Comments on: Seriously, Beware Finland

By: future svalbard zombie

future svalbard zombie — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:07:23 +0000

Forget the Finns, watch out for Svalbard!

http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/search/label/Svalbard

By: Johnny Pez

Johnny Pez — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:12:30 +0000

I for one welcome our new Finnish overlords.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:02:29 +0000

The most Lutheran areas of the US (MN, WS, ND) come closest to approximating Scandinavian educational (and to a degree, political) successes. MN and WS are also very Catholic, but in an Anglo-Saxon context Lutherans and Catholics are pretty similar (communitarian and not grossly anti-intellectual).

By: franck

franck — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:47:25 +0000

Karelian is related to Finnish (sort of like French and Spanish) and traditionally have been the border people between Russia and Finland. (Some dialects of the languages are mutually intelligible.) But the gulf between Finns and Russians is big – different language family (Uralic versus Indo-European), different religion (Lutheran versus Russian Orthodox), different script (Latin versus Cyrillic), different orientation (Scandinavian versus Slavic).

By: A Finn

A Finn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:37:17 +0000

The rich and poor both benefit from a radical lack of inequality, they’re well educated, they’re healthy, and they’re politically free. The bad things about them—weather and darkness—aren’t replicable elsewhere anyway. Unlike the otherwise similar Norway, their remarkably high standard of living isn’t floated on large amounts of oil, which suggests we all could do it. What am I missing?

You need to be of Lutheran background. It’s as simple as that. The Nordic welfare states are extensions of hundreds of years of ingrained Lutheran morality. More than 90% of the Nordic countries are still quite Lutheran, even though many of them might rarely go to church anymore. The various Nordic social democratic parties can, in effect, be seen as extensions of Lutheran ideology.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:06:09 +0000

As far back as Swedes can be traced, there were Finns with them. Examples include the Rus’ and Varangians in Constantinople ca. 800 AD, and the Swedish Delaware colony in America ca. 1630 AD.

By: abb1

abb1 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:29:15 +0000

the real links are between the Finns and the Swedes, not the Finns and the Russians.

OTOH, (depending on how you define ‘Russians’, of course) various ethnicities in Karelia, who belong to the Russian Federation, are probably even more close to the Finns than the Swedes. I don’t really know if it’s true, just guessing.

By: Jacob Christensen

Jacob Christensen — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:14:51 +0000

@Nordic Mousse + abb1: On a slightly more serious note, the real links are between the Finns and the Swedes, not the Finns and the Russians.

As it turns out, both the former Swedish PM Tage Erlander and the former England Manager Sven-Göran Ericsson descend from Finns who emigrated to Sweden waaaay back (the family is called Suhoinen). Just how many Swedes who can claim a Finnish ancestor, is an interesting question.

Many places in Norrbotten in Sweden have names that are of Finnish origin (if they are not Sami). The sauna (bastu in Swedish) is as integral a part of daily life in Northern Sweden as in Finland.

In any event, the difference between a dialect and a language is that a language has a navy and an army. That makes Finnish a language and Meänkieli a dialect.

By: abb1

abb1 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:41:26 +0000

Here’s a better link: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/larni.htm

By: abb1

abb1 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:34:52 +0000

Oh, almost forgot: has anyone here read Martti Larni (I hope it's the right link), The Fourth Vertebra? It's freakin hilarious, but for some reason completely undiscovered by the Anglophone world. Weird.

By: Britta

Britta — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:41:21 +0000

Your mention of jokes reminds me:
How do you get a Finn to smile?
You hold him upside down.

By: r@d@r

r@d@r — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:01:37 +0000

one of the best dressed people i ever met (and we swedes are no slouches) was a young finnish exchange student. he also had one of the darkest, most laconic senses of humor i ever came across. both rhetorically and literally, i would not want to cross swords with a finn in battle – probably because he or she would bristle me with arrows like a pincushion before i could even draw.

we did enjoy a few jokes at the expense of the norwegians, but for some strange reason i can’t remember any of them. (i do remember learning some of them from my one norwegian friend at the time.) nor do i recall how i ended up unconscious in my front yard naked. now that would NEVER happen to a finn. probably not to a norwegian either because they’re too boring. but of course i jest.

By: jacob

jacob — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:55:32 +0000

Not only do Finns have the right idea about speeding tickets (record as of 2004, $216,000), they have the right idea about prison too. Short version of the linked Times article is that Finland listened to criminologists and discovered that the worst thing about prison was a lack of freedom So they decided to dispense with all the other unpleasant things about prison, and lo and behold they have good results. All of which brings up the question of why the entire world doesn't want to be like Finland and Sweden, at least as far as organization of politics and the economy. The rich and poor both benefit from a radical lack of inequality, they're well educated, they're healthy, and they're politically free. The bad things about them--weather and darkness--aren't replicable elsewhere anyway. Unlike the otherwise similar Norway, their remarkably high standard of living isn't floated on large amounts of oil, which suggests we all could do it. What am I missing?

By: abb1

abb1 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:38:15 +0000

Sorry, I meant no disrespect. Stupid joke, that’s all.

By: Nordic Mousse

Nordic Mousse — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:27:29 +0000

They are Russians, except they like dry steam in their bathhouses and use a dialect no one understands

This misperception isn’t a problem education couldn’t solve for you, abb. Finns aren’t Russians, and don’t speak a dialect