Evening paper Ilta-Sanomat printed a story on Monday about controversy surrounding National Coalition Party MP Sanna Lauslahti’s membership on the board of a company called Luona Oy, which sells its services to reception centres.
After the news of Lauslahti’s involvement in the company was revealed Friday, Finns Party member and European MP Jussi Hall-aho voiced his objection to the situation.
While he didn’t name Lauslahti specifically, Halla-aho said that politicians should not be making money from asylum seekers, the paper wrote.
In an interview with the paper, Lauslahti defended herself saying that her political job does not involve decisions about migration at all and that she will focus on education and cultural issues, the paper wrote.
Law professor at University of Helsinki Olli Mäenpää said that the issue is an ethical and moral one, and said that legal barriers are in place if an MP would attempt voting on measures that would create a conflict of interest.
Luona was founded this year and provides services to a total of seven reception centres in Finland.
The company is a subsidiary of the private employment agency Barona Group, which has staff of around 2,700 people and provides services in the social, health, IT and other sectors in Finland, Russia, Estonia and Sweden.
Hopes to replace Asian health foods with Finnish berries
The healthy, clean and natural foods industry is an emerging market in Asia, Iltalehti writes Monday.
South Koreans have started to get a taste for Finnish cloudberries, cranberries and lingonberries, according to Moisio, the paper writes.
But one major challenge for the Finnish berry industry is getting berries off the bushes and to market - Asian or otherwise - is the ability to pick all of the berries.
Currently some 90 percent of Finnish berries remain unpicked. Simo Moisio of the Arctic Flavours Association says that by beefing up the Finnish berry picking industry, output could be increased significantly.
He said that today’s 15 to 20 million kilograms per year could be raised to 22 to 30 million kilograms, the paper wrote.
South Koreans have started to get a taste for Finnish cloudberries, cranberries and lingonberries, according to Moisio, the paper writes. The industry could improve business by hiring more berry pickers, using both domestic and foreign workers, Moisio told the paper.
Arctic Flavours promotes natural Finnish products like berries, mushrooms and herbs.
Annaleena Soult of Finpro, an agency of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs which promotes Finnish business abroad applauded initiatives of a company which is marketing one of its varieties under the name “Santa Berries.”
Wet night on Viking Line cruise
Many newspapers wrote about the misadventure on Viking Line’s Mariella cruise ship over the weekend. Ilta-Sanomat made a big splash about the boat’s sprinkler system activation due to a plumbing leak, ruining the cruise for many passengers.
On its way from Stockholm to Helsinki, Mariella’s fire-extinguishing sprinkler system was activated on decks four and five, completely soaking 90 cabins, according to HBL.
Many passengers were left on dry land later in the day on Sunday when the boat returned to Stockholm, because 70 of the cabins remained wet, and their return passage was cancelled.