Construction micromanagement

I've tried to highlight the good sides of Espoo whenever possible. But now Espoo deserves few words of criticism.

A new hospital will be built in Jorvi. The construction project is worth 200 million euros. According to yesterday's Helsingin Sanomat (the paper version), Espoo city council were not convinced by the competence of the project lead. Therefore the council decided that a member of city council must be involved in leading the hospital construction project. In my opinion this is either a very stupid decision or the decision was really poorly written.

• Being a member of city council is more or less of a hobby. Folks are doing their city council duties in the evenings, besides their "real" work. 
• 200 M€ construction project is huge. To give some perspective, the construction of the largest leisure time activity center in the Nordic countries is worth 100 M€. Helsinki music hall was a project worth 150 M€. The planning and construction costs of Guggenheim museum in Helsinki have been estimated to 150 M€. Länsimetro is a project worth 700 M€.
• Leading a construction project worth 200 M€ is not a hobby. 

As a tax payer I'm disappointed to the arrogant decision. Leading a large scale project is challenging for any professional - why on earth would anyone (31 members of city council to be precise) think that appointing a random amateur into lead would be the solution? The one who orders and pays the project has his role in the construction project - but the role is not positioned in the lead of the project.

The election of the city council will be arranged next fall. You don't need to be Finnish citizen in order to vote, anyone having permanent residence in Espoo for long enough is entitled to vote. I urge you to ask from your candidate, what did he/she vote for on February 27th - and more importantly, why.

Talk to my hand? Talking with my hands?

Typically Finnish people are communicating in quite minimalistic way. The sound of our language is monotonic, there are practically no variations in the pitching. The stress is almost always on the first syllable, which probably makes Finnish sound like a bit angry language. I believe the static tone and stiff rhythm of our native language reflects to our non-verbal communication as well: We don't talk with our hands like Italian. We don't make as rich gestures as Spanish while talking. We don't have a culture of debating like in US, so using tone of voice and little nuances in strategic way is nowhere near to our backbone.

Where should I put my hands? I'm pretty sure that is the question that has been going around in the presidential candidates' mind - even though they are trained and experienced in this field. In my opinion Haavisto is more fluent in his communication. He also uses his hands more when he speaks. On the other hand (pun intended), it's also easier to see from Haavisto's gestures if he's nervous or tense. Niinistö is using more facial expressions when he speaks. In a live appearance Niinistö is usually bit stiffer and quite traditional with his body language, including hands.

Both of the campaign teams have clearly thought through the hand issue in the campaign posters. I think neither of the candidates are exactly hitting the nail, but not failing miserably either. In this case Haavisto takes the safe, traditional and a bit boring approach. I appreciate Niinistö's attempt on doing something different, despite the slightly artificial end result. But I'm very, very happy that the candidates do not fall on the classic cliches: hanging your jacket on the shoulder or touching your chin - thank you!

Waiting for Feb 5th

Hooray, we will have the second round in the election! We will have two smart guys against to each other. Both rely on argumentation instead of populism: now shoot the arguments, I'm waiting for them! The next election is in two weeks, February 5th.

February 5th is worth waiting for another reason too. That's the day when we are celebrating Runeberg's day. Our national poet Johan Ludwig Runeberg lived in the 19th century, and he has written the lyrics of the national anthem. But the real reason why Runeberg's day is so special lies in his wife's cook book: the delicious pastries named after Runeberg.



Runeberg's tortes are the best pastries there are. They are available only once a year, which is probably part of the secret, but the other half of the secret is the spongy structure, delicious almond and sweet punsch. There are many variations of the torte, on the commercial selection I can recommend a take away torte from Café Ekberg or Kaisa's Café.

Get ready in time. On the 6th of February it's too late - to vote and to chase Runebergs.

Learning the latte

Finland scores high in the coffee consumption per capita, only Luxembourg consumes more coffee than us. The weirdest thing is that in general we prefer really light and bitter roasts that corrode stomach - and yet many people drink several cups a day. Some even smuggle Finnish bitter roast to other side of the globe to comfort and to scorch in the home sickness.

Coffee has a ceremonial role in our culture. On working days two o'clock is a usual coffee break time, in the same way that British have their biological clock ringing for tea (or was it gin) at five o'clock. Coffee is essential part of both celebration and sorrow: it's impossible to imagine a wedding or a funeral without coffee. I'm pretty sure many are having "election coffee" today after they have given their vote.

Finnish coffee culture is not stuck, it's adapting along the time. Darker roasts and "special coffees" (i.e. european style coffee selection) are becoming more and more popular. My generation drinks coffee from a mug. In my parents' generation everybody owns a set of small coffee cups, a dozen at least. And my grandmother's generation may even drink the coffee from a plate, zipping through a sugar cube, which is cool but a bit hard core.

Breaking the taboo

Alea iacta est - I gave my vote yesterday. Initially I was open for voting for almost any of the candidates, and that's why candidates' behavior during the campaign really mattered to me. I had my eye on five criterion: values, view on foreign politics, campaign attitude, self-perception and communication skills.

I mapped the candidates and the criterion based on the impression I have gotten during the campaign. I didn't judge the communication skills separately, because communication skills are striking through in the other four categories: if I have formed wrong impression or if I haven't been able to form any impression at all, then it's her/his lost in the communication.

"Who do you vote for" is some sort of a taboo in Finnish culture. But in the presidential election 2012 quite many have broken the taboo and expressed openly who they vote for. I believe some people have broken the silence because it's their way of fighting back to True Finns' success in the last parliament election. I'm sure some have broken the taboo just because it's so easy with Facebook and all. And for sure it's easier to be open since this is an election of a person, not that much of a party.

So I'm coming out of the closet too: based on my engineer-like Excel approach I voted for Pekka Haavisto. His values are ok for me. He's the only candidate who's view on foreign politics I'm able to a) understand and b) support. Haavisto is also the only one of the candidates who has been present on those arenas I'm following; I'm an internet consumer in my thirties. You can't win my vote by hanging around on the market square serving pea soup and giving out brochures. You can win my vote by being smart and active in both social and more conventional media. To summarize, he has earned my vote.

What are they running for?

In January we'll have the first round of the presidential election. Nowadays the president doesn't really have too much of official powers - the president of Finland is nothing like the colleague in US and far from the president of France too. But due to the fact that the president exists, for example the role of the prime minister in Finland is not as big as in UK or in Germany. Jyrki-boy must be a bit annoyed.

There are many people who think we could simply dump the whole president thing. I don't know about that... I think it's kind of good that we have someone who can be thrown into any opening ceremony, A-list cultural event or sports game VIP stand. That way the real politicians don't need to visit each and every ceremony, and they can concentrate on taking care of the nation's business. Well, at least in theory.

The president institution simply can't be as expensive as monarchy. In Sweden many would like Carl Gustav XVI to step aside and give the stage to Victoria, but it's impossible to predict when it's going to happen. In Finland you'll get rid of the president in 12 years, and the following person doesn't have to be an offspring of the previous one. 

Even though the candidates are nominated by political parties and have all been active politicians, the one who's elected to be the president will give up on the membership of the party. The president won't be involved in the topical issues of the daily politics either. Which kind of makes the idea of voting Timo Soini a bit attempting: if he was chosen to be the president, he could not participate the daily political debate and he'd need to give up the membership of the True Finns. And what would True Finns be without Timo Soini - doomed.

Well, even the official powers of the president are cut off into minimum, he's still sort of a leader what comes to values. And I don't want to see Timo Soini to lead this country into the direction of his values.