Author: Tom

How to survive harsh times in an increasingly difficult world If you should watch just one film by Aki Kaurismäki, I suggest “Drifting Clouds” (1996), which is probably his masterpiece. Well, to be honest, I haven’t watched a lot of his movies, but it’s the best from the four or five I’ve seen so far,…

Kaurismäki movies. The Finnish character. Russia and Sweden. Tango. Aki Kaurismäki is probably one of the most famous Finnish filmmakers abroad. He also has a brother, Mika, who makes documentaries. But Aki directs fiction movies and is more well-known, having won main prizes in Cannes and being nominated twice for the Oscars in the Best…

In my constant quest for finding islands of peace and harmony in a corrupt and decaying world, the other Sunday I visited a Catholic Church in Helsinki, which organizes a monthly Latin Mass. (Finding Latin Masses all over the world is my latest hobby, as you may know.) I arrived late, however, missing the Tridentine…

From school shootings to Squid Game What is it with all these school shootings? Recently there were two in Serbia, another one in Pakistan, and a month ago an attack in Brazil — already the second or third one there. Also Russia, Germany, Denmark have all had school shootings recently. Not content with just shootings,…

My experience in Finland is turning out to be very different from the one in Sweden last year, and not just because of the different seasons. While superficially both places seem to resemble each other (a small village somewhere lost in the woods, near lakes), the similarities end there. Björkö was, or seemed, lonelier and…

Initial contacts with an alien race Finns are stereotyped as being extreme introverts who don’t like small talk — or even to talk at all. The series of cartoons “Finnish Nightmares” is a good general introduction to the Finnish psyche, and pretty funny too. But, so far, most people that I talked to have been…

The mystery in the rise of technologies that no one asked for Since no one is very much interested in my travel articles about Finland, I will go back to ranting about AI and automation — which interests even less people, but that’s fine. I get paid by the word… I’ve noticed that self-checkout is…

Or just Vappu in Finland German might not sound as musical or romantic as French or Italian, but it is a great language for solemn, intriguing, seemingly fateful words. Take Walpurgisnacht, for instance. It may sound like a curse or an omen, but it just means Night of (Saint) Walpurga (or more exactly, if less…

And warming up to Finnish sauna So today I went to a Finnish sauna at the Museum. Sauna at the Museum? Well, this is Sparta! I mean, Finland. There’s sauna everywhere. Who would think that sitting in a steamy room at 75 degrees Celsius then submerging into a lake at 5 degrees Celsius would be…

The Happiest Country in the World? Well, happiness is subjective It was quite a shock teleporting from the sunny beaches of Catalonia to the still half-frozen lakes of Finland, and I wondered for a while if I had not made a terrible mistake. To be honest, I still have not recovered. Today it’s not cold,…