Hi,
A few people have said Finland is a great quality of life. Since its become somewhat of a Tech Hub, I just wondered if anyone has ever been.
The weather is indeed harsh, and not cheap by all accounts. However, from what I hear its offset by the social cohesion, and good quality of life. Also, the Politically its stable and doesn’t indulge in the marxist ideologies that has infested the west.
Well rbairoid - starting from your last comment - they are already from the left ! They are are a ‘fixed’ society with no competition - there is no Tesco, no Carrefour, no Geant, no Aldi. There are a few Lidl’s but of course have no booze, as this you MUST buy from the Government shop with exorbitantly high taxes. The supermarkets are S market and K market and few others that push Finnish products. Finns are by nature quiet rather malleable even I would say guillible people and their Government tells them that all Finnish goods are better and they, a little like sheep, buy Finnish tomatoes at 250 Euros a kilo (yes I am exaggerating), because they actually believe their politicians. My mother-in-law often tells me that Finnish strawberries are the best and my sister-in-law the same for Finnish chocolate.
Now lets move to Helsinki airport — its a bit like Doha, you see more or less only one airline, there is No Ryanair, No Easyjet, No Swissair, No Air France and on and on. They make codeshares with the other airlines to fly only Finnair aircraft on all these Euro routes and at very expensive fares. They would never allow Ryanair to gain a foothold in Helsinki as they would kill Finnair in one year.
Now lets talk about the weather, its absolutely awful. Their summer started about two weeks ago, it snowed in Helsinki in May! It will last another 5 weeks maximum. By 1st week of August already the nights have a chill about them, and winter rushes in again.
Lets see - other qualities of life, eating out in a decent restaurant requires you take out a bank loan, buying a bottle of wine out also requires substantial cash preparation in advance. The Police are draconian, and the speeding fines are based on your salary, so they will screw you.
So apart from all this, its a very nice country where everybody drives around at 1 or 2km below the speed limit and will bore you to tears. They have no sport apart from ice hockey and winter sports so football, rugby, cricket, tennis, horse racing, F1,etc etc they have no idea what you are talking about. The world passes them by and in their ‘mushroom’ like state, they do not even notice. When they do wish to read about the world out there , they have one (govt controlled) newspaper ‘The Helsinkin Sanomat’ and nothing else with which to get a balanced view, and of course those views given within are always from the left.
I leave you with one example of how introverted they are. When the 9/11 attacks occurred and the whole world tuned in their TVs to watch this horrific momentous incident in world affairs, YLE the Finnish state TV channel continued showing various episodes of THE SIMPSONS… I kid you not.
Cheers for the reply. Sounds interesting. I guess it depends what you want in life. Having lived all over the world, I can say that the quiet life is good for me. Ryanair and easyjet do fly to helsinki as far as I’m aware, so that’s a lie. Been to Doha and thought it was incredibly superficial and boring.
Also, I lived in the UK which is a hyper corporatised multiculti blob. Where corporations rule, the people are mere serfs who life for work and drink themselves into oblivion at the weekend, to cope with the misery.
Regarding driving, I’m not overly keen on owning a car anyway. The weather may be an issue However. I get the feeling Finland is friendly and a nation that has pride in themselves, with social cohesion.
Saunas sound great, and I hear they are progressive in a real sense, not in a marxist sense.
rbairoid
Well I am glad I didn’t put you off by my diatribe.
You see I also have, and still do, live all over the world. I am writing this now from Riyadh.
And I am 63, not some ‘young buck’.
But my wife is Finnish, that is how I can talk with some ‘authority’. about Finland
I just find it so boring and furthermore VERY EXPENSIVE but that’s my point of view.
However I did not lie - I am right on Ryanair, they only fly to a city/town called Turku, not Helsinki.
Easyjet used to have a flight from Berlin to Helsinki I think, but I am not sure if that still operates (well hardly anything operates at the moment, but you know what I mean).
I am glad you are not keen on getting a car there because you will find cars there are some of the most expensive in Europe … AND do not think for one minute you could buy a cheap model in Germany and drive it over to Helsinki, as contrary to EU regulations, Finland does not accept that you can buy anything tax paid anywhere else in the EU and import it, like a car (this also relates to booze as well). They pick and choose which rules they like and which they don’t. That rule about cars also applies to me as a foreign citizen, and I guess would be also to you too.
Sorry, you mentioned that in the UK ‘people are mere serfs who live for work and drink themselves into oblivion at the weekend to cope with their misery’. I believe you would have a shock coming to you in Finland. They are miserable all week in a kind of Lutheran work ethic way, and then WHAM, if anyone outdrinks people from the UK, it’s Scandinavians and Finns to be precise. They are also some of the most morose people too, depressed with a high suicide rate. They drink like fish all winter because they are so depressed due to the long cold miserable winters, and then for 6 weeks (yes its a short summer) a year, they get drunk because they are so happy.
Although, with the high Income tax rates in Finland, you would also be miserable too.
So please be my guest, try living in Finland, but do your homework first.
Good luck
Hmmm yes, well I’ll take your word for it. Sad really because I had heard really good things, that it was a sort of utopia. Perhaps not. Then again, I hated living in England to the point of chronic depression.
I had heard Finland was more in tune with the human condition. Perhaps neighbouring Estonia would be a better option.
Hi Alain,
I made it to Finland, I gotta admit you were right. It is a kinda depressing place. I think its the weather mainly. The people are ok generally. I am leaving again as the job sucked.
Cheers
I did tell you.
Its strange that Finns seemed to be imbibed at an early age (I’m told at school) that they are a superior country, and certainly much better than Russia and also Sweden, strangely two countries that occupied them for hundreds of years.
I have just spent 4 months there after being locked/trapped/imprisoned in Saudi Arabia so I needed a long break after that ordeal and I have been observing/learning/enquiring/discussing with them all their assumed claims. They really feel uncomfortable when you question everything they have been taught, and its a sight to see when you ask them ‘‘but who told you that’’ (whatever nugget it may be)? They stutter and say well …‘‘they tell us’’ and you ask “who is ‘they’?” The Government?
As I said to you earlier they really are quite a gullible race and have no natural query/question mark on whatever the Government lays down or dictates, they just shrug and observe it thinking that it’s for their own good. And that is a Government, at the moment led by a young girl with almost zero international experience, who was raised by her lesbian mother and her lover/partner, started work as a supermarket check out girl and then joined the local council and worked her way up. Can you imagine what views she as of the world and how a country should be organised and run. Furthermore what side of the tracks her policies might be and in a 5 party coalition including the Commies and Greenie Tree Huggers! ------ You can just imagine. But Finns just do not question it.
Anyway having experienced quite a few days of horrific weather as you mention, I remember one day -22’c with a wind chill factor of -31’c – absolutely horrific, and once again Finns try to convince you that’s its fun and go skiing and trekking in it - they are quite possibly, a completely mad race!
I have returned to the UAE and after various tests and a 10 day quarantine regime (wearing like a prison tag), I have also received my first vaccine dose. And today was 29’c so for me, no comparison.
Haha ah I think they’re ok. Try Germany and you’ll see rudeness. Finnish women are the saving grave for me. However no I’m jobless, I’m considering heading to minsk for a few months to live cheaply.
I ain’t doing all that mask wearing crap.
Hi
Yes I didn’t say they were rude, but it’s just their false sense of superiority and that the way THEY do things, is the right way (because the Govt or the Law says so). Their gullibility, I would describe it.
I’m glad you thought that Finnish gals were your saving grace — Yeah, I know, I married one.
Mind you, many seem to fall for foreigners, as their own males, are in many ways rather a sad lot.
So good luck in your new found country, you should try to catch on U-tube the Nomad Capitalist, a guy called Andrew Henderson. Whilst he primarily helps out rich people, one can glean a lot of info from him on where to live, and as he says, using his catchphrase “Go where you are treated best”.
Hey Steven. Yes, morose is probably a word I’d use. The women are quite friendly though thankfully. I’m texting a woman all evening who is pregnant with another man’s child…bizarre I know. She works in my local gym, long story.
Nomad capitalist has good content but he asks for outrageous money from ppl. I’m personally well travelled, but I reckon Finland is a place one could get very very lonely.
@rbairoid
Sorry, I missed your last reply on Finland.
I have myself also left at present (for work purposes you understand), but the shit weather and the coldness of the place plus its most useless inexperienced government and politics were other reasons.
Yes one could be lonely there, but you have already extolled the virtues of Finnish women so they would definitely help.
However it would be nice to take them out for dinner and drinks regularly and not need to take out a mortgage, as Finnish taxes are daylight robbery — AND for me totally unacceptable.
So I would suggest you find ‘cheaper’ (said without insult) women elsewhere and socialise in a normally taxed country to completely avoid any loneliness.
Good luck
Cheers mate. Yeah the women are a bit crazy to be honest, not really worth the hassle. Taxes are a nightmare here but I think there are worse countries. The weather is miserable , but people are generally ok.
As I might have mentioned already, try living in Germany. Then you know miserable, robotic, arseholes with no soul.
No problem but where is ‘here’?
You did say that you may try Minsk, but is that actually where you ended up???
I knew a Palestinian (with Jordanian passport) here in Al Ain once, he worked as a ticket agent in the now long since closed Qatar Airways Sales Office here.
He went to university in Minsk and even married a Belarussan.
He was very happy with ‘his lot’ but then again as a Palestinian it doesn’t take much to give them happiness, as their lives at home are so wretched.
I suppose that is where he has returned now.
I never actually ended up in Minsk, still here in Finland. I’m waiting on a work visa for kazakhstan. Its mainly a career move, if I can get a year or two experience in this particular line of work it would be great for my career. My goal i to live in Asia long term, maybe Hong kong or sinagpore, perhaps even thailand. Europe is so boring, its like groundhog day, no fun and everything overeggulated. EU allows everyone in but hates europeans. At least eastern countries value their own people somewhat. The EU is becoming stifling and almost communist, and doesn’t inspire me.
Finding a wife isn’t really top of my priorities. Women seem to be like buses that come and go. People tell me, I just haven’t met the right one. In nearly 40 years I can count on one hand the women that were worth holding on to, which is tragic as I’ve dated at least 100.
@rbairoid
Just revisited this subject page and saw your last contribution from April.
Ummmm Kazakhstan - have lived and worked there on a special project in the southern Kazakh desert - marvellous place. Lived in Turkistan and Shymkent - fantastic - I recommend it to anyone! Where maybe 70% of the houses in these areas have no internal bathroom, they are at the end of the garden, yes I mean a ‘hole in the ground’ and in Winter it drops to -30’c ------- Good luck to you.
Hong Kong? … well I do believe that now you will not get a Residence Visa - it’s been completely F****D by the mainland. I read even this week, that expat pilots (Brits, Aussies etc) for Cathay are not having their Residence Visas renewed, and thereby Cathay are being forced to fire them, as their employment contracts are based upon the necessity of them obtaining a Residence Visa.
I myself as a non resident expat had a Bank A/C there until yesterday. They told me 2 months ago, that as a non resident, my A/C would close on 01/10/21, so therefore to clean out my account prior.
EU - don’t start me off. I will never stop criticising this undemocratic bunch of useless inept idiots.
Anyway from the UAE, I shall later this month have a 10 day break in Finland to see the wife.
I have applied for official residence status on 28 Jan due to BREXIT, but as yet, am still waiting for a decision after 9 months. Probably the Iraqis, Syrians, Somalis, Africans and now Afghanis etc etc take priority over the immigration process of one stupid British guy.
What did I say about the EU ? Absolutely useless with zero knowledge of the nasty world out there!!
I saw a recent tweet from Elon Musk made me think of @alainboy post. So, Finnish people are the happiest in the world 4 years in a row, and the country’s main selling points (according to its PM) are that the country is a “welfare state” and that the country will be carbon neutral by 2035? Hmmm… I wonder if people are happy there because it is truly, really a great place to life, or only because they don’t know any different and the government gives them their basic necessities in live so there is nothing to strive for beyond these basic needs so they happily follow any government edict? Perhaps you can expand on this @alainboy ?
Dear Sir
Happy to assist … or at least to give my twopennyworth for anybody who is interested.
Coincidentally I shall be going there next Monday for Christmas via the UK this weekend.
So lets use this correlation as a starting point.
There has been much print and on-line discussion on whether there will be Christmas festivities in Pubs/Restaurants/Clubs etc in the UK with all the Covid BS that is spouted by the government. If you are aware, in the UK, this is the most profitable few weeks in the year for the Hospitality sector.
And as I learnt as a young lad, the only day under the old licencing laws that a Pub was shut was on Christmas Day lunchtime in the whole year.
It is a traditionally a fun time for all.
Whereas in Finland, nobody goes out on Christmas Eve it’s all rather sober, and dare I say rather boring, more religious one might say.
On your supposition that they don’t know any better, that excuse cannot be used, certainly for the citizens of the Metropolitan area, as they do travel, and quite extensively.
It is a mentality problem, and I have had this discussion with good friends, obviously ones whom are, at a minimum, open to my points of view/observations and criticism, and a few who are completely in agreement with me.
It has been told to me that at school they are taught (or propagandised) that they are the best thing since sliced bread and certainly much better than there former occupiers Russia and Sweden. It really is quite amusing when I pick up my wife on it, and she doesn’t even realise what she says (Yes it does cause a few arguments and I have learnt to keep the peace).
I would describe Finns as being quite gullible, they believe everything they are told, but as they have basically 1 TV Channel, YLE the Government one, and one serious Newspaper of note the ‘Helsinkin Sanamat’ (the others are comics in the style of ‘Hello’, or more perhaps ‘The Enquirer’ in the US, if anyone knows it). This newspaper, which is in the main in tandem and sympathetic to the Ministers policies/views/ideas and owned/run by a guy close the the Government.
So Finns do not get any opposing view, their Government is always a coalition, so its a messy mish mash of leftie liberal tree hugging policies but what it isn’t. is Business friendly, or even consumer friendly. Everything from eating out, drinking, buying cars to airflights and property are exorbitantly expensive due to high taxation.
So as a fairly educated chap, I ask so where do the taxes go to and I am invariably told on their Health system, which is good one has to admit, but not free as the NHS is in UK. However when i push for other tax investments…it starts to run dry… schooling they say is another …
But their roads are abysmal. Around the Metro are 2 lane by-passes with 80kms/hr speed limits – its soul destroying … next week I shall be going to a ski resort in the far north on the Arctic Circle, a ski resort called Rukka — Finns flock there, but there is no railway, no airport and the road is a single carriageway road… A MOTORWAY ??? You must be joking!!! That stops at Lahti just one hour from the capital and the next 5 hours plus is driven on poor roads passing through small urban villages with draconian speed limits, radar cameras everywhere and very UNSYMPATHETIC Police.
It is atrocious that Finland and Finns call themselves a civilised society, when their transport infrastructure is extremely poor.
So again due to their education, their upbringing and being raised on the fact that Finland is quite clearly the best, they cannot see, nor do they accept that it’s not a very nice place at all. You did say that because it is a welfare society, perhaps the Govt provides them with most of what they require and they get on with their lives silently and alone, go Nordic stick walking cross country for 15kms.
You mentioned the P.M. She is a young ‘‘innocent’’ girl who was a check-out girl at a supermarket and then joined a local council and worked her way up through local government to national government, but knows absolutely nothing about anything.
If you need proof of her intelligence, just a week or so ago, she, having been in close proximity with one of her cabinet ministers, who was tested Covid positive during the working day, (and she was aware of this result) went ‘clubbing’ (as Prime Ministers do of course), and ‘forgot’ to take her Gov’t Prime Minister’s mobile with her.
What an absolute numpty. Inept and extremely unprofessional.
I suppose ‘once a supermarket check-out girl, always a supermarket check-out girl’ !!!
To summarise, there has been much talk of various western societies turning into ugly Dystopian Lands (eg Australia, NZ, Austria, Germany, Italy and UK) in the last 18 months, well Finland has been a dystopian state since the last 20 years that I’m aware.
This is my twopennyworth, perhaps even threepennyworth for your thoughts…
Oh and by the way I have another friend of mine, who actually lives and works in Finland. Moved there about 8-9 years ago so he got his citizenship etc. already. Works in IT somewhere as a developer or smth.
He told me the life can be good for someone who does not want much as it is essentially a very much socialist country. There is a certain heavy block on earning more than your next man (or woman). He said there may be a couple of ‘rich’ folks in the country who are big business owners, but for an ordinary employee to get anywhere near ‘rich’ or any semblance of it - forget it. He has his bike, no family, countryside home and he is content. For someone who needs to provide for the family but also wants luxury, impulsive purchases, and extra fun (well you know what I mean ‘fun’) - it’s a no.
I cannot guarantee this is all in any way correct, but have no reason to distrust the guy, he’s well travelled and just a overall good genuine fella.