Donating money to the Finnish Red Cross for disaster relief couldn’t be easier, just call a number and your phone account is billed. There are different amounts you can donate…

0600 414141 (20 euroa / puhelu + pvm)
0600 12220 (19,95 euroa/puhelu +pvm)
0600 412 777 (10 euroa / puhelu + pvm)
0600 12210 (9,85 euroa/puhelu +pvm)
0600 411 777 (5,05 euroa / puhelu + pvm)

Click here for more information.

I shouldn’t be picking fun at spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, cause I make them all the time but this one from YLE made me chuckle…

In 2004 the population increased faster than it has in the past eight years. Moe children were born, fewer people died, and immigration has also increased.

On the pic to your right, you can see that Moe is surprised as we are that his offspring are in Finland.

Being a non-smoker, if I were to walk into a smoke-filled restaurant or pub and felt uncomfortable, I would leave, I’d go find a restaurant with a non-smokers section. If I were offered a job in a smoke-filled restaurant or pub, I wouldn’t take it, I’d find a job where I didn’t have to work in those conditions. Other people (like smokers) may disagree with me, but that’s their individual decision.

What’s so hard to understand about this, Finnish government?

The nanny-state obviously (again) thinks you are too stupid to decide where you should eat. Minister of Socialist Services, Liisa Hyssälä, is discussing the possibility of banning smoking in all restaurants or tightning up restrictions on smokers.

Why not allow individual restaurants make their own regulations about smoking? It is their private property after all and no one is forcing you to eat or work in their establishment.

Freedom vs. Control

At least seven Finnish cities have decided to cancel New Year’s fireworks displays

FinnChurchAid (FCA) has collected more than 205,000 euros while Finland’s UNICEF has drummed up 50,000 euros

As of Wednesday night, more than 200 Finns remained unaccounted for

Finnair discriminated against certain employees in terms of pay, access to training and methods of adding up years of service

Thai authorities told earlier 13 Finns would have perished in the catastrophe

The bilingualism of Finnish police was questioned in the autumn

Need cash? For the residents of Utsjoki, the nearest bank ATM is 125 kilometres away

Study says countryside, politics, and economy also changed

Fate of tourists in Khao Lak continues to cause considerable alarm

My favorite U.S. TV comedy show will meet my favorite U.K. TV comedy show next year. Ricky Gervais (AKA David Brent AKA The Brentmeister General) from BBC’s “The Office” has been asked to write for “The Simpsons.”

Gervais says, “It’s the greatest show on earth and I’m sure that all I can do is make it slightly worse”

Ricky Gervais & Homer Simpson have to be the two funniest people in the history of comedy. Ever since the end of The Office last Christmas (14 episodes is way too few for such an incredible show), I’ve been dying to know what Ricky Gervais will do next.

In case you give damn, I think my Top 5 favorite TV comedies of all time are…

1. The Simpsons
2. Mr. Show
3. Saturday Night Live (Late 80’s - 1995)
4. The Office
5. South Park

Here is my lame analogy about Jesus and the tsunami aid relief…

Everyone including myself likes to complain about how the “wealthy” United States donates less money-per-citizen compared to many other (especially European) countries for disaster relief and other world issues. Now I’d like you to read one of my most memorable bible quotes (thank Dusty_bin for refreshing my memory about this one)…

“And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the multitude were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. And calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.’” (Mark 12:41-44)

The rich people donated alot, but the poor woman gave everything she had…which wasn’t much - Then Jesus declares that she has given the most of all.

The United States is that poor woman. The U.S. is up to its neck in a 7.6 trillion dollar debt, and yet, it gave an initial 15 million dollars to the tsunami aid relief. The poor woman probably had no debt. And how much is Finland’s debt? Probably nowhere near 7.6 trillion.

So I ask you, who gave “more”??

Hahahaaa. Okay, that was pretty ridiculous, right? Don’t take that analogy too seriously.

Does the Finnish/American government’s donation to the disaster relief indirectly hamper the individual donations of Finnish/American citizens? This doesn’t just apply to Finland or the United States, it can apply to any country.

Do you think Finns/Americans might say to themselves, “Well, I don’t need to donate anything myself because my government and tax-money is doing it for me?”

If Finland & the United States wouldn’t give any money to the disaster relief, would this raise, lower, or keep steady the amount of individual donations?

Finland has donated 2.5 million euros. That’s something like 48 cents per citizen. Big deal. If each person would donate just 10 euros, that’s 52 million euros from little Finland. Now of course there are unemployed persons and non-workers like children who couldn’t afford 10 euros, but surely some of Finland’s middle-class and wealthier citizens could donate 15 or 20 euros to make up the difference don’t you think?

We all know how Finland craves any competition with neighboring Sweden. Maybe a fundraising competition could be setup between the Swedes and the Finns to see which country could raise more money? Surely the Finns wouldn’t want to see their arch-rivals beat them.

I’m not saying I necessarily agree with all this but I have confidence that the Finnish & American citizens could easily outperform the normal disaster relief donations of their governments. In my opinion, 48 cents per person and even LESS from Americans is almost an insult to unfortunate victims in Asia.

…just a thought.