Rumours Lift Markets As Banks Come Under Scrutiny

ISSUE 39 (219) • 29 SEPTEMBER – 5 OCTOBER 2011 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI DOMESTIC NEWS BUSINESS LIFESTYLE CULTURE EAT & DRINK How to Russia’s Helsinki’s Art The best treat WTO notable exhibitions sushi depression membership architecture for autumn in town page 6 page 13 page 23 page 25 page 27 Majority of young adults place high value on work ANNUKKA KOSKELA – STT with the latter coming fi rst for the HT majority. Young workers’ commitment TALK OF work-shy and pampered to their own employment shows youth does not refl ect the reality signs of increasing, according to the of the majority. According to statis- study. Amongst the Finnish popula- LEHTIKUVA / ANTTI AIMO-KOIVISTO tics, attitudes towards work among tion overall the willingness to seek young people have not become any a change of jobs has decreased, LEHTIKUVA / AFP PHOTO / WOLFGANG KUMM more negative over the past two but this is especially true of young decades. employees. According to the study Nuori ta- “This fi nding doesn’t support the sa-arvo (Youth Equality), carried out assumption that young workers are and published by Statistics Finland, overly choosy when it comes to their a growing majority of youths and place of employment,” Lehto writes. young adults between the ages of The comparative study is based 15 and 34 consider work to be an ex- on statistics collected by Statistics tremely important part of life. Finland in the years from 1990 to “It’s misleading to claim that 2008 inclusive. The data covers on- work has become less important ly employees who were not studying for young people, and that this is at the same time. a major cause for concern when it comes to possible labour shortag- es,” Statistics Finland research di- This issue of Helsinki Times The FIN-FSA Director General Anneli Tuominen. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. rector Anna-Maija Lehto writes in has a special the publication. More important to working life theme. young people than work, however, For more articles, see 18-21. are leisure activities and family life, Rumours lift markets as Party’s own fears for its future and Strained the looming local elections, to be held in autumn 2012. banks come under scrutiny relations in Halla-aho also reacted to talk of a widening rift within The Finns, with DAVID J. CORD “I don’t really understand how an- rious strains upon the European the Opposition the party supposedly being increas- HELSINKI TIMES yone in Brussels and the EC can raise banking system. One part of the ru- ingly split between a “Halla-aho such a silly idea without understand- moured plan includes recapitalising HEIDI EKDAHL – STT wing” and a “Soini wing”. In Halla- THE HELSINKI stock market jumped ing the construction of the EFSF,” said some banks that could take cata- HT aho’s view talk of a rift is “propagan- almost 6 per cent to start the week. German Finance Minister Wolfgang strophic losses on their holdings of da created by the media, who have Investors were cheered by rumours Schäuble in a speech in Berlin. Greek debt. The Finnish Financial THE FINNS PARTY’S Member of Par- started to believe in it themselves.” that European offi cials were fi nally Despite public disavowals of at Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) liament Jussi Halla-aho respond- Halla-aho says that his two- working on a decisive solution to the least part of the rumoured plan, mar- gave their opinion about the situ- ed sharply to recent criticism by week suspension from the parlia- long-running sovereign debt crisis. kets continued to rally. Finnish ten- ation a day after the recapitalisa- the chairperson of the Centre Party mentary group has not affected his The rumour, fi rst reported by the year government bonds, which are tion rumours gained widespread Mari Kiviniemi. work. The suspension ends this Fri- BBC, included a signifi cant Greek viewed as a safe investment, expe- attention. Kiviniemi claimed last week that day, and was imposed by The Finns default of about 50 per cent of its rienced massive drops in price as in- “The Finnish fi nancial sector co-operation between the two oppo- parliamentary group in response to debt. On Tuesday, Yle reported that vestors sold bonds and moved back must prepare for a prolongation of sition parties is diffi cult due to the Halla-aho’s comments on Facebook Tuomas Pöysti of the National Au- into more risky assets, such as stocks. the debt crisis, although the capital Finns’ “Halla-aho wing.” Her criti- that a military junta was needed in dit Offi ce explained to Parliament’s The enthusiasm may be short- adequacy of the sector as a whole is cism came in the wake of Halla-aho’s Greece to deal with the situation. audit committee that Finland was lived. The Pellervo Economic Re- currently fairly good,” says Director controversial comments on Greece, The Finns Party’s leader Timo Soi- unlikely to ever be paid back in full search (PTT) group is forecasting General Anneli Tuominen. with the former prime minister ni’s presidential bid is a good opportu- by Greece. The committee debat- another recession in 2012 for The FIN-FSA explains that Finn- charging that the Halla-aho wing nity to bring EU-critical perspectives ed whether Finland should already Finland. ish banks have 9.4 billion euros in was “playing a dangerous game with to the fore, Halla-aho thinks. “Fin- write off some 890 million euros in “The Finnish economy will con- excess of the minimum capital re- the basic principles of democracy.” land’s relation to the European Union loans to the struggling country. tract 1.5 per cent next year due to quirements. The agency also says it Halla-aho responded that co-op- and to European integration will cer- Also, the plan supposedly in- the Euro area debt crisis,” PTT’s Re- has begun enhanced monitoring of eration between his and Kiviniemi’s tainly be a topic of discussion during volved a massive increase in the search Director Markus Lahtinen fi nancial sector players. If the crisis parties would indeed be diffi cult – the presidential campaign.” bail-out fund, a suggestion which bluntly predicted last week. continues, they believe it will affect not for the reason Kiviniemi gave, More about Timo Soini’s presi- Germany fi ercely rejected on Another recession, coupled with the real economy. he said, but because of the Centre dential gambit on page 5. Tuesday. a sovereign default, could put se- Read more on page 12. Best Western Hotel Carlton is in the heart of Helsinki, 200 metres from the railway station and walking distance to everything worth seeing in Helsinki. Bring this advert and get a 10% discount on your stay. This off er is valid until 30 September 2011. Luxury quality for affordable price! Kaisaniemenkatu 3, Helsinki, tel. 09 684 1320, www.carlton.fi 2 29 SEPTEMBER – 5 OCTOBER 2011 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 writer’s own and do not represent the official policy of the Helsinki Times. step involved, avoiding the the faculty discussed mat- possibility of missing an es- ters concerning the school’s sential link. student council. I was able to see that a lot of planning LOOKING at the Finnish text- was involved and that teach- books, I saw that the basics ers have to sacrifi ce their Brendan O’Sullivan is a mathematics teacher at Bruce College, Cork, Ireland. He is involved are drilled at an early age. own time to ensure that all with the Irish Mathematics Teachers’ Association and has had a number of articles relating to Students move through key of the relevant people are mathematics education published over the years. Currently, he serves as the national secretary concepts at a much slower able to attend the required of the organisation and is very involved with professional development for teachers. pace than the Irish student meetings and give their con- does. For example, we cover tributions. My contact, Fre- the rules of powers at a brisk drik Hagelstam, also stayed pace and expect our stu- after school to work on Ad- dents to fairly rapidly be able vanced Placement calculus to distinguish between the with a student who had re- different types of rules and turned from the US just a few Lessons from the Finnish classroom when to apply them, while years ago. It was interesting much coverage of material as ing between these different the Finnish student will ap- to see how they worked co- possible. Finnish students are types of thought they are able proach one rule at a time operatively towards solv- A visiting teacher from Ireland shares his responsible for covering the to fi nd a route towards solv- and look at it from all sorts ing problems and trying reflections on Finnish teaching methods. exercises and asking ques- ing the problem that they had of different angles to ensure different techniques to an- tions when they need to, while not considered before. In the that they have a thorough swer questions. the Irish student is policed, Irish mathematics classroom, grasp of what is involved. It coaxed and urged to attain we are more concerned with is telling that this topic caus- THE PISA assessments demon- THE FINNISH education- no standardised tests in Fin- the required understanding.

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