Maarit Kohtala, the co-ordinator of Saturday’s Market of Possibilities, told 65DN that it will involve a variety of performances and activities by ‘cultural social organizations’ who aim to ‘help the globe.’

The market will include a musical performance by a rock band from Nicaragua, dancing performances and various activities for children. Amongst them will be art and crafts workshops, musical workshops and ‘storytelling.’ In addition, there will be ‘surprises’ that the co-ordinator doesn’t even know about.

The Market of Possibilities will be open from 11am to 4pm. The Culture Silo can be found at Alvar Aallon Katu 5.

Star Cinema Tuira

Education student Annemarie Muller, who is originally from Germany but has been Finland for nine years, saw the film ‘Kovasikajuttu’ and was deeply moved by it. To celebrate her graduation, she decided to take her friends to the independent cinema which is showing the film, but some of her friends do not speak Finnish.

She approached the cinema’s manager and, to her surprise, he was prepared, at her request, to screen the film with English rather than Swedish subtitles.

Kari Kantala, the manager of the cinema, told 65DN that, ‘If it’s possible, we’re happy to show films with English subtitles any time for any amount of people. Unfortunately only a few films come with this possibility.’

Kovasikajuttu (‘The Punk Syndrome’) was released in Finland on 4^th May. It is a documentary following the often turbulent lives of members of a Finnish Punk band called Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. It will be shown at Star Cinema at 6.30pm on 22^nd May.

Its title – ‘300,000,000’ – refers to the number of animals ‘put to death’ in Finland each year to make fur coats and other items. It is series of photographs documenting fur trade cruelty, taken by Vesa Ranta. According to Ranta, ‘These concentration camps for animals are places that should not exist in today’s society anymore. I wish to make people think if this legitimate torture of animals is necessary?’

The photographer is presenting his photos of the fur trade in co-operation with Oulu Region Humane Society, which works to prevent cruelty to animals and is celebrating its 50^th anniversary.

According to Kari Lunnas, the Project Manager of ‘Culture Power Station,’ the Oulu district of Meritoppila has something of a reputation. It is home to a relatively large amount of immigrants, from around thirty different countries, as well as Finns who don’t have much money or education. This is why Lunnas, who had been based in Kemi until four years ago, was invited to Meritoppila: to revitalise it with an arts-based community centre.

‘I think that art is important because it gives people an opportunity to be critical of their society,’ the adult educator and former journalist told 65DN. ‘It also means that they can express their culture and feel more accepted. And it allows them to meet other people from the community. I don’t think social work is the only way to make a place better.’

Four years ago what is now called the Culture Silo was empty and falling into ruin. ‘We went to see this building. Nobody was using it. It was quite a beautiful building, but it was just going down and down all the time,’ Lunnas recalled.

Built in 1931 by the noted Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, the building was originally a factory for producing sugar, but it closed in the recession of the early 1990s and was simply left to fall apart. Previously, in Kemi, Lunnas and his organization had renovated a disused power station and turned it into an art gallery and community centre and this disused Silo seemed an ideal opportunity to do the same in Oulu.

‘The idea is to renovate the building and develop the community. We are not an artistic organization,’ he emphasises. ‘We are a cultural organization. But as part of this we aim to bring in artists from all different parts of the world.’

Culture Silo is not fully renovated yet but, nevertheless, it recently held an exhibition by two artists from London: Neil Edward and Slam Daniels, a pair who specialise in Street Art. On Saturday, it will play host to the ‘Market of Possibilities’ which include various arty stalls, while in August or September American photographer and University of Pennsylvania professor Lori Graham will present her pictures of the time she spent in Finland a year ago.

Culture Power Station is not the first organization to take a disused power station and turn it into an art gallery. London’s ‘Tate Modern,’ on the banks of the Thames opposite St Paul’s Cathedral, surely boasts that. But Lunnas emphasises that, ‘Our idea is not the same as the Tate Modern.’ As well as bringing in professional artists, he says, ‘we encourage community art through people working together.’

The renovation of the Culture Silo is also, Lunnas hopes, bringing the local community together and helping the disadvantaged.

‘Some people give their labour for free,’ he says, ‘with others it’s part of a work placement scheme organized by the employment office or part of a salary support system.’ The project is also funded by the European Culture Foundation, in addition to other foundations and charitable sources.

When the Culture Silo is finally completed, there will be space for a community centre, art workshops, art galleries, temporary flats for artists-in-residence and even ‘some kind of restaurant. There will be a different cook – offering a different culture’s cuisine – every month.’

Apparently, there has already been a French Evening and a Somali Evening. Lunnas describes Somali food as ‘delicious.’ In addition, three days a week, the Culture Silo already offers a ‘very cheap lunch’ to anybody who wants it.

For Lunnas, even though it is not completed yet, the Culture Silo is already beginning to justify itself, with Finns and immigrants who otherwise wouldn’t have spoken to each other becoming friends and even teaching each other their languages.

The QS Top Universities, made its ranking decisions through research assessments, interviews with academics and students, employer reputation and the degree to which the faculty and student body were ‘international.’

Its findings for 2011/ 2012 have been published online. They put Cambridge University in first place, Harvard in second, Massachusetts Institute of Technology third, Yale fourth, Oxford University fifth, Imperial College London sixth and University College London seventh. Of the rest of the universities in the top 20, all but two are in the USA.

Finnish universities are far down the table. The University of Helsinki has fallen from 75^th last year to 89^th this year. This nevertheless puts it 8 places above St Andrews University where Prince William and Kate Middleton studied and began their relationship. It also places it above Oslo University and Dartmouth College which is one of America’s prestigious ‘Ivy League’ Institutions.

Aalto University ranks 250^th. Oulu has risen from 313^th to 304^th while Eastern Finland is up from 308^th to 305^th. Tampere is 390^th, while none of the other Finnish institutions made it into the Top 500.

Docent Anna-Maria Suikkari, Medical Director of Väestöliitto, told 65DN that only twenty percent of donated sperm is regarded as being of good enough ‘quality’ to be used in helping infertile couples conceive.

The minimum age of a donor, to their clinic, is 20 while the maximum is 45. This is because ‘sperm quality gets lower and lower as people get older’ and also because, Finnish IVF children born since 2007 have the right to know the name of and details about their biological fathers. The biological fathers, however, have the absolute right to reject all contact.

‘Accepted donors usually make ten deposits and they are used with five different families, explained Dr Suikkari. This low number is, in part, to avoid the possibility of inadvertent incest, though no efforts are made to ensure that the donor and the receiving couple are not from the same town.

Infertile couples, again by law, are given minimal information about the donor. He will be matched to the infertile husband in terms of a few physical characteristics, such as eye and hair colour and general appearance, but not in terms of psychological characteristics (which would be illegal). Socio-economic data on the donors is not kept. ‘The couples know that this donor could be anybody. But, of course, the donor has to be healthy and not have a mental illness,’ stressed Dr Suikkari.

She added that a larger proportion of donors were students ‘before the 2007 law’ but now they are broader cross-section and, in some areas, there are fewer of them than before. Donation, however, is very much ‘altruistic’ with donors being paid a ‘government-set minimum day wage’ in accordance with an EU directive.

In the late hours of Sunday night, a group of men, described by police simply as ‘foreign,’ broke into Tornio’s Outokumpo steel mill in search of metal, probably to sell for scrap.

Security guards in the factory noticed cameras moving in the sector of the factory where copper cable is stored and telephoned the police.

Two police patrols arrived and found that the group had indeed been on the scene. By this time, the suspects had managed to flee about half a kilometre before hiding in some bushes. They were tracked down by police sniffer dogs and arrested without resistance.

The men were in possession of a car and trailer and in the trailer were various pieces of sawn-off copper. They were taken to jail in Kemi.

The stealing of copper cable has rocketed throughout Europe since the beginning of the Economic Crisis. There have even been cases, in the UK and USA, of attempts to steal copper cable which has turned out to be live. These have resulted in the thieves receiving life-threatening electric shocks and electricity blackouts for nearby residents. In some cases, thieves have been killed attempting to remove the copper wire from electricity pylons.

The Intiö branch of Sale, the small supermarket, was robbed at gunpoint on Friday evening. Threatened with what seemed like a gun, the shop assistant handed-over money.

The robber then made his way to a waiting ‘get-away car’ in which there were three other men. Within five minutes, the police reached the area and tracked down and stopped the car. The car was jammed with what police have described as ‘loot’ and they also found the gun, which turned out to be an imitation.

The arrest passed off peacefully and the entire gang held at Oulu’s police station were freed on Monday and are not being treated as accomplices. The robber insisted that he acted ‘alone.’

photo:Kiimingin Urheilijat

Snowboarding and freestyle (‘new school’) skiing are popular activities among young people, but until last winter the Oulu region has lacked a place to practice them.

But this last winter, one was established in a Kiiminki park’s clubhouse, and it will hopefully be much improved by next winter.

According to Aki Happonen, the park’s handyman from the Kiimingin Urheilijat sports club, the entire project was carried out in consultation with the young people who would potentially use it.

‘The youngsters described the kinds of rails and other obstacles they wanted and gave instructions for the necessary earthwork, and the nature of the project submitted for tendering was also decided together,’ he said.

‘The building of the freestyle park was started already last spring. In conjunction with the building work, the area’s safety was improved by modifying the route of a passing ski trail in order to prevent any risk of collision between the park’s users and local cross-country skiers. Space was also reserved for a sledging hill next to the park,’ he added.

Kiiminki Council contributed to the costs of the equipment in the freestyle park, and this past winter the rails and boxes were in heavy use from the first night onwards. The aim is to carry out some further limited earthwork this summer. At the same time, a summer slope will be available, so skiers and snowboarders will be able to practise their slides during the warmer months as well.

“Next winter, the Kimmoke Park will be back again. We’ll carry out some improvements if our financial situation allows – our aim is to add one more rail. On the other hand, I’m looking into whether we could do this with the help of an unpaid, team effort. We intend to hold various events in the future and – resources permitting – to arrange freestyle training for young riders,” says Happonen.

The ski park is the 12^th of Oulu’s ‘100 Acts’ to improve quality of life in the region.

Lauri Ihalainen, the SDP Minister for Labour, is looking into how his government can break-up the de facto duopoly in the Finnish supermarket sector. Currently, two big groups –  the S-Group and Kesko – control eighty percent of supermarkets. S-Group (with a 45 percent market share) runs Prisma, S-Market and Sale, while Kesko (35 percent) runs K-Markets and City Market. Their competitors, such as Lidl, and the shops controlled by Suomenlahikauppa (Euromarket, Siwa, Valintatalo) and a few even smaller companies, control just twenty percent of the market between them.

The minister is concerned about ‘lack of competition’ and is now seriously looking into limiting the percentage of the food market that an individual food company can control. Some researchers in the area insist that it is this lack of competition which partly explains high food prices.

However, Suso Kolesnik, of S-Market, insists that the prices are reasonable when taxation is accounted for and that lack of competition is not the real reason for expensive supermarket food.

‘Finnish food prices are about average but you when you take into account 17 percent VAT on food and then the plenty of other taxes, about 44 percent of the price of food is tax. This is much higher than in other European countries,’ she explained.

‘Tax is the big issue. We try to keep food prices as low as possible. But we are taxed much more. Also, basic costs are higher – such as energy in a cold country. And we are also a big country, so transportation is more expensive.’

She also insisted that the S-Group does all it can to import cheaper food but that ‘Finns like to eat Finnish food because they think it is cleaner and safer.’

Anu Ora, of the Suomenlahikauppa, agrees. ‘Most of the price is VAT,’ she told 65DN. ‘On average the market leader is the cheapest. LidL has a lower price but there is less selection. We are welfare society and that has a price and it is reflected in our food prices.’

However, Lauri Sipponen, managing director of Lidl Suomi, is not so sure. He partly agrees with Ora, but thinks there’s a much more important reason for high food prices. ‘The biggest factor which affects food prices in Finland is, of course, very high value added tax,’ he told 65DN. ‘There are further taxes, such as on sweets and soft-drinks, and operating costs are higher than the EU average. Salary-related expenses, such as sick-leave payment, are, in relative terms, really high.’

But for Sipponen, there is a crucial reason which other supermarket representatives are ignoring. ‘The Finnish home market is not competitive,’ he told 65DN. ‘It does not encourage the entrepreneurial sector.’ This results in only a few domestic supermarkets and a system that is difficult for foreign supermarkets to penetrate. For Sipponen, this lack of competition keeps prices higher than they otherwise would be.

Sipponen also disagrees with the view that ‘Finns like to buy Finnish food’ and is ambivalent about the minister’s proposals because he fears it will interfere with a free, capitalist economy.

Social critic and author Taneli Heikka also dismisses the argument that taxes explain high food prices. Heikka reached national prominence in 2010 when his book Quasi-Democracy presented a withering attack on, amongst other things, Finnish food prices. When asked why food is expensive his answer is direct.

‘Lack of competition. And there has only been a serious debate about this for a few months. We have this duopoly, it has been like this for decades and nothing has been done,’ he complained.

To retailers who blame tax, Heikka responds, ‘Denmark and Sweden pay high taxes. Do they have healthy competition and lower food prices? Yes. Competition brings the prices down.’

Studies indicate, though cannot totally prove, that there are unfair obstacles placed in the way of potential competitors, says Heikka. ‘And if you are a new player you may have trouble adapting to what customers are used to but that’s not a reason to not even try and compete.’

Founded in 2009 and with 30 active players, OCC, as it is known, charges 65 euros a year for membership which includes the rental of all equipment and contribution to the rent of the grounds.

‘We are open to all people who are interested in cricket,’ explains Tharanga Wijethilake, a software engineer originally from Sri Lanka. ‘Most of our members are from the Sub-Continent but there are a lot of Australians and English in Oulu who might have learnt about cricket in school. And we’d like to help to get Finns into the game.’

‘We’d like the club to be more international . . . a gathering place for all expats in Oulu who are interested in cricket,’ he added.

The cricket season lasts from May to August. Information on how to join can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/oulucricket/how-to

The man came forward on Tuesday and turned himself in. The man is known to the police and has previous convictions. Apparently, he committed the mugging in an attempt to get money to pay off debts.

According to the police, the man’s chequered criminal career began in 1998 and he has previous convictions for mugging.

A recent study, led by an Oulu University-based scientist and published yesterday in the journal Diabetes Care, will hopefully help to better predict which seemingly healthy people are prone to diabetes.

Dr Peter Würtz and his colleagues performed metabolic profiling using high-throughput nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ion 7,098 Finns. Their mean age, 31 years; 52 percent of them were women.

‘The research characterised the finger-prints of insulin resistance,’ explained the Danish scientist, who has been in Oulu for seven years. ‘We looked at the markers which reflect insulin resistance.’

Dr Wurtz, who came to Finland because of his Finnish wife and ended-up doing his PhD at Oulu University, found that certain markers – in seemingly healthy people with low blood sugar – seemed to predict developing diabetes later in life. Although the genetic proneness to diabetes is already known, the research adds to this by showing that there are more predictive markers of diabetes than originally thought.

Accordingly, a simple blood test on a healthy 25 year-old will, using these markers, allow more accurate predictions to be made about their diabetes. This will, in turn, permit them to make more informed lifestyle choices.

Based at Kansankatu 47, the ‘Business Kitchen,’ will be a kind of Citizens Advice Bureau for people wanting to establish businesses or expand those they already run. The Business Kitchen will also include a series of projects, such as one to link students up with businesses TIPPI.

TIPPI Project coordinator Noora Dahmane, of Oulu University of Applied Sciences, told 65DN that Business Kitchen is ‘particularly trying to help Start-Up businesses. We have a network of people and it gathers them all together so they can help.’

She explained that entrepreneurs can make appointments with experts from the Business Kitchen to get advice at all different stages of their project, even at the stage of simply having a business idea.

The service will be free. She added that ‘all of us speak English’ so expatriates who do not speak Finnish but want advice on setting-up a business are more than welcome to make an appointment.

However, beyond the consultancy service, business representatives can use another service – which costs up to 2000 euros – in which experts from Business Kitchen will help them develop their businesses in more depth.

Business Kitchen is scheduled to open in the early autumn.

http://www.businesskitchen.fi/

A male approached her and demanded her handbag. When she refused, the man started punching and kicking her, leaving her with visible injuries.

After the assault persuaded the woman to finally part with her handbag, the robber left the scene on a bicycle, making his way towards the Intiö district close to which the cemetery is situated. The incident took place in broad daylight, at 12.30 in the afternoon.

The robber is described as being aged between 30 and 40, having dark hair and being of average body build. He was wearing a light-coloured jacket and jeans.

Nobody from Oulu’s cemetery service could be reached for immediate comment.

Running an open house between 9am and 12pm, YLE are billing the venture as a chance for the public to meet local broadcasters, and discuss ‘community issues’ with them. Naturally, there will be free coffee and pulla available in the courtyard of Technopolis House where YLE is situated.

YLE’s regional manager Teijo Valtanen explained that local broadcasters have a lot of professional contact with local people and it’s nice to have a chance to socialise and chat with them.

Since Vappu, YLE has been running a web forum about people’s ‘dream YLE’ and Valtanen hopes that those who turn up will use the chit-chat as a way of discussing their dreams for the future of the broadcaster.

The company – which last week published a white paper on the problem – found faults in many everyday electronic devices, which use the internet, which could easily lead to people’s personal data being compromised. Entitled ‘Network Attached Storage: Be Careful What You Share,’ the report may read to the ordinary computer user like a dictionary of technical jargon. But Codenomicon Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Ari Takanen reduced it to everyday language for 65DN.

‘The key thing in our research was to highlight the overall security and quality of consumer electronics,’ he explained. ‘We used our kind of State-of-the-Art testing, which companies like Microsoft use when they make products for security-conscious clients, such as telecom companies.’ This process, of attempting to identify bugs, is known as ‘Fuzzing.’

For the ordinary electronics user, Codenomicon’s findings might be rather distressing.

‘We found that consumer product security development practices are much more relaxed,’ summarised Takanen.

According to the CTO, when software engineers produce new programmes they inevitably make some mistakes in the programming. These mistakes lead to bugs in the programme which in turn can lead to some problems with how the device functions. These gremlins, a product of unavoidable human error, are something which any computer user simply has to get used it.

However, some of these ‘bugs’ are more significant than others, and especially important are bugs which can allow hackers to get round the system’s security. These kinds of programming mistakes can allow hackers to take control of the device. Accordingly, devices to be sold to security-conscious corporate clients are thoroughly checked for bugs. But this does not appear to be so with consumer products.     

‘We took a large number of consumer electronic devices, analysed what they should be doing and tested them on lots of different issues,’ says Takanen. ‘For example, we looked at whether the devices are robust or whether they crash. There were lots of bugs. We compared to devices aimed at enterprises. They did not have these bugs. Security is not taken as seriously with consumer devices.’

Codenomicon’s research found that security bugs in consumer devices can have very serious effects on consumers, most of whom seem blithely unaware of the problem. An example is home network storage devices, which permit you to back-up your files from your home computer and store them online. In many cases, there are bugs in the security meaning that these can be hacked. Other devices allow you to listen to music that you downloaded onto your computer outside of the home. Due to bugs in the security, this also opens up access to hackers.

Takanen points out that this problem will become increasingly acute as more and more products – such as printers and so-called ‘Smart TVs’ – involve some kind of internet connection. More and more data will potentially be open to hackers.

Codenomicon was founded in 2001 by five Oulu University IT researchers who saw a gap in the market for a company specialising in security issues in electronics. Most of the customers, including those for whom this research has been conducted, are ‘enterprise customers in the USA who want high quality products.’

But Takanen sees the results as a ‘wake-up call’ for ordinary electronics consumers in Finland and beyond. His advice, to avoid the security bugs, is quite simple: ‘Don’t buy the cheapest product.’ It will, he says, be of the lowest quality and include the most bugs.

And, he argues, somebody needs to give this ‘wake-up call’ because the computer magazines certainly don’t. They compare new products with regard to numerous aspects of their functioning but they never look at security problems. Takanen adds that, at least while a product is under guarantee, security bugs can be the vendor’s ‘problem’ but they have clear effects on the consumer.

For all these reasons, the company advises people to be very careful about what they share through these devices. Increasingly, there are devices which allow people to control items in their homes from their workplace. But Takanen stresses that ‘it is not necessarily smart to monitor things from outside your home’ because if there are certain bugs in the devices, and they seem to be common, then hackers can compromise them.

Takanen also recommend not having a cheap wireless router. One of the products which the report analysed was the D-Link router. It found various bugs with this router though the report emphasised that, ‘Our testing does not reveal whether the test failures could be exploited to gain control of the device but given the high number of crashes there is certainly a goof chance of finding one.’

And, alarmingly, a simple Google search reveals a YouTube page explaining precisely how to hack into a D-Link wireless access point.

‘There are hundreds of international university students in Oulu. However, the majority of foreign degree students leave Finland immediately after graduating,’ explains Juha Aitamurto of the Student Housing Association of Northern Finland (PSOAS). ‘Hopefully, in the future, more of these will stay and enrich the Oulu region with their knowledge and skills, thanks to the PSOAS international student house!’

The international student house of the Student Housing Foundation of Northern Finland has been selected as the 15th of Oulu’s ’100 Acts,’ City sanction activities which promote Oulu.

The hall of residence  is to be located near the centre on Lasaretinväylä.

‘The purpose of the building project, which is one of a kind in Finland, is to create a new kind of meeting place that will enable international degree students to feel more at home in Finland and possibly also encourage them to stay in the area after their studies,’ says Aitamurto.

‘This act will hopefully also enrich the urban culture of Oulu. The majority of the city’s foreign students currently study and live on the Linnanmaa campus, and are rarely seen in the city centre.’

When completed, the international student house will serve as a meeting place for Finnish and international students.

‘New kinds of common areas and auxiliary service concepts will be incorporated in the halls of residence. For example, in 2013, students in Oulu will have access to a cyber-launderette, and an international cafe restaurant will serve as a backdrop for grassroots cultural exchange. There will also be a living room shared by the residents on each floor,’ adds Aitamurto.

Half of the students in the hall of residence will be Finnish and half will be international students, so it is hoped that the project will encourage the two groups of students to mix more.

The police’s auctions are well known for involving a large number of bicycles which can end-up being purchased at significantly below the going rate.

The auction begins at 10am in the car-park of the city’s police station and includes 300 bikes as well as mobile phones, jewellery, watches and even pairs of glasses.

Credit cards are not accepted so eager bidders will turn up with reasonable amounts of cash. Whatever is purchased must be removed from police property by the end of auction. There is no warranty or return policy for what is purchased.

On Vappu Even at 5.40pm, the Meteorological Institute measured a wind speed of 19 metres per second in parts of Oulu.

On May Day itself there were wind of up to 14 metres per second in the Bay of Bothnia. However, the winds began to subside by Tuesday evening.

Force 12 wind, on the Beaufort scale, can cause very large waves which can be a danger to shipping. The 19 metres per second measured on Vappu Eve is classified as a ‘Gale.’ It can lead to wave heights of up to 25 metres, branches breaking off trees, cars careering off the road and difficulty walking the streets.

Between 6pm on Vappu Eve at 8am on Vappu morning, the police received just over 190 alerts, including more than thirty for criminal activity, most of which related to driving while intoxicated.

A very large number of ‘youths’ gathered in and around the market square and officers were on hand there monitoring alcohol use by people under the age of eighteen. The increased surveillance meant, according to police sources, that many potential fights could be diffused early but, nevertheless, there were four arrests for assault.

In addition, there were 41 child protection notifications and 32 cases reported of underage drinking in the area or possession of alcohol by a minor. Police estimated that about half of the underage drinkers were girls and half were boys.

In addition, a fight in Haukipudas at about 3.30am on Vappu morning resulted in a 30 year-old man being stabbed in the chest by a 26 year-old man. The victim, his injuries described as ‘not very serious,’ was taken to hospital while his assailant was arrested and will be charged with aggravated assault.

It’s July 2011. My husband’s forehead wrinkles. He nods then stands, now pacing, his voice low while his lips form the words ‘saving’ and ‘a job.’ ‘You’re about to become men; you should be responsible and take care of your money,’ he tells our boys. I leave it to him to discuss. For the first ten years of our married life, in Holland and Germany, I took care of the money; then it became his turn. Fair division of labour is typical of us. We’d attend parent teacher conferences together, flanking each other while a teacher discussed our children’s ‘progress.’ We took turns driving our children. I cooked, my husband cleaned. Suddenly, the feeling of safety and security is gone. ‘Shit, how are we going to do this?’ I think. The items to sort out seem endless, the floor laden with debris, as if a bomb had exploded, scattering books, clothes, suitcases, bits of paper, various evidence that this is real, that our children are really about to leave—it isn’t just a theoretical possibility.

It used to be that I could always count on my husband. Now I’m not sure what having a husband means. Our marriage certificate is still in a box in a cupboard somewhere, but I catch myself spying on him, investigating. Why?’ I think, as he listens to me talking endlessly about work, offers me coffee, deals with day to day things, brings me extra blankets when I’m cold. I no longer feel safe or supported.

Only weeks ago, being safe and secure seemed the clear marital priority: keeping a warm, safe nest in an unfamiliar country. And my union—including my husband—was part of a machine to make that happen. When our sons left, I continued strictly in that vein: supporting their studies, paying for the rent on their student flats, saving and planning ahead, as if they are about to appear back at home at any moment. Now it seems I want more and feel selfish and alone for thinking that, cornering myself, unable to move. I choose my family, I think, unconsciously resigning myself to a life as an old woman on the cusp of retirement.

It’s slowly becoming clear that I’m trying to live my life as if no change has occurred.  The alternative is frightening: that my husband and I are in many ways as we were before we had children, but I am reinventing myself while he continues to follow decisions he made years ago.

Part of being an expat is accepting that change can happen. I had always told myself that if I wanted to become a trapeze dancer in a circus my husband would buy me books about circus life and sit in the first row. But there was never a chance of that actually happening. Being in Finland and a parent was enough for me, and my job as it was then. Parents have clothes to iron, reports to sign, food to cook—and that’s what I wanted. Now I have a big empty space, an empty house; empty, that is, except for my husband, who conspicuously has his business and no difficulties at work that he can’t overcome. He uses the extra time to do more of what he did before. He seems to take it all in his stride, seemingly unaffected, watching his wife writing about him.

It would be easier if he were more upset about it all, I think—if he was at a crossroad in his life also. He doesn´t have to be a scientist, after all. I could encourage him to become a baker and help him with selling pastries and bread; if that made him happy, of course. He’d become a baker and I would sell women’s lingerie in one of the currently vacant shops in Oulu’s centre, and we’d share dry, sarcastic remarks about our new careers, helping to give each other an ironic sense of perspective without molding each other in any particular way of thinking, together reaffirming our stubborn, entrepreneurial expat status.

It takes weeks, months before I realise that behind our closeness and familiar routines, our interests now differ, that I can no longer talk simply about ‘what is good for us’ as if still surrounded by the sounds and apparatus of parenting. The house feels empty. I hit the keys; the movement is comforting. I start biting my nails. My heartbeat rises. I try to find a way to talk about my feelings, but am endlessly scared.

If the boys were there and I had become ill, I would have spoken up. As expats particularly, we were each other’s emotional barometers, co-adventurers in a still unfamiliar environment. Now that the scene is, again, unfamiliar, but it’s ‘just’ me and a husband secure in his choices, I feel completely alone; and as if I’m in some way betraying our trust. Now that my life seems poised to explode in any directions, I have no idea how to really ask for support; and wonder if I deserve it at all. I try to make plans, but it all seems so hard: if I could just fast-forward until the boys graduate to do anything different. That would be safest, what the old Ata, surrounded by her children, would do.

A little voice reminds me that if I precipitate things, if I really consider a new direction for my life, without the comfort of my husband wanting to become a baker, the outcome might be negative. Yes, my husband puts his arms around me when he comes from work and tells me he loves me, never compares me with his mother and always talks about what I can do, and his hugs are genuine and reassuring, I think. All of that just makes me feel guilty for wanting to change anything. I might be standing on an outcrop of rock about to fall into an ocean. When I step off the rock, we both fall in.

I wonder if it would become easier if I or he were just offered a job abroad. ‘I got a job offer,‘ he would say and off we go to Germany or London or Singapore. If I were in Holland, I think, I would have friends reminding me of what I was like at 23, yearning to do something new. In Oulu, like any expat I’ve already taken steps towards a new life, and now I’m considering retracing them, going in another direction completely.

When we do talk, it is not easy. With a lump in my throat, a handkerchief in my hand and tears in my eyes I drop insecurities about myself and our relationship. I feel terribly scared, knowing that this could be the end of us as a couple, but also that I need to communicate my feelings and explain myself if I want to get out of this negative spiral.

My husband doesn´t touch or embrace me. Sitting in his favorite leather chair, he listens, concentrates. His eyes look worried, understanding; he nods, asks for more details and throws wood on the fire. Finally he says he understands my worries, doesn´t want to lose me, and says he´s thinking in terms of solutions, how we could explore new ways of doing things together and how free we are to build this new future together wherever we want. It’s a relief to hear he’s aware that things have changed, that there is room for radical changes, whatever they might be. I finally start to believe that I’m no longer backed into a corner from every side. That if something changed, which, really, it already has, though in the midst of the stress, of getting to grips with getting up in the morning and feeding myself and seeing other people, it still isn’t clear how, he would be there. A new start for me and not him would not mean the end of our marriage.

He tells me he’s happy to stay in Finland, he likes his work, doesn’t mind the climate or the language, but wouldn’t mind moving away to have time to fully concentrate on his business. I imagine what I might do, realise I need to think that it’s possible to consider about moving home, going back to nursing, studying journalism or communication in my mother tongue, or running a small farm with a husky, chickens, white geese and goats, before I can even think about making any decision about the future. Like a child choosing a present, I immediately start looking for farm houses on the Dutch countryside. It’s wonderful to finally start to feel as if I’m not an old woman about to fall over of exhaustion.

In moments of intimacy after the talk, we do familiar things: hug in the kitchen and at breakfast, talk in the living room about our parents, our upbringing, our life together and the emotions involved. We discuss the future of our sons, our jobs, finances we talk about life now and how life might be in the future. At every juncture, I’ve thought that I’m ready, that there is no more to think about. Now I think that it’s more a process of self-discovery, and that with every rush of energy, there is a new mountain to climb, and I need new tools.

Mum in Transition 1,  2,  3,  4, 5, 6, 7, 8,

Published online, the videos lampoon various aspects of Oulu life. Tongue-in-cheek in their approach, their ultimate aim is to encourage international students to come to the city.

The videos – each featuring an Oulu expat in a series of bizarre and comical situations – were produced by Mutant Koala Productions, the Oulu-based production company behind the short movie ‘Dr Professor’s Thesis of Evil.’

The company’s director and producer, Jukka Vindgren, told 65DN that, ‘We’ve worked on a number of actually commercials for the city and we had a lot of crazy ideas and we really like doing comedy.’

The videos were put together using amateur actors. These included friends from Oulu University of Applied Sciences, where many of the people in the production company studied, and expatriates in Oulu whom they happened to know.

Most of the videos are official marketing material for the city. But by far the most successful video was simply produced as a joke and is not ‘official’ at all. Comically claiming to have been ‘banned’ by the city, it involves a British expat going to a Grilli and analysing Oulu’s food culture. Queuing late at night in the snow with drunk and hungry revellers, he is shouted at, embraced by a girl who finds British men (specifically) attractive, punched in the face by her boyfriend, and covered in ketchup and chips. In between the action, it cuts back to the British stereotype, complete with tweed jacket, naively analysing the culinary habits of the people of Oulu as if Finnish food culture is comparable to Italian or French.

The video has gone viral and been viewed almost 90,000 times since it went online in the middle of last week.

‘The one with the Grilli, this was one of the craziest ideas we came up with,’ explains Vindgren. ‘We knew it was never going to be an actual Oulu video!’ he laughs.

‘I think the idea just kind of worked,’ explains Vindgren. ‘People liked the videos. They’re used to these city commercials where they say “We have the best education system” but this was something a bit fun and different.’

‘All the feedback we’ve had has been about 96 percent positive,’ he adds. ‘People have laughed with us and understood the joke. A few have said, “How can you promote a city like this?” but that’s only been a very small minority.’ The ‘banned’ video culminates in a deliberate lampoon of city promotional slogans: ‘Oulu: Culinary capital of something something go go yes yes!’

But drunks at the Grilli, despite garnering the most attention, is not the only video in the series. Four others were reported on the television news, published on the file sharing site Vimeo. In one, Scotsman Jason Dickson, 35, samples the joys of a roasting hot sauna followed by plunging through a hole in the ice to swim.

The 35 year-old builder, who has been in Finland for four years and Oulu for two, told 65DN that, ‘There was no acting involved. I just had to be Scottish and then really, really hot in the sauna and really, really cold in the water! I had to be tortured basically,’ he laughs. ‘It was a kind of method acting!’

Dickson, brought to Finland by a ‘suomalainen vaimo,’ has a theory regarding why the videos have become such viral successes. ‘Being a foreigner in Finland . . . it’s a tricky subject at the moment. People are a bit scared to talk about it. We’ve had the Perussuomalaiset and these gun incidents but these videos are very warm to foreigners. The videos have a different take on it. There’s humour about foreigners, even empathy towards them. I think they’re a really good thing!’

In another video, Taiwanese international student Yu Hsuan Lee discovers Oulu’s ‘traditional music.’ This ultimately involves her head-banging in a metal nightclub. In addition, unassuming Indian student Shanila goes extreme with snowboarding while professor-type German ‘Gisbert’ becomes, without meaning to be, involved in the internationally famous ‘Ait Guitar’ championship.

Suvi Ilvesviita, project manager of Business Oulu, was not available for immediate comment. But she told YLE TV that she thought the ‘unofficial video’ was well made and she was amazed by how many hits it had received. She added that she personally found it amusing but was not an ‘official’ City of Oulu video.     

The official videos can be seen here http://vimeo.com/37298448 and the ‘unofficial’ video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhP2uAF4znY

Well, apparently, it’s not quite time yet because the coming week will be a miserable mixture of rain and snow in Oulu. And, accordingly, it’s not going to be easy to revel the night away on the eve of Vappu.

According to the Weather Channel’s 10 Day Forecast, there will be light rain on Tuesday, rain and snow showers on Wednesday, showers on Thursday and Friday, rain and snow on Saturday and snow on Sunday. Monday’s Vappu Eve, the traditional night to party, will be marred by ‘showers’ but Vappu itself is currently predicted to simply be ‘cloudy.’

The robbery, which took place at 4pm, was carried out by a young male. He was a brandishing handgun and demanded narcotic medication.

Witnesses described him as wearing a white shirt and a light jacket, as well as blue jeans and brown shoes.

He is also described as being of ‘slender build’ and about 175cm tall. He apparently arrived in the pharmacist shop on bicycle but fled by foot, through a local school playground and in the direction of the sea.

Police have said that’s also unclear at this stage whether the man’s weapon was a fake or imitation handgun.

So far, the police have been unable to apprehend him and anybody with any information is asked to contact them.

The trip – organised to help to new students – will involve cycling through the university area and the surrounding countryside. It will be used to highlight twisted or obscured signposts, signposts with incomplete information, misleading signposts and anything else which could lead to a cyclist, especially one new to the city, getting lost.

According to the student union, Oulu University students are ‘an athletic bunch’ who do a lot of cycling. But this can often be made very difficult by vandalised signs, the absence of signs and inconsiderate motorists.

The students aim to present their findings to city-decision-makers, in the hope that they can be rectified so that cyclists will be less likely to get lost.

Over 15000 people visited Oulu’s Building Fair over the weekend.

The fair ended yesterday; its busiest day being Saturday when over 600 turned up to view the 220 exhibits.

The Northern Fair Association is moving the fair to Rovaniemi in two weeks time and to Tornio in May.

The fair was a showcase for many companies allowing Northern Ostrobothnians to do that quintessentially Finnish thing: building your own house on a plot of land. The companies represented included not just house builders but those wishing to help you furnish and later fix your home.

According to Statistics Finland, there has been a 22 percent increase in the numbers of nights spent by foreign tourists in Finnish hotels between February 2011 and February 2012. The total number of overnight stays – including foreigners and Finns – was up by eight percent.

Statistics Finland collected their data from accommodation with at least ten rooms, cottages, caravan pitches with an electricity connection and youth hostels.

It seems that the Japanese were flocking to Finland in February as there was a 51 percent increase in Japanese tourists this year compared to the same time last year. Russian tourists were up by just over a third and Estonians and Brits by around a quarter. But the prospect of a holiday in the snow and ice is becoming less attractive to the Spanish, whose numbers fell by 15 percent.

Northern Ostrobothnia reported a ten percent increase in foreign tourists, Lapland was up fourteen percent while a whopping 57 percent more tourists came to South Karelia. The average price of a hotel room was 91 euros compared to 89 the previous year.

The men, who were arrested last summer, were sentenced two years and two months in prison in Oulu District Court last week.

The defendants, described in a press release as ‘foreign,’ installed skimming device at various cash points in northern Finland. These devices record the card details and pin numbers of innocent users, allowing the criminals to access their money.

The gang operated in northern Finland between July and September and it transpired at the trial that they had already been convicted of similar offences in Germany and Romania.

The men were also ordered to pay tens of thousands of euros in compensation to the various Finnish banks that were forced to compensate their defrauded clients. However, these costs will be borne by the Finnish taxpayer because the economic situation of the defendants is described as being ‘bad.’

Already a fixture in Helsinki and Tampere, the no frills accommodation chain has no on-site staff. Guests book online and are given an access code which they use both to gain access to the hotel and to their rooms. Some of the hotels have breakfast arrangements with nearby, but quite separate, cafes.

Omena hotel’s CEO Rabbe Grönblom estimates that the hotel should be ready by July, for the height of Finland’s holiday season.

‘I do not know the exact opening date yet because the hotel’s still in the construction phase,’ he told Kaleva.

According to Grönblom, the hotel chain’s researchers spent a long time trying to select the exact spot in Oulu – somewhere close to all of the city’s amenities at the centre.

‘Everything you wish to find is with 100 metres. There are lot of different options,’ he explained.

The new hotel will be positioned on the corner of Uusikatu and Pakkahuoneenkatu, next to the park. It is on the site of what was the City of Oulu Technical Centre.