Finland's Ovi

“Laughter is the core of well-being”, says city’s personnel chief
 
By Irja Hyvärinen

Four red-nosed figures waddle into the personnel cafe of the City of Tampere. A performance of the city clowns is about to begin, and one of them is already praising a diner for his choice of the Tampere speciality, black pudding.

When the pot belly, the jacket suit lady, the dancer, and the bus driver start into their workplace well-being rap, even administrative chief Mauri Eskonen smiles behind his plate. “Process, report, delegate, visualise”: the list of words sounds so absurd (especially as in the original Finnish, as they all rhyme).

The idea for the city clowns came from comedian Mona Ratalahti, occupational well-being trainer Riitta Harilo, and its godmother was Kirsi Koski, head of the Mayor’s office.

Koski has worked as the city’s head of personnel for three years.

“I have thought about what would be the core of well-being. Yes, it is laughter”, Koski says. “It is all right to laugh at craziness - at what is not said out loud in business discussions.”

Ratalahti feels that a clown nose “changes us and the viewer in such a way that forces people to look at things differently”.

“When people enjoy their work, it is reflected directly on the bottom line.”
Tampere’s city clowns are the 41st idea that the “Creative Tampere” programme has decided to support. The programme has a budget of EUR 12 million to back corporate ideas worthy of development.

The EUR 25,000 earmarked for the clowns makes it possible for four artists, who have mostly worked alone, can concentrate on joint projects.

Some of the funding is used for the purchase of performances for training seminars, for instance.

Head of development Lasse Paananen says that the funding is not a question of moving money from one municipal pocket to another, but rather a startup for a new enterprise.

The city clowns have a number of established routines, from “The ABCs of Customer Service”, to “Lightening the Guilt Pack”. One planned sketch involves a training session for supervisors on how to effectively put subordinates in their place.
Each of the clowns have created their own characters. Ratalahti is a pot-bellied boss, Harilo is a jacket-suit lady. Tuula Linnusmäki is a dancer whose workplace calisthenics putts the meat on the move.

When tenor Jouko Uusipaasto taps into his 30 years of experience as a bus driver, the cobblestones of Tampere’s main thoroughfare, Hämeenkatu, become familiar to everyone. Greetings to all: there will be a moment of silence on behalf of silent knowledge.

Source: Xinhua

The government of the Republic of Finland has agreed to provide a grant assistance of about 261.24 million Nepali rupees (some 4 million U.S. dollars) to Nepal, the National News Agency, RSS reported on Tuesday.

According to the RSS, the grant assistance will be deposited in the Nepal Peace Trust Fund.

The agreement to this effect was signed between the government of Nepal and the government of the Republic of Finland at the Ministry of Finance Monday.

According to the Ministry of Finance, it may be recalled that the government of Nepal has established Nepal Peace Trust Fund, the overall objective of which is to support the successful implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) signed last November.

The peace fund provides mechanism to channel and coordinate resources in five areas, namely, management of camps and reintegration of former combatants, rehabilitation of internally displaced people, election of Constituent Assembly, strengthening of law and order and police administration, and support to the peace process.

Earlier, the British government had deposited 316.18 million rupees (some 4.8 million dollars) in the fund, and the Swiss government 53.91 million rupees (some 829,384 dollars) and the government of Denmark 121.06 million rupees (some 1.8 million dollars).

In the peace fund constituted by the government of Nepal for those national and international donors who want to assist the peace process, some five countries so far have agreed to provide 905.24 million rupees (13.9 million dollars) to the country.

The government of Nepal has deposited 383.62 million rupees ( some 5.9 million dollars) in the fund so far, the RSS said.

Trial begins in Riihimäki

Four prisoners who were kept in retention overalls for days at a time are seeking damages for degrading treatment. While wearing the enclosed garment, the inmates at Riihimäki Prison were not allowed to use the toilet unsupervised, shower, or exercise normally. The purpose of the practice is to prevent the smuggling of drugs by inmates returning from furlough.

The prisoners were forced to wear the overalls, and were kept in solitary confinement for days after returning from the outside world.

The prison’s former warden, Jaakko Kopra, and two other prison officials were charged with violating their official duties.

The plaintiffs say that the officials had failed to respect the human dignity of the prisoners, whom they suspected of smuggling in packages of drugs, which they had either swallowed, or inserted anally.

Four young men, one of whom is still serving time, told the court of their experiences. They are asking for damages varying between EUR 3,000 and 3,500.
The men said that they were not allowed to wear underwear beneath the overalls, and that the guards urged them to take castor oil to induce defecation.

The purpose of the retention overalls is to prevent the prisoners from destroying or hiding drugs that they might have carried internally. Prisoners kept in the “s**t cell” were allowed to use the toilet only under supervision, so that everything that came out could be examined.

The inmates were kept in the overall in isolation until it could be assumed that the intestines had been voided and any contraband would have come out. One of the inmates, who had been under investigation for four days, said that nothing seemed to be enough for the personnel, when he was sent to the cold isolation cell after coming back from furlough.

“They wanted me to crank out more and more s**t all the time”, he said.

Nothing was found.

Another large-sized prisoner said that the overall was so small that he was unable to stand upright while wearing it. He said that several guards had mocked him while he sat on the toilet.

A third inmate said that he soiled himself a few times because the guard did not take him to the toilet quickly enough. After that he had to put the same overall on again.
No drugs were ever found, and a number of the prisoners pointed out that they had not been convicted of any drug-related offences when they were sent to the cell for observation.

Prosecutor Eeva-Liisa Olkinuora says that legal means would have been available to check on possible in-body smuggling, including x-ray examinations.

The prison officials deny that they did anything illegal, or that they had violated any rules. They say that they had cleared the procedure with the Criminal Sanctions Agency, and that there were valid reasons for taking the action in each case.

They also said that the method was effective, noting that drugs in prison cause many kinds of difficulties for the inmates and their families.

Numerous inmates have been pressured to smuggle drugs while returning from furlough.

A verdict is expected in the case within a couple of weeks.

(Helsingin Sanomat)

In part as a result of stressed people’s wish to “get back to nature”, an unlikely alpaca-boom arrived in Finland at the beginning of the current millennium.

Anne Backman, a former stable girl, bought her first alpacas in Chile in 2004. Her farm is located in Nurmijärvi, not far from Helsinki, and she is interested in the breeding of alpacas.

Backman owns a total of 16 alpacas, and in addition, she has a few animals in care.

An alpaca as a companion animal costs around EUR 3,000 to 4,000, while the prices for female animals fit for breeding is in the range of EUR 6,000 and upwards.
The alpaca is a gregarious herd animal from the level plateaus of the Andes of Southern Peru and Northern Chile. The species is related to camels and llamas.

Alpacas are mainly producers of wool-like fibre. The alpaca fibre is a luxury product and can be compared to mohair and angora. Its wool is very soft, and nearly hypoallergenic. It can be used for example for blankets, pillows, and for a wide variety of textiles.

There are already four alpaca ranches in the communities around Helsinki. Apparently there are altogether some 200 alpacas in Finland, and the numbers are growing.

Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) and the police are demanding an assessment of security measures at the construction site of a new commercial nuclear reactor after Greenpeace protesters managed to enter the area.

Activists of the international environmental group were able to get into the site in the early hours of Monday. Six of the protesters were still clinging to the upper structures of a crane as late as Monday evening.

STUK and the police feel that it should not be so easy to enter the construction site. Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), which commissioned the construction of Finland’s fifth commercial reactor, the third to be located in Olkiluoto, is also responsible for security at the construction site.
“The demonstrators came by rubber boat from the sea. We want to talk about when they were spotted, and why they were able to get in”, says Mikko Paatero, Chief of Police for the Province of West Finland.

Police were on the scene within 20 minutes of being notified.

“Security measures in the area should be linked together. In principle; things like this should not be allowed to happen.”
If Greenpeace was able to penetrate the perimeter, it is also possible for those with violent objectives to do the same.

“I would like to point out that we are only talking about the construction site. It is different from a plant that is in operation”, observes Martin Landtman, the head of the project.

He emphasises that TVO knows exactly what goes on in Olkiluoto.

“If there is an intruder that does not endanger security, we will not interfere. Demonstrators are a matter for the police.”

Landtman does not want to specify situations or intruders whose entry to the area would be blocked by the guards. “We have the information about that, and it is enough.”

STUK is less than convinced that the building site is well guarded.

“There is room for improvement in security”, says Petteri Tiippana of the STUK department responsible for monitoring nuclear power plants.

“Naturally, it is possible that TVO may have had advance information that Greenpeace was coming, and they did not consider it warranted a response”, Tiippana says. However, STUK wants more information on that from TVO.
The aim of the Greenpeace action was to spur debate on the 1,500 “exceptional situations” in both equipment and in working methods that have come up during the construction so far.
STUK also feels that a public accounting needs to be made on the situation.

STUK’s Tiippana says that the problems at the construction site that were raised by Greenpeace are generally correct, as they are based on information made public by STUK.

“On the other hand, it is not true that the safety of the installation, when ready, would have been called into question at this point. Areva, the builder, and TVO, which ordered the facility, have managed to show that the degree of safety that had been previously required has been maintained through the corrections that have been made”, Tiippana says.
Landtman says that TVO has spoken publicly about all significant security problems that have come out.

“Seventy per cent of the deviations are not linked with the product itself, but rather the ways that the subcontractors operate. It is reasonable that they should speak about them themselves”, Landtman says.

“We will make sure that things are in shape before production can begin.”

(HS) Thursday last week was one of the busiest tourism days of the summer in the Finnish capital, with five large cruise vessels sailing into the city’s harbours. About 8,000 passengers got off of their cruise ships for a day visit to Helsinki.

Two ships, both en route from St. Petersburg to Stockholm, stopped at Hernesaari. There were also ships in the South Harbour, Katajanokka, and one even had to use a coal-loading pier in Sompasaari.

Most of the ships left Helsinki at around 6:00 PM, and with regular passenger vessels sailing the Helsinki-Tallinn and Helsinki-Stockholm routes, as well as a few cargo ships, traffic in the waters off Helsinki was somewhat congested.
The largest cruise liners stopped at Hernesaari, where the views this summer are not the best possible. There are piles of rocks and other building material heaped up on the southern tip for the construction of luxury housing in the area.

However, there have been attempts to make the pier area itself look nicer, with souvenir stands, flower boxes, and a proper toilet.

Many of the visitors shuttled between their ships and the sights of the city by bus, although some preferred to brave it on foot, finding their way with city maps.
An American couple were on the first cruise voyage of their lives on the Norwegian Dream cruise liner. “A normal industrial area. Nothing strange about that”, they said about the Hernesaari area.

They said that it was a considerable improvement over the Port of St. Petersburg, which they said looked like a rusty lunar landscape. However, this did not diminish the magnificence of the city itself.

The next stop for the cruise passengers will be Stockholm, where the ships will moor at a pier that is a 45-minute bus ride away from the centre of the city.
Helsinki expects 245 cruise ships to make port calls this summer, with a total of about 270,000 passengers. The number is about the same as last year.

Ships arrive almost on a daily basis, and on some days, like Thursday last week, there will be more than one.

By Eric Bangeman

The Helsinki District Court has dealt another blow to CSS, the copy-protection scheme used in commercial DVDs. In a ruling issued today, the court found that CSS is “ineffective” as a form of DRM and that the two defendants cited for violating Finnish copyright law were not guilty.

After Finland’s copyright laws were changed in late 2005 to harmonize with a 2001 EU copyright directive, a group of Finnish copyright activists put up a web site that echoed information that has been easily available on the Internet (and T-shirts) for years: how to crack and circumvent CSS. They then turned themselves into the police for violating Finland’s new copyright laws.

Two of the activists were charged with illegally manufacturing and distributing a circumventing product along with providing a service to “circumvent an effective technological measure.” During the court proceedings, expert witnesses testified as to the ineffectiveness of CSS as a DRM system, an argument the court found compelling. “[S]ince a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with easy tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge,” wrote the court. “Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed…. CSS protection can no longer be held ‘effective’ as defined in law.”

The decision may be appealed by the government, which apparently brought the case independent of the copyright holders or the DVD Copy Control Association, which administers CSS. Given the fact that the Helsinki District Court is at the bottom of Finland’s legal system, this case is by no means precedent setting.

That said, the implications could be far-reaching. All EU member nations were required to implement the EU’s copyright directive, which defines a technological measure as being effective if “where the use of a protected work or other subject-matter is controlled by the rights-holders through application of an access control or protection process, such as
encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work or other subject-matter or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective.”

CSS no longer achieves the protection objective, according to the Helsinki court, and if other European courts interpret the directive in a similar manner, CSS could be declared “officially” ineffective. There is no reason why it would stop with CSS, either. Cracks such as DVD Jon’s reverse-engineering of FairPlay could fall into that category. It could even open the door to AACS being found ineffective, should the war between hackers and the AACS Licensing Authority tilt decisively in the direction of anti-DRM forces.

All of that is in the mysterious future at this point. If Big Content gets the idea that EU member states will follow the lead of the Helsinki District Court on DRM measures, it will certainly lobby for a looser definition of what constitutes effective DRM while ratching up the level of DRM it employs.

When people think of Finland, they usually think of the aurora borealis, reindeer, the arts and good design (Alvar Aalto, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Iittala, Marimekko, Esa-Pekka Salonen).
They may also think about technology – particularly if they use a Nokia cellular phone.

But Finland also is renowned for its knowledge-based economy, engineering, machinery and advancements in wireless technology, too.

Finland, with its population of more than 5.2 million and its 10 universities, is positioned well to be an exchange partner in education and technology with ASU and the state of Arizona.

ASU and Finland took the first step toward a multipronged relationship with the visit in April of Marilyn Ware, U.S. ambassador to Finland .

Ware, accompanied by Brian McCleary, head of the commercial section of the U.S. Embassy in Finland, made a one-day visit to the Tempe campus that was packed with information.

The whirlwind tour of ASU started with a welcome by Anthony “Bud” Rock, vice president for Global Engagement, and Gary Waissi, dean of the School of Global Management and Leadership.

Ware was impressed by the comprehensive presentations from the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education and Applied Learning Technologies Institute, Sky Song, and the Office of Sustainability Initiatives.

The ambassador also was treated to tours of Decision Theater and the ASU Art Museum , and presentations by the Herberger College of the Arts and the College of Design , where Ware exchanged views with the deans on the progressive styles of Finnish culture and design. The day ended with a meeting with representatives of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.

Dawn Kallestad, director of the Office of Global Engagement, says Ware’s visit set the tone for partnerships between the university and Finland.

“Ambassador Ware was extremely impressed with ASU,” Kallestad says. “The ambassador was delighted with her stay in Arizona, and believes the potential for U.S.-Finnish cooperation is enormous.”

ASU chose to explore a Finnish connection for several reasons, Rock says.

“Given the quality of the Finnish education system, several unique capabilities of Finland’s technology-based industry, and our relationship with Finland through Gary Waissi, we reached out to Ambassador Ware to explore possible collaborative opportunities, such as student opportunities with Finnish universities and opportunities to engage Finnish corporations in economic cooperation with industries and SkySong,” he says.

Julia Rosen, assistant vice president for research and economic development, presented the university’s entrepreneurial portfolio, focusing on SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Center for Innovation.

“SkySong is designed as a two-way global portal – both serving as a ‘soft landing’ for firms from outside the United States who seek to enter the American marketplace, and as a gathering place for innovators and entrepreneurs already operating in Arizona and the United States,” Rosen says. “ Finland is a country rich in technological innovation. By briefing the U.S. ambassador to Finland on ASU’s assets, we hope to raise ASU’s profile as a potential partner for dynamic Finnish enterprises.”

The ambassador commented that the collective offering of space, services and university connections would be very well received by innovation-based firms in Finland, Rosen says.

The next step in the ASU-Finland connection is for Rock and Waissi to visit Finland “to expand on the relationship established with the Embassy and to meet with universities and companies to determine areas of collaboration, particularly with the schools of engineering, education, design, and also with SkySong,” says Kallestad, who adds that ASU also is pursuing student exchange opportunities.

A bleary-eyed researcher who normally sleeps like a log went to bed yesterday claiming a world record after staying awake for more than 11 days and nights.

But when Tony Wright, 43, finally regains wakefulness today after catching up on his sleep, he could be in for a cruel awakening. The human guinea pig will discover that he may have given up ten hours too early to claim the crown.

The record that he broke – of 11 days, or 264 hours – was set by Randy Gardner, an American, in 1964 and is recognised in psychiatric textbooks.

But that is 12 hours shorter than the record which used to be included in The Guinness Book of Recordsbefore being removed from the book in 1989. It was deleted on the grounds that it could encourage records harmful to health and was unverifiable because of the claims of insomnia sufferers.

The Guinness previous record was for 11½ days, or 276 hours, and was set by Toimi Soini in Hamina, Finland, between February 5 to 15, 1964.

Mr Wright’s friend Graham Gynn, who co-wrote the book Left in the Dark, about their research into human consciousness, said he had no knowledge of the Finnish record.

“It is interesting but has not cropped up at all in our research and is not mentioned in any of the books about sleep and sleeplessness,” he said. “It may have been disputed or not accepted for some reason because everyone now accepts the old record was set by Randy Gardner in 1964 when he was a 17-year-old student.

“As far as we are concerned our main concern was not the record but to show that Tony could train his mind in such a way as to stay awake for 11 days and remain coherent and aware of what was going on around him. That was the main object and I believe what he has done will surprise many scientists who did not believe it was possible. Tony not only stayed awake but handled ten media interviews a day.”

Before going to sleep, Mr Wright attributed his success to the “caveman diet” of raw food he followed during his marathon. Instead of celebrating afterwards, he climbed into bed at 8am having tested his own theory for 266 hours that people can achieve astonishing feats by teaching their brains to work more efficiently.

Mr Wright, a father of three, stayed awake with the help of friends at the Studio Bar in his home town of Penzance. He ate raw food, drank tea, eschewed all artificial stimulants, played pool and kept a diary of how he was coping, while thousands of internet viewers watched him on webcam.

Six CCTV cameras were trained on him the entire time in case he tried to catch a sneaky 40 winks and he was entertained by a stream of volunteers popping in to help to keep him awake.

His diary became increasingly surreal as the lack of sleep took its toll and he spoke slower and slower in interviews on television and radio as the marathon wore on.

He claimed the record at 6.05am yesterday, saying: “I feel pretty good. It’s been a bit of a slog, but I got there. My diet of raw food made it much easier to switch from one side of the brain, which is really tired, to the other but both are pretty tired at the moment.”

He believes that as people get more tired, the influence of the left side of the brain reduces and is replaced by that of the right. “I did this to show that the accepted theory is wrong and the brain does not become less effective with tiredness.”

Going too far

Former Guinness world records to have been deleted since the book was launched in 1954 include:

Sword swallowing. It was deemed too dangerous

Heaviest cat (unethical)

Eating and drinking (could lead to litigation)

Source: Times archive

By MATTI HUUHTANEN

Finnair will enable passengers to send mobile text messages and e-mails on flights to the Far East starting next month.

The service will become possible on satellite telephones provided at each seat of the airline’s new Airbus A340 aircraft, to be delivered in June. It will first be available on routes from Helsinki to the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Nagoya, and Shanghai, China.

Passengers will be able to read and answer messages and mail sent from the ground. Each sent or received message will cost $2, the Finnish carrier said. Passengers will be able to call each other during flights.

In-flight Internet services have had mixed success.

Last year, Boeing Co. pulled the plug on Connexion, which gave passengers high-speed Internet hookups, via satellite, starting at $10 for the first hour. The aircraft manufacturer said that while it had deals with major international carriers such as Germany’s Lufthansa AG, Japan Airlines Corp., Korean Air Co., and Singapore Airlines, large U.S. carriers were reluctant to invest in the service.

Based on a Finnish study, persistent smokers may have higher risk to become depressed in comparison to never smokers. Also those smokers who quit have an elevated risk of depressive symptoms in short run. However, in long run this risk declines to the level of never smokers.

In other words, both completely smoke-free life style and successful smoking cessation in long run seem to protect from depressive symptoms.

It is known that depression is associated with cigarette smoking, but the nature of this association is discussed under various hypotheses. First, according to the so called self-medication hypothesis, those who suffer from depressive symptoms smoke cigarettes in order to alleviate their symptoms.

According to the second assumption, chronic persistent smoking may have a role in the etiology of depression. The third hypothesis suggests that there is a reciprocal mechanism between smoking and depression. The fourth hypothesis says that there are shared underlying genetic factors explaining this co-morbidity.

This study conducted in the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki explored, which of those assumptions would be supported by the data, when smoking behavior and changes in it is considered as a predictor of depressive symptoms. The researchers had access to the data collected within the Finnish Adult Twin Cohort Project. There were about four thousand male and five thousand female twins, whose health and health behavior were followed-up through 15 years.

Data on smoking behavior and changes in it between 1975 and 1981 were analyzed as a predictor of depressive symptoms measured in 1990. The analyses were adjusted for other factors known to predict depression.

Because the data consisted of twins it was possible to test the causality between smoking and depression by using twin pairs discordant for depression, where the twin without depression served as a matched control for his/her co-twin with depression. Additionally, it was possible to explore potential shared genetic influences underlying the association.

The results suggest that first, persistent chronic cigarette smoking predicts depressive symptoms. However, when adjusted for other factors associated with depression, the elevated risk of persistent smoking remained significant among men only. “The result that chronic smoking may actually have a role in the etiology of depression, may be surprising, as nicotine as such – in short term – is assumed to have some positive effects on mood”, says Dr. Tellervo Korhonen from the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki, and continues: “We should look for explanation to our result from long term effects of cigarette smoking, from addiction mechanisms and from other substances than nicotine within tobacco smoke.”

Secondly, there was evidence suggesting that those smokers who had quit had elevated depression risk in relatively short term. The association of quitting smoking and depressive symptoms gives us indirect evidence on the self-medication hypothesis. Dr. Korhonen emphasizes, however, the further evidence within the same study showing that those smokers who had quit successfully and remained abstinent through the follow-up did not have elevated depression risk compared to the never smokers.

“This may reflect a relatively long recovery process from the adverse effects of cigarette smoking” Dr. Korhonen continues.

“The mechanisms underlying the association between smoking and depression are very complicated. Although nicotine as such may have short term positive effects on concentration and possibly on mood, long term exposure to tobacco smoke may be one risk factor in development of depression.

However, this mechanism is still relatively unknown. Thus, there is need for further research and evidence in order to make an unambiguous statement that ‘smoking cigarettes cause depression’. Examination of potential shared genetic vulnerability for both tobacco dependence and depression is among the further challenges”, Dr. Korhonen is discussing the evidence so far.

According to Korhonen, one can already say that – as in prevention of many other diseases – also in prevention of depression - smoke-free life and successful smoking cessation seem to have a positive impact.

By Emmi Sjöholm

The toughest and orneriest löyly-hounds have been given temporary bans at the local swimming hall sauna

The sauna is something so taken for granted in Finnish society that one might imagine the only social problems that could arise would involve culture-shock from nudity-challenged foreigners - “But they are all NAKED!” - or vice versa from purist Finns at the way foreigners behave in the place: “Did you see that? He was reading a NEWSPAPER in there!”

Not so, apparently. A group of men - all of them are men - with a penchant for very serious throwing of water onto the sauna stove (to create the löyly effect of elevated temperature by raising the humidity level) have caused a nuisance at the Vuosaari Swimming Hall, and a sense of uncertainty about what is right in the sauna and what is not.
The situation at the public sauna there has got so steamed up that the Vuosaari Sports Centre’s managing director Kalle Kallio has even had to ban some regulars, in order that the other bathers’ enjoyment and general safety would not be jeopardised.

Ruthless throwing-on-of-water is only one of the causes for complaint this year: there have been reports of swearing and insults, too.

“We have a lot of children in here. Something has to be done.”
Apart from handing out temporary bans on individual users, there is very little recourse, since for fairly obvious reasons it is not possible to monitor the sauna with CCTV cameras.

“And we can hardly have the police or the doorman paid to sit on the sauna benches to preserve order all day”, adds Kallio.

The swimming hall is part of the sports complex in this Helsinki suburb, so around 2,500 customers pass through the front foyer each day. It is impossible to recognise and monitor the sauna hotheads as they come and go through the front door.
The wildest members of the wild bunch have not been willing to give their names to the receptionists, so it has not been possible to issue them with an official ban, but Kallio hopes that some kind of agreement can still be reached to preserve harmony in the bathhouse.

Leo Pusa is the four-time winner of the World Sauna Endurance Championships in Heinola (one of those wacky summer events with which Finland crosses the international news threshold). He no longer frequents the sauna in Vuosaari, although the ban he received from there last winter was rescinded before Easter.

Pusa has also given up on wild “löylying” in public saunas.

“People know me, so I’m not the one any longer to grab the sauna ladle and throw water on. I don’t want to look like a complete nutjob.”
Pusa is upset that for a select few the sauna experience has gone a bit far.

“It’s just embarrassing when people throw a whole bucket of water on the stones at one go.”

He hopes that Kallio would set aside the smaller sauna on the premises as an official “löylysauna”, such that people would know they can expect to get a decent pasting if they go in.
The Vuosaari situation has got so overheated that the hard men have appealed to the Data Security Ombudsman about it.

The Ombudsman Reijo Aarnio says that sauna-goers do not need to be registered, but that it would be better if the men left their more spectacular löyly-throwing exploits for the sauna at home or at the summer cabin.

He is astonished at the friction that has been caused by the bathhouse goings-on.

“It seems rather over the top to me that the authorities should be summoned to help in a sauna dispute. There are ways and ways of limiting the amount of steam in the place, for instance by installing an automatic alarm in the ceiling panels to measure the level of steam.”

This is not a unique case: there have been earlier disputes over excessive löyly-throwing, for instance at the men’s sauna in the swimming hall on Helsinginkatu, and in the smoke-sauna at Kuusijärvi in Vantaa.

It seems we still have something to learn about the national pastime.

by Juhani Artto

Job cuts have a greater impact on the mental health of men than women. This is one of the main conclusions in a recent study made by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, in cooperation with the University of London.

The sample covers over 26,500 public sector employees. More than 4,000 of them lost or left their jobs during the economic recession in the early 1990s. Almost 5,000 remained at work places where large-scale jobs cuts had been carried out. The rest, 17,600 employees, worked at work places where only small or modest job cuts had been made.

The researchers discovered that men who had lost their jobs used (1994 to 2000) about 64 per cent more central nervous system drugs than men at work places where job cuts had been small or moderate.

This came as no surprise to the researchers but they were surprised to find that mental health problems significantly increased also among men who had remained at work places where large or significant job cuts had occurred. In this group usage of central nervous system drugs was almost 50 per cent higher than among men at work places where only small or moderate job cuts had taken place.

Among female employees, at work places where large job cuts had been carried out, usage of central nervous system drugs increased by 12 per cent, compared with women at work places where small or moderate job cuts had resulted.

As indicators of drug usage the researchers availed of the Social Insurance Institute of Finland registry for purchases of depression, anxiety and sleeplessness drugs.

The increased use of psychic drugs associated with large-scale job cuts, reflects the damage to individuals in regard to stressful changes in working life, researcher Jussi Vahtera asserts in his assessment of the results of the study. He warns that the increased usage of psychic drugs may also have a deeper impact on the whole society.

In promotion of mental health it is important to pay attention to working conditions, Vahtera emphasises.

By Juha Salonen

It has been a quiet morning in the so-called “real men’s sauna” at the Vuosaari Swimming Hall.

Pauli Nevalainen and Tuomas Kekki have bathed without any need for an urgent escape through the door. The heavy-handed löyly-throwers have not shown up today.
The two men have heard stories about such incidents.

“Yes, there have been times when it’s been so hot that there isn’t much room left down on the lower benches”, says Kekki.

“Once there was this guy who poured a whole bucket of water on the stones as he was leaving. I can assure you he wasn’t alone in heading out of the door. Fast. I don’t take part in these sorts of competitions - the old ticker won’t take it any more”, says Kekki, who comes to the hall two or three times a week.

Pauli Nevalainen is another regular visitor, a couple of times a week. He says he has not run into the serious löyly-artists.

“But one good thing about this hall is that you don’t get the boozing sort in here”, he says.
At the swimming hall’s cafeteria, Nikolai Nikanow is waiting for his wife, who is doing some water aerobics. He says that this spring he has two or three times come up against a situation where the water has been going on the sauna-stones with more than the usual regularity.

“A couple of times there were people in there throwing the stuff like there was no tomorrow. It got so bloody hot in there that there were only one or two people left on the upper benches ‘enjoying’ it. The others had all moved down closer to floor level or had voted with their feet and left altogether”, Nikanow reports.
There are two men’s saunas in the Vuosaari establishment. The “family sauna” is intended for normal mortals. The smaller of the two hot-rooms, the one for the real men, has been set aside for those who like it not just hot, but hotter than hell.

The ambient temperature in the sauna is kept above that in the family sauna, and the users make sure the humidity level stays high.

The heat is achieved by a special sprinkler, which squirts a shower of water onto the stones every time the temperature slips back down enough. The sensitivity of the sprinkler system can also be tuned to suit your own tastes, and people also manually throw on water, as in the normal sauna experience.

Nikanow has not taken part in any of the endurance competitions.

“There are a few of them who throw more than the others. My personal opinion is that since it is a public place, they could take a little more account of the other people in there when they are tossing the water on.”

Some Finns took part in Hitler’s birthday celebration in Tallinn
 
A total of seven Finns have been banned from entering Estonia on suspicion of association with “extremist and racist movements”, Estonian Ministry of the Interior representative Katrin Vides revealed on Tuesday.

A ban on entry has been imposed on two more Finns because of their criminal backgrounds.

The Estonian daily Postimees reported on Tuesday about three Finns, who were banned from entering Estonia at the beginning of the year for a ten-year period because of alleged neo-Nazi connections.

The men have denied the allegations and have appealed against the decision.

According to the Tallinn-based Finnish police liaison officer, embassy counsellor Ari Lahtela, the number of imposed bans on entry is not significant considering the vast number of Finns travelling to Estonia each year.

“It also does not compare to the number of Estonians who have been banned from entering Finland”, Lahtela continues.

The recently-published Estonian Security Police annual report establishes that last year “skinheads” aspired to create an umbrella organisation in Estonia. International contacts were established, and the skinhead ideology was spread at so-called private parties.

The three Finns who have appealed against the entry-ban took part in one such gathering, which was a fancy dress party organised on the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birthday in Tallinn last year.

“Around 25 individuals were present, 15 of whom could be identified from a photograph”, the organiser of the party, Risto Teinonen, 47, says.

Teinonen, who is of Finnish origin, received Estonian citizenship in 2002 for services rendered to the government. Lately the Estonian Security Police has been keeping a keen eye on Teinonen’s doings.

In Estonia, Teinonen is involved in the “New Europe” association.
The organisation has reprinted the books Hitler the Liberator and Hitler and Children from the German occupation period. The latter of the two has also been published in Finnish, German, and English.

According to Teinonen, the books were reissued merely as samples of the German propaganda of the period for those interested in history.

In conjunction with the recent disturbances in Tallinn, politician Dimitri Klenski, who utilised the opportunity to get visibility in the streets, used the same books to demonstrate to the foreign media that there is fascism in modern Estonia.