ISSUE 15 (95) • 9 – 22 APRIL 2009 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS EAT&DRINK LIFESTYLE Employment North Korean Forestry Easter My discrimination rocket in holiday Little common launch trouble treats Pony page 5 page 7 page 8 page 16 page 18 LEHTIKUVA / JUSSI NUKARI Helsinki Times wishes all readers a Happy Easter! The next issue of Helsinki Times will be published on 23 April. For daily news please visit our website at www.helsinkitimes.fi end of perhaps the only Christian tradition where eating is discour- Nobel laureate Matti Ahtisaari argues that militant organisation Hamas must be given a role in Middle East peace talks. Holy aged – lent. Secondly, while one would struggle to fi nd much reli- gious symbolism in your Christmas lambs and turkey, traditional Easter foods are often ripe with allegory. Many peo- Boycott of Hamas chocolate ple eat lamb at this time of year, which not only tastes good, but, for believers, represents Christ him- bunnies self. In Judaism and Christianity the must end, says Ahtisaari belief is that sins can be forgiven NICK BARLOW through the Lamb of God and origi- HELSINKI TIMES “I don’t think you can make peace funded by the US congress, was es- HELSINKI TIMES nates from the Jews’ fi rst Passover. if you try to eliminate those who tablished in Washington in 1984. As for the now-ubiquitous eggs, have the support of the population.” Ahtisaari believes the EU should EASTER is one of the most important strictly speaking their usage de- FORMER Finnish President Mart- Ahtisaari believes that Hamas and mediate more actively in interna- events in the Christian calendar. No rives from ancient fertility lore. In ti Ahtisaari was quoted as saying Fatah must end their rivalry and tional crisis situations. “The EU matter if an individual follows Ca- Christian times they had a more by Reuters on Monday, 6 April that join forces in a united front. would be a suitable mediator, as it tholicism, Protestantism, Luther- religious interpretation bestowed it was dangerous and pointless to Under pressure from an Israe- is highly regarded internationally anism, or any other of the many on them, becoming a symbol of the rule out Hamas, from talks to end li lobby, the United States has tried and has the resources for this kind Christian creeds, Easter is a big oc- sepulchre in which Jesus was sup- the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. to isolate Hamas after it won a land- of activity.” casion. Many other signifi cant dates posedly buried and resurrected. The Palestinian organisation is slide parliamentary election in 2006. Ahtisaari will speak for the mem- are marked in relation to it. As with The eggs, however, have, bizarrely, listed as a terrorist group by both When previously asked about medi- bers and the staff of the Finnish par- other religious observations, East- also become associated over time the European Union and the Unit- ating a peace between Israel and Pal- liament after Easter here in Helsinki. er is defi ned as much by the food with the strictly non-holy bunny ed States. estine, Ahtisaari had said he would be The event will take place in the main eaten as by what it represents as a rabbit, which supposedly delivers The Nobel Peace laureate told the available if both parties asked him to. hall of the Finnish Parliament, which doctrine. them to children. Although the rab- news agency that talks must begin In a speech to the European Par- is usually reserved for parliamentary Although the consumption of bit is not sacred, many hold that the with Hamas. “You can’t eliminate liaments Committee on Foreign Af- work only. A non-member last spoke specifi c foodstuffs is often a major produce it delivers, if containing those who have power. You have to fairs, Ahtisaari suggested that the EU from the podium of the parliament in aspect of spiritual celebration, the e n o u g h c h o c o l a t e , i s i n d e e d d i v i n e . talk to those who are representative, should stablise a peace institute mod- 1990, when the parliament was ad- Easter menu is special for a couple Read about Easter culinary tradi- whether you like their views or not,” eled after the United States Institute dressed by Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of reasons. First of all, it marks the tions on page 16. Ahtisaari said. of peace (USIP). The USIP, which is of newly unifi ed Germany. 2 9 – 22 APRIL 2009 VIEWPOINT HELSINKI TIMES Dr Terry Lacey is a development economist who writes from Jakarta on modernisation in the Muslim world, investment and trade relations with the EU and Islamic banking. bailout, compared to $1.6 tril- tionary risks, and other un- G20 Summit: lion now held by Saudi Arabia certainties as the full cost of and the Gulf States from high the bailout hits home? oil prices in the fi rst half of 2008. US PRESIDENT Barack time to holler for the dollar? Obama’s top economic advi- CHINA is agreeing to help sor, Lawrence Summers, has bail out the US and support urged G20 leaders to focus The G20 Summit leaves open three great questions. Does the world yet trust the United the IMF but holding back to on boosting world demand States’ financial system and the US dollar? Will Asia, especially China, agree to prop up the US some extent, with 20 mil- and take coordinated steps financially and can Asia lead the way to recovery in world demand and trade? Where does that lion Chinese unemployed to pump more money into the in the crisis they must bail global economy. Summers leave the European Union and the euro? out themselves fi rst. China has remarked: “This notion needs the Euro and the SDR that the economy is self-sta- THE G20 agreed to pump fi ve of the world were trying to into expanding environmen- and the SDR could do the job. as a hedge against the dollar bilising is usually right, but trillion US dollars into stimu- catch up with hedging, de- tal markets in Asia. The Governor of the Central in future. it is wrong a few times a cen- lus packages and trade boost- rivatives, and securitisation Bank of China agrees. tury. And this is one of those ing measures and act against as instruments and markets THE WEST cannot recover WHAT ABOUT all the lo- times”. tax havens, control corpo- becoming more complex. Un- without India, China, Indone- CHINESE Premier Wen Jiabao cal people and expatriates rate rewards, push a global derlying asset markets col- sia, Brazil, South Africa, Rus- sees China already holding in Asia and the Middle East IN OTHER words, this ship is trade deal and set up a Finan- lapsed. Financial markets sia and Saudi Arabia and the $740 billion of US debts and holding dollars? Should they still sinking unless we refl oat cial Stability Board (FSB). cannot necessarily self-cor- Gulf States. EU private sec- President Barack Obama in- keep them, or not? The dol- it together. But how can we rect unless they have been tors and governments must creasing US debts by anoth- lar is doing a bit better right refl oat it with dollars, if the MANY EU and Southern coun- designed to do so; since that seize the opportunities pre- er $2.5 trillion, to fi nance the now, but what about infl a- dollar itself might go down? tries preferred more empha- has not been the case, they sented to expand investment sis on rigorous regulations to are unlikely to self-correct to and trade relations with limit unbridled greed, rath- sustainable values. these key economies. There er than throwing apparent- is plenty of liquidity in Asia ly unlimited borrowed bucks THE FULL impact of the US re- and the Middle East to co-fi - down bottomless buckets. cession, bailout and stimu- nance such projects. The US and UK hope they can lus package is yet to be felt. print enough money to buy The huge scale of Western ASIAN leaders are no long- their way out of trouble; time toxic assets and fi nancial er sure of the US dollar, nor will tell. scams is still coming to light. of its fi nancial system and The liquidity problem is not banks, nor of the true val- BRITISH Prime Minister Gor- solved. The fi nancial markets ue of its underlying assets. don Brown says the G20 sig- are still not working proper- They are making bilateral lo- nals the emergence of a new ly, and global demand is still cal currency swap deals with world order. The truth is that collapsing. We can drop in- each other to support trade the G20 has simply stitched terest rates indefi nitely, but rather than trusting the US together a new kind of para- that may not mean that the dollar or international in- chute for a fi nancial system banks and fi nancial system stitutions. Asian countries in free fall, and now we are will loosen up. want to trade in local curren- going to fi nd out if it works. cies, Euros and SDRs as well Swansea Business School (SBS) will start the 12th University of Wales MBA THE RECOURSE to state so- as dollars. programme cohort in September 2009 in Hämeenlinna, Finland. IN THE Jakarta Post on 4 cialist measures by the arch April, Roman Frydman and proponents of fi nancial lib- THIS IS the time for some in- Michael Goldberg argued eralism is astounding, along teresting deals and the global Swansea Business School (SBS) has delivered its University of Wales MBA for that the near collapse of the with dependence on commu- role of the Euro can be ex- over a decade in Finland.