Outlandish

Loneliness. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it in English as it does in Finnish. In Finland loneliness has been in headlines for a while now because it's becoming a huge social problem: 400 000 lonely people in a country of 5 million. Scientifically explained loneliness is an involuntary experience and emotion. For a lot of people in the world this might sound incomprehensible, but even in a metropolis you can be completely alone. I would know.   As a Finn I enjoy being on my own every now and then. Nothing beats a lazy Sunday alone at home or in a café with a book. During busy weeks or months I see those lonely days as a bit of luxury. But a human being, especially me, has a limit with the voluntary loneliness. For some that limit is just a need to ask an opinion or telling someone what happened to them today. The simplest thing, but it can be devastating if you don't have anyone to ask or to tell. Others, like me, have the limit much lower: just the need to s...

Europe is in complete panic with hundreads of thousands of people flooding from Africa and Middle-East into our lands. Even if EU forced its member countries to receive these people (which it didn't do but instead made it voluntary) the European countries still could not take in all the people coming here. Nobody knows what will come from all of this, but people are fearing the worst. For example Slovakia just announced that  it will only receive Christians . Quite a tricky thing that and very short-sighted. But that's because they have never in their history taken in refugees. This country is very racist but only because they don't know any better. People are always afraid of everything new and strange. Also in Nordic countries people seem to be more racist. But I don't believe they are. But the few racists can now make a lot of noise through different medias and thus make it look like there are a lot of them. In Finland we've been following how in Sweden thei...

There was a lot of buzz in the social media and in yellow press  in Finland about a middle-aged woman insulting a mildly handicap girl in a café. In another article  a man described how in France traveling with a wheelchair is much, MUCH easier than in Finland because people are always willing to help. These caught my eye because I have been thinking about basic manners since moving here. I once had coffee with a man who had lived in Finland for a year and he said that as much as he liked Finland as a country he couldn't stand the fact that Finns have absolutely no regard for manners. Out loud I completely agreed with him, on the inside I cried because I couldn't think of any defence for my countrymen: the man was right.   Here in Bratislava it's a completely different story. Even though many Slovak people have told me that Slovaks are rude, unfriendly and jealous I can't but disagree. I have never been to a country were basic manners are such an everyday,...