I have been thinking lately about the Darwin Awards, which you might know are all about:
Honoring those who improve the species… by accidentally removing themselves from it!
Given the general conditions of life here in the far north, there are a few ways in which you could very easily make yourself due to receive such an “honour”. Some of my favourites below:
Riding a bike dressed in black in November-January. Invisibility might be a good thing for ninjas, but you want to be as visible as possible so that you don’t get run over by a car.
Not enough clothing in winter, especially if alcohol is involved. Obvious really.
Not taking care of the sauna stove while drinking. How many times have we seen houses burn down, with people inside?
In summer, going fishing with a couple of beers on. A few deaths every year involve people who drown in lakes with their zippers down.
Any sure ways of winning the Darwin Awards that are common hereabouts you might want to add, that don’t include alcohol? 😉
I don’t know about you, but that’s probably the one award I could live my life without.
Today marks 70 years of the beginning of the Winter War, that historical event that is still at the forefront of the Finnish psyche. The good news is that Finland kept its unity and its independence (no mean feat when your adversary is the Soviet Union), the bad news is that it created a siege mentality that survives to this day in certain sectors of society.
For more background information, you can hardly do better than have a look in Helsingin Sanomat’s archive (1, 2, 3).
I am a proud product of the Finnish educational system (as well as the Mexican and Belgian ones), but as much as I think it gives you a great preparation, there is a few things that I’d like to see changed:
Knowledge of the world: While they focus a lot on the technical foundations of your chosen subject, cross-cultural, geographical and historical awareness outside of Europe seems to be lacking. Funny given their strong focus on foreign language education.
Presentation skills: I’ve mentioned it before, but I think it’s crucial to know how to communicate and sell your ideas. You only learn through practice, so it is very important to get started early. I remember I was doing English-language presentations already in 3rd grade.
Financial skills: This is something that would be necessary not only here in Finland, especially with the proliferation of express loans. Knowing how to handle your money is a basic skill for life.
In many cultures it is common to take advantage of all parts of an animal, not only the average meat. As I had been missing beef tongue tacos (a Mexican delicacy) for some time, I decided to try the same with reindeer when I found it sold in my local supermarket. The taste was very good, if a little gamy.
Tacos de lengua de reno
Ingredients (serves 2)
500 g of reindeer tongue (2-3 tongues)
1 full head of garlic
1 white onion
Couple of stems and leaves of hierba buena (or spearmint)
Couple of stems of dill (or dried dill where available)
Peel the garlic. Cut the onion in 4 parts. Add the hierba buena, dill, and the tongues and boil everything in water for 1.5 hours. Peel the tongues and cut in small cubes.
Serve with warm tortillas. Salad and rice as good optional sides. Don’t forget a good sauce (a taco without sauce is a sad taco), we had some salsa taquera but I’m sure some pico de gallo would also work great.
Found at the main entrance of the headquarters of a famous multinational corporation after yesterday’s snowfall. Whoever said Finns don’t have a sense of humour hasn’t spent long enough with them.
If Finland were to apply tests for citizenship applicants, would you be able to pass it? Helsingin Sanomat created one.
I got 85%, while natural-born Finns I know got 30 points less. Doesn’t seem to make me or any other foreigner any more or less of a Finn in the eyes of society to know for example how people in Rauma speak, as the more I explore suomalaisuus it looks that it is an ethnic rather than cultural concept.
This time of the year it is very common to get foggy days in southern Finland. I find them very interesting because the combination of setting with metheorological phenomenon brings to my mind images of Viking longships raiding the marshes and woods of the lands of the Fenni.
A friend of mine did share a story of Vikings rading a warehouse full of precious animal furs near the town of Nokia, which is where it takes is name from (noki being “soot” and sable being as black as it). Somehow drunken barbarians warriors attacking a town for its pelts sounds pretty funny to me.
This brings me to another point: every once in a while I feel like the Arab guy in The 13th Warrior. Par for the course for a southerner living in these northern lands 😉
TEDx Helsinki was organised this year as a local mirror for the wonderful, famous TED talks. The event was quite good overall, even if the level of the talks was a little uneven. The only problem they had was with misleading marketing in one important aspect: while their website and the registration process was in English, 80% of the event was in Finnish with no translations, which meant those attendants who didn’t master the language of Aleksis Kivi (and there were quite a few), were given a cold shoulder from the get go.
This was one of those situations where I was really glad to have learned the local lingo. If you are interested to know more about the event, you can check twitter or Anssi Kela’s post (in Finnish).
Update 18.05.2010: Videos from the presentations here, here and here (in English).
