northern depression

Another sunny day in the northern white city

and another day of gloom (something like Kaamos as I understand it) with only the prospect of it getting gloomier until December 21.

Finns are all acting "down in the mouth" and depressed as the "season" drags on.

Personally I've never been overly fond of the physical landscape in Finnish Cities, and as always, the bigger ones are often the more ugly ...

So while Helsinki may have more attractions to it than Kouvola (where bleak and post-stalinist-dysfunctionalism style of architecture rules the landscape)

Noone seems to have any motiviation to do anything at the moment, which is blamed on the dreadful climate.

And who can argue with that ... the image
to the left was taken at 11:30am and its still not even really bright.

Then there's the drizzle ...

Its unrelentingly grey and bleak ... even the dead rabbit on my way to work hasn't moved

So its no wonder the garbos can't muster the effort to empty the bins.

This one has been gathering garbage for a few weeks now ... looking at the way people have tried to be neat here you can't really say Helsinki people are messy, even the coffee cup is doing its share to hold some of the rubbish.

enjoy winter

Governance Police and Democracy

Finland is a funny place, one finds the most unexpected things here.

One of the unexpected things for me was the way Finland seems to be an interesting blend of socialism and democracy with surprisingly little corruption getting in the way of things.

My dealings with official representatives (like police, border guards, public officials) has been typically "Finnish" : terse, to the point, and impartial.

It came as a surprise to me that overwhelmingly most people consider the Police to be genuine, honest, hard working people. In fact they have the most un-police uniforms I've ever seen ... basically blue car mechanic overalls with a utility belt to hold radio, torch, restraining devices and their gun.

Perhaps this is an important point ... as there is no "ceremonial uniform" tying to represent them as being some dressed up fancy group which is separate from society? Despite the fact that we're often used to police wearing "smart dress uniforms" which hark back to military officers, maybe its better to regard them as being practical dispensers of the public will (which would be the laws of our society).

Watching TV lastnight I saw a programe about "Australian Border" and there was an excellent representaion of all that is wrong with the Australian (and probably English, US and other) official representatives.

Essentially the situation was that a tourist from Coloumbia was entering sydney, neatly dressed, calmly spoken and a gentle sort of fellow. The machines which the customs officers have detected chemistry which set off an alert for drugs and so the customs officers began searching his baggage.

Now it was the particularly opressive gestapo arrogant attitude of the officer conducting the search which rubbed me entirely the wrong way. I was impressed despite her arrogant attitude that he remained calm. It was clear that she had decided he was guilty from the start and began with an attempt to badge and cajole him. To his credit he remained calm and stayed friendly.

When he suggested that he understood what they were doing and why, the officer went into a more high pitch attack nearly baiting him up ... "how would you know what we are doing? Are you hiding something"

He was subjected to a body search and asked to go to a "controlled toilet" where his 'dump' was to be examined he said that he understood what they were doing again, and said they were probably looking for drugs in his stomach.

Well, that was like waving bait in front of a dog, and the officer went even more ballistic asking him why he suggested they look in his stomach.

Oh come one you fool, was this your first day on the job?

Eventually it was found that he was carrying medications which contained compounds which also trigger the chemsitry detection of the device. Exactly as he had been saying all along, he did not have illegal drugs.

This is exactly the difference between Australian Police and Finnish Police.

The Finns act like un-involved professionals simply following their jobs, while the Australians often bring their personal prejudices and anger along on the job with them.

If this is making you think that Finns themselves are somehow a motivated and politically motivated group actively involved in citizenship and keeping their civil servants and politicians in check, well frankly nothing could be further than the truth. Finns are as laconic and un-involved in anything other than their own affairs than any country town Aussie would be.

So why are the two places different?


Let me quote from: the Victorian Office of Police Integrity report 2007

The original policing of Australia derived from eighteenth century England as inevitably as the First Fleet itself. The new settlers of 1788 had left behind a country where there were harsh laws, an entrenched class system, much poverty and crime, much public disorder and violence. Criminal punishments were draconian – horrifying, by modern standards. Many in both the Magistracy and police were notoriously dishonest and ineffective.

So given this its hardly surprising to read that the history of the formation of the Victorian police lays in:

In September 1836, Victoria’s first three police officers arrived. They had been sent
by the government in Sydney, where all three had already been dismissed for drunkenness. By March 1837, all had been sacked from their new billets in Port Phillip: one for repeated drunkenness, one for repeated absence, and one for bribery. Despite the discouraging start, replacements were appointed....

Lovely start to things ... no wonder I've always been sus about Victoria

But this highlights a core difference between Australia an Finland.

Beginnings.

The patch on the map we call Finland has had (more or less) the same people living in it for some centuries. They may not have called themselves Finns, and at some points they've been part of the Swedish Empire and the Russian Empire. However they've always maintained their own language and different cultures. Between the 17th Century and the 18th Century the control of Finland changed hands from the Swedes to the Russians. Finally after quite some wars with Finns stuck in the middle (of course taking sides variously).

So when Finland obtained independence from Russia in 1917 they were really taking possession of their own destiny.

Australia is quite a different kettle of fish, our history of formation was as a penal colony of England, and independence was obtained quite differently with years of planning to transit from being a Colony to a Federation of States and become independent (to an extent) from England in 1901. Australia was essentially set up as a carbon copy of English legislature, but set in a background of a more wild west sort of location and by a people who were not really considering themselves as Australians.

I think this has a profound effect on the fundamental premise of governance in Finland and this is not something which is restricted to the Police.

So while Finland seems to be populated by laconic people who seem among the last I would envisiage as "active participatory citizens" there seems to be something at work here making Finland public service actually work better ... warrants further investigation if you ask me

winter surprise for Finnish drivers

its the same every year I'm told

Slippery conditions in winter take drivers by surprise again this year

I checked out the car ... sure enough ... summer tyres.

Ha ha ha ha

The Finns who read this will know what I mean ;-)


Kind of reminds me of being back in Australia ... slippery condtions in the wet take Brisbane drivers by surprise...again

morons

elevators in Finland

One of the funny things about being a foreigner is created by that fact that you make assumptions on how life should be based your previous experiences in life.

As an Australian I was born and grew up in Australia and lived in the buildings we have there. In Australia we have this view that we are somehow still a "far flung colony" of England and look to the "civilized world" (such as Europe) for inspiration. Reading the magazines and watching TV in Australia images and advertising seems to support this idea.

However when you come to live in Europe you find that we've got it all wrong, and about the only area I can find which is not simply inferior or antiquated in Europe is perhaps that of policy. In areas of infrastructure we seem to be quite advanced while the Europeans seem to be simply smug in their own belief of their advancement.

Take elevators as an example. At home we have sleek well designed elevators which are fast, programmable and safe.

I have been consistently stunned by the museum pieces which still seem to be pushed into service here in Finland.

This is the 'bank of elevators' at my place of work. When you call one, you have to be paying attention as the door does not open to cue you in on its arrival, you have to grab the handle and pull it open. They only hold between 3 and 4 people each and in many you can't press the button to go somewhere till the door has closed ... you can't press more than one floor, so if you are going to floor 3 and the person who presses first presses 6, well you have to come back down again ... as long as noone called it from 7.

Quaint. I thought this was a developed country? Clearly in Australia we have different standards of what a developing and what a developed country is ...

In my own building at home (and in almost every building I've been in) the wall of the elevator shaft is directly visible and you have some quaint little door to open and close when you get in.


Some are like this one (which is from my building in a major University in Finland). It really belongs to something from "Castle Wolfenstein"



it would be funny if it was just a joke.

However the real joke is how (because they grew up here) Finns seem to think this sort of early 50's sort of ex-soviet machinery is somehow "normal" ... and can't see my point.

Like I said above if you're born in a place and grow up there you think its normal ...

I'm sure that refugees from Somalia and other 3rd world countries who come to Finland are entranced by the wonderfully modern place, certainly the Finns are all quietly smug about how good things are in Finland ... I get quite tired of hearing gibber on the train from passengers who have been 'abroad' for two weeks going on about

• "how much better it is compared to XXX" or
• "the quality of ZZZ in YYY was just so poor"

well folks wake up and look at things here a little more objectively. If I saw elevators above while I was in "developing countrys" like this one in India it was 'normal' ... but in Finland?

Well clearly this shows that being a developed or developing country is a state of mind, not a state of how things are.

Its clearly a cultural thing as in Japan the attitude was "look abroad to how they do things, so we can learn to do things better" while in Finland its "pick the things we do better than abroad so we can pat our selves on the backs and nod in agreement with how good things are in Finland"

To Australians I say .. stop knocking your selves, keep working at making Australia a better place and keep looking overseas, but not just for what we're not doing well, but for what we do well. We need to learn how to pat ourselves on the back a little.

defending VR staff

Recently I blogged about how VR can't find their ass with both hands. Well my wife points out this morning an article about a recent VR debacle where many Finns were also pissed off.

Clearly heaps of others were and continue to be as pissed of with VR as I am. Reading that I am more confident to say that the management of VR clearly can't find their their asses with both hands.

Some people here have told me that the old white SF european identification sticker on cars before it changed to FIN upon joining the EU means Soviet Finland not Suomi Finland.

Well something I didn't talk about in my last blog post (because I didn't want it to sound like a rant) was the attitude of the staff I encountered. The belligerent and superior attitude of the asshole in the asiakaspalvelu was essentially typical of a comfortable cynical bureaucrat who gets sick of people complaining at him and so goes on the offensive as a beginning.

However in the station (while waiting for the next train) I stopped one VR staff, explained my situation and asked how I could complain about this. He was polite and helpful. Clearly he had managed to cope with the shitty situation he is in (working for VR).

I think that its important to say that no matter how you may start out as a human in life, spending time working for a bureaucratic machine like VR you are likely to become just like that youself.

I mean how would bit like to work in a place where everyone you met was angry or unhappy?

VR Policy seems more related to a different century (like the one where my Uncle's rotary hoe comes from).

So try not to take it out on the staff (even if they have been turned into assholes by the machine) try to remember its the machine that needs an overhaul.

Perhaps the central management in VR could do well to visit Japan and see how they manage things, clearly their view is from Russian systems, which aren't working with modern western world expectations.

VR - Finnish Rail

From the Beavers lesson:

They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.

Well, here in Finland you won't have to worry about soap and smiles.

I travel 4 hours per day 5 days per week on the Rail system in Finland ... after some months I can say that timetabling is "more like a guideline really".

I'm not sure if this is actually representative of anything, but its interesting none the less, that the "push here" decorative icon on the doors to the "dining cars" has indeed got extra fingers.

Five fingers and a thumb.

Not sure if this means anything but in Finnish language its common to say one has five fingers rather than four fingers and a thumb.

Oddly there is a word for thumb.

This leads me to wonder if the person who made this was saying something, being artistic, or simply following a order sheet to make a hand with five fingers.

Well either way I'm certain that VR can't find their own arse with both hands even with 5 fingers and a thumb.

Last night was a classic example of this. After waiting on the platform in the cold and breeze (and trust me, the cold breeze is cold here in Finland) and hearing for the Nth time that the train was going to be delayed (now adding up to 45 minutes delay so far) I got the shits and went to ask why and when it may arrive.

It took about 45 seconds to walk up to the information area from the platform in Pasila station, and with the PA still saying that the train was going to be delayed I asked at the information desk when the train will depart.

"its leaving now" said the grumpy asshole at the desk (in Finnish of course). I bolted back to the platform to see the train had arrived and was indeed pulling out of the station.

Bloody hell ... military choppers don't drop marines and dust off so fast, probably the train was worried about being late so took off fast to catchup.

So after waiting 45 minutes on the platform I was left just standing there waiting for the next train..

WANKERS.

Now this is just typical of the disorganization of VR ... (not to mention the shit-attitude of the counter service staff ). For example, at right here I have a typical sign showing the train information. A quick look will show two things

1. the train to Riihimaki is late
2. the morons can't get the sign and the columns displaying the data right (see the red rectangles)

Perhaps someone should send the railway staff here to Japan for some training in both courtesy and punctuality. Ohh ... but that's right ... being courteous is just wanking isn't it....

communication style

People say that its the little things that count. This seems to be a point lost on Finns who are so fu*king blunt it verges on rude ... well and actually they are often just rude too ...

One day in discussion with a Finnish friend he explained that being polite is just "wanking", its un-necessary and really does nothing to explain the message.

My experience is that many Finns seem to follow his philosophy. This is more pronounced in the countryside than Helsinki (where the population actually seem to be more like nice people, despite the issues you get in Cities vs Country towns)

Anyway, I was walking to the train the other day and found that this sign was put up to say "Work Area, no entry without authorisation" more or less...

What caught my eye was the face on the "icon" person shows a cranky unhappy face (which is so typical of Finns). You get the impression of "Hey, YOU! You can't come in here, bugger off"

I though for a moment that this is quite different to what I've experienced elsewhere in the world.

The problem I have with expressing what is distressing and annoying about living in Finland is that it isn't anything in particular, its the summation of everything in general.

Since I've made comparisons with Japan I thought I'd contrast this to the Japanese way of expressing the same thing...



and



Both signs are far less aggressive and still get the message across. But that's the point, Japanese are fundamentally a polite society. People try not to get in your face or annoy you. Not Finland ... the general attitude here is "I'm pissed off, so you should be too ... noone gives a shit how you feel so get used to it".

Back in Korea I asked a friend of mine who had had some dealings with Finns what he thought of the average Finnish person ... "grunting alcoholics" was his answer.

The longer I stay here the more I find that so many Finns really are just grumpy, rude semi-alcoholic, socially incompetent (to keep this polite).