"the happiest place on earth I spent a week in finland eating trees, swimming naked, and ordering room service in pursuit of its famous contentment. I wish I could unlearn the country's secret."
https://slate.com/life/2025/08/travel-finland-happiest-country-united-states.html
slate magazineslate.com
Because finland is a high trust, affluent, lily-white country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjhiTyF0MvY
Look to michigan's upper peninsula for a glimpse of it in the United States.
I visited Helsinki in early winter. This was over 40 years ago. This was before nokia and before Finland took off economically. Helsinki was little more than a sleepy, small city at that time. But its streets were spotless.
I felt completely safe.
As I should have.
As Finland at the time was lily-white, even though not affluent.
But the frauds at Slate will never admit the truth about why the Finns are so happy.
2 comments:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1788473
LAST PLACES by Lawrence Millman
I read this book long ago, and don't have it handy to check, but I remember the author (who, as far as I recall, did NOT have a liberal agenda) talking about Helsinki and how bleak it had become, filled with housing projects, people on welfare, and trashy "youths" hanging out in the streets. Even if it hasn't been "diversified," I'd be surprised if it were "paradise."
There was also a grim Finnish movie called THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL (1990), which I liked when I saw it long ago, which a reviewer described as a commentary on "what's left of the Finnish culture."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Match_Factory_Girl#:~:text=The%20Match%20Factory%20Girl%20(Finnish:%20Tulitikkutehtaan%20tytt%C3%B6),written%2C%20co%2Dproduced%2C%20and%20directed%20by%20Aki%20Kaurism%C3%A4ki%2C
Not disputing the other commenters, just putting this out there, maybe as a subject for further research. I just don't see something as being "paradise" because it's all-white, not anymore. Nothing is what it used to be.
-RM
If it matters, my memory was a little cloudy- I think the author was talking about Reykjavik, which is Iceland, not Finland! Sorry- I'll have to re-read that book sometime.
-RM
Post a Comment