On March 28th, 2005, Conan O’Brien did another “Conan hates my homeland” piece (8MB) on Finland. Here is the clip for you to download. It’s encoded in XviD so you may need to download this to watch it.

Conan says…

“Finland – you’ve had over 5,000 years of culture and the world’s most famous Finn is still Huckleberry.”

Then he goes on to make fun of Georgia…

“Georgia – where Europe meets Asia and says ‘Hey! Why don’t we both dump our crap here.’”

You can download the first two Conan Hates Finland segements here and here. I love Conan.

Here’s an on-going list of all the countries Conan has made fun of so far along with what he said about them. (thanks superiorinferior for the link)

In his latest Finland Journal column, Thanos K. (of The Ovi magazine) takes on Paavo Lipponen, SDP, George W. Bush, and his own critics…

First of all, I’d like to thank the anonymous friend for telling me that I have no right to express my opinions about Finnish politics and to bug off to my country; an answer I get quite often and, from what I know, I’m not the only one. I have the luxury of being a European citizen, which means that I didn’t come here because I was hunted for my ideas or searching for a chance to survive. I came here for different reasons, strong enough that neither Lipponen’s policy nor Annelli’s ideas can change.

Read the entire article from Finland Journal.

The Chairman of the Helsinki City Board, Jussi Pajunen (Kokoomus), was chosen as Mayor of Helsinki – The Helsinki City Council made an unanimous decision on the appointment without putting the issue to a vote. But the ultra left aren’t happy about that (no surprise there)…

While the appointment was based on an agreement among the major political parties, the extreme left Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and the Left Alliance both expressed criticism over the methods of the election procedure.

…so what are they upset over (other than the fact that they lost)? I thought the ultra left liked the idea of of these bureaucratic “appointments” rather than voting.

Jussi Pajunen, the next mayor of Helsinki…for the next 7 years”

Erkki Liikanen, the Governor of the Bank of Finland, comments in a Helsingin Sanomat Int’l Ed. article…

In addition to the labour issue, Liikanen sees other potential problems for the Finnish economy. He noted that a shortage of land is inhibiting investments in construction, pushing up housing prices.
“It is pretty strange that in such a developed and sparsely-populated country, the rise in the prices of housing is caused by a shortage of land. Something is going wrong here”, Liikanen said, calling for a focus on zoning, and making more land available for construction.

…could it have anything to do with the Finnish government’s strict zoning laws??

STT’s headline reads…

Conservative Sauli Niinistö to run for Finnish president

YLE’s headline reads…

Niinistö to Run for President; Halonen Leads Early Polls

Sheesh!! They might have well said, “Niinistö to run for president; but has no chance in hell”

Local residents do not need to worry and evacuation of the area is unlikely,

Niinistö served as a Member of the Finnish Parliament, Minister of Finance, and as chairman of the National Coalition Party

r Tuomioja is to officially announce his candidacy and release details of his decision at a press conference on Friday afternoon

Liikanen sees other potential problems for the Finnish economy

Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and the Left Alliance both expressed criticism

New passports perhaps not issued until turn of the year

Purpose was to buy goods during the trip for resale back at home