Giedre tyttö Ozista: Movies, performance, expectations and where next?

March 05, 2005

Movies, performance, expectations and where next?

Food is great here. That's without any question. Anything else equally great? Read through this blog.. he he..

ok, my previous post needs some explanations. Just tried to read it and it seems very hasty, it was difficult to make sense of it even for me. This is because Kaj had been watching The Team America movie and I wanted to catch up with him, so I tried to finish my blogging as quick as possible. My apologies for missing coherence, did you managed to make anything out of it anyway? (Andrea says she learned something about history and threatened to send bugs.. Great.. :) I saw only the end of the movie, so I wasn't overly impressed. The fun part was the subtitles (epaviraliseilla DVD versioilla Malaysiasta tai Indonesiasta on aina hauskat tekstitykset. neoficialiose DVD kopijose ish Malaizijos ar Indonezijos visada buna juokingi subtitrai): "but he was killed by those gorillas!" I enjoyed even more watching Sideways. The characters in the movie throw in quite a bit of wine related terms (apparently not too familiar in our lattitudes), so its so amusing to see how "give me more of this Shiraz" turns into "give me more of this Syrup" or "we're not drinking any of Merlot!" becomes "we're not drinking any of Mellow!". Sometimes "I could't get hold of him" turns to "Its getting cold here".. So.. Some extra entertainment...

However beautiful some things are here, I am starting to miss Europe and other "vapaa maailmaa"- "laisvo pasaulio"... It hit me just few minutes ago when I was reading Katja's blog. She's in the "new world", but it seems that one can find the best of the "old world" in there too. I'm not terribly impressed with what's happening in Europe right now (the weather, the cold snap, I mean. I don't miss the cold at all, no no no!), but it will get better very soon.. What starts getting on my nerves here is that the day and night are equally long (or should I say short?). I get up with dawn (before 7am) and when I get back from work it is dark again (7pm). I miss long summer evenings, miss doing something else before going back to bed. In the future I would like to live slightly more above or slightly more below the equator, so that there would be seasons (long days, especially) + reasonably warm. The down under (aussit, australija) could be an option worth trying?

Kaj sanoo etta hanta enaa ei kiinosta edes matkustaminen taassa Aasiassa - kaikki muistutta hanen kokemukseista toissa, taalla on niin paljon "oppression" kaikkialla.. Yksi hanen parhoista kavereista toissa sai potkut eilen, koska silla oli "attitude problem".. Kaitsu on jo kypsa.. Toi termi mika se anta ennen kun halua lahtea pois lyhene joka paiva.. :) Ennen oli kesan lopun, nyt kesan asti.. ha ha.. Kaitsu sako, kad jis nebenori netgi keliauti chionais azijoj, nes viskas primena, kokios nesamones vyksta jo darbe.. chia tiek daug priespaudos ir neteisybes. Viena ish geriausiu Kaitsu draugu ishmete ish darbo vakar, nes jis turejo per daug stipria nuomone.. Kaitsu vis trumpina termina, kada jis nori ish chia pradingti. Ankschiau buvo vasaros pabaiga, dabar vasaros pradzhia..

Ha ha, how do you like the slogan for a construction company? This construction site is on the way from our home to the Botanical gardens.

Currently the Parlament is sitting in and discussing the budget for the next year. As far as I understand, the budget is quite generous for everybody (people wonder if it is "an election budget" - the political system here is similar to British, the elections can be called at any time convenient for the ruling party. So you can prepare well - wait till economy is doing well, give some "goodies" for the people and win the election again.) However, it seems that "the welfare" is a swear word here - the prime minister said that "we try to help people that are going through hard times to get back on their feet, but we don't want to create the "entitlement" mentality in the country". It means that you have to earn everything yourself. If you work, you create wealthy life for yourself and your family, but you are not entitled to anything if you can't make it. You have to earn that. There's no safety net if you fall. You kind of have to plan from the very begining and create security for yourself. So the prime minister said that they will not help people that don't work (as other parliament members were worried that there's "structural unemployment" and "underclass"forming in the country).

If you noticed, this time images have nothing to do with what I'm talking about. On the left I'm folding origami cranes before Christmas (some of you have received those, right?). Its Saturday now, Kaj is at work (surprise surprise) and I don't feel like going out (so hot!). So I have time for blogging, but nothing to take pictures of... Here, I continue...

Life is very tough for the locals here. Leijonakaupunki is a meritocracy (you're rewarded based on your achievements), so the competition starts from very early age - students are streamed into 3 flows: express, normal and technical, at the age of 10. Express students are studying much more complex stuff, they go for "scholar career" and can expect to get lots of grants and scholarships. They are groomed for academic/civil servant/high position jobs. Students from normal stream are aften successful in business (lots of stories of self-made people in the papers), they're the ones that come to polytechnics - practical, "no-bullshit" type of guys. The students from technical stream go for technical careers, they may become air-con technicians, tailors, bakers, anything like that.. And this is decided at the age of 10!!! There are stories of people who successfully cross the boundaries, but they're exceptions from the rule, as it is worth writing stories about them in THE paper..

We're now taking in new students for the next year in TP, many come with their mothers who do the talking and questioning. Students just sit quite abstract. But it is tough for them. They will have to perform for the rest of their lives, because the society needs productive and enterprising individuals. A "valivuosi" after graduating from secondary school? Forget about it.. No time.. Need to perform..

Posted by gkligyte at March 5, 2005 12:24 PM

Comments

Dear you: Please note that my complain was to your complain about equal lenght dyas (tropics) you said: "What starts getting on my nerves here is that the day and night are equally long (or should I say short?)." So I do not doubt all you say about leijonakaupunki and the situation in there (love to go there anyway- to visit and eat) that is not the complain ... complain was about the tyttö being bored about my kind of days!! But ofcourse I am biased as I grew up in aplce where days and people are reliable most of the time =).... tropical days are fun... HUGS ABC Posted by: abc on March 8, 2005 12:22 AM

Hei! I am not writing about Leijonakaupunki, but about "tropics" - where days and nights are equal long. Of course, nowadays in Finland we do not concretely suffer when thinking about the winter. Actually we suffer because there is nothing to worry, although the “nature” tells us to prepare for the change. Similar ways, in many warm places people are loosing their natural rhythm and it causes suffering. Evolution is slow. But now it's time to read some Kalevala for my daughter - it helps her to survive in the place of short winter days and long summer nights. Posted by: Teemu on March 8, 2005 12:20 AM

but there are a lot of high buildings to jump off of...especially indonesian maids.... Posted by: kaide on March 7, 2005 09:20 PM

ha ha, guys, you should come here.. Leijonakaupunki is not tropics - there's no natural resources, so I think people are really troubled about how they will make it till tomorrow.. Its not one of those countries where you sow rice and take crop 4 times a year.. It's mostly concrete and only brain power runs this place. Think Japan minus all history and culture... (fortunately and precisely of this reason (lack of history and culture :) harakiri doesn't belong to the local culture either..) Hara-kiri \Ha"ra-ki`ri\, n. [Jap., stomach cutting.] Suicide, by slashing the abdomen, formerly practiced in Japan, and commanded by the government in the cases of disgraced officials; disembowelment; -- also written, but incorrectly, {hari-kari}. Posted by: Giedre on March 7, 2005 09:16 PM

well, now i have to comment. The tropics is not boring. just Singapore, haha...And I think we are very lucky compared with a lot of people here (we always have the option to leave :) ), we do well financially, although after finland getting used to the local work culture is proving to be a bit of a battle. i can tell you stories you would not believe...or maybe you would. Teemu, i did not realize life in finland is such a struggle that people still wonder if they make it through the winter. whereas in these parts of the world, and i guess in tropical areas around the world, many people struggle. Paradox is why they seem still happy (at least from the shallow perspective i have, that is as a tourist in asia and now having lived for a bit in singapore). I could, and one day will tell you stories how singapore exploits workers from poorer neighbouring countries. Strangely it is usually those people who give you a smile when they meet you on the street, as opposed to kiasu (me first you second) and slightly rude singaporeans who seem programmed and obsessed to chase the dollar. Posted by: kaide on March 7, 2005 09:09 PM

I pretty much agree with ABC – surprise :-) The worst situation is that nowadays people easily loose their rhythm of living most natural for their environment. In tropics – with the infinite natural resources - you are peaceful in a long sequence. In places with huge seasonal changes you are restless based on the seasonal changes: will there be food, shelter, heat, family and friends when the winter comes? How will this year’s harvest be and again you worry will there be family and friends then? In tropics you may focus on the people’s spiritual wellbeing – not to keep them close to you with the material goods, as it is the case in North. Maybe you should try Buddhism or Taoism? Posted by: Teemu on March 7, 2005 06:28 PM

COMPLAIN: Is not fair to treat the tropics as boring! from where I come same long days and nights make people realiable and friendly ALL year long... not crampy and miserable in winter and overly extroverted and drunk in the summer. My theory is that seasons make spirits behave as in a roller cost and that is fine, but is not the only way.... it is ofcourse OK to miss it, I understand you; like in my case I miss that if I know someone it will more the less behave tenderly and in good spirit everytime we met regardless of the position of the sun. Bugs where sent... any sing of them there? =) Posted by: abc on March 7, 2005 05:15 PM