Consensus December 26, 2007

Finland is a very rare country from the social and political point of view because of the domination of CONSENSUS.

How does this consensus look like? People accept to pay their taxes and believe that State is doing a good job. In the companies, every opinions seem to be listened carefully and respectfully in the aim to avoid conflicts and strikes. Isn’t it so strange to see managers and workers agreeing before any strike? Of course, lately nurses had to play very tough to be heard but that remains an exception. Shifting from the corporate world to the academic one, one can find the same ambient here, full of respect. Students get the best conditions to study but they accept to go through an exam at the beginning and they do not defend their interests and promote their claims by going on strike and blocking the university.

What is different in Finland? My first thought would be that Finns, contrary to other peoples, are less engaged in a restricting social life which obliges them to behave against their feelings towards their peers. For instance in Finland, if you don’t want to speak to someone you don’t, it will not be considered as rude or disturbing. Being more honest, Finns might be more respectful of the other and listen to hem more carefully. Respect calls for Consensus.

Sometimes, it is said to be politically inefficient, considering the healthy Welfare State that’s not true, and boring, maybe…

Mökki December 21, 2007

Mökki means cottage in Finnish, it is often used as “kesämökki” or “summer cottage”.

Each Finn is supposed to have its own mökki. In this wooden house, you spend nice and reposing week-ends or holidays, surounded by the forest and a lake or a river, very convenient to fish or have a bath after the sauna. Even if the modern comfort is getting more and more common even in the deepest forest, in the mökki you can experience the real natural life. No Internet, no TV, no hot water and sometimes even no running water. Then you can imagine how you will spend your days there: cutting wood, pumping, cooking, reading, resting… Boring? Not at all! Well, if you go there in the right mood with the right people, you might spend the best time of your life. Wouldn’t you like to enjoy a beer in a sauna and then have a bath in the lake under a clear summer night sky? Don’t you like to have a barbecue in the nature? I do and that’s one of the reason I love Finland.

Sauna December 18, 2007

The first best Finnish thing that comes direct to my mind.

Question: How could a small and overheated room be so wonderful?

First, it is really nice to be so warm and sweat, you relax. At the end, you feel very good, your skin is very soft but your muscles warmed-up, it combines at the same time the positive effects of a massage and an aerobic session.

Then, after the sauna you are so warm and comfortable that you can do many things you had never thought being possible. For instance running naked in the snow and rolling in or ice-bathing or simply staying outside by -5°C enjoying a fresh beer. That’s great!

Last but not least, in the sauna you feel the real Finnishness. Everybody is naked (not always, mixing girls and boys is not good to respect the nudity tradition), Everybody is equal. That sounds rather simplistic but that’s true. Maybe it’s better to experience it to believe it. Go in a sauna and chat randomly with some 30-years-older-than-you naked guy about his job and his wife, that’s easy. Then realize that this guy is one administration official, the kind of person you will usually see in a formal suit, a person whose authority should press you down, at least in France, but not in Finland. I believe in the general opinion which asserts that Finnish social consensus and strong equality of status is originated in these small over heated room called sauna.

Finland Rocks December 17, 2007

As an Erasmus at the University of Helsinki, my first word to those who ask me about Finland is “Great!”. Why? The story is rather long and this post is the first step of a long journey. Telling about this Nordic experience and trying to get as much thoughts as possible out of it will be my first guideline.

Sauna, Respect of each other, Nature and Forest, Welfare State, Discos… These might be the first articles of my Fair Forest Encyclopedia. A collaborative one of course (yaya, like if someone was going to read me:-)