Finland's Ovi

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

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

Sparkling wines, champagnes and rosé gaining in popularity
 
According to figures published on Wednesday by the National Product Control Agency for Welfare and Health (STTV), sales of alcohol grew in the months from January to July of this year by just over 4 per cent, or by 3.2% when measured in terms of 100% ethanol.

Aggregate sales in Finland via Alko off-licences, stores, and at licensed restaurants and bars came to more than 26 million litres of 100% alcohol. The actual figure was over 376 million litres by volume.
Sales have increased from one record to the next for some years now.

In fact the latest figures should be seen rather as a measure of the period from January to June, as the cooler weather in July of this year actually prompted sales for the month to fall slightly. Figures for August are not yet available.
Sales of wines, champagnes, and coolers showed the strongest growth, putting on 8%. Correspondingly, sales of fortified wines and vermouths were down by almost 7.5%.

The big favourites in the early part of the year were sparkling wines and champagnes, as well as rosé and blush wines.

The surge in sales of sparkling wines began at the beginning of last year, and is thought to have been fuelled in part by the spate of 60th birthday celebrations of people in the baby-boomer generation.

This explanation probably still holds, as only a few weeks back we witnessed the largest cluster of births that took place 60 years ago.
Sales of beers and distilled items (spirits) each grew by some 3 per cent in the opening seven months of the year.

Sales of ales (rather than lagers) were up by 13 per cent on the previous year, while on the spirits side it was liqueurs that showed the greatest growth, up by 8%.

The general trend leans towards greater sales of milder drinks, but with an overall increase of such dimensions, sales of spirits also rose.
At the same time, it is believed that the year-long decline in imports by passengers (particularly from Estonia) has stopped, and hence overall Finnish consumption of alcohol has continued to increase substantially.

In the wake of the government’s decision to cut alcohol taxes - particularly on spirits - some years ago, imports declined measurably. With plans on the table for increases in alcohol duty in 2008, it remains to be seen whether imports for personal use will once again rise.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

By Sharon Cotal

Three teachers who taught fifth grade at Highlands Elementary School last year have been selected by Microsoft to serve as ambassadors to a teaching forum in Helsinki, Finland.

Highland teachers Bonita DeAmicis and Cindy Hallman, and Amy Panama - now a fourth-grade teacher at Mountain View Elementary - were selected from a national pool of candidates to participate in the 2007 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum taking place Oct. 29-31.

“We are very excited about it. We’re just a little concerned about having warm clothing,” said DeAmicis, who plans to borrow some cold weather gear from her sister in Colorado.

The forum is designed to recognize and reward outstanding educators and allow them to collaborate and share their expertise. When they worked together last year, DeAmicis, Hallman and Panama incorporated the use of handheld computers, interactive whiteboards, the Internet and desktop software in a series of science stations where students worked in teams to learn about the human body.

The teachers’ use of technology in the learning process and the way they worked together to develop the stations got Microsoft’s attention.

“They liked it. They were very excited that we were able to create seamless ways to integrate technology into our teaching. But the technology was not the focus of the learning - it was used as a tool to learn about the human body,” DeAmicis said.

The trio of teachers were also one of 20 learning teams selected to attend the United States Forum, held Sept. 26-28 in Seattle. The trip took Hallman back into familiar territory.

“I grew up in Seattle, so it was fun to see my family and I enjoyed seeing Seattle again,” Hallman said.

In Seattle, the teachers experienced the teacher version of speed dating, with teams spending five minutes with one another discussing their projects.

“They called it networking, but essentially we steal ideas from each other,” Hallman said. “It was great to get ideas from teachers across the U.S. that we probably otherwise would never meet.”

Panama, at 25 the youngest of the group, said she is honored to be selected for such a prestigious event at the beginning of her career and looks forward to meeting with the teams from other countries in Helsinki.

“It’s a lot of work to prepare to go, and I’m going to miss my students, but I’m very excited to go,” Panama said. “I can only imagine the different teams we will meet there.”

At the Helsinki forum, the three local teachers will be competing with teams from 70 countries and international judges will select one winner from all the projects presented.

“It’s like a science fair for teachers,” DeAmicis said. The teachers have been working on their display, getting it ready for the international competition.

“I’m very competitive, so game’s on,” Hallman said. For Hallman, the trip to Helsinki will be kind of like a trip home.

“My grandfather was 100 percent Finnish. I never dreamed I would go to Finland, but that’s where my ancestors are from,” Hallman said.

DeAmicis plans to do some sightseeing while in Helsinki and hopes to see the Northern Lights.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to walk around the city and see some sights,” DeAmicis said.

Panama is looking forward to spending time with the two teachers she used to work with at Highlands.

“Obviously, we won an award for collaboration, so we really worked well together,” Panama said. “Mountain View has really welcomed me, but it was hard to leave.”

Source:The Signal