TEN YEARS AFTER

Time flies when you are having fun. It also flies, apparently, when one is recording less pleasant matters.
     
It hardly seems possible, but this week marks up ten years since the introduction of Helsingin Sanomat's online International Edition, initially planned as a short-term experiment during Finland's first stint as the rotating Presidency of the European Union.
      In the intervening years we have reported on much of what has happened in Finland and to Finland, and regrettably a good deal of what has made these pages has not been good news.
     
Government scandals, election victories and defeats, economic woes and factory closures, worrying health statistics, school shootings, family tragedies, horrific accidents, and a predominantly minor-key history on the sporting front have dominated proceedings, although there have been a few bright spots, including the eighth wonder of the modern world when Finland and Lordi actually won the Eurovision Song Contest, Kimi Räikkönen's surprise victory in the 2007 Formula One season, or when the national ego has been massaged by some international study that happens to ask the right questions and places us on the top pedestal.
     
The link below leads to our first few articles from September 1999.
      Some things never change, apparently: economic powerhouse Nokia gets a mention, and there is a piece about the then-topical 2000 Presidential Election.
      One of the names - Sauli Niinistö - remains strongly in contention to become the next occupant of the position when Tarja Halonen's second term ends in 2012.
     
We thank all our readers for sticking with us for a decade, and hope we'll be able to bring you a few more bright spots over the next ten years.
     
      WLM for IntEd


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Archived weeklies from 1999 (the very first articles actually date from a week or two earlier in the print-paper)
  Archived dailies from 1999