COMMENTARY: Finland is slipping

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By Sami Sillanpää
     
      It seems as if Finland is no longer able to get by in anything it tries.
      There are not that many things that we can claim to be the best in the world at, but for years it has been possible to rely on the fact that at least we have more suicides per capita than anyone else.
      Not any more, it seems.
     
Finland has fallen to a meagre seventh place in the global suicide tables.
      We have been overtaken by the likes of Lithuania, Kazakhstan, and Hungary, according to the leading medical journal The Lancet.
     
And Finland seems also to be slipping worryingly down the league in serious drinking, another of our previous bravura numbers.
      According to the World Health Organization, Britons have seized the crown in binge-drinking, and we have been relegated to the runner-up position.
     
Still more bitter is the taste of the recent defeat to rivals Sweden.
      For as long as the statistics have been published on these things, Finland has always boasted relatively more unemployed persons than Sweden.
      Now we are being told by Eurostat that for the first time, our dear neighbour's unemployment percentage has risen beyond our own.
     
Ah well, at least we cannot be challenged on one thing.
      Finland and the Finns can still confidently claim to have the world's worst climate.
      But no! Alas!
      Throughout the week leading up to the First of May celebrations, Helsinki has been bathed in sunshine - and warmer than Los Angeles.
     
This cannot do. The Finland we know and love is becoming unrecognisable.
      If things go on at this rate, before we know it, Finland will go and win the Ice Hockey World Championships again.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.5.2009   


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Britons heavier binge drinkers than Finns (28.4.2009)
  Finnish suicide rates decline (22.4.2009)

SAMI SILLANPÄÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
sami.sillanpaa@hs.fi