Finland

[sirp]

Prison Sentence for Former Ski Jump Champ Matti Nyk?nen
Published 28.10.2004, 09.30


 
Former world champion and Olympic medallist ski jumper Matti Nyk?nen has been sentenced to two years and two months in prison for stabbing a man.

A court in Tampere convicted him of aggravated assault for stabbing a 59-year old man in the back in August. The incident apparently happened at a summer cottage while both men were drunk.

The sentence was unconditional, since Nyk?nen had earlier been given a suspended sentence for another violent incident. He was also ordered to pay nearly 2,000 euros in damages to the victim.

Nyk?nen?s lawyer says he will appeal the verdict.The prosecutor had sought a conviction for attempted manslaughter instead of assault.

Nyk?nen's chaotic lifestyle has been the focus of much media attention since the end of his athletic career. He has tried his hand at a singing career as well as becoming a one-time stripper.

Finnish News Agency, YLE24

He was my favourite ski jumper.

[Ignatius]

Wow, it's back!?


Not many people know it, but today is the Finnish independence day.?

/jarmo

Funny, December 6th is also a national holiday in Spain. The day our constitution was signed in 1978.

[jarmo]

Wow, it's back!?


Not many people know it, but today is the Finnish independence day.?

/jarmo

Funny, December 6th is also a national holiday in Spain. The day our constitution was signed in 1978.

I'm aware of that.....  I learned that piece of history on the 6th. 





/jarmo

[Jonathan]

Hey Jarmo, is Finland the shit?

Hahahaha

[journey]

Conan's Endorsement No Joke to Some Finns

Sat Jan 14, 6:47 PM ET


Finland's president finds her traditional support among women and the Social Democratic Party base, but lately to the surprise of many Finns and her opponents in Sunday's election she has gotten an endorsement of a different sort.

The redheaded late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien has been promoting President Tarja Halonen's re-election bid as part of a long-running joke about their supposed physical similarities.

"Why do I support Tarja Halonen? Because she's got the total package: a dynamic personality, a quick mind, and most importantly my good looks," the comedian, whose show is broadcast on cable in Finland, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Whether O'Brien has a real interest in Finnish politics is uncertain, but his gags and mock campaign ads for Halonen have not gone unnoticed in this Nordic country of 5.2 million.

"Late Night with Conan O'Brien" airs five days a week on SUBTV, a Finnish cable channel, with a few days' delay. Every time he mentions Finland or Halonen, local tabloids report it prominently.

 
The Halonen camp is laughing all the way to the polls.

"Of course, when she is mentioned so many times it's positive for our campaign," said Halonen's campaign manager, Markku Jaaskelainen.

Halonen's supporters quickly saw an opportunity, and her campaign started running real ads before the O'Brien's show on Finnish TV.

Halonen was hugely popular even before O'Brien discovered their similarities, but Jaaskelainen said hits on the campaign Web site have quintupled partly because of O'Brien's shows.

In one show, O'Brien presented a mock ad for Halonen in which he and two Finns were discussing the election while fishing on a frozen lake.

When they talk about rival candidate Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, a dead fish shoots out of the hole in the ice, prompting a joke about how the mere mention of his name causes fish to commit suicide.

"Fish recognize a bad leader," O'Brien says in broken Finnish to laughter from his studio crowd.

Halonen's opponents are not amused.

"He's just making fun of the whole election," said Harri Jaskari, campaign manager for former Finance Minister Sauli Niinisto. "If this decides the election, then we're in trouble. It gives a very poor picture of Finnish democracy."

Markus Haapamaki, Vanhanen's campaign manager, was less worried.

"It's not really affecting our campaign," he said. "Personally, I'm fed up with it, and it's continued too long to offer anything interesting."

In Helsinki, people did not seem to take offense at O'Brien's use of their presidential election for comic relief.

"I think it's quite funny," said Mia Myllymaki, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher. "Of course we are proud that Conan O'Brien talks about Finland and Finnish people. ... People in the USA don't even know where Finland is, so maybe it helps if he talks about it."

Anu Linnus, a 22-year-old economics student, said O'Brien's backing could indirectly affect the election.

"I don't think people are going to vote for Tarja because she's on the show, but it helps her image," she said.

Polls showed Halonen with a solid lead on the eve of the election, but it was not clear whether she would get the more than 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.

NBC, which runs Conan's show in the United States, said the popular host is planning a trip to Finland in February. It was not clear whether he would meet with Halonen, 62, who apparently does not mind being compared to the 42-year-old O'Brien.

 

[jarmo]

Funny. 

When they talk about rival candidate Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, a dead fish shoots out of the hole in the ice, prompting a joke about how the mere mention of his name causes fish to commit suicide.

That's why he didn't go to the second round in the election. 





/jarmo

[sic.]

When they talk about rival candidate Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, a dead fish shoots out of the hole in the ice, prompting a joke about how the mere mention of his name causes fish to commit suicide.

That's why he didn't go to the second round in the election.?

Sauli Niinist? did. Que photoshopping.



Would you vote for this man?

[Skeletor]

Would you vote for this man?

Oh yes. And I already did

[Aava]

Would you vote for this man?

Oh yes. And I already did

God, did you? He disgusts me.

I?m glad Tarja won!

[Skeba]

You're glad... Why? What did you base your vote on? (and I know... this is politics... But we're Finnish. Finnish politics from Finnish people is excluded since we're cool and reasonable.. Unlike them stupid foreigners.. That's of course 'till /J tells me to shut up)

Voted for Niinist? by the way.. I'll give the grounds for my choise when I'm sober..

[Aava]

Niinist? and his whole campaign, in my opinion was pretty hypocrite and the whole ally of National Coalition- and The Centre-party (or what the heck you call them in english..) was pretty sad. Plus I don?t believe military alliances and I think different about the money and prodactivity. But i?m sure he?d been an idealistic president for you.

I didn?t vote Halonen at the first run.
But her values, thoughts of nuclear energy, NATO and human rights suites better for average me. And I appreciate her work with UNICEF.

[Skeba]

Not really idealistic.. But the best option of the 2. (actually he was the best of the 3... Vanhanen was way to qualified of a prime minister to be wasted as a president)

About nuclear power.. I think that we need to take the environment into concideration, and I think that nuclear power for the next 20-30 years  (which is what it'll take before we can find ways to produce fusion energy for example) is not such a bad idea. It's not ideal, but it is a good enough bridge between the current situation, and the future.

NATO seems to be the question about this election that really divided them 2... The fact the Niinist? spoke about his opinions openly, and that he said that we will go to NATO if the people will decide so, were also things that contributed to my choise. Unlike Halonen who only at first said that 'it was not an issue at the moment', but that our collaboration has been ever growing in last few years... I'd like to see the people's reactions if we _do_ end up in NATO within the next 6 years. I'm not a fan of NATO, but I do like the fact that Niinist? brought up the subject and talked about his views on it.

The whole human rights thing... Well from what I've gathered, Tarja has talked how wonderfully China has advanced in their human rights within the last few years.. And China has used it in their propaganda.. But this could be false information, not really sure.

One of the main reasons I voted for Niinist?, was that he didn't answer every second question with 'well this is not something that is up to the president to decide...'

I'm just glad that you didn't vote for Halonen 'because she's a woman'...

I just think that the world is changing, and I thought a change would've been good for us too. I don't think that the mere 'she hasn't fucked up' is a good enough reason for her to get re-elected.

I'm just really glad you didn't say you voted for her be

[Aava]

You?re already sober.  And you made a long post like that. 


Anyways, about the China thing, Halonen said, that China has _advanced_ in their human rights, but they still got lots of work to do. And i think the media twisted it wrong way. I?m not so sure about how it went eather.

And about nuclear energy; Halonen said; "five nuclear reactors is an appropriate number, and a sixth one is not needed."  She also said, that the decision rests with parliament. As i?m sure this is one of the most difficult issues for her.

One of the main reasons I voted for Niinist?, was that he didn't answer every second question with 'well this is not something that is up to the president to decide...'

But Niinist? and Vanhanen was arguing about those things way too much. I liked the way Hautala responded and acted in that particular debate. As i voted her at first! 


And yes, my vote wasn?t based on someones gender or sexual orientation or home town or hair colour.

[Skeba]

And about nuclear energy; Halonen said; "five nuclear reactors is an appropriate number, and a sixth one is not needed."? She also said, that the decision rests with parliament. As i?m sure this is one of the most difficult issues for her.

That was one of her main themes... The decision rests with parliament-thing. Didn't like it at all.. She played that card through out the elections.

But Niinist? and Vanhanen was arguing about those things way too much. I liked the way Hautala responded and acted in that particular debate. As i voted her at first!?

They were arguing because they were asked about these topics. They had to create reactions to get people thinking.. As you'll prolly remember, before the first round, Halonen was supposed to win easily on the first round alone... It was easy to say at the moment since people didn't have any other realistic choises, and people didn't know what the ideas behind the other campaigns were. But all of the other candidates (including Hautala - I thought she did really well, would've liked to see her get 'bout 8-10%) got people to think, that maybe there are things that could be done better. 51,8% isn't that big of a vote of confidence to the sitting president. But I guess people are afraid of a change. They don't see that it's inevitable.

People twisted Niinsit?'s stand on the NATO issue, and it cost him the election. He said that "it was up to the people, but that he'd be willing to concider it". The media, and especially Halonen's supporters took it as a yes. Halonen said at first that 'it's not something for us to decide now' then in one debate he said that 'Niinist? is taking us to NATO, I am not' which is really stupid, and then she said that 'ready to join if necessary'... And still Niinist? was displayed as the one that was most definately going to take us there..

Well. As someone already put it in Finnish:

"Itsetietoiset huippuosaajat, menestyv?t yritykset
ja muuten vaan varakkaat heebot tulevat p?rj??m??n joka tapauksessa.
Siin? on vissi ero, ett? p?rj??v?tk? (ja ty?llist?v?k?) ne t??ll? vai muualla.
Suomen tulevaisuus on edelleen synkk?. Maailma muuttuu, Suomi ei,
j?? siksi jalkoihin ja kompastuu lopulta r?hm?lleen omaan lyhytn?k?isyyteens?.
Ei h?t??, ainahan voi ottaa tekstarilainaa."

[jarmo]

Hooray for Finland!

A presidential election was held without any major problems. Maybe we could teach those Americans a few things.... 


 


/jarmo

[Aava]

Hooray for Finland!

A presidential election was held without any major problems. Maybe we could teach those Americans a few things....?

Did you _remember_ to vote?

[jarmo]

Yes, I did remember. Another thing is if I voted.


They only had one person handling the voting here. I didn't feel like standing in line for hours in a small room with 50 other people..... 



/jarmo

[Skeba]

Damn it... It's because of people like you we lost the election...

[jarmo]

Damn it... It's because of people like you we lost the election...

No! 



/jarmo

[journey]

Yes, I did remember. Another thing is if I voted.


They only had one person handling the voting here. I didn't feel like standing in line for hours in a small room with 50 other people.....?



/jarmo

Where's your patriotism, jarmo?! And you call yourself a Finnish citizen? You should have voted, even if it meant you had to stand in line for five hours. Do it for your country!