The Night Between November And February
Heute habe ich von Delphine (Erasmus-Studierende aus Frankreich) folgenden Text erhalten. Leider kenne ich die Quelle nicht :-(
Winter is the time of the year when we foreigners start suspecting that moving to Finland might have been a mistake after all. We dream of going home to Turkey (jaja, zu de Kebap-Lüüt, gäu Fatis :-) ), Jamaica, India, Australia or even Germany. We pity the Finns, because they are left to their own devices. Where would they return to? Oulu, Rovaniemi, Ivalo? (Dies sind Orte in Finnland)
There's really no need to feel sorry for them, and it's short-sighted to welcome the greenhouse effect here in the vicinity of the arctic circle. To the untrained eye Finnish winter might appear as a curse, but in reality it is a blessing that keeps this society going. Unofficial calculations show that about half of Finland's gross national product is due to winter, directly or indirectly. There are lots of examples:
Finlands pharmaceuticals industry would go bankrupt in no time if it weren't for the arctic depression and the little pink pills the population enthusiastically swallows. Without winter, half of Finland's psychologists would be driving taxis because people wouldn't find as many good reasons for attempting suicide.
The snow keeps a hundred thousand Finnish janitors employed who would otherwise never find a decent job. Maintaining the heavy machinery needed to get rid of snow is an economic factor just as important as the entire Finnish Armed Forces with all their tanks and whatnot.
The energy business loves the Finnish winter: Here you can still build new nuclear power plants while the rest of the world is already phasing out atomic energy. You can price energy at any level you want: after all, if the people want to stay alive, they will have to heat and light their appartements.
In Finland it's very easy to get rid of house mites, fleas and homeless alcoholics who put a strain on the welfare system: all you have to do is lock them out in the snow and ice.
It's obvious that the national economy couldn't survive without winter. But apart from the economic advantages, winter also brings with it lots of amusements that people in warmer countries have to make without.
Queuing in front of a restaurant in minus third degrees centigrade cerates strong bonds between people and raises the consumption of alcoholic beverages to astronomic levels - provided you actually end up making it inside the restaurant.
Picking up your children at the kindergarten is also very exciting in winter. Almost all the little brats wear the same cold weather overalls, and it can easily happen that when you peel your kid at home, what you find is the fruit of somebody else's loins...
Undoubtedly the most entertaining thing to do in winter is to search for your snow entombed car. First you have to find a shovel somewhere, then you start digging like there's no tomorrow. And when you're finally ready to jump behind the wheel and hit the road, a snow plough will appear and put a meter high wall of snow right between you and the open road.
The Finnish winter is a great and marvellous power. It mercilessly dictates the rhythm of everyone's lives and its effects reach all the way down to each and every detail of human existance. Even police interrogations sound different here than in other parts of the world: Where were you during the night between November and February?
So, und wer sich die Zeit genommen hat, um diese kleine Beschreibung Finnlands zu lesen, der weiss jetzt, wie es mir schon bald ergehen wird, in der Nacht zwischen November und Februar. Zum Glück komme ich im Dezember nach Hause :-)
Winter is the time of the year when we foreigners start suspecting that moving to Finland might have been a mistake after all. We dream of going home to Turkey (jaja, zu de Kebap-Lüüt, gäu Fatis :-) ), Jamaica, India, Australia or even Germany. We pity the Finns, because they are left to their own devices. Where would they return to? Oulu, Rovaniemi, Ivalo? (Dies sind Orte in Finnland)
There's really no need to feel sorry for them, and it's short-sighted to welcome the greenhouse effect here in the vicinity of the arctic circle. To the untrained eye Finnish winter might appear as a curse, but in reality it is a blessing that keeps this society going. Unofficial calculations show that about half of Finland's gross national product is due to winter, directly or indirectly. There are lots of examples:
Finlands pharmaceuticals industry would go bankrupt in no time if it weren't for the arctic depression and the little pink pills the population enthusiastically swallows. Without winter, half of Finland's psychologists would be driving taxis because people wouldn't find as many good reasons for attempting suicide.
The snow keeps a hundred thousand Finnish janitors employed who would otherwise never find a decent job. Maintaining the heavy machinery needed to get rid of snow is an economic factor just as important as the entire Finnish Armed Forces with all their tanks and whatnot.
The energy business loves the Finnish winter: Here you can still build new nuclear power plants while the rest of the world is already phasing out atomic energy. You can price energy at any level you want: after all, if the people want to stay alive, they will have to heat and light their appartements.
In Finland it's very easy to get rid of house mites, fleas and homeless alcoholics who put a strain on the welfare system: all you have to do is lock them out in the snow and ice.
It's obvious that the national economy couldn't survive without winter. But apart from the economic advantages, winter also brings with it lots of amusements that people in warmer countries have to make without.
Queuing in front of a restaurant in minus third degrees centigrade cerates strong bonds between people and raises the consumption of alcoholic beverages to astronomic levels - provided you actually end up making it inside the restaurant.
Picking up your children at the kindergarten is also very exciting in winter. Almost all the little brats wear the same cold weather overalls, and it can easily happen that when you peel your kid at home, what you find is the fruit of somebody else's loins...
Undoubtedly the most entertaining thing to do in winter is to search for your snow entombed car. First you have to find a shovel somewhere, then you start digging like there's no tomorrow. And when you're finally ready to jump behind the wheel and hit the road, a snow plough will appear and put a meter high wall of snow right between you and the open road.
The Finnish winter is a great and marvellous power. It mercilessly dictates the rhythm of everyone's lives and its effects reach all the way down to each and every detail of human existance. Even police interrogations sound different here than in other parts of the world: Where were you during the night between November and February?
So, und wer sich die Zeit genommen hat, um diese kleine Beschreibung Finnlands zu lesen, der weiss jetzt, wie es mir schon bald ergehen wird, in der Nacht zwischen November und Februar. Zum Glück komme ich im Dezember nach Hause :-)
posted by Carolyn at
1:07 PM
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