The Premises: Auditorium, St. Stephen's College, Delhi
The Moderator with the Panel
The Proposition: 'This House beleives Muslims are not getting a fair deal in India'.
The Moderator Tim Sebastian
The Speakers
Seena Mustafa
Sachin Pilot
Teesta Setalvad
M. J. Akbar
The Questioners
'
The Audience
Yesterday was an interesting article in India edunews.net that Delhi University students had been asked to vacate their rooms for delegates for the Commonwealth Games Conference.
In a world which has been changing and modernising so rapidly, the face our college presents to the delegates who may live there will the the old squatting toilets, no running hot water, rooms which are unheated - in fact, the picture of a third rate residential accommodation.
Can we state that in these modern times we are looking after our students if they are being subjected to living standards of bygone ages?
Annikki took umbrage with the authorities who organised the Veterans Olympics in 1991 when our Indian delegation was humiliated by being given third rate accommodation is a school premises where they had to sleep on the floor, dormitory style, while participants from other countries got five star hotel treatment!
This is what she wrote in 1991:
Veterans Olympics in Finland
by Annikki Matthan
The World Veterans Athletic Championship which was held in Turku, South Finland a few years ago (1991), is cause enough to deny Finland the right to host any international sporting event in which third world participants may wish to take part. It would be best if intending participants from these countries are informed of the heartless treatment that is likely to be meted out to them if they choose to come to this country for international sporting events.
It would also be wise if the Olympic Athletics Committees of developing countries discussed the matter with the veteran athletes that took part in these games and made an official complaint to the International Olympic Athletics Committee. The International Committee should be requested to fully investigate their findings. The IOC, based on their independent conclusions, should take steps to deny any country that behaves inhumanely towards athletes, like Finland did, the right to host any international sporting event.
Finland - the most expensive country in the world
It is without doubt that Finland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe and probably the world. The proof is the hotel bill I paid (special summer reduced rate of Rs. 4000 for one night!) when I stayed at a three star hotel during my visit to Turku where I had gone to see the Championships.
In this expensive hotel, as in all the five, four and three star hotels in Turku, were the participants from the richer countries and officials from all the participating countries enjoying hearty five and six course nutritious buffet breakfasts of their choice (fruit juice, tea, coffee or milk, corn flakes, yoghurt, a wide variety of vegetarian salads, preserved fish and meat, bread, toast, or rolls with butter and jam, and finally a fresh fruit as a large juicy orange). They had just descended to the plush breakfast room from their beautiful and tastefully decorated hotel rooms (equipped with telephone, radio, television sets, private shower and bath) after their early morning gratis sauna and swim in the hotel pool. In fact, anything that their money could buy was available to these contestants from the richer countries.
What about the contestants from India and the financially poorer world countries taking part, whose athletes did not have pockets lined with gold. Where were they?
Rude shock
There was a rude shock when I visited the large contingent of men and women from different parts of India.
They had been crowded into a couple of school rooms with mattresses spread out on the floor, twenty or more to a room. There were not even the basic facilities like cupboards to keep their clothes and sporting equipment. They had to queue to use the common toilets facilities. There were not even proper food facilities in line with their limited financial means (Rs. 200 for a most unappetising meal). They had to pay extravagant amounts to get anything and even had to pay an exorbitant bus fare for the seven kilometre trip between the two stadiums where the meet was being held. They had paid extremely high fees to take part in the events and were even made to pay high charges for use of these rudimentary facilities. These poor cousins were herded and treated like animals and fleeced like goats.
The caretaker of the school, taking pity on these poorly looked after athletes, gave his personal cooker to the Indian participants to prepare their own food. The participants, instead of training and resting, had to scour the ultra-expensive Finnish supermarkets for cheap products like milk (Rs. 35 per litre), rice (Rs. 85 per kilo) and vegetables (Rs. 160 per kilo of tomatoes) to meet their basic dietary requirements. Meat eaters would have had to pay anywhere from Rs. 250 to Rs. 800 for a kilo - so that was best avoided. Fruits and other basic ingredients of a healthy diet were totally financially inaccessible to these athletes, many of whom have owed their long life to their strict dietary habits.
Less enterprising participants from the neighbouring socialist countries, who shared the same school premises with the Indians, were considerably worse off than the Indians. They took to selling their watches and cameras to the slightly better off participants so as to afford to live.
Was the Olympics between equals
Is any contest between the richer and poorer nations held under these conditions equal in any respect? What was the meaning of the Olympic Motto under which this sporting event was supposed to be Hosted in Finland?
Moaned one Indian participant who had taken part in the Asian Veterans Championships at Kuala Lumpur earlier that year - "The Malaysians looked after our every need and made us feel welcome. If the Finns came to take part in any event in India they would be properly hosted - not treated like this - worse than animals!!"
Indians show the way
It was indeed a great achievement that two over-nineties from India, despite these adverse conditions they were subjected too, dominated their age-group events and ran their way to glory capturing all the medals that they could lay their hands on.
Athletic ninety year Narayanamurthy from Bull Temple Road, Basavangudi, Bangalore, born on 12th December 1900, was indeed oblivious to the problems around him.
His colleagues shared their humble food and drink with the sprightly gentleman. Full of beans (metaphorically speaking only) he was!! He captured the hearts of the sparse audience as his sprinted away a full 50 metres ahead of his rival in the 200 metres, as indeed in all the events he took part in. He more than justified the trust placed in him by the Karnataka Chief Minister who had, in his personal capacity, given Narayanamurthy a helping hand to take part.
So also was the case with fit-as-a-fiddle ninety-nine year old Joginder Singh from Patiala in Punjab. Narayanamurthy and Joginder Singh certainly did India proud at this occasion.
Indian hospitality
What was even more surprising was that when we visited the Indian contingent, never having met a single one of them before, friendship and hospitality, even under the conditions that they had been forced into, oozed out of them. They made us at home on the three wooden stools that were available for them to be shared between the couple of hundred athletes that were staying in the school. Even with their meagre resources, some of the lady athletes from Kerala produced piping hot cups of coffee for us strangers who had landed in their midst.
This was a mark of good culture, upbringing and sportsmanship - not what my country, Finland, had forced on these eager contestants who had spent fortunes from their own pockets to come to this country to participate in this event.
Finnish mismanagement
Who was to blame for this shambles? Was it the Sports and Cultural Ministries of Finland who had obviously ignored the event. Was it the City of Turku who had not taken steps to ensure that the event was organised as defined by rules of fair competition in sporting events.
Or, was it the officials of these Third World Participating Committees who did not raise a single voice in protest at the inhumane conditions that their participants were forced to live with or the gross inequality of the contest? Was it that the officials from these countries were wined and dined by the Finnish organisers so that they would not raise any noise about the arrangements, or rather the lack of them?
Is it any surprise that the medals in the more contested age groups were shared among the richer countries which could pay their way to victory? Is this the spirit of the fair sporting competition or the Olympic Movement!!
No first aid for injured
The numerous organisers and officials visible everywhere at the athletics stadium sported expensive bright new green uniforms, were picked and dropped in expensive cars and vans, and ate breakfast, lunch and dinner, at the expense of the athletes, in posh restaurants and hotels, obviously taking care to host the Committee Members from the participating countries but ignoring the starving third world athletes.
However, when a 85 year old participant stumbled and fell two yards away from the finishing post, not a single games official was on hand to rush to his aid.
It was the oldest participant of the competition, 99 year old Indian, Joginder Singh, who was talking to us just at the moment, who rushed onto the track to lift up the poor injured participant. No first aid was even offered by the officials to the injured man who, crestfallen and bleeding at the nose, angrily hobbled away into the centre of the stadium.
Sensational journalism
What about Press, Radio and Television coverage of the event? This meet was virtually ignored by the Finnish Press, except for sensational journalism. The results of the penultimate day were not even reported in the leading Finnish papers. On the other hand, the Finns started off their own National Athletics Championships in Helsinki on the concluding day of this international event with massive press, radio and television coverage and totally ignored the large contingent of foreign athletes, numbering close to 5000, who had assembled in their country for the international event. A strange sign of hospitality indeed!!
Is this the correct cultural way to host and promote an event which is designed to enthuse middle-aged and elderly people around the world to live better lives by keeping up their activity level?
Is any contest between the richer and poorer nations held under these condition equal in any respect? What was the meaning of the Olympic Motto under which this sporting event was supposed to be Hosted in Finland?
Atlanta Olympics - July 1996
The Olympics in Atlanta, USA, will certainly be organised so that all contestants are treated equally and participants from the poorer nations are accorded the same hospitality rather than as shown by these indifferent and inhumane Finnish organisers, aided by officials from the poorer nations who only looked after their own interests rather than the interests of the people they represented.
All these amateur participants at future Veterans Olympics should be given the same level of hospitality by hosting countries. They are a finer example to the people of today than the commercialised superstars of the modern day Olympics who can well afford to pay for their comforts.
Annikki and I went to Stockmann the other day as she had a gift coupon from her sister and she decided to buy a spring coat from there.
After we finished that, we had some grocery shopping. If you buy € 30 worth of groceries, one and a half hours parking charges of € 2, are refunded.
As we walked around, I saw some Findus vegetable bags in the freezer.
There was a sign showing that they were on special offer, except that the sign writer mixed his F's and W's! :-) (The inset shows the correct spelling!)
When I woke up this morning and went to the dining room to read the newspaper and have my breakfast, which is four slices of toasted brown bread, coated with margerine, honey and cinnamon powder (Naval- Kindly note!), I noticed that the tomatoes, cucumber, ginger, grapes and cherries in the plastic bowl, and walnuts and almonds in the small glass jars, were laid out on the sideboard so:
In the dim morning light it looked rather like a very beautiful painting!
I thought for myself, "Is this an art show?"
Then I realised it was my dear wife who had laid out her morning breakfast.
As I have said earlier, every detail has to be perfect - even her breakfast layouts.
Tonight's weather forecast said that we are in for a very cold spell to round off our longest winter yet. As many of you would have noted, winter set in as we were driving to Helsinki in mid-October when a snow blizzard kept us company most of the 600 km.
Thankfully, we were in India through the months of half of October, the whole of November and right until the middle of December.
Yesterday, I sent a text message, mid-morning, to Gopa (daughter of Cathedralite 54er Sadhana (née Shah) in Keravaa, that Annikki and I were looking forward to receiving the CD / DVD sent from India.
She replied me in a flash that she had sent it the previous day.
When I was leaving home for the office, after lunch, I looked in the post box. There was an envelope, prominently marked that the CD and DVD were inside.
As I tore the cover open, two wonderful group photos, of our class and another with our spouses, at the Cathedral Church before the Founders' Day Service, fell out. I could hardly contain myself.
I had my portable LG DVD player at the office. I set it up and ran the DVD.
From the very first shot to the end, I was an emotional wreck. The DVD had recaptured almost all of the wonderful moments that we had experienced at the 50th Reunion of our Class of 59 in November 2009. 
Someone asked me in the "Comments" as to how I was cured of Migraine in 1982.
I was a very chronic migraine sufferer, resulting in almost total paralysis and excruciating pain.
Migraine Cure
Free from India
by Annikki Matthan
Migraine from Mesopotamia to Scandinavia
The ancient cure in Mesopotamia for migraine involved drilling the head. Present day treatment, not a cure, in Scandinavia, requires the use of an expensive medicine, about $40 a time, which is reputed to be active even if it is taken at any stage during an attack, unlike earlier drugs which had to be taken before the onset of an attack.
There are over a couple of million sufferers of migraine in Scandinavia and all of them should be able to get rid of this terrible ailment if they desired without resorting to this temporary relief at high cost. Would you like to try and get rid of your migraine problem?
Jacob - paralyzed
Jacob was an acute sufferer. The attacks used to come on several times a year rendering him immobile. After hospitalisation and observation by experts, almost every known allopathic medicine was tried including caffeine tablets. Nothing worked.
The attacks would start and continue for a couple of weeks. They did not necessarily follow a pattern - when they came, they just came one after another.
Help from a non-medic
Our cook, seeing Jacob suffer, mentioned that her mother had suffered the same malady and had been relieved by a herbal medicine. Jacob was willing to try anything. The next day she brought a small bottle containing a brownish fluid. This was duly administered through the nostrils. The liquid was pungent and seemed to work.
For the next few days, till the next dose of the medicine, no attacks developed, although Jacob knew that they were still lurking in the background. This treatment went on for three doses, after which Jacob was fit and well and able to get back to work.
The cook told us that this was not the permanent cure but only a temporary one. A particular ingredient was not available at that time to administer the permanent cure.
Free for two years
Jacob was then free from migraine for close to two years. For various reasons he never got around to getting the permanent cure. We moved and lost track of our cook, hence we were not able to get the medicine.
Migraine restarts
The migraine attacks restarted, after two years, with the same intense intensity as earlier, rendering Jacob totally immobile. A factory worker, seeing his boss in such suffering, mentioned that there was a lady in his village who could cure Jacob. Jacob was again prepared to try anything as the caffeine tablets had absolutely no effect in stopping these attacks.
Village visit
Jacob went to a small village to the hut of an elderly lady. She offered him tea and biscuits. After the social chit-chat the lady asked Jacob to lie down on the bed. She went into the garden for a couple of minutes. When she returned she was rubbing the palms of her hand together in the process of crushing some leaves. After about a minute she squeezed her hands together over a spoon on the table and a green liquid oozed out onto the spoon. There was about half a teaspoonful of the liquid. She slowly poured it into the right nostril as Jacob suffered one-sided migraine, which was on the left side of the head.
The effect
Jacob recalls the next few seconds very vividly. It was if some searing hot lava had been poured into his nostril. He felt wretched and wanted to throw up. He jumped from the bed and ran outside to get rid of the terrible sensation that was grasping his throat. When he spat out his saliva there was a dark green colouration.
The onlookers laughed as they watched these antics which probably lasted about a minute or two. Then the searing feeling rapidly subsided. The lady offered him a cup of tea, which was most gratefully accepted. She indicated that although another dose would be worthwhile she felt as the reaction had been so strong, it was unlikely that the migraine would ever return again. This was in 1982.
Fifteen years on
Now it is fifteen years on and Jacob has not suffered a single attack of migraine nor even felt that there was an attack lurking in the background.
The cost
The cost for this treatment - absolutely nothing, no, not even $1, no presents, no grateful gifts in thanks. Jacob returned to ask the lady whether she would give him the name of the leaf that she had used. She explained that this art had been passed down from mother to daughter over several generations and it was strictly against her philosophy to pass on the information to anybody other than her daughters.
Jacob accepted the explanation for he knew that if he took the remedy and commercialised it, the love, affection and dedicated service of this lady to the people in the surrounding communities would be destroyed. A multinational would probably only think of the profits that could be generated for its shareholders by the drug.
Other alternative medicine cures
There are probably several types of alternative medicines out there for migraine, as also for many other ailments, if one looks for them. Jaundice is an ideal example where at least 10 different treatments are available in India.
It is strange that in some western countries they frown upon alternative medicine as if it is some hocus-pocus, untried form of treatment. They refer to allopathy as the scientific tested medical approach, scoffing at alternative forms of medicine. Surely these are really the illiterate as they do not realise that this hocus-pocus of alternative medicine has been around for many thousands of years. None of them has resulted in a phthalidomide type case.
It is better to realise that western allopathy drug treatment is the untested and untried medical technique. No doubt the analytical and surgical techniques used in allopathy are outstanding, but be very vary of the drugs - most of them do not cure, they only suppress the symptoms.
It is more likely that a remedy for an ailment, without harmful side effects, can be found in many of the alternative medical techniques that abound amongst the indigenous people around the world, including the African, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian and Maya Indians, especially amongst those who have preserved their heritage and not lost contact with nature and become a part of this commercial world.
Return visit in 1993
In 1993 Jacob paid a visit to the village to see if the lady was still around. She was very happy to see him. She would not accept any gift so Jacob bought a few night-dresses that her son was stitching as his trade as a tailor. Everyday he gives thanks for the kindness shown by this woman who cured him from his misery.
Many of you have asked me what attracts me to Oulu.
This is difficult to define.
Although I am an Indian, I would no longer consider it possible that I could, in my lifetime, return to live in India.
I have other options.
As three of our four kids are settled in England, maybe I would like to move there.
Having lived in England for 6 years, from 1963 to 1969, been married there in a sleepy town of Shrewsbury, and having had two children born while living there, there are many sentimental attachments to considering England as a possible home.
Given the choice of England and Oulu, with its extremes in climate, a difficult language, the high degree of corruption in all levels of life, our existence in Oulu has been a wonderful experience, and one which I am unlikely to trade in my lifetime.
Maybe I will visit India more frequently. Or maybe I will take more time to spend with our grandchildren in England.
But when one puts all the pros and cons in a balance, Oulu is still my Number One living choice!
How many of you readers think me crazy to accept living in this ultra deep freeze? As I drove to work today it was just -3 C. As I drove back this evening it was -13 C!
But the cold is not the reason for running to another place. It is the quality of life that counts. And the quality of daily life in Oulu for us will remain unmatched by any other location.
Our first issue of Findians Briefings was launched in 1992. I just came across a copy in my study and thought how perceptive we had been in our writing of that time.
Google announced its entry into the social networking by adding another bit to its Gmail web presence. They are trying to fight Twitter and Facebook - but it is my humble opinion that they are overstepping the mark with the introduction of their new "Buzz".
As it is, even with my 20 MBps site which is usually running at about 11 MBps, Google Gmail is SLOOOOW. I usually have to run it in the Basic format so as to get anything to load in a reasonable time.
That was the reason why I moved away most of my computing from from Yahoo to Google.
I generally appreciate the many Google products that I use. They include, beside the Search Engine, Gmail, Documents, Blogger, Translate, Groups.
They are all independent and work quite well as stand alone.
However, once you try to link them up, it really slows down the whole operation.
Yesterday, I visited the top Department Store in Oulu, known as Stockmann. They have a restaurant on the top floor called Vintti and they advertise their Finnish / English daily menu at different points all over the store.
I just thought this one to be interesting:
One would certainly hope that a leading department store would have the resources to employ competent English speakers.
But their "choise" seems to have beeen rather poor. I hope the "ingredients" in their dishes are better chosen "and and and...." :-)
The Scandinavian countries conjure up the image of being super efficient, especially because of small population with highly trained professionals in every sphere.
Yesterday was a lesson in what not to believe.
I have already drawn the wrath of a few for exposing the lack of competence of Finnish doctors, who in the main are inexperienced. Yesterday proved a lesson in incompetence of the highest order.
In the morning I had my blood test and my ECG. That went OK as I did not have to see any doctor. The result will be with me on Wednesday. I will refer them to my Indian doctor before I meet with the Finnish doctor next Monday.
In the afternoon, one of the newly arrived Indian engineers called me to tell me that he had fallen on Saturday and his right hand was in pain. As it was too late to go to our local health centre, as he stays in one of our apartments close to our home, I told him that after i finished my days work I would take him to the University Research Hospital Out Patient Section, as that is the only one which functions after 5 pm.
However, I warned him to have his dinner and take his computer or something to read as the process could take 4 hours or more.
Do you think he believed me?
I picked him up after my dinner at around 19:30. After finishing a couple more house calls, we reached the hospital by 20:15. We registered and got the initial paperwork over and sat down to wait. The waiting room was quite empty with just about a dozen people, patients with their friend waiting around.
9:15, 10:15, 11:15. 11:45 and we were called in to see a doctor. The young lady showed her inexperience in the way she felt the injured area. Of course, she came to no conclusion, so decided to get an X-ray.
So, of I took him to the X-ray section. As I know my way around that department because of my recent injury to my finger, I was able to complete that process within half an hour. The X-ray was on its way to the doctor.
Back we were at the waiting hall.
We waited till 2:45 to be called in by a doctor who confessed that he could not read the X-ray with any certainty and advised that I call the nurses in the morning so that we could get an opinion of a qualified radiologist!
Six and a half hours, and my young friend was sent away with no diagnosis but with the comforting thought that he had been given one free pain killer tablet. He said he would savour with great relish his free tablet! :-)
The total time spent with each doctor was not more that 5 minutes. The X-ray took 5 minutes. For 15 minutes patient contact, we waited 6 hours and a half.
When I reached home, Annikki was amazed that it had not taken 9 hours. :-)
My friend is likely to drumbeat his experience with all his other colleagues working in Oulu. I do not think many will want to visit the Out Patients Department in Oulu University Research Hospital!
A true indication of the professionalism of Oulu Doctors!
My blog readers in India must think me crazy by talking so incessantly when I get a masala dosai to eat here in Finland.
Any corner shop in Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh or Kerala (or for that matter anywhere in India), will offer a masala dosai and all these vegetarian dishes as common fare on their daily menu, so why this excitement when I am served a masala dosai here in Oulu?
The sad part is that we cannot walk into a corner shop in our town or in a radius of 600 km (or even 1000 km) to get hold of a dosai.
Some kind heart, like my wife, has to take the trouble to make it. That means, unlike in India, the heart and the stomach, and especially the taste buds, yearn to eat what is not so freely available.
I certainly had my fill of masala dosais, 
vadas, 
idlis, 
gulab jamuns, 
sweet curd, and other Indian delicacies, when I was in India for 2 months last year.
Almost two months have passed and the taste buds are yearning for all of them one more time.
My suggestion on our local O-India Google Group, which caters as a discussion forum for the 100+ Indians in Oulu, certainly got buzzing when I suggested I was intending to start a South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant in Oulu.
The local Indian Restaurant owner was quick to come back to say that he would start one if I could find him a suitable spot for a Take Away counter. He promised to bring a great Chef from India.
My suggestion to have the restaurant on wheels to take this nearby to where the Indians are working, also got a very favourable reception. They work in about four locations around the city of Oulu.
Now it is time to strike while the iron is hot.
Anyone interested to join me in this venture as a financial / working partner, is most welcome as, like me, all the Indians (and many Finns and Findians), who love Indian cuisine would be crazy over this idea.
(Why not make it a joint effort as a public limited company with the lovers of South Indian vegetarian food as the shareholders?)
I intend keep the prices within reason and serve up fresh food with freshly made spices and with fresh vegetable, as otherwise this would be doomed!
Yes, I yearn for a dosai, a vada, an idli, a gulab jamun,... as well as a K. C. Das sweet curd, a Gujarati Thali with sweet chapati, an Andhra Thali served with spicey gun powder, ..... yum yum! :-)
This could happen to the wives or children of any one of us. So I am acting in our self-interest.
This is a request I got:
Pranita Shrestha missing person
Description:
Please help find my cousin's wife. We are especially looking to spread the word in India, so if you have any contacts there, please tell them about our search. Your support is greatly appreciated!
See Blog: http://findpranita.blogspot.com/
**********
Pranita Shrestha reported missing in India
Pranita Shrestha, a citizen of Nepal, has gone missing during a trip to visit her family in India. Pranita is 38 years old and married to a Finnish man. They live in Espoo, Finland (Europe).
Pranita travelled alone from Helsinki to Delhi on Tuesday 19 January 2010. The next day (20 January) at around 10pm Indian local time, her Finnish husband called her on her mobile phone. She was at New Delhi Railway Station waiting for a train. She told him she had bought a ticket and had been waiting for hours because the train was at least 9 hours late.
Pranita was planning to travel by train to either Jalpaiguri or Shiliguri in the north-east of India. From there, she intended by continue by jeep to Kalimpong to visit her parents. No-one has heard from Pranita since the phone call. Phone records show that her mobile phone was briefly switched on at 10.59am Indian local time on Friday 22 January.
Pranita Shrestha is 150 cm / 5 ft tall, weighs 51 kg / 8 st with brown eyes and black hair.
She was wearing navy jeans, a black jacket and ankle-length brown Puma shoes. She had a green upright, fabric trolley suitcase and a smaller, black and white bag also with a trolley system. In her left ring finger, she wears a thin, white gold diamond ring.
Pranita Shrestha trained as a staff nurse in Mumbai, India, and she speaks English, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Newari, Urdu and a little Finnish.
Until June 2009, she lived in the Maiti Devi district of Kathmandu, Nepal. She then moved with her son to live with her Finnish husband in Espoo, Finland.
Interpol and Indian police are investigating the disappearance of Pranita Shrestha.
A reward will be paid for any information that will lead to the return of 38-year-old Pranita Shrestha.
If you have any information, please contact:
1. Embassy of Finland in Delhi, E-3, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, sanomat.nde@formin.fi, tel. +91-11-4149 7500 or
+9198111 16843
2. Embassy of Finland in Nepal, Bishalnagar, Kathmandu, sanomat.ket@formin.fi, tel. +977-1-4416 636, 4417 221
3. Mrs Arja Talonen arja.talonen@kuvalehdet.fi tel.+358-50-3662748 (English, German, Swedish, Finnish)
4. Mr. Ville Talonen, moroville@hotmail.com , tel. +358-45-6316 119 (English, Finnish)
5. Mrs. Byoma Tamrakar byoma.tamrakar@gmail.com tel. +358-41 5100864 (Hindi, English, Nepali)
6. Indian Police
Many of you will remember my blog with this picture!
Great news folks. I have relaunched my revamped Car Renting Service. Already all the cars are boojed. I only have a few vehicles now.
Maybe you can bookmark the blog page where I have posted my latest brochure, as shown below, including the unbelievable rates.
It is Jacob's Car Renting Service
I will keep you abreast of the situation at the blog page. So stay tuned there.
Very occasionally, I get an urge to do nothing constructive or destructive for a whole day. No walk, no going to the office, no handling telephone calls, no writing letters.
Today was one of those days.
When I woke up in the morning, I read the Kalvea, our local newspaper, and did the EASY Sudoku.
I have just started to play this as I saw Bina, my cousin Thambi's wife, in Mumbai, enjoying it. Thanks Bina!
I have not yet got the hang of it, but today, for the first time, I finished the EASY puzzle. I tried to move on to the next level, but as it was taxing my brains, I stopped.
Toast with cinnamon and honey, followed by a cup of cinnamon and honey tea. I am continuing following my friend's advice. Next Monday is my blood test, almost three months after disaster was called by the doctor in Chennai!
Then, after a short nap on the sofa, I noted it was almost 11 am. I settled in front of the TV to watch Roger Federer and Andy Murray battle the final of the Australian Open Tennis Championship. Federer won quite easily as Andy Murray just did not have the power, the tactics, or the experience of his opponent, the world's greatest tennis player. The service and shots all around the court were exquisite.
While watching this I learnt that Indian, Leander Paes, and his partner had won the mixed doubles title at the tournament. I wonder whether theywill make much of it in the Indian Media. If he was a Finn, there would be virtually non-stop coverage as such victories are used to motivate the youngsters in this country.
Then it was time for a stretch out on the sofa for a second nap. Exhilarating!
It soon approached 16.45 and it was time to watch TV again, the final of the African Nations Football Cup, where Ghana was playing against Egypt. The game was quite unlike the European or the Latin American styles, although most of the players play in clubs in Europe.
Egypt won. It was not a very convincing win, as the Ghanaians did not have the finishing power in their line up.
Both events were enjoyable as I was not supporting anyone. i could just sit back and enjoy the sport!
Annikki prepared our regular Sunday roast chicken, vegetables and potatoes dinner. I had time to check my email, and do this blog entry in time for my readers who will check in early Monday morning!
Should I do this more often? Probably, although I did feel guilty when I sat in front of my computer and found so many lovely emails from so many of you, including news of a wedding in March 2010 of my second cousin's daughter. Their wedding will be in Nagpur, the very centre of India.
Some of our regular readers have emailed us that Annikki and I have of late been blogging more on politics than on general life in Finland or India.
We are living in most critical times.
Annikki and I are socio-political writers. We do not write any fiction, but we write about life as we see it.
At the moment, the political scene is crowded with important information that we want our readers to know, be it in India, Finland, US, UK or any other country about which we do have the knowledge to write about.
Corruption is rampant in all these countries. Poverty, hatred, violence is spreading.
And President barrack Obama ended his State of the Union speech with the phrase "God Bless America".
Does that mean God should not bless any other country?
What special relationship has America got with God?
Is this not the saddest reflection of our times, as each country wants God to bless them in isolation of others?
Would it not be nicer for a world leader to say "God Bless all the people of this world - Agnostics, Atheists, Baha'i, Buddhists, Christians, Confucianists, Hindus, Islamists, Jains, Jews, Shintoists, Sikhs, Taoists, Wiccaists, Zoroastrians, and Druids, Tribals, ..."
Is that not what we want out of God other than His narrow focus on one particular country.
This draws me to an anecdote that I have used a couple of times on this blog, but which is worth repeating as it has a meaning at just this time.
The Chilcot Inquiry is looking at events between 2001 and 2009, covering the decision to go to war against Iraq, whether troops were properly prepared, how the conflict was conducted and what planning there was for its aftermath. It is claimed that the terms of reference are unprecedented in their breadth.
Inquiry Chairman, Sir John Chilcot, says he will not shirk from apportioning blame where he sees fit. 179 British service personnel were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. Many tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians died over the period.
The inquiry began in July 2009. Sir John and the four other panel members met some of the families of the 179 UK personnel killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 as well as former and current serving personnel. During the meetings, several relatives of those killed criticised the decision to go to war, saying the British people had been lied to about the threat posed by Iraq.
Sir John and his fellow panel members also spent weeks examining thousands of relevant documents from across government. Some documents have not been declassified, meaning that although the inquiry can view them they cannot be made public.
The report of the result of the inquiry is being delayed till 2011. This shows it is a partisan one as the result should have been before the British people before the next General election.
So not much good can be expected out of this. The time frame says it all.
This man, Tony Blair, should be put away for life. He is a psychopath!
Tony Blair told the Chilcot Inquiry the he was prepared to do the same again! That is - To kill thousands of innocent people!
What Tony Blair wants to do again is kill many hundred thousand innocent women and children to fulfill HIS belief that there are weapons of mass destruction anywhere where someone whom he does not like is in power.
This man, Tony Blair, is a war criminal on par with Bush, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin.
There is only one place for the likes of him.
A secure mental institution, where his arrogance, stupidity and poodle-like behaviour are never again unleashed on this world.
In front of the Inquiry, yesterday, Tony Blair was arrogant and unrepentant about all the unnecessary killings of innocent Iraqis. He linked the Iraq war to 9/11, which is simply not true. Not a single Iraqi was involved in 9/11.
Blair claimed falsely that Saddam Hussain was not allowing the Weapons Inspectors to do their job. This is simply not true. There is ample evidence from both Dr. Hans Martin Blix and Dr. Mohamed Mostafa ElBaradei what was the situation on the ground in Iraq. They were pleading for just a little more time to confirm their findings that there were no WMD in Iraq.
That would have been unacceptable to Bush and Blair as they wanted to spill blood - innocent blood, not caring whose blood it was!
Blair wanted, like Bush and Margaret Thatcher, to go down in history as a man in shining armour carrying his country to victory(?). Tony Blair destroyed the lives of several British men and women and their families to try to go down in glory in the history books.
A tragic victory (?) for whom?
Not for the innocent civilian women and children Iraqis that Blair and Bush have mutilated and murdered!
Tony Blair certainly goes down in My history book as a WAR CRIMINAL!
President Barrack Obama's State of the Union speech was interesting in that it was full of contradictions.
He said he is phasing down the US military agenda abroad, whereas all he has done since is coming to the office is to ramp it up, continue the policies of the previous administration and show no direction in world politics, except rhetoric.
However the most glaring statement made by him was the criticism levelled at the US Supreme Court, which in its recent ruling, stated that Corporations had equal rights as individuals as to their role in election financing!
Obama may stand today for something different. He may have been supported by mass popular appeal.
That was because he had a great spin machine.
Let us look at the composition of the US Supreme Court today:
Chief Justice John Roberts
Associate JusticesJohn Paul Stevens
Antonin Scalia
Anthony Kennedy
Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer
Samuel Alito
Sonia Sotomayor
The Roberts Court (2005–present) began with the confirmation and swearing in of Chief Justice John G. Roberts on September 29, 2005, and is the current presiding court.[58] The Roberts Court is seen as more conservative than the previous court.[59] Some of the major rulings so far have been in the areas of abortion (Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood,[60] Gonzales v. Carhart);[61] anti-trust legislation (Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc.);[62] the death penalty (Baze v. Rees,[63] Kennedy v. Louisiana);[64] the Fourth Amendment (Hudson v. Michigan);[65] free speech of government employees and of high school students (Garcetti v. Ceballos,[66] Morse v. Frederick);[67] military detainees (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld,[68] Boumediene v. Bush);[69] school desegregation (Parents v. Seattle);[70] voting rights (Crawford v. Marion County Election Board);[71] the Second Amendment (District of Columbia v. Heller),[72] and campaign finance (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission).[73]
The international media has been speculating about the future of SAAB, the automaker owned by FORD and now to be sold to the Dutch company, Spyker.
SAAB is not just an automaker.
Here is the latest news about another division of the company.
The Finnish military defence department awarded a follow-on contract to Saab for an additional delivery of the widely deployed air defence technologies.
Swedish based Saab said that it has been selected by Finland to deliver an order for its Robotsystem 70 (RBS 70), a ground based air defence system.
This is an approximately Euro 25.29 million order. Global defence contractor Saab will deliver its RBS 70s, a short-range man-portable laser guided missile system, to the Finnish army.
"This is very positive and it further proves the capability of the RBS 70 system which until now has been exported to 18 countries located on all five continents," Tomas Samuelsson, Saab Business Area Dynamics head, said in a statement.
Yesterday was an exciting day as I was waiting for 9 pm Finnish Time, 10 am US Pacific time. It was at that hour Steve Jobs, CEO f Apple Inc. was to unveil details of Apple's new product.
Unfortunately, just minutes before the scheduled time, when it was going to be streamed live on the Internet, the internet connection in the US collapsed leaving us all in limbo and watching the text description of what was happening along with many iPhone pictures of what was happening on the stage as this new product, called the iPad was being released.
Today I met an avid reader of my blogs. Although an acquaintance of a long time, I have never had a chance to have an in depth word with him.
So he hit me right between the eyes when he asked me a direct question, which I have never addressed on my web pages or my blogs ever.
He asked me that in most cases I write on the blogs using the "Royal " WE. What he wanted to know was how much do Annikki and I have in common to write as WE?
Annikki is an introvert while I am an extrovert. 
.jpg)