Good News from Sat, 07 January, 2012:

Finland punching above its weight

Finland’s success is out in the world. We can’t create affluence just among ourselves.  The keys of success are co-operation and creativity. They are, and have been, our small nation’s most significant resources.

One central task for the president is to make Finland both known and understood out in the world. We try to make ourselves heard with a proportionally louder voice than the size of our population.

So what do we Finns have to offer? We have good technical competence and we are creative content producers.

In addition, we have one, often unconsidered strength: we treat everyone equally. We are not a class society, nor do we admit the structures of class society elsewhere.  A cleaner’s daughter can still become a professor - and a professor’s son can become a cleaner. This basic concept of equality among people and between the sexes is a Finnish strength with value in the wider world as well.

No-one, anywhere in the world, could have predicted Finland’s growth over the last century into the front ranks of the affluent countries. We rose from a potato patch to global leader in communications technology. We wanted to be best in the world and we achieved it  - for a short while.

Growing economies outside Europe are now repeating Finland’s miracle. Finland’s ability to cope in the future is bound to our ability to co-operate with the growing economies of the world. As well as economic co-operation, we need to co-operate on political matters, building constitutional states, promoting human rights and averting environmental threats.

Finland can punch above its weight in the world in questions of peace, human rights, equality and sustainable development. It will require us to be active and extrovert. I believe in our ability to act as a solver of global problems and to punch above our weight.

Pekka Haavisto
Presidential Candidate

Did you find the article interesting? Have your say!

* Please fill all fields

Comments (1)

Anne Bland Sat 7 January 2012 at 13:14
Pekka Haavisto is right. He is showing by his own example the way how to negotiate better deals for everyone - be it in Arfica in peace negotitations or in Finland with the True Finns. He often says that if you want something, you have to be willing to come half way.

That is the Finland I want for the next 6-12 years. That is the reason why I will vote for number 2, Pekka Haavisto - the tough but fair future president of Finland.