Forgotten World (95): Finland
Finland experienced hundreds of years of Swedish rule, followed by a further century of Russian control, before Independence was achieved in 1917. However, so long as the Soviet Union existed, Finland had to handle a difficult relationship with its giant eastern neighbour and indeed the Soviet Union invaded in 1939. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed Finland to step out of the Cold War shadow. It became a member of the European Union in 1995 and indeed it is the only Nordic EU member to use the Euro as the national currency.
The country spends heavily on education, training and research – investment which pays dividends by delivering one of the best-educated and trained workforces in the world. This has been a key factor in the development of a modern, competitive economy in which a cutting-edge telecommunications sector has been added to the traditional timber and metals industries.
Economically Finland – a nation of only 5M people – punches well above its weight. Finland is 11th on the 2006 United Nations Human Development Index and ranked as the sixth happiest nation in the world by a subjective independent scientific study. According to the World Audit Democracy profile, it is the freest nation in the world, in terms of civil liberties, freedom of the press, low corruption levels and political rights.
August 4th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Finland is also bigger than you think. The high latitude means it is rather distorted on world maps, and if you buy a European road atlas, you soon discover that most of them use a smaller scale for the Scandinavian countries than for France, Germany etc. Helsinki is one of my favourite cities, and Sibelius, my husband’s favourite composer.
August 4th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Using different computer therefore no remembered settings) so forgot to say who I was on my last 2 comments! Did you guess?
August 4th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Not many readers of NightHawk have travelled as widely as you, Janet – so I did guess.