Finland Mourns Hyvinkää Shooting Victims
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ISSUE 22 (253) • 31 MAY – 6 JUNE 2012 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI BUSINESS Hyvinkää, two of whom were killed and seven injured. Telia- Chairman of the Finnish Central Nokia news Association for Mental Health Pek- With the mobile phone giant re- ka Sauri points out that centralised portedly in dire straits, we an- storage of fi rearms would make alyse some of the rumours cur- Sonera acts such as that in Hyvinkää less rently circulating about its future. likely to occur.“The best way by far See page 8 to prevent these kinds of acts is to spying LEHTIKUVA / HEIKKI SAUKKOMAA limit the availability of fi rearms and to supervise their storage,” Sau- ri says. He believes the Hyvinkää FESTIVAL SPECIAL shooting proves that gun control scandal laws are still far from adequate. Minister of the Interior Päivi Members of the public leave tributes to those killed and injured in the Räsänen (Christian Democrats) says Finnish-Swedish commu- Hyvinkää shooting. there were very few signs in advance that the Hyvinkää shooting would nications company in hot take place. This would have made it water over surveillance very diffi cult to prevent. Räsänen also said on the television programme A- equipment. Finland mourns Studio that the risk of these kinds of events could be reduced if the distress of young people could be relieved. Festival fever DAVID DUNNE Public health administration ex- Whether you prefer metal or Mo- HELSINKI TIMES Hyvinkää pert at the University of Tampere zart, there will be plenty of op- Matti Rimpelä, who was also in- portunities to get your groove on TELEPHONE company and mobile terviewed on the programme, in this summer. Our guide lists all phone operator TeliaSonera has found shooting victims turn predicted that acts like the Hy- of Finland’s festival events, from itself in hot water amid allegations vinkää shooting will become more the established to the eccentric. that some of its subsidiary companies common because of the increase in See pages 10-11 have been complicit in aiding the secu- numbers of alienated young men. rity services of foreign states to moni- Firearms’ control and youth alienation are issues of Rimpelä says the problems of tor the activities of their citizens. concern after yet another mass killing. children and young people have not LIFESTYLE The communications giant, been dealt with suffi ciently. Boys in which is jointly Finnish and Swed- particular suffer in Rimpelä’s view ish owned, say that any phone oper- TUOMAS HAAKANA–STT mass killings could be prevented. from a lack of “social aptitudes” such Unlimited overs ator in a given country – including ALEKSIS TORO–HT The discussion revolves around the as interaction skills. Rimpelä says all Calling all batsmen and bowlers! EU countries – is subject to the laws availability of fi rearms, the distress the recent school shooting perpetra- You are invited to raise a cele- of that country relating to securi- IN THE aftermath of the Hyvinkää and alienation of young people and tors have had in common their past bratory glass of Pimm’s this Sat- ty services’ access to network in- murders, public discussion has re- detrimental free time activities. In problems with social interaction. urday, as avid cricketers bring formation. The news that citizens sumed about why another trag- the early morning of Saturday 26 the quintessential Common- in Azerbaijan and Belarus have been ic indiscriminate shooting has May an 18-year-old man shot nine Read more about the events in Hy- wealth sport to Helsinki. arrested and sometimes tortured occurred in Finland, and how such young people indiscriminately in vinkää on page 5. See page 18 after mobile phone technology al- lowed for those citizens to be inden- tifi ed to security services will come Bicycles are permitted on the CULTURE as a shock to people less acquainted Metro, Suomenlinna ferry and, out- with state surveillance. Get on your bikes! side of peak hours, on commut- The technology, known as ‘black er trains – but they not allowed Sublime Schjerfbeck boxes’, has been supplied to police JAMES O’SULLIVAN The law-abiding inhabitants on buses or trams. Helsinki Region The largest ever exhibition ded- and security services, and allows for HELSINKI TIMES of the capital closely observe des- Transport’s journey planner web- icated to Helene Schjerfbeck’s the unrestricted monitoring of in- ignated cycle paths. Much in the site (www.hsl.fi /en) details the dis- work opens at Ateneum this ternet traffi c, phone calls, location HELSINKI is a haven for cyclists, with same way that everyone here tance, time, type of terrain and weekend. Marvel at the versa- data from cell phones and text mes- around 750 kilometres of well-main- stands to the right on an escalator, even altitude of any bicycle jour- tility and soulfulness of Finnish sages. The countries where these is- tained cycle paths weaving their way pedestrians generally keep to the ney you may wish to embark on, and painting’s grande dame, as you sues have arisen include Belarus, around the city. It offers a choice of appropriate lane, and those who conveniently charts the route on a chart her artistic journey from Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, gravel paths through beautiful forest- drift into the cyclists’ path will map. naturalism to symbolism. Georgia and Kazakhstan. ed areas, routes that hug the shoreline, quickly correct themselves when See page 19 and even well-marked paths in the city encouraged to do so by the ringing Read the essential piece on cycling Read more on this on page 5. centre with their own traffi c lights. of a bell. in Helsinki on page 13. 2 31 MAY – 6 JUNE 2012 VIEWPOINT HELSINKI TIMES Viewpoints are commentaries written by experts and authorities about specific topics. You can submit your articles to [email protected]. Articles should be at least 5,000 characters-with-spaces long (maximum length 10,000). Helsinki Times reserves the right to accept or reject submissions, as well as to edit or shorten the text. The opinions expressed in this section are the writers’ own and do not represent the official policy of the Helsinki Times. Carl Haglund is a Member of the European Parliament with Finland’s Swedish People’s Party. What’s up with Europe? to some degree. If the fi nan- AS THE recent elections in ceived the support of mem- 2020. As the European Com- has been that these priorities cial crisis hadn’t triggered the Greece and France have ber states, which until now mission is looking at what the have not been matched with A time of crisis also debt crisis, it would have sur- shown very clearly, there is have been focusing more on Union should be doing dur- funds for their implemen- represents fresh faced sooner or later anyway. growing popular resistance to austerity. ing the next decade, and how tation. While the emphasis this approach. The Greek out- much this will cost, the knee- in member states has been opportunities for THE FIRST major question we come was expected because IN THE MEANTIME, renewed jerk reactions in the cash- on cutting the overall level the European Union, are faced with is how to pre- the voters have suffered two pressure on the interest rates strapped member states have of the budget, less thought vent the immediate debt cri- years of painful austerity dic- of Spain and Italy indicates been understandably and ag- has been devoted to how writes Carl Haglund. sis from sinking the common tated by non-Greeks, to which that time is short, and no per- gressively restrictive. The the existing funds should be currency, the euro. Should there is still no end in sight. In manent solutions have been European Commission has distributed. we pull the plug on the worst France, however, the protest put in place at national or EU proposed that the EU should THE EUROPEAN Union is cur- cases by excluding them against austerity is more ide- levels yet. Popular support spend approximately 1.1 per AS AN OPTIMIST, one should rently undergoing the most from the euro and letting ological, since all attempts at for further lending packag- cent of the total Gross Nation- look for opportunities in all tumultuous time since its in- them fend for themselves, or reforming the French econ- es is wearing thin in healthi- al Income of all EU member situations. The current crisis, ception 60 years ago. This should we carry each other’s omy have been very modest. er economies. And, as if that states together. This is rough- however painful its solutions multifaceted crisis, which debt while economic reforms Nevertheless, a popular no- were not enough, even mod- ly the same level as in the cur- are, will produce a Europe that was triggered by the out- are put in place to make tion is that austerity meas- est austerity measures in the rent budget, and therefore is much better equipped to break of the global fi nan- member states less depend- ures forced upon indebted healthier economies have led does not imply a huge rise in tackle economic competition cial crisis in mid-2008, has ent on debt? countries will not alone solve to turmoil, most recently dem- expenditure. and other global challenges. If changed the dynamics of Eu- the crisis, which has spread onstrated by the fall of the the EU budget is calibrated to- rope and the European Un- UNTIL NOW, the answer has rapidly. The French left cap- Dutch government this April. AT BEST, the EU budget can wards activities like research ion, and brought to light new been to temporarily carry italised on this sentiment, serve as an investment pro- and development, strengthen- political forces which until THE SECOND question is gramme with a leveraging ef- ing of the internal market, and now have remained hidden how to prevent anything like fect on member states’ own Europe-wide infrastructure from public view.