Mannerheim, the epic movie man

The past week Finns have been arguing what kind of movie adaption is ok when talking about C.G.E. Mannerheim, the marshal of Finland.

So who is this Mannerheim guy anyway? He was the leader of the Finnish army in the second world war. Tiny Finland fought against the great red army of Russia - technically Finland lost the war, but that's a minor detail, since Finland was able to maintain its formal independence, unlike Estonia, for example.

So Mannerheim is seen as a national hero in Finland. He has been voted as the greatest Finn of all times. If one could become a saint in Finland, he'd be the most sacred of them all. The following examples tell something about his position in our culture:

In the end of 1990's the construction site of Kiasma (the museum of contemporary art) took place right next to Mannerheim statue. The wall/fence of the construction site was pink - quite suitable for museum of contemporary art. But. The wall closest to Mannerheim statue had to be painted grey - since pink wasn't honorable enough for his statue.

Finnish movie director Renny Harlin (you may remember him directing Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger) and producer Markus Selin have been planning a massive movie production about Mannerheim. The planned movie has been showing off pre-marketing actions in a way that has never seen before in Finland. Too bad that the guys run out of money on the way, and the plans were first put on hold and eventually dumped. So no epic movie about Mannerheim, at least not from Harlin&Selin.

Couple of years back there was a puppet animation about Mannerheim, which of course caused a fuss. As a background, there are rumors about Mannerheim's sexual orientation, and in the animation there's an unconventional love scene. Which caused a storm in a tea kettle. And nobody didn't seem to notice that the animation itself was simply poor, it doesn't deserve even a half-a-star-rating.

And now, in 2012, there's been huge fuss about (yet another) Mannerheim movie: The Finnish broadcasting company has produced a short film about Mannerheim. The movie is made in Kenya and the role of Mannerheim is played by a Kenyan. And that's too much for most. Well, eventually it turned out that the film was a side product of a reality show, not a real movie. I wonder what kind of a fuss is on when the reality airs.

What next? There are still lots of genres left to be tried out...

     (C) Erik

The art of wearing hat

The baby princess Estelle of Sweden had her christening yesterday. Because of the close neighbor relationship, the president of Finland usually has the front row seats for the official family events organized by the Swedish royal family. Tarja Halonen was sitting on the front row in the wedding ceremony of Victoria and Daniel, and yesterday Sauli Niinistö and Jenni Haukio were having a close look at the baby princess as she was dipped into holy water of Öland.

Yesterday all of the royal ladies and majority of the other lady guests wore a hat or a fascinator of some sort. Jenni Haukio didn’t - even though it would have suited her well. And she has even been spotted with fascinator earlier, in her first official visit to Sweden (image below). But I guess that’s the difference between us republicans and the monarchists: If you invite a representative of a monarchy into a big fancy daytime event (as you probably often do), she will naturally wear a hat or fascinator, while her republican sister will most likely have no head-wear what so ever. As a statement.

Anyway, the hat industry must be very grateful to the monarchs of the world. If there were no monarchies, the only hatters to survive would be the cap-makers. Because that’s what we, citizens of a republic state, love to wear.

Sisu

Sisu is something we like to see as a unique Finnish concept. Sisu is all about persistency, stamina and guts to do something. Maybe I'm a traitor, but I think quite many cultures and languages have a concept for such a willpower that makes one go even through a rock - so in that sense sisu may not be too unique, Finnish-only type of phenomenon.

Sisu is also a candy. And yes, it's called Sisu, not Gifu, the font is a bit misleading. As a candy I think Sisu is pretty unique, I've never tasted anything like Sisu candies. Sisu tastes a bit like liquorice mixed with a hint of mint or eucalyptus. Sisu candy also has a very characteristic smell, you can immediately tell if someone in the room has eaten Sisu. In mouth Sisu feels a bit like if you were having a piece of tyre in your mouth, and it looks like a piece of tyre too. Not that I'd have experience on tasting tyre, but I can imagine how it might feel like.

I've understood that Queen Elizabeth always carries a box of mint candies in her purse. Maybe Sauli Niinistö could equip himself with a pack of Sisu as a president of Finland. Congratulations Sauli and good luck for the new challenges! You will most likely need both sisu and Sisu.

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!

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.

Moomin conspiracy

Moomins are probably the best known Finnish fairytale figures (Angry Birds are not fairytale - yet). At least they are big in Japan. Not as big as Hello Kitty, but big enough to embrace our national self esteem. The original Moomin comic strips are a bit weird but they had edge. The Japanese animation version is much lighter and targeted for kids, but I must admit I sometimes watch the TV animation and I kind of like it.

President Tarja Halonen has been compared to Moominmamma in the media - mostly because of her purse style, not because of her personality. The current candidates obviously have some Moomin genes, too. I think Timo Soini (Stinky), Pekka Haavisto (Snufkin) and Paavo Lipponen (The Groke) hit the nail with the character also in terms of personality, but others are more or less artificial.

Speaking of Moomins, I have a theory. A conspiracy theory. Maybe raejuusto, cottage cheese, is not really cheese at all. I mean, it doesn't taste like cheese, you can't slice it, and it doesn't melt when you heat it. Maybe raejuusto is minced Moomin meat. Yummy?

The sock pimp

Some years ago there was an intense media discussion about a problem that presidential candidate Sauli Niinistö had: he was frustrated to spend time in finding the matching pair for the countless number of black socks after washing them. Sauli, may I introduce a Finnish innovation to simplify your laundry circus: Supi the sock holder.

Store the sock pins close to the place you collect the dirty laundry.




Unite the socks with the pin before you dump the socks into the laundry basket. Throw the pinned socks into washing machine. Let it roll.




Use the little hook on top of the pin to hang them drying.

Happy 2012

Celebrating the New Year between the last of December and first of January is more or less newish tradition in Finland. Originally the New Year was celebrated in autumn, at Kekri, after the harvesting season. That may sound quite rural, but let's bear in mind that it's not much more than one generation ago when most of the Finns were still living in the countryside. And come on, Chinese are not celebrating their new year on the switch of Dec and Jan either, the year of the rabbit is still going strong!

But despite the shortish history of the  New Year at this point of year, there are still some distinctive items that belong to the Finnish new year:

• Sparkling wine, nakki and potato salad. Who said cava doesn't go with cold sausage?
• Fireworks. It's not difficult to guess what's statistically the most probable day of getting an eye injury.
• Melting and re-casting tin horse shoes in order to forecast your future. Well, they're not really made out of tin but lead, which means that your future is based on toxic waste.
• New Year speech by the president of Finland: "Kansalaiset, medborgare..." Tarja, you could have been a bit more radical with your last speech.
• Ski jumping on TV. The men with the mullet and mustache!
• Tipaton tammikuu, dropless January. No alcohol in January (Lonkero doesn't count).

In any case, have a good 2012 (and enjoy the remaining year of the rabbit)!

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.