattele hetki, koska se on vain imago.
Olen varma, että valeasianajajat ovat parempia kuin virallisesti valtuutetut suomalaiset asianajajat! Parempi mahdollisuus oikeudenmukaisuuteen missään asiassa olisi kuka hyvänsä vastaantulija kadulla!

Change from a decade

As you know I have been a Mac addict since 1984. With reason?

When I got my first Mac Portable in 1991, a PowerBook 170, I travelled by train between Oulu nad Helsinki when Annikki and I were on our way to India. That was probably the only computer on the portable train.

Since then we had the appearance of many computers. Whenever I have travelled there were no Macs other than mine, but just many brands running the Windows operating system.

On Sunday I travelled for a quick visit to Helsinki. On my way back I noted that there were four computers being used by the people in the seats at the side and in front of me.

The persons in the seat in front of me had a PC and was playing games and watching CDs. It was a Windows based laptop. The seats adjacent to them had two computers running. One was an architect doing house design and he was running a Metallic MacBook Pro. Th seat adjacent to him had a lady who was watching a film and that was on a white MacBook Pro.

In the seat absolutely next to me I had a music diretcor working on his music, who was running his MacBook Pro.

I noted that during the journey the Windows machine had to be rebooted at least 4 times.

None of the Mac even coughed the entire way of 7 hours.

And I did note that the PC had to be recharged but none of the Macs was even plugged in the entire journey.

I think this experience speaks for itself! What say you?

How time has passed!

Ruki Family

As usual, I have several excuses why my blogs has not been updated. None of them are valid except that I have not just been on the ball as I have had problems in running my retired life business.

I am glad to say, thanks to Rukshana, the daughter of a dear friend, Yezad Kapadia, I was introduced to a young man living in Helsinki, Yogesh Kale, formerly from WIPRO Administration in Banaglore, an experienced hospitality manager and a very sincere person.

He took time off from his working life to look after his baby daughter for the last 9 months while his wife went back to work.

He and I hit it off from Day 1. He has come in as a shareholder and Director of Raantel Oy from this month. He will take charge of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and also Tampere. He has brought a new face to Raantel. I am sure we will grow in South Finland and operate on a similar model as we are doing in Oulu.

I will not blow the trumpet about Yogesh as I watch him develop Raantel into an internationally acclaimed company.

With his induction, probably life will get a little easier for me. Knowing me, whenever a gap appears in my life, I jump in with a new idea or new project. I have so many up my sleeve that I should start keeping a diary of all the projects that have just been overlooked in the last 40 years.

I have lost much of my skills, but some do remain and hopefully they will result in a few more good projects.

Amazing photographs of Oulu Sunsets

Last week we went to see Annikki's sister. As it was nearing sunset, we thought a visit to the beach may give us something to brood about.

As we were driving, both Annikki and I noticed that the sky was becoming a wonderful golden purple as the sun was fast setting and the clouds had a great formation..

When we turned on to the beach road, the sun was already behind an island far out at sea and the view was amazing.


The island and the trees seemed to be alight with flames.

From Sunsets 2010 Oulu

Photo 1: Island on fire

From Sunsets 2010 Oulu

Photo 2: Island on fire

From Sunsets 2010 Oulu

Photo 3: Clouds at sunset

Which photograph of the Island on Fire is better. Both of rushed out of the car running to the beach to catch a shot with our cheap pocket cameras, which both of us carry with us all the time!

I am not going to reveal who took which shot, but it is test of each one's eye as against the reflex time.

Within a minute of us taking these shots - the scene had changed.

The clouds were as if painted in the sky, also an amazing colour spectrum. Annikki saw it change from purplish white to grey.

Sunsets, each one being different, in Oulu are truly amazing.

Visit of Indian Ambassador to Oulu

Ambassador Om Prakash and his wife Vineeta 

Thanks very much to Asheesh, the CEO of Medipolis I GMP in Oulu, the Indian Ambassador to Finland, His Excellency Om Prakash and his wife, Vineeta, were invited to Oulu to meet the top city officials and also to share an afternoon with the Indian Community here.

Indu and Asheesh, Aruna and Mahesh and Nushrat and Arindam took the lead and organised a wonderful event. They were assisted by a small band of youngsters who also helped to clear up after the event.

On Thursday, Asheesh rang me and asked me to give the introductory address about Indians in Oulu.

I spoke for about 10 minutes highlighting the arrival of Annikki, Susanna, Jaakko and me to Oulu in 1969 when we were en route to India. This was followed by our visits in 1975 and 1979, till we moved here in 1984. I also gave a glimpse of the relationship I had with two former Ambassadors, Fabian and Cherpoot, both of whom were our guests in Oulu on official visits to the Unversity.

I told the audience of Fabians outstanding talk on the "North South Dialogue" which was published in full, with his permission in my book "Seven Year Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish University".

The historic dual citizenships (Now vanished!)granted to our children, Joanna and Mika, the close links between the Microelectronics Laboratory of the University of Oulu and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the way in which Oulu had become our home and how the Indian Community here had grown and become strong, featured in my short talk. There was much to say, but I did not want to bore the audience!

Mahesh then gave a a very well done presentation about the history of the City of Oulu. It was quite embarassing as he kept referring to my contribution in the aspects of Oulu life. (I was assisted by several people and it was embarrassing to be referred to it as the sole architect!)

The Ambassador gave a speech, which was a little sad, as he informed us thet he was just a few days from returning to India. I discovered that he was from the same University as me, Delhi (1971, Hindu College), considerably junior, and he had served under both Fabian and Cherpoot and also knew my good friends, Ambassadors Niranjan, Siddarthand Aftab, andf also Tony (former Chief Commissioner for Jammu & Kashmir), all of whom were Stephanians of my years in college (1960 - 1963).

The afternoon snacks provided by Nushrat and Arindam (Indian Cusine) were well received by the medium sized audience.

I was a little surprised why several prominent members of our Indian community did not come. Although most of them got the message through O-India, and the event did not cost a dime to attend, the lack of enthusiasm by one section of our community is a little sad.

I hope that in future we will have a better turnout, as these events help to cement a bond between the Indian ex-pats who are almost all doing well here in Oulu.

I also later suggested that in future the invitation to our Indian Ambassadors should be made at the start of their tenure as then we could get recognition and co-operation over the 5 years of their term in Finland.

After the event, Atul, my co-moderator at the O-India Group, has asked for a regular Coffee (Beer) Club session of our community, something that I started with CHAFF (Chamber of Assistance for Finns and Foreigners) and all ethnic minority communities and Finns, several years ago. That had been a huge success, but after I handed it to the members, it died a slow death.

All such Groups need a motivator and a theme. Just a casual get together may work for a few weeks, but one which needs to succeed over a longer term needs the undivided attention of a couple of people who make it an exciting event to attend. In short, they must get some personal value out of attending!

Let us hope Atul succeeds in his adventure of forming this group.

And I thank all those who organised the event and our Indian Ambassador, His Excellency Om Prakash and his wife, Vineeta, for the chance to share a few moments with all many Indian friends here in Oulu.

Jai Bharat.

I was really chuffed...

My Miss Universe 

Quite unknown to my better half, I have been blogging her attributes at various junctures. She, however, does not look at what I post! She has never even seen the tribute I posted for her on her 60th birthday - 6 years ago!

So when someone saw what she meant to me, and realised that I was not doing it to gain her affection, I was greatly chuffed when the comment was so very positive. Yes, I am deeply in love with this grand lady who has given her life for our grandchildren, children and me. She has been through hell-fire and I am a witness to that. But her love, faith and charity were so strong that it surpassed all obstacles - and there were many!

Of course, she was very active when we launched Findians Briefings. She was my source for local information. She scanned the newspapers - the Helsinki and Oulu papers and gave me a deep insight into how Finland really works.

The popularity of our newsletter which became a fortnightly web magazine was in no small measure due to her insight into Finnish life and culture viewed as a Finn who was a non-Finn!

Now we are entering in a new phase in our life. Annikki's life phases are exciting and each passing day reveals a new dimension in her thinking. So watch out for some really interesting news very soon!

She had to have it!

When we went to the beach on the 6th, Annikki saw a large piece of driftwood. She wanted to have it. Unfortunately we did not have our trailer

Yesterday, another glorious day, we went to the beach one more time to get hold of this.

As you tell from the mischievous kid-like expression on her face, Annikki was totally contented with her effort and prize. It will find its place in the garden by this evening.

From Jacob's Blog

>

Before this, I went to see the Oulu Cricket Club lads hold one of their final sessions. Three new guys were there, two from Orissa and one from Chennai. Fourth from Managlore, came to watch.

They played this session with a tennis ball as the sting from a cricket ball, when the weather is cold, would have been too much for these lads from the tropics! :-)

If the weather holds, they may get in one more session this Indian Summer.

Could I refuse this request?

Yesterday was Annikki's birthday. I got home at about 6 in the evening and wished her.

She was talking to one of her sisters.

I asked her what she wanted to do. Her request for a present was to buy a pizza and go the Oulu Nallikari Beach. It was indeed a glorious Indian Summer evening!

From Jacob's Blog

From Jacob's Blog

From Jacob's Blog

It was really a glorious evening. There she was enjoying her birthday the only way she knows how!

Puzzled by darkness

Street Lights OFF?

Now that we actually do have darkness in Oulu, as our nightless nights have ended, I was greatly puzzled the other day.

I had to drop off one on my tenants at the airport at around 21:00 hours. On my way back, I decided to go to the office, pick up some papers and head for home. This was around 22:00 hours.

The highway, the E4, was well lit. When I pulled off the highway I thought it strange that not a single street light was on. All the way to the office and then through the City on my way home, I wondered why they had shut of the street lighting in Oulu. Only street lights at bridges and subways (tunnels) were on.

When I reached home I asked Annikki whether she had read anything in our local newspaper about this.

Answer: Negative.

We have a street light just in front of the house. It is extremely bright - but that night, like all the other street lights in Oulu - it was OFF!

Is Oulu City trying to save on electricity?

Living in Finland: Retrograde Steps

Retrograde Steps

The City of Oulu in Finland used to be of the very best cities in the world for pedestrians, cycles and slow moving mopos and scooters, as they had separate tracks for these apart from the roads. Only in the city centre, where all traffic is slow moving, did the scooters merge with the road traffic.

It was possible for me to go from our home to the office without once driving on the road. It was fast and safe.

Some pedestrians, quite unwarrantedly, started a campaign to take the scooters off these special tracks. Last week this was implemented.

My first reaction after driving my scooter on the roads was that the number of fatal accidents of scooter drivers is going to increase sharply. Also it will be quite impossible for scooter drivers to be on the road once the snow arrives. I used to be able to drive my scooter all through winter. albeit slowly, when I was driving on the slow moving tracks.

The reason why accidents will increase is that most scooters do not have the power to drive at the speed limits set for the roads - 40, 50, 60 and 80 kmph. 40 kmph YES. 50 kmph at a stretch, YES. But 60 and 80 kmph is quite impossible.

Hence, motorists - car and truck drivers will be impatient when they come up behind a slow moving scooter, and the impatience will make them to swing out into the centre to overtake these scooters.

This will have two effects. The oncoming traffic will be jeopardised and secondly, when these bigger vehicles overtake these light weight scooters, they will cause the scooters to wobble and be unstable.

As a result the only conclusion to expect will be a possible accident of either the larger vehicle or the scooter.

People will express concern, but it must be said that these activists who lobbied for this quite unnecessary change - will have blood on their hands!

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!

Wondering why?

If you are wondering why I did not update this blog or any of the others recently, it is because I am trying a new experiment. I am always trying new experiments and that is why I am at the forefront of new technologies in web communication.

There is a limit to the number of readers I can add to these blogger.com blogs.

I came across a blog host called FanBox.com which supposedly paid me for putting my posts on that blog and it had no limits to the number of readers. (I do not believe that I will get paid, but one can always try! :-) )

I started with a copy of what I had posted on this blog and have put up a few entries since then.

I do not trust the host FaxBox.com. I am not pushing anyone there to read my postings there. But if you want to take a look please do.

I heard someone was asked to join the FanBox blog, etc. Please do not do anything so radical.

I will post all that I post there here, so do not get forced in anything you are not comfortable with.

On the other hand I will certainly not post any sensitive information concerning my grandchildren on that blog.

In the meantime, Jacob's Blog will continue to be my main blogging point.

I wonder what goes through her mind?

Zebras by Annikki - made for my mother.

 Took 7 months.

As I look out of the window, I see my better half of the last 45+ years doing many things in the garden. Moving small things here and there, and sometimes really back breaking work like moving a load of sand from one place to another so as to put a rubber sheet underneath so that the grass does not grow through the sand. She does things painstakingly, and occasionally stands back to enjoy what she has done. She seems to know exactly what should be done, when and where!

I thought to myself that all through my working life and since, I have been busy, not with the express purpose of making money, but the end result of what I did was make money. Even as I help many tens of people today in Oulu, Tampere and Espoo/Helsinki, the final result is that I am gaining some monetary benefit, however much I try to disregard that aspect of my work.

But looking at Annikki pottering around, I thought of all that she has done in the last 47 years that I have known her. Almost 99% of it has not been for money or financial return. All her paintings were for her personal pleasure.

On the page of Annikki as an Artist which I created on her 60th birthday, there are two photographs.

The first is of the only painting she has ever sold, and that too with great regret. The second photograph is of the large tapestry she created for my mother almost 30+ years ago. This hung on my mother's living room wall till her passing away and now adorns our living room wall!

The gingerbread houses and the cakes she has designed were for the pleasure of her family and friends. The gardens she has so painstakingly created and maintained have been for the pleasure of those who want to enjoy it. The food she cooks, the clothes she washes, the houses she has maintained - all for her pleasure and of her family. She does those things as her "duty" to her family members, never thinking it is a duty.

I thought to myself whether I could ever be like her! I felt I would never achieve that sort of status in my life - a person who has been so selfless in her work and who enjoys everything she does. She is happy when others are happy. She is sad when others are sad.

How many people are like that in this world?

No doubt many of you will say that their mothers and their wives are of the same mould.

I agree that the work of a woman is priceless.

I remember seeing an article in "The Times" of London, many decades ago, which valued the work of a woman, housewife, mother. The conclusion was that no man would be able to pay his better half enough for the work she does to run the family. This is more so today than it was a few decades ago.

I value Annikki for all that she has been and is - Daughter, Girlfriend, Wife, Daughter-in-law, Mother, Grandmother, Artist, Author, Educator.

I wish everyone had a person like her in their life!