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As summer arrives, Oulu seems to come to life. The warm weather brings Finns out of their houses to the beaches, forests or simply just to enjoy a drink on a pub terrace. But this happy scene is always slightly marred by the weather also bringing out people in Oulu who have a serious alcohol problem. 
‘Maybe it’s just the weather!’ one history student suggested. ‘They become alcoholics in the cold, dark winter and then in the summer . . . that’s when you see them on the streets.’
Already, visitors to Oulu will be aware of the city’s problem with alcoholics. Termed by locals as ‘drunks’ or ‘bums’ (‘pummi’ in Finnish), they can already be seen sitting in various parks in Oulu drinking spirits in the middle of the day.
‘There are various, alcoholic local characters!’ an Oulu taxi-driver said. ‘But it’s in the summer that they drink even more and you’re really aware of them.’
Collapsing in the Street According to various Oulu residents, in the last week, a particular Oulu ‘drunk’ collapsed outside the main Post Office in Oulu and had to be carried to a bench by passing shoppers. Another, also heavily drunk, simply curled-up and fell asleep at one of the city centre’s bus-stops while other commuters sat around him waiting for the buses to arrive. Yet another Oulu ‘drunk’ – distinguished by always wearing a woolly bobble-hat – hangs around the centre of Oulu and begs passers-by for a few spare coins, presumably to assist him in purchasing more alcohol.
‘Finnish alcoholics have given up,’ claimed one student at an Oulu Professional school. ‘Life is just too hard for them. They have failed so many times and they have to try again and again and eventually they just think, “No! I’ll become alcoholic. It’s easier!’
For many Oulu people, being a ‘bum’ was more than just about drinking, it was a whole style.
‘They dress in a certain way,’ said the taxi-driver. ‘It’s not just that they drink. They often wear parts of a shell-suit, for example . . . or a coat that they maybe bought in about 1990 that’s really dirty. Being a pummi in Finland is a kind of style.’
Dying for a Drink But exactly why Oulu – and Finland more broadly – had this problem with ‘drunks’ was not something that many Oulu people had an opinion on. A school teacher originally from Helsinki summed it up, ‘Every year at Midsummer Iltalehti reports all the people that have died because they’re drunk but they never want to look at why it is,’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s too painful for us as a people to do that. I think we have low self-esteem and we are shy and drinking makes us feel like we’re important and nothing matters.’
For alcoholism researcher Prof. Anja Keski-Jännes, there are important historical reasons by the problem.
‘I think history is part of the story,’ she suggested. ‘Finland had prohibition in the early 1900s and I think people learnt that you have to make strong alcohol and drink it quickly and maybe that’s kind of still with us.’
Keski-Jännes also felt that, ‘In Finnish culture it’s kind of acceptable to be drunk. Alcohol is just seen as the poor man’s opera! You get into a different kind of reality!’ All in the genes? Some researchers have suggested that that the issue with drunkenness in Finland is not a matter of just culture but also genetics. According to Slovenian geneticist Dr Andrej Marusic there is a ‘J Curve,’ when plotted on a map of Europe, of countries with high levels of alcoholism and suicide rates starting in Finland and extending down to Slovenia. He argues that this ‘J Curve’ precisely parallels the genetic influence of Finno-Uralic peoples on the populations. Marusic claims that the problem alcoholism in these genetically Finno-Uralic areas can be blamed on a combination of genes and exposure to alcohol to which these peoples ‘have not become genetically resistant.’
Marusic argues that Mongol incursions into Europe in the 13th century under Genghis Khan and earlier original Mongol migrations left Asiatic genes in some populations and especially the gene ADH22 ‘a gene common in Asiatic populations but almost non-existent in Europeans.’ It is found in the paternal DNA of many Finno-Uralic peoples, claims the geneticist. However, other geneticists argue that Finns are basically genetically the same as other Europeans.
Temperance Culture For alcoholism expert Prof. Harry Levine, Finland is a ‘temperance culture.’ In Temperance Cultures, alcohol is seen as ‘sacred marker’ which marks the passage into a special ‘other world’ and so alcohol is generally associated with some kind of celebration and people drink to get drunk. In non-temperance cultures, drinking alcohol is seen as a normal part of everyday life.
‘I don’t know maybe it’s also to do with war,’ suggested Keski-Jännes. ‘And recently they even put down the price of spirits . . . and alcoholics in Finland are mainly poor people.’
Many Oulu shoppers agreed with one entrepreneur commenting that, ‘They are seen as a kind of national disgrace. They just drink. They are normally middle-aged and have lost their jobs. They are the bottom of Finnish society.’
One woman who had lived in Oulu all her life insisted that, ‘Some people are basically born drunks. What chance do they have? Both their parents are alcoholics . . . nothing gets done, so of course they become alcoholics as well and go to the bars in Oulu that only alcoholics go to.’
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