FIVE YEARS ON: How has terrorism affected us?
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By Anna-Stina Nykänen
En route to the airport: one more look into the handbag to get rid of everything unnecessary. Hopefully I didn't accidentally leave a lighter in my pocket. I have to remove all plug-in accessories from my laptop so they don't fall on the floor when I have to take the thing out of its case. All this fussing is a pain.
I also need to think about my journey back. When travelling to America it is best to have loafers or moccasins, and to avoid shoes with laces, which are more difficult to get back on after the security check. And how is a clumsy person like me supposed to get my belt back on with a line of people behind and all my things spread out around me?
This is what those terror attacks have done to us ordinary people. There's always a chance that security regulations might get even tighter, or that one might accidentally do something that makes the alarms go off, draw attention to oneself, and be subjected to a body search, forcing people to do unnecessary work. That is the anxiety of security checks today.
How embarrassing if sparklers are found in a side pocket of a backpack! It's not enough to be harmless - you need to be harmless with style.
The terror attacks brought the age of easy travel to an end five years ago. Just before that, flying had become as easy as one could imagine. It even became possible to check in conveniently online. Even for international flights, it was just about acceptable for a passenger carrying only hand luggage to arrive at the gate half an hour before departure.
There is no going back. On the contrary: in Britain, those who want to get on a plane with small children are expected to taste the baby's food in connection with the security check before being allowed on board. In Finland, that is not required - yet.
Regular security checks began at Finish airports in 1975. Just five years ago passengers for domestic flights were inspected at random. Now all passengers, luggage, cargo, and the cabin personnel are inspected every day.
Five years ago there were 150 security personnel working at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Now there are 800.
From 2003 the EU has had common minimum standards for airport security inspections. They are modified according to need. When the British fight in Iraq, it is felt here in Finland as well.
There was a time when it raised a smile if someone danced through the metal-detector, snapping their fingers. These days it will probably only get you into hot water. But the Finns are an accommodating nation, and most understand that the inspections are important.
Passengers lose their scissors, and knives, as well as boxes of matches and lighters. About a thousand such objects are taken away at Helsinki-Vantaa each month. All of the passengers who had them brought them along by accident, or out of absent-mindedness. One such case involved a rifle bolt mechanism carried by National Coalition Party leader Jyrki Katainen.
Still, the inspections are not the only reason for the overcrowding at the airport.
The dip in the travel business that followed the terror attacks was only temporary, when large airlines in the United States faced bankruptcy. Now there are significantly more passengers in Finland than five years ago.
Finns have reduced their travel only to the United States. Businessmen fly to the USA just like before, but tourists might opt for Asia instead.
Usually tourists avoid destinations hit by terror attacks only for a short time. People are not going to Turkey now because of the bombings there. However, the greatest reason for avoiding certain destinations is not the fear of terror, but rather a yearning for convenience: fenced in areas and armed guards can spoil a holiday atmosphere.
Finns are not easily intimidated, and travel willingly. People like us also do not avoid bustling open markets or bazaars, if that is what we have come to see.
Finns believe that trips are arranged only to safe destinations. We are not hysterical, but we are also not naive. We seek out the facts, and decisions are based on knowledge, and not rumour.
Knowledge about terror, its backgrounds, and how to fight against it has been flooding in during the past five years, and so has information about Arab countries.
Finns have not been interested in so-called 9/11 literature - material concerning the attacks on that one day and all of the conspiracy theories. On the other hand, bookstores have been selling plenty of books on Islamic culture, religion, and Muslim countries. The most popular has been Professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila's Islamin käsikirja ("A Handbook of Islam"), which has sold about 10,000 copies, which is a lot for a work of non-fiction in Finland.
The professor's lectures have also been popular. More students are gravitating toward his field - Arabic language and Islamic culture. The wave of terror has also inspired foundations giving grants to hand out more money than before for Arab studies.
Academic papers on international politics examine US foreign policy more than before, but most of the masters' theses continue to deal with questions involving the EU. Only a few are interested in politics of the Middle East.
And what has been the significance of information for the public at large? Some have sought confirmation for gloomy scenarios, but most specifically want straightforward facts. Compared with the Americans, there is fairly little doomsday thinking among the Finns.
The terror attacks also opened a new field of subject matter for mystery writers. If a Finnish author had previously included terrorism in a plot line, the book would have been considered to be overreaching and implausible. Now big-name writers such as Taavi Soininvaara and Ilkka Remes routinely deal with terror in their books.
Going one step further is the less well-known Tero Somppi, whose detective novel Tuomion konsertti ("Concert of Judgement") involves a man who had been tortured in Abu Ghraib, and who decides to launch a terror attack against a heavy metal concert in Finland.
Works by Finnish painters have pondered the impact of security inspections and cameras on people's lives.
Political theatre in Finland has dealt with the economy more than with terror. However, visiting performances have raised the terror issue. The Moscow-based Teater.Doc group came here last autumn to perform a play dealing with the Beslan massacre. A Danish group brought a terror musical to Finland.
Immediately after the WTC attacks, the sensitive world of advertising immediately pulled all advertisements with skyscrapers or flight attendants - as if high-rise buildings were in some way linked with terror. Likewise, when the bird 'flu epidemic broke out, advertisements with birds in them were removed. In retrospect, both moves were seen as exaggerated.
The impact of the attacks is nevertheless seen in the form of self-control among advertisers. Nobody wants to use pictures that would bring the trauma caused by the terror attacks up to the surface. Advertisers say that the attacks left a real trauma, even among Finns.
At workplaces the impact of terror is seen through an increase in security measures. It is hard to go anywhere without a special pass or an escort. Some have calculated that extra security involves huge expenditure.
Private security companies are growing fast. From 2001 to 2004 turnover in the security business grew in Finland by about 30 per cent a year, and now it is worth about EUR one billion a year. The number of people employed in it increases by about 20 per cent a year, and now the branch employs about 10,000.
But is the growth in this field the result of terrorism? Not necessarily. However, the attacks did get Finns to wake up. There is no longer much debate as to whether or not something like that could happen here.
Now the questions revolve around what would happen. Security precautions around nuclear power plants are growing constantly.
Companies and organisers of events want to be on an even keel with their Western partners. The security measures for the World Championships in Athletics in the summer of 2005 were massive by Finnish standards. For the first time, even the Ministry of the Interior was involved in the planning. Border controls were upgraded. Nevertheless, the fear of a terror attack against the sports event was not the only reason: in part it was a trial run for the EU Presidency and the ASEM summit. Partly it was because the international sports organisations wanted to apply the same rules in all places, regardless of the level of threat.
During the Athens Olympics in 2004, the city was conspicuously monitored from a blimp, and commando forces patrolled the streets. Here in Finland, most security measures are implemented out of sight of ordinary people.
Studies show that the feeling of insecurity has increased in Finland. However, is terror the reason for this?
Perhaps it is one reason. It is so distant that it causes a vague kind of anxiety, as it is not possible to influence it directly. Fear can also be seen in the fact that more than 40 per cent of Finns would allow their employers to monitor the e-mail of their subordinates.
The Security Police is no longer the butt of jokes; the importance of surveillance is taken seriously. Attitudes toward the Defence Forces have become even more positive than before.
But what is the right place for the Finns in this world of terror and those who fight against it? Finns do not see Finland as a party to the fight against terrorism. People here do not think that nominal Christians like us would be involved in a confrontation with Muslims. We identify neither with the Americans nor with the Arabs. The Danish cartoons that offended the Muslims divided the Finns. Lutheran Archbishop Jukka Paarma showed sympathy toward the offended faithful, whereas many journalists sharply denounced those who would limit freedom of expression.
Many in Finland believe that we can be neutral in this as well. Now the Finns are more eager than before to build houses and implement home improvements. Shop owners feel that this is the result of the insecure situation in the world. People want to cuddle in their own secure nest. We think that the world is restless and insecure, but everything is still going well here. After all, who would spend on home improvements without faith in a secure future?
The life of at least one person was certainly changed by the terror attacks. Professor Hämeen-Anttila, a researcher into Arabic language and Islam, became a Finnish super-celebrity. Could he ever have imagined that he would become so popular?
"Not that I would become so well-known among ordinary people, no. But publicity has never bothered me. When some crisis comes along, I have to race from one studio to another. Then life calms down again", he says.
It sounds as if life in Finland did not change so much after all.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 10.9.2006
ANNA-STINA NYKÄNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
anna-stina.nykanen@hs.fi
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| 12.9.2006 - THIS WEEK |
 FIVE YEARS ON: How has terrorism affected us? |
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