Finland's Ovi

Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa have found nearly 50 buildings which could serve as accommodation for the long-term homeless.

If all of the plans are carried out, more than 2,000 new “support apartments” and treatment spots could be set up for the homeless in the Helsinki region.

The aim is to set up at least 1,000 of them by 2011.

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FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations ) says that a obvious cause of the high housing costs is that housing production and housing policy are basically dependent on the market. The share of social rental housing is small, only some 15 per cent of the housing stock. Contrary to many other sectors of the welfare society, housing provision mainly relies on the free market. Single persons in particular encounter difficulties in finding reasonably priced rental dwellings.

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Nearly 30 possible locations were found in Helsinki with more than 1,600 apartments or treatment spaces.

This spring, authorities will pick which of the locations are to be developed further.
Finland has thousands of people without a fixed abode. Of them, 2,500 live in the Helsinki region.

The effort among the cities in the Greater Helsinki region to find special housing is part of a programme launched by Minister of Housing Jan Vapaavuori (Nat. Coalition Party) to reduce long-term homelessness.

Cutting the homelessness rate in half by 2011 would require 1,250 units of support housing and treatment, at an estimated costs of more than EUR 200 million.

The state plans to spend a lot of money on the project in the next four years, and the cities are expected to pay an equal amount.

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Article on Environment.fi says that a separate programme designed to reduce homelessness in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area was finalised in 2002 for the period 2002-2005, involving the construction and acquisition of four thousand homes a year and measures to ensure the provision of the necessary housing services and support.

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Also this week Nokia further mapped out the plans for Ovi. Ovie, meaning ‘door’ in Finnish. It started as a service to provide navigation, music, and games through a WAP portal on mobile devices.

Going forward, Ovi deliver an integrated experience to users by providing easily access to all their content; social networks, synchronised contact lists through a dashboard from mobiles, PC, and web. The goal is to provide a common user interface that provides consistency and simplicity. These services will be available through 2008 and no specific dates are available yet. This is further clarifies Nokia’s intention to compete with Apple and possibly others, who are seeking to be the comsumer’s default personal information and entertainment portal.

The implications from Nokia’s success can be significant, today Nokia has approxmately 1 billion customers. This can create a significant barrier for others to cross. Nokia is talking about partnering with operators and OEMS to deliver the proposition of Ovi. Nokia certianly has the global reach and financial backing to make this a success story and take market leadership.

Finland’s struggles as a bilingual country can hardly be compared to those in Belgium or Canada, but the tiny Swedish-speaking minority is nonetheless concerned the country’s second official language is at risk.

“Finland tries to teach everyone a lesson about morality but minorities in China are treated better,” blasted Juhan Janhunen, an expert on Asian languages, comparing one of the most egalitarian countries in the world to the Communist regime.

Janhunen is a member of an umbrella lobby group, The Swedish-speaking Association of Finland, that travelled from Helsinki to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on November 22nd to denounce “Finland’s attempts at Finlandization.”

Finnish and Swedish, which are not related, have been Finland’s two official languages since 1922.

Finnish speakers represent 92 percent of the country’s 5.3 million inhabitants, compared to just 5.6 percent Swedish speakers. Almost all Swedish speakers are bilingual, while up to 40 percent of Finnish speakers more or less understand Swedish.

Swedish speakers in Finland, which was ruled by neighbouring Sweden from 1150 to 1809, retain considerable influence in society — almost every coalition government in modern times has included ministers from the Swedish-speaking Liberal Party.

Three of the country’s presidents have been native Swedish speakers, though the current head of state, Tarja Halonen, speaks it decently but not perfectly.

But the Swedish language’s heyday seems to be over.

The share of Swedish speakers has dropped by a third since 1880, when they represented about 15 percent of the population.

The fall is attributed to many Swedish speakers moving to Sweden, while the emigration of Finnish-speaking Finns to Sweden and the United States had faded by 1900.

Since Swedish holds official language status, bilingual signs are everywhere and almost all government documents must be published in both languages, though the Swedish translation is not always immediately available.

But most speakers say they need Finnish to get by in their daily lives as Swedish has increasingly lost ground.

Elderly Swedish speakers have difficulty getting health care in their mother tongue, public television has cancelled some of its Swedish-language programming and the once-mandatory Swedish language exam for university studies was abolished in 2005.

And as a result of budgetary cutbacks, Swedish-speaking police stations, courts and municipal offices will in the coming years be integrated into Finnish entities.

“It’s scandalous! We don’t even know who was here first, the Swedes or the Finns,” thunders a judge, Charles Lindroos, whose court is due to close.

Heikki Tala, the head of the Association for Finnish Culture and Identity, doesn’t see a problem.

“Swedish speakers enjoy privileges like no other linguistic minority in the world,” he said.

“The 500,000 Finns in Sweden have no rights,” he pointed out.

Contrary to Canada or Belgium, where certain regions are defined by their languages, Finland’s Swedish speakers are spread out across the country, with the exception of the autonomous Åland archipelago whose sole official language is Swedish.

Sonia Parayre, an expert at the Council of Europe tasked with monitoring the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, said Swedish speakers were right to be concerned but noted that Finnish language legislation was among “the most protectionist” in Europe.

“The message to authorities is: okay you have reforms underway, but beware, you have to respect a number of rules on language rights,” she said.

In 2005, Finnish-language author Arto Paasilinna, who wrote The Year of the Hare, told Kaleva magazine he believed “the question will be resolved naturally. The Swedish speakers will die off, taking their language with them.”

AFP’s Gael Branchereau

Considering the size of its population Finland has an exceptionally firm foothold in the world’s computer games market. The most renowned Finnish computer game developers are Remedy, responsible of the Max Payne shootout feast, and Bugbear of FlatOut car racing fame. Products from both game houses can be found in computer game stores the world over.

Expectations are also mounting on the new player Recoil Games, whose game Earth No More will come out in a couple of years’ time.

Yet another success story is Sumea, which produces games for mobile phones. For three years now the firm has been owned by the American mobile games and applications developer Digital Chocolate.

Last year the worldwide worth of the computer game industry was estimated at 25 billion US dollars. According to Neogames, the Centre of Game Business, Research and Development, the field employs 1,200-1,300 people in Finland. Still, unlike in the United States, where for example the DigiPen University’s sole purpose is to produce experts for the video games industry, it is not possible in Finland to complete a degree programme of any kind related to computer games.

Some Finnish universities and polytechnics offer short in-depth courses in games programming. The largest game-related study package is currently available at Jyväskylä Polytechnic, which offers a fifteen-credit-unit course involving real-time 3D graphics, related mathematics, as well as computer games logic and structure.

During the semester the students are also required to devise a working computer game.
Lecturer Jani Immonen estimates that of the students who completed the 2001 course, about five percent ended up working in the games field.

“Surprisingly many of those attending the course dream of a career in the field. Maybe ten per cent of the students are clearly oriented towards this goal”, Immonen estimates.

“In the Jyväskylä region, in particular, there are not enough jobs available in the field. Otherwise, the programming fields employ people fairly well, and fortunately the knowledge of how to program games is applicable in other programming as well. In my view, the game programmers have better than average basic skills. Even a simple game is such a complex system that it develops one’s perception skills”, Immonen argues.

Finland’s strong programming tradition originates from the large number of people taking an interest in computer science and from the vibrant demoscene computer art subculture. “Based on mere school education one should not dream of becoming a game designer”, Immonen points out.

“One has to have the desire to experiment with new things on one’s own time.”
Of the Finnish game houses the hottest name is the Espoo-based Remedy, which recently signed a publishing contract with Microsoft regarding its new Alan Wake action thriller game.

Remedy business director Matias Myllyrinne does not see it necessary to have a game school that would produce professionals into the field.

“That would be like establishing a shipyard worker programme, even though building a ship requires financial experts as well as interior designers.”

“A large project does not call for handy-men, but specialised experts.”

Even Remedy workers come from very different backgrounds.

“In the actual programming we use self-taught veterans with little more than a comprehensive school background. But we also employ a person with a PhD from the Helsinki University of Technology. In the animation department classical animation training is still highly regarded, and the team responsible for the buildings and landscapes required by the games include architects” lists Myllyrinne, who himself has a degree in economics.

Many of the Finnish game houses have recently been taken over by foreign buyers. Myllyrinne considers this a natural development.

“That’s the nature of the business. The same has happened in the film and music industries as well. Only a few large labels remain that dominate the market. But there is still room for smaller players in more specialised fields”, reminds Myllyrinne, whose employer Remedy is still in Finnish hands.

But even Remedy has outsourced a lot of its functions. The upcoming game Alan Wake, for one, utilises professional actors and voice-overs. Also, all the game’s cars as well as most of the characters are bought from elsewhere.

The Finnish government now wants to keep guns out of hands of kids
 
The Finnish government decided on Friday to propose a change in the law on firearms, restricting the acquisition of guns by those under the age of 18. Until now guns have been available to children 15 and abovewith a parent’s permission.

The decision came on Friday when the government’s ministerial committee on European Union affairs discussed the upcoming EU firearms directive. The aim of the directive is to restrict access to guns by those below the legal age.

It may take about two years before the new law comes into effect. After that, those under 18 will still be allowed to hunt and shoot for target practice, but only under adult supervision.

Until Friday the government had opposed tighter age restrictions.

The reason for the reluctance was that there are many underage hunters in Finland - something which was seen as a “special national characteristic”. Hunting is especially popular in rural areas, which are strongholds of support for the current main government party, the Centre Party.

There were denials from government ranks that the change had been prompted by the Jokela killings. Ilkka Salmi, special aide to Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (Nat. Coalition Party), notes that the proposed changes would not have applied to perpetrator in the shooting, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who was 18 years old and had a permit for his weapon.

Criticising the decision was Rauno Kurko, Chairman of Finland’s National Rifle Association. According to Kurko, who accused the government of pandering. In his view, weapons are not the problem, but rather the neglect of mental health work.

 Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Ovimagazine.com is their website and it is just the name that holds thousands of articles written by Thanos Kalamidas and Asa Butcher over the past years.

It is one of the first English Online Magazines in Finland and its soul is all about democracy, freedom of speech and justice. This magazine has awakened many individuals to contribute by writing their own stories to share it to the world online. Ovi Magazine is what internet is about and this non profit online magazine in English has stayed alive thanks to you, the reader and contributor. Please visit OviMagazine.com and check for yourself… you won’t regret it.

www.theovimagazine.com

Tens of thousands of Finnish network service passwords and usernames have been leaked onto the internet. Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the situation.
 
The file contains information from chat rooms and social networking sites. Bank usernames are not part of the list.

Some of the usernames and passwords are used by individuals on many different sites.

The information security company F-Secure is urging people who visit such forums to change their passwords. The Finnish National Computer Emergency Response Team Cert-fi also issued a warning on Saturday. It said that passwords should be long and contain symbols.

The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority announced on Saturday that about 80,000 Finnish network service usernames were floating around on the internet. It said Finnish usernames have never been revealed to such a wide extent in the past.

The police have asked foreign countries for assistance in finding those responsible for the leak.

Source: YLE

In order to alleviate the growing shortage of labour in certain branches in Finland, some companies have begun to use the recruitment services of advertising and communications agencies. The idea is to use consultants in order to improve the company image or to actually recruit new employees for the business.

Fazer, one of the largest corporations in the Finnish food and confectionery industry, is suffering from an acute shortage of labour. On Tuesday, the company offered bread and vacancies to passers-by at Helsinki’s Kamppi Center.

Those who were interested could complete an electronic application in a few minutes, informing Fazer of their competence.

Fazer had planned the event in cooperation with the GCI Finland communications agency. Within around 90 minutes, people on their way to work picked up a total of 2,400 sandwiches to go. For those who stopped at the stand, even other kinds of finger food were available.
The Fazer Group’s Finnish operations comprise the Fazer Amica catering services, Fazer bakeries, and the Candyking confectionery “shop-in-shop” concept. In total, they employ approximately 6,300 people.

The demand for new employees is great, particularly at Fazer Amica, as some 60 to 70 per cent of their present workforce will retire by 2015.

At present, Fazer has some 50 to 60 vacancies. The estimated number of the applications filled in at the Kamppi recruitment event was a couple of hundred. The campaign by Fazer also included an internet page, showing a woman “interviewing” an applicant, which was expected to appeal particularly to young people.

Teija Andersen, the Managing Director of Fazer Amica, believes that this is the right trend, while saying that there is still much to be done in terms of marketing. Many other Finnish companies find themselves in a similar situation, while not being willing to announce it publicly. They fear that they might be regarded as losers who are not even able to persuade people to work for them.

Nevertheless, they should recognise that they cannot leave it too long before they step in to the recruitment game: this week’s recruitment stunt may work, but sooner or later the public will tire of such things and ignore them.

In addition to public exercises using advertising and public relations firms, some companies are looking at directed searches via such online communities as Facebook or LinkedIn.

Other firms, despairing of ever finding the right people to fill vacancies from Finland, are turning their eyes abroad: professionals in the construction, metals, and HVAC trades are being sought from nearby countries, while there are efforts to secure the return of Finnish nurses from Sweden, Norway, and the UK.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Following a probe published by Helsingin Sanomat towards the end of August, Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (National Coalition Party) wanted to clear up whether or not Thai massage parlours in Helsinki are hosting criminal activities.

The newspaper’s report suggested that sex services are freely available at all parlours offering Thai massage in Helsinki.

Based on a detailed investigation into the capital’s Thai massage businesses, the Helsinki Police Department published its own report on Tuesday, confirming that sex services are indeed generally offered at all Thai massage parlours in the city.

Moreover, the special inquiry by police implied that there are individuals behind at least some of the businesses offering Thai massage who are responsible for the operation in several localities.

However, the Helsinki Police Department did not find any evidence that would point to human trafficking or professional operation. Hence there was no reason to launch any preliminary investigations for the time being.

Chief Police Inspector Matti Rinne from the Ministry of the Interior reports that in other parts of Finland there are areas where local police departments are in fact preparing preliminary inquiries into Thai massage businesses.
According to the police, there are some 200 Thai massage parlours in Finland, 54 of them located in Helsinki.

Anne Holmlund supports the view expressed by the police that cross-administrative investigations should be launched into the operations of those parlours where evidence points to some illegal activities. Such investigations should combine the efforts of the police, the Tax Administration, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Directorate of Immigration, and the Finnish occupational safety districts.

“Such a project, conducted by public authorities, could bring us new information in order that we would possibly be able to launch a preliminary inquiry into the matter”, noted Police Commissioner Jukka Riikonen from the Helsinki Police Department. The police wish to take a role in the proceedings, but are not eager to be the main or only player.

The report indicated further that there is reason to suspect many Thai massage parlours in Finland of procurement, tax fraud, and accounting offences.
Human trafficking is not among those offences of which the Finnish Thai massage parlours are being suspected, as according to the interviews with the National Bureau of Investigation, the masseuses have been free to move from one place to another independently. Moreover, the offering of sex services has been voluntary.

“It is also worth noting that even though the official bookkeeping of the parlours show that their turnover is low, the number of such massage places is growing steadily”, says Matti Rinne.
As the results of the special investigation suggest that the businesses offering Thai massage must be profitable at least to some extent, the police are suspecting some Thai massage parlours of tax fraud and accounting offences.

When Helsingin Sanomat tested 30 Thai massage parlours in August, a receipt was given only in one place.

The Minister of the Interior is now calling for opportunities for the Thai masseuses to have alternative options to earn their living.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Nokia cuts the price of one of its top-selling phones in anticipation of the holiday shopping season.

HELSINKI — Nokia slashed this week around 15 percent off from the price of its 3G phone model E65, one of the top sales and profit generators for the world’s largest cellphone maker, market data showed on Friday.

Analysts said the price cut was deeper than usual, but they were not surprised by the timing as handset vendors are setting up their offerings for the upcoming Christmas sales season.

Nokia sold more than one million E65’s in the second quarter, making it one of the top three products for the firm. It will report July-September results on October 18, but analysts said all signs showed that good sales of the phone have continued.

Nokia said E65 price cut was part of its normal price adjustments after the phone has been on the market for more than 6 months. Its success helped to pull Nokia’s ailing enterprise unit to the black in the second quarter after years of losses.

“This is normal for any product, the price varies at different stages of the product life cycle,” said a Nokia spokeswoman.

After the price cut E65 competes in the same price category with rivals hit phones Samsung’s U600 and Sony Ericsson’s K810i.

Apple cut its iPhone price by one third just two months after it launched the phone, but later offered some rebates after phone owners’ uproar. Price cuts of up to 10 percent are normal in the industry after first few months of sales.

Nokia has also clearly lowered prices for its E61i, N73 and N73 Music phones this month, but not as sharply as E65.

“Nokia has been very aggressive with its pricing strategy during 2007,” said Ben Wood, head of research at consultancy CCS.

Source: Reuters

Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president, said in a statement Friday she had sent a message of congratulation to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for their being jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize.

The president said she was very pleased that the pioneering work had been recognised at such high a level.

“Well-being for mankind and nature go hand in hand. Sustainable development on a global scale can become a reality if we take true care of people and if we have a strong environmental awareness. There are positive signs of attitudes changing and of a stronger common will to act on climate issues”, President Halonen wrote to Mr Gore and Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC.

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (centre) said the Nobel committee had made a good choice.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, joined Mr Vanhanen in praising the award for pushing climate issues higher on the political agenda.

Source:STT

According to police statistics, young females have become increasingly violent in recent years. A growing number of under-21-year-old women and girls are being suspected of assaults in Finland.

Ten years ago the annual number of women charged with assault was 700, while the corresponding figure for 2006 was already as high as 1,300. Of all under-21-year-old suspects the proportion of girls is today 22 per cent.

Dr. Ghitta Weizmann-Henelius, a psychologist at the Vanha Vaasa state mental hospital, whose doctoral thesis in psychology dealt with violent female offenders in Finland, is predicting that the increase in the violent behaviour of girls will be seen in Finnish criminal statistics in the course of the next few years.

The use of intoxicants has also been found to increase violence among females, and today, women are frequently found guilty of similar types of aggressive behvious to those shown in men.

Currently, the proportion of violent incidents that involve a woman as the perpetrator is about 13 per cent, and similarly in homicides it is around 10 per cent of all cases. The number of women serving time in prison in Finland is roughly 250, while the total prison population in the country is around 3,500.

An increasing number of female prisoners have a history of violent criminality and personality disorders, including substance abuse, reported Weizmann-Henelius. She has examined the personality, background characteristics and life events of women guilty of violent offences, who are being kept either in prison or in a forensic psychiatric hospital.

Based on the follow-up made by Weizmann-Henelius, some 95 per cent of those offenders who had a record of previous crimes were also found guilty of further offences after the time of study. In other words, criminal acts apparently tend to accumulate on the same individuals.

The violent acts committed by women have also become more brutal, involving knives, bottles, or stones. Frequently incidents also involve more than just one perpetrator. Even motives appear to be similar to those of men, and offences are often linked with revenge and drug traffic.

Apart of substance abuse, many females guilty of violent crimes have a background of childhood problems, including the parents’ divorce or domestic violence, frequently even sexual abuse, the psychologist noted.

The study indicates further that violent female offenders are most often single or divorced and unemployed. Typically, violent female offenders often have a history of suicide attempts and psychiatric treatment.

“According to some studies, women’s violence against their live-in companions is as common as that inflicted by men on women. However, the violence used by men is often more severe”, Weizmann-Henelius concludes.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Google seems to be intent on making waves.

There’s speculation that Google could launch a Facebook-rivaling service on November 5th. Today the company announced that they’ve acquired Jaiku - the ‘what are you doing’ and presence service based in Helsinki, Finland.

Whilst there’s no mention of how much Google paid (all the terms remain confidential), it’s certainly something that’s going to weigh in the minds of rival services such as Twitter (particularly as Twitter has yet to establish its business model).

As for what’s next for Jaiku, all the founders will say is ‘Check back in a few months to see what we’ve developed.

Relevant Links: http://jaiku.com/help/google

Source: Nik Fletcher

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In Older News:

Yesterday (Oct. 10), search giant Google announced that it will be buying Jaiku, a Finnish startup company that specializes in enabling friends to keep in touch and share whatever they are doing at any given moment using mobile devices. However, the terms of the transaction were not disclosed when the deal was officially closed.

Jaiku, a Helsinki-based firm that was founded early last year is a social networking and mini-messaging service that enables people to keep track of each others; activities on-the-go using mobile devices.

The Mountain View, California-based Google believes that activity streams and mobile presence are important areas in which it can add a lot of value for its users.

Google also added that Jaiku’s technology and talented team would be a great addition to Google’s current application and mobile teams.

As it is Google seems to be making it a priority of following Internet users as they go mobile. In fact, a while ago, it was reported that Google was busy crafting the so-called “gphone” using an open-source software platform tailored to its online services.

Besides, last month, Google acquired Zingku, a mobile social networking firm targeted mainly at teenagers and the youth.
According to Google product manager Tony Hsieh, “Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder. Living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it’s more difficult to keep track of everyone when they’re running around at warp speed. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired Jaiku.”

Following the transaction, Jaiku will continue to support its existing user base. Jaiku users would be able to invite new friends but new user registrations have been closed for the time being.

By Terhi Kinnunen

Next time you complain about waiting in a queue, spare a thought for Pavel.

He has parked his truck in a line stretching for 5 km (3 miles) — and this is a good day at the Finnish-Russian border.

Russia’s economy is booming and its hunger for new cars, televisions and machinery means the transit routes through Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are clogged with trucks.

Because of this surging trans-border traffic, Finland is now as large a trading partner for Russia as the United States, but customs posts on the border are struggling to cope.

Pavel makes a return trip to Finland once a week: this time it was with a truck full of electronic equipment for Moscow.

Two weeks ago he spent 48 hours waiting to get back home. Last winter the queues stretched for more than 60 km.

While the vehicles are stuck at the border, retailers in Russia and the transport firms are losing money and local people are scared to drive on the roads with one lane blocked by trucks.

The Finns blame the Russians for the queues which are also a problem in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. “Last year we had queues on 300 days,” said Mika Poutiainen, head of Finnish customs at Vaalimaa, 186 km east of Helsinki.

Vaalimaa is Finland’s busiest border crossing to Russia, dealing with 700-800 trucks a day. Poutiainen says Finnish customs could double the amount of trucks that pass through because processing export papers takes only a couple of minutes.

“But because of the different kinds of procedures … the limit is set by the Russian side,” he said.

Russians prefer to import goods through Finland because Russian harbors near St Petersburg do not have enough unloading equipment or warehouses, and to minimize theft.

CROSSING POINTS

The amount of goods imported through Finland has doubled since 2002 to about 3 million tonnes in 2006 and Russia’s transport ministry admits its officials cannot handle the growing number of vehicles.

“Crossing points cannot manage as they are not big enough,” a ministry spokeswoman said. Finland’s transport minister says Russia could do more.

“They have promised to cut the number of officials (at the border) from seven to two. And they should also increase the number of staff,” Anu Vehvilainen said.

Russia’s relations with some of its nearest neighbors, especially from the former Soviet Union, have deteriorated lately amid mutual recriminations. Russia cut oil supplies and rail links to Estonia in a row over the relocation of a Soviet war memorial in the capital Talinn.

Finnish President Tarja Halonen, who met Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the end of September, said Russia had made decisions that would help improve border traffic but had not carried them out fully.

Earlier this month the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania called for Brussels to raise the problems at border crossings at the next EU-Russia Summit.

Latvia has queues of between 700 and 1,000 trucks regularly waiting at the two main crossing points to Russia, and processing takes between 60 and 72 hours. Last month trucks stood in a queue for more than a week in Estonia.

The situation in Latvia got so bad that in April a local region declared a state of emergency to draw central government’s attention to its infrastructure needs.

FUMES AND TRASH

People living near the border crossings are fed up with the exhaust fumes, feces and trash. “There are always bottles and cans,” said Tuomo Nurkka, who lives near the Nuijamaa border crossing in Lappeenranta, 247 km northeast of Helsinki.

“Trucks are standing in one lane and other traffic is using the other lane. It makes life interesting. It is dangerous especially in winter time and when the roads are icy.”

Poutiainen said electronic customs declaration would put an end to the queues.

“We don’t have the electronic declaration because the agreement would have to be made between the European Union and Russia, not between Finland and Russia. On the EU level we are still in talks to solve this problem.”

The Finnish government has raised the issue in the EU, minister Vehvilainen said.

However, it does not expect the problem to be solved anytime soon and has put aside 24 million euros ($34 million) to build a new waiting area for the trucks.
Source: Reuters
(Additional reporting by Sakari Suoninen and Tarmo Virki in Helsinki, Patrick Lannin in Riga)

Finnish literature is set to make a notable splash on the German book market in 2011. Finland is in the process of filing an official application to become the theme country of the world’s most prominent literature trade fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair, in four years’ time. Finland’s Minister of Culture Stefan Wallin (Swedish People’s Party) is likely to sign the application already this week.

“The plan is to send our letter of intention to the Frankfurt Book Fair already today or tomorrow. This is an opportunity worth seizing – especially after the organisers of the fair have practically demanded that Finland apply for the guest of honour position for 2011″, Wallin confirms.
Being the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair will be the largest-ever single effort to export Finnish culture.

As yet, no exact figures are available, but presumably Finland’s investment in the undertaking will be in the region of EUR five million. The Frankfurt Book Fair organisation has in several instances emphasised that with a EUR 4-4.5 million investment, a theme region can obtain sufficient publicity.

“It is too early to speculate about the cost of being the guest of honour. First we have to wait for an acknowledgement from Frankfurt. Obviously, at least the Ministry of Education, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry will then take part in the effort”, Wallin says.

But money alone does not guarantee success at the fair. With the smallest-ever budget of a mere EUR 1.5 million, Lithuania failed to produce a breakthrough in the international book market. But then again, so did South Korea, in spite of its whopping EUR 14.5 million investment in the fair.
According to Wallin, the undertaking would coincide perfectly with the south-western city of Turku’s turn as European Capital of Culture in 2011.

At present, around 30-40 Finnish books are translated into German each year. Should Finland succeed in becoming the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, this figure could increase many times over.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat