I'm an immigrant and I know people basically think that us foreigners are taking YOUR jobs and taking your YOUR apartments, and so on, etc.
As I see it, Dublin is actually pretty cheap place to live. If you want to understand how it feels for me to move to a developing country like Ireland, let's see how norwegian people feel about finnish people. My first encounter with an actual Norwegian was when I was about 19-20 years old and we met in a centerpub where it cost like 25 marks (inflation not included - 6 euros) per a 0,5 litres of beer and he paid for me and my ladyfriend the whole night. His idea was that it was cheap in Helsinki, when in Oslo it cost about 100 marks (inflation still not included - 16 euroes) to get a beer in a restaurant.
So I try to understand, when moving to south, from my point of view, I am moving to a developing country. And Ireland is probably getting Spotify in there too.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Would you like to walk on The Ernest Walton Bridge?
Siliconrepublic.com reports of a movement led by The Institute of Physics (IOP) in Ireland aiming to have Dublin's City Council to name the planned Marlborough street bridge spanning over the River Liffey as "The Ernest Walton Bridge" after the nobel-prize winner.
I think it's a great idea for a city of such a long history to brand new projects with a sense of pride in history. In Helsinki, a city where I have lived more than a half of my life, the main street is named Mannerheimintie after the president and a military leader who fought on the side of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War. Although Mannerheim's greatness is a matter of debate in Finland even after 90 years since the Civil War, Walton himself doesn't have a cloudy past which could be a burden to a new bridge, unless you want to blame him for discoveries that lead to Manhattan Project.
You can sign the petition at the surveymonkey.
I think it's a great idea for a city of such a long history to brand new projects with a sense of pride in history. In Helsinki, a city where I have lived more than a half of my life, the main street is named Mannerheimintie after the president and a military leader who fought on the side of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War. Although Mannerheim's greatness is a matter of debate in Finland even after 90 years since the Civil War, Walton himself doesn't have a cloudy past which could be a burden to a new bridge, unless you want to blame him for discoveries that lead to Manhattan Project.
You can sign the petition at the surveymonkey.
Learning to talk like politicians - lesson learned from Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan
Ireland is having a referendum about the new fiscal treaty in two days and according to some polls the Yes side is a little bit ahead. It seems that diplomacy ain't the first thing in mind when it comes to politics. Irish Examiner quoted Taoiseach Enda Kenny that he will not "be shoved around" by Sinn Féin. ""I am not going to give a platform to somebody who I don't regard as the
leader of the Opposition to [propagate] what are blatant lies and
hypocritical assertions", Irish Examiner's article ends up quoting aforementioned Kenny.
On this notion, other countries should learn about Irish diplomacy when it comes to the highest form of political debating. Forget lines like "there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding" or "we still have some issues that we need to work out to get to the approvable level of compromise". You have to be strict and call your fellow companion a liar and a bully. That's how political differences are worked out in Ireland.
But also other kind of behaviour can be found in Ireland. According to the Independent, the finance minister Michael Noonan promises easier budget, if the Yes side wins. Noonan's worries seem to be concerning Ireland falling down on credit rating. There's is also a lots of worries about Ireland's public sector, growth and sustainability of the social welfare. The carrot that Noonan is offering seems a little bit obscure to me in a sense that I don't understand how economical forecasts are made in Ireland. But that's my problem.
Perhaps after next week (or next year or next decade) we will have more of that hindsight concerning what should have been voted, which in my humble opinion is the only exact science.
On this notion, other countries should learn about Irish diplomacy when it comes to the highest form of political debating. Forget lines like "there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding" or "we still have some issues that we need to work out to get to the approvable level of compromise". You have to be strict and call your fellow companion a liar and a bully. That's how political differences are worked out in Ireland.
But also other kind of behaviour can be found in Ireland. According to the Independent, the finance minister Michael Noonan promises easier budget, if the Yes side wins. Noonan's worries seem to be concerning Ireland falling down on credit rating. There's is also a lots of worries about Ireland's public sector, growth and sustainability of the social welfare. The carrot that Noonan is offering seems a little bit obscure to me in a sense that I don't understand how economical forecasts are made in Ireland. But that's my problem.
Perhaps after next week (or next year or next decade) we will have more of that hindsight concerning what should have been voted, which in my humble opinion is the only exact science.
Monday, May 28, 2012
How to travel cheaply from Dublin to Helsinki
Travelling between Dublin and Helsinki can cost a lot of money when prices are ranging around 300 euros. There are even trips which cost close to thousand euros even if it's just a oneway trip. It goes without saying that you'll have a very nice flight with a k.
I've been using Momondo, halvatlennot.fi and ebookers.com to try to find out the cheapest flights. They all seem good sites, but Momondo has a nice graphical output. After you've inputed the date, where you want to travel from and to, Momondo shows you, not just the prices for that day, but also the prizes for every day of the month. This is done with a chart that shows the lowest prize from the first day of the month to the last day. Underneath it you can find the actual planned flights.
Sometimes it's even cheaper if you fly from Dublin to Estonia and cross the Baltic Sea with a boat. Flight between Estonia and Dublin can cost as low as 70 euros. But there's a cutback into it. Path goes via Latvia and Latvia's pitstop takes about 10 hours.
I've been using Momondo, halvatlennot.fi and ebookers.com to try to find out the cheapest flights. They all seem good sites, but Momondo has a nice graphical output. After you've inputed the date, where you want to travel from and to, Momondo shows you, not just the prices for that day, but also the prizes for every day of the month. This is done with a chart that shows the lowest prize from the first day of the month to the last day. Underneath it you can find the actual planned flights.
Sometimes it's even cheaper if you fly from Dublin to Estonia and cross the Baltic Sea with a boat. Flight between Estonia and Dublin can cost as low as 70 euros. But there's a cutback into it. Path goes via Latvia and Latvia's pitstop takes about 10 hours.
Bad news for comedians: You can still get convicted for blasphemy in Ireland
Freedom house's last year's report gives good scores to Ireland for almost all the concerned fields (legal, economical, political, press freedom) except matters concerning freedom of speech.
It seems that Ireland is at the same time highly secular and highly religious. Blasphemy is regarded as a criminal offence in Ireland, although it's unclear to me, how the grounds of blasphemy are judged. Wikipedia's article "Blasphemy law in Republic of Ireland" gives some insight. The article states that somebody got fined thousand pounds and got convicted to jail for a year for denying Divinity of Christ. This was about 300 years ago, but the law is still in effect and a few years ago Defamation act was reformed. Reformed Act, according to Wikipedia, states that uttering "material 'grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion', when the intent and result is 'outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion'."
I'm not indenting to test the limits of the law, but I would be curious to know how to get accused of blasphemy. In Finland there was (and still is in some form of) an Act which included blasphemy. Two Finnish artists got convicted and later pardoned by the President.
First case was when an author called Hannu Salama published a book called Juhannushäät (Midsummer dances) 1964. It included a scene called Pilkkasaarna (mockery of a christian sermon). It didn't help his case that he was known for his affiliation with working-class. He got a three months of parole in 1966, but got pardoned in 1968.
Second case happened in 1969 when a painter Harro Koskinen got convicted for a painting called The Pig Messiah, which featured a crucified pig.
Perhaps these two Finnish artists gives some ideas to people in Ireland how to provoke on the limits of legal boundaries.
It seems that Ireland is at the same time highly secular and highly religious. Blasphemy is regarded as a criminal offence in Ireland, although it's unclear to me, how the grounds of blasphemy are judged. Wikipedia's article "Blasphemy law in Republic of Ireland" gives some insight. The article states that somebody got fined thousand pounds and got convicted to jail for a year for denying Divinity of Christ. This was about 300 years ago, but the law is still in effect and a few years ago Defamation act was reformed. Reformed Act, according to Wikipedia, states that uttering "material 'grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion', when the intent and result is 'outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion'."
I'm not indenting to test the limits of the law, but I would be curious to know how to get accused of blasphemy. In Finland there was (and still is in some form of) an Act which included blasphemy. Two Finnish artists got convicted and later pardoned by the President.
First case was when an author called Hannu Salama published a book called Juhannushäät (Midsummer dances) 1964. It included a scene called Pilkkasaarna (mockery of a christian sermon). It didn't help his case that he was known for his affiliation with working-class. He got a three months of parole in 1966, but got pardoned in 1968.
Second case happened in 1969 when a painter Harro Koskinen got convicted for a painting called The Pig Messiah, which featured a crucified pig.
Perhaps these two Finnish artists gives some ideas to people in Ireland how to provoke on the limits of legal boundaries.
Spotify thinking of moving to Dublin
Spotify might be locating in Dublin, if we are to believe Irish Central's headline - and why won't we. Dublin might be a good place for an international company operating in digital business. Dublin already accommodates firms, which you've probably heard before, like Google, Twitter, Facebook and Zynga.
Spotify is a music streaming service which has about 20 million subscribers. Spotify's revenue model is based on subscribers paying a monthly fee to gain access to millions of music tracks on Spotify's servers. There are also free accounts, which include advertisements broadcasted between tracks.
Dublin has a significant amount of foreigners (13 % according to CIA - The world factbook) which gives companies reasonable amount of language specialists, which is sometimes required for big companies to appear local where ever they offer their products. I can talk from an experience, for I am about to start at one of these big companies, and although my work language is english, my daily duties will involve a lots of finnish.
The irony of Spotify possibly basing their operations in Dublin, is that Spotify, although available in UK, is not available in the Republic of Ireland.
Spotify is a music streaming service which has about 20 million subscribers. Spotify's revenue model is based on subscribers paying a monthly fee to gain access to millions of music tracks on Spotify's servers. There are also free accounts, which include advertisements broadcasted between tracks.
Dublin has a significant amount of foreigners (13 % according to CIA - The world factbook) which gives companies reasonable amount of language specialists, which is sometimes required for big companies to appear local where ever they offer their products. I can talk from an experience, for I am about to start at one of these big companies, and although my work language is english, my daily duties will involve a lots of finnish.
The irony of Spotify possibly basing their operations in Dublin, is that Spotify, although available in UK, is not available in the Republic of Ireland.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
I am armed and gonna kick you in the face - with my fist
I sometimes feel it disturbing to use certain english words, when there is probably a high probability of getting misunderstood. For instance there are many jokes among finnish-english-speaking community of how to translate idioms or phrases from language to another. For instance the word arm is 'käsi' in finnish and the word 'käsittää' is "being understood' and therefore 'I am being understood ('olen käsitetty')' can be translated into english in a sentence of "I'm armed".
To help me get by these common mistakes, I sometimes remind myself of Jon Lajoie. He is canadian actor/comedian/performance artist whose "Guns don't kill people" is a good reminder of how to get others get your point and get UNunderstood at the same time.
"I'm gonna kick you in the face - with my fist"
To help me get by these common mistakes, I sometimes remind myself of Jon Lajoie. He is canadian actor/comedian/performance artist whose "Guns don't kill people" is a good reminder of how to get others get your point and get UNunderstood at the same time.
"I'm gonna kick you in the face - with my fist"
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