This is sort of old news, but I came across this article telling how a bloke named Colin Slater tried to take Mika Waltari’s book The Roman, change the name to Lindum Colonia, and sell it as his own work. Waltari wrote some real masterpieces, and all or most of them are also available in English. The most famous is Sinuhe, The Egyptian also know simply as The Egyptian. What an idiot to think he could take such a master’s work and try to call it his own, thinking noone would notice.

In a way it is flattering that someone would see the potential in such great works, but it is a pretty lowdown deliberate crime to take it, call it your own work, and then sell it to a publisher. If you want to make money selling Mika Waltari’s books, why not sell them as Mika Waltari’s books. The dude probably would have been stupid enough to move on to The Egyptian, and try to plagiarize it, when a Hollywood movie has even been made from it. This might also be an indication that it is time to make a new round of publishing Mika Waltari’s books.

If only more people spoke Finnish, there would be so much more good stuff that never gets translated into English that could be published.

We’ve always suspected it, but now we have proof. The Finnish europarliamentarian Anneli Jäättenmäki had to get a new passport. Reason being her old one got “lost” in somewhere between the Europarliament and the Indian Embassy. Neither party has it. As the Ilta-Sanomat says

According to Jäätteenmäki, thefts are quite usual in the EU-parliament. The member’s “boxes” where materials are transferred between Brussels and Strassbourg are missing things, such as cameras and laptops.

- “The police can not investigate the thefts, as they do not have access to the EU-parliament” says Jäättenmäki

Not only the idiotic and expensive dual seating and travelling between Brussels and Strassbourg, but also there is then nobody with jurisdiction to investigate either… Makes you wonder who designed the system.

I work in a Dilbert cubicle style office environment, and there is always an irritating level of noise around: computers buzzing, people talking, phones ringing, alarms alarming, etc. I am also a very social person, so I am easily distracted and drawn in by the conversations and joking going on around me. The employer has been gracious enough to supply everyone with a set of Sennheiser noise cancelling earphones (NoiseGard Mobile HDC 451). They are quite good and definitely reduce noise. When I put fresh batteries in and turn them on, they definitely reduce the level of ambient noise.  However, they are quite old. I think that the technology has probably progressed since the time these were brand new. Also, they are the type that sits on top of the ear with a plastic flexible U bracket in between. I want to try something that either goes in the ear, or covers the ears completely. I started looking around in the stores. Soon I found a set of earbud type earphones in Anttila of the Philips brand. (Philips Active Noise Cancelling SHN 2500). I paid the 44 EUR, thinking it wasn’t too much and went home. I opened up the package, put the battery in, put them in my ears and turned it on. It was nothing like the Sennheisers at work. They did not reduce the ambient noise at all. In fact I heard more noise after turning them on. I heard a slight hissing sound plus the same level of ambient sound.  When I put music through them and turned them on, they slightly amplified the music. They sounded OK, but they did not have the “active noise cancelling” that I was expecting. I started reading customer reviews about them in the Internet. Many customers said the same as what I noticed: they sound alright, but they don’t reduce noise - they only amplify the audio going through them a bit. What I also noticed was that the average price I was seeing was about 20 dollars, or about 15 euros. I paid 44 euros in Anttila. So I got ripped off 300%. Needless to say, I took them back and got my money back. After reading customer reviews, it looks like I might buy a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones, listed for about 100 dollars in Amazon.com. They seem to have very good reviews and many compare them favourably to the Bose model that costs 300 dollars. I definitely know the name Bose, which is associated with professional audio systems.

 Pretty soon I want to blog about how every article I have ever read about the “open office” style workplace has been negative, saying things like it reduces peoples’ productivity, increases stress, and it takes 15 or so minutes for a person to get over a distraction and get back into their work. Some of the studies use empirical evidence, such as looking at the amount of stress hormones in peoples’ urine or how they behave. This basically means that a large part of office type workplaces in Finland are bad for your health and therefore the people are much less productive than they could be. This doesn’t just mean Finland either - many countries use the Dilbert cubicles and some workplaces even go so far as to have totally open offices. For now, I have to make my head swim in music and “active noise cancelling”. One person at work actually uses a pair of Peltor ear protectors, which is what you use for chainsawing, grind-cutting metal, using a jackhammer and stuff like that.

I am thinking of making a motorcycle helmet type thingy with air ventilation or peltier air conditioning, noise reduction, with high quality stereo speakers. At least I can put my head in a closed office that way. As I write I am unsuccessfully trying to ignore a conversation next to me that has been going on for about 20 minutes.

Few people know that Finland—Helsinki, in particular—is probably the gothiest place on Earth. One might ask, did Finland’s Goths arrive centuries-ago seeking refuge from Attila? Or did they move directly from Gotland? Nobody really knows their origins, but Saturday nights downtown can be a real costume party.

Sadly, the inventor and inspiration of this macabre fashion statement, the goddess of gothic garb herself, died recently in Hollywood. Maila Nurmi, the former TV personality known as Vampira, was 85.

Her real name was Maila Elizabeth Syrjaniemi (later changed to Maila Nurmi) and she was born in Petsamo, Finland (now Pechenga, Russia) on Dec. 11, 1922. At age 2, she and her family emigrated to Ohio, in search of a better life.

RIP, Vampira.

Written by the wittiest member of the crew.
Police were today quizzing two teenagers on suspicion of murder after the charred body of a man was found in the embers of a bonfire. Detectives were investigating reports that the man was beaten-up and pushed onto the fire in scenes recorded on mobile phone cameras.

The ancient Britons used to burn humans in a Wicker Man as a sacrifice to ensure good fortune. These days they burn humans to ensure their fame.

The uncouth youths who babble incessantly on mobile phones while on public transport and share upskirt pictures taken by camera phones have become a world-wide phenomenon. A Canadian movie critic Seamus Staines has stated on IMDB, that the death of a Merseyside man on a Guy Fawkes bonfire resembled a Monty Python skit, only it was far less funny and didn’t involve a parrot.

Even though burning bonfires is a global phenomenon, this was however a very British affair.

Britain itself is a cold and wet place where people cannot bear to be inside their houses which are heated by open fires: they need to go out to football games to fight to keep warm. Apart from driving on the wrong side of the road and having carpeted bogs, the British revert to other ancient customs like burning effigies of people on a bonfire.

As evidence of the curious psyche of this nation delving in ancient customs, a human sacrifice is called “happy-slapping”, and while the name of the victim is printed over every fish-wrap in the nation the identity of the perpetrators is kept hidden. This apparently means that the British wish to keep to their ancient habits and just rename unhappy events with a new name and give them a face to sell tabloids, while forgetting the issue itself.

This mindless killing shows how civilisation is just an icing on the chavs, while the blame of the incident is placed on mobile phones. In ancient Britain recording was performed by removing peat off a chalk hill, today it is done by mobile phones, the chanting of the druids switched to football anthems.

On that bonfire night the youths burnt a guy - truly a very British affair.
P.S. As you all can tell I am a huge fan of Roger Boyes.

Just hot off the press, the TEHY nursing strike has been called off. The mass-resignations would otherwise started today.

The agreement is until 2011 and promises 22-28 percent raises within the four years, 10% the first year in three increments. The agreement means 350 -650 euro raises according to the job grade, also including a special one-time “Christmas bonus” that is going to be paid in the beginning of December.

According to TEHY the agreement and the raises effect only TEHY-nurses and teh agreement is not a part of the communal tenured employee agreement. Which means TEHY now has separate union representatives and a separate seat in local negotiations.

A separate protocol was made stating the mass resignations to be null and void, the employees must report on duty in person by Wednesday at the latest.

As a result it is estimated that one in four counties must rise their tax percentage. The SDP chair Eero Heinäluoma (leader of the parliament opposition) demanded the Government to chip in to cover the costs.

*to be continued*

 

Veropörssi, a list of names and incomes in newspaper format for 9,80. Sorry about the poor quality picture. It was taken yesterday.

Pornography is something that is normally very taboo to look at or talk about in normal everyday society, like at work, for example. There are some people who sell and publish it in order to make money. There are enough people who are excited about it and addicted to it to make it a very big industry. It makes a lot of money for those selling it and it entertains those consuming it - there is really no other use for it. It is actually considered by some to be quite dangerous and the industry has a reputation for being quite “dirty”. Acquiring pornographic material is often done in a coercive manner, that is against the wishes of the subject of the pornography. Often, it is very damaging to the subject. Images of people exposing their reproductive organs, and performing sexual acts is something that belongs in the arena of private life, most agree. It is not information that should be sold or published, at least not without consent.

In Finland, material that is very taboo to bring up in everyday Finnish society is nicely packaged up, sold to the press for money, published or released. It excites many people and many are very addicted to it. It is also damaging to many people and puts some into danger. It is done without the permission of the subject. It is there purely to make money for those publishing it and to entertain those buying it and has no other real use. And, in this case, this industry is run and sanctioned by the government. It is called “public tax records” or “julkiset verotiedot” - in other words, lists of people’s names, salaries, captital incomes, and municipalities where they live. This is an industry that is quite comparable to the pornography industry. And many feel violated by it.

Is there anything that can be done about it? Yes, for certain. If you feel like your own rights are violated in any way by this, it is important to file a complaint to the European Commission. Let them know that you feel your rights are violated - that is what they are there for. Let a parlaiment member know as well. You don’t need to quote any laws, they are aware of this issue here in Finland already. Complaints to the EC will actually help the Finnish government establish a solid foundation for new legislation, a foundation which will weather the changing political fashions and the complaints from people who feel like it is their right to monitor other peoples’ financial matters. 

Have you come across any funny product names here in Finland or elsewhere? Here are a few that I find funny:

Jacky: it is pronounced jakki, which makes me think of “yucky”

Pantyson: some kind of cream you put on your skin. I wonder if there is Pantysoff as well.

Super Piss: a windshield wiper fluid. The jets where the water comes out are called “pissapoika” in Finnish (pee-boy). “Pissa” is a very mild word in Finnish. However, it is not so mild in English. These have disappeared as far as I can tell.

Wynand Fockink: a Dutch liqueur.

Pschitt: a French soft drink

And then there are those product names that are pronounced half in English and half in English.

Fairy (the “ai” is pronounced like in Finnish, but the “y” like in English. In Portuguese they say it like “feri”.) IMHO, a name should be pronounced 100% correct in Finnish or 100% correct in some other language. This time the word happens to be from English.

Energy (tires)

The answer: 4,000 - How’d I know? Was YouTube-ing through music videos of one of my favorite bands, The Talking Heads. Skip ahead to 3:00 on the video below, or just check out the screenshot further down.

I got inspiration for an article like this from Phil’s previous one, where Phil asks people for input.

The Finnish government is under a lot of pressure to cut taxes from various places and save money. They are also under pressure to change certain laws to protect individuals’ rights, that may not be popular. Does anyone have any ideas for where the government can get more tax revenue, save money, and from where they should cut taxes? Don’t argue, just give ideas. Believe me, people read this blog, and the things you say may very well make a difference.

Foreigners can do just about anything in Finland. But without your Finnish citizenship, we’re missing out on a few things - Leave a comment and help add to the list…

1. Can’t vote in Parliamentary and Presidential elections (but can vote in city elections), or run for these positions.
2. Can’t get unemployment insurance from Nordea bank (I switched to Sampo because of this)
3. Can’t apply for Verkkokauppa’s credit card thingy (I just discovered this today)
4. Can’t be forced into the army if you’re a male, nor voluntary participate in it.
5. Can’t represent Finland in sporting events such as the Olympics, World Championships etc..

…what else??

A new law was proposed that will come into effect on 1 January allowing tax deductions for children or foster children in a family. Here is the explanation to the law proposal, translation by me. (Good move, IMHO.)

The level of poverty of children families has doubled in the last 10 years. According to STAKES, over 120,000 Finnish people live under the poverty level. Still 10 years ago, poverty among children was much less than among the population as a whole.

In almost all the European countries, different types of tax deductions are granted for child families. Finland belongs to those rare countries where there are no spouse or child tax deductions. The income tax on child families is harsher and the progression steeper than with families without children in an international comparison.

A tax deducion for caretakers of children will favour low income members of children families by giving them an extra tax deduction. Only one of the parents may receive the deduction. A single parent will receive the same deduction. The estimated budget impact for the level in 2008 is 160 million Euros.

This law proposal is part of the Christian Democrats alternative budget.

So, the stakes are rising.
The Union of Salaried Employees (specialists and managers), who managed to wrangle the IT-industry and telecoms industry union agreement this week after after the threat of strikes in Sonera and Elisa, have just announced that they will offering support (joining) the TEHY nurses strike with supporting actions if TEHY asks for it.

Now this “joining in” isn’t anything peculiar in Finland. Usually if the Stevedores join any industrial or transport strike, they can close the import & export in the harbors so effectively their support to industrial actions really gets the balls rolling.

Meanwhile, the ALKOs are closed as are the pharmacies, so no headache and no remedy.

This is taken from http://keskustelu.plaza.fi/ajassa/keskustelu/t1641815-8612867#m8612867 This just keeps getting better and better. It was posted on 2.10.2007 

Tax office revealed the municipality of a customer who was under a Privacy Protection Order

My relative needed to apply for a restraining and privacy protection order and move to another municipality about 5 years ago because of harrassing behaviour from an ex-partner. As a normal Finnish person, she needs to go to work and get paid taxable income. Her harrassing ex-partner succeeded in tracking down her new municipality from her salary, because the tax office, against the order of the court and magistrate, went and gave the press the info of my relative’s tax municipality. The information was published and now there has been such serious harrassment and threatening, that another move is ahead. The tax office has said that they give information about the municipality about every taxpayer and that plucking out each customer under a protection of privacy order would cause them way too much work. The second time, the tax office said that this issue does not belong to them.How can the tax office give out such information, that another official has declared confidential, and defend that the tax municipality can be published? Isn’t the tax municipality the same as the residence municipality? Who can one turn to with this problem, if not the tax official who hascreated this problem?

This is a discussion from Parlaiment from beginning of 2005 that I translated into English.

Written question

KK 992/2004 vp - Paula Risikko /National Coalition Party

WRITTEN QUESTION 992/2004 vp
Improvement of the law regarding publicity of tax records.

To the Speaker of Parlaiment

The law regarding the publicity and secrecy of tax records (1346/1999 ) defines that such tax records are to be kept secret, which have information regarding the tax payer’s financial standing, excluding those details, which are defined as public in 5-9 and 21 of this law. The taxpayers income, paid tax, amount of prepaid tax and tax returned or tax to be paid are defined as public tax records.

The previously mentioned procedure is a result of attempting to achieve a fair relation between the tax authority’s transparency and increased trustworthyness by increasing openness and on the other hand protecting the person’s privacy and, among other things, business secrets.

It is correct and worth supporting that the citizens have, for example through the media, a possibility to get information from, for example, officials, business leaders and politicians’ salary levels and the extent of possible side incomes and tax percentages.

In this case, the starting point should be that the tax authority’s information should be as correct as possible. The goal is not completely achieved in the current framework of the legislation regarding the publicity of tax records. Tax records are, in practicality, public only in the stage that the taxation is ready. Taxation is a broad and complicated process, that there will always be a certain number of mistakes. The taxation is fixed and the mistakes are corrected sometimes even years after the taxation is ready.

The probem is that tax records which are cleaned of mistakes and fixed are, in practice, no longer public information. Faulty information has been possibly published when the tax records were ready, but the fixed and correct tax information is no longer public. The corrections remain secret, but the faulty information continues in circulation. Even when someone complains about their own taxation, it is secret information in practice.

There are numerous examples, which have been also publicized, for example, economics reporter Tuomo Pietiläinen presented good arguments regarding this in his column (HS 6.11.2004). The author concludes that in public tax records, there has been anomalies and mistakes nearly every year. A businessman, who was completely broke is in the top for property statistics, or a fireman who has a salary of 16 million Euros.

Another problem with public tax records is shown in another practical example: Underage siblings had recieved corporate stocks as an inheritance and gift. The parents intention was to handle the children’s ownership of the stocks in such a way, that the dividends were reinvested into buying the siblings more stocks. In the familiar way we have seen in the recent years, the regular growth of the stocks increased suddenly in a dramatic way, and this showed later in the children’s tax records. The underage children, because of the way they were raised, didn’t know very much about the nest-egg that would be waiting for them when they are adults. Their names were published together with the other tax records in newspapers, and the result was quite difficult and trying situation to be come the object of publicity. This also included, among other things, a death threat and completely unfounded hinting that the family was practicing tax planning.

It is clear that the legislator did not intend for his law to work in the way presented in the real life examples mentioned previously. Therefore there is reason to clarify the text of the law to better serve the original purpose.

The legislation regarding the publicity of tax records will probably need to be changed in, for example the stopping of wealth tax ….. In conjunction with this is a natural opportunity to change other observed problematic areas.

Based on the previous and according to the Parlaiment Rules of Procedure 27 I present the following question to be answered to the concerned members of the government council:

Is it in the knowledge of the government the practical effects of these certain injustices in the law regarding publicity of tax records and how does the government intend to correct the deficiencies in the legislation regarding the grievances presented here in the previous arguments?

Helsinki 14 December 2004

Paula Risikko /National Coalition Party

To the Speaker of Parlaiment

In the Parlaiment Rules of Procedure in the intent of 27 § You, Mr. Chairman, have delivered Representative Paula Risikko’s (National Coalition Party) written question to be ansered by the concered minister. KK 992/2004 vp:

Is it in the knowledge of the government the practical effects of these certain injustices in the law regarding publicity of tax records and how does the government intend to correct the deficiencies in the legislation regarding the grievances presented here in the previous arguments?

As an answer to to the question I present the following:

The publicity of tax records has been, from old times, valid during the whole period of the current tax system. There has often arisen discussion, because tax records do not naturally tell the whole truth about citizens’ wealth and income. In recent times, the situation has emphasized movement of capital because of internationalization. it is a problem of its own, the problems that are created when the occasional mistake pops up in tax records that the asker is referring to, despite the fact that their significance has noticeably decreased as the correctness of the tax records has increased. When we take into consideration that tax events are in the millions, mistakes actually happen surprisingly little. Even one mistake is, of course, too many, and they should not be underestimated.

We last had a broad and lively discussion about the publicity of tax records around half way through the last decade. It was brought forward from the level of the officials the possibility of giving up public tax records, which were considered in modern circumstances to be unnecessarily exposing information that belongs in the sphere of privacy. Using statistical methods, we can get a rather precise picture of society’s structure of income and wealth. In the modern world, tax surveillance methods have become so well developed, that public tax records are no longer necessary for so called neighbour control. The discussion that occurred at that time however received the same blunt verdict from many different politicians: there is not one party in Parliament that is prepared to support even partially limiting public tax records. It was generally held from the viewpoint of societal morals to be important, that also singular persons’ income and wealth information be made public. Something that certainly affected this was pure human curiosity. For the media, it is also a question of money. We can return to this discussion at any time, when the time seems right. Since there are really no grounds for this system, there would probably be no opposition from the Ministry of Finance government. So the question is a purely political matter.

Helsinki 5 January 2005, Vice Minister of Finance, Ulla-Maj Wideroos