"Your Excellency Presdentess and Resipentti"
Six thousand children's letters sent to President Tarja Halonen now in a colourful
book
By Irma Stenbäck
"Hi Tarja! Why should we belong to the EU? The thing that annoys me most is that the swings [in the playground] have to get taken away for the winter!" writes an 8-year-old girl to President Tarja Halonen.
"Do you think Sweden is kinder than Russia?" (Girl, 10 years). "I'm interested in politicians, I've made a ben schyskovitz*, a george bush, a kirsipiha, a paavolipponen, a sauliniinistö, a suvianne siimes, and a tarja halonen doll out of my Playmobil figures. I play with them." (Boy, 7 years).
"Our teacher says that we would make good presidents because we are so stubborn". (Two girls, age 11). "A female President is a big deal in Finland" (Girl, 9 years).
During her time as President, since 2000, Tarja Halonen has received nearly 6,000 letters from children. Ulla-Maija Salo has analysed the missives and collected them into a book that will appear next week entitled I would like to meet Your Excellence - Children's Letters to the President.
The book has a foreword with a greeting from Tarja Halonen herself, in which she says that she tries to reply at least once to each of the children and young people who write letters to her.
According to Halonen, the letters and drawings provide a unique reflection of the current state of the nation and its values. The President expresses the hope that in a fast-changing society the children will not be left to fend for themselves.
Ulla-Maija Salo was given permission by Halonen to read the letters. The normal rules on mail secrecy are adhered to, in the sense that the names of the letter-writers and the places they come from are not divulged.
The author's rights for every drawing that has been included in the book have been obtained from the original young artists.
In Salo's view, the children's letters also reflect something more general of the way in which the worlds of childhood are created in Finland. The letters often briskly take issue with social issues and politics, with the head of state's red hair, world peace, old people, the President's two cats, with matters in the writer's own family, with unemployment, indeed with almost anything under the sun.
Perhaps the most surprising and striking chapter is called About us girls, in which the letters reveal something of the 21st century variants on the old princess fairy tales.
In days gone by, Salo says, little girls would be more interested in the President's wedding and wardrobe of frilly gowns and the like. Now there's a definite edge to things.
She (Halonen) is seen as having a real rebellious streak and she sticks two fingers up to the silk and sequins side of things. The good little girl grows into a snappy young woman who knows what she wants.
Having a female President has given Finnish girls an important touchstone in the construction of their identity. The President and girls share many common things in Salo's view: girlhood, womanhood, and being a head of state are common.
The strength of this new kind of girl-energy surfaces in the letters also in the fact that girls and women seem to feel they belong to the same inferior minority that has been put down just as Halonen has.
Not any more, though. On the basis of the letters in the book, Salo believes that the way in which girls are activating themselves and taking power, even in small things, is breaking the mould of familiar old habits.
Halonen has broken through barriers on many levels. The girls also respect Halonen's way of being herself and independent, an ordinary-looking unaffected presidential figure.
Many young correspondents ask in their letters how to become President, whether the job carries a big salary and too much work, and whether there is a risk of burn-out.
"Hey, you'll cope, Tarja. Don't you worry about [Esko] Aho, or Sauli [Niinistö] or Lipponen, you are good enough and you've got the smarts", writes one 16-year-old girl.
The letters are direct and unabashed, and the children tell the President of their own joys and problems. "Why can't I have a little brother or a little sister? Could you arrange it, Persinent?" asks a seven-year-old girl.
Ulla-Maija Salo also sees the letter-writers as some kind of moral actors - they want to take responsibility, to think and to act. The letters also contain the darker side of the nation's life. There is a death in the family, unemployment looms, mother has been diagnosed with cancer, and only the president can help.
One new aspect is the interest that the children show in politics, and the way they take a stand on this or that.
The regular Saturday evening animated satire Itse Valtiaat (YLE TV1) has clearly been watched and lessons learned.
The President is to the children the ultimate authority and she has powers to do most anything: get the swings back in the park for the winter, remove poverty at a stroke, stop wars, buy a new PC, give money to the Save the Pandas club, or ban nuclear power plants.
To children, the President is larger than life, larger than the everyday, for all that she eats and goes Nordic walking or looks after her two cats and Parliament.
The word "president" (presidentti in Finnish) is not that easy to write, and consequently it takes many forms in the book, often emerging as something like Presdentess, Resident, or Resibent.
Halonen's spouse Dr. Pentti Arajärvi gets a crown put on his head in the drawings and he becomes Resipentti - not a bad nickname, really.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.10.2006
Ulla-Maija Salo: Haluaisin tavata Teidän Ylhäisyyden. Lasten kirjeitä presidentille. WSOY, 2006, 224 p. EUR 36.00.
*Note: Ben Zyskowicz, Sauli Niinistö, and Kirsi Piha are all present or former National Coalition Party MPs, and Niinistö was Finance Minister and ran against Tarja Halonen for the Presidency in 2006. Paavo Lipponen (SDP) is a former Prime Minister and party chairman and the present Speaker of Parliament, while Suvi-Anne Siimes led the Left Alliance until her resignation earlier this year.
IRMA STENBÄCK / Helsingin Sanomat
irma.stenback@hs.fi
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 "Your Excellency Presdentess and Resipentti"
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