You – yes, YOU – Are Being Cheated. Nuclear Waste Dumping and Pirates.

You came from Facebook and look for a meme, "25 Things About Me"? It is the post before this one, so please keep scrolling downwards.

* * * * *


The world is full of lies. BIG ones, too.

Huge lies, created by governments and super powers. Let's take a look at some of the old ones before proceeding to the newest.



* The beginning of "the War to End All Wars", World War I, was based on a lie: an archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to throne of Austria-Hungary was assasinated with his wife in Sarajevo. And then Austria-Hungary declared a war on Russia, despite of the fact that is was the Serbian Military Intelligence who were behind the murder. And soon after the French mobilisation, Germany declared war on France. What, why? According to British historian Jonathan Glover all this escalating so far was based on intentinally false presumptions. Each one of the countries involved thought the others will lose, and that the war will be over quickly, and the war was very much wanted.

* The "War Against Terrorism" was based a big fat lie. Nuclear weapons in Iraq? (George W. was "disappointed" when none was found.) And who were behing the 9/11 attacs? I don't know about the mysterious conspiracy theories of the buildings being bombed from the inside, but the official explanation given by the Bush administration was based on a conspiracy theory par excellence: Al-quaida + Axis Of Evil + Afganistan + Pakistan + Osama bin-Laden...

* The Second War against Chechnya was based on a cruel lie: Putin used the bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and Ryazan as an excuse to start bombing Groznyi. Later a lot of evidence was found on the fact that the bombs were set by the Russian Security Service, FSB.

* Who killed Kennedy? Marilyn Monroe? Politkovskaya? Litvinenko? I don't know. (But what I do know is that Politkovskaya, Litvinenko and Kennedy did NOT commit a suicide.)

...and here is the newest example of the immoral ignorance I have heard in today's Europe and Africa:

Johann Hari, the Independent starts his excellent article with the following lines: "Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labelling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side."

And the beef in brief:

* The ugliest forces in the Western world are stealing the food supply on Somalia and dumping nuclear waste in their seas.

Mr Hari continuing: "Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply."

Please read the Hari's article as a whole in here (this link taking you into the Huffington Post site).. And thanks, dear TN, for noticing this.

What I am afraid of, is that soon someone is using the Somali pirates as an excuse of the war against Africa. Or are we there yet?


World War I recruiting poster.

Bloggers from the Other Side the Wall

Famous but anonymous artist "Banksy" drew on the Apartheid Wall.


Independent press, reporters, human rights activists, investigatiors and observers are not allowed by the Israeli administration to enter Gaza. The medical aid -- for the hundreds of injured or half-dead -- is given by too few professionals, lacking medicine and equipment.

Yet there are ways how we can dig into the news and reports spreading from the closed city. Bloggers among those.

These few contacts were distributed by Finnish peace activists. I have read them with great curiousity and sympathy, and I highly recommend you do the same.


Notes from Palestine
* Two bloggers representing MECA, the Middle East Children's Alliance + other contributors. Well-written, edited and most interesting.

"In my house we can't get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5 AM. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed.
There is no safe place we can go. We cannot communicate with our relatives and friends -- networks are down as missiles rain on our homes, mosques and even hospitals."


Moments of Gaza
* Several bloggers. Well-written and very interesting.

"What the Palestinians in Gaza are getting used to on a daily basis are things like these:
...the smell of gunpowder in the air
...the sound of ambulances here and there
...the sound of fighter jets and helicopters in the sky
...the trembling, terrorizing sound of bombs far and near
...the sounds of baby cries
...the the news of people dead, injured, lost or homeless
This is what we're getting on a daiy, but even hourly basis...for the past 2 weeks. To me, this is not life. This is death in the making."


Sabbah's Blog
* Shocking photos, be aware! But also live-feed, accurate figures and news footage.

"If such a massive genocide of a trapped civilian population by air, sea, and land was committed by any other nation the world would launch a massive investigation into this crime against humanity and hold the leaders of such a nation accountable in the International Court of Justice. In a just world Israel would be charged with crimes against humanity as was Serbia and Rwanda."


Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot
* Tear down this wall!

"This blog is written by 2 friends. One lives in Sajaia refugee camp in Gaza and the other lives in Sderot, a small town near Gaza on the Israeli side. -- Many have been killed and many have been injured. The media coverage on both sides has been extremely biased. Our Blog is written by 2 real people living and communicating on both sides of the border."
"We have said from the beginning that violence will bring more violence.
I hope the world will understand that’s there people want to live safe with dignity and peace. I hope I will have the chance to write you again."


From Gaza, with Love
* Heartbreaking agony. Must be sincere, but yet it's more then a bit unclear at times. Worth reading, still.

"Women, health, children and human rights in Occupied Palestine. A blog by Dr. Mona El-Farra."

***


This wall was supposed to stay there for couple of hundreds of years! At least! But strange things happen if the world just decides to change for good. (Or some millions of Berliners just want to be living together inhabiting the same soil, instead of being half-neighbours.) And this wall has its foundations in the aftermath of the WWII, too.

In the Heart Of Darkness

A good friend said the other day he does not like the saying "one gets what one deserves", especially when brutal, unfair violence is sort of accepted with this saying: A husband killing his wife becauce "the bitch deserved it", or others saying "she deserved it because she did not leave him". A kid being tortured because she deserved it - she must pay for the sins of earlier generations, or maybe she was born in the wrong culture, and so on.

So many people get totally what they do not deserve: they are suffering from violence, torture, just anything a human being can imagine and even worse.



And we, in the rich Europe, get a lot of what we certainly are not worth of. "Goods", as they are called, even when they do good for no-one, or "products". Whatever you call the well-designed jars and boxes, filled with something that will soon be crap anyway.

These gloomy thoughts took over my mind as I am now under this weekend working at the stupidest fair I have ever been in. Anyone with a bit of sanity would become crazy here. This is all about women's "products for good life".

Cheating and crap, I say. Like over-priced cosmetics; "natural vitamins" (but get them from food and all of them are "natural"), "energy" or "balanced" treatments that promise much but most likely do not deliver (except money for the salesmen); memberships for gyms, the shortest term to get committed to being a year (now that is a clever business con. They sell memberships for lazy but hopeful and easily agitated people, and they can sell much more than actually would ever fit into their fitness dumps). And so on. Get the ugly picture.

I am here with The Books, of course. And I wish I was at home, playing with Funnybunny (who is briefly visiting her grandparents, and that's a really good thing, anyway).

* * * * *

A couple of days before I came across this mind-blowing piece in the Independent:

The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again – and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a "tribal conflict" in "the Heart of Darkness". It isn't. The United Nations investigation found it was a war led by "armies of business" to seize the metals that make our 21st-century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you.

So, is it because You are worth it? Read Johann Hari's article How We Fuel Africa's Bloodiest War and make up your mind.¨


The Congo River, the flow of which is the biggest after Amazon.


Please find more about the exciting rainforests and peoples - like Pygmies - of Congo here.

Vienna Report, part IV: KZ Mauthausen (Concentration Camp)

These pictures tell more than thousand words, so I comment on (some of) wthem only briefly. Please see the official pages of Gusen /Mauthausen, too. These are quite informative pages, too.

We took a train from Vienna to a small village of St. Valentin, in the district of Amstetten in Lower Austria. We had lunch in a beautiful little beergarten of a hotel near the railwaystation, and took a taxi from there to Mauthausen. The distance being too long for a stroll.

The weather was hot (for us Finns, especially): +32 C, in sunshine almost unbearable. Mr HP and I kept giving Miss Funnybunny water, but we did not complain. For the prisoners it was unbearable constantly.

The camp is on the hill in the middle of a beautiful landscape and Autsian villages. Only 20 km from Linz, and near Vienna as well. The Donau valley begins from around here.


In these barracks there are now museums and exhibitions.


"Steinbruch and Todestiege". The rocks used by Speer for the Congress Hall in Nuremberg (Nürnberg) came from here. (See IStori post of Oct 2007.)






Between the memorial monument and the farmhouse in distance there lies the quarry, and behind it, the river Donau is flowing towards Vienna. The "Todestige", "Steps Of Death" lied up from the quarry. Many prisoners died on the steps carrying the rocks.






These look scary, don't they? But people have right to live next to a concentration camp.


Linz. Hitler's favourite town. Very industrialised nowadays. In the middle of it there was a spectacular cathedral, and we heard there is an Old Town, too, but we did not have time to visit it.

"As a simple monk..."

His Holiness Dalai Lama has a very good website of his own on www.dalailama.com. On 28 March he appealed to the Chinese for stopping the violence in Tibet. But before jumping to it I'd like to make a point of him writing on how to achieve nothing more or less than the World Peace.

He is reminding the mankind we should take responsibility. In the beginning of his essay about Peace, "A Human Approach" he is wondering what has gone wrong – and just telling the scientific concept is not doing much good in this field (either):

Science and technology have worked wonders in many fields, but the basic human problems remain. There is unprecedented literacy, yet this universal education does not seem to have fostered goodness, but only mental restlessness and discontent instead. There is no doubt about the increase in our material progress and technology, but somehow this is not sufficient as we have not yet succeeded in bringing about peace and happiness or in overcoming suffering.

* * * * *
An Appeal to the Chinese People (28 March, 2008)

Today, I extend heartfelt greetings to my Chinese brothers and sisters around the world, particularly to those in the People’s Republic of China. In the light of the recent developments in Tibet, I would like to share with you my thoughts concerning relations between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples, and make a personal appeal to all of you.

I am deeply saddened by the loss of life in the recent tragic events in Tibet. I am aware that some Chinese have also died. I feel for the victims and their families and pray for them. The recent unrest has clearly demonstrated the gravity of the situation in Tibet and the urgent need to seek a peaceful and mutually beneficial solution through dialogue. Even at this juncture I have expressed my willingness to the Chinese authorities to work together to bring about peace and stability.

Chinese brothers and sisters, I assure you I have no desire to seek Tibet’s separation. Nor do I have any wish to drive a wedge between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples. On the contrary my commitment has always been to find a genuine solution to the problem of Tibet that ensures the long-term interests of both Chinese and Tibetans. My primary concern, as I have repeated time and again, is to ensure the survival of the Tibetan people’s distinctive culture, language and identity. As a simple monk who strives to live his daily life according to Buddhist precepts, I assure you of the sincerity of my personal motivation.

-- [Then His Holiness wrote about China conquering Tibet, and the recent history of the exile of the Tibetan people.]

This year, the Chinese people are proudly and eagerly awaiting the opening of the Olympic Games. I have, from the start, supported Beijing’s being awarded the opportunity to host the Games. My position remains unchanged. China has the world’s largest population, a long history and an extremely rich civilization. Today, due to her impressive economic progress, she is emerging as a great power. This is certainly to be welcomed. But China also needs to earn the respect and esteem of the global community through the establishment of an open and harmonious society based on the principles of transparency, freedom, and the rule of law. For example, to this day victims of the Tiananmen Square tragedy that adversely affected the lives of so many Chinese citizens have received neither just redress nor any official response. Similarly, when thousands of ordinary Chinese in rural areas suffer injustice at the hands of exploitative and corrupt local officials, their legitimate complaints are either ignored or met with aggression. I express these concerns both as a fellow human being and as someone who is prepared to consider himself a member of the large family that is the People’s Republic of China. In this respect, I appreciate and support President Hu Jintao’s policy of creating a “harmonious society”, but this can only arise on the basis of mutual trust and an atmosphere of freedom, including freedom of speech and the rule of law. I strongly believe that if these values are embraced, many important problems relating to minority nationalities can be resolved, such as the issue of Tibet, as well as Eastern Turkistan, and Inner Mongolia, where the native people now constitute only 20% of a total population of 24 million.
--
Chinese brothers and sisters – wherever you may be – with deep concern I appeal to you to help dispel the misunderstandings between our two communities. Moreover, I appeal to you to help us find a peaceful, lasting solution to the problem of Tibet through dialogue in the spirit of understanding and accommodation.

With my prayers,

The Dalai Lama

* * * * *

Please see the website of His Holiness and read more of his texts. You want some mind-training? Excellent, please try here. He is also webcasting, here.

* * * *

The following link is to the website of Tibet Foundation, www.tibet-foundation.org. You can also provide the Tibetan children with school meals through this site.

Freeze!

All of these people here are part of the demo. Life outside them is moving on, but they are out of it for five minutes.


On Thursday, 19 March, there was a new kind of demonstration in the centre of Helsinki. New to us, at least. People "froze", stood completely still in various positions, by Mannerheimintie, in a very busy spot, but so loosely others not being part of this work of art were able to walk by and between the frozen men, women and kids.

See the video I shot:



* * *

Two journalists from Dagestan have been killed, with extreme violence, torture. Both were famous correspondents, specialised in Caucasus.

Tension is escalating in Nizhny Novgorod. Human rights activists there are afraid there will be some kind of a juridical show, putting them as examples for the rest of the country: "See, if you raise your voice you'll be put to the camp, too".

This does not look good.

"The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn"

The Romans conquered Britain, too.


Recently I have

a) been writing like a dog (but I'm not sure if they write. Have never had any. Hopefully they do, and a lot, because otherwise this saying is not at all correct). And also I have

b) tried to cope with Miss Funnybunny's tantrums. She has a strong will, and if Mr HP or I, either one of us is away or even absent-minded, for a longer period of time ("longer period" = one evening), she really seems upset and demanding! But this is what raising a kid is about, I know, I know... I should add I have

c) heard pretty incredible but unfortunately true stories from Russia, and I will update them by posting some of them here, too. Did you know this Medvedev is as bad as Putin, or even worse? So it really seems. But I'll get back to this. And, as usual,

d) visited amazing places in Helsinki (= will tell you more about this, too). Do not miss the fact that I have

e) planned my new trips, bought plane tickets, etc: London in April, Oslo in May, Vienna in June and Frankfurt in October. At least these. This list must include the fact that I have

f) visited Tallinn very briefly. Next time I have to stay there at least for two days and stay overnight, of course. Just because that town is so nice and interesting. The more you see, the more you want to discover. And, soon I will

g) go to a publishing party of a book written by two friends of mine. The book is a quiz on Ice Hockey. The National season is about to end soon, and the Hockey World Cup games will take place in May in Canada. Exciting.

But all the above were just excuses for not having updated this for a week. The text below is the real topic of today's blog post:

Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a "hell-disaster".

But we have used these parallels before and they have drifted away in the Tigris breeze. Iraq is swamped in blood. Yet what is the state of our remorse? Why, we will have a public inquiry – but not yet! If only inadequacy was our only sin.

Today, we are engaged in a fruitless debate. What went wrong? How did the people – the senatus populusque Romanus of our modern world – not rise up in rebellion when told the lies about weapons of mass destruction, about Saddam's links with Osama bin Laden and 11 September? How did we let it happen? And how come we didn't plan for the aftermath of war?

***

Well, well. I hope Mr Fisk (='fish' in Swedish, by the way) understands I tried to speak up and did not think for a moment the war would solve anything. And I was not against the deadly plot (cooked up by Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, etc - Blair?) alone, there were zillions of people marching against the predicted war in several countries.

As a matter of fact, I happened to be protesting in London, too, at the time of the book fair, when the Parliament was making a decision on joining the attack, and thousands of people were shouting and demonstrating outside Whitehall.

As a counteract "against terrorism" war is the most stupid method. As if killing thousands of people – most of whom are civilians – would do any good. Like, to show an example? No way.

See the Body Count.

PLEASE DO read the rest of the article here, on the Independent web site.

Cast a vote. Leg men, be aware.

Like many of her fellow contestants she says her dream job is any job.


The web voting for Miss Landmine Angola is open until April 3, 2008.

I couldn't help feeling slightly uncomfortable with this at first. Raising awareness and questioning old concepts is great - but organising a beauty contest; is that a new concept? Even if the pageants are far from mainstream beauty queens. Of course I think ladies can be beautiful even without a leg or two. But it does not lead to the conclusion that ladies – in general, anywhere – should be beautiful.

On the website they say this campaign is to

* Question established concepts of physical perfection.
* Challenge old and ingrown concepts of cultural cooperation.
* Celebrate true beauty.
* Replace the passive term 'Victim' with the active term 'Survivor'.
Among other things. There you can also find quite a lot of information on landmines and campaigns against them.

Ok, fine. Go, girls, go!

(I got the hint from Ajatusten Rekolanoja. Thanks!)

Warsaw, part 1

So, mr HP and I visited Warsaw two weeks ago, with a god bunch of publishing editors but so far I haven't had a chance to update my blog, with photos.

Stalin's unwanted gift to the Polish, the Palace of Culture and Science, made an impression. To most of us, I dre to believe. (But our Polish guide hated it!)

Visiting the erection, or just walking round and round it, is a must. But mind that it is so big that even walking around it is more than a kilometer.

You can see it, whereever you are in Warsaw. A fact some locals do not appreciate, however.


This is the cafe at the main entrance inside the Palais. A good cafe, by the way. They served good and cheap meals, too. But did not advertise them at all. We just begged them to sell some food which was not like cakes or peanuts. And the lifts up, to the terrace are here. Remember to buy the ticket first here, downstairs. Otherwise you will be told to get back without seeing a thing. (Was tested.)


Oh, the ghetto... It was huge. And what's left? Almost nothing. Only part of one street, Chlodna, and the Umschlagsplatz where the trains were "loaded" with the "cargo". The trains heading to Treblinka.


This monument is dedicated to the ghetto victims and heroes.


This is the monument of the heroes of Warsaw Uprising, in 1944.


And one of the most interesting museums I have visited for a long time (except the one one we went into in Nuremberg): the Warsaw Rising Museum. This is a play room for kids, can you imagine. They can build little cardboard tanks, for example.

Why Flee Russia. The Cold War, part II

Like I blogged yesterday evening, the Cold War is alive and well.



Quoting writer and journalist Yelena Tregubova, in the today's Independent:

He [Putin] has threatened to aim Russian missiles at targets in Europe once again, just like in the Cold War, and has warned of a nuclear arms race. It is now clear that the escalation of aggression by Kremlin is the direct result of the policy of appeasement pursued by Western leaders who, during the seven years of Putin's rule, have turned a blind eye to his lynching of the opposition, the press, NGOs and all democratic institutions in Russia.

There has been no single example in history of a dictator who, sooner or later, did not become a danger to both his close and distant neighbours.

*****

The story as a whole in here.

*****

Southern Finland from space. You can also see a bit of Sweden in the West, (Northern) Estonia in the South, and the Russian waters and shore in the Eastern end of the Gulf of Finland.

"Of course we are returning to those times."

The Cold War is back.

According to the Guardian, President Vladimir Putin has just said he wants to threaten Europe with nuclear missiles, if the US missile base is being set in Czechia.

Whoaa. I have been thinking about the Cold War starting again. Ever since I wrote that The Games Have Begun Again.

But this is getting so strange, and much worse. "Of course we are returning to those times", Putin had affirmed. Of course.




************

The Guardian, by Luke Harding

President Vladimir Putin yesterday declared that a new arms race and cold war with the west had begun and announced that Russia would retaliate against US missile defence plans in Europe by pointing its missiles at European cities.

In a hawkish speech that sets the stage for a frosty G8 summit this week, Mr Putin launched an extraordinary broadside at the west over missile defence, Kosovo and democratic standards.

Mr Putin will meet George Bush, Tony Blair and other world leaders on Wednesday in the German resort of Heiligendamm for their annual meeting. In an interview released last night he made his most strident attack yet on western power.

(The whole article here.)

Europe's leading writers' call to action. Don't celebrate "the impotent nullities". Stop massacres and don't betray our civilisation.

In today's Independent there is a very touching and exceptionally clever appeal for preventing the massacres in Darfur. (See the end of this post.)

Not only do I find this so brilliant because of the signing writers - the books of whom I have read with adoration and respect - but also because they have so definite and real suggestions: Forbid them (the reps of the Sudanese regime) our shores, our health service and our luxury goods. Freeze their assets in our banks and move immediately to involve other concerned countries.

But does the Europe want to stop the massacre? The literary masters won't let the European leaders escape by letting them hide behind the economical facts or bureaucracy. They are demanding Europe to become a civilised cultural area again, respecting the values on which the European Community was originally established: It (the European tradition) is an inherited culture which sustains our shared belief in the value and dignity of the human being.

Dear Umberto Eco,

IStori has been a great fan of yours for years. For decades. Unlike most people, who seem to like "The Name Of the Rose" best, the book that made me hold my breath was "Foucault's Pendulum": a brilliant story about crimes in the past and (even) in the future, about crimes which may not have happened after all, and also about how people can do amazingly cruel and merciless things, only because they believe in dangerous systems build up, eventually, by themselves.

And thinking the destructive theories invented by themselves are somehow divine truths.

Please Mr Eco, keep up the good fighting! (And, add Chechnya and Russia on your list.)

I will send the following to our President, Ms Tarja Halonen, and Prime Minister, Mr Matti Vanhanen. (Not that I doubt they wouldn't already have been sent the letter.)

Hopefully some Estonian brothers and sisters will send this to President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, and the Swedes to Victoria, or whoever is the biggest leader there, and so on...

*******

Darfur: a letter from Europe's leading writers
On the fiftieth anniversary of the EU, a call to action
Published: 24 March 2007

To the leaders of the 27 nations of the EU

How dare we Europeans celebrate this weekend while on a continent some few miles south of us the most defenceless, dispossessed and weak are murdered in Sudan?

Has the European Union - born of atrocity to unite against further atrocity - no word to utter, no principle to act on, no action to take, in order to prevent these massacres in Darfur? Is the cowardliness over Srebrenica to be repeated? If so, what do we celebrate?

The thin skin of our political join?

The futile posturings of our political class?

The impotent nullities of our bureaucracies?

The Europe which allowed Auschwitz and failed in Bosnia must not tolerate the murder in Darfur. Europe is more than a network of the political classes, more than a first world economic club and a bureaucratic excrescence. It is an inherited culture which sustains our shared belief in the value and dignity of the human being. In the name of that common culture and those shared values, we call upon the 27 leaders to impose immediately the most stringent sanctions upon the leaders of the Sudanese regime.

Forbid them our shores, our health service and our luxury goods. Freeze their assets in our banks and move immediately to involve other concerned countries.

We must not once again betray our European civilization by watching and waiting while another civilization in Africa is destroyed.

Let this action be our gift to ourselves and our proof of ourselves. And when it is done, then let us celebrate together with pride.

Umberto Eco
Dario Fo
Günter Grass
Jürgen Habermas
Václav Havel
Seamus Heaney
Bernard Henri-Levy
Harold Pinter
Franca Rame
Tom Stoppard

Good, was it? Make 2007 a better one.

I have challenged some of you. Please tell me

- How was it, in 2006? (Locally, globally, whatever.)
- 2007: What do you think YOU should do better? Or, what should be done? (... to make this a better world. Whatever.)

Big questions, I know. But I am trying to scratch the surface here.




Before I start thinking of good deeds and promises, I list some major things of this year. (Soon to be last year.)

And before I list anything, I have to add that I think that politically, and judging the general atmosphere (in Finland, too) intellectually, and even environmentally, this year has been a bad one. Sorry to say.

Very negative stuff:

1) Unfair political systems. Lack of human rights.
- Murders of Politkovskaya and Litvinenko. Several wars; Darfur, Somalia, Chechnya, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine... to begin with.
- Saddam executed without a proper trial. Bad example. But I guess the war in Iraq has had very little to do with justice, and this equals to the both sides.
- Materazzi making Zidane crazy; the both of them ruing the final.

2) Environmental hazards. Global warming. Black "winter" in most of Finland. Total waste of energy, electricity, oil, and any kind of valuable global resources.

3) Poverty. Poor becoming poorer. Seems to be a trend.


But now the good things in 2006, and these are very private:

1) Miss Funnybunny and the rest of my loved ones. You never fail.


2) Professionally this has been the time of major changes, for the better. I have liked these changes a lot. (But as this is not a work diary I will end this discussion here.)

3) I have had time for the things I like during my leasure time: have been watching football (soccer) in Finland and in Germany, riding (horseback), travelled in Iceland (is was also business trip, though) and in Estonia (total freedom!). Let alone Prague.

4) Have got new friends. (At times I don't realise how this is even possible, at least in Helsinki: I feel I already know more or less of everybody, and the ones to become friends with me already are. But NOOOOO, there are so many wonderful new people to meet! And this year has been a success again.)

5) Hard times have connected people.

*********

And now to the New Year. What to do better in 2007? IStori's heavy list:

1) Be good to yourself. Get enough sleep. Read good books. Avoid TV. Go out, walk and run. Eat well. Mostly organically produced and vegetarian. Those are far better for you and the environment, compaired to the meat and milk of greatly suffering animals and veggies with pesticides. If you are short of money, you do tend to eat much better and cheaper, too, if you make your own food instead of buing junk food. Listen to good music, like this kind of jazz. Best there has ever been.

2) Be good to others. This is a huge thing to do. I'll try to figure out what it means. But for me the first step is that day by day I try to spend more time with miss Funnybunny. (And, day by day she is getting older, cleverer and funnier!)

3) Demand good things. Speak publicly for human rights, equality, end of environmental destruction, or peace (and if you are a politician, do more then just speaking). Say no to idiotic stuff like wars, attacks, invasions. They are never for good. They are for cheaper oil, gas pipes or liberated drug business. Do not vote for idiots. Use your brain.



(Basically, what I am saying is that stop whining and kick ass.)

And finally, let me make your day and include here a Helsinki clip I dedicate to those of you who

a) live elsewhere, or are somewhere travelling, and to
b) all of us who miss snow.

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.

Valuable reminders

It is not often that I get to meet someone who starts a sentence by saying: "when I met doctor Joseph Mengele..."

Mr. Arnost Lustig met Mengele when he was put into a long queue with others, who were taken out of the train onto the platform, at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Lustig was 17 then, and Mengele showed by a quick movement of his thumb, that he can proceed to the shorter queue on the right. Nine out of ten people were told to move to the left. These people went directly to the gas chambers.

On the next day, one of the people directed to the line on the left was father of Mr. Lustig. The basic reason for dostor's immediate decision and Lustig senior's death sentence was that he had glasses.

Very sympathetic, intelligent and charismatic Lustig visited Finland (Helsinki, and Turku bookfair) last week, as his wonderful book came out. It is a story about a young woman, Katarzyna Horowitzova, who is getting closer and closer to "the ultimate solution".

But really, it is a story about losing everything – but gaining dignity.

For a prisoner, to have dignity in Auschwitz, sounds impossible.

Sorry to be this vague about the plot, but I do not want to go into detail now, as it is something one is able to and should read herself.

I think one the most important things Mr. Lustig said, was that "Auschwitz is not over, it is happening again".

Think about that. It might not be happening is such a systematic and horribly effective scale as was the case in the Nazist Germany, but the refugee camps and torture chambers in the war zones of today certainly do have resemblance with the concentration camps of the last century. (A very good site: www.refugeesinternational.org/section/where/)

Some stories have happy ends. Mr. Lustig has children (his nice son was with him in Finland) and grandchildren. Even though he said Auschwitz will be part of him forever, on his skin and in his mind, he doesn't seem to be bitter or depressed. Good.

Thank you for writing the excellent book.


*****

The picture above is Frankfurt in 1945. That's where we are leaving for, on Wednesday. Last summer I went to the excellent Jewish museum, and now I want to visit that again, as I want to show that to Mr. HP, too.

We will meet a good bunch of friends in Frankfurt, at the biggest bookfair in the world. I am so much looking forward to that! But after the fair, I have to take a deep breath and carefully start planning my schedule for the rest of the year, and next year.

My full-time job will change dramatically, soon...

Good heavens! "Wrong over Lebanon".

So, it is late now for the deceased. The injured or homeless are not too happy, either.

And, it was so sad to see, that even in Finland there were quite a number of people who seemed to be implying recent air strikes and missiles were for peace. (War is NEVER for peace, for cyring out loud.)

I still hope the Independent is doing a campaign for more rightful international politics, and not just campaigning against Blair. (Not so sure about his successor, either, whoever that will be. But I am not such a big fan of Blair's either.)

The Independent is here: www.independent.co.uk.

Parade and "development"

Helsinki ASEM meeting ended. The press release of the hosting Finnish government stated that

"The Heads of State or Government adopted two declarations at the summit. The aim of the Declaration on Climate Change is to add momentum to efforts to reach agreement in international climate negotiations. It supports the objectives of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and other measures to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere."

IS: Seems fantastic. Something very blunt and real. But I doubt wether that will be enough, in order to prevent the Climate change from happening, or the Carbon dioxide emissions from increasing. But I am happy you at least recognised the problem, PAT PAT PAT [I'm patting the heads of the Heads of State or Government]. Let's read further:

"In the other declaration, the Helsinki Declaration on the Future of ASEM, the leaders set the guidelines for future ASEM cooperation. It also contains recommendations for practical measures for the development of cooperation."

IS: "Contains RECOMMENDATIONS for practical measures for the DEVELOPMENT of COOPERATION!" Congratulations! The annual How-to-write-stuff-that-seems-important-but does-not-say-anything-but-just-crap Award has just found its home. But please, enlighten us:

"The summit agenda covered other important European and Asian affairs, too. The leaders discussed, for example, ways to prevent terrorism and organised crime and to prepare for global health risks. The meeting reconfirmed its support for the fair, UN-based international system."

IS: Blah blah blah. So good that you discussed. (Don't have time to do any harm then.) BUT, the UN will be back, won't it? Or is just that you could not support USA or NATO directly, because soem non-European representatives were present? Perhaps our minister of Foreign affairs, Erkki Tuomioja, had something (good) to do with that part of this statement. (I like that man, I must confess. See the blog of his: www.tuomioja.org. Summary in English included.)


"The leaders also discussed the state of the WTO talks. The ASEM countries underlined that the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) must be complemented and supported to allow the negotiations to resume."

IS: This is interesting. Now we just have to find out what the DDA is. This is what Wikipedia says:

"The Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization negotiations aims to lower trade barriers around the world, permitting free trade between countries of varying prosperity. Talks have been hung up over a divide between the European Union and the United States and the major developing countries (represented by the G20 developing nations), led and represented mainly, however, by the G4 bloc."

IS: BUT there could be something in here! The vastly expensive parade was not just for nothing. Please prove me right.

The press release as whole: www.valtioneuvosto.fi/ajankohtaista/tiedotteet/tiedote/en.jsp?oid=167537


Ps: The second picture is "Helsinki By Night" from our bedroom window. The TV picture is about the show stopper of tonight: PSV Eindhoven - Liverpool. (Listen. You never walk alone!)

Old garden and apples. Beslan.

At the old house of my late grandparents there are apples and plums. A lot of them. Miss Funnybunny enjoyd her day in the countryside. The day was as beautiful as it can be.

When I was nine I wrote a poem about this place. It is describing a dream, sort of:

In Moonlight

I walk in the garden, in moonlight
When I awas five, it was mine
my old playground, I remember it all
this is where ran with my ball

I would give anything
to get back again.

(the same in Finnish:)
Kuutamossa

Kuljen yksin kuutamossa
näen vanhan leikkipaikan jossa
viisivuotiaana leikin, pihapuutarhaan palloni heitin

Vaikka mitä antaisin
jos pääsisin mä takaisin.



This is a sad poem, but sometimes even little kids think they are getting old and the days of happy childhood will be left behind forever. The saddest point being that they are right.

But the kids who were at the school #1 Sept 1.-3. 2004 in Beslan have grown up too fast -- the ones that survived. And I so much wish there is something we can do to make their lives better, for the sake of less violence and terrorism in the future.

Overview of Beslan catastrophy with portraits of survivors. And hope:
www.beslanhope.org