Shift from Spring to Summer

The days are now long here in Oulu. It is bright all through the 24 hours. The spring air is turning to a feel of summer.


The neighbours are busy at work. The house opposite is putting on a new roof.



Annikki was thrilled to see the early morning water droplets on the rose bush.



The grandchildren, Samuel, Daniel and Maria got back from England. It is wonderful to have them back here. the normal routine has settled with me taking Samu to school in the morning, bringing him home in the afternoon and playing with Daniel for a short while.



Maria spends her time smiling and talking to the world.





The first flowers are also now visible and the growth of the tubers are now at a great rate.




A walk around the Kampitie garden showed that the Cherry tree planted by Annikki last summer had survived the winter as the fresh buds have appeared.




The fish are enjoying the freedom of the larger pond after having wintered in the table top aquarium in the living room. We lost 2 fish over winter and one once they were transferred back to the outdoor pond.

There are now 10 goldfish swimming around the pool - a crow took one!

DNA Finland Oy continues to DEFRAUD customer

On April 6th 2008, over a month ago, I drew your attention in my Oulu Best Buy blog entry Worst Internet Service Provider - DNA to how, for over a month and a half, I was denied internet access by DNA Finland Oy by their pure incompetence and inefficiency.

Now it is May 18th 2008, and for over another month and a half, my Fixed IP, Full Rate ADSL internet connection has been running at less that 50%, and usually at below 10% of the Agreed Download rate.

You can view the entire download and upload test results from Speedtest.Net from 31st March 2008 to date 18th May 2008 on this Web page Speedtest.Net Results for IP Address 213.139.166.91

(Click on image to see the latest updated results.)


Even while I was discussing the problem and the question of refund of the huge telephone bills I had to incur in using my 56 kbps modem to keep my internet connection alive, DNA has been putting punitive costs on me for holding back a few days in paying my bills, while they have not bothered to make the refund which I extracted as a promise for thanks to Tuomas Helander, a DNA Finland Oy Oulu employee.

As DNA Finland Oy continues to defraud me, I want to know how many other of their customers is this company similarly defrauding?

The latest insult was when I went to the DNA Office in Oulu and talked to one young man who refused to give me his name.

First, he told me he could do nothing about this matter. When I was forced to raise my voice, he rang someone and said that someone would attend to my problem in 3 days, something that Leena Jokela had said would be done a week earlier and which Tuomas Helander (the only one in DNA Finland Oy Oulu Office who has made a real effort to help resolve this problem) had taken to trouble to contact the person in ELTEL who was to attend to this defect.

This young man who was totally non-co-operative when I went in with the figures showing my 8000 kpbs download connection was running at 731 kbps. He said that DNA had nothing to do with this as all aspects of online work was the responsibility of ELTEL and I should contact them.

I do not have any contract with ELTEL. My contract is with DNA Finland Oy. This young man could not get it into his thick skull that it is the responsibilty of DNA Finland Oy to get in touch with whomsoever they have entered into a contract with - NOT ME!!!!

This young man was insistent as I was living in an old house the connection was bad. He refused to see the results that on 5th April with Miikka Parikka resetting the connection a blip connection speed of 6233 kbps was seen.

When you have such ignorant and incompetent persons manning the desks in DNA, then you have this type of fraud and rape of customers taking place.

Such lack of dedication to handle a customers real problem for over 3 months seems indicative of every single person that I have talked to in DNA (except Tuomas Helander). It is also the incompetent people who refuse to give their name as they do not want their incompetence to be exposed!

The sooner this irresponsible and incompetent Internet Service Provider is punished for fraud and closed down, the better for Finland.

Never heard of the NOROVIRUS before Wednesday!

(Cross-posted on all my major blogs.)

I have been missing on the Blogosphere and in my Google Groups for a few weeks. It has been because of the sheer workload and also as I have found the Facebook experience quite fascinating. I found many relatives, even quite distant ones, many many friends, Cathedralites, Stephanians, CHAFF and many other groups, including my School House Group, SAVAGE, on Facebook, that I have been familarising myself to all what could be done by me on Facebook.

Although I am achieving quite a lot in creating my corner in Facebook, it is no match for the direct Blog or a Google group - and that is why I am back at blogging!

In my 24+ years in Finland I had never missed a days work or events because of any form of serious illness. I have been ill (including a bout of painful herpes inside the mouth), but it was always possible to get to work and work without having to take time off.

But this last week was different.



While at the funeral of a dear friend, Willie, Michelle's husband, I felt claustrophobic in the Small Chapel, which meant I had to go outside for some fresh air. Annikki and I went back inside to place the wreath from the whole MATTHAN Family on the coffin, but I continued to feel very weak.

Michelle (with Willie) owns the best Chinese / Indian Restaurant in town - the Royal Garden.

Michelle is from Calcutta and is a close friend of our daughter, Joanna, and consequently, a close family friend of ours. Any visitor to Oulu usually gets a treat at one of her restaurants. So Michelle is known by our family and friends around the world. (Cousins Chacko and Ammu, niece Nirupa, niece Preminda with husband Chris and Malayika, Cathedralites Sunil (and Kamal) Sahni, Sadhana Madhusadan (née Shah) Viney Sethi, Stephanians Ajay Verma, Prof. Ajeet Mathur, are just a few who have enjoyed the hospitality of Michelle and Willie.)

I suggested to Annikki that we go home and rest before attending the farewell reception for Willie at the Royal Garden Restaurant.

After getting home and resting for about half an hour I was violently ill and unable to lift my head. I did not know what had hit me. Annikki treated me all the best remedies that she has up her sleeve, Silica to line the stomach, magnesium tablets, and one pain-killer. I managed to retain a bit of everything to help me sleep off the next four to six hours, but the vomiting and diarrhoea did not abate. It was absolutely miserable.

Next morning Annikki read in the local newspaper about something known as the NOROVIRUS and the symptoms were exactly what I had been through.

A quick Google Search yielded all the important data and I was sure that absolute fasting with only liquids was the right answer.

By evening I was able to consume some of Annikki's great Fish Soup and it stayed in.

By the next morning the main symptoms had vanished, but at 5 am the Norovirus hit Annikki.



Despite her agony she took quick action to ensure that her mother, Hilja, who was supposed to be brought home that afternoon, was looked after while Annikki recovered from this virus. According to Jonana, who sent us a text message from Newcastle, it can be fatal for the elderly.

I had a good friend from Tampere, a town 500 km south of Oulu, coming to visit me on Friday evening / Saturday morning.



I did not want to disappoint Nadir or miss meeting him as his visits to Oulu are only once every two years. Rather than ask him to cancel, I booked Nadir in at a hotel across from the Railway Station, as the Norovirus is extremely contagious. I was clean but the house would have been disturbingly filled the virus.

We spent a few wonderful hours together and he was on his way on Saturday afternoon.

I would like to know which of my efforts you appreciate more - my blogs, my Facebook entries, my direct posts to you - or maybe I should just SHUT UP....

(OK Ubi, I know what you will say, but believe me you are not too old for Facebook. However, although it seems easy, it is quite complicated to work out all the ins and outs and it is not intuitive as it should be.)

May 3rd 2008 - Oulu's Hyde Park Style Corner

Many of you may remember my last year's blog postings:

Freedom of Speech - Whose?
Oulu’s Hyde Park Corner

The same event appeared on the calendar this year.

I prepared better for the event. Last year, Annikki was shouting at me from the living room window as I took off on my scooter, armed with one of her wobbly creations to act as my soap box. This year she insisted I have a proper stand and equipped me with two packing pallets which she knew would carry my weight!

Annikki and her sister, Anneli, who was here from south Finland, were present at the event. These photographs were taken by Annikki.

Kaleva conveniently did not carry a picture of me although I spoke non-stop for over an hour on 25 or more issues. They gave pictorial space to those who spoke for a minute or two, some of them on totally inconsequential topics which do not need a Freedom of Speech Day to be aired!






I announced from the main stage that I was having my own soap box to speak from (in English), so I was able to draw my own audience. Also each of the speakers on the prepared stage held forth only for a couple of minutes, a few drunks also stopping to shout "Viva Finland".

My rant however went on for over an hour as I tackled major subjects about Oulu - Police, Judiciary, Media, Bureaucrats, and a whole host of subjects including corruption, racism, suicides, lack of democracy values and oppression of foreigners and the less fortunate in Finnish Society.

One lady, who obviously worked in the Oulu University Central Hospital, took objection to my criticising the emergency section where patients are made to wait for as long as 8 to 10 hours to get attention. Although she disagreed with me she then ran off saying that I did not understand how many things they had to do in the hospital.

Another young man chose to disagree with me about the corruption in the Finnish Police. Only when I showed him a report which I had from the local newspaper that he chose to concede the point.

That made my point that the people of Finland live and breathe only what their media chooses to tell them.

I told the story of when we felt the earthquake in Oulu in 1984, the media chose to tell the public that it was Swedish jets breaking the sound barrier many hundreds of kilometres away which was causing earth tremors!

One Finn thought that I was being too aggressive - but when I told him that 10 years of sweet talking had not moved the matter an inch, he agreed that some things may require an aggressive attitude to get attention.

The Kaleva, in today's newspaper, covered the fact that I had a separate platform to take up my issues. However, they made a comment which was quite out of place: They said the Finns speak when they have something to say, but foreigners speak because they enjoy speaking. They are totally wrong, as I abhor speaking about issues and only do so when there is no other alternative!

I was especially pleased that so many O-Indians and Findians came out to take part in this event and cheer me on. I was also actively supported by Annikki as she was there to give her point of view on many issues.

What disappointed me was that not a single person from CHAFF was present at the Freedom of Speech Day!

CHAFF may be changing direction with the younger crowd. But if CHAFF Participants choose to bury their heads in the sand with regard to important social issues that affect all levels of people in the City of Oulu, then that change in direction of CHAFF is, in my mind, not a welcome one.

This is not the first time that this has happened. When CHAFF Participant Benjamin Hayes gave a absolutely great talk about the Asia Pacific region, O-Indians and Findians were present. But not a single CHAFF Participant thought it important to come and hear their fellow participant.

With the end of face-to-face weekly meetings, and the lack of enthusiasm to cheer on fellow activists, the meaning of CHAFF today is something I do not quite understand!

Annikki, her sister and I had a really great Kerala meal, including the wonderful fish curry with Nisha and Sunil as we visited them to see Sunil's mother, Sarala, who is visiting Oulu. What was amazing was that little Hannah carried out a non-stop conversation with Annikki and her sister IN FINNISH - and perfectly good Finnish.

After that we went to the Nallikari Beach to enjoy a beautiful sunset while Annikki went about her life-long task of moving the beautiful stones from the beach to our residence. :-)





We will continue to enjoy a glorious summer, but watch out for a few cold days in between.