American culture infiltrating Finland?
With Conan O’Brien’s visit to Finland, there’s been a lot of talk about American culture infiltrating Finland. This country is full of American movies, American TV shows, American TV stars, American music, American holidays, American bloggers;-) etc… Is this a “bad” thing?
Well the Finnish people don’t seem to think so, because if Finns weren’t seeing the movies and watching the TV shows and listening to the music and dressing up for Halloween and waiting for two hours in freezing cold temperatures to get a glimpse of late night talk show hosts…they wouldn’t be here. Finns like American culture, so it’s here. If they didn’t like it, it wouldn’t be here. Simple as that.
So what’s the big deal? Is it that some Finns don’t like American culture or they don’t like any outside cultures or they don’t like seeing Finnish culture “decline”? Growing up I loved only British music. Depeche Mode, Erasure, The Smiths, New Order…all that 80’s new wave stuff was pretty much entirely British. Then in 90’s I still continued to like only British bands, all the “alternative” music was coming from the U.K. Never once did I hear my parents, peers, newspapers, media or government compain that this foreign culture was negatively invading my American culture. In fact, being multicultural was in the “in thing”. To this day most of the music I listen to comes out of the UK. Should I be concerned? I couldn’t give a shit where my music, movies or culture comes from. It’s what I enjoy and that’s all that matters.
great photo of a great band phil! by the way moz will play the cable factory on the 4th of April.
A great book about american infiltration in Finland, although fictional, is Kjell Westö’s ‘The Curse of Being Skrake’, I think the book tells everything you need to know about this matter…
Comment by interflug — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
by the way moz will play the cable factory on the 4th of April.
REALLY??????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Have tix gone on sale yet???
Comment by Phil — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:12 pm
“Finland is the most American Country in Europe.”
When was the last time you heard a Finn say that proudly?
Just like Americans, Finns seem to take what they want of other cultures and then alter it to make it their own. (too bad they ruined pizza in the process…)
Comment by Fred Fry — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:14 pm
tickets on sale on monday
Comment by interflug — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
Interesting… just because a large part of the population likes it, doesn’t mean it’s good. For example, cheeseburgers. No-one can claim they’re good - but plenty of people like them, so they invade.
Anyway… enough of my tree-hugging… selfishly, I don’t want to see American culture take over that of Finland because it’s the Finnish culture I’m interested in. I think there’s something about Finns though, which won’t allow American culture to permeate 100%.
Comment by Stu — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
“Just like Americans, Finns seem to take what they want of other cultures and then alter it to make it their own. (too bad they ruined pizza in the process…)”
The Japanese are masters in this culture adoption. They have practised it for thousands of years, first it was China who was the culture “source”, more recently Europe and especially US. And at the same time they have preserved the “japaneseness” very strong in their culture.
Phil, multiculturalism is a really great thing, and that’s exactly my point. Too often it seems US influence is so dominating that it’s not _multi_culturalism, it’s monoculture. Yeah, it wouldn’t be here if people didn’t like it, but it has also lot to do with US current hegemony in the world. Multiculturalism at its best IMHO would be taking various things from various cultures and adopting them as you like. Now it seems we have mostly American culture adopted. Some of it is great, some of it is horrible.
Comment by Passer-by — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:23 pm
Btw: Depeche Mode rocks!
Comment by Passer-by — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:24 pm
I never understood the talk bout Finland being the most American country in Europe.
Accoding to statistics, doesn’t Finland still have the most domestically dominated music sales numbers in Europe? Meaning that the vast majority of records sold in Finland are Finnish?
And this we do all by ourselves, without needing to make any laws like the French do.
I’m a huge pop-culture whore and a big part of the stuff I consume is American. Like Phil said, I consume it because I like it, regardless of its origin. It’s not the fact that the US dominates our pop-culture arena that bothers me, it’s the occasional force-feeding. “OMG, this show is so popular in the States, we just have to make it popular here too!”
Just because a TV-show/movie/artist/band/whatever is popular in the US doesn’t mean that it should be immediately imported here, too. Even the US produces very culture-specific pop culture which just does not export well.
Comment by Anzi — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:25 pm
“So what’s the big deal?”
Some Americans suck. It’s hard to strain them out of the cultural infiltration tsunami.
Comment by Kaaleppi — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:45 pm
Well, North-Karelian farmers wives have found out, that the machine you use to make pasta suits perfectly for making the karelian pastries also. That’s pretty much sums it up.
We would have perished long ago, if this country was a freezer, where everybody still walks in tuohivirsu and sings in trocheic tetrameter. They can be still found though, if you scratch the surface a little.
Comment by antti (the redneck one) — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:51 pm
Here’s some info about the Morrissey gig http://www.tiketti.fi/uutiset/502
Don’t know how well you can understand finnish so here’s a quick translation:
Morrissey is going to perform at Helsinki Cablefactory tuesday 4.4.2006. Doors open at 19.00 and the music starts about 20.00.
Tickets will be on sale starting monday 20.2. at 9.00. Cost will be 47 euros. Limited to 4 tickets per customer.
Comment by Lasse — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 3:55 pm
Cost will be 47 euros.
47 euros for Moz?? Damn, that’s alot.
Comment by Phil — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 4:20 pm
Phil
I got the day off…. Sick day. So I have a whole day of culture infiltration, orphan starving, oil stealing, and war mongering to attend to.
let’s get to it!
Comment by winter — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 4:24 pm
“Never once did I hear my parents, peers, newspapers, media or government compain that this foreign culture was negatively invading my American culture.”
Well this is really because American culture, that is culture of the United States (which indeed is in itself very diversified), is commonly thought to be part of the anglo-saxian cultural hegemony. Of course this does not apply for example to music (and by this I mean pretty much all the popular music types and a hell of lot of the less popular), which in United States has it’s roots mainly in African music brought by the slaves.
Comment by BurrBurr — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 4:28 pm
Most of the so called “american culture” is actually culture of individualism. I’m only happy if it replaces collectivist traditions forever!
Comment by qwerty — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 4:47 pm
Millions of flies can’t be wront: shit is good.
>Most of the so called “american culture†is actually culture of
>individualism.
You can’t be serious.. Most of the so called “american culture”
is group mentality at its best, without any trace of individuality
and originality (or culture)!
Comment by qwerty — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:00 pm
for me the most unfortunate thing is the pervasiveness of the golden arches of mcdonalds in this country (around the world for that matter). how many years before finland becomes a nation of morbidly obese lardasses like the majority of folks back in my homeland? one thing that continues to amaze me after my years in finland is the absense of fatsos in stretch pants. i hope it stays like this.
Comment by jenkki immigrant — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:10 pm
Do you think this is a new phenomena? Why do you think even the middle-aged Finns can speak passable English? Influence of American culture has reached its peak a long time ago… in fact there’s a lot of anti-americanism in youth under the surface. That’s what’s really IN these days ;o)
Comment by Arvid — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:15 pm
Never once did I hear my parents, peers, newspapers, media or government compain that this foreign culture was negatively invading my American culture.
I guess that the main difference is that Finland is after all a tiny country. I’m not saying that there are grounds for negative attitudes towards foreign cultural products, but those who see the situation differently probably think that in this case size does matter. Ultimately it’s the same kind of thinking (irrational fear of changes) that keeps organizations like Suomen Sisu going.
Comment by Joonas — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:17 pm
Oops, forgot to close the i-code… Let’s try that again:
Never once did I hear my parents, peers, newspapers, media or government compain that this foreign culture was negatively invading my American culture.
I guess that the main difference is that Finland is after all a tiny country. I’m not saying that there are grounds for negative attitudes towards foreign cultural products, but those who see the situation differently probably think that in this case size does matter. Ultimately it’s the same kind of thinking (irrational fear of changes) that keeps organizations like Suomen Sisu going.
Comment by Joonas — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:19 pm
[b]how many years before finland becomes a nation of morbidly obese lardasses like the majority of folks back in my homeland?[/b]
Dude, McDonalds has bee in Finland for 20 years, and I believe we had bad diet before that. There’s something more into it… see Supersize Me for reference.
Comment by Arvid — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:19 pm
“for me the most unfortunate thing is the pervasiveness of the golden arches of mcdonalds in this country (around the world for that matter).”
Hesburger is giving McDonald’s a run for its money in Finland. Maybe not in the greater Helsinki area, but everywhere else it’s more about Hese, or the local “grilli”, than it is about the golden arches.
Not that that’s any better because fast food sucks, but it is yet another example of how a foreign influence has been successfully morphed into a domestic thing.
Comment by Anzi — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:21 pm
I wouldn’t call any popular culture culture, just something idiot teens pay for and watch because some idiot popular medias say it’s popular.
What American holidays? No halloween (originally Irish, but it got linked to Usa since they made it a bigger spectacle, much like with Santa wearing red&white and moving to North Pole since Coca-Cola took interrest in it) or thanksgiving in here, eventhough there was a (most likely Canadian, spoke French and English well, I never asked since it didn’t seem important) exchange student, who tried to organise some sort of festivities…*
TV-stuff, naturally about half comes from Usa since it’s in English and we already get all the good British programs, and even with pretty much everything ever filmed in Finnish getting aired there’s still plenty of empty space to fill with same cartoon show seasons 4-6 times in a row all year long, pre-laughed/fashion crap and emotions&guns-movies for background noise when there’s nothing interresting on but you still don’t want to close the TV since there’s sports or Lotto/Keno-numbers on soon. More and more programs in French, Spanish and Swedish now that the Swedes bought Almamedia (or just MTV3 and SubTV, I dunno), a change for the better, but they should get newer stuff in German, Der Alte and the one with Matula probably filmed when there still was a DDR.
And possibly it’s easy to have stuff from Usa, since it’s easy to say why this and that isn’t even American culture because it’s originally from here and there and only American because they started making a big deal out of it… except with cartoons, (unless you count those French guys who invented the movie camera and the French guy who made the first animated film with it and tons of pictures on paper (just some guy walking endlessly, guess he lacked patience or was just making a point that it can be done)) and with jazz (which, unlike blues that nomads of North-Africa had first, didn’t come from Africa even if the first players of jazz-like music seem very African).
Bloggers? Well… since it’s part of national identity to not complain about things you don’t care about and not brag about stuff you didn’t do yourself, doesn’t leave much to say especially since very few value attention from media or some people in some countries reading and dumping stupid rants such as mine on the site for some reason.
Where as Americans are known for bragging about absolutely everything everywhere and always acting as if they wanted to shout out “Look at me! I exist, pay attention to me! I want to get noticed! Stop looking at that, look at me!”. Weakness of character to need attention from others to be satisfied, but I guess Americans are like most poultry; selfpresentation determines everything, the ones that brag least get pecked on by everyone else.
Comment by A Finn — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:21 pm
“I wouldn’t call any popular culture culture, just something idiot teens pay for and watch because some idiot popular medias say it’s popular.”
So popular culture is always mass culture? Pop culture consumers are always brainless idiots who do whatever the media tells them?
Is the idea that pop culture is actually the culture of the repressed and the underpriviledged and their way of rebelling against the main culture foreign to you?
If it is, it shouldn’t be.
Comment by Anzi — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:27 pm
>You can’t be serious.. Most of the so called “american cultureâ€Â
>is group mentality at its best, without any trace of individuality
>and originality (or culture)!
Not most of it. Only part. Unfortunately that part is growing. Still american culture is more individualistic than any other.
Comment by qwerty — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:30 pm
>You can’t be serious.. Most of the so called “american cultureâ€Â
>is group mentality at its best, without any trace of individuality
>and originality (or culture)!
FYI: culture of individualism should NOT have originality!
It seems that you aren’t even aware of what you are talking about.
Comment by qwerty — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:32 pm
Well you sure have a great taste of music =)
Comment by petra — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:41 pm
I think wen people complain about alien cultures invading, they are worried about their values. Take cinema in the UK for instance - almost all of them are US owned. The distributors are US owned. US films have huge marketing budgets. The reality is that if your promotion is slick enough and you have enough money, you can dominate.
If all your music/entertainment comes from one culture and represents the values of that culture, your own values are in danger. Teenagers are morons - show them violence or tits or gangsters and they’ll lap it up. You can provoke all kinds of emotion and change opinions with popular culture. If it’s dominated by the US you get those values - often violence, materialism, anti-community, promiscuous sex and so on. I’m not judging those, I’m just saying that’s where the worries come from.
Comment by finnsense — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:42 pm
in fact there’s a lot of anti-americanism in youth under the surface. That’s what’s really IN these days ;o)
Yeah, they’re anti-American then they race home to watch “The Bachelor” while listening to “Fity Cent” on the way.
Comment by Phil — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:47 pm
Eh, America tolerates multiculturalism to a point. It’s ok to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, but you’ll get a lot of weird looks if you name your daughter “Saoirse.”
We have ethnic communities, but most ethnicities are reduced to cuisine in a few generations.
Also, Phil, your British analogy is good, but I can imagine if you were obsessed with French rap, you may have turned a few heads in your high school.
Many Americans get uptight about anything in a foreign language. Watching Italian or French or Japanese films is seen as weird by nationalist ‘red state’ Americans. People asked my wife, who is Estonian, if she is going to teach her her language - (suppressing laughter)
Plus we are very provincial here in the states. People don’t like it when other regional cultures ‘invade’ their space. that’s why there’s this backlash in middle America against “Hollywood liberals” and, personally, why hearing country music on the radio in New York sort of makes me queasy.
Comment by giustino — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:50 pm
(if my wife is going to teach our child Estonian, sorry)
Comment by giustino — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:54 pm
>”US films have huge marketing budgets. The reality is that if your >promotion is slick enough and you have enough money, you can dominate”
Well, how do you explain those big budget movies that have failed?
I’m not saying that big budget won’t help. But eventually you can’t sell anything if your products suck. European movies have had more than enough time to show their success but still people prefer american movies.
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 5:55 pm
Swedish now that the Swedes bought Almamedia (or just MTV3 and SubTV, I dunno)
The Swedes bought Alma Media’s Broadcasting division and in return sold the rest to Finnish owners, so Alma Media’s newspapers and websites are Finnish-owned where as MTV3, Subtv, Sävelradio, most of Radio Nova and a part of Urheilukanava are now owned by a holding company of the Swedish media group Bonnier and investment firm Proventus.
in fact there’s a lot of anti-americanism in youth under the surface. That’s what’s really IN these days ;o)
There’s something utterly funny when you see some of those people demonstrating against some U.S. military actions while dressed in a Che Guevara t-shirt topped with Soviet pins. That’s some great thinking indeed! ;D
Comment by Joonas — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:07 pm
>FYI: culture of individualism should NOT have originality!
>It seems that you aren’t even aware of what you are talking about.
Thank you so for remembering that english isn’t my native
language, and “originality” might not be the correct word what
I meant!
My point is, no part of american culture is more than group
mentality, people plagiating each others and following commercial
ideas. In fact, in my opinion, the world “culture” doesn’t
belong to that sentence at all. It’s more like commercial slavery.
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:08 pm
Valentine, halloween etc. are all commercial and pretty new ideas. I don’t think that too many people in Nordic countries think about things like that when you talk about “culture”. They’re just commercial money spending days and holidays. Most people I know mean something very different by the word “culture”, and that kind of culture is nearly non-existent in the US (excluding some attempts to copy european culture, and the results are usually horrible).
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:12 pm
“It’s more like commercial slavery”
You are so leftist. You don’t know that the market is based on individual freedom. People are voluntarily trading with each other
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:13 pm
“European movies have had more than enough time to show their success but still people prefer american movies.”
The majority of European movies aren’t “McDonalds for the masses” like Hollywood films. It’s clear that cheasy movies, cheasy pop music etc. are always going to be more popular than e.g. classical music, opera, theatre, artistically satisfying cinemas etc. as there are less sophisicated and educated audience than average people who aren’t searching for nourishment for the soul, but simply something easy for turning their brains off.
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
“You are so leftist. You don’t know that the market is based on individual freedom. People are voluntarily trading with each other”
Thank you for sticking to the facts. Politically I’m at the right.
It seems that you don’t have much education about marketing and economics. Of course people are voluntarily exchanging money. But psychologically they are not free, but following group mentality and following artificial needs created by master marketers. There’s nothing individual in doing something just because everyone else does the same thing, or because advertisements and TV brainwashing tells you that it’s “cool” and “everyone does it”, so you should do it too.
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:25 pm
While you are importing American culture, could I make the case for importing Cheese-Its tasty snack crackers? The hot and spicy tabasco variety? Maybe Tricuits, too.
Comment by hfb — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:32 pm
“Hey, it’s halloween! Everyone is carving pumpkins! Lets carve a pumpkin! Even better, lets drive to the Wall Mart and buy a truck load of plastic pumpkins!”
So individual. Just as individual as:
“Hey, it’s Kim Jong Il day! Everyone is taking flowers to the Great Leader! Lets all go and take flower to the Great Leader’s statue!”
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 6:34 pm
“The majority of European movies aren’t “McDonalds for the masses†like Hollywood films. It’s clear that cheasy movies, cheasy pop music etc. are always going to be more popular than e.g. classical music, opera, theatre, artistically satisfying cinemas etc. as there are less sophisicated and educated audience than average people who aren’t searching for nourishment for the soul, but simply something easy for turning their brains off.”
That’s very untrue. Most of the highly educated people prefer “Hollywood” movies.
Those who watch the “European artistic” movies are mostly collectivists/leftists (you can do a survey if you don’t believe me in this!)
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 7:29 pm
I was born in Canada, I grew up in Chicago, and I’ve lived in Switzerland since 2000. My father was born and grew up in Finland (Kauhava), and my mother’s parents came from Finland also. I spoke Finnish with my father when I was growing up, and English with my mom (although she is also fluent in Finnish). I grew up listening to U.S. and British rock, but there were the ever-present background sounds of my father’s Finnish accordian music tapes coming from the stereo in the basement. To this day, I still don’t really care for Finnish music (I find it too depressing). I grew up completely immersed in American culture, but when people ask me what I am, I tell them I’m Finnish.
I agree with Stu’s comment above: “…there’s something about Finns that won’t allow American culture to permeate 100%.” I’ll tell you what it is…it’s SISU!!! You just can’t crack it!
Comment by The Big Finn — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 7:50 pm
Why you folks say that Valentine’s is an American Holiday?
History Of Valentine’s day
Learn about how Valentines day came into practice as it is today. The origin of this lovers day goes back to as early as 270 A.D from when the history of this day begins. Just read on and discover the true meaning of this festival. Read on…
http://www.theholidayspot.com/valentine/history_of_valentine.htm
Comment by conan — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 8:06 pm
I never understood the talk bout Finland being the most American country in Europe.
Me neither. After all, Finland is kind of a “Scandinivian society” where people, for example, think it’s ok that everybody has equal opportunities, unlike the USA.
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 8:55 pm
back to mcdonalds. the first time i ever came to finland, mickey d’s was only in tampere in helsinki. now even fucking seinäjoki has two mcdonalds. shit, my hometown doesn’t even have one. then again my hometown ain’t nowhere close to the cultural mecca that seinäjoki is. my point is this. i am a refugee from the land of the morbidly obese zombies. i don’t want to see my new homeland turn into the same thing. sure your sausage potato koskenkorva diet wasn’t that great to begin with, but, as most pediatricians will tell you, fast food french fries are like poison for children. finland, please, don’t turn into lardass america.
Comment by jenkki immigrant — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 9:51 pm
and i lied. seinäjoki only has 1 mickey d’s. sorry for the misinformation. i checked my databank (aka the wife) and she let me know i was wrong. typical american knowitall. anyways y’all (ie the nation of finland) are stuck with me… i never intend on leaving.
Comment by jenkki immigrant — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
I think Nurmo is part of Seinäjoki.
Comment by jormanen — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 10:44 pm
No, Nurmo isn’t part of Seinäjoki, and what the hell has it got to do with anything?
Comment by Passer-by — Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 @ 10:53 pm
Why you folks say that Valentine’s is an American Holiday?
Because it is, in its current permutation. And the website you linked to is an amusing example of exactly that: the American approach.
Comment by Söderberg — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 12:08 am
It’s arguable that outcries of “Beware! Americana!” is actually just a natural defence for people who are struggling to figure out what Finland’s identity is as a people on the global playing field. Consider for a moment how difficult it would be for Dallas, TX residents to have an identity that is unique throughout the world — a hockey/baseball/football team is a far cry from what’s required for national identity.
Comment by Markus — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 12:11 am
After all, Finland is kind of a “Scandinivian society†where people, for example, think it’s ok that everybody has equal opportunities, unlike the USA.
Heh, if Finland actually had a larger immigration policy like Sweden or France or the U.S….we’d have plenty of people who dont’ have an equal opportunity.
Comment by Phil — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 12:17 am
Since we are talking about American vs Finnish culture and how you know when you’ve been in Finland too long, here’s a list (from a Finnish point of view) on how you know when you’ve been in the US too long….
1. You think that Canadians are thick, because they can’t measure things using logical metrics like gallons, inches, pounds and feet.
2. You consider “Crown Royal†a premium whisky, because it tastes great with 7-Up.
3. You’re happy to pay 10 bucks for a pizza with a 1-inch thick crust and a 1/1000 of an inch thick layer of tomato sauce and tasteless cheese. After all, it’s a healthy meal.
4. You think Paris Hilton was named after a casino hotel in Las Vegas.
5. You think it’s entirely normal for a human being to spend his entire life within the borders of his home country.
6. Your 2-year old gets thirsty; you put Coke Classic with ice into a “tuttipulloâ€Â.
7. All the furniture, appliances, art work, etc. in your house have some type of cup holders in them.
8. You speak of the characters of “Friends†like they are real people.
9. You believe that since Eve came from Adam’s rib, the Evolution Theory must be terrorist propaganda.
10. You believe there is nothing wrong with drinking and driving as long as you don’t feel drunk.
11. You own 20 different hunting rifles and actually use them all…………… frequently.
12. You believe that camouflage pattern and neon orange are the only acceptable colors for a baseball cap.
13. Your refer to taking a job at the local Walmart as “making a major career moveâ€Â.
14. You pay $5,000 for a motorized wheelchair, because due to your serious weight problem the walk from your car into the Burger King has become unbearable.
15. You think that only homeless weirdos walk to places.
16. Car racing where drivers just need to steer left has become more interesting than car racing where drivers might actually have to steer both right and left.
17. You believe that if an 18 year old boy has sex with his 17 year old long term girl friend on his 18th birthday, he should get a life sentence for child molestation.
18. You appear behind the window of the Aamu TV studio at Lasipalatsi at 5.30am on a freezing Feb morning with a home-baked pie and a sign that says, “Greetings from Espooâ€Â.
19. If ice ceased to exist, you would die of thirst.
20. Seeing the President would make you behave like a 12 yr old school girl in front of the New Kids on the Block.
21. You believe that the Harley-Davidson is the best, most advanced motorcycle in the world and totally worth $25,000.
22. You need 10 ton truck for running errands.
23. Recon, covert ops, sabotage, and superior firepower are terms that frequently appear in your mind every year around the time you and your neighbors start hanging up your exterior Xmas lights.
24. As you end your cell phone call, you wonder whether the rest of the world will ever experience what it’s like to have a cheap, well-functioning mobile phone service that actually might someday work outside of the city too.
25. You use Instant Messaging to communicate with 284 people in a day (incl. your colleague who sits in the same cubicle), but can’t understand why anybody would send a text message instead of calling someone.
26. Your first criteria in buying clothes is always comfort, so your jeans look like two blue potato sacks sown together.
27. You hate it when Scandinavians come to your country to leech off your generous social security system.
28. You agree that 16 is the perfect age to start a big family.
29. You have absolutely no problems in keeping a nice white smile on your face while telling someone to fuck off.
30. You become pissed off every time you meet a foreigner who knows more about your country than you do.
31. It’s 2006, and you have at least five fading “Bush-Cheney 2004†stickers on your bumper.
32. Since you find it impossible to keep your mouth shut even when you have absolutely nothing to say, you decide to talk some more about last week’s weather.
Comment by The Dude — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 2:21 am
My day off was way cool
I saw the USA Harshness Committee working to foreclose on an additional three hundred widows today.
Then the Economic Committee meet to devise still more ways to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The Inquisition Committee continues worked on detailed planning for the Giant Liberal Round-Up and Baptism.
And for all of us in the USA, no matter how little spare time we have, can emit at least some greenhouse gases. Those of you with SUV’s… start ‘em up and let ‘em run!
That was my day off.
Comment by winter — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 2:31 am
Phil,
Did you just delete my posting?
The Dude
Comment by The Dude — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 3:11 am
Of course, there is American influence in Finland. But I think that is quite natural for a small European country. However, I don’t think that the influence is as perversive as it may seem. Regardless of some outward negativity, I think Finns are highly nationalistic. They seem to be proud of their technological achievements, their toughness in Talvisota and the fact that Finland competes in many areas despite a population of only 5.2 million.
I think the American sense of individualism does attrack many Finns, especially ambitious Finns who are fed up with the welfare state dictating to them how they should live their lives. The natural alternative is the USA.
Off the point, but I want to disagree with ‘jenkki immigrant’ on post #45.. Yes, of course society in America isn’t as ‘equal’ as Finland, per se. However, when a poor black girl from Birmingham, Alabama can grow up and become Secretary of State, I’d say the opportunities are there for those who want them. Unlike in Finland, where ambitious people are taxed into mediocrity.
Comment by Jason Ward — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 7:27 am
Except for hockey players, of course
Comment by Jason Ward — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 7:28 am
Did you just delete my posting?
I never delete any comments unless they’re spam. It just got caught in my spam-guard, now it’s online.
Comment by Phil — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 9:14 am
Intresting and mostly sophisticated conversation here, good, here’s a change to that.
It is not the foreign “culture” I dislike. Here I don’t think commercialism as culture, that’s why the “”:s.
I dislike the package where culture is delivered in.
I don’t understand why Samin Baari has to be Sam’s Pub.
I like food of many origins, also fries and burgers, but it’s kinda absurd when sign says Clubburger and girl behind the counter says: “Klupi hampurilainen”.
Someone already mentioned sucking good things out of invading culture. That we propably should do, but we aren’t.
We are trying to swallow it without baiting, hell, we aren’t even unwrapping the damn’ candy.
Comment by issi — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 9:35 am
I never delete any comments unless they’re spam. It just got caught in my spam-guard, now it’s online.
“The dude” post in #52 looks like spam to me.
Comment by mapleleaf — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 10:03 am
We are trying to swallow it without baiting, hell, we aren’t even unwrapping the damn’ candy.
But the baiting goes on, nevertheless. And it’s not just a matter of cultural difference. It’s a matter of Finnish bigotry.
Comment by Finnpundit — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:00 pm
Finnpundit, what’s this huge cultural difference between Finland and America? What’s so bigoted about Finns embracing American culture? And of course, there are many cultures in America (many Americas) just like there is really not just the one single Finnish culture. I think Finns in general are very good at relating to American culture and regardless of any anti-American rhetoric American culture is sending vibes to Finland all the time. If you really look deeper at Finnish anti-Americanism, many anti-American Finns are no different from anti-American Americans at all. Anti-Americanism is not mostly targeted at American culture in Finland. Even many of the criticisms of America circulated in Finland are echoes from Americans of both the left and the right who are dissatisfied with their own country for different reasons. But really, there is no culture war out there between Finns and Americans. Jason Ward says Finns are highly nationalistic but really, that nationalism has been reducing greatly during the past decades. Finland is a formerly nationalist country that is very open toward foreign culture, at least if it is American.
Comment by Helsinkian — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 6:24 pm
Helsinkian, your multitudinous platitudes seem more and more like a blithe attempt at a cover-up. I simply don’t see the kind of bigotry Finns exhibit towards America being directed at, say, the French or the Spanish. There is a deeper reason why Americans are being singled out: the bigotry is based on a Finnish state-sponsored campaign to discredit a socio-economic model that is a threat to welfare states elites.
Once the state takes the lead, European nationalism falls into place and plays its role in fomenting bigotry. The key to remember is that the welfare state elites know how easily this can be done within a given nationality.
It behooves more critically-minded people to see that the process is actually taking place, rather than roll out more platitudes about how we are so much alike, after all.
Comment by Finnpundit — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 8:23 pm
Actually it’s a 2000 year old secret anti-American cult called Sisu Forever that’s behind all this. For thousands of years we have been infiltrating the American political arena in order to fulfill our ultimate purpose…. to turn the USA into a freeriding well-fare state.
I don’t know what the fuck it is that you smoke, Finnpundit, but I want some too….
Comment by The Dude — Thu, Feb 16th, 2006 @ 10:07 pm
Personally I think Finnpundit should inform Homeland Security and urge them to look into those Finnish NHL players in Dallas. I’m sure right now they are forming a cabal to overthrow the American way of life, poison Mom’s apple pie, introduce public transport and free education, replace Bud Lite with sahti, and make salmiakki worship compulsory in public schools. It’s time these freeriding jocks got a decent penalty!
Comment by First we take Dallas — Fri, Feb 17th, 2006 @ 11:36 am
hai hai, I’m from Finland, and I just thought adding this little thought I had today…
- this world would be dead boring without these Americans.
Comment by Lara_Hastings — Sat, Feb 18th, 2006 @ 5:42 am
Finnpundit: you’ve never heard of Finns who are bigoted toward the French? I’ve heard plenty of anti-French speech in Finland. I’m sure anti-everything exists in Finland just as in America. I’ve heard so many Finns say stuff like “marry never someone from a Mediterranean country like France or Italy, it would never work since they have a different religion” (I’ve even heard that one from an atheist Finn).
I’m a Finn and I’m not bigoted toward America, and I’m not the only one. I know there are anti-American Finns, I’m not blind but I’m dead serious in that I’ve heard as much if not even more France-bashing, Italy-bashing and Spain-bashing in Finland as I’ve heard America-bashing. My being pro-American doesn’t prevent me from being a staunch Europhile and an admirer of Italian, French and Spanish culture (among others).
You’re painting this picture of Finland as an especially bigoted country, whereas I feel that’s not really the case. Finns are far more open toward American culture than many other Europeans. Did you know that there are even anti-American evangelical Christian Finns who believe America is falling into the hands of the Devil because their favorite right-wing US televangelist or Christian author told them so?
Comment by Helsinkian — Tue, Feb 21st, 2006 @ 12:50 pm