Making a Difference - The Election of Finnish President

The election of the new President for Finland is now on. Although we live in Germany, we are still Finnish citizens and thus able (and obliged, I might add) to influence the political matters of our country of origin. The main election day of the first round in the presidential election is next week, but the advance voting outside Finland ends tomorrow. So, tomorrow we will drive to Finnish Honorary Consulate in Frankfurt and vote.

As this election is quite a big deal in Finland, I thought I would introduce the candidates to all my readers. This is not a political blogs, so I'll just keep this introduction very superficial and refer mainly to the tabloids.
(Please note, that I haven't made my selection based on these facts!)

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The candidates in alphabetical order (all pictures borrowed from Wikipedia):

Paavo Arhinmäki (Left Alliance)

Current Minister for Culture and Sport, seems to prefer sport over culture.

Married the mother of his unborn child a week ago.

Has quite many tattoos, for example the logo of the sport club he supports.

One of his campaign adds has been made by an artist, who became popular because of killing a cat on an artistic video.




Eva Biaudet (Swedish People's Party)

The Finnish Ombudsman for Minorities

Nothing very striking about her.

The only headline of her in the tabloids was created, when she commented the differences between Timo Soini and herself in a TV show: 'I'm taller and you are bigger'.





Sari Essayah (Christian Democrats)

World Champion in race walking and Member of the European Parliament.

Known mainly of her career in sports. Has kept herself out of the tabloids.









Pekka Haavisto (Green League)

Member of Finnish Parliament.

Mainly in the tabloids due to his Ecuadorean husband (or what should I call him, registered partner?), who got a speeding ticket, but didn't first come clean about it.

In a test, did not recognize the picture of Russian president.






Paavo Lipponen (Social Democratic Party)

Former Prime Minister of Finland.

Also known as 'Moses'. Plain-spoken - many of his minimal comments are quoted time after time.

Declined to take part in a walking test arranged for presidential candidates.






Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party)

Former Minister and Speaker of the Finnish Parliament.

The biggest speculation in the tabloids is, if he will win on the first round of the election (gets more than 50% of votes) or on the second round.

Won the hearts of many Finns after his wife died in a car-crash in the mid 90s and when he was caught in the middle of the Tsunami in Thailand with his sons in 2004.

Known of his hobby of rollerblading.



Timo Soini (True Finns)

The leader and the face of True Finns party, which grew up to be the third biggest party in Finland in the parliamentary election one year ago (19.1% of votes, compared to only 4.1% of votes in 2007).

The party has been criticized of it's populism.

He is a practicing Catholic (very rare in Finland) and has made the headlines with his opinions of abortion, contraception and homosexual lifestyles.





Paavo Väyrynen (Centre Party)

A veteran politician of the Centre Party. Has held many Minister positions since 1970s.

Very self-confident. Has blamed media for example of loosing his place in the Parliament last spring and and not making it to the second round of the presidential election in 1994. Does not believe in the polls, as they do not show his 'true' popularity.

More popular than the man himself has been the coffee cup in his election material.

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But do you know who is the current president of Finland?

During the parliamentary election last spring, a German lady said to me: 'I saw your President in the News. How great that she is so young, energetic and beautiful, unlike our Angela Merkel'. I was a bit puzzled, as our current president Tarja Halonen looks like this:

Later that day I realized that she must have talking about the Prime Minister we had at that time, Mari Kiviniemi!
(We had the discussion in English, but Prime Minister is caller Ministerpräsident in German - maybe that was what confused her.)

Mummy Has Got a New Winter Jacket!

Yes, I've got it!
The biggest investment I've made on myself since Fräulein was born.

I have been looking for a new winter jacket for a couple of years now. All my jackets are old, but my Henri Lloyd's quilted jacket is still OK for warmer weather (plus degrees in Celsius) and I have a Tommy Hilfiger down jacket, which I can use when it gets below -10°C (I actually store it in Finland, because it is far more likely that the weather is that cold there and it takes half of a luggage, if you want to travel with it).

The last couple of winters in Finland have been so cold that I have managed the whole winter with the down jacket. But here in Germany, the typical winter temperature is around 0°C, so there definitely was a need for a new jacket!

Before Christmas, I saw a perfect Napapijri jacket at Peek & Cloppenburg. It was 25% off, but still too expensive for me (the income of a Hausfrau is not that great...). But last Saturday I saw those same jackets in Main-Taunus-Zentrum with 50% off. Unfortunately, they did not have those in my size, but I was told that those could be found in P&C Wiesbaden with the same discount. Great!

But then I fell ill. For the beginning of the week I have been waiting I could go and buy the jacket, but haven't been able to.

Yesterday I packed Fräulein into our car and drove to the city. Although it is normally a walking distance, I didn't want to risk my newly found health. And they still had those jackets at P&C!

Unfortunately, the brown ones were sold, so I had to settle with a black one. I originally liked the black better, but my friends, who where shopping with me when I first found the jacket, thought the brown suited me better. So now my friends must think that I am only writing this to justify my decision to buy a black jacket! But I had actually decided to buy it in brown, because there are so many black winter jackets out there that brown would be a nice change. So, Katri and Maija, this really is a true story!

Anyway, I am happy with my new jacket, and I'll soon get to use it as it is getting colder here next week (now it is about +8°C).

But I'd like to comment on the brand a bit. I have always found this Napapijri brand quite funny.
It sounds like it is Finnish, as the Finnish word Napapiiri means Artic Circle (note, that it is spelled a bit differently).
It looks like it is Norwegian, because of the flag in the logo.
But it is originally Italian.
Since 2004, it has been part of American VF Corporation (with e.g. Eastpal, Kipling and Timberland).
It is now based in Switzerland with VF International.
And my jacket is made in Moldova.
Global, right?

Odd German Way No. 7 - Alternative Medicines

In several occasions, I have noticed that in Germany alternative medicines, like herbal and homeopathic products, are used as, well, 'normal' medicines.

First I thought it was just something our Hebamme (midwife) was into, as she recommended homeopathic medicines for Fräulein's colic and my breast infection. But when I bought some medicines for Fräulein's cold from the pharmacy, I noticed they included some homeopathic ingredients as well.

Before Christmas, I went to the pharmacy to buy some gel for Fräulein to numb the pain caused by teething. After giving me the gel, the pharmacist wanted to introduce all the herbal medicines they had available for teething. I was happy with the gel.

This week Fräulein has had a mild eye infection. According to the doctor, the infection is most likely viral, so he prescribed some eye-drops for her. If those would not help her in 3-4 days, we should go back for a prescription for antibiotics.

A pair of watery eyes

Herr Welle picked up the eye-drops from the pharmacy. After a closer look of the product data sheet, we noticed that it was actually herbal medicine, made of plant called Euphrasia. There isn't much improvement in Fräulein's eyes yet, but I'll need to wait until tomorrow to say for sure, if these drops have worked or not.

I have previously been quite pro-modern-western-medicine type of person, but especially with Fräulein, I am more than happy to accept any 'gentler' medications, if they actually work. Thus, I don't want to give any label of 'good' or 'bad' for this oddity. However, I do remain quite sceptic about alternative medical systems.

But putting aside my own scepticism, I am amazed that these herbal and homeopathic products are sold side-by-side at the pharmacy and doctors prescribe them equally. Yes, the homeopathic system is originally a German invention, but I would have thought that in this country, the lack of scientific evidence of their real efficacy would be valued more.

No Sick Leave For Hausfrau

As I told you yesterday, I fell ill on Sunday morning. Not nice. Especially not nice, when you have a 14-month-old to look after. They do not grant sick leave for SAHMs (= Stay At Home Mums, an acronym I learnt recently!)

Fortunately, I'm feeling a bit better now, so I had to spent only two days curled up on the sofa. Well, I would have liked to curl up, but whenever I was able to find a position in which I wasn't feeling too bad, our daughter, let's call her Fräulein from now on, came and took my finger, pulling me to join her games. You cannot tell a 14-month-old that mummy is not feeling good, so could you please read some books by yourself...

I sometimes wonder, what I have actually been doing all day, when I've spent the day home together with Fräulein. But now that I have not been able to do anything at all, I notice how quickly the toys take over the floors, kitchen table tops pile up with dishes and bathroom floor is covered with laundry, as it cannot fit into the basket anymore. All this in just two days! So, I must be doing something, as our apartment does not normally look like this. (Those who have visited our home know that our home in by no means clinically clean, but looks like someone is living there, to put it mildly... But after two days of doing nothing at all, this really is something else!)

I must say my thanks to Herr Welle, who was supposed to fly to Finland on business yesterday evening, but postponed his departure until tonight. He has made sure that we have something to eat and can actually fit into the kitchen. And today I have finally been fit enough to wash some laundry myself. Although checking the winter sales here in Wiesbaden has to wait until a later date.