Loving Helsinki, city of water, knowledge and light
In the lobby of the GLO hotel in Kluuv, in the center of Helsinki, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon soften us with tannoy. The song sticks in my mind as I walk towards the Esplanade, a wide boulevard and park that runs towards the shore of the Gulf of Finland and the blood and help of Finns. On the central island of the boulevard, the monument of knowledge and books is decorated with a high moon; the full moon is rising / let’s go dance in the light, Neil Young sings to me as if in private. Light abounds, in the night and in the enlightened mind. Helsinki’s life is encapsulated in wood and water; wood and water are everything to them. But everywhere shines the brightness of an educated and cultivated intellect. It’s all about knowledge and the food that feeds it.
Finns go about their daily lives politely and respectfully towards themselves and you, even if they have just met you and will never see you again. You are made to feel like you are counting. I find myself drawn to the Finnish way and wish we all were like that, from their way of dressing (in a style worthy of Paris, but interpreted in a fresh, cool, Finnish way) to their clean environment and dedication to sustainable development. Where others say, Finns do so and live by it.
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But the first thing that hits you, even before you land, is the water and the trees; when you look down from an airplane window, wherever there is land, there is water nearby, and everywhere there are spruce, birch and pine forests; it is the land of the Christmas tree.
In the city, among the trees that still impinge upon your eyes, are buildings as neat and sharp in style as they are in fashion, side by side with others, whose ornate design illustrates their antiquity; Think of Prague’s different architectural influence with light wood in the interior and Parisian dressing moods interpreted in Finnish fabrics and sharp, clean cuts. You will be amazed by the impeccable dress sense of a professional woman from Helsinki. And this is a society where women are more than equal. A Helsinki woman is responsible for many things; and this is something that has spoken to me for a long time. Men, everywhere, would do well to give the reins to a close, competent woman. With the occasional exception of course; This does not mean that there are no qualified men. But there is strong evidence for my theory here in Helsinki.
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Everything here is generosity and sharing. Who else in the world exports not coal, leaves or wheat, but education? Finnish chef exports have know-how. They are so eager to share their training expertise with us that they are happy to pay to bring it to us. Our team of journalists has invited Finnish embassies around the world to learn about Finland’s world-class school catering system and its role in their country’s education system, which is completely free. We have come from Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa; Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, Korea, Philippines and Nepal. We have real names—Dante, César, Margherita, Mahabir, Wossen, Laura, Esther, Jane, David, me—but we call each other by our countries’ names with good-natured glee (“Has anyone seen Korea? He missed the bus.”)
Here’s the thing: what must it have cost the Finnish government to bring us all here on airplanes from different parts of the world? Still, the price is worth paying them, just to fly back to our home countries to write about what we find. And this is not an isolated case. They do this regularly and are happy to pay so that we in our faraway countries with their complex problems know how great their education system is. The ranking says that Finns are the happiest of all of us on the planet and their education system is unparalleled. If only the cold-hearted Russians keep their hands to themselves over that 1,340-kilometer border over there, may they succeed in their long-trained luck. That’s a lot of border to share with a fickle neighbor.
So here I am within sniffing distance of Estonia and St. Petersburg. Tallinn is not far across the water. I have flown over Amsterdam and Denmark and Sweden to get here. It’s the closest I’ve been to Russia. Then, as happens when you’ve landed in any foreign country, you’re suddenly immersed in the customs of others.
Listening to the pilot and crew announcements on a Finnair flight from Heathrow has been my first real taste; I have nothing in common with any European language I know. I’m lost on it. The language is extremely strange to most other ears. It’s not like Sweden at all, no hint of France, Italy or even Germany anywhere, although they have links with Germany in their shared past; It is said that Finnish is closer to Hungarian and the language of the distant Turkish region.
They call themselves Nordics, but still feel that they are separate, very much a people separated from others. They feel a certain isolation from the world; a world to which they are eager to send what they have learned in their isolation. This has deep roots. Independence came to them in 1917, just 105 years ago. Then, at the beginning of the 1940s, during the Second World War, when Finland suffered a lot, a welfare system was started to be built and school meals were introduced; and they are of great importance to Finns; it is much more than food. It is the foundation of every part of life and has everything to do with the future success they worked so hard to achieve. They point to those earlier post-independence decades, a time of relative poverty, when there was a struggle to build a nation that could one day flourish. And this is the nation they have since built and earned. They are very proud of it, and they have every right to be. These diplomats, who freely give their time to talk with us, readily admit that they come from humble backgrounds.
Finns are the best example I’ve seen of how we can all be, how we can live, how we know how to behave; and when I look around my country how badly we have done by comparison, we get only one perfectly clear solution: that we would be foolish not to take advantage of their generosity. Their Minister of Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Ville Skinnari, will visit our country in November. On this visit, Opportunity presents itself to the South African education authorities, but not only in learning from the Finns everything they are ready to teach us about learning and, yes, teaching. They are masters of these arts.
In our meeting with Skinnar on Wednesday in the meeting room of the Ministry of Education in Helsinki, he shared many things with a smile and charm, but I noticed two things in particular, apart from school meals and the education system, which were central. talk. One of them is very important to South Africa.
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The first was mobile phone technology and how Nokia started it all; Finns smile wryly when someone says: “Oh, we thought Nokia was Japanese.” “Everyone thinks so,” comes the quick reply. But no, Nokia is Finnish. And when asked how badly Nokia had been hit with iPhone technology and other advances, he explained how Nokia was deeply involved in the core technologies that underpin much of the world’s mobile phone technology and more.
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Another, more important thing for us, was the Finnish biochemical technology for producing fashion from recycled wood. This is the South African wood and paper company Sappi already investigating, and a meeting with Skinnar, Sapp, Mondi, Tongaat and other representatives of the South African forest and paper industry would seem appropriate, considering how eager the Finns are to share their know-how with us. Also think about new jobs.
But first, Finns shared and still share information for themselves and their children. And they do it through food; especially school meals which are free for every child. This is paid for with taxes, and the return on a child’s knowledge of many things, from a sense of well-being to behavior, sociality and success in society, is considered worth the investment of every Finnish child. There is much more to it than these basic results.
At the end of a day that had started with a stroll down the Esplanade to get a taste of the city, a day in which we partook in the expertise of many well-dressed ladies (and a crisply dressed Mr Skinnar). was shared between them (negotiations were clearly prepared), I went to buy an adapter from the iStore (so that I could write this) and found myself opposite the city’s famous Stockmann department store. A level or two down and I was in the food market and in heaven. A variety of whole cheeses; endless variations of vacuum-packed cold cuts (rabbit, duck, venison, among the more familiar Italian, French, and Spanish varieties); I decided to leave quickly and visit only a short time later on a limited budget. This is far too much of a temptation for the Karoo boy.
In the afternoon, I’m going to the food market at the bottom of the Esplanade, which I haven’t had time to visit yet. And meals coming all weekend. For now, this is a quick little taste of my first impressions of the city and the people I’ve quickly come to appreciate. Lots more to come over the next two days…see you next week. Love from bright, bright Helsinki. DM/TGIFood
Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion 2021. His book, food, is available at DM Shop or if sold out, directly from him. Buy it here.
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