a ler o lado menos bom...
sexta-feira, junho 03, 2005
Q. Some Finns drink a lot of vodka; Finnish men have a high suicide rate. Unemployment is higher in Finland than in the U.S. Is the rosy picture of successful Finland misleading? What's wrong with Finland?
A. This is the darker side of our history. As I said, we have a history of suffering. Think about Finland where it can get -30 degrees Celsius [22 below zero Fahrenheit] in the winter. And think of it before modern technology. It was a real challenge to get through the winters. You can easily forget that when you visit Finland at this time of year when people are happy bathing in the sun in the summer.
Suffering creates both the positive capacity of empathizing with the suffering of others, which is the basis of ethics and caring and the Finnish welfare state. But it can also turn into self-destructive melancholy. We still have this but as I said, Finland is transforming greatly through the new culture generated by things like Nokia, Linux, and HIM.
posted by .j. @ 2:47 da tarde,
