Giedre tyttö Ozista

Our eventful week

A lot of things happened last week. First of all, on Thursday we had our 1st wedding anniversary!! I can't believe how fast the year has passed, just blink and its gone. Time flies here much faster than in any other place.. I think it is because we have just 1 season here, so every day is just like any other (yeah, the same construction noise, these days even on Sundays.. So no day is any different anymore...) I got a new wedding ring for the occassion and I'll take a better care of it now.. :) We had the most amazing dinner in Flutes restaurant in Fort Canning park. It is in an old colonial bungalow and very beautiful (for some reason there aren't that many places like that here, for most of the occassions people flock to hotels.. Too bad, so sad.. These old houses have very special (should I say European?) feel about them). In fact, we couldn't have chosen any better - everything was spectacular that night, although we both had massive cold and running noses.. :)

From other good things that happened, Giuliano and Joanne (Giulliano is newly found friend and colleague (yeah, guess what, he found my blog, so he knew pretty much everything about me/us before we met for coffee first time...:) got a new baby Luca. I'll have to ask them if I could include some pics, or maybe I can take some pics when I visit them on Monday (if my body liquids are in better control, no I can't stop sneezing and I'm coughing my lungs out).

Then we had a charity day at our school. This was a pretty great concept - once a year everybody is invited to set up a stall and sell whatever, anything at all to make money for the needy fellow students. The school has an emergency fund that students can apply and get some money pretty much immediately. So the cause was great and the whole event was really fun. Things on sale were: food, tea, cookies, t-shirts, even hamsters (don't know if it is so wise to sell them, people were buying them on an impulse.. I wonder how they will fare in the future..), then a bunch of people were doing car wash and cleaning... Some design students made some great cookie packaging... Great way to exercise enterpreneurship skills!

Otherwise charity and financial help for the needy is a very contraversial issue in Leijonakaupunki. The government leaves the responsibility of personal financial wellbeing to the people themselves (the tax is low, you're supposed to save for the rainy day and have kids that will pay your medical bills when you get old). Of course, there are people who stay poor all their lifetime, get retrenched when they're 50 and have to clean tables or work in McDonnalds as long as they can get up from the bed (it is not uncommon to see 80 year old aunties (at least looking like 80 year olds) crooked by oestheporosis collecting dirty dishes or cleaning offices).

As we arrived in Leijonakaupunki, we were baffled by the amount of different charities collecting money in the streets. Every Saturday new batches of students are sent into the streets with donation bins as "community service". This was very hard for me to understand - if you want to make children more aware that there are needy people in the society, you should send these kids to clean old people's homes or buy grocceries for old ladies, make them chat with the underpriviledged, do a project together with some disabled people, not make them stand at every overpass, shopping mall entrance with those bins and demand money from the passers by... The kids hardly even knew what was the charity that they were collecting money to.. I read that so called "flag days" are set on each Saturday of the year, so about 50 different organizations are collecting money like that.

Last month a very prominent charity - National Kidney Foundation, was involved in a huge scandal. It was uncovered that the CEO of the organization received 600 000$ salary last year. Besides that they were installing gold-plated sinks in their office. I was very surprised to follow reports that uncovered how they run their business (yeah, it is actually a business, not really so non-profit as you may expect) - 50% of donations go to employ people that run a huge marketing machine. They have shows on TV with local media stars, organize lucky draws - "donate this much and stand a chance to win a new car!" or smth like that, have a huge office building in the prime city area, etc. They uncovered the fact that if people would stop donating today, it will take 30 years for them to run out of money, so in fact they have accumulated huge amounts of money already, but still organize shows where kidney patients are forced to come and cry on TV, begging people to donate more.

So, knowing all that, NKF seems to be the pet charity of Leijonakaupunki government. They'd actually like to see more charities run this way, as a business. Some prominent politician wife was on the board of this charity and she made headlines saying that 600 000 salary is "peanuts" when the person is handling an organization like that. The favorite principle of Leijonakaupunki - "the right person, the right pay" is well reflected in the salary of the Prime Minister that is about 2million dollars annually (5 times more than US president!). This is to fight the corruption. Be viso kito, dabartinis premjeras yra valstybes "ikurejo" sunus. Jo zmona yra pagrindine investiciju firmos direktore (ta firma is tikro valdo ir investuoja visa Liutamiescio turta ir biudzeta). Visa salis is tikro yra valdoma, kaip firma. Hmm.. Turbut butu teisingiausia pasakyti, kad tai ne salis, bet firma.. :) Nors Liutamiestis skelbiasi esas demokratija, tai greiciau karalyste, kur dinastija perduoda turta ir zmones vienas kitam... Ilman mita on jo sannotu, nykyainen paaministeri on Leijonakaupungin valtion "luojan" poika. Hanen vaimo on maan paa-sijoitusfirman johtaja. Koko maa toimii kuin firma, tai sanoisinko mina etta oikeasti Leijonakaupunki ei oo maa, mutta firma...

Besides all that, Kaj left to Finland on Friday. I couldn't, as I have work to do, its the middle of semester. First comments that I hear from him is that "people are scary". Well, thats after making a round in Kallio bars and karaoke places... :) Lets see how he likes staying in the mokki... Aija.. ja myos ma paatin etta ma lopetan mun duunit tammikuun ensimaisena paivana, sitten vasta 3 kuukauta viela toissa ja sitten varmasti pari kuukauta lomaa Aasiassa ja sitten on jo kesa Europassa, siis lisaa lomaa.. :) Beje, nusprendziau, kad baigiu darba sausio 1d, tada dar 3 menesius atidirbt ir pora menesiu Azijoj pakeliaut, tada jau bus vasara Europoj ir dar daugiau atostogu.. :)