The eating habits of a nation changed. Unbelievable but true.

This is an incredibly fine change! (See the story below.) Congrats, Britons. For years I have felt so sorry for factory-farmed animals, and along these times I have been very close to becoming vegetarian. Well, what's stopping me, I don't know. I don't like the taste of meat much, except reindeer.

But dear British, please, please, please stop cooking that "Coroner's Chicken" or whatever this disgusting dish is called: chicken with raisins and pineapple sauce. It's such a waste of beautiful birds.

EDIT: The name of the dish is actually "Coronation Chicken". I was close, wasn't I? Here is even a recipe. Poor Queen. (And really; the stuff I have eaten has contained raisins, lots and lots of raisins.)



But if the Britons can quit eating industrially farmed chicken, or even if they can minimize the figures by 35 %, then I belive anything is possible: Soon Russia can become a fair democracy, and in 2009 Obama can win, yes he can! Creme de la creme: the Finnish football team can make it to the next World Cup. (We have already won the Eurovision song contest, so there's not much left to achive.)

* * *
The campaign that changed the eating habits of a nation – Boycott of battery chickens forces supermarkets to think ethically

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Thursday, 28 February 2008

Sales of factory-farmed chickens have slumped since a high-profile campaign raised awareness of the cruelty at the heart of the poultry industry and implored consumers to pay more to improve the animals' welfare.

In a victory for campaigners who have fought to expose the short and brutal lives of broiler birds, shoppers have bought millions more free-range and organic birds while leaving mass-produced chickens on the shelves.

Sales of free-range poultry shot up by 35 per cent last month compared with January 2007, while sales of standard indoor birds fell by 7 per cent, according to a survey of 25,000 shoppers by the market research company TNS.

-- The campaign against mass-produced poultry, of which a quarter have difficulty walking as a result of wading around in their own waste, is to be intensified. Fearnley-Whittingstall intends to produce a new television show on chickens later this year, updating viewers on the campaign and urging more people to join what he hopes will turn into a free-range revolution. "We are going to keep the pressure up and we are going to do everything we can to make sure that this is not a flash in the pan," he said.

...please see the acticle at the Independent site here as a whole.

How to cheat at Italian. Time-saving tips again.

Who is this guy? A hint: he loved pasta. See the end of this post where he is a more mature gentleman.



Time-saving tips again! I used to give a lot of them two years ago – but I hope you don't remember, as I am a bit embarrassed.

I love good food, made out of good ingredients. But I hate cooking.

YET, even more I hate frozen dinners or ready-made food, especially soups and sauces.

So I do cook, and I suffer and cook.

Where is Mr HP, you ask? To tell you the truth, he does cook quite often. But for one thing; he comes home hours after Miss Funnybunny and me, and we will be starving if we keep waiting for a provider. Another thing is that his menus are slightly limited. For example, they often contain minced meat. Too often. So, we need a refreshing change.

In yesterday's Guardian there were good tips under the title "How To Cheat At Italian". (There have been articles like "How To Cheat At Chinese" and "How To Cheat At French", but those are far, far more difficult and not at all as practical.

* * * * *

How to cheat at Italian

No need to slave over a pasta machine. For Italian like mamma makes, just ask the maestro, Giorgio Locatelli

Sunday February 24, 2008
The Observer

1. Leftover soup tips

When we make soup at home, we always freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays; when they're frozen you pop them out and into a plastic bag and they'll be there waiting when you get home from holiday, or late from work. Remember to cool your leftovers down quickly in the fridge, though.

ISTORI: Very good. And so clever. First into cubes and then the cubes into a plastic bag. Can you believe this!

2. Keep it simple

If you make things easier for yourself then your guests will feel more welcome - when they come over for dinner they don't want to see you tearing your hair out in the kitchen. You'll never go to an Italian person's house and be served show-off food - they'll cook food that they know well. So it's not really cheating to get a little help from a good delicatessen - get some cured meats and some olives and put them out for when people arrive. We wrap cured meat around breadsticks and serve them as part of the antipasti.

ISTORI: Hmmm... I usually, like ALWAYS, do cook food I know well. But now I could wrap cheese over my rye bread stick as my show-off food? And my delicatessen is the Hakaniemi Food Market, of course.


3. Think ahead

Make sure one course is coming from the oven: either a roast or some baked fish, or do a pasta al forno, which you can make the day before. If you do something like lasagne, you'll only need to make the bechamel topping and add some parmesan and put it in the oven. I always make my lasagnes a day or two early - a night in the fridge really intensifies the flavour.

ISTORI: I have not yet figured out what this means and why. Too many difficult words like "al forno" and "bechamel". But once I have solved the codes here I'll follow this, too.


4. Avoid ready-made sauces

Using fresh tomatoes is always best in sauces, but tomatoes are seasonal, and there's nothing wrong with using a ready-made passata. Just avoid ready-made sauces - none of them are any good and they're full of sugar. It's not difficult to make your own - just buy some tomatoes, olive oil and fresh basil and warm them up!

ISTORI: I SO agree! Ready-made sauces are all bad, bad, bad. Ketchup being the worst – too much sugar. As for me, only pesto will do. I make good sauces, but to the list of oil, tomatoes and basil I'd add onions and garlic.


5. Shop every day

So often I go to people's houses and see a little bunch of basil suffocating in the fridge. We shouldn't shop once a week just so we can eat rubbish for five days. Your fridge should be empty every night, or at the very least, cook the fresh things in it, and put the finished dish in the fridge.

ISTORI: I don't actually like to shop every day, but luckily the shops are close and I often have to get just a little bit of something almost every day. We have also learned not to buy a lot at once. So – ok.


6. Cook too much

If you make fresh pasta, remember that it freezes brilliantly, including stuffed pasta. Make a kilo and freeze the extra in a single layer on a sheet of greaseproof paper for about six hours, then put it in a plastic bag (with a label telling you the date and what's in it!). Try and keep at least part of the freezer empty for this sort of thing - we always have a clear shelf in ours.

ISTORI: Yep. I always do cook too much. (And then freeze.)


7. Don't buy flavoured oils

Avoid flavoured oils at any cost. They are absolutely pointless. Just get yourself some beautiful olive oil and chop up a couple of garlic cloves and add them to the bottle. Next day you will have garlic olive oil. Or you could use dried rosemary.

ISTORI: "Avoid flavoured oils at any cost." Seriously? WHAT are flavoured oils? So this was an easy one again.


8. Use a slow cooker

Slow cookers are an excellent investment and very safe. You can make foolproof slow-cooked ragu in one. Put two kilos of minced beef, browned, two chopped carrots, a chopped celery stalk, two chopped onions, a bouquet garni, two cloves of garlic, a bottle of red wine, a litre of passata, five tablespoons of olive oil, a litre of water and some salt and pepper (this will serve eight) in the cooker first thing in the morning and then when you get home from work you'll have the best ragu.

ISTORI: I wish I knew what a "slow cooker" is. But once I have found that out I will definitely get one. This ragu sounds delicious, with onions, passata, wine and the rest of the music.


9. Cheat with a lamb shank

Or you could put a shank of lamb in it, with some vegetables and cover it with water and you'll have fantastic meat, vegetables and a perfect stock for risotto.

ISTORI: Hmmm... that one is something difficult again. To have a stock sounds good, but I am not a risotto person.


10. Use a meat thermometer

The other thing I strongly recommend is a meat thermometer. My wife, Plaxy, was a bit sniffy about it to start with, but now she uses it, too, and it's just the most straightforward way to make sure your meat is perfect every time.

ISTORI: If I ever cook meat I promise I most certainly will do it with a meat thermometer. I just have not proceeded so far. If we found some organic-eco-lamb or reindeer somewhere the day might come.

Newspapers. Cruise and piggies. Real Life Scheherazade. (IStori's recommendations, part I)

Nadira Allieva, a certain Uzbek lap-dancer. (See The Guardian link, at the end.)



Newspapers in the web.

Nowadays my absolute favourite one is The Independent. Can't start the day without checking what's new.

Today there were two interesting stories – but these were not as serious as the main articles most often tend to be. (Recently on Pakistan, Darfour, Climate change, gobal poverty...) But interesting, anyway. The main article today was on Bush beginning the Middle East tour. I wonder if there are any security guards around?)

But back to these two interesting ones, of 7 Jan. Edit: Is Tom Cruise a prisoner in his own life? You can read this that way, too. Be aware, and be scared...

"Cruise is second most powerful Scientologist, Morton book claims
By David Langton
Published: 07 January 2008

Tom Cruise has been promoted to second in command of the Church of Scientology, according to an extraordinary new book by Princess Diana's biographer, Andrew Morton.

The Hollywood star is now allegedly consulted by Scientology leader David Miscavige on "every aspect of planning and policy", claims Morton.

The unauthorised Cruise biography makes a number of surprising claims about the actor and his growing interest in the movement.

Among the more outrageous are suggestions that his daughter, Suri, was conceived using frozen sperm from the movement's dead founder L Ron Hubbard and that Scientology leaders ended his marriage with Nicole Kidman because of her devotion to Catholicism.

Morton claims Scientology has all but taken over the 45-year-old actor's life, with its officials allegedly selecting many of the staff at his Hollywood mansion." ...

(Please see the article as a whole in here.)

*****

... And this one is equally interesting, and even far more important to the mankind (yes, really :-) than the first one!


"What are we eating?
Published: 07 January 2008

So you only eat free-range eggs, and spend the extra on organic sausages. But what's life really like for the animals that end up on your plate? And how can you be sure that the meat in your shopping bag is cruelty-free? Rob Sharp investigates.

Pigs

Many a poultry farmer will tell you that "a battery chicken's a happy chicken", a view based on their not altogether erroneous view that relatively unintelligent birds are well suited to intensive conditions.

The same argument can most definitely not be applied to pigs, though. As the most intelligent British farm animal, the porker is also the most abused, in order to satisfy our demand for cheap bacon.

'If we think of it in human terms, in the terms of intelligence that we value, pigs do have high levels of intelligence," says Julia Wrathall, head of the RSPCA Science Group's farm animals department. "They out-do dogs in many intelligence tests. To realise that a pig can be just as clever in the same way that dogs are is a very interesting thing.'" ...

Please see the article as a whole in here.)

*****

The rest of the top 5? Probably, at the moment, at least,

* Le monde diplomatique , and also IN FINNISH!

* The Guardian. Check out the story on Uzbek lap-dancer. Mamma mia. But a beautiful story on today's Real Life Scheherazade.

* Novaya Gazeta. Telling what's going on in Russia; 'nuff said.

* Kommersant. If you read Novaya, you must read this one, too.

*****

Suri Cruise (on the right) with Brooklyn Beckham. (The both of them look so much like their mothers, by the way.)

Greek salad again. Summer IS coming! Weekend in pictures.

We were five people from Finland and Russia who went to TN's island yesterday. An amazing place, truly.

It is located in front of Helsinki, or should I say between Helsinki and Tallinn. Surrounded by the Baltic Sea.

Lots of sailing boats around.


There were peaceful, big eiders nesting, with their big eggs they let us accidentally see.

Accidentally, because we came too close as we could not see them and then they rushed away – but came back to lie down soon after we were a bit further.

There is an eider nesting in this very pic, see? Under the tree, a bit to the left. If you can't see it, click this picture bigger.



TN's family dacha, with my shadow.


Greek salad again, like in a gloomy winter evening at HH's when we were mourning because of Anna, and wondering what is going on in Russia.

This time we did less mourning (too beautiful a day for that), but an equal amount of wondering.


Salad was made by NF again. HH brought lamb meat and home-made quacamole. I came with the falafels, and cheese pastries – not homemade!



And, wherever there are us, Finns, and Russians, there must be a...



...sauna! It was not this dark – it was not dark at all. It just seems so dark here because it's so hot!



Coming back home. There's some Nokia for you. The Nokia headquarters are the three buildings on the left, and next to it is the energy monster Fortum, and Kone somewhere in between. Horizon is a bit shaky, isn't it? That's because our boat was jumping over the wawes.


Home at last. And see, the summer of 2007 is here!

This beautiful tree is blooming on the opposite side of our house in the backyard.



******

About the stuff I was thinking about the other day:

* Must get to know more about the recent Matvienko case. Was there an attempt to assasinate her? And who are the lads now being locked up in jail? Are they being tortured? If so, there will soon be "confessions" and "testimonies" which prove... absolutely nothing.

* No, I am not jogging EXCUSE ME, running yet, But I will start day after tomorrrow. That's a promise. Tomorrow I will be working like a little ant. (Or a big ant. I am working daily, and during night time too!)

And I already told you summer has come. And yep, they did sack Wolfowitz, who will remain on the spot like a lame duck until 30 June. Yet getting rid of Wolfie proved that somewhere there still is some justice. Only that they should not have tipped him so generously, just for resigning.

Happy Easter! Pasha, blinys and 300.

Miss Funnybunny made that beautiful Easter birdie card, with her palm. Miss Funnybunny is at her grandparents' with Mr HP, and I miss them terribly. (But I could not go, had just too much to do. And I will be travelling soon, too, in London, and Milan...)

Pasha on the table was made by a friend and neighbour MT. Thanks! What a lovely Easter surprise.

The pumpkins around the pasha are marsmallows. Not self-made, no.

And yesterday I went downtown, to the Southern part of Helsinki, Ullanlinna.

LH and I celebrated Easter (a bit in advance), and ate blinys with caviar (roe, actually), mushrooms, onions, pickled cucumber (Russian style! the best in the world), smetana and honey. And drank Siberian beer.

*******

Easter is about dying. And yes yes, about resurrection, but I do not understand what that means. I have thought a lot about dying recently. Last year my friends and I lost some significant people, significant to us: friends, members of our families, people we wished we had known better.

But we all will die. Do I understand it? I am not sure, but I am perhaps getting closer to understanding that, since I get older and older. No healthy 25-year-old can really understand dying. But closer to 40's one starts thinking about health and good food and exercising and buying anti-wrinkle creams and all that horrible stuff the markets are cheating us with.

*******

To shake and stir the theological thoughts I went to see an excellent movie. Wow, that was something!

300.

It was so good. My friend VT and I had to choose out of many films: the newest Bond, Pan's Labyrinth (still would like to see that one), Goya's Ghosts (a new Milos Forman, can you believe that?) and Quelques jours en septembre (my being a huge fan of la Binoche).

Luckily there was a bunch of films I would never go and see, like The Queen (WHY on earth would anyone want to see a film about one of the most boring women on earth?????! And don't give me that crap about Helen Mirren being so good. Yes, she certainly is, but in Finland we get to watch Tennyson series on TV, and she is so good in there, too), Music And Lyrics (Usch.), and so on.

But 300 was so good.

Frank Miller is a genius. He is a wizard of graphic arts. He is a master of storytelling. It was so beautiful. It was pure, wonderful visual pleasure.

About the body count... You can start with 300. But the film was not just about war and killing. It was about the long threads of people. I am not interested in ancestors or family histories, but I am very interested in major historical turning points and the ugly start of our so-called civilisation.

300 is about intrigue and passion. About immortality that does exist on earth. About rough life so hard that dying is not scary but a gate to the free world. About moral stronger than the words of useless gods, and stronger than the words of the sinful and corrupt priests. About loyalty to the pricelessly valuable person by your side.

About stories larger than life.

(I must get a rental 300 DVD once it's out. Or actually, I may have to buy the film. Oh, what the h***. I will go and see it in a theater again.)

The BEST Finnish food. (Part II.) Mystery of a POW. Sexy Finn.

I have to admit, the Finnish food I like most is rye bread.

I tried to find a recipe in English in the net, but failed. All the recipes (in English) I found, had stupid fake ingredients, like white flour or eggs. Those really do not belong in the rye bread. Rye bread is just rye, old root of dough (NO yeast, either), water and salt. And it tastes incredibly good!

Did you know, that "Finns eat approximately 50 kg of bread per person every year. One third of that is rye bread." So claimed Vaasan Mylly bread company. I think I eat much more than that 16,666 kilos annually.

And most of the overweight, lazy candy-munching teenagers eat less. (I heard Britney Spears loves junk food and has been told to stop snacking, or else she will be a huge, fat ex-teen idol.) Rye bread keeps people healthy and slim.


All you Finnish expats, you can order you bread here. It must be explained to the non-Finnish-speaking foreigners, that according to the story, the "root" of the dough was brought to the company 80 years ago by a prisoner of war from Archangel.

So, the POW had been carrying the root of the dough all over Archangelsk oblast to the Finnish Lapland, or Carelia? Did he have it already with him when he joined the Soviet forces? How old was it back then? Hundred years? (I sense a good story here.)

This sexy Finn loves rye, too.

And his traditional Finnish knitwear is from where my ancestors came, from Alavus!

Enemies. Bad Finland. Food. (Part I)

An article that was published earlier in the New York Times, I think, has now appeared in the Observer of the Guardian. No wonder, as this is very interesting: "Who Is Killing Putin's Enemies?

Vladimir Putin has presided over a staggering economic boom in the six years since he took control of the Kremlin. Meanwhile, a dozen of his critics have been assassinated and the country's vast natural resources are in the pockets of a chosen few. (End of quote.)

Was quite touching to read about Anna Politkovskaya's last moments.

*******

Finland, Finland, Finland. I have been blogging so much about Russia lately, that I could say a few words about Finland for a change.

So. Three things I dislike in Finland:

I could say some serious things too, like racism, xenophobia, industry destroying the environment and wasting energy and producing a lot of trash and exploiting the third world countries, but I'll get back to those later. This list is much lighter now. But yet, these are the things I hate:

3) Finland hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. Why, of why did we have to win the bloody farce last spring? Bad and extremely boring music, expensive set up. Bad everything. (I was très heureuse with zero points.)


2) Ugly, uninviting and distasteful Finnish architecture. There is a lot of it, too much. Look at any centre of any little town in Finland. Driving through the whole Finland, from Helsinki to Sodankylä, Lapland (every June, to the Midnight Sun Film Festivals) makes me cry.

1) The Finnish food. Bad, tasteless, raw tomatoes and cucumbers (pickled cucumber with almost no vinegar and with lots of sugar = Swedish style. Sugary "Felix" pickled cucumbers are disgusting), watery, boiled potatoes, bad meat...

When Berlusconi said two years ago that the Finnish food is bad, quite a bunch of Finns got offended. Why? (I said immediately this is the first, and probably the only time, I hear any words of wisdom coming out of Berlusconi's mouth.) Should the Finnish food be good, there would not be so many pizzerias, kebab houses and hamburger-junk-food places around. Please, the Finnish cooks: learn how to demand good ingredients, and PLEASE learn to use spices. And not just in Helsinki, but elsewhere, too.

*******

Luckily Miss Funnybunny loves easy food. Easy to make, that is. I try to use a lot of organically grown vegetables, and never raw ones. I never put tomatoes into the fridge but let them rest by the window for a week or two before we eat them. And, in winter, sun-dried tomatoes or tomato sauces are more practical and tastier.

Because Miss Funnybunny's three-year-old friend at their nanny's is half Italian, my two-and-a-half-year-old Funnybunny speaks a (huge) bit of Italian, too! In the mornings, when she is to get her oatmeal, we often have the following discussion:

Mummy IStori: Here is your oatmeal, dear. Wait a second, I am just putting it onto the plate. There is Winnie the Pooh, see? No, the Mumin plate is not clean, sorry. Please, honey, don't come near the hot kettle. Put your legos away. NOW. No, I don't think your horsey would like this kind of food. Now...
Miss Funnybunny: I WANT to have latte, with my porridge! Latte, latte, latte!!!!!
IS: Ask nicely. But sure. (Pouring milk into her bowl.)
Miss F: And... Zucchero!
IS: Yes, sure. (Putting a tiny little bit of sugar onto the dish.)
Miss F: (Smiling like a winner.) And cannella!
IS: But of course! (Adding a puff of cinnamon onto Funnybunny's porridge.)

Then my happy and clever little daughter starts eating her oatmeal. She is proud of herself: she can speak, she knows how to ask for things - and how to be polite, even though that is easily forgotten - and she can eat without making a huge mess. (Just a little mess.)

And I am happy and proud, too.

Russia, my love!

Some people get confused when others like me pay so much attention to the undemocratic developments in Russia, critisizing the lack of human rights. Has been assumed that we, the watch dogs, are Russophobics, hostile people hating Russia.


But it is NOT so. I love Russia. (As do many of my politically demanding friends, too.) The best trips ever I have done to that bizarre, enigmatic and huge superpower. Some of my best foreign friends are of course Russians. And even in Estonia I love to dig into the visible and lively Russian culture, too.

This is my list of some of the best things in Russia:

5) The amazing history. It can been seen and felt everywhere, even in ultra-modern Moscow, when you scratch the surface. Old ruins and kremlins, like in Nizhnyi-Novgorod, old churches, palaces, stupendous Stalinka blocks of flats, monstrous but eye-catching Soviet-style monuments...

4) The food. When it is good, it's really good! (Be aware: lots of bad food available!)
Blinys. Borsch soup. Shchi soup. Cabbage pies. Pickeld cucumber. Pelmeniy. Mustard (Dijon-like). Ketchup. You did know, didn't you, that in Russia ketchup is the best in the world? My favourite restaurant in Helsinki is Russian, too. It's Restoran Kazak.

3) The people. The good, nice people. Guys who like to sing until early morning. With whom to enjoy the bridges being lifted. Discussing the meaning of life and drinking sparkling Ukranian wine in a cosy bar. In the kind of bar, where everybody claims she is an artist. Everybody. Old ladies taking care of the museums (and taking care of me). Grannies cleaning public toilets, day by day. Selling hand-made goods at market places. Cleaning tables at cafes, run by girls looking like super models. Witty Russians, never running out of captivating jokes and anecdotes:

An inspecting commission came to a lunatics asylum. To greet them, a choir of the patients sang a song from a popular movie that says "Oh, how good it is to live in the Soviet land!"
The commission noticed that one of the men did not sing.
"Why are you not singing?"
"I'm not crazy, I'm a nurse here."

A frightened man came to the KGB, saying "My talking parrot disappeared."
"This is not our case. Go to the criminal police."
"Excuse me. Of course I know that I have to go to them. I am here just to tell you officially that I disagree with that parrot."

2) The Russian music. My favourites: Rakhmaninov, Mussorgsky, at times even Shostakovich. Tchaikovsky; especially the violin concert and some operas, like Eugene Onegin, the opera I find the best opera in the world! The second best is the Queen of Spades.

1) More culture. Arts. The wonderful paintings in the Russian museum or Tretyakov gallery. Or Hermitage. Films, like the ones of Tarkovskiy. Literature. Master i Margarita, Doctor Zhivago (= my favourite), anything written by Dostoyevsky, poems of Akhmatova. Solzhenitsyn. Wonderful.
And Krokodil Gena , the best children's character ever, enjoy!

Pay attention: Trepashkin, Khodorkovsky and Koivunen. And, have GOOD food. Like meze.

It's been some time, and I know I have to give a Christmas update.

I will. And everything is fine. The only slightly negative detail is that Ms Funnybunny is having some weird and very visible rash on her face, and Mr HP and I think it is because of chocolate.

Or, too much of it.

Gee what a problem we have. Too much chocolate. Had I only known when I was a kid that, in the future I would have problems with too vast amounts of chocolate, I would have been the happiest girl in the world.

Actually, I think I am among the happiest!

But before my real Christmas update (COMING SOON!), please pay attention to these guys and their problems.

* Mikhail Trepashkin is the ex-KGB officer, currently a lawyer, but now in jail in Northern Russia, thanks to whom the world now knows it was the FSB (successor of KGB in Russia) who blew up the worker's homes in Moscow and St Pete. The bombings were told to be terrorist attack by the Chechens. Because of the scandal, resulting to the people's fear and anger, the Second Chechnyan war starter. What a game.

But Trepashkin is not well, he is suffering from bad health conditions in jail. According to the rumours, he might not survive the imprisonment. Several Finns have also sent an appeal the the EU leaders.

As is the case with


* Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the YUKOS CEO who is used as an example of an evil and ruthless oil oligarch in the "New Russia". Well. The guy certainly made big money out of the ex-Soviet state owned oil fields, no doubt, but yet; his trial was just showbusiness, the manuscript of which was put together by other oligarchs.

(If you hate my blunt anguage, just go on and use the brain of your own! I am cutting thing short here as I am not going to write huge essays about these two. There are many articles about these things in the net. Google, google, google.)

And things might soon get a lot worse.

Last but not least. Though, this is the easiest thing as she is not in prison ANY MORE:

* Kristiina Koivunen, a Finnish writer and journo was arrested in Turkey, and ASAP escorted by Turkish police to the airport, to the next plain back to Helsinki. Kristiina's crime? Beats me. Probably the same as usual in these cases: mentioning human rights, or lack of them, in South-Eastern Turkey, writing about the rich, lively and interesting Kurdish culture, inviting Kurdish friends of hers to Finland (and they usually tend to be either journalists or lawyers...)

Kristiina is looking forward to getting more information on her case, and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs is helping her with it.

What a pity that there are problems like this with Turkey. I know some very nice Turkish men and women, and of the Turkish culture I adore the excellent food!!!!! I love especially the eggplant stuff called Imam Bayildi, "Imam Fainted". And baclava! Let alone all those lovely garlic-tasting meze...


We had meze today, miss Funnybunny and I. But the only thing she liked was... now you will guess... rice.

But I loved all of them! Goodbye the Finnish Christmas food, like ham and sweet potato casserole, not to mention creamy rice porridge! I'm done.

The Great Unknown. Independence Day in Finland.

Look, there's a TANK outside!

On TV, the Finnish celebrities and politicians are being asked, every year on Dec 6, "what does the independence mean to you?"

Should I answer that, I'd say that given the current political situation on the other side of the Eastern border of our little but independent country, independence means duty to me.

We Finns have a duty to help to the oppressed. The ones to whom independence is yet a dream. We have to value peace, freedom of speech, and rule of law, and make a point in all international fora that others should value them too. (And I do not mean only Russia, but countries like Turkey or the USA, too.)

Independence in not just an achievement of wars fought in history. It is very much today, and it must be fought for again and again. Independence is a duty, and a tool.

If others can not speak up and fight for their rights, we have to.

Because we can.




When we Finns talk about "the Unknown", we are not necessarily interested in life after death or any other twilight zone mysteries. No, we discuss the book called "The Unknown Soldier", written by Väinö Linna, or the films based on the book, the best of which I am watching right know, directed by Edwin Laine.

It is a basic war story, but also like a thriller. The plot is simple: a bunch of guys, from various parts of Finland –– speaking in various funny dialects –– fight Russians, and die one by one.

But the atmosphere is so strong and the characters so well-built that I always admire its power and wisdom.

I would have missed the film, but luckily I read Sedis blog and was reminded, just before it started.



Imbi Paju was yesterday at Koko theater after Putin's Russia, the play. Imbi quoted Stalin, who used to say, "No people, no problem". How very practical indeed.

There was also Pirjo Honkasalo, who has directed a touching and many times awarded documentary The 3 Rooms of Melancholia. With these tough ladies, and a young male journalist VR, we discussed the mystery of Russia.

***

Miss Funnybunny and I were having halloumi cheese from Cyprus, bratwurst from Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany, and bad, tasteless Finnish potatoes for lunch. Cyprus was on our table because the Finnish Peace Keeping Forces were another theme of today.

No – dream on, there was halloumi because I like it.

And the bratwursts were because Odelius from Germany is in Finland now! Was good to see you, dear.