Greece is burning because of faulty control

Close to one hundred new forest fires are started daily in Greece. Over 60 people are killed in the forest fires so far.


It is believed that the Greek forest fires are lit on purpose. It would be no surprise, as forests in Greece can not be used for fields or for building new houses, but if there is no forest, nothing prevents from using the ground.

Greek authorities shown poor understanding of human nature, and poor understanding of the effects of control systems: People do what the control systems allow. If burning a forest frees the ground for building, forests will be burnt.


It is my forecast, that if the culprits are ever caught, they will not see anything wrong in their deeds: They needed land, and they acquired land in a way that the control system made possible for them.

We do need control, but the control must not be stupid.

Let's put higher tax on diesel fuel!

The Finnish Government has just decided to increase taxation of diesel fuel.

The Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen admitted that the decision was made to maximize tax intake, now that diesel cars are more popular than ever before.

Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen

It is commonly believed that diesel cars are less polluting than petrol cars. And less pollution is exactly what Finland officially is aiming for. - Yet Finland has a long history of punishing diesel usage.

For decades there has been a punishment tax for diesel cars: If you own a diesel car, you have to pay an annual 'diesel tax', even if you never drive your car. You are quite simply punished for owning a diesel car, and not using petrol. - Petrol cars use up more fuel, you see.

So now they decided to increase the fuel tax on diesel. "To maximize fuel tax intake". Without thinking for a moment, what the decision means for the prise of goods, food, and anything that needs to transported by diesel trucks in this country of long transport distances.


"To maximize fuel tax intake". - I wonder how long Finland can continue on this extremely weird policy of taxing motor vehicles and traffic in ways that are not in unison with the EU regulations.

Stalin is Russia's Hero

Stalin is Russia's hero, "because he won the Great Patriotic War" (The Second World War; WWII).

Russia's reborn Hero

Russia is building up strong national sentiment, for which purpose they need Great National Heroes. To obtain Great National Heroes, Russia has closed down national archives, stopped going thru their past hidden history, and re-written their school books. Thus Stalin can now be nominated the Leading National Hero, as young people no longer know the truth about him. Or about the former Soviet Union.

Russia is seeking their way back onto the old Soviet Way.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia did for a while examine her history. As archives were opened up, the terrifying crimes of the past were finally published to the public: Truths such as Stalin for example having millions of Russian people killed. Similarly Russians finally admitted, that it was Russia who started the Finnish Winter War, not Finland.

But now the history archives are being closed down again, and Russia is firmly determined to build up strong national sentiment. As truth can not be used for it, the sentiment must be based on myths and lies: Staling was a Hero, Finland started the Winter War, etc.

What should we think of Russia, that deliberately is building its new identity on lies? What can we think? What will become of the Russian youth, whose future strong national pride will be based on lies?


Russia demands respect. The only way they know to get respect is strength, and strength to them seems to be mainly bullying and brutal violence. Strangely enough they do not see that with those tools they are not getting respect, but hate, fear and despise.

Russia is deliberately going back towards the 'Good Old Days of the Soviet Union'. They are abandoning international and national democracy and trust. They seem to be building something that belongs to the past, and should certainly be left there.

I am sorry for the Russian people: the past national terror is bound to finally come out. And when it does come out, it comes out with violence. - Why would president Putin choose to build up the new nationalism on lies, and hide the truth that would heal, but now will destroy?

Is it because Putin wants to be a Strong Man?

Policeman as witness

In one of my previous posts I wrote about my colleague's view on why van drivers are bad drivers (see 'Professionals can not drive?).

In the same discussion he told me about his own experience when driving a van:

He had stopped at a red light, and he felt a thump, as if something had hit his van. He left the van to see what it was about. And quite right: a car had hit his rear. It had split its radiator, with cooling water running on the road. A young boy was sitting at the cars steering wheel. The only damage to the van was luckily just minor scratching of the back bumper chroming.

Another car stopped behind them, and a man rushed out shouting "I saw it all. I am a policeman". My colleague was gladly surprised: how often do you get a policeman to witness your accident for you.

But the man continued "I am the boy's father!", and my colleague lost his confidence in his star witness. The policeman kept on stressing that he was a policeman, in quite an aggressive style. And my colleague felt that he was being bullied: The boy's father aggressively repeating that he was a policeman, and that he had seen it all. - You know the style. Surely you do.

Yet my colleague politely expressed his content of having such a trustworthy witness, and did not yield to be intimidated. As the policeman finally realized that he was not going to succeed in pushing my colleague, he admitted his son's guilt and offered to have the van's back bumper re-chromed.

But my colleague no longer did agree; he demanded on having the bumper replaced: re-chroming can never be totally trusted, can it? So in the end the boy's insurance company paid my colleague the money for a factory new rear bumper.

I think we can forgive my colleague. After all policemen are obliged to behave in exemplary way even in their private lives.

Yet; wouldn't it have been delighting to hear the policeman's testimony in court: "Now, everybody knows that at least 2 or 3 cars can quite safely pass a red light. That is the common practice."

That by the way is the common practice in Finland. The leading national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat just recently wrote on article on the matter. You do remember that the Finnish police does not seem to be interested in controlling traffic. And it shows.

Russian fighter bomber - Follow up

A few days back I wrote about the suspected Russian fighter bomber that is said to have dropped a missile in Georgia. See 'Russian or not - the fighter bomber?'.

Russia reports their disappointment in how the international Group of Experts inspecting the incident seem to have taken the Georgian side. Russia suspects that Georgians have damaged parts of the missile to prevent its identifying.


I must correct my statement in the previous post: the plane was not identified to have been Russian. Instead it was found that an unidentified aircraft entered Georgian airspace three times during the day. - One might wonder, of course, if Russian air control should be aware of, and identify, any military aircraft in their airspace.

The missile was identified to be a Russian design Raduga Kh-58 (AS-11 KILTER) medium range anti-radar missile, that is used for knocking down targeting radars etc. (See also rockitz.com.)


See the International Group of Experts Report.

Another international group is now inspecting the case. In this group Poland and Estonia are represented. Both countries with which Russia at the moment have very bad relations indeed.


Whatever the truth is in this missile incident, it cannot be denied that Russia has employed exceptional actions in their contact with Georgia: After Georgia expelled Russian officers last year, Russia cut off flight connections to Georgia, inspected Georgian companies in Russia, and discontinued import of Georgian wine and mineral water.

Russia has informed the international community that they do not wish for third parties getting involved with their relationship with Georgia.

Police admits not doing their job

Just a few blogs back I wondered if the Finnish police are up to their tasks (see 'Professionals can not drive?'). The supposition was not without factual base: the police themselves have admitted not doing their job.


Some time ago during this summer or spring a police officer was interviewed on the radio. The reporter asked him if something could be done to clean up the traffic, that has grown to be rather reckless. He asked why do the policemen not stop the speedsters and other offensive rule breakers.

- But then we'd have to stop virtually everybody, the police officer replied.

So the police are well aware that the traffic culture has already grown out of control, but yet they seem to have no intention to do anything about it in their everyday work.


According to a recent newspaper writing one police officer has told the writer, that he is aware that some patrol units accept tasks only by the police radio. They do not react on incidents that they see in the traffic.

If the police are patrolling, but doing nothing, they are patrolling for nothing, and we are paying their salaries for nothing. When people have seen that the police do not care of anything, they have learned that they can drive as recklessly as they like. Traffic legislation no longer is valid in Finland; the Finnish police have in practice authorized the reckless driving.


If the police did do their job, they certainly would have to start it by stopping virtually everybody. Similarly if I did leave my job undone for a lengthy period, I'd simply have to do a hell lot of work to clear the piled up work to get back to normal work level. Sitting still like the police do, would only make the pile grow even higher.

So 'stopping virtually everybody' is exactly what the police should now do. We are paying them for doing their job, not for idling in their patrol cars or giving excuses for not doing their job.

Chinese democracy: some are more equal than others

Heard on the radio:

30 years ago in China a man was put in prison for speaking for clean food; organic food.

Now there is a farm producing only organic food for only the top communist leaders of China.

The common people in China eat goods that are grown with fertilizers and pesticides. Some say that they are being poisoned little by little.

- It is capitalism. Capitalism has no morale, laughs the western consultant for Chinese food production.

Professionals can not drive?

I started this blog with a posting on traffic behavior. See 'Cars are flock animals'.

Actually it is not necessarily cars whose behavior goes beyond all comprehension. It is mostly vans, trucks and other 'professional' vehicles. Like in the picture below, taken at the speed of 100 km/h on one of the main roads leading out from Helsinki.


I discussed the matter with a colleague of mine, and he saw nothing unexpected in it:
Vans are driven by young men, boys almost; They have no understanding yet of laws of physics, or traffic psychology. The vans are not their own; It doesn't matter to them if the van gets damaged. And they must show that they are macho men.

Maybe so. Yet these boys have agreed to common game rules when getting their driving licenses. When continuously breaking the game rules, they show that they are not up to their profession, and they should lose their licenses.

But the police, whose job it is to control that rules are respected, do not care. Are they too young boys, with not enough wits for their job?

Why did he start the war?

Anyone know why president George W. Bush had the Iraqi war started?

We might think of several reasons, but none of them seem to be relevant or adequate to justify the war.

How about this one:
- Well, he tried to kill my dad, didn't he?
- So I killed him, didn't I?
- That should teach him a lesson!

But the war is still on even though Saddam Hussein is long gone. So that cannot be the reason. Not the only one anyway.

Does anyone know, why...

New democracy à la Chávez

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is giving a totally new meaning for the word 'democracy'.

It means unrestricted amount of re-elections of the same president. It means virtually unlimited control of oil income for the president. It means transferring control of state finances from the State Bank to the president. It means transferring local administration to the president. It means putting local councils to control instead of mayors; councils appointed by the president, of course.

And as Chávez is building a new bold socialistic fatherland, anything can be socialized for 'appropriate just compensation'.

Even though power and decision making is moved from elections to directly under president's control, Chávez says that he doesn't know any other country on the globe, that would be more democratic than Venezuela.

Well, Venezuela really seems to be one kind of a democracy. In the same way as Soviet Union and East Germany were, and China is: so called people's democracy (where people have no say).

It is not what you do, that counts. It is what you say: Just keep on arguing, and finally they will believe you: Venezuela is a democracy. The most democratic democracy on the globe.

Getting rid of Helsinki-Malmi airport by force

Helsinki - capital of Finland - has tried for years to have the old historic Malmi airport torn down. They want to build new small houses on the area. As if the airport were the only empty space around Helsinki area. There are large woods even within Helsinki. Not to speak around it.

Malmi is a rare pearl among small plane airports in the whole world. It is situated within the Helsinki boundaries, and it is marvelously near for all small plane enthusiast. It also provides a very exceptional experience for children: where else can they come so close to real airplanes. And for totally free!

But Helsinki stubbornly wants to build there small houses. Even though most Helsinki citizens would much rather have the old cozy little airport.

As could be expected, Helsinki has now come up with a cunning plan: they now claim that the Malmi airport must be renovated: a totally new longer runway must be built. Everybody understands that such a runway cannot be built, and should not be built (see satellite photo). And because the new runway can not be built, Malmi airport must then be taken down, so reason the Helsinki officials.

Who are they fooling! Malmi airport is fantastic just as it is now. It is excellent for small planes, flight schools, flight clubs, flight trips and rescue helicopters. And don't forget the nowadays so rare free excitement.

If Helsinki really should need another airport for commercial and regular line flights in addition to the current Helsinki-Vantaa airport, they should build a totally new airport. Not instead of Malmi, but in addition to Malmi. Malmi is needed for small planes, historical values and free entertainment.

Malmi airport is historically valuable, and extremely pleasant and cute, that nobody hates. Nobody except for the Helsinki officials.

Do you want to help keep the old little airfield alive? Read more, and sign the petition!

Russian or not - the fighter bomber?

Some time ago Georgians accused Russia for their airplane to have entered deep in the Georgian air space and dropping a missile near a village. Fortunately the missile did not go off.

Russia strongly declined all such accusations, and suggested that Georgians had done it all by themselves to falsely accuse Russia.

International inspectors have now done some inspecting:
- Georgians have no fighter bombers strong enough to carry such missiles.
- A Russian fighter bomber has been noticed to enter Georgian air space three times during the day of the incident.

What is Russia's reaction?
They accuse the international inspectors of doing politics.

It all reminds me of the Russian airplanes entering Finnish air space. Russia kept refusing such accusations, even though radar recordings were quite clear. Finally it was agreed that the pilots had erroneously gotten off their routes. Professional Russian military pilots.

Thank God they did not mistakenly happen to launch any missiles...

Subprime loans - surprise loans?

How about lending money to such people who are poor, with no income and with no jobs?
- No way! you might say, they'd never pay me back!

Oh, but there is a catch: lend them money for buying houses. You'd have the houses as collateral. If they couldn't pay you, you'd just have the houses sold, and you'd get your money back.

There would be no risk to you; the risk would be for the poor people only. They would simply loose their houses, if something went wrong.

And as the loans would be risky indeed, the interest should be high, of course: which would mean more interest income to you than with regular house loans: more money to you!

It is sound business, you simply can't loose.


You couldn't loose, while house prises kept rising, and the collaterals were OK. But as the prises turned down, the collaterals no longer cover the loans. And you are now in trouble. You yourself shall loose money, even if you have the houses sold! This is not what you planned: it was the poor people who were supposed to carry the risks!

This just isn't right. It is so wrong!

She and the Sauna Door

- Will you please turn the sauna on, I asked her. I was watching an extremely important TV program or something, and had thus no time at all for such domestic necessities myself.
- Shut the ventilators so that the heat doesn't escape, shall you? But don't shut them tight, as they will be extremely hard to open for fresh air when they are hot, if they are tight.
- OK, she said, and went.

An hour later, when the important TV program had ended and the sauna was hot enough, we both went down to the sauna. I was just a bit slower than her with my starting shower, and entered the sauna room a few moments after her.
- Oh, the ventilators are already open. Did you just open them?
- No, she said.
- Did you close them for the duration of the heating, as I asked you? To prevent the heat from escaping while heating up the sauna.
- No, she said.

She enjoys - or tolerates - sauna better than me. So I always leave the sauna before her.
- Will you rinse the benches when you are finished, please? And leave the sauna door just a bit ajar, so that the room will be aired and dried out by the heat, but not too quickly. Just one centimeter, OK?
- OK, she said.

The next morning I happened to visit the sauna. The sauna door was open. Well, not totally open, not even near, actually. But 5 centimeters anyway.

I try to explain. She says 'OK', but she doesn't do.
Why does she say 'OK'?

Russia bombed

Russia lives unpleasant times: terrorist attacks have been selected for means of demonstration and social debate.

Terrorism seems to the favorite method for many different parties; it is not only the chetchenians who use bombs, also Russian nationalists are accused, and strangely enough, also critics of the president and government have been attacked.

Reading news from current Russia reminds one of Chicago of the 1930's, or the Italian mafia.

Democracy and social stability are hard to build. Especially when totally liberal capitalism has replaced the old communism. Personal greed hardly will bring peace to the nation.

Mugabe's economic theory

Zimbabwe is ruled by a president, who is performing an interesting economical test: consumer prizes are fixed by his personal order. But they are fixed below production costs.

When a baker is forced to sell his bread for less than he pays for the flower, he would be wise to shut down his bakery. If he refuses to sell at the set prizes, Zimbabwe's President, 83 years old Robert Mugabe, will throw him into jail.

It is very nice to try to keep consumer prizes fixed, but when the baker has used all his money when buying flower, he'll finally have no more money to buy more flower, and thus no more flower to make any more bread.

Bread prizes will be fixed, but there will be no bread.

Could someone please explain to president Mugabe, that he is killing his people?

The Baltic Sea is dying

The Baltic Sea is dying. Most of the eastern parts of Gulf of Finland are already dead.

Sankt Peterburg is one of the major polluters of the sea, as they do not have adequate cleaning facilities for their waste waters. See Google map.

Russia has accepted the agreement to save the Baltic Sea. Russia is one of the riches countries in the world, with the richest natural resources. Yet they do not allocate resources to the cleaning facilities. Finns are paying for the cleaning of Sankt Peterburg waste waters.

Russians just do not care: Why should they pay, if Finns are willing?

And death keeps spreading over the Baltic Sea.

Cars are flock animals

Cars are like birds. Or fish. They move in tight flocks, maneuvering in harmonic unison. Each car following tightly the movements of the whole flock: When the flock turns, each car turns; when the flock stops, each car stops. - Right? How else could cars run just a couple of meters apart at over 100 km/h?


What the birds and fish can easily do, the cars can not do. So they collide when something unexpected happens. Causing death, injury and damage. Yet each driver has agreed to play by common rules when receiving their driver's license. But on the road the promises are forgotten, and this strange flock behavior is assumed.

And even though the drivers are clearly breaking their license conditions, the police does nothing: in Finland it is quite acceptable to threaten, kill, injure and damage, if you do it with your vehicle.