What are girls made of ?

“What are little boys made of? What are little boys made of? Frogs and snails, And puppy-dogs' tails; That's what little boys are made of. What are little girls made of? What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice, and all that's nice; That's what little girls are made of.”

Once upon a time I met a man that name was Giovanni. And he was dating a girl, well lets call her Katie. He asked Katie to out with him. They went to the movies and saw one of those so called intellectual movies. They talked and had fun. Few days after he finally dared to ask her to go out again. This time they went out for a dinner. They had fun together again.

They continued dating regularly and after two months they were just dating each others and having what we call an exclusive relationship. And then, one evening, when they were driving back home, an idea came to Katie’s mind. She turned to see Giovanni driving and said it out loud;

“Have you being thinking that exactly two months have passed from the moment we met each others?”

A silent moment landed upon them. Katie thought that that was a very loud silent: there was no need for words.

And she thought: Hmm, I wonder if he is thinking what I just said. Maybe he is thinking our relationship is limiting his life? Or maybe he is thinking that I am trying to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do or he is not ready to do….

And Giovanni thought: Damn, already two months.

And Katie thought: But hey, neither I am sure if this is the kind of relationship I would like to have. I wish to have more time for myself that I could really see what is the direction that I would like our relationship to take in the future. Are we going to continue dating just on this level and not wanting to take it to the next level? Are we going to get married? To have children? Do I want a baby boy or a girl?Am I ready for all this? Do I know him?

And Giovanni thought: Two months....that means I need to take my car into an auto mechanic and change oils. Again.

And Katie thinks: Oh no, now he is pissed off. I can see it from his face. Maybe I misunderstood his silent messages…maybe he just wants some kind of vicinity rather that a serious relationship…maybe he has already sensed that I have my doubts about this matter…ok, this is how it is; He doesn’t want to talk about his feelings. He is afraid to be abandoned from me.

And Giovanni thinks: I wonder should I ask the mechanician check the motor as well. Damn, I don’t care a shit about what that idiot thinks; He don’t know cars as I do; Last time I paid him three hundred euros and for what…for nothing! A thief. Do I need to buy a new car r perhaps a motorcycle?

And Katie thinks: Now he is angry. And I can’t blame him. I would be angry too. I feel myself so guilty for forcing him to go through all this shit. But I can’t help it, I am not sure about my feelings.

And Giovanni thinks: Maybe the bloke at the gas station could give me some kind of guarantee for his work. Or maybe not. An asshole.

And Katie thinks: Maybe I am too idealistic, I am hoping a charming knight to arrive with a white horse. I mean, I am sitting here next to a great guy who really cares about me and who is suffering for my egocentric childish thoughts.

And Giovanni thinks: A guarantee? Come on: Am I kidding myself? What was I thinking about? Well, I will give them a guarantee and push it all the way in a place in which sun does not shine!

”Giovanni?” Katie says.

”What?”Giovanni wakes up from his thoughts.

” Be kind, and stop torturing yourself in this way, Katie says with her eyes full of tears. I know, I should never have…Oh my god…I fell myself so….”

”What?” Giovanni asks.

”I know I am crazy,” Katie continues crying, ”I know that charming knights don’t exist. Believe me I know it. No knights and no horses. I have had such a hard life.

” No horses...?” Giovanni says.

”You do believe that I am crazy, don’t you?” Katie says.

”No, I don’t believe so, says Giovanni, feeling happy that he can finally answer to a question he understands.

”Things are like this at the moment…I mean…I need more time,” Katie says.

(Two minutes break, during which Giovanni thinks as fast as he can, Finally he ends up what he considers a safe kind of answer.)

”So,”he says.

Katie is very touched from his words and gives him a kiss. “ O Giovanni, do you really think so?”

”About what?” Giovanni asks.

”About that.” Katie says.

” Ah, about that, naturally. Giovanni says.

Katie raises her glance towards Giovanni’s eyes and looks right into them. Giovanni feels himself embarrassed as he is afraid what Katie might say. Especially if her words will have something to do with horses.

Finally Katie talks. ”Thanks Giovanni,”she says.

”No, Thank you, ” Giovanni says.

Then he drives Katie back home. Katie is laying on her bed with her broken soul and cries until the next morning. Giovanni instead, goes home, throws couple of pizzas into the microwave, opens a beer can and feels very happy after noticing that his favourite soccer game is still on. An innocent voice in his brain is hinting him that something with a greater meaning happened just before in his car but he thinks to be quite sure that he could not never understand it and decides not to think about it.

The following day, Katie calls to all her closest friends and they will talked about what happened the night before. They will analyze together all the painful details repeating “What did I say” “Men are dogs” “How did he look when he said that” “Men” and they will go on and on about it. For days. For weeks. For months. Until they will get annoyed and find a new topic. They will never resolve a thing that has something to do with men. They just know that they are dogs. Amen.

Couple of weeks after, Giovanni instead asks from his friend Alex (who also knows Katie), while they are playing with a one of those electronic equipments they own, has Katie never had a horse.

No horse. No knight.

And this is what all the little girls are made of.

The Nordic Model

Nordic model refers to the social models of the Nordic countries of the European Union. The general features of the system are: equality between men and woman, active employment policy, environment protection and sustainable development, education, lifelong learning, decentralised social models, universal social system, a high level of public expenses and heavily unionised workforce.

“ The Nordic model is widely regarded as a benchmark. A number of comparative studies of economic and social performance have ranked the Nordics high. A common finding of cross-country comparisons is that the Nordics succeed better than other countries in combining economic efficiency and growth with a peaceful labour market, a fair distribution of income and social cohesion. The model is pointed to as a source of inspiration for other people in their search for a better social and economic system. On the other hand, many observers around the world are amazed that “the bumble-bee can fly” – that the Nordic economies can prosper and grow in spite of the presumably weak economic incentives associated with high tax wedges, a generous social security system and an egalitarian distribution of income. Critics have been looking for inner contradictions in the model and they have questioned its sustainability. Some argue that the economic performance of the Nordic countries is simply a result of exceptional and temporary advantages, bound to disappear over time.” ( The Nordic Model, Embracing globalization and sharing risk, The research institute of the Finnish Economy ETLA, page 12 ).”

I am not a great devotee of the Nordic model and the above mentioned research based report is one of the most hilarious readings I have done for a long time. It does not even vainly touch the basics of what we need to stay well. Why to called it as a report even though it has all the humanistic lacks that an academic studies normally have. Nothing against the “report” but my point is that as it was made for ETLA for this should be considered from the part of us mortals as something “ true “, something to use in our university classes and as so much money probably was spent again for it, it would have being more interesting for it to included the humanistic side of life as well. Well I don’t question it to be usefull for business studies but as always…

The Nordic model as welfare state has been able to stay put, after my opinion, because of its Lutheran value based working moral. However the system itself is decaying its own ankle as we Nordics are not rewarded for working but for not working; A large class of people who are very happy with their unemployment benefits and have no inclination to ever find work. And hey, most of us is becoming atheistic anyway.

What we did learn from the social bubble that we blew and also made explode in the early 1990s. Nothing. Would somebody have enough courage to abandon the still applicated model that works for us poorly considering its long term impacts? We are still believing that cutting smaller expensies is enough instead of having sufficient will to touch the bigger costs and make perhaps a right move. We don’t like to commit political suicides in Finland. To go to pull out some of the basic pillars of our right believed social system and place it with an another pillar would be something far too outrageous for us to do.

Therefore, for those ones fed up with high tax rate or too solidar pay policy, I recommend to leave the country. The Nordic system could be easily ruined as globalisation becomes a more accepted part of our personal life. It would take about 200.000 highly educated brains to leave "us" to shake things, at least, for a little bit.

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Pony trekking or camping
Or just watching TV
Finland, Finland, Finland
It's the country for me

You're so near to Russia
So far from Japan
Quite a long way from Cairo
Lots of miles from Vietnam

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Eating breakfast or dinner
Or snack lunch in the hall
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all

You're so sadly neglected
And often ignored
A poor second to Belgium
When going abroad

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all

Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Your mountains so lofty
Your treetops so tall
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all

Finland has it all

Finland – Monty Python

Eat me...

Nihilist views of the meaning of life

Welcome spring, good bye night. From a nihilist point of view, morals arevalueless and only hold a place in society as hypocritical ideals created by various inflicts. The characteristic that distinguishes nihilism from other skeptic or relativist philosophies is that, rather than solely insisting that values are subjective or even warrantless, nihilism proclaims that nothing isof value, as the name implies. Which are your values and would you claim them to be useless? Do we need moral values? Where does the road without them lead? Moral does not mean just the values themselves but also the system in which they operate. What are the differences between the moral values of a doctor and a green peace fanatic? Do you manage to keep apart your political values from your moral values? Should they walk hand in hand or should we keep them separate? What is moral and what is not? If I ask why you did a certain thing, would you be able to explain the course of your action? Did you behave in a certain way because you felt obligated to do so or do you have a clear opinion of what's wrong or what's right baby? Can our moral actions be explained by using the principles of social biology or evolution theory? How should we behave? If Edward god damned Wilson can give at least some kind of answers about the battle between the sexes, aggressive behaviour, being a philanthropist, different kinds of sexual behaviours; is the defining of good action in our lives so hard a thing to do? Why are our actions often so different from our moral opinions? From my point of view, it would be great to receive some kind of guidance. E. Wilson says that a genetic explanation can be found for all kinds of social behaviours and phenomenons. Well how would you explain the non existence of our moral values and when it all started to go wrong?

“ Standing on the courthouse dome
Justice puts her blindfold on
Down below the innocent are strutting
On a catwalk of shame
This year's fashion in crime will be
Less child abuse, more blasphemy
Morality is vanity
The ugly given flattery grow vain

So here we are again in cabaret
At the cave of the Golden Calf
Laughing in the face of desperation
As we spin towards the future
At one second per second
Like records on the pin of a phonograph
The future is no problem after all
In the noise and smoke of the music hall

And if you get no joy from music hall
Remember there is always alcohol
And if you get no joy from gin
Give this world a miss
Everybody sing
Here is the abyss: jump in!”

Momus – Morality is Vanity

Ignorance of the modern world

A Romanian young nomad killed an Italian middle-aged lady few days ago and after this unfortunately cruel episode, Rome has been a war zone. All of us have some kind of racist characters and during past years I have understood, how stupid, also me, have been. How naive it may sound, I want to be a better person from this point of view. Well, when asked to list the main characters of my personality, some of you, perhaps and hopefully, could consider me even as a good hearted person. But does being good counts in this evil world?

How sad it may sounds, I have started believing that it could be quite irrelevant after all. For 28 years I have tried to do my best, but have almost always found people that have taken advantage of it. I am quite easy going person, I think. World don’t fall apart and small things don’t matter. Be honest to others and to yourself, good manners, not being bossy but diplomatic, however do. Smile and other people smile to you. Should be simple, right? But frankly, it seems not to be so.

This morning a nasty little “fellow” with his buddies waited bus with me. Spitting and talking terrible things about foreign people living in Rome. I don’t want to use their exact words. While on the bus, I read a book, but woke up later on for this; I saw this little teenager nasty fellow, after getting off from the bus, punching a Pakistani man. Just because he was not Italian and just because lately every excuse is good to give shit to foreign people in Rome. Ignorant parents, ignorant children. Italian TV shows as well its best; Romanian, English, Egyptian, Polish…shouldn’t it be illegal to give all these “national” details when not knowing if they are true or false. What I want to shout out is: stop generalizing. Your way is not always the best way. That’s your ignorance, I want to wash my hands of it. I have a tendency to be atheistic, but when believing, I hope that there will be a punishment to all unjust things made and words said.

The stage is an open platform
I speak of personal conviction
because of that I am a guest
who's in charge
it's an open forum
music is music
we're here to share what we know
can we not coexist
are there limits on being open minded
are we a threat to you
it seems to be personal
but it doesn't have to be
acceptance is a part of life
tolerance is too
we're to help not corrupt

Educate the ignorant - Few left standing

Neighbours; The good, the bad and the ugly ones.

Russian diplomat Vladimir Kozin has been finally recalled back to Russia from his duties in Finland. It has been interesting to follow how quickly it happened after all. On the other hand I would not know for how long it takes to pack a diplomat's luggages. In ignorancy of this information, I can merely guess that less than twelve hours is the prevailing world record? However, it would be even more interesting to know where Mr. Kozin has been sent to “work” after the political mess he caused. In Finland we use pretty often a saying “Siberia teaches” from the Russian Empire. And after these days we all hope that this is the case in order to avoid the an another D-day. Earlier this week Kozin declared that possible Finnish membership would be a military treat to Russia. What to say? I would love to believe that sending home Mr. Kozin would be a result of some kind of political pressure or protest from our part but after having followed the general line of my home country’s foreign politic, I don’t believe so. To see is to believe. After my opinion, our foreign politic is extremely passive and the image we give of ourselves to other countries is very insignificant. Wake up Finland.

Has Finland published any official comments of Mr. Kozin’s “personal opinions” at the international level. Well, you know the answer. Or do you; I forgot that Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva said; “Fortunately, the presidents and foreign ministers have direct channels of communication that function so well that these kinds of things do not cause trouble.” Right, as if Finnish politics would have any kind of credibility abroad. At the most, we can leave a recall request on Putin's desk and hope he will find it?

I spent last evening enjoying marvellous company. It’s always a pleasure to me to meet my former flatmate Roberto. Poor little thing. No doubt all my comprehension goes to Roberto; He has been suffering continuous torment from the part of his downstairs neighbours; Registered mail saying that he, with his flatmates, are walking around wearing clogs and partying all nights long. Giving this persecution few thoughts, we started making up ways to harass back Mr. neighbour. Not a easy cake as he is a lawyer. I personally offered to write on his new Mercedes an Italian word “rozzi” (rough/gross). One of my absolutely favourite words in Italian. One of the ideas was that every time Rob would receive one of these harassment letters, he would through a party. Luca, our absolutely favourite skipper, came up with the best idea. Often the most simple solutions are the best ones; Buy a piano. What could possibly be better than that? Legal action in the terms of Italian vendetta against legal harassment. Think about it; One can start playing musical instrument at sunlight and stop late evening. What would you think about that Mr. Lawyer? Hearing a beginner playing Fur Elise thousands times sounds bad or not? And when you think it's over, you just need to wait for the moment the player will make a mistake and start all over again.

He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me."
As the smile ran away from his face
"Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place"

- Billy Joel – Piano Man

Ariccia's "Notte Bianca"

Dear Robin; Happy birthday to you, again. Time is precious, make the most of it. And dear somebody, thank you for the never ending four hours spent in car. We made the most of it. And Slavka, you are the best "art-editor" ever!