Hundreds of Season's Greetings...

There have been many hundreds of Season's Greetings that reached us in many different forms, online cards, emails, greeting cards, telephone greetings, Christmas letters, letters.

It is difficult to say thank you to all of you for the outpouring of love seen in the greetings received.

We usually pick up one greeting as the one that touches us, Annikki and me, most. This year the one we have picked is the one from our former driver in India, Mr. K. Narayanan.



He, and his family were part of our family for the years that we lived in Madras (now Chennai). He used to work for the firm that my father was the CEO of, Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE).

TCE closed their office in Chennai, My dad told me that he was very happy with a driver who was courteous, spoke a little English, and above all was an exceptionally good driver.



K. Narayanan arrived at our door in 1970 and was our personal driver for the time we lived in Chennai between 1970 and 1975. He has remained a family friend since and we have seen his family grow up, and now they are married. His son is a computer engineer and doing well.

Only those who know India know how important it is to have a good driver in your employment. You may leave thousands of rupees in his custody by way of what is in the car, as well as the car itself. Above all, you leave the life of your children and your loved ones, as well as your own, in his hands.

Mr. Narayanan was someone we trusted implicitly. He never ever violated our trust in him.

Now that he is retired and settled in his home area near where his son works, we chose his greeting as the one we most appreciated this year, not in any way demoting the significance of all the others who sent us greetings.

Season's Greetings Mr. K. Narayanan and convey the same to all your family.

CHAFF - what is it?

Over the last six months a small group of foreigners have been meeting together to try to help other foreigners who have problems. Slowly, this group has expanded and the help has been offered, not only to foreigners in Oulu but also to many Finns.

Finns travelling to various parts of the world have been given guidance by experienced members of the group.

China and India are some of the hot destinations that Finns have wanted information about. Finns have wanted interpretation services and advice about culture and customs of the places they want to travel to.

This group has been able through its network to find suitable help for the people who have come to it.

The group has been searching for a name to depict the work it is doing. After much sould searching one name has been thrown up.

"Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners"

Abbreviated, this can be read as

"CHAFF"

.

The word CHAFF has many meanings. One of this is that it is name of husk from grain when it is polished. This is usually considered as waste and used as animal feed.

However, health conscious people know that CHAFF is full of nutritional value.

CHAFF is Valuable Rubbish.

In Finland, the views of foreigners are generally considererd to be of not much value. It was considered most appropriate that our CHAFF is us, the valuable rubbish in Finland.

A second meaning of CHAFF is light-hearted joking. Our group, which is not a formal organisation, is certainly very light-hearted.

At today's meeting, the name CHAFF was proposed and it was accepted by all.

What sort of organisation CHAFF will become cannot be predicted today. However, at least there is an appropriate name for the work being done.

Today, was a meeting at the Pailin Thai Restaurant which was attended by many Indians (8), Finns (5), Chinese (2), Thais (2) and Zambian (1). Many regulars could not attend as they have not yet returned from their winter holidays.

Our Hungarian, Kenyan, Nigerian, Gambian, Dutch, etc. nationals could not join us today.

Amongst those prsent was one Finn who will leave next week on a trip to Kerala and South Tamilnadu in India as part of a Rotary District Exchange programme.

The discussions today centered on three topics.

1. How to legitimately pay less taxes in Finland.
2. The imporatance of joining a Union in Finland.
3. An introduction to Kerala through the life of Mrs. K. C. Mammen Mappillai, the humble wife of the doyen of Kerala, as seen through a video about her life set in the Backwaters of Kerala.


CHAFF group enjoying Pailin food

This was followed by a sumptuous meal with the choice of a regular Thai meal, Pizzas and the Pailin Thai Sweet Chilli Wrap, the hit fast food of 2006.






Kamu and Paneer discuss Gobar Gas


My thanks to all for participating.

CHAFF has an exciting future ahead of it.

I give up...

Being attacked from all sides, Superdog won the day!

Superdog Samuel show me his tail

History buffs from all corners of the globe weighed in on the side of the 8 year old Superdog Samuel about Elizabeth I being a Tudor and not a Stuart. It was as if he got me vulnerble to Krypton and not the other way around!

Among the first of those who emailed me was Shalu from Chennai:

Hi Sushil,

Samuel, your grandson, I think is right in saying your Encyclopaedia is not correct.

From what I know Queen Elizabeth the 1st, was the last of the Tudors as she was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

She had no children.

When she died issueless, James the 1st (son of Mary Queen of Scots) came to the throne and, for the first time, England and Scotland were ruled together by a single king.

He began the Stuart line.

Many more of our blog readers came through with the same views proving that the Hutchinson Encylopedia was wrong.

I am toying with the idea of writing a stinker to the Editor of the Encyclopedia, as no Grandpa likes to be put to shame by his 8 year old grandson!

Saturday, and I went to watch Soda play football for his Tervarit Junior's side.

The Tervarit side played as if they were a bunch of novices. The defence was wide open. They virtually gave the opposing team all the five goals as gifts, including a penalty. They managed to salvage one goal from a free kick.

If the team plays in such a lethargic fashion, there is no hope for them.

The opposing side were well trained and played hard from start to finish. They chased the ball and in 99% cases they reached the ball before the Tervarit player. Their No. 8, in particular, played a super game along the left wing, running hard and controlling the ball with a long stride.

Most of the Tervarit players walked about the field waiting for the ball to come to them. They also used diastrous tactics of playing the ball across their own goal in the defnce area, time and time again, giving up valuable ground and playing into the hands of the attackers.

As I told Soda, unless each Tervarit player, including in particular, Soda, improves their stamina and their own personal games, there is no point in playing as a team. Personal fitness is above all importmant, as each member of the side has to been seen to play hard, instead of ambling along the pitch as if the rest of the team should pass the ball to them.

That is no way to play football.

In football the players have to be constantly on the move, constantly positioning themselves so that the ball can be safely passed to them. That needs a huge amount of energy on the part of the players. I did not see this today in the Tervarit Junior's side.

Morning reading...

(This entry has been cross-posted in all the three blogs today.)

We recieved this very beautiful email from a very valued dear friend, Cynthia, from Canada:

Your Blog has become part of my morning routine and I love reading all your entries and how wonderful it is that so many ex-students are in touch via your tremendous efforts. Keep up your good work.

It is unfortunate that you had 'a negative response', - there is always someone out there ready to criticize but would not take on what you have done all these many years.

I am sure you must have more positive comments than negative ones, so don't ever feel guilty about the past ... what's done is done ... learn from any mistakes you might have made and continue with your great Blog entries.

We have been astounded that how many of you have virtually made our three main blog pages as a daily stopover. The daily viewing figures have inspired us no end.

Let us assure all those who received our New Year's letter to alma maters, that quite the diametrically opposite happened when we received that negative mail, the only single one in 10 years, and that was 7 years ago.

It drove us to be better. In the subsequent years we have not received any negative comments.

As our correspondent said, the most important thing about life is to learn from one's mistakes and not commit the same mistake twice.

In 99.9 instances, we have been able to do just that. But there is one mistake Annikki and I have made time and time again. And for that we have no regrets.

Whenever we see people in trouble, we remember our "Christian" values - "love thy naighbour as thyself" and "anyone in trouble is our most IMMEDIATE neighbour."

People have exploited this trait in both of us. But it is something we do not regret, as for every person who misuses this and exploits our values, there are 999 who do become our dear friends for life.

That has what has made our life so full and personally rewarding.

Our friends are stretched out to all corners of this globe. Although we may not be rich and famous, we have REAL friends who are worth more to us than all the money in the bank, our mansions or luxurious cars!



Our 20 year old jalopy, also known as our "little rabbit", will never be touched by any car thief. He/she maybe will even donate a few bob so that we get ourselves a better looking one. But it is valuable to us as it does the job on hand.

Today, the last day of the Christmas season, which is a holiday in Finland, when we opened the local newspaper, we got a most pleasant surprise. The powerful short letter (which I featured the Finnish version in day-before-yesterday's blog entry) that Annikki wrote in response to the idiotic letter which had appeared in the newspaper saying that Finland should be an unicultural society, was published in today's letter's page.

We may soon be shouting "seven in one blow" if this newspaper keeps publishing all that Annikki writes. (We are sure all of you know the story about the tailor and how he killed seven flies when he brought down the fly-swatter and how his poweress of killing seven in one blow spread far and wide. Our grandchildren know the story, so we have assumed that all your grandparents did tell it to you.)

And finally, we spoke for an hour with 8 year old grandson, Samuel, in Newcastle, last night.


2000: Samuel's T-shirt caption says "I am small but dangerous"
and we can vouch for that!

He is, now-a-days, accompanying his mother to the library, as she goes there to study for her exams. This 8 year old rascal is gobbling up children's history books for 5 to 6 hours a day.

And then, every evening, he wants to test OUR knowledge of history!

We have a slight problem. One of you historians out there may be able to help us.

In our Encyclopedia, the British Queen Elizabeth I is shown as the first member from the House of Stuart. However, her father, Henry VIII, is shown as from the House of Tudor. It is known that Elizabeth I did not marry. So how did this change of Royal House take place?.

Samuel claims our Encyclopedia is wrong. Please help us resolve this grave problem. Otherwise we may be the victims of his "dangerous" blow! :-)

Chamber of Assistance for Foreigners

What started as the 4 person chit chat group of four foreigners in Oulu is expanding so rapidly that the Chamber of Assistance for Foreigners is now taking final shape.

But, we seem to be also helping many Finns plann their visit other countries as China, Thailand and India.

So we may to drop the "for Foreigners" from our proposed name.

Our next meeting this Sunday, 8th January 2006, promises to be a blockbuster. As so many are planning to go to Kerala in te next few days I have decided to play the very personal Video CD about my grandmother, which shows the beautiful scenery of the "Backwaters of Kerala".

Backwaters of Kerala

The star of the movie is this lady.


Valliammachi

Since Kannan, our quite outstanding Civil Engineer from Pondicherry, has got a great job at the Fifth Nuclear Power Plant to be built in Finland as the Site Engineer, I thought we could help several of you (and him) by talking about how to legitimately save on your income tax payments - which are quite high in case you do not take the correct steps as Finns do.

With some Finns going to India, I also thought we could help them with some of their travel plans, finding interpreters, etc.

So it appears this is going to be a great meeting with good food served up at the Pailin Restaurant. Choice of Thai, Pizzas and Kebabs as well as traditional Fast Foods.

Life is not moving to the slow lane

As each day of 2006 dawns, I find I am getting to a more and more hectic schedule. Today I had an early morning call from Pondicherryite Kannan from Rauma (south western Finland), where he was negotiating his new work contract as Site Engineer at the 5th Nuclear Power Plant to be built in Finland. He was also going to go to the Police Station to get his Residence and Work Permit ratified. (In the evening I caught him in the train on his way back to Oulu - SUCCESS.)

I had a meeting at the University at 07:30 and then another at 08:30. By 09:30 I picked up Paneer, our visitor to Oulu from Villipuram, Tamilnadu, and we met Kati Hjerp, the Chairperson of the Swallows of Nothern Finland who is also a Board Member of the Finnish Association of World Shops.

Kati is on her way to India on Monday - and so I rushed out an SOS to Malathi Khembhavi to meet up with her when she passes through Mumbai.

Finnophile Malathi Khembhavi, Oulu, 2004

Kati and her friend are going to Machlipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. I was able to inform her of the work of the late Aune Hyny who passed away in 2004. She had run an orphanage and school in Machlipatnam with the help of the Pentecostal Church.

I also pointed out that Machlipatnam was the home of another Oulu-ite, Tuulikki Teppo, whom Annikki and I took out to India in 1991. She too runs a small orphanage in Machlipatnam.


Indophile Tuulikki Teppo at Mother Theresa's Home for
abandoned children in Hyderabad in 1993, Copyright Jacob Matthan, 1993

Vamsi Krishna Palukuru, whom I had found on Monday sitting in my former laboratory in Oulu University, the Microelectronics and Material Science Laboratory, is from that area. At my request he is trying to find an interpreter for Kati and her friend when they visit that area. Vamsi is doing his doctorate under Professor Heli Juntunen.

Paneer had his heart set on buying a digital camera. His budget was Euro 200 and he had located a Canon at that price. I took him to the store and found that the one he had chosen was just a 4 Megapixel camera with ordinary batteries. There was a better one, 5.3 megapixels, with a Lithium Ion rechargable battery capable of being directly mains charged at the same price - knocked down from Euro 319 to Euro 199.

So he bought that. I was so happy to see the feeling of glee of a small boy getting what he had wanted to possess all his life. Paneer will now be able to record the rest of his visit to Finland using that camera!!

The afternoon was spent going through the legal and financial problems of another foreign couple in Oulu. I hope we can help them pull out of their disastrous route where they had been cheated by a Finnish businessman.

And finally, there was a recent letter to the Editor of our local paper about how Multiculturalism was all rubbish and Finland should be an unicultural nation. Annikki was furious with that article. She wrote a powerful short rebuttal which I sent off to the newspaper by the afternoon.

i am sure the newspaper will not publish Annikki's letter as they are prejudiced. The real complaint that Annikki and I have is not about the fool who wrote that letter but that a national newspaper like the Kaleva could publish such rubbish.

For those that can read Finnish, here is Annikki's letter to the Editor of Kaleva. to get the English version, please contact me.

Yksi yhteinen maailmamme

Esa Holappa (Kaleva 30.12.2005) sohaisi väitteillään monikulttuurista "muurahaiskekoa", joka on koko maailma. Meillä on vain tämä yksi maailma. Se on monikulttuurinen, elävä ja alati muuttuva ja ollut aikojen alusta. Se pitää sisällään elämän eri alueet, kuten kielet, tieteet taiteet ja suuret keksinnöt. Aika on hävittänyt monet ikivanhat kulttuurit. Ne ovat jättäneet jalkeensä merkittävät jäljet ja toimineet perustana muille maailman kulttuureille. Ilman niitä monikulttuurisia perintöjä, ei olisi nykyisen kaltaista maailmaa.

Suomi on aina ollut ja on monikulttuurinen maa. Yksikulttuurista maata ei todella ole olemassakaan. Sellainen on täysi mahdottomuus. Ainoastaan diktatuurit ja hirmuhallitukset pyrkivät siihen pakkokeinoin.

Suomalaiset ovat taustoiltaan ja tavoiltaan alunperin täysin muukalaisia täällä. Pyrkimällä keinotekoiseen yhtenäisyyteen jakamalla kansa, kuka tänne jää jäljelle? Ehkäpä edes alueellinen maisema, metsät ja järvet.

Suomalaiset ovat perimältään ja tavoiltaan maailman kansojen sekoitus.

Eurooppa on aina ollut eri aikoina kukoistava monikulttuurinen alue, mikä vaikuttaa vahvasti tämän päivän Suomeen. Eurooppa sisältää koko maailman kulttuuria ammoista ajoista.

Suomi kuuluu maailmaan ja on kansoihin nähden pieni vähemmistö. Eikö sellainen vähemmistö kansa saisi olla olemassa, näkyä ja kuulua?

Esa Holapan ihannemallin mukaisesti näin pienellä vähemmistö kansalla ja maalla ei ole oikeutta kuulua osana samaan yhteiseen maailmaan. Hänhän vastustaa juuri erilaisia vähemmistöjä.

Huomioimalla myönteisesti jokaisen ihmisen olemassaolon oikeudet rakennamme myöskin itsellemme parempaa Suomea ja koko maailmaa.

Annikki Matthan

And so on....

Have WE really retired?

Happy New Year

Annikki and I would like to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year.

A warm room awaits you here
Photo by Kannan

Annikki's Electric Art!

Another form of art that Anniki has perfected has been with old discarded fused electric light bulbs.

Click image to see an enlarged version


Fused electric bulbs as an art form

And this is a relaxed shot of Annikki and me captured by Kannan after our Christmas Eve meal.

I am waiting to attack the Pine Log Cake!


Christmas Eve 2005- Annikki, me and the Log Cake;
Photo by Kannan

It was delicious. :-)

Aluminium Roses

Annikki has for many many years been doing a lot of design work with scrap materials.

I used to wonder why she was keeping sacks of small aluminium containers which are used to sell the small candles.

Then, all of a sudden, aluminium roses started to appear around the house.

(Click image to see enlarged version.)



As depicted in the picture, the small aluminium container can be seen in the inset picture. Several of these were used to be converted, with some deft handiwork, into beautiful aluminium roses.

Since the aluminium containers were either silver or gold tinted in colour, Annikki mixed the colours to get some really good effects.

Thanks to Kannan for lending me a great camera to get these high quality photographs.

I will try to capture as much as possible of Annikki's great art, both inside and outside the house, so that we can have some reasonable quality pictures.

A quiet Christmas.....

In Finland, it is Christmas eve that is the important family meal.

Annikki was busy all evening shovelling the snow and creating beautiful things in the garden. She put on the northern lights.

Since we did not get a Christmas tree this year, as none of the grandkids were in country, Annikki built a Snow Christmas Tree and decorated it with lights.

She shovelled a whole lot of snow in the back garden into a pile. She said she has a secret project in mind.

I decided with her busy schedule, I would cook the Christmas dinner this year - chicken biriyani.

I called Paneer to ask him whether he would like to come over, but he was going to spend Christmas with his sponsor. So I would not have to make a vegetarian fare for him!

NOT THAT WOULD HAVE POSED ANY PROBLEM FOR THIS EXPERIENCED COOK WHO DOES A BOUT OF COOKING ONCE IN A DECADE.

Then I rang Kannan. He was going to be alone, so I asked him to join us.

Annikki prepared the onion curd dressing and the salad.

The meal was followed by a Chocolate Swiss Roll.

Between the four of us, Mika, Kannan, Annikki and mysef, we managed to lick the biriyani platter clean!

Kannan brought a super-duper camera with him and did some photography. Hopefully we will have some decent photographs on the blog in a couple of days.

Kannan was great fun, and Annikki and I enjoyed his company in the absence of our children and grandchildren.

Sunday was lie-in day. I did not change out of my lungi till well after noon.

Annikki got to work on her secret project and created a most beautiful snow bridge. This bridge will probably only take the weight of our light-footed cat, but it is a good addition to the garden. It goes from here to there, or is it from there to here?

Well, let us say that it goes nowhere from nowhere!

Annikki prepared the turkey dinner with stuffing and a salad, served with the traditional rossoli and gravy. This was followed by a Christmas cake topped with Marzipan.

Turkey and stuffing almost nucleated

There was not much left after Mika, Iitu, Annikki and I finished the Christmas Day meal.

I did drop in to see Pailin an Unop, Saikou, and Kamu and Kaisa and wish their kids on Christmas eve. I met up with Kaisa's mother who was down from Rovaniemi and her brother, who was in Oulu from Bosnia, where he is with the Finnish Peace Keeping Force.

Kame and Kaisa have three absolutely beautiful children, Pelita, Rosa and Matti.

Annikki and I managed to speak to Asha and Susanna on Christmas eve (they were at home in Billinghay, Lincoln) and with Samuel and Joanna on Christmas Day (they were in Puerto Rico on the Las Palmas Island in the Atlantic) in the evening.

All were well. That was what we as parents wanted to hear.

Susanna will visit Jaakko in BIrmingham on Tuesday and Wednesday and convey greetings from us.

Well, on to the New Year - so let us wish you a great year till the next Christmas.

This is what I call a round-up

Life is getting a bit nasty around here these days as Iitu, our 14 year old is getting possesive about my time. I am not allowed to read the newspaper, when I want to!



Jaya Abraham, is my childhood friend, who is maybe my second cousin or more probably my uncle once removed. He is the son of Avarachayan (Mr. K. J. Abraham), who was a solid figure of Bangalore.

If you were sick in hospital, Avarachayan would be there to visit you and pray with you. If you had a birthday, he would be there to share in the fun. I remember Avarachayan from when I was a little boy. He and his family lived in the Bangalore Binny complex. Avarachayan was active in the work of the Indian Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).

I loved my uncle. His family were very dear to me. His wife was a doctor. I have a feeling that she was one of the doctors who delivered this hunk of smelly flesh into this world!.

The children who grew up with me in Bangalore were his daughter, Valsa, who was the same age as me, son, Jaya, and two other boys. Jawahar and Mohan.

When I got an email which had a copy to Jaya's wife, Nargis, I dropped her a line as I had not heard from any of them for almost 14 years.

I received what I thought was one of the best family news round-ups that I have ever received. I share it with you in its entirety.

Hi,

Great to hear from you! I have forwarded your message to Jaya's e-mail address and don't know if he has responded to you. So I thought I would ...

Our address here is 2879 Nash Drive, Coquitlam BC V3B 6P9 Canada. We have been in Canada since mid-1991.

Jaya started out working for 7-11 (the convenience store chain), left to run his own gas station business for ten years, and has now gone back to working for 7-11. I am teaching at the BC Institute of Technology. The girls did their university here, and are now working - Anjali is a high school teacher and also doing her Ph.D. at McGill Univeristy in Montreal, and Tara is an environmental health officer here. We're in the Greater Vancouver area.

Jaya's father passed away ten years ago, this December. Valsa and Babuchayan (Ed: Eapen Koshy, who was formerly one of the most senior managers in MRF Ltd.) now live in Kotagiri (near Coonoor). Their daughter Shoba is married to Ravi George. Both are doctors in Odanchathram - before this, they were in the UK for a few years doing post-grad studies. Shoba is recovering from cancer. They have a son, Nikhil. Valsa's son, Pramod, lives in Madras and runs his own IT business.

Jaya's brother Jawahar lives in Bangalore, in Appicha's house. His wife Ruby is a school principal there. They have two sons, one of whom is working and the other is in college.

My dad lives in Hyderabad - my mother passed away two years ago.

It would be lovely to meet again - why don't you plan a trip to Canada?

With very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,

Nargis

Thank you Nargis for that news blast. I mourn the passing away of Avarachayan and your mother, whom I met at Yasmin's wedding in Hyderabad.

Nargis and her sister, Yasmin, who is married to my cousin Arun, son of Babyapappan (the late Matthan Matthan) are the extremely super-talented daughters of the former Finance Director of Vazir Sultan Tobacco, one of the most respected officers in that company's history, Mr. Shah.

A Christian, he has always worn his faith on his sleeve and was involved with the work of the church on a day to day basis. He is a person whom I admire and greatly respect.

It is good to know that Jaya and Nargis, and Nargis's father, are well.

I would also like to share a family photograph of a good friend from Bangalore, Balu, who is Asst. Professor, Dept. of Kannada Studies in the University of Agricultural Sciences at Hebbal. Balu is seen with his radiant wife Renuka, daughter, Ananya, and son, Shashank. I think the children have really wonderful and most unusual names.



Balu visited us in Oulu at the beginning of this year when he and Geordie George from Deepika International, a major newspaper from Kerala, were here to do language localisation for Nokia software.

I was a bit taken aback when I was asked the question whether Joanna was holidaying in the Carribean or the Canary Islands. I had alweays thought that Puerto Rico was in the vicity of America. But my good friend, Ilari Sohlo, put me right. There are two Puerto Ricos.

Joanna and family are in the Canary Islands. From all accounts, via text messages, they are having a great Christmas vacation, well deserved. Susanna and family and Jaakko are in England while Mika, Annikki and I are here in Oulu. But in our hearts, we are all together.

I hoped you enjoyed this round-up. I hope, also, that you will share your family news with so many of us out here in the world who want to know what you and your family are up to.

In the meantime, may we wish each and everyone of you a very beautiful Chanukah (today), Merry Christmas (25th) and a great Kwanzaa (from 26th to 1st January 2006). We hope these all lead to a wonderful and prosperous New Year for each and every one of you.

Annikki has created a wonderful display of light for today. I will try to get it on film and share it with you tomorrow.

Till then, from the Arctic, we say, have a great day....

Annikki gets a lot of sticks, but no carrots!

Yesterday, in the post was a letter from the City of Oulu saying that Anniikki could collect a walking stick from the Disabled Person's Social Office.

It appears that the City of Oulu, which has made life almost unbearable for Caregivers for the year 2006, had decided to give them a pair of walking sticks as part of their bogus 400 year celebration of the City of Oulu.

We collected the sticks yesterday afternoon.

This morning we received a notification in the post to collect a parcel from the local Post Office.

It was another pair of these walking sticks!



It appears that the City of Oulu Officers have given themselves huge bonuses as part of organising this bogus celebration. However, stealthly they have cut the time that Old People are allowed to stay in Old People's Homes, making life for the Caregivers almost unbearable, as they have to work free for an extra week per month on a 24 hour schedule, foregoing their legally earned holiday!.

The walking sticks were the sop to the Caregivers.

Annikki obtained the notification from the Old People's Home about the change of schedule for Caregivers. She insisted on getting the written background to this change as she had seen no mention of it on any news media.

Yesterday afternoon, after getting the sticks, we visited the local Office of the Caregiver's Association.

The lady we met was completely taken aback with the further overloading of work onto Caregivers. She said that the Association had not been notified of this change by anyone. No legal basis had been obtained by anyone to execute this change!

I believe that Finland is supposed to be the least corrupt nation in the world. But this incident reveals how the Bureaucracy in this country works. A totally corrupt basis of working by paying themselves totally unnecessary bonuses while trying to bribe a seriously affected section of the population with walking sticks!

Sodium hits the news

So far I had been giving you news about my good friend, Soda, the 14 year old Thai boy.

I was pleasantly surprised to see his younger brother, Sodium, grace the pages of our main local newspaper today.



Three children of foreign origin were asked what Christmas meant to them.

The answer from Sodium was the best as it was crystal clear in that he said that it represented the birth of Christ (Soda and Sodium are born of Buddhist parents). Soda added that it was nice to have "Father Christmas" visit the school.

I hope that children and their parents realise that Christmas is about giving more than receiving.

The true Christians believe that God gave his Son, Jesus Christ, to the world to show people the way to live a life which would benefit all people.

Only two laws are necessary - Love God and Love your Neighbour as much as you love Yourself.

Who then is your neighbour?

The parable that Jesus Christ told of the Good Samaritan gives us the answer.

Anyone and everyone around you in this Universe is your neighbour!

How many of us are true Christians?

You do not have to go to church, a mosque, a synagogue or a temple or show your faith from a mountain top to tell people that you are a good follower of God.

Jesus Christ, in fact, said that to pray to God you should go to a quiet place and pray - not make a grand public display of your praying.

Anyone who sees how you live your life will know whether you are an example worth following - and that was what Jesus Christ was commanding us to do.

Count down to Christmas is still on. Keep reading.

Microchip in the head?

Yesterday was a very tiring day for both Annikki and me. I finished my morning chores including taking Unnop to learn about making dough for pizza bases and making arrangements for a meeting today on getting funding for a program to help foreigners in Oulu by working with WALDA (the youth organisation run by the City of Oulu).

Just as Annikki was about to start her afternoon shopping expedition, there was a doorbell ring. At the door was a person who was hearing terrible voices in his ear. He claimed that there was a microchip in his head. He was hearing thousands of voices and he had been walking around the city for many hours, unable to stop them from talking. He was tired but the noise in the head was deafening. He kept asking Annikki to remove the microchip from his head with tweezers.

Having come across this problem before, Annikki calmed him down, let him rest in the cellar bedroom for a few hours and then made a call to the Psychiatric Clinic and asked whether we could bring the man in for investigation and admittance.



At 17:00 hours we arrived at the Clinic.

We had to wait till 22:00 hours for the doctor to see this gentleman.



The above photo shows where we had to wait.

Note the heavy steel door leading to the doctor's room. Just above it you will see a video surveillance camera. There is not even a magazine rack with any magazines or newspapers for the patients and their handlers to read while waiting. The bathroom door is locked so if one wants to use the facility it is necessary to call a nurse from the the locked clinic facility. The nurses inside are hostile to any callers. They do not seem to understand basic human curtesy, assuming that everyone who knocks at the door is a mentally ill patient to be abused.

This is a gulag.

This is an excellent example of the present Finnish efficiency and inhumanity to people who desperately need help and those who want to help them!!

I managed to pick up food for us so that when Annikki and I got home around 22:45, at least we were not starving.

Is it worth helping anyone if one is subjected to such inhuman treatment by the City Authorities?

The problems of this nature are growing in Finnish society. It is shocking that the most important aspects of Finnish Health care is being torn aopart by a set of people who are so far removed from reality and live in a bubble that they call Finnish politics.



This bare undecorated drooping Christmas tree, just less than a week before Christmas, which was in the waiting area of the Clinic, also seems to echo our views of sheer desperation and a sense of no hope!

As Annikki and I have faced such major problems in our personal lives over the last 14 years - we can say that it has steadily gone from bad to worse, year by year - and no one is doing anything about it or intends to.

Another busy Sunday

I was trying to get the database for the calendar dispatch ready when Soda called at 9:55 am. His football game was at 10:00 am and would I be coming to watch him. He was going to be wearing his 88 Shirt which we had gone together to get on Friday evening.



I rushed to the Oulu Dome. The game was already under way and Soda's side was 2 down. But, they played well there on and levelled the score. Then Soda scored a wonderful goal from over 40 metres out which slammed into the net.



The opponents levelled. As I had to rush out for our Oulu Chamber of Help meeting, I said goodbye to Soda who was off the field for a moment. I later learnt that Soda's side won the game 4-3.

Our Oulu Chamber of Help meeting was supposed to be at the Internet Cafe, but as the owner, Saikou, called in sick, we moved the venue to Pailin's Thai restaurant.

I picked up Subramaniam Paneer Selvam from his house across town. After picking up Kamu and Kannan from the Internet Cafe, we assembled at the Thai restaurant.

We were later joined by Ilari Sohlo, Pentti Paakki and Bill Zhang. We were also joined by Kenneth from Kenya who had dropped in to give a small Christmas gift to Soda.

The Thai King and Queen oversee our meeting


Bill, Kannan and Paneer

We had a great meeting.

Unnop and Pailin served up some good pizza and kebab, to everyone's satifaction. We welcomed Paneer, who felt quite at home and he told us about the tsunami experience when he was helping handling bodies soon after the disaster with 3 days of no sleep. He was also relieved that he did not have to spend another Sunday locked up alone in his flat.

Paneer also gave Kamu a lot of leads and personal experiences about Gobar gas. Kamu is keen to introduce Gobar gas plants in Zambia so to save the destruction of the forests.

After the meeting, Kannan and Paneer came home and met Annikki, had a cup of tea and some coconut chocolate cakes. They were soon chatting away as they had been friends all their lives, sharing experiences about cobras, scorpions, deadly green snakes and water snakes and harmless grass snakes.

I dropped both Kannan and Paneer off at Paneer's flat so the two bright youngsters from neighbouring villages in India, now thrust together in this cold north near Arctic location, could continue their bonhomie.

It was a great Sunday again.

Kachun's Birthday Party

Kachun, 9, is Samu's good friend. He is the son of Calcutta girl, Michelle, who runs the best Chinese restaurant in Oulu, opposite the main railway station.

So we got invited to Kachun's birthday party. As Annikki's mother is in the Old People's Home, even Annikki got a chance top attend.





Michelle dished up some great Mexican and Indian food, besides all the birthday goodies for the kids like us.





It was great.





Thanks Samu for having such a good friend. We got him a Formula 1 model car from Samu.

Kachun's sister, Kaija is growing up to be a beautiful little lady.





Thanks Michelle for a great evening.

Christmas is here....

How do I know Christmas has come home?

Annikki makes a series of purchases, every year, and there is one which actually tells me that the season of giving has come into our home. And it is not the Christmas tree.





Annikki has decided that she does not particularly like having the Christmas tree indoors, as after Christmas, the pine needles drop all over the floor. It is a tedious piece of work to clean it up.

The arrival of the red flower is what heralds Christmas into our home. Yesterday evening, Annikki brought this home, along with some hyacinths, which should flower and give out their beautiful smell in a few days.

Hero cycle in Finland....

Many years ago, probably 10 to 15, Mika got a great bike made by the world's largest cycle manufacturer, Hero, of India.

I used this for many years, but then I got banned from using that bike by my guardians, wife, Annikki, and daughter, Joanna. They are a rather powerful combination as you would have noticed how my fluffy beard vanished!

I gave the bike to our friend, Patrick Fox. But Patrick did not find any need to use it. The bike lay in his compound for over 4 years.

When Unnop and Pailin, my Thai friends, said that maybe they should buy their elder son, Soda, a bike, I asked Patrick whether I could have the bike back, which he willingly agreed.

I picked it up and found that although useable, it was a bit sticky due to the several years of non-use.

I thought I would find a cycle repairer in town. I sort of remembered one where it was quite easy to park the car.

P. Aitola Cycle Repair Shop in Oulu

I knocked at the door of P. Aitola, as it was locked.

An elderly gentleman came to the door and let me in as I wheeled in the bike.

Before I could say anything he asked me whether I was Yaakoppi, the Finnish way of saying Jacob. I replied in the affirmative. Then he asked me whether my wife was Annikki. Again, surprised, as I had never met this gentleman before, I confirmed. He then started to recount details of my work in the University and other details not normally known to the general public.

I was astounded. Did he work for the Finnish Secret Police?

I plucked up the courage to ask him how he knew all this.

He told me that he had been a good friend of Annikki's father, Matti, when he was alive, as they had served in the army together at the time of the war. They had also shared the same hobby - cycles and mopeds.

He then told me he was a few years younger to Matti, just 82!

I was quite taken back at seeing a shop owner of 82 running his business as if he was just a middle aged gentleman!

So when I went back to pick up the bike, I decided to get a couple of pictures of this remarkable 82 year old.


Paavo Aitola, Matti's friend, 82 years old


Paavo Aitola, Matti's friend, 82 years old

I would certainly like to be in his shape of fitness when I am 82.

His secret was that he still walks and swims everyday, and of course, he is running his business by himself, even to this day.

He did, in passing, mention his daily dose of Koskenkorva, the Finnish 100% absolute spirit raiser, but I chose to ignore that!

The bike was fixed great and I was able to deliver it to Soda this afternoon.

Bowing to demands, Äiti's new clothes, We all mourn a loss

My daughters have a way of telling me off. This picture proves their powers of persuasion!



Hilja went into the Old People's Home for her short term interval care. This time she was wearing her new clothes - doesn´t she look cute! She liked her new coat and gloves.

Hilja is dressed to go somewhere

We told Iitu that her once dearest friend, Joanna's dog, Minea, was no more. The two, who grew up together as puppy and kitten, used to be the very best of friends till Iitu had her first and last litter of kittens.


Iitu in mourning

Minea's jealousy never ended!

Iitu wanted to be friends, but Minea was off-hand after that.


Minea with Annikki

We mourn this very loving member of our extended family.

We especially appreciate the love and care provided by Sandra Grotsch,



who took care of Minea during the last years of her life as we could not look after her because of the allergy developed by both Joanna and Samuel to dogs.

Thank you, from the bottom of our heart, Sandra.

An entry in three of my blogs

Prof. Ajeet Mathur, a good friend, a Mumbai Cathedralite and also a Delhi Stephanian, has just sent me an electronic copy of an article which has just appeared in a publication celebrating the history of Tampere, the major industrial city in South Finland, his present domicile.

I thought it appropriate to provide a link to it on all my three blogs, my personal blog, the Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog and the Stephanian Kooler Talk Web Version Blog.

Having read it during its composition stage, I can say that it is hot, hot, hot.

I had dicussed this with him just last weekend and wondered whether he thought some of his more caustic comments would get through the "Editors" (Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko and Antti Kasvio (eds.) eCity: Analysing the efforts to generate local dynamism in the City of Tampere to Meet the Challenge of Changing Global Economy, Tampere University Press, 2005).

He was on his seat's edge.

The book appeared publicly today, and he immediately wrote to me thus:

The Tampere book is published and officially released with my article intact!

With "Communities at Risk" (2003) and this, I have the satisfaction of having given sufficient warning of the shape of things as a dutiful resident as part of my respect for the flag I live under.

I shall post you a published copy tomorrow.

Here is the electronic version. Please feel free to circulate it to those who care or blog it as you wish.

Someday, when I have a personal homepage, I would be happy to provide a link to it for all interested persons to know. But that may not be before March 2006 because I am a technical ignoramous and have other things on my mind now.

Best Regards to you and Annikki,

Ajeet

If Ajeet is an technical ignoramous, I wonder what I am!!

"Communities at Risk" is also another great piece of work by him.

His Discussion Paper "Finland - India - Economic Relations A Twinning Study of Trade and Investment Potential" published in 1998 was a ground-breaking publication.

I had the honour of co-authoring the paper "To Serve or To Rule? Paradoxes of Shared Authority and Appropriated Power in E-governance". It was read by Ajeet at the e-Governance Conference in New Delhi in Decwember 2003 as I could not attend.

Here is an example of the hard-hitting writing of Ajeet in this article:

There are a variety of myths circulating in Tampere designed to foster confidence among residents and prospective partners and investors in Tampere that do not stand up to a reality check. In popular perception, the two universities, particularly the Tampere University of Technology spawns innovations; these innovations are incubated in a virtual science park; and, incubated innovations create new dynamic enterprises attracting large amounts of venture capital thereby creating a multiplier effect for new jobs and enhanced flows of incomes and asset creation. In reality, public money in the guise of projects has been used to fund jobs with soft targets and when a project ends, a 'next big project' is needed to repeat the cycle, since little of lasting value remains. Names of agencies change, agencies merge with each other to acquire fresh identities, new organisations get mandated and organizational forms undergo such metamorphosis that old wine in new bottles is easily mistaken for a new engine of innovation on which hope is pinned for a while until it is dashed again. Hermia was an ingenius institution that enabled students of the Tampere Technical university to be drafted into labouring for companies needing cheap student labour while the flowback from the beneficiaries to the University remains unknown. The total amount donated by Tampere region companies (including Nokia) to Tampere Technical University is about Euro 250,000 according to the list coordinated by the Tampere Chamber of Commerce. With few exceptions, hardly any inventions of the University developed commercially as a return on public subsidies and investments and most of the firms counted in powerpoint presentations evangelising the Tampere model pre-date Hermia or have nothing to do with the Technical University. In making an actual count together with Hermia senior executives, I could locate only 13 enterprises in all under the umbrella of e-accelerator (the number on Hermia's powerpoint slide was 300), of which just two had something to do with the Tampere Technical University. The first pillar of Tampere's business development strategy, Hermia, was entirely focused on technology and real estate brokering, and never organised to provide any international business development expertise to existing firms or to new ventures. Hermia officials candidly admit they have no idea where the medium and large enterprises in the Tampere region obtain international business know-how.

In 1999, a second pillar, Professia Oy was established from public funds (and mandated to develop knowledge intensive business services in 2002). After five lacklustre years of existence, this agency launched a 'Tampere International Business Office' in mid-2004. This old-wine-in-new-bottle initiative never compiled even a starting kit for investors in the region. Most of its budget was spent on staff salaries for its seven employees and travelling to exhibitions and making contacts overseas to entice investors to Tampere. From € 1 million injected into it, an income of € 28,000 was reported which works out to 2.8 percent return on net assets, well below long term market interest rates. On 17.8.2005, Professia Oy merged with Oy Media Tampere which employed seventeen persons with a 2.2 percent return on net assets which is even lower than Professia Oy (according to the press release of the merger announced on 17.8.2005). The fused entity in announcing the merger hints at new horizons and a stronger organisation but its business plan remains unclear. The use of public funds in Tampere is not associated with transparency or disclosure and residents are expected to believe that this old-wine-in-new-bottle that didn't deliver much in five years of functioning will now function as the beacon of new hope. 'Project thinking' with soft targets is a hallmark of the Tampere region. The big breakthrough is always optimistically depicted to be in the future. During Spring 2005, hope was pinned that Tampere would host the ASEM summit in 2006 during the Finnish Presidency of the EU and the wave of traffic that would arise through Euro-Asia business contacts. Meanwhile, Hermia leading the ICT sector big projects was being hived and restructured to give way to the biotechnology and health sector spearheaded by Finn Medi under the ambitious catch-all expression of the next big project BIONEXT.

Ajeet pulls no punches. He tells it as it is.

You can download a pdf copy of the article from this link The Future of International Business in the Tampere Region1 by Prof. Ajeet Mathur, University of Tampere

Hope you enjoy it. I am sure Ajeet would love to have feedback from you on this paper.

It is my homour to share two alma maters with him!