Interesting Facts

For everyone who was in today's Skype session.  Who does Greece owe money to? In Euros Germany - 68.2bn France - 43.8bn Italy - 38.4bn Spain - 25bn IMF - 21.4bn  (International Monetary Fund) ECB 18.1bn  (European Central Bank) The Netherlands 13.4bn The US - 11.3bn The UK 10.8bn Belgium 7.5bn Austria - 5.9bn Finland 3.7bn (I told you everyone needs to start learning big numbers nowadays.)

Turku is the official Christmas City of Finland. (The Declaration of Christmas Peace has been taking place there every year, almost uninterrupted since the Middle Ages (records show it was cancelled in 1939 during the Winter War). The declaration takes place at 12 noon in the Old Great Square of Turku, on the day of Christmas Eve. The declaration ceremony begins with the hymn Jumala ompi linnamme (Martin Luther's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott) and continues with the Declaration of Christmas Peace read from a parchment roll in Finnish and Swedish.  It is broadcast on TV and radio, and of course nowadays the internet.  The old laws guarantee everyone Christmas peace from Christmas Eve until the end of Christmastide on St Knut's Day. I wonder if we could extend that.)

According to the Gobal Gender Gap report, published by the WEF, Britain has dropped  eight places to stand 26th in the world for gender equality. (Not surprisingly the Nordic countries - Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark - were the most equal, and they have been joined by Nicaragua, Rwanda, Ireland, the Philippines and Belgium in the top 10. Yemen remained at the bottom of the chart for the ninth year in a row.) Source

An estimated 1.3 million people now use e-cigarettes in Britain. (E-cigarettes are banned in Hungary, Brazil, Finland, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Singapore, and they can't be sold to under 16s in Italy. The Weatherspoons chain of pubs in the UK has banned them too.)

50 years ago only 5% of young people in the UK went to university. (The ONS (Office for National Statistics) found that 27.2% of the UK population aged 16 to 74 had a degree or equivalent or higher, and according to the UK government's universities minister, David Willetts, the number of places at UK universities will have to grow by at least a quarter over the next 20 years. We have a long way to go to beat Finland though: In Finland 80% of young women are now going to university. Going to university may become as natural as going to school.)

In Finland children do not have to undergo any formal tests and teachers are allowed to teach whatever and however they wish as long as they meet very general learning objectives set by Finland’s National Board of Education. (The only formal, national test is the university matriculation exam: a set of four open-ended exams that are based on problem-solving skills rather than subject mastery. Although most students who go on to university take this exam, it is not required for graduation from upper secondary school or even for university admissions Imagine that!  No fear, just learning.)

Day-care centres in Finland put children outside to nap, even in temperatures of -5°C. (Seemingly this is an old Finnish custom and it's common to see rows of prams lined up in the snow at nap-time, with youngsters fast asleep inside. It became widespread when it was first promoted by the father of Finland's own Dr Spock, Arvo Ylppö. The theory behind outdoor napping is that children exposed to fresh air, whether in summer or the depths of winter, are less likely to catch coughs and colds. I guess it saves on heating bills too.)

According to a study by Nature's Calendar, Britain's native trees are producing ripe fruit, on average, 18 days earlier than a decade ago, probably as a result of climate change. (The most marked change was seen in the rowan tree, which according to Finnish mythology was the first tree on earth:- In the yard there grows a Rowan.  Thou with reverent care should'st tend it.  Holy is the tree there growing.  Holy likewise are its branches.  On its boughs the leaves are holy.  And its berries yet more holy. Excerpt from The Kalevala ,  a compilation of Finnish folk lore  According to the study, rowan berries are now ready to eat nearly a month earlier than 10 years ago.)

Angry birds the multi-platform game is made by a Finnish software company. (Rovio Mobile, the software developer from Finland created the game, which was first launched for Apple's mobile operating system in December 2009, since then over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's on-line store. The game features cartoonish, wingless birds that the player must slingshot into enemy pig territory to reclaim stolen eggs. It is completely addictive.)

A 37-year-old Swedish man was caught driving a black Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS from Bern to Lausanne at around 300 kilometers per hour (180 miles per hour) on a Swiss motorway. (He now faces a fine of nearly £650,000 ($1 million). Authorities said the man, who was not immediately identified, could be facing up to $1 million Swiss francs ($962,000) for his speeding offense, as fines in the European country are based on a driver's wealth, which in his case will work out at 300 days of fines at £2,166 a day. He's not the first to be slapped with a heavy fine: in January, a Swiss court slapped a $290,000 speeding ticket on a millionaire Ferrari driver who drove 60 mph (nearly twice the 30 mph limit) through a small village. And the head of Finnish communications giant Nokia was ordered to pay a $103,000 fine for a speeding ticket in 2002. Officers pulled over Anssi Vanjoki on his cherry red Harley Davidson in Helsinki after he was clocked driving 47 mph in a 31-mph zone. Ther...

In Finland there are two classes of driving licence. An A class licence and a B class licence. (To get a B class licence you need 30 hours of instructed driving, which has to include a session on a skid pan. I guess this must be because you often have to drive in icy conditions. I doubt I would have passed my test first time if I'd had to do any skid pan training. Seemingly the B license is issued for two years. During this time, the newly qualified driver may receive a maximum of two traffic fines in total. If the number of fines is exceeded, the license is revoked and the driver is required to re-take the exam. Even with one fine, the interim period may be extended for a maximum of two years. During the interim period, the new driver must pass a short refresher course, which includes another skid pan course, and they have to take part in dark time driving training, but Finnish lighting conditions prevent the dark time training during summer. You can't fight nature.)

Finland is estimated to have more than two million saunas. (Almost everyone in Finland visits one every week. I've got one in the cellar, and I visit it about once a year.)

According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC, the number of paid holidays guaranteed by law in the United States is zero. (This compares with 30 guaranteed holiday days in Finland.)

Finland is the only country in the world which broadcasts the news in Latin. (Nuntii Latini - News in Latin - is a weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. I don't know why this cheers me up so much, but it does. Maybe it appeals to my belief that no language should ever die out completely.)