The University of Helsinki is both a national and an international seat of learning. It attracts students from all over the
country and extends its research topics and research groups to every corner of the land. The national role is
highlighted by the University's 20 research institutes outside the Helsinki metropolitan area. The three remotest of
them n Kilpisjärvi Biological Station, Muddusjärvi Research Station and Värriö Research Station n are in Lapland,
beyond the Arctic Circle. Värriö is near Korvatunturi, the one and only home of Father Christmas. At the time of
writing, late October, there is already 30 centimetres of snow in Kilpisjärvi, 1200 kilometres north of Helsinki. At the
same time in Helsinki we have what we call the "dead-leaves season", which means that tram drivers have to take extra
care, because leaves on the tracks add to the braking distance.
The locations of the University's research stations in different parts of the country are ideal for snow research. Our
winter ecology research is extensive and internationally recognised. Helsinki University researchers have also helped
top Finnish skiers by developing better waxes. A similar contribution is a chemical compound which is sprayed on
aircraft to prevent ice formation.
On the 25th of November, the sun will rise on the University Main Building at 8.42 and set at 15.32. At the Kilpisjärvi
Biological Station it will not rise at all. It is the beginning of kaamos, the darkest time of the year. In Lapland kaamos is
not, however, total darkness. On a clear day, the southern sky blazes deep red, even though the sun never gets above
the horizon. The unbroken snow cover also adds to the light. It is quiet on the fells. The night sky offers an incredible
play of colours. Aurora borealis glows in all colours of the spectrum in the timeless space. Aurora borealis is also the
subject of researched, and is regularly photographed.
Kaamos is a time for calming down. For us Finns, Christmas comes at a timely season, in the middle of kaamos. People
in Helsinki hope they will have snow for Christmas, because for us a white Christmas is the only real Christmas. Many
Finns seek the Christmas spirit in the peace and quiet of the countryside, among them many University people. I wish
a very peaceful and relaxing season to all our Finnish and international readers. You are welcome to Finland to spend
Christmas in a landscape of snow. In Lapland, Father Christmas is getting ready to start his journey.
Seppo Lahti Head of Planning
For Finns, Christmas does not feel real unless it is white, but the Christmas spirit does not depend on snow
everywhere around the world. White Christmases are known to about 700 million people. Recently snow-covers have
begun to recede, especially in the spring season.
Finland is one of the very few countries where the entire population can enjoy some winter snows. Most other
countries with a cold climate have warmer areas where snow fails to remain, such as Vancouver Island in Canada, the
southern provinces of Sweden, the Crimea in Russia and Locarno in Switzerland. Hydrologist Esko Kuusisto
believes that, apart from Finland, Iceland and Mongolia are the only countries where the snow cover reaches every
corner of the territory. "Norway is a borderline case," Docent Kuusisto points out.
Even if Finland in the winter season can be under snow from the southernmost cape to the northernmost reaches of
Lapland, in terms of quantity or cover thickness this is by no means the snowiest country in the world. Nearly all
records concerning snowfall and snow deposit thickness have been reported in North America; Finland ranks
somewhere around the average. In February 1950, the layer deposited by one heavy snowfall on the northern
California mountains was 4.8 metres thick. The record fall within 24 hours, 193 cm, was reported on April 15, 1921 in the
US Rocky Mountains.
The first snow in the south of Finland usually falls in October. Reliable records of the first autumn snowfalls have
been kept in the Helsinki area since 1829. On average, the first snowflakes are seen to fall on the capital on October 19.
About every tenth year snowfalls begin earlier, as early as September, and likewise, at about ten-year intervals, they
are not seen until November.
We say that the snow cover is seasonal if it is so thick that it is not likely to melt away until the next spring. Helsinki
usually gets a seasonal cover just before Christmas, around December 20. In central Finland this happens in late
November and in the north as early as October.
"As regards the south of Finland, the concept of seasonal snow cover is presently becoming irrelevant, since for six
years now skiing has been nearly impossible in the southern provinces. There was very little snow and it did not stay
longer than a couple of weeks. We used to reckon that the south of Finland had four months of snow on average, but
now we can only count on three," Kuusisto reports. He believes that, in terms of snow conditions, Finland is
beginning to resemble Central European flat countries, at least in the south, but the north of Finland still has a
seasonal snow cover for seven months each year. Snow can be found on the mountains of Lapland as late as June. A
mid- summer ski competition was held this year on the Salla mountain in Kilpisjärvi as usual (although this is not really
dream country for summer skiers).
The snowiest season reported in Finland was the winter of 1898- 99, when the greatest depth of snow was two metres.
Observations were made at 20 measuring posts mostly located in the southern and central provinces, with ten posts
reporting snow cover thicknesses exceeding 1.5 m.
In the record winter of 1899, snow continued to fall in the south of Finland as late as April, and it did not begin to melt
away until the second week of May. Snow meltoff was followed by heavy rains, which filled lakes to the brim and
caused record wide-spread floods. It was owing to these major floods in fact that the Finnish Hydrographic Office was
founded in 1908. The water regulation of big lakes then began, with reservoirs built. Flood forecasts presently cover
about half of the country.
The snowiest winters of this century fell in the 1980's, in 1981 and 1984, although in 1966 there was still snow in the
south of Finland on the great spring holiday, May Day. The last few years have not been particularly snowy in the
southern parts, yet not entirely without some of Nature's surprises: this year the celebration of Mothers' Day (May 14)
in the south of Finland was crowned by a heavy snowfall.
"The largest number of people potentially enjoying white Christmases live in China, although most of them do not
celebrate Christmas in the Western style. At the end of December nearly half of China is covered by snow. This
snowy area includes large deserts, but even so it is inhabited by 300 million Chinese."
In North America around 150 million people can enjoy white Christmases. In Europe there is snow in the Christmas
season in the northern parts of the continent and on the mountains. Countries such as Poland, Hungary and the
Balkans belong to the "white-Christmas zone". The Russian Christmas is nearly all white.
Christmas is statistically the coldest in Ojmjakon, Siberia, where the average temperature on Christmas Day is -48oC. In
Finland the Christmas Day temperature averages around -5o in the south and -10...-20o in the north.
The snow cover on Earth reaches its maximum in February, about 4-5 thousand million tons or nearly a million
kilograms per each human individual. For the last 30 years the snow cover has been observed by satellites which
weekly photograph all the areas where snow can occur. The results of this satellite surveillance show that during the
last few decades the snow cover was greatest in February 1978 and scarcest in the winter of 1992.
Another fact clearly revealed by the global satellite report on snow conditions is that the snow cover in spring has
considerably decreased from what it was twenty years ago. April snows are receding both on the North-American and
on the Eurasian continent. However, no major changes are reported in the mid-winter snow cover, which has receded
only by a few percent.
"Meteorologists do not regard the reduction in mid-winter snow covers as serious, but the downward trend in the
figures for March-April is significant. Such a reduction of late-winter snows indicates major changes in the global
climate," Esko Kuusisto believes. Nevertheless, researchers are not quite ready as yet to swear to the greenhouse
effect. "Scientists want an indisputable confirmation before they make their final conclusions," Kuusisto says in
defending his colleagues.
Nina Korhonen
An avalanche means that masses of layered snow suddenly slide down a slope towards a valley. The minimum
distance of movement for a slide to be called an avalanche is 50 metres. Avalanches can occur anywhere on
sufficiently high, snow-covered slopes. The angle of inclination can range from 30-60o, the hazard being greatest on
slopes of around 30-45o. "You cannot release an avalanche in flat country, however hard you may try," says research
assistant Petri Shemeikka from the Department of Geography, University of Helsinki.
It is estimated that avalanches are possible on about 6% of the total land surface of the globe. Most commonly they
occur in the Alps, the Rocky Mountains, the Himalayas, the Andies, and the Caucasus Mountains, as well as in Japan,
in New Zealand and in Iceland. In Finland avalanches are clearly rarer than in the other Nordic countries and in
international comparison small.
Snow masses can be set in motion for different reasons. The most important factors are the quantity, structure and
weight of the masses, wind, temperature and the angle of inclination. The prime mover is the weight of the mass, but
an earthquake or tremor caused by traffic can also trigger an avalanche. If the release threshold in a hazardous area is
already nearly reached, one slalom skier may be enough to set snow masses in motion.
Grassy slopes are more hazardous for avalanches than those covered with rough boulders; the snow layer must be so
thick that it covers the unevenness of the ground and forms an even surface on which snow can slide. Avalanches are
often preceded by heavy snowfalls and sudden rises in temperatures. A rising temperature breaks a previously formed
weak layer of snow, and the increase in weight caused by a new snowfall forces the overlying layer to move.
"It is very difficult to predict snow avalanches, because so many variables are in effect. There have been attempts to
create a reliable computer model, yet so far without success," Petri Shemeikka reports.
Sliding snow masses can move at high velocities, 10-70 m or sometimes even over 100 m per second, depending on the
quality of snow, the type of avalanche and the slope. The quantities of snow vary from just a few cubic metres to
millions of cu m. An avalanche can be dozens of metres in thickness, especially if the snow masses are tightly packed
into a ravine.
An avalanche also causes considerable pressure: the pressure of snow is sometimes estimated as high as 139 tons/m2,
and the force of the blast can be 2,000 kg/m2. "Such strong air pressure can throw buses and trucks off the road and
crack solidly built houses even before the snow masses themselves have reached the place."
Once snow masses are in motion, it is practically impossible to stop them, but something can be done to minimize the
damage. Centuries of experience have taught the inhabitants of mountainous areas how to live with the avalanche
hazard. One common method of preventing a destructive avalanche is to trigger it artificially with explosives before the
masses are too heavy. By means of earthworks an avalanche can also be forced to by-pass traffic routes and housing,
and houses can be protected with walls built around them.
Estimates of avalanche incidence vary a great deal. Some people claim that they are increasing and some that they are
decreasing in frequency. Petri Shemeikka is cautious: "It is safest to say that avalanches occur with about the same
frequency as before, despite all the alleged greenhouse or erosion effects. Instead, the damage arising from
avalanches is sure to rise, because people are burdening mountainous areas more heavily than before. In many cases
man is really the guilty party, even if he does not realize this himself."
"The danger is greatest for tourists who roam mountainous areas completely ignorant of avalanches. This risk group
also includes those who know about the danger but underestimate the force and velocity of the phenomenon."
Petri Shemeikka's personal views are firm: "I do not think of an avalanche as a destructive force but as an inherent part
of nature. Destructive catastrophes follow when people move around and settle in areas where avalanches have
always occurred, without adapting themselves to the local natural circumstances."
In Kilpisjärvi there are about ten places where avalanches would be possible. The terrain is suitable also in the Teno
and Kevo gullies in Utsjoki, and on Pallastunturi, Saariselkä and Pyhätunturi in Pelkosenniemi. The areas where
tourists could be in danger are well known; they are marked on maps, and warning signposts are also used.
One of the largest avalanches in Finland took place in January 1990 in Kilpisjärvi, Enontekiö, about 275 km north of the
Arctic Circle. The climate and vegetation in the area are subarctic. The annual rainfall averages 373 mm and the
temperature -2.4oC. The coldest month is February (-13.9oC), the warmest is July (+10.4oC), and temperatures below
-35oC are quite common in winter.
The avalanche started on the south-eastern slope of Pikku-Malla, 720 metres above sea level. The rocky slope is steep
(about 43o), sparsely covered by low scrub. Alpine birch do not grow higher in elevation than 600 metres above sea
level.
For some days just before the avalanche the temperature rose rapidly, the 24-hour average reaching above zero
(+0.3oC). Snow, rain and sleet continued falling every day, and a strong westerly wind simultaneously caused drifting
of snow. At the Kilpisjärvi meteorological station the snow thickness measured was 50 cm, but in many places drifts
were much deeper.
On New Year's Eve, 1989, the temperature began to drop, but snow was still heavily drifting; a westerly wind of over 15
metres/second was gathering cold snow on top of old, wet and relatively warm layers. Then during the night the wet
snow deposits on the slope began to slide and avalanched into the alpine birch wood growing further below.
The 500-metre avalanche cut a clear, wedge-form opening in the wood, about 350 wide on the tree line. Nearly all trees
with trunks over 5 cm in diameter were downed or badly damaged. The avalanche did not, however, damage houses,
roads or people. It was a surface avalanche, which is why the undergrowth was also saved.
Smaller avalanches are reported in the Malla Natural Park almost every year. However, the New Year snowslide of
1989-90 was exceptionally forceful. The old trees and stumps found at the end of the avalanche trail showed that major
snowslides had occurred in this area before; they just have not been recorded.
Nina Korhonen
Eines von den in diesem Jahr veröffentlichten Engel-Büchern ist das von Olli Seppälä verfaßte Sachbuch
"Näkymättömän hipaisu" ("Berührung des Unsichtbaren"). Seppäläs Auffassung zufolge beruht der Engel-Boom
darauf, daß sich im Zuge des sogenannten "New Age" bestimmte geistige Werte immer weiter ausbreiten. Der
Oberbegriff "New Age" umfaßt verschiedene mit der Geistigkeit und Gesundheit verbundene alternative Strömungen.
Auch in der Reaktion auf den Materialismus und den Dämonen-Boom sieht Olli Seppälä eine Erklärung für den
Engel-Enthusiasmus.
Der Glaube an Engel hat so alte und starke Traditionen, daß es in fast jedem Wissenschaftsbereich darüber etwas zu
erforschen gibt. So kann man das Engel-Phänomen zunächst einmal theologisch angehen und die heiligen Schriften
der Bibel und des Koran, die apokryphen Schriften und die jüdische Apokalyptik sowie die Theorien der Kirchenväter
untersuchen. Die Engel-Forschung gehört natürlich auch zur Philosophie: Bis zum Mittelalter waren die Engel ein
wichtiger Stoff für philosophische und theologische Erwägungen. Außergewöhnlich reizend ist der ästhetische
Aspekt. In den Engelbildern gibt es für die Kunsthistoriker viel zu untersuchen. Dantes "Divina Commedia" ist
wiederum ein gutes Beispiel dafür, daß auch in der Weltliteratur Engel vertreten sind.
Die Philosophie akzeptiert den Irrationalismus - und die Engel?
Reijo Työrinoja sieht die Ursache für die wachsende Engel- Begeisterung in der postmodernen Zeit und dem
philosophischen Umbruch:
"In der postmodernen Zeit empfindet der Mensch die allgemeinen Kriterien der Rationalität als weniger streng. Die
zentralen philosophischen Richtungen nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg - der Marxismus und die angloamerikanische
Schule der analytischen Philosophie, der logische Positivismus - pflegten die alte Tradition der Einheit der
Wissenschaft und propagierten ein ausgesprochen wissenschaftliches Weltbild. Heute ist das Feld der
Wissenschaftsphilosophie in viele Teile zersplittert, und die Philosophie kann nicht mehr in gleicher Weise als Hüter
der Rationalität dienen. Es hat Bestrebungen gegeben, die Philosophie von der Wissenschaft loszulösen und sie der
Literatur und Fiktion anzunähern. Die Einstellung der Menschen zu den Wissenschaften allgemein hat sich gleichfalls
gewandelt; der Idealismus und die positive Wertaufladung sind geschwunden.
"Heutzutage ist es eine intellektuell akzeptable Haltung, daß die Menschen keine einheitliche Gesamtauffassung
davon haben, wie man die Dinge zu sehen hat, sondern die Welt kann aus zahllosen verschiedenen Perspektiven
gesehen werden."
Työrinoja sieht im Geist der heutigen Zeit und dem des späten Mittelalters gewisse Übereinstimmungen. Der
Engel-Boom kann laut Työrinoja gut ein Zeichen für einen Umbruch sein.
"Die Krise der westlichen Kultur und der Zeitgeist erinnern einen an das Spätmittelalter. Mit dem 14. Jahrhundert
kamen viele neue Ideen auf; das traditionelle Verständnis von der Gesellschaft und den Werten wurde über Bord
geworfen. Das Spätmittelalter war auch eine gute Zeit für Engel."
In dem Dogma und den Diskussionen der christlichen Kirchen spielen Engel zur Zeit indes noch keine besonders
herausragende Rolle. Wenn man bedeutende Engel-Theoretiker suchen will, muß man bis zu den Scholastikern des
Mittelalters zurückgehen.
Im protestantischen Kulturkreis ist die "Existenz" der Engel zwar offiziell bestätigt worden, aber die Engel bilden
dennoch in der religiösen Erfahrungs- und Lebenswelt einen eher peripheren Bereich. Vielleicht wächst aber auch in
der lutherischen Welt allmählich die Anerkennung der Engel. An der Universität Jyväskylä ist eine Examensarbeit über
Begegnungen mit Engeln angefertigt worden, und an Material bestand kein Mangel.
"Traditionell hat man die Engel in der Welt der Kinder und der sakralen Kunst untergebracht. Die Reformation und die
aus ihr hervorgegangenen protestantischen Kirchen haben sowohl die Angelologie als auch die Mariologie
ausgemerzt. Luther stand der starken angelologischen Tradition kritisch gegenüber. Man hat bezeichnenderweise
gesagt, daß Luther die guten Engel vertrieben, den Satan aber beibehalten habe."
"In der orthodoxen und der katholischen Kirche sind die Engel stärker gegenwärtig. Im Osten wird der Glaube an die
Engel zum Beispiel von der Ikonentradition gestützt. In der religiösen Erfahrungswelt der Katholiken und Orthodoxen
nimmt das visuelle Element eine wichtigere Stellung ein; Glauben ist Sehen. Im Protestantismus ist das verbale Element
stärker vertreten. Da die heutige Welt immer mehr auf Bilder eingestellt ist, dürfte auch in der protestantischen Kultur
die Visualität stärker zutage treten.
Man kann die Engel aufgrund der außerhalb der Bibel, des Korans und der heiligen Schriften gelassenen jüdischen
oder christlichen Texte, aufgrund der Diskussionen der Scholastiker des Mittelalters oder auch als Objekte der
religiösen Erfahrungswelt in theologisch-philosophischer Hinsicht untersuchen.
Die übrigen Völker, die in Palästina gelebt haben, und die Kulturen der Umgebung haben ihre Einflüsse in der
jüdischen und christlichen Angelologie hinterlassen. Besonders stark war der Einfluß auf die Engel-Auffassungen
während des Exils der Juden in Babylonien, im 6. Jahrhundert vor Christi Geburt.
"Die Engel an sich bilden keine ausschließlich christliche, jüdische oder islamische Gruppe. Engel hat es auch in der
Religion der Sumerer und im persischen Zarathustra-Glauben gegeben."
Der Einfluß der umgebenden Kulturen wird u. a. darin ersichtlich, daß die assyrische Zahlenmystik immer noch den
Hintergrund abgibt für die Einteilung der Engelhierarchie. Die Standardeinteilung der Engel ist zu einer festgefügten
Engelhierarchie geworden, zu der neun Engelchöre gehören. Die Chöre sind in jeweils drei Triaden unterteilt: in der
ersten Triade befinden sich die Seraphim, die Cherubim und die Throne, in der zweiten die Herrschaften, Mächte und
Kräfte, in der dritten die Fürstentümer, die Erzengel und die Engel.
"Außerdem geht das Wort 'Cherub' auf das assyrische 'karub' zurück. Die Karuben waren in Assyrien geflügelte
Ungeheuerstatuen, die die Tempel bewachten. Im Alten Testament wiederum bewachten die Cherubim nach dem
Sündenfall das Paradies. Die Cherubim des Alten Testaments sind bisweilen in ähnlicher Weise dargestellt worden wie
die assyrischen Karuben."
Im Buch Hesekiel gibt es detaillierte Beschreibungen von Engeln. So werden die Cherubim am Anfang des Buches
beschrieben: "Sie hatten Menschengestalt, aber jedes hatte vier Gesichter und jedes von ihnen vier Flügel. Ihre Beine
waren gerade, aber ihre Fußsohlen abgerundet wie die Fußsohle eines Kalbes, und sie funkelten so hell wie geglättetes
Kupfer..."
Der Bibel zufolge dienen die Engel als Sendboten, als Ausführer der Aufträge Gottes und Erklärer des göttlichen
Wortes, als Beschützer, Trostspender, Kämpfer, Lobpreiser sowie als Herolde der Endzeit.
"Die ursprüngliche Aufgabe der Engel war es, im Himmel für 'Programm' zu sorgen. Im Neuen Testament werden die
Engel häufig erwähnt. Im kosmischen Drama der Apokalypse spielen die Engel eine zentrale Rolle. Neben ihrer
Funktion als kosmische Musikanten und Sänger übernehmen sie auch praktische Aufgaben: Sie eilen zur Stelle, wenn
auf der Welt jemand ins Straucheln gerät."
In der Bibel findet man letzten Endes nur recht wenig Angaben über Engel und ihre Aufgaben. Die apokryphen
Schriften, die außerhalb des Kanons des Alten und Neuen Testaments gebliebenen jüdischen und urchristlichen
Schriften, vermitteln ein besseres Bild von den guten und bösen Engeln. Im Henochbuch, das im ersten Jahrhundert
nach Christus entstanden ist, gibt es relativ viele Angaben über Engel.
"Die Angelologie schöpft viel von außerhalb des Alten und Neuen Testamentes. Man findet sie reichlich in jüdischen
Texten, zum Beispiel in der mystischen Kabbala aus dem Mittelalter. In ihr gibt es eine gewaltige Zahl an Engeln mit
vielen verschiedenen Aufgaben. In diesen spiegeln sich Relikte alter polytheistischer Traditionen wider: Da es nur
noch einen Gott gab, wurden die verschiedenen Handlungen den Engeln übertragen."
Im Alten Testament werden der Seraph bzw. Erzengel Michael und der Erzengel Gabriel erwähnt. Im apokryphen
Tobiasbuch wird der Cherub Rafael genannt. In der Bibel werden die Flügel der Seraphim und Cherubim genannt, aber
ansonsten treten die Engel flügellos auf.
Die Juden eigneten sich während der Exilzeit auf Gegensätzen beruhende Weltdeutungen und damit auch die
Vorstellung von gefallenen Engeln an. Die christliche Deutung von gefallenen Engeln ist vor allem vom jüdischen
Henochbuch beeinflußt worden. Der Bibel und der christlichen Überlieferung zufolge waren Stolz, ein freier Wille,
Ungehorsam, Gier und ein Krieg im Himmel die Ursache für den Engelfall. Einer Erklärung zufolge war Satan
ursprünglich ein Teil Gottes, der Schatten der Gottheit. Der Name "Luzifer" stammt aus dem Buch Jesaja und ist die
lateinische Übersetzung für "Morgenstern". In der Bibel finden sich auch andere Namen für den Teufel wie zum
Beispiel Beliar oder Beelzebub.
"Die Schar der Engel hat man sich aufgrund der alten Zahlenmystik vorgestellt. Dem außerhalb des Alten Testaments
verbliebenen jüdischen Schrifttum zufolge beträgt die Zahl der bösen Engel nur ein Drittel von der Zahl aller Engel",
erläutert Työrinoja.
Reijo Työrinoja interessiert sich besonders für die sog. philosophischen Engel, zu denen man über die Scholastiker
des Mittelalters Zugang findet. Die eng mit dem Dogma der Kirche verbundene Scholastik war die Wissenschaft und
Theologie des Mittelalters. Im Mittelalter war das theologische und intellektuelle Interesse an den Engeln groß. Eine
zentrale Stellung nahmen die Engel im Denken des Dominikaners Thomas von Aquin (1224-1274) ein, welches
weitgehend auf der Philosophie von Aristoteles basiert. Weitere zentrale Angelologen waren Dionysios Areopagites
(bekannt als Pseudo-Dionysios), der um die Wende des 5. und 6. Jahrhunderts wirkte, Johannes von Damaskus aus
dem 8. Jahrhundert sowie Bonaventura, ein Zeitgenosse von Thomas von Aquin.
"Im Denken von Johannes von Damaskus werden die Engel mit Licht und Feuer gleichgesetzt. Diese Lichtwesen sind
bei ihm nicht völlig immateriell. Sie sind auch in einem gewissen Sinne örtlich gebunden, d. h. wenn sich ein Engel im
Himmel befindet, kann er nicht gleichzeitig auf der Erde sein. Die Engel sind auch zeitlich gebunden, aber nicht in
derselben Weise wie die materiellen Körper", erläutert Työrinoja die Auffassungen des Johannes von Damaskus.
Thomas von Aquin betrachtet die Engel aus dem Blickwinkel der Philosophie der Natur und Physik. Die Welt der
mittelalterlichen Philosophen ist - wie die des Thomas von Aquin - eine harmonische Welt, in der jedes Teil seinen
eigenen Platz hat. Für Thomas ist ein Engel eine körperlose, freie Form, die nicht überall gegenwärtig ist, denn diese
Eigenschaft kommt allein Gott zu. Als körperlose freie Form kann sich der Engel jedoch unmittelbar von einem Ort zu
einem anderen begeben.
"Laut Thomas von Aquin kann ein Engel eine sichtbare Form annehmen, d. h. sich inkarnieren. Dabei schafft sich der
Engel den Körper, indem er die Luft verdichtet. Obwohl die Engel über unbegrenzte Fähigkeiten verfügen, sind sie
nicht imstande, eine Seele zu erschaffen. Vor diese Frage wurde Thomas gestellt, als er darüber nachdachte, mit wem
der Jakob des Alten Testamentes eigentlich gerungen hatte."
"Die Engel differenzieren sich in Thomas' Denken aufgrund ihrer Form, worunter er den Umfang ihres Verständnisses
versteht. Die Engel haben einen Intellekt, aber keine Vernunft. Das rationale Denken des Menschen ist ein Prozeß, der
Zeit verlangt; ein Engel ist dagegen in den Bereichen der Logik und Mathematik eine Art allwissender, extrem schneller
neutraler Computer. Da die Leistungsfähigkeit eines Engels gewaltig ist, erinnert er an künstliche Intelligenz. Das
rationale Denken fehlt dem Engel jedoch, und er faßt auch keine Beschlüsse. Ein Engel entwickelt sich nicht und kann
sich nicht verändern, denn er ist in einer bestimmten Weise programmiert. Er folgt dem Willen Gottes", erläutert
Työrinoja.
Im 14. Jahrhundert begannen die Franziskaner, Thomas' Engel- Auffassungen zu kritisieren. Der Wandel des Begriffs
der Möglichkeit führte zugleich allmählich hin zu der empirischen Wissenschaft der Neuzeit, und metaphysische
Erklärungsmodelle waren unnötig geworden. Die Engel spielen in der Theologie der Franziskaner keine
wissenschaftliche Rolle mehr, sondern werden mehr der Welt der religiösen Symbole zugewiesen.
"Bonaventura, ein Zeitgenosse von Thomas von Aquin, war jedoch an Engeln sehr interessiert. Er hat zu verstehen
gegeben, daß ihm - ebenso wie Franziskus - ein Engel erschienen sei.
Bonaventura hat Aristoteles nicht in gleicher Weise hochgeschätzt wie Thomas, was auch in ihren Engelvorstellungen
zu bemerken ist. Für Bonaventura waren die Engel mehr Individuen, Personen, und auch mehr Materie. Der
Zusammenhang von Form und Materie ist bei Bonaventura enger als bei Thomas."
Pia Koivisto
Some might find the bear-like figure of Jorma Hattula, 55, intimidating as he rises from behind his desk, but quite
without reason, for he is in fact a genial man with a twinkle in his eye; underneath, this grey-suited bureaucrat is a
'thoroughly nice guy'.
Dr. Jorma Hattula was appointed Director of Research at the Academy of Finland in October 1995. He took over from
Elisabeth Helander, who had held the post ever since it was founded in 1975. The Board of the Academy
decided on Hattula because "it is a good idea to change the people responsible for research and financing policy from
time to time". Hattula himself reckons there will not be any need for a grand shake-up despite the change of director.
"It is perhaps true to say that the new director will mean a new outlook, but I feel no need to embark on a complete
renovation."
The new Director of Research has the same hobby as his predecessor: both are keen sailors. Like Helander, Hattula is
not, however, likely to have very much time for this hobby, since the Director of Research at the Academy of Finland
is responsible for not only research funds totalling over FIM 366 million but also for Finland's science and research
policy.
The biggest problem facing Finnish scholarship is that Finland is a small country. This is a problem that has long been
recognised: there are few resources but a number of universities. The provincial universities are important for their
regions, but at the same time meagre resources are being wasted as a result of having to be dispersed. In Finland,
science policy is firmly married to regional policy.
Hattula is himself a provincial man, a protégé of the University of Jyväskylä in Central Finland. He has been Associate
Professor and Professor of physics at the university for over 20 years. He cannot, however, be accused of favouritism,
but he does admit that "the Finnish academic community is small, scattered and fragmented".
The problem is indeed a formidable one, and Hattula knows he cannot solve it. "Only the politicians can solve the
problem."
The Director already has a clear picture of the division of labour: the Academy should concentrate on financing basic
research and TEKES on applied research. One research programme may involve both basic and applied research, in
which case the parties concerned should agree on the financing. Duplicate projects are a waste of the meagre
resources, Hattula points out.
This is not, however, the only place where there is duplication. Hattula has in fact set himself the five-year goal (his
appointment is for a five-year term) of achieving maximum efficiency in the cooperation between the public systems
financing research, such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Academy of Finland
and TEKES.
Another issue he plans to attend to is the role of the scientific committees, which should, he feels, have greater
autonomy than they do at present. The Academy has four such committees, dedicated to research in the natural
sciences and technology, culture and society, health, the environment and natural resources.
"On the other hand it's a good thing that the Academy has observed a standard practice in its various scientific
committees. But since the subjects are nevertheless different, and so are their financing requirements, it would be
sensible to give them greater autonomy. In the humanities, for example, the Academy puts up the bulk of the funds,
but in the natural sciences and technology the funds provided by the EU and companies are most important," Hattula
explains.
Hattula has not changed his mind over giving the committees greater independence even though senior officials have
warned him that "if you give them more leeway now, it will be difficult to retract later".
New legislation on the Academy of Finland was issued at the beginning of this year. Hattula does not believe there
will be much need for modifying the Academy organisation in the near future.
"It's still too early to say how the new Act will work in practice. I regard the Academy as a self-critical organisation
capable of changing as the need arises. I do, among other things, intend to launch an attack on the jungle of norms
and weed out any that overlap, though I hope I won't find any that are at odds with one another."
Before taking up the post of Director of Research, Jorma Hattula spent two years as assistant head of department
responsible for science policy at the Ministry of Education. The transfer from the university to the Ministry two years
ago was, in his own words, a "cultural shock", because the researcher at a university can spend the whole day in the
library poring over some problem, while at the Ministry he might be expected to issue a statement on something in a
matter of hours. There was thus no time for background research; he just had to rely on the facts at his fingertips.
Hattula does in fact expect to have more time at the Academy to investigate and debate problems than he did at the
Ministry.
"This is something in between," he comments.
Another thing of which the Finns have reason to be proud is their access to the EU programmes and funds.
"We have been extremely lucky as regards EU funds and have received twice as much as Sweden in relation to the
GDP and the size of the population, though this is not of course a competition," Hattula says with a chuckle.
Eija Hietanen
Bui Viet Hoa strokes the golden cover of the Vietnamese translation of the Kalevala, Finnish epic. It was published in
Vietnam last year. For many Finns, the Kalevala is as Finnish as you can get. Yet, it was not the cultural differences
that caused the greatest problems for the translator.
"The tales of the Kalevala are told in one form or another in every culture. For instance, Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and
Lemminkäinen racing to woo the Maid of Northland is practically the same as the fairy-tale about the princess and the
three princes."
On the other hand, the Vietnamese find the Finns' longing for nature, silence and solitude a bit peculiar.
"Marjatta gives birth to her son in the wilderness, aided by nature. This is incomprehensible for the Vietnamese, who
are happy only when surrounded by a multitude of people."
The next summer Hoa just had to come to Finland to attend a summer course in Finnish. On the Moscow train, Hoa
came across Ortjo Stepanov, the national author of Karelia, who encouraged the idea of a Vietnamese Kalevala. Urged
on by Stepanov and the Karelian cultural foundation in Kuhmo, Hoa gradually began to believe that translating the
Kalevala into Vietnamese was a must. In 1989, Hoa came to the University of Helsinki to study and began her
enormous task.
Translating the poetry was difficult, because the Finnish and Vietnamese languages are so different. The greatest
problem was that Vietnamese is monosyllabic, so that a phrase like "tietäjä iänikuinen" is seven words in Vietnamese.
The Kalevala is in tetrameter, with eight syllables per line, but Hoa decided to use only seven syllables in her
translation. Otherwise the rhythm of the poems would have sounded jerky to the Vietnamese ear.
"There were some advantages in the verbosity of the Vietnamese translation. It allowed me to explain in that
"puolukka" is a red autumn berry, as Finnish nature is so exotic to the Vietnamese," Hoa illustrates.
As regards nature terminology, Hoa gave full rein to her creative institnct, explaining words, inventing new ones,
using words for Vietnamese plants or animals. Thus, for instance, "vadelma" and "mustikka" became Vietnamese wild
berries. Otherwise the epic is translated very closely.
For Hoa, the most touching characters in the Kalevala are Aino and Lemminkäinen's mother.
"Aino's fate is tragic, but very beautiful. In Lemminkäinen's mother I see the typical Vietnamese mother: a woman
ready to sacrifice anything for her children."
Hoa is now back in Helsinki, this time with her husband and daughter. Her husband lectures at the University, and
Hoa is compiling an anthology of Finnish literature in Vietnamese. And like mother like daughter: Le, who is two and a
half, sings songs in the Kalevala metre and loves Mauri Kunnas' Canine Kalevala.
Virpi Melleri
The Finnish national epic is now also available in the Tamil language. The translator, Sivalingam Ramalingam, Siva for
short, holds the 480-page volume in his hand. It is the Kalevala, Pinlantin teciya kavyam.
The three-year toil is over. Embarking on it, Siva did not know if he was ever going to finish it. Still more distant was
the prospect of finding a publisher and a market for it. This was still uncertain when the translation was finished.
Siva was driven to this herculean task by deep emotions. He came to Finland in 1983, when he was granted political
asylum here. He does not want to go into the sad circumstances which drove his family from their home country Sri
Lanka, where they belonged to the Tamil minority.
In fact, Siva would have liked to do everything the other way around: to show his gratitude by translating Tamil epics,
which go back thousands of years. When this came to nothing, Siva took up the Kalevala as a challenge. In his
translation, he could draw upon his own writing talent as well as his knowledge of Finnish.
Now and again he has worked as a research assistant at the University of Helsinki and was able to translate the
Kalevala as part of his work. "I found that translating was more than just a job for me, it became an obsession," Siva
says. At times he got up at four in the morning to switch on his computer.
The translation is mainly based on the Finnish original, but in difficult passages he also took a look at an English
translation.
Siva soon realised that the Kalevala is not something you just pick up and translate. He was afraid he had lost the feel
of his own language. He sent the most demanding poems to a poet friend in Sri Lanka to be checked.
Tamil is tortuous in orthography and poetic in semantic content. It has 18 consonants and 12 vowels. In Tamil the
consonants are called the body and the vowels the spirit.
The South Indian weekly Kumudam, which is published in Madras and has a circulation of 625,000, has already written
up the Tamil-language Kalevala.
Such a large number of people should include many readers for the 1000 exemplars of the Tamil Kalevala, but Siva
worries that the price will be beyond the means of ordinary people. Its list price of 200 rupees corresponds to an
average weekly wage.
On several occasions when translating, Siva came to think of the Tamil saying "Those who forsake the pond like birds
when it dries up are no friends; fiends are those who, like the water-lily, suffer with the pond."
But Siva has also found friends when he needed them. A printer in Hong Kong printed the exquisite Kalevala at a
much lower price than any other publisher closer to Finland.
The Department of Asian and African Studies of the University of Helsinki has produced a brochure on the
Tamil-language Kalevala, which has been sent to societies of Tamil culture and literature all over the world.
The Tamil Culture Society in Colombo will publicise the Kalevala extensively, and the Finland-Sri Lanka Society has
promised to distribute 100 volumes to libraries in Sri Lanka.
Including this version, the Kalevala has been translated into 45 languages. The Finnish Ministry of Education and the
Finnish Literature Society supported the translation.
Siva is unemployed now, but gives some courses in Tamil at the University. Since he is already 59, the Finnish labour
authorities are in no hurry to find him a job.
Author Siva is longing to translate again. The Unknown Soldier? No, Sinuhe, "part of the whole world's common
cultural heritage". After the Kalevala, the 768 pages of Sinuhe seem like nothing at all.
Anna Paljakka
The Kalevala articles were originally published in the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
For obvious climatic reasons, Finland has not been famous for its viticulture. The grapevine has not grown here, and
drinking habits have often favoured other things than wine, such as beer and spirits. For years, wine was an expensive
import, bought and consumed by "snobs". But, for the last few years, there has been great interest in and rapidly
growing demand for wine. Along with this new trend, real enthusiasts have started to ask whether the vine would
really grow in Finland. Would it be possible to produce Finnish wines as well?
Since Prohibition was repealed in 1932, Finnish alcohol policy has been strictly in the hands of the state monopoly
Alko. Now that many solid institutions have been shaken by the EU regulations, Alko also has been compelled to
adopt a more liberal policy.
But this is only one of the reasons for a new "viticultural climate". The general attitude to wine-drinking has changed,
and there seems to be social demand for wine. Finns travel a lot, mostly to vine-growing European countries, and bring
back new tastes and habits. So Europe is getting smaller in many ways.
The traditional European vine Vitis vinifera is a tricky thing to grow. It needs two successive warm years to produce
the grapes and a yearly growing season of at least five months. In Finland, such periods have normally been very
irregular and, from the vine-growing point of view, far too uncertain. But experiments carried out in plastic
greenhouses have been much more promising.
It was actually due to the fascination of an eager amateur of vine-growing, Mr Poju Astala from Urjala in
West Finland, that got Meeri Saario from the Horticulture section of the Department of Plant Production of
the University of Helsinki interested in the subject. Mr Astala donated to the Department his manuscript on growing
the vine in Finland, which contained the results from his personal experiments, but was not, as such, ready to be
printed.
But, with the manuscript also came a collection of plants, which gave the real impetus for the start of new, scientific
experiments. In 1985, the first Beta, Fredonia and Foch varieties, which are all of North American origin, and some
European plants representing the Vitis vinifera species, were planted.
The vine requires a certain thermal heat unit, so that a sufficient number of days with a temperature surpassing + 5o C
must be achieved. In unheated greenhouses, this was easily possible, and the amount and quality of the grapes were
quite satisfactory.
The Institute of Horticulture of the Agricultural Research Centre in Piikkiö has also experimented for years with vine-
growing in unheated plastic greenhouses, and the results are similar. A famous Beta plant has adorned one of the
office buildings since 1939.
"Growing the vine in Finland for wine production does not seem very sensible, since more southern countries produce
any amount much cheaper and, besides, more than enough", Saario says. But exactly the same could be said about
growing tomatoes in central Finland, which obviously has not prevented people from doing it for years.
The famous greenhouse effect does not seem to improve Finnish growing conditions either, since it brings along very
extreme and unpredictable changes in the climate, says Saario.
Since the market seems to be growing, there is also a great demand for new varieties of the vine, and anxious
crossbreeding is going on in various countries. Most new varieties are of the European Vitis vinifera species, but new
hybrids are being produced both in North America and Russia with the purpose of finding plants that could be
cultivated further north than before. The Russians are experimenting for instance with Vitis amurensis, which is the
best known Asian vine species.
As Meeri Saario's research has shown, the North American varieties have so far proved the most suitable for Finnish
conditions. The results of crossbreeding might be even more interesting for us, if one day somebody starts commercial
vine- growing in Finland.
Anna-Maija Gruber
The library is situated in the Makrijiannis part of the city in the same block as the Finnish and Swedish institutes. Also
the Norwegian and Danish institutes are nearby, the Norwegian one just a stone's throw away.
The new director of the Finnish Institute at Athens, Dr. phil. Kirsti Simonsuuri, finds the Nordic
cooperation in Athens exceptionally good: "The somewhat remote location of Athens has probably helped. Perhaps it
would not have worked equally well in some other European metropolis."
The four-storey building with almost 500 sq.m. was bought in 1989 and turned into a library after a renovation.
The library itself consists of three storeys with four rooms for research work and 15 secluded areas for studying. There
is a modern storeroom in the basement with a sliding shelf system.
The Swedish institute in Athens has placed about 35,000 volumes in the common library. According to the director of
the Institute, Assistant Professor Berit Wells, the library is especially valuable because of an extensive
collection of scientific magazines; all issues of some magazines have been preserved since the end of the 19th century.
The Finnish Institute at Athens has also made some considerable contributions.
But the director of the Norwegian institute in Athens, Mr Erik $stby, is unable to donate to the library the books
possessed by the Norwegians, since the Greek who donated them happened to forbid this. Nevertheless, the
Norwegian books will form a significant part of the common library's register.
A circle was enclosed when Kirsti Simonsuuri came to Athens, because she started her Greek studies almost 30 years
ago at the University of Helsinki and later submitted her thesis on Homer at Cambridge University. Now she is on a
worldwide "Odyssey" visiting places where Western myths were born.
"I met Greek students at Cambridge in the 1970s and have ever since sympathized with them", Simonsuuri says. "It is
funny how they always say that they are special cases, special people like the Finns, who say that nobody
understands us."
"The Greek have good reason for saying so, because, besides Chinese, Greek is known to be the only language with a
perspective of 2,000 to 3,000 years. Of course, the language has not remained the same, but it is the change that
interests a mythologist. The myths and the images, ideas and concepts that they contain - they are all changing with
the times."
While in Greece, Simonsuuri is especially looking for an answer to the question: What is a myth?
According to her, a myth is the most difficult object to study: "I have studied myths for a long time from various
points of view and got acquainted with literary material, but Greece offers other possibilities because the
archaeological material is there."
There is a team at the Institute of ten young Finnish researchers representing classical philology, archaeology,
philosophy, the science of literature and the science of religion. Every one gives an answer to the myth question from
the point of view of his or her own field, and finally the work done by the team will be compiled in one publication.
Leena Vatanen
The article was previously published in the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
The condition caused by the new mutation is called ovarian dysgenesis (ODG) and the main symptoms are lack of
menstruation with infertility. The first report of the new mutation was published in the scientific journal Cell in
September 1995 (Aittomäki et al.: Mutation in the follicle-stimulating hormone receptor gene causes hereditary
hypergonadotropic ovarian failure).
The study is based on Dr. Kristiina Aittomäki's previous research on the heredity of menstrual disorders in
Finland. The disease is inherited in the autosomal recessive fashion and the incidence in Finland is 1 in 8300 new-born
girls. It shows an uneven geographical distribution and is almost three times more common in the north-central part of
the country. How common this disease might be in other countries is not yet known. The possible effects of this
mutation in males are also not known.
The mutation disturbs the action of the follicle-stimulating hormone which is synthesized in the pituitary and controls
ovarian function. The mutation was identified in the gene encoding the receptor of this hormone, the
follicle-stimulating hormone receptor, commonly abbreviated FSHR. It disturbs the effects of the hormone in the
ovaries thus preventing the hormonal production and the production of oocytes and causing lack of menstruation
with infertility.
The identification of this new mutation improves our understanding of menstrual disorders and infertility. Though
ovarian dysgenesis itself cannot presently be corrected, the patients are treated with hormonal replacement therapy
for lack of ovarian function and with ovum donation for infertility, so they can have children. Once the full mechanism
of the disease is known, it may become possible to create better means for the treatment of patients.
For further details please contact:
Kristiina Aittomäki, MD or Albert de la Chapelle, professor Department of Medical Genetics, University of
Helsinki, Tel: (+358-0) 434 61
Ilpo Huhtaniemi, professor Department of Physiology of the University of Turku, Tel: (+358-21) 6337579
Juha Tapanainen, MD Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University of Oulu, Tel: (+358-81)
3152011
In October 1989 Laila Lehikoinen found herself caught up in the wild rejoicing that marked the end of the Communist
regime and replacement of the people's republic with a republic. Over the years, McDonalds and computer stores made
their appearance in the Budapest street scene, and so did the beggars. The nation fell into the clutches of a serious
economic recession and refugees streamed in from the former Yugoslavia.
"The Hungarians' standard of living is still way below the Finns', and the gap between rich and poor is more
pronounced," Laila Lehikoinen reports. "There are people who have made a fortune almost overnight, and people
living in the extremes of poverty. The housing shortage in Budapest is appalling. Although accommodation was
available for students, the majority of the students lived with their parents or grandparents until they were thirty."
Over the years more liberal academic breezes began to blow through the Hungarian universities. When Laila
Lehikoinen first went to Budapest, the teaching was still much the same as in schools, and the students were not used
to studying independently. The strict annual course system has since been relaxed, and the students are no longer
expected to progress all at the same pace. In order to qualify for a study grant, the student must, however, obtain a
certain number of credits each year, as in Finland.
This autumn the universities began charging tuition fees which, despite their mass demonstrations, the students have
not succeeded in getting repealed. Due to the reduction in government funding, the universities are being forced to
patch up their budget in some other way. Some departments have, for example, tried to obtain corporate sponsorship
in the form of computers or stationery.
On arrival in Hungary, Lehikoinen had to rethink her lectures to allow for the fact that there was no overhead projector
and the faculty had only one duplicator.
"The old boys in charge of the duplicator willingly turned out copies for a suitable tip. The other, and often easier
answer was to cross the Danube to the Finnish Embassy and get my copying done there," she reports.
Lehikoinen's study, designed for two, almost burst at the seams as ten students of Finnish gathered round her desk.
Getting a wall-to-ceiling blackboard installed was a feat in itself.
In Finland, says Laila, it is difficult to tell the professors apart from the other teachers or members of staff, but in
Hungary anyone below the rank of professor has virtually no say in the department's affairs. The teacher is, however,
always independent in that s/he is responsible primarily to his/her students. Getting on with the students is most
important of all.
"In Finland a student might say to a professor, 'Hi, give us a hand, will you?', but a Hungarian student would timidly
enquire, "Herr Professor, would you possibly have a moment to spare?'. The Hungarians studying Finnish found it
difficult to get used to the use of the familiar form of 'you' in the Finno-Ugrian Department. When speaking Finnish,
they would finally pluck up the courage to use the familiar 'you', but in Hungarian it seemed to be beyond them."
The Finno-Ugrian Department has a dozen or more teachers. Ten students majoring in Finnish are admitted each year.
This small intake will, it is hope, guarantee the students a job at the end of the day.
The groups being small and coherent, the students have a closer relationship with their teacher than in Finland. On
graduation the students of Finnish often end up working for one of the numerous Finnish-Hungarian companies
established in the past few years, at the embassy, or as interpreters and translators. Many of them also study other
languages, such as English, French and German, and they tend to find jobs using languages.
"One reason for the kindred feelings was that during the Communist era the doors leading in other directions were
closed, but ties with Finland were permissible," Laila Lehikoinen admits.
Now that the doors have been opened, the old routes are not enough. More avenues need to be explored. The
friendship societies are still active in various parts of the country, but they do not interest the young people. The
university passes on requests for speakers and invitations to come and tell schoolchildren about Finland and to
arrange quizzes. Two high-schools in Budapest still offer Finnish right up to matriculation level.
To the Finn, the relationship between Finnish and Hungarian may seem misleading if he cannot pick out any words.
The rhythm is the same as in rapidly-spoken Finnish. At lexical level the linguistic affinity is impossible for the layman
to spot. Laila Lehikoinen points out that the grammar of Finnish and Hungarian is similar in structure. There are
numerous verb forms and inflections, and as many as 25 cases. Over the millennia the languages have, however,
developed in different directions, and Hungarian is not an easy language for the Finns to learn.
"The Hungarian students do, admittedly, say that Finnish is easier to learn than English. There is a certain similarity in
the way the Finns and the Hungarians think, and this is reflected in the figures of speech, for example, even though
the cultures are quite different," is Lehikoinen's analysis.
Pauliina Susi
"The study of and research into Finnish at foreign universities is supervised and supported by a board of experts at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Council for Instruction of Finnish for Foreigners known for short as UKAN,"
reports its Secretary General Anna-Maija Raanamo.
The status and position of Finnish varies from one university to another. Some twenty universities offer Finnish both
as a main and a subsidiary subject, whereas in others it is an elective subject, Anna-Maija Raanamo reports. "People
are interested in Finland as a Nordic country, because of its Baltic connections and its geopolitical position. This year
our joining the EU has engendered growing interest."
The foreign lecturer is also an efficient cultural envoy and expert on Finland in his or her elected country. "The work
done by the lecturer to make Finland and its culture known differs from that of, say, the embassy official in that the
lecturer's target group consists of young people." In addition to teaching, many of the lecturers also translate,
interpret, train people or produce teaching material.
Anna-Maija Raanamo says that some of the students of Finnish qualify as teachers, interpreters, translators or
journalists. A command of Finnish is also of practical use to tourist guides and people employed in business.
Diplomats, doctors and social workers may also find they need some Finnish. Nowadays Finnish is also being studied
by, for example, EU officials, and youngsters intending to study in Finland.
"Some take up Finnish for personal reasons, such as to learn the language of their forefathers, husband or wife," says
Anna-Maija Raanamo. There are, for example, numerous people of Finnish descent in the United States, Canada,
Australia and Sweden. Or the study of Finnish may be motivated by almost any subject connected with Finnish
language and culture, society, history, etc."
Umiddelbart ser spørgsmålet ganske uskyldigt ud: "Hvad betyder det at lære?".
Men når Mike O'Neil, selv begynder at besvare sit spørgsmål, går alvoren op for lytteren:
Men eksemplet med den omhyggelige forelæser - hvor mange undervisere benytter denne metode? - tjener først og
fremmest til at bringe problemet på bane. Det problem Mike O'Neil gennem mere end 10 år har været beskæftiget med at
finde løsninger på, dels teoretisk gennem de bøger han har skrevet, dels praktisk gennem sine erfaringer med at
videreuddanne undervisere på højere læreanstalter i hjemlandet England og i flere andre lande.
Og problemet er: Hvordan opnår man optimal undervisning af studerende?
Men han forudser også problemer med indstillingen hos mange undervisere, hvis de blev sat overfor så drastiske krav
om ændringer af deres arbejdsfunktioner, som hans forslag ville medføre. Ikke mindst fordi der ikke ville blive særlig
meget tid til forskning. Mike O'Neil ser det som et stort problem, at mange undervisere prioriterer forskning langt højere
end undervisning.
Men hvad skulle de egentlig lave underviserne, når de studerende underviser sig selv og fjernundervisnings-
materialet er sat på skinner? Ja, de skulle - bl.a. - holde forelæsninger.
Den seneste bog, Mike O'Neil har skrevet, er: Achieving Quality Learning in Higher Education. P. Nightingale
and M. O'Neil. London Kogan Page, 1994.
Lars Lønstrup
The lively Wen thinks that her ending up in Finland was a sheer coincidence. Wen graduated from the University of Ji
Lin in 1986 with a major in international law, and she planned to continue her studies in the United States. However,
her plans fell through when the authorities adopted stricter policies and university graduates were required to work in
China for five years after graduation in addition to a one-year compulsory traineeship.
Wen had already been admitted to the University of Denver when she found out that she had to stay in China. After
her judicial traineeship, Wen specialized in Chinese foreign trade and lectured on international contract and
commercial law at an institution run by the Ministry of Foreign Trade in Beijing.
Gradually Wen became more and more interested in the Scandinavian countries. She learned about the opportunity to
study in Finland from a friend of hers whose mother is Finnish.
Wen says that practically the only things she knew about Finland were the high standard of living and that the status
of women there was good.
Wen came to Finland two years ago to study in the international LL.M. Degree Programme at the University of
Helsinki. In her thesis she compared the newly enacted law in product liability in China with the corresponding EU
directive. Wen completed her diploma after a year and a half and was ready to return home, but Fate had decided
otherwise...
The two had a lot to talk about, as it turned out that the knight in shining armour was a law student also. So they
decided to have a cup of cappuccino together, and ever since, Wen has shared quite a few cups of coffee with Mr.
Henri Spehar.
For Wen it would probably be easy to find employment either in China or Hong Kong, but at the moment it seems that
she will stay in Finland. It seemed natural to set up a law firm with Henri and to specialize in trade between China and
Finland, which has been growing steadily during recent years.
"Chinese trade offers tremendous opportunities, but it is difficult to establish connections to China without knowing
the markets and possible partners. In China trading is based on connections, so it is vital to know the right people,"
Wen explains.
Wen thinks that especially for smaller companies, she could act as a link to China and vice versa, for the Chinese are
interested in investing and trading with the Finns.
"Many smaller Finnish companies have used the consultancy services of Norwegian or Swedish companies in the Far
East, as larger companies have better opportunities to send their own employees to the area. Also, Chinese products
are imported to Finland through other countries, such as Germany," says Wen, who thinks there should more direct
connections.
Last year Finland exported machinery, equipment and means of transport to China worth FIM 1.7 milliard, which is
double compared to the figures from two years ago. In addition to telephones, electric generators, steam boilers and
paper, Wen sees countless opportunities for Finnish knowhow in the field of environmental technology.
Wen is very enthusiastic about her work, so she does not have much time to miss home. Letters and parcels travel
between Beijing and Helsinki, and she is always happy to receive Chinese delicacies and books from home.
This interview was previously published in the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Riitta Saarinen
Ein weihnachtlich geschmücktes Zuhause ohne einen Adventsstern kann man sich kaum vorstellen. Oder daß man zur
Weihnachtszeit jemanden besucht, ohne ihm Blumen mitzubringen. Diese Tradition hat sich in Finnland jedoch erst in
den zwanziger und dreißiger Jahren dieses Jahrhunderts eingebürgert.
Die Hyazinthe war einmal weiter verbreitet gewesen als der Adventsstern, und Menschen, die Abwechslung suchen,
entscheiden sich nun vielleicht lieber für andere Blumen. Nicht zu vergessen ist auch der starke Duft der Hyazinthe,
der bei einigen Menschen Kopfschmerzen oder sogar allergische Symptome verursacht. Es macht keine Freude, eine
solche Blume zu schenken, bei der man den Verdacht haben muß, daß sie beim Beschenkten anschließend im Keller
landet.
In den letzten Jahren hat das Flammende Käthchen als Weihnachtsblume an Beliebtheit gewonnen, das indes - anders
als der Adventsstern und die Hyazinthe, die ausschließlich Weihnachtsblumen sind - in Finnland auch zu anderen
Jahreszeiten gekauft wird. Die Weihnachtsbegonie, die besonders bei der älteren Generation beliebt ist, scheint stark
auf dem Rückzug zu sein, denn jüngere Leute können sich nicht für sie erwärmen und fassen sie auch kaum als
Weihnachtsblume auf.
Das Alpenveilchen, die Azalee und die Amaryllis erfreuen sich von Jahr zu Jahr anhaltender Beliebtheit. Neuerdings
scheinen sie sogar noch etwas beliebter geworden zu sein, was den Marktanteil der Hyazinthe geschmälert hat. Diese
Weihnachtsblumen hat man stets als etwas elitär empfunden, denn die anspruchsvolle Zucht dieser Pflanzen schlägt
sich in einem relativ hohen Preis nieder. Man kauft diese Blumen auch meist als Geschenk und weniger zur eigenen
Freude wie zum Beispiel die preisgünstige Hyazinthe, die besonders unter der Arbeiterschaft nach wie vor beliebt ist.
Die ländliche Bevölkerung und die etwas reicheren Leute bevorzugen den Adventsstern. Die übrigen
Weihnachtsblumen, heutzutage vor allem das Flammende Käthchen, werden in Finnland besonders in der
Hauptstadtregion und von der jüngeren Generation gern gekauft.
Die einzige Schnittblume, die in Finnland als Weihnachtsblume vermarktet wird, ist die Tulpe, die jedoch auch zu
anderen Jahreszeiten, besonders zu Ostern, beliebt ist. Das Maiglöckchen, unsere Nationalblume, hat einst ebenfalls
zum Weihnachtsfest gehört, aber seine Zucht erfordert komplizierte Handarbeit, die nicht durch Maschinen zu ersetzen
ist, und deswegen ist auch der Preis relativ hoch. Janne Autio prophezeit dem Maiglöckchen jedoch ein neues
Kommen, denn unter den Käufern von Weihnachtsblumen finden sich heutzutage viele, die nach einer Alternative zum
Altgewohnten suchen und weniger auf den Preis achten.
Der Name der Tulpe basiert auf dem Wort "dulband", das 'Turban' bedeutet und sich auf die Form und die kräftige
Farbe der Blüte bezieht. Der Name der Hyazinthe wiederum geht auf einen romatischen griechischen Mythos zurück:
Apoll tötete aus Versehen die Nymphe Hyacinthys, aus deren Blut eine schöne Blume emporwuchs, die wir noch
heute bewundern können.
Auch das Alpenveilchen stammt aus dem Mittelmeerraum. Etwas weiter im Osten, d. h. in Indien und China, ist die
Azalee beheimatet, eine wirklich anspruchsvolle Pflanze. Sie wächst dort in feuchten, kühlen Bergwäldern auf
kalkarmem Boden. Trockenheit und kalkhaltiges Leitungswasser bekommen ihr deswegen gar nicht gut.
Die verschiedenen Amaryllis-Arten, die in Finnland auch als "Ritterblumen" bezeichnet werden, stammen aus Mittel-
und Südamerika. Der einzige echte Vertreter der Amaryllis-Familie ist dagegen ursprünglich in Afrika beheimatet. Auch
das Flammende Käthchen kommt aus Afrika. Sie wurde erst in den zwanziger Jahren unseres Jahrhunderts von
Madagaskar nach Europa gebracht und ist also ein ziemlich neuer Ankömmling unter unseren Zimmerpflanzen.
Der Adventsstern gelangte von Mexiko zuerst nach Nordamerika und von dort um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts nach
Europa. Ursprüngliche Adventssternbüsche findet man freiwachsend kaum noch, aber ausgesetzte Pflanzen haben
sich zu der Urform entsprechenden hohen Büschen zurückentwickelt, die man als Zierpflanzen in südlichen Ländern
sehen kann. In Mexiko züchten die Indianer den Adventsstern auf ihren Höfen, und auch dort blüht er in der Zeit um
Weihnachten, weswegen man ihn "Flor de Nochebuena" nennt.
Nach Finnland gelangten die meisten heute gebräuchlichen Weihnachtspflanzen im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts.
Anfangs waren es Zierpflanzen, die mit verschiedenen Stilrichtungen wie dem Empirestil und dem Biedermeier
verbunden wurden, und man konnte sie nur in den Häusern der Reichen finden. Der Adventsstern dagegen ist erst
später gekommen und hat nie zu den sogenannten Stilpflanzen gehört.
Auf dem Lande war es früher nicht üblich, bei Besuchen Blumen mitzubringen, aber in den Städten bürgerte sich diese
Sitte in den zwanziger und dreißiger Jahren unseres Jahrhunderts ein. Zur selben Zeit kamen auch die Blumenkörbe als
weihnachtliche Dekoration oder Blumengruß auf. Beliebte Korbpflanzen waren u. a. Maiglöckchen, Tulpen, Flieder und
Hyazinthen.
Importblumen wären zwar billiger als die Blumen aus einheimischer Zucht, aber die Käufer sind mit ihnen nicht
zufrieden gewesen. Der Adventsstern gilt im allgemeinen als ausgesprochene Weihnachtsblume, aber bei guter Pflege
kann er ein ganzes Jahr lang gedeihen. Laut Janne Autio sind bei der Pflege eines Adventssterns gleichmäßige
Verhältnisse wichtig, d. h. ein unbedingt zugfreier Standort und eine gleichmäßige Feuchtigkeit.
Auch das Flammende Käthchen, das Alpenveilchen und die Weihnachtsbegonie stammen heutzutage vorwiegend aus
einheimischer Zucht. Die Azalee wird im allgemeinen in halb ausgewachsenem Zustand aus Belgien eingeführt, und
die Tulpen und Hyazinthen kommen aus Holland. Die spezielle Behandlung, durch die man die Tulpen gerade zu
Weihnachten zum Blühen bringt, wirkt sich auf den Preis aus. Die Zwiebeln der Amaryllis werden bis aus Swasiland
und Kenia eingeführt. Bei guter Pflege kann man an einer Amaryllis 10 bis 15 Jahre lang Freude haben. Das Wichtigste
bei der Pflege ist es, den Rhythmus einzuhalten, an den die Pflanze sich einmal gewöhnt hat.
Die Azalee ist, wie bereits erwähnt, eine recht anspruchsvolle Pflanze, und in zentralgeheizten Räumen ist ihr Gedeihen
eine Glücksache. Das Alpenveilchen wiederum braucht viel Licht, denn sonst blüht die Pflanze nicht und zeigt sich
nicht von ihrer schönsten Seite. Mit Geduld und sanfter Pflege erfreuen die Weihnachtsblumen das Auge und die
Seele ihres Besitzers noch lange - und lassen rund um das Jahr auch etwas Weihnachtsstimmung aufkommen.
Sanna Jäppinen
In the USA, I have been observing the academic world from a similar perspective for almost a decade.
After my arrival in New York, I spent two or three years as a visiting researcher in the Faculty of Film Research Studies
at New York University, went to lectures at the Freedom Forum Media Center of Columbia University, and studied
photography at the New School for Social Research.
The milieu of the University of Helsinki does not differ significantly from NYU, Columbia, or the New School, since
they too are situated in urban surroundings. But the scales and life styles are totally different.
From the American point of view, it is one thing to live in a pretty sleepy Northern city, where most people represent
one ethnic culture, religion, and language. And it is a totally other thing to live in the most hectic and aggressive
urban center of the States, where most people are immigrants representing 180 different cultures, religions, and
languages.
The academic milieus in Finland and America, or, to be more exact, in Helsinki and the East Coast, are very, very
different.
Both the American and Finnish academic systems are going through a crisis, the most important reasons for which lie
in budget cuts, the inflation of degrees, and the dramatic tightening of the fight for jobs. But while the Finnish system
is dominated by a certain egalitarianism (which is gradually being broken down by the deep depression of the
beginning of the 90s), the privately financed American elite universities are business enterprises.
In the USA, higher education belongs in the first place to the economically privileged. If you walk around the NYU
campus in the Village, the students seem to represent ordinary American youngsters, said the principal of the Film
Faculty, Mr William Simon, when I interviewed him about the matter. But despite the slumming, the majority
come from upper middle classes. The others cannot afford the 20,000-dollar annual fees.
When I tell my American friends about the cost level of academic studies in Finland, they smile politely. They assume
that I am joking.
***
In addition to the surroundings and the cost level, the academic cultures are also differently organized. Finnish society
was, until the 90s, paternalistic and patronizing, whereas American society is decentralized, aggressive, and based on
aggressive entrepreneurship. The academic milieu is a social microcosm and reflects its deeper structures.
If you can afford to study at the elite university of New York, you'll also have to know how to pick the right courses. It
is not easy. Finnish courses are presented with a grey dryness that reminds an American of heavy industry brochures
from yesterday's Soviet Union, while in the States the courses are marketed and sold in a normal businesslike way.
The difference leads to Janus-faced results. Inspiring teachers may draw full rooms, but that does not necessarily
mean high-quality teaching. And because the star professors of American elite universities have high negotiating
power (somewhat like Hollywood stars), many of them avoid teaching, which is too often imposed on inexperienced
assistants.
The Hollywood system, where academic value is measured by the amount of publications (whether they are
substantial or not, representing normal science or innovation etc.) and by a publicity coefficient (social capital,
consulting, media performances as an expert etc.), is on its way to Finland.
***
American students are, from a demographic point of view, mainly selected on the basis of economic capital, while the
teaching staff are mainly selected on the basis of educational capital.
The merit list of American university teachers is often unbeaten. On the other hand, it is often also limited. It is
encouraged by the diverging division of tasks, which results in every faculty cultivating its own garden.
In a small country like Finland, the system is different, for two reasons. Since the scale is so much smaller, the whole
picture is easier to figure out. And since the structures and the division of tasks are not equally diverging and
organized, there is more room to move about.
In extreme cases, both systems favor distorted phenomena of learning: Finnish general wizards, who know a little
about everything but not much about their own subject, and American experts, who know a lot about their own
subject, but almost nothing beyond it.
***
From the American point of view, the academic culture of Helsinki represents idyllic nostalgia, where learning is still
appreciated for its own sake. Some years ago an acquaintance of mine, Hal Himmelstein, Professor of
Information Science at Brooklyn College, paid his first visit to Finland. He found it most exotic that people listened to
him. In New York, no special attention is paid to professors' opinions, he said. In the States, and especially in New
York, a cultural shock is awaiting any one who is unprepared.
***
Dan Steinbock works in New York as a freelance researcher. His first book on the American book market,
titled Triumph and Erosion in the American Media and Entertainment Industries, was published last April.
His fundamental premise is that "the only true record for the connoisseur... is the work of art itself." One must look and
look again at the original, not read about it in a library. Constantly, as a sort of leitmotif, Morelli encourages the
student to go to the galleries, not the libraries. He points out, as Bernard Berenson and Sir Ernst H.
Gombrich were to do later, that the emphasis in art historical studies is on the cultural background, the history,
the artist rather than on the works of art themselves. One must learn to look with an artist's eye, to discriminate merit.
In other words, as we are reminded by Erwin Panofsky, Herbert Reed and Meyer Schapiro, one
must first become a connoisseur, then an art historian.
A high degree of general culture is an absolute requisite for the full enjoyment of art. If learned tomes on art are
useless, so are documents, since the only true record is the work itself. Morelli gives several examples of very wrong
conclusions being drawn from documentary sources. One of the most important points raised by Morelli is his
insistence that the student "go to the works of art themselves, and what is more, to the country itself, tread the same
soil and breathe the same air, where there were produced and developed. For does not Goethe say, "He who wants to
understand the poet must walk in the land of the poet."
I recall an evening in 1991 while dining on the terrace of Villa Lante in Rome. After watching the setting sun, I could
not help but think that similar panoplies had been observed and transcribed by Pollaiuolo (1432?-98) and Gozzoli
(1420-97) into those bewitching landscape backgrounds that grace so many of their paintings.
In 1937 Berenson wrote his cousin Ruth offering some advice on becoming an art historian. "I myself regret having
wasted my talents in sowing and tending a field which has reaped nothing but weeds and thorns and brambles."
Moreover, Berenson was especially bothered by the failure of art historians to assist the public in getting closer to
works of art. "They rarely start with an appreciation of the object in question, about its value as a work of art, what it
should do to the onlooker, what it should mean to him; whether sufficiently life-enchanting to be worthwhile or merely
a microscopic fact delighting the researcher and the researcher only. Here too the cultivated public who should ask
for the bread of aesthetic enjoyment is given the sand of research, wrangles about attribution, displays of scholastic
erudition and dialectics."
Sir Ernst H. Gombrich has also presented us with some penetrating thoughts on how works of art should be studied.
First, he condemns the excessive concern that art historians tend to place on historical developments, which
frequently engulf both the artist and the work of art in evolutionary "trends." Second, he reminds us that it is only by
analysing works of art in their "natural context" (i.e., their environment) that they may be freed sufficiently from
arbitrary classifications. This is how, according to Gombrich, the intrinsic qualities of a painting or piece of sculpture
should be approached.
Like his or her professors, the aspiring art historian will soon learn to write weighty treatises on subjects of minor
interest - except to those known as "specialists" - and of absolutely no interest at all to a wider, cultivated audience.
By the time he or she is finished, the student will have been transformed from someone with perhaps an incipient
genuine interest in art into a voracious academic vulture adept at nothing more than hovering over desiccated
footnotes.
An example of this type of student/researcher being churned out by career-oriented academic institutions (in this case
from the University of Oxford) was presented to me while I was working on an article about Nordic post-war painting.
The Oxford Art Journal had received a copy of a paper entitled "Post-Modern Concepts in Nordic Art," which was
passed on to me for a critical assessment in Helsinki. For discretion's sake I will not mention the researcher's name, but
a quotation from the preface to the paper is in order: "I would like to preface this essay with the admission that I have
never been to any of the Nordic Countries, nor have I seen any of the works discussed. I have seen photographs
only." The person in question is indubitably well on his or her way to becoming a distinguished professor of art
history.
Michael Casey, a researcher in the Department of Art History, University of Helsinki, is currently
completing a book entitled: The Post-Avant-Garde. Change, Influence and Patterns of Practice in Finnish
Painting of the 1980s.
The term 'suitcase child' describes a person who has lived in a foreign country as a child. The English term 'third
culture kids' is adequate in describing the fact that these people are combinations of many kinds of cultures and
influences. A child's first culture is the one that is learnt from his or her parents, and the second culture is the one the
child encounters in the new country. The third culture unites all suitcase children - it means balancing in two or more
cultures and negotiating one's own identity somewhere between them.
Suitcase Children of Finland is not only intented for children and young people, but for anyone who has spent his or
her childhood abroad; members range in age from four to seventy. The parents of a suitcase child have moved abroad
to work for international organisations, as missionaries or diplomats, or, increasingly, for projects in the private sector.
Foreign children and young people who are presently living in Finland are also welcome to join. For example refugee
children and "war children" who were sent from Finland to Sweden during World War ll and who are now middle-aged
are also potential members, says Ilona.
On the other hand, teachers may find it difficult to relate to children who return to Finland. The child is Finnish by
nationality, looks like a Finn and often even speaks Finnish at least fairly well. So what is the problem? Schools should
be aware that a suitcase child's, as well as a foreign child's, identity is split between different cultures, in both
language and thought. If this fact is not acknowledged and used to benefit the child, the child might face serious
problems in developing his or her personality. Ilona wants to encourage suitcase children to return as adults to their
childhood landscapesbecause it helps them unify different aspects of their identities.
The first organisation for suitcase children was founded in the U.S. in 1986 and similar organisations exist, or are at
presently being established, in Finland, britain, Norway, Denmark and Holland. Generally, the organisations in
different countries work closely together. In Finland the organisation has 80 members and a mailing list of 600. Thus
far, information about the organisation has spread through personal networks but recently the organisation has also
received some media publicity. Thus it can look forward to a larger number of members who can share and benefit from
their different yet shared cultural identity better than ever before.
For further information, please contact: Suomen matkalaukkulapset ry. Döbelninkatu 3 A 20 00260
Helsinki Finland
Sanna Jäppinen
The idea of multidisciplinary studies has become highly popular among students in different faculties. The Arts
Faculty Board has subsequently given official endorsement to the following programs: Russian and East European
Studies (1989), Nordic Studies (1990), British and Irish Studies 1995) and German Studies (1995).
While the cooperation between the different departments is essential for providing the interested students with the
wide variety of theoretical backgrounds and information of the different fields, it is important also to bring experts from
other Finnish universities and research establishments as well as from abroad to complement the instruction. The
Renvall In- stitute has annually some 200 visitors from abroad to teach in these programs. Many of the courses
involve new intensive learning processes, with frequent essays to write and different kinds of work to present.
Graduate schools provide research opportunities for students of the North American Studies and the Russian and
East European Studies. Fulbright grants have taken several scholars to the USA to work for their doctorates at
American universities. Numerous researchers of the programs at the Renvall Institute work in the projects financed by
the Academy of Finland. The multidisciplinary programs form an important factor in providing expertise needed e.g. for
the media, business, administration or academic world.
The Bicentennial Chair of American Studies, founded by the agreement between the United States government and
the Univer- sity of Helsinki, will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. The Chair is located at the Renvall Institute,
and its holder for the academic year 1995-96 is John R. Wunder, Professor of History and Director of the
Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He has previously held academic appointments
e.g. at Columbia and Case Western Reserve University. His publications include several books on the history of the
West and the American Indians, such as "Retained by the People": A History of American Indians and the Bill of
Rights (1994), Historians of the American Frontier: A Bio- Bibliographical Sourcebook (1988) and At Home on the
Range: Essays on the History of Western Social and Domestic Life (1985).
Dr. Eino Lyytinen, Director of the Renvall Institute Kaamos
Finland is a land of snow, and we also study snow. Few people come to think that Finland is situated at the same
latitude as Alaska. But our climate is warmer, thanks to the Gulf Stream, which brings temperate air to the northern
Atlantic. Finland has a good climate for working n not too hot, not too cold. In winter, we usually have snow as far
south as Helsinki. Less snow on the Earth
Finnish Christmas is white Two metres of snow in record-snowy winters
In normal winters the snow cover in central Finland is 60-70 centimetres and in the north 80-90 cm thick. On the
Lapland mountains the layer can locally be as thick as 2-3 metres. White Christmas for 700 million
Finns tend to take a white Christmas for granted; the celebration of Christ's birthday does not feel right without white
snow. However, snow is not so firmly tied in with Christmas everywhere in the world. According to Esko Kuusisto's
calculations, only about 700 million people see snow in the Christmas season. Less snow in spring
As far as we presently know, there is snow or ice on eight of the nine planets within our solar system. On Venus the
temperatures are too high for snow and ice formation. Some of the satellites that circle the planets are largely covered
with ice. Avalanches are part of nature
On steep mountain slopes covered with thick layers of snow, the force of gravitation can suddenly release avalanches.
Avalanche damage causes enormous financial losses, and every year around 150-200 are killed. Increasing damage
Petri Shemeikka has compared the damage caused by avalanches in Kilpisjärvi, Lapland, in the Abisko National Park in
the north of Sweden, and in St. Anton in the Austrian Alps, and he certainly has respect for the forces involved. Every
year in addition to the 150-200 people killed by avalanches, they also destroy traffic routes and houses and alter the
natural environment. North of the Arctic Circle
Major avalanches rarely occur in Finland, and none are known to have caused casualties. Altitudes are not high here,
slopes are not steep and rainfall is not heavy. In the south of Finland there are no sufficiently steep slopes for
avalanches to occur at all, but in Lapland snowslides are known to happen occasionally. Umbruchzeiten benötigen Sendboten
Das wachsende Interesse an Engeln wird in Finnland allein daran ersichtlich, daß binnen eines Jahres acht Bücher
über die kosmischen Sendboten erschienen sind. Reijo Työrinoja, Assistenzprofessor für systematische
Theologie, ist der Ansicht, daß die Ursachen für den Engel-Boom im Zeitgeist und im kulturellen Umbruch zu suchen
sind. Die Ursprünge der Engel
In der Theologischen Fakultät interessieren sich zumindest die Exegetik und die systematische Theologie für Engel.
Laut Työrinoja betreiben die Wissenschaftler und Lehrer indes keine eigentliche Angelologie, und zum Pflichtstudium
der Studenten gehört sie auch nicht. Työrinoja selbst hat indes vor einigen Jahren eine Vorlesungsreihe über
Angelologie abgehalten, und auch ein Hauptseminar zu diesem Thema hat es gegeben. In den Vorlesungen über
mittelalterliche Philosophie kommt die Rede häufig auf Engel - wahrscheinlich deswegen, weil sie so faszinierend und
in philosophischer Hinsicht interessant sind. Bedeutende Angelologen
Die Kirchenväter begannen sofort in den ersten Jahrhunderten nach Christi, die Auffassungen von den Engeln zu
eigenen Lehren zusammenzufassen. Die philosophischen Richtungen dieser Zeit, die Gnostik und der Neuplatonismus,
haben in diesen Lehren ihre Spuren hinterlassen. Die östliche und die westliche Tradition begannen, sich voneinander
zu entfernen. Im Osten war das Bild von den Engeln mystischer in seiner kosmischen Dimension, im Westen
betrachtete man die Engel praktischer als Helfer und Sendboten. Pooling the meagre research resources
A new Director of Research was recently appointed to the Academy of Finland. The new incumbent of the post,
Jorma Hattula, has announced his intention of increasing the cooperation between the public organisations
funding research. On the other hand he would like to make the various scientific committees at the Academy more
independent. Cooperation far from smooth
One smaller problem which Hattula knows he can do something about is the lack of cooperation between the Academy
of Finland and the Technology Development Centre (TEKES). In his opinion, the Academy and TEKES should get
together to discuss their research programmes - coordination should not be the subject of fine speeches only. Greater independence for scientific committees
Although Hattula only recently occupied the chair of Director of Research, he is quite familiar with the Academy,
having spent six years as chairman of the Natural Science Committee. EU funds double those for Sweden
Luckily, however, the world of Finnish scholarship is not strewn with problems only, and the Finns can well be proud
of their know-how in a number of fields. Hattula is loath to place various disciplines in any order of merit, but he does
admit that Finland can be proud of its expertise in biochemistry, biomedicine and telecommunications. The Nevanlinna
legacy is still evident in mathematics, and Lounasmaa and his teams have carried Finnish physics forward. In speaking
of Finnish philosophers, Hattula mentions von Wright and Hintikka. The future of Finnish scholarship does, he feels,
lie in its top units, and his policy will be to support research of the highest quality through these top units. Väinämöinen sings in Vietnamese
The Vietnamese translator Bui Viet Hoa, 33, sighs heavily, when she looks back at the job of her life, the
translation of the Kalevala into the Vietnamese language. It took five years, three of which she spent at home,
immersed in ancient times. Inspiration from Rauta-aika
Hoa found her way to this translation through a series of coincidences. Ten years ago she was studying Hungarian
language and culture at the University of Budapest, where Finnish is a compulsory minor subject. The 150th
anniversary of the Kalevala in 1985 was celebrated extensively in Hungary. Paavo Haavikko's Rauta-aika was shown
on TV. It was then that Hoa read the Kalevala for the first time. Her Finnish teacher joked that perhaps she should start
translating the epic into Vietnamese. Aino's moving fate
The Kalevala is very dear to Hoa. It is not only her first important work, but also "the Finns' heart, the Finnish nation's
encyclopedia". Hoa thinks it unique that the genesis of the Kalevala is so well known. We know the details of
Lönnrot's life and work, and one can go to Russian Karelia to wonder at the genuine Kalevala landscape. Vaka vanha Vainamoyinan
Refugee author Sivalingam Ramalingam wanted to pay off his debt of gratitude to Finland; he translated the
Kalevala into Tamil. A passion for literature
In Sri Lanka Siva wrote popular entertainment for the Tamils, who have a passion for literature. He published six
novels and countless short stories. He felt that during his stay in Finland he had lost contact with his own language,
that he had lost his working tool. Translating the Kalevala into Tamil is no joke
Translating the Kalevala into Tamil is no joke: 90 million people speak the language as their mother tongue, 55 million
in southern India and 4.5 million in Sri Lanka. There are also Tamil minorities in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia,
Mauritius and Fiji. In vino veritas
Finnish aspects of growing the vine and drinking wine Long-term fascination
Growing the vine in Finland has long fascinated people, although conditions do not seem to favour it. Finland has a
long tradition of stronger alcoholic beverages and a reputation for heavy drinking, which is not based so much on
actual statistical quantities as on the tradition of drinking a lot at one time. A hundred years ago, the nobility drank
wine, but the common people made their own beer and spirits. A thermal problem
In her research, Saario concentrated on comparing vine-growing in the open and in an unheated plastic greenhouse.
The first results were available in three years. They clearly indicated that growing grapevines in Finland in the open is
risky and uncertain. The grapes may ripen, but contain very little sugar. This would also make them unsuitable for
wine production. Also, the European plants did not survive the open-air experiment. But the results from the plastic
greenhouses with the North American varieties were much more promising. Beta, which is a variety of the North
American Vitis riparia species, proved the most winter resistant. It is also very suitable for greenhouses. Other
promising greenhouse varieties were Fredonia (Vitis Labruscana), Foch (Vitis vinifera x Vitis riparia), and Valiant (Vitis
Labruscana x Vitis riparia). A commercial problem
The generally "unreliable" Finnish climate has given rise to several new agricultural branches which are more or less
dependent on heated or unheated greenhouses. For instance, the west coast has specialized in cultivating tomatoes
and cucumbers. Since it has been proved that the vine also grows in an unheated Finnish greenhouse, could it be
possible to start commercial wine production on this basis? Worldwide viticultural revolution
New tendencies favouring wine consumption are not a merely Finnish or even European phenomenon. The demand
for wine seems to be generally increasing, or aggressive marketing has increased the demand. The traditional
European wine-growing countries have to face very heavy competition from the new continents, where highly
automated production methods have changed the nature of the wine-making business. The processes are more
industrial, and the wines produced are very homogeneous. Or uninteresting, as some wine-lovers say. Anyway, as a
result quite good wines from Australia, Chile, and California are available at reasonable prices, and wine drinking is no
longer a snobbish hobby. The berry-wine boom
The loud cry for more wine has also led to a huge Finnish berry- wine boom. For lack of grapes, the Finns have always,
to some extent, made wines of berries, apples and other fruit. Towards the end of the 80s, the home-made wines started
to gain enormous popularity. Now, based on the same tradition, commercial berry- wine production has started in
several places and new enterprises keep coming all the time. The berry-wine production follows both Finnish and
German traditions and uses, for instance, black currants and apples as raw materials. ¨Nordic myths get together
The Nordic archaeological institutes in Athens have cooperated for years, and as a result a Pan-Nordic scientific
library has been opened on the southern side of the Acropolis. The long Odyssey of a mythologist
The Finnish Institute at Athens started in 1984. The first director of the Institute was professor Paavo Castrén and,
after him, Professors Jaakko Frösén, Henrik Lilius and Gunnar af Hällström. The oldest of the Nordic institutes is the
Swedish one, which was established in 1948. The Finnish Institute is the second oldest. The tradition of symposium is maintained
From the very beginning, symposiums on various themes have been arranged in the Institute. Simonsuuri wants to go
on with this tradition: symposiums are being planned, among other things, on the oracle tradition and on women's
roles in tragedies and religious life. A new mutation causing hereditary infertility
A new mutation causing hereditary ovarian dysfunction has been identified in collaboration between the Department
of Medical Genetics of the University of Helsinki (Laboratory of Professor Albert de la Chapelle), the
Department of Physiology of the University of Turku (Laboratory of Professor Ilpo Huhtaniemi), the
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University of Oulu, and Spanish and German researchers.Hungary calling
Laila Lehikoinen, lecturer in the Finnish language at the University of Helsinki, spent six years as Associate
Professor teaching Finnish language and culture at the Lorand Eötvös University in Budapest. A lot changed in those
six years. Teachers in Hungary command respect
Although the academic fields are not particularly well-paid in Hungary, and university teachers are in fact
considerably underpaid, the Hungarians have a greater respect for a university education and titles than the Finns. It
is a terrible faux pas to omit part of a person's title when addressing an envelope. Way to Finland free
The Finns have always enjoyed a warm reception in Hungary, and the Hungarians are more aware of the linguistic
affinity between the two nations than the Finns. The firm ties between Finland and Hungary date from the
1920s-1930s, and the Evangelical-Lutheran churches have for decades now been in close contact with one another.
Finnish as a foreign language at foreign universities
Finnish has long been taught at a number of universities in Scandinavia and Central Europe - since the 19th century
already in such cities as Copenhagen, Oslo, Uppsala, Budapest and Tartu. It is, however, nowadays offered by over 70
universities in 23 countries: all the Scandinavian countries, most of the European countries and in the United States,
Canada and Japan. All in all there are over a hundred professors, lecturers or teachers of the Finnish language at
foreign universities. Lecturer's job varied
The job of the foreign lecturer varies from one country and university to another. "The lecturer from Finland is
primarily responsible for the teaching of Finnish language and culture at the university, but the work also involves
seminars, library work, holding language tests, receiving guests, and arranging cultural events," Raanamo reports. What makes the foreign student choose Finnish?
Many of the students of Finnish are motivated purely by linguistic reasons. The students of general linguistics have
to take one non-Indo-European language, and this includes Finnish. The curriculum for students of comparative
Finno-Ugrian linguistics and for students majoring in, for example, Estonian or Hungarian may also include Finnish.
Courses in Finnish language and culture are offered by the following
universities and departments abroad:
AUSTRIA Universität Wien
Institut für Finno-Ugristik Wien
BULGARIA Universität Sv. Kliment Ohridski
Obnto ezikoznani
Sofia
CANADA Lakehead University
Department of Languages/Finnish
Thunder Bay
University of Toronto Finnish
Studies Programme Toronto
CZECH Univerzita Palackého REPUBLIC Katedra
germanistiky Olomouc
Karlova Univerzita Katedra
lingvistiky a ugrofinistiky Praga
DENMARK Københavns universitet
Institut for nordisk filologi Kobenhavn
Aarhus Universitet Institut
for Lingvistik Århus
ESTONIA Tallinna Pedagoogigaülikool
Pohjamaade keelte osakond Tallinn
Tartu Ülikool Soome-ugri
keelte kateeder Tartu
FRANCE Université de Caen
Département d'Etudes Nordiques Caen
Université de Paris III
Centre d'Etudes Finno-ougriennes Paris
GERMANY Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Nordeuropa-Institut Berlin
Universität Bonn
Sprachwissenschaftliches Institut Bonn
Europa-Universität Viadrina
Sprachenzentrum Frankfurt (Oder)
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Germanistisches Institut Germersheim
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität
Nordisches Institut Greifswald
Georg August-Universität
Finnisch-ugrisches Seminar Göttingen
Universität Hamburg
Finnisch-Ugrisches Seminar Hamburg
Christian Albrecht Universität
Nordisches Institut Kiel
Universität zu Köln Nordisches Institut
Köln
Universität Leipzig Institut
für Nordistik Leipzig
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
München Institut für Finnougristik
München
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
Slavisch-Baltisches Seminar Münster
GREAT BRITAIN Liverpool John Moores University
School of Modern Languages Liverpool
University of London School
of Slavonic and East European
Studies London
University of East Anglia
School of Modern Languages and European
Studies Norwich
HUNGARY Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem
Finnugor Nyelvtudományi Tanszék Budapest
Kossuth Lajos Tudományegyetem
Finnugor Nyelvtudományi Tanszék Debrecen
JPTE (Janus Pannonius Tudományegy-
etem) Finnugor Tanszék Pécs
JATE (József Attila Tudományegyetem)
Finnugor Tanszék Szeged ISLAND
Háskóli Islands Reykjavik
ITALY Università degli Studi di Bologna
Dipartimento di lingue e letterature
straniere moderne Bologna
Università di Firenze
Cattedra di filologia ugro-finnica Firenze
Istituto Universitario Orientale
Dipartimento di studi dell'Europa Orientale
Napoli
JAPAN Tokai University Department
of Nordic Studies, Faculty of Literature
Hiratsuka
Kansai University of Foreign Studies
Osaka
Osaka University of Foreign Studies
Osaka
Daigaku Shorin International Language
Academy Tokyo
LATVIA Latvijas Universitnte
Ziemelvalstu sekcija Riga
LITHUANIA Klaipedos universitetas
Pohjoismainen kieli- ja
tiedotuskeskus Klaipeda
NETHERLANDS Universiteit van Amsterdam
Skandinavistiek Amsterdam
Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen
Finoegrische talen en hun letterkunde Groningen
NORWAY Høgskolen i Finnmark Alta
Universitetet i Oslo
Institutt för östeuropeiske og orien-
talske studier Oslo
Universitetet i Tromso
Institutt for språk og litteratur Tromso
POLAND Uniwersytet im. A. Mickiewicza
Katedra Skandynawistyki Poznan
Uniwersytet Warszawski
Katedra Filologii Wegierskiej Warszaw
ROMANIA Universitatea Babes Bolyai
Catedra de Filologie maghiarn Cluj-Napoca
RUSSIA Udmurtskij Gosudarstvennyj Universitet
Fakultet udmurtskoj filologii Inevsk
Marij Gosuniversitet Kafedra
mariskoi i finno-ugroskoi filologii
Jonkar-Ola
Moskovskij Gosudarstvennyj Universitet
Kafedra finno-ugorskoj filologii Moskva
Petrozavodskij Universitet
Kafedra finskogo jazyka i literatury Petroskoi
Rossijskij Gosudarstvennyj Pedago-
gitneskij Universitet im Am Herzena Kafedra vtorogo
inostrannogo jazyka St. Petersburg
St. Petersburgski Gosudarstvennyj
Universitet Kafedra finno-ugorskoj filologii
St. Petersburg
Mordovskij Gosudarstvennyj Universitet
Finno-ugorskoje otdelenije Saransk
Syktyvkarsa Gosudarstvennyj Universitet
Finn-ugor fakultet Syktyvkar
Tverskij Gosudarstvennyj Universitet Tver
SLOVAKIA Univerzita Komenského Katedra
madarského jazyka a literatúry Bratislava
SPAIN Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Madrid SWEDEN Göteborgs universitet
Finska avdelningen Göteborg
Lunds universitet
Finsk-ugriska institutionen Lund
Stockholms universitet Finska
institutionen Stockholm
Uppsala universitet
Finsk-ugriska institutionen Uppsala
Umeå Universitet
Institutionen för finska Umeå
UNITED STATES University of Massachusetts OF AMERICA
Department of Germanic Languages and
Literatures Amherst, MA
The University of Texas at Austin
Department of Linguistics Austin, TX
Indiana University Department
of Central Eurasian Studies Bloomington, IN
University of Oregon
Department of Germanic Languages and
Literatures Eugene, OR
Suomi College Hancock, MI
The University of Wisconsin
Department of Scandinavian Studies Madison, WI
University of Minnesota
Department of Scandinavian Languages and
Literature Minneapolis, MN
Columbia University
Department of Germanic Languages New York, NY
Brigham Young University English Department
Provo, UT
University of Washington
Department of Scandinavian languages and
Literature Seattle, WA
Forelæsninger er ikke nok
Undervisningseksperten Mike O'Neil foreslår, at universiteter indfører fjernundervisning og sætter
studerende til at undervise hinanden. Målet er selvstændige og initiativrige studerende
HVORFOR?
Indfør fjernundervisning
Som Mike O'Neil understreger er der ikke een perfekt måde at gennemføre undervisning på. Radikale ændringer af den
undervisningspraksis, som har været reglen på en undervisningsinstitution, kan være så radikale, at hverken ansatte
eller studerende kan følge med, og så fører ændringerne ikke til forbedringer. Men når det er sagt, har Mike O'Neil en
vision om, hvordan målet - initiativrige, selvstændige, kreative og selvtillids-fulde studerende - nås.
Studerende skal undervise
Dyr vision
Realiseringen af Mike O'Neils ide om fjernundervisning ville betyde meget store ændringer på ethvert dansk
universitet. Det er han udmærket klar over.
Personal connections crucial in trading with China
It is a long way from the mountaneous regions by the Mongolian border in China to Finland. In these regions, in a city
called Harbin, Ms. Wen Liu, 32, spent her childhood. Wen's parents, as so many other educated people
during the cultural revolution, were forced to leave the cities for the countryside. Despite the hardships Wen says her
childhood was a happy one. Love at the automatic teller machine
"I did not speak Finnish very well at the time. I was taking some cash out of a money machine, when the machine
swallowed the card. As I was wondering what to do, a man waiting for his turn offered to help to me, and so we got to
talking about my studies in Finland," Wen tells. Acting as a link between two countries
In her own firm "Chinese Law Finland" Wen is able to make use of her knowledge of Chinese contract and commercial
law and her numerous connections from her student days and years in working life. It goes without saying that her
knowledge of the Chinese language and culture is a priceless asset. Henri Spehar, for his part, is familiar with Finnish
legislation and local customs. Ein Hauch Sommer mitten im Winter
Im hohen Norden hat man bereits vor der Christianisierung um Weihnachten den Umstand gefeiert, daß die dunkelste
Zeit des Jahres nun vorbei war und die Tage wieder länger wurden, was in den Menschen die Hoffnung auf den
kommenden Frühling und Sommer weckte. Heutzutage bringen bunte Blumen zur Weihnachtszeit einen Hauch Sommer
in das Leben der Menschen. Zwei Blumen Spitzenreiter
Die absolute Spitzenposition unter den Weihnachtsblumen nimmt der Adventsstern ein. Hortonom Janne
Autio vom Institut für Pflanzenzüchtung der Land- und Forstwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Helsinki
glaubt nicht daran, daß der Adventsstern, auch Weihnachtsstern genannt, in den nächsten Jahren an Popularität
verlieren wird. Jedes Jahr werden zu Weihnachten in Finnland über 2 Millionen Adventssterne verkauft, h. h. ebenso
viele, wie es im Land Haushalte gibt. Eine zweite populäre Weihnachtsblume ist die berauschend duftende Hyazinthe,
deren Absatz jedoch in den neunziger Jahren rückläufig ist. Hierfür sieht Autio mehrere Gründe: Der größte Vorteil der
Hyazinthe ist ihr günstiger Preis, was aber auch dazu geführt hat, daß die Zucht von Hyazinthen sich kaum noch
rentiert. Aus fernen Ländern auf den finnischen Tisch
Alle unsere Weihnachtsblumen sind von ihrer Herkunft her Exoten, die mit den Entdeckungsreisenden und Kaufleuten
ihren Weg nach Europa gefunden haben. Zuerst kamen die Tulpe und die Hyazinthe, die im 16. Jahrhundert aus
Kleinasien und dem östlichen Mittelmeer über Italien nach Mitteleuropa vorgedrungen sind - besonders nach Holland,
wo die Veredlung von Zwiebelpflanzen bereits seit dem 18. Jahrhundert floriert. Sensible Schönheiten
"Die Adventssterne stammen in Finnland heutzutage fast ausschließlich aus einheimischer Zucht, denn sie sind sehr
transportempfindlich", erklärt Janne Autio. Bei der Zucht von Adventssternen ist das richtige Timing das A und O,
denn verkauft werden die Blumen nur während ein paar Wochen vor Weihnachten, und eine Verspätung von nur einer
Woche würde den Markt durcheinanderbringen. Two academic worlds: Helsinki and New York
I started my studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki in the fall of 1973. A year later I
entered the Faculty of Arts as well. In 1979 - 86 I lectured in these two faculties, at the Theatre Academy of Finland, at
the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and at the Radio and TV Institute of the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
Since then I have lectured also at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. The problem with Cultural Condors
In his book, Italian Painters, Giovanni Morelli, the great Italian connoisseur, pokes fun at art history and at
art historians. While very amusing to read, Morelli's introduction contains a summation of the basic faults in the
academic approach to works of art. Cultural baggage
"Suitcase Children of Finland" (Suomen matkalaukkulapset ry.) was one of the many organisations to take part in the
"World Exhibition" event held in Helsinki to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. The suitcase
children's organisation also celebrated its first anniversary as it was founded on the previous UN day, the 24th of
October 1994. The organisation is chaired by 25-year-old Ilona Toiviainen who is currently preparing her
Master's thesis at the Faculty of Education of the University of Helsinki. Thus it comes as no surprise that her thesis
topic is suitcase children. Parents' support and encouragement is important
Besides bringing together people with similar experiences and offering them support, one of the functions of Suitcase
Children of Finland is to advise parents and teachers. According to Ilona, parents can best help their children by
encouraging them to face the new culture with an open mind. Parents should also understand that a child absorbs a
new culture more easily and also more profoundlyly than an adult. Thus, a child who has lived abroad for a long time
is no longer Finnish because the cultural tradition surrounding him or her differs from that of the parents'. As Ilona
points out, our culture residess not in our genes but is shaped by our environment. By denying or disregarding the
new culture parents could even in the worst case turn their child into a racist. Building bridges between different cultures
Ilona has spent most of her childhood and youth in Tanzania, but she has also spent a year in London. She took her
matriculation examination at an internatinal school in Tanzania. Although she was admitted to a Swiss university, she
decided to return to her parents' homeland. The main reason behind her decision was the low cost of Finnish higher
education but she was also impressed by its quality and high status abroad. Being a suitcase child, however, Ilona
was drawn abroad again, and she spent a year studying in France. Recently she has been fully occupied by her
organisation and she has often lectured on suitcase children. The organisation aims to collect data about its members
and build up a "skills bank" which could provide help to corporations and organisations requiring experts in different
languages and cultures. Ilona claims that a suuitcase child's most valuable asset, even more important than the ability
to speak different languages, is a certain sensitivity to other cultures and a personal experience of cultural differences.
These characteristics are crucial in many situations where bridges need to be built, such as international conflicts and
UN peace-keeping operations. Renvall lnstitute and Multidisciplinary Studies
The Renvall Institute is the base for five multidisciplinary programs at the University of Helsinki. All students enrolled
at the University are entitled to study in them. The first one of them was the North American Studies Program
launched in 1986. It was a success from the very beginning. Students, who want to build an expertise in American and
Canadian history, societies and cultures, participate in its courses in great numbers, and cooperation between various
disciplines has brought the facul- ties and departments closer to each other to build the program as rich as possible.