This week Finland's great and good are gathered in Pori for the tenth annual Suomi Areena festival, where panels pontificate about topics close to the nation's heart. It's a rallying point for Finnish elites to discuss current affairs and public policy in a new setting, outdoors, away from the capital when the west coast town of Pori is at its best (which is to say: in July, when it's not too cold).
Helsingin Sanomat carries plenty of news from the festival, along with an editorial lauding the event in a news-rich summer while also complaining that Pori doesn't quite have enough accommodation for everyone descending on the town. It has some way to go before it matches the Swedish equivalent event, Almedalen, which is held each year on the island of Gotland.
Unfortunately the economic discussions coming out of Pori this week aren't too happy: HS carries one that suggests Finland's housing market is in trouble, with many houses in the wrong place, in need of repair and difficult to sell. One expert on a Suomi Areena panel said that even Helsinki could be hit by a price crash, as the city has 30,000 unsold properties and as older people die their apartments come on to the market.
Hesari's 'youth media' website Nyt covers another aspect of the event: all male panels. There are apparently a lot of them about in Pori this week, including one panel in which four white men discussed immigration without any input from immigrants.
Fennovoima blues
Swedish People's Party leader Carl Haglund got some exposure in HS, saying that he would at this stage vote against the Fennovoima nuclear project. The last government had approved the plant on the condition that it was 60 percent owned by Finnish firms--but had to count UEU firms as 'domestic' to comply with European legislation.
Now that the condition has been met with the help of a firm registered in Zagreb, Haglund says that the current ownership structure does not match the 'spirit' in which Fennovoima was granted permission for the new power plant.
'Eurotastrophe' averted
Finally, as we carried a somewhat gloomy preview of the Champions League qualifier yesterday, it's only fair to note that HJK won 3-1 in Ventspils and now look set to progress to the next round.
There wasn't however a source of unconfined joy for Finns. The Helsinkians were losing 1-0 until deep into the second half, when Erfan Zeneli received the ball in the penalty area. He nudged it past his opponent, who blocked him from shooting--but the contact was enough to win a penalty. Zeneli admitted as much afterwards, and of course the media ran with that.
'Film hero' screamed Iltalehti, using the common Finnish shorthand of 'filming' for players who deliberately dive to fool the referee, while Ilta-Sanomat went for 'Fished for penalty' (a loose translation of 'Kalastettu pilkku').
Was it that bad? Judge for yourself here. Finns may, though, have to get over this scrupulous morality if they want to advance in European competition: the other three teams in Europe this year have all already been eliminated.