ISSUE 21 (252) • 24 – 30 MAY 2012 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI DOMESTIC Finnair to transfer FOUNDED IN ST. PETERSBURG 1860 flights to Flybe 0.85ct 4379€ JS060 DAVID J. CORD The unions representing the cab- HELSINKI TIMES in crews and pilots have expressed some opposition to the deal. In- FINNAIR has announced plans to vestors were more encouraging, transfer a large portion of its Eu- sending Finnair’s share price up by Secret gardens ropean fl ights to Flybe Nordic, the almost 4 per cent. You might be stuck in the city, joint venture formed with the UK’s Finnair has been struggling but greener pastures are just a Flybe regional airline. Investors with heavy losses. In the fi rst quar- short metro ride away! Soak up have cheered the move, but unions ter of the year, Finland’s nation- some summer rays wandering have expressed caution. al airline announced a 20.4 million around one of the allotment vil- Under the plan, 12 Embraer air- euro loss on 591.8 million euros in lages dotted about Helsinki. craft, 100 cabin personnel and 120 sales. They have a plan to decrease See page 5 pilots will be transferred to Flybe annual costs by 140 million euros, Nordic, which is 40 per cent owned which includes outsourcing a va- by Finnair and 60 per cent owned riety of services, selling their ca- BUSINESS by Flybe. The pilots would eventual- tering business and decreasing ly return to Finnair to cover the air- personnel costs. 0.54ct 3356€ 093 0.27ct 2061€ JS030 line’s growing Asian traffi c. Earlier in the year, Finnair un- Greek drama “This move is part of our strate- ions expressed consternation when As Greece’s political map is be- gy to restore Finnair’s profi tability,” it emerged that the company had ing rewritten and France and says Finnair CEO Mika Vehviläinen. paid millions in retention bonus- Germany seek an entente that “The memorandum of understand- es to top management, while staff KESKUSKATU 4, HELSINKI will balance austerity with ing covers approximately one third were experiencing pay cuts and growth, HT brings you the latest of our Finnish fl ights.” redundancies. P. 044-740 3385, Mon-Fri 10-18, Sat 10-16 on the Eurozone crisis. Find your local retailer www.tillander.fi See page 8 and MP Timo Soini (PS), immediate- ly lashed out at the statement, with HEALTH Greens Räsänen stating: “The Christian Hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, is Democrats’ position on euthanasia actually an exaggerated immune is clear: we are not involved in a gov- response to pollen and in most This week’s theme spark ernment that would legalise the kill- Sneezy cases can be dealt with by over- A little pill that revolutionised ing of sick or disabled people.” the-counter medications, like anti- reproductive health, all you need euthanasia Soini, who converted to Cathol- histamines, that can be purchased to know about vaccinations and icism a number of years ago, spoke summer from pharmacies. However total how to overcome those season- of “killing the defenceless” and the avoidance of pollen at this time of al sneezing fits, all in this week’s debate Greens’ wish “to play God with life year is particularly diffi cult. health supplement. and death” in his blog on Sunday. The problem this year is that birch See pages 9-11 DAVID DUNNE In response Green MP Oras Tynk- is expected to bloom more intensely HELSINKI TIMES forecast kynen said: “Timo Soini himself than it has done since 1993 and the wants to decide other people’s death DAVID DUNNE abundance of the tree around Finland HELSINKI TIMES CULTURE GREENS’ attempts to put euthanasia on their behalf, as he is denying their – even within the bounds of Helsinki on the agenda for national discussion right to euthanasia.” – means suffers of hay fever may be have started a war of words between In March this year a poll by Aamu- AS SUMMER fi nally arrives to Finland in for a torrid time. The Meteorologi- Back to the future political parties. At last weekend’s lehti found that 77 per cent of re- it brings with it the perennial annoy- cal Institute, in conjunction with Uni- Share an aesthetic preference party conference the Greens made a spondents would support euthanasia ance of hay fever, as pollen plagues versity of Turku, carries out the study for speed, noise, machines and draft of a programme relating to in- if it was something terminally ill pa- suffers with symptoms such as sneez- every year and has already recorded movement? Then delve into the dividual freedoms, which stated that tients wanted for themselves. Only ing, itching, irritation of the eyes, and pollen drifting in from Sweden in the brave new world envisaged by “the human beings have the right not 12 per cent were against euthanasia. runny noses. Sadly this year the Finn- south of the country. Italian futurist artists on show at only to a good life, but also to a good Currently in Europe, the Neth- ish Meteorological Institute predicts Espoo’s EMMA museum. death – and aided if necessary.” erlands, Switzerland and Belgium that pollen levels – with birch being Read about this and other health- See page 18 Both Interior Minister Päi- remain the only countries where eu- the particular offender – will be the related issues in our Health Special vi Räsänen (Christian Democrats) thanasia has been legalised. highest in 20 years. on pages 9-11. 2 24 – 30 MAY 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. Jussi Järventaus is President of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises. THE SUBSTANTIAL growth of preneurs with immigrant the economic signifi cance of backgrounds. They and many Entrepreneurship carries Finland entrepreneurship can also be others have brought impor- seen in the citizens’ attitudes tant additions to Finnish en- towards entrepreneurship. trepreneurship culture. A sea of change in the structure of the Finnish economy has already occurred, and entrepre- Fifteen to twenty years ago, entrepreneurship was met FINLAND’S future success is neurs run the small and medium-sized enterprises that are the new growth engine, writes with reservation in Finland, evidently built on the ever- Jussi Järventaus. but now the overwhelming growing fi eld of entrepreneurs majority of citizens strong- and its innovations, as well as ly support entrepreneurship. the entrepreneurs’ ability to IN YEARS past Finland was SO, THE foundations of Fin- is increasingly led by entre- tance of the entrepreneurial This change is signifi cant and provide employment opportu- known as a country of for- land’s economic success are preneurs. The key explana- sector was clearly in evi- also gives political decision- nities. Also, from amongst the est and metal industry, led by shaking. Is Finland, as an in- tion for this phenomenon in dence: in the entrepreneurial makers a basis for support- creative entrepreneurs, eve- large companies. Nowadays, ternational success story, los- Finland is globalisation. sector, only a few thousand ing entrepreneurship. ryone is hoping to fi nd new the forest industry’s share ing its grip? I don’t think so. jobs were lost, whereas the world-class actors – ideally, of our total output has fall- For example, the forest indus- WITH more intense compe- total number of jobs lost na- THE GROWTH of entrepre- new Nokias. However, these en to approximately fi ve per try has new opportunities in tition and rapidly changing tionally was almost 50,000. neurship is not only related to things do not happen by them- cent. Its signifi cance has de- the bio-based economy. How- market circumstances, large It can be justly said that en- one sector, but is visible in all selves; a lot of work is also re- creased even though the for- ever, reforms are needed to companies have transformed trepreneurs are responsible areas. The most popular sec- quired from social actors. est industry is clearly still strengthen and preserve Fin- into organisational machines, for the employment situation tor for new entrepreneurs has important. land’s position. Many of the whereas actual production is in Finland. At the same time, been the service sector, espe- MANY structures in Finnish basic elements of our com- often done outside the compa- we of course have to empha- cially health and well-being society date back to a time FOR ALMOST 20 years, the petitiveness are fortunate- ny by small or medium-sized sise the important role of the and social services. Various when it was led by large-scale pillar of Finnish economy ly in place: a good education enterprises. This development large companies in our econ- expert services have also in- industry. Even though pol- has been the technology in- system, a stable society, min- began to accelerate in Finland omy. They mainly make the creased the number of entre- iticians talk warmly about dustry, with Nokia as its imal corruption and a strong as early as the 1990s, and still decision of where the pro- preneurs. Business services, entrepreneurship, the struc- fl agship. At its best, Nokia’s legalist state principle. These continues to grow. The ma- duction happens. However, such as fi nancial administra- tural changes of industry and share of Finland’s export was the competitiveness of the tion, marketing, management commerce are not suffi cient- over 20 per cent.