Sunday 20 April 2014

Easter 2014

I saw the Finnish Orthodox Easter service last night on TV. It was uplifting. The music was truly wonderful.

Jacob told me that in India it is similar. 

I did attend weddings in the Orthodox Churches but never the Good Friday and Easter services. The level of direct emotional involvement by a church member in India compared to Finland is considerably more. 

Jacob once wrote in one of his online pages about his childhood memories about celebrating Good Friday.

 I must find it. It was truly inspiring. It showed that members felt the pain of Christ on that fateful day, personally. They lived His suffering and felt His pain.

That was why on Easter Day they felt the joy of His Resurrection!

Friday 18 April 2014

Finnish media and freedom of speech - a myth?

Given below is the email (in Finnish, but English translation is provided here also) I sent to a Finnish reporter in Kaleva who wrote an article about the situation in Ukraine and Russia. 

It made me very angry! 

There is no freedom of speech in Finland except for the media itself to defend its corrupt brothers in the Finnish Justice System, the Police, the Lawyers, the Bureacracy and the Politicians!

All my experiences are highly personal pver the last 30 years I have lived in Finland!

Below is cover of my book "Freedom of Speech - Whose?" (In Finnish) which I had compiled a few years ago of my text messages that Kaleva had refused to carry in its Readers' Comments page! (The updated Finnish/English version will be released shortly.)


Email to Kaleva Reporter:

Hello,

Your views on Finland are suspect so it is difficult to accept your opinion about Russia.

 If I write the sky is blue, Kaleva will publish the opinion. If I tell the truth, I will not.

 That is why I published my book, "Freedom of Speech - Whose?" Text messages rejected by Kaleva! 

The justice system, the police, the lawyers, the bureaucrats and politicians operate a brotherhood system! 

This type of corruption is built into the Finnish lifestyle aided by a willing media which wants to ingratiate itself with their powerful brothers! 

The common Finnish citizen does not enjoy any of these privileges.

And in Finnish:

Hei,

Mielipiteenne Suomesta ovat epäilyttäviä, joten on vaikeaa hyväksyä mielipiteenne Venjäjästä.

Jos kirjoitan taivas on sininen, Kaleva voi julkaista mielipiteen. Jos kerron totuuden, se ei voi.

Sen vuoksi kirjoitin kirjani "Sananvapaus - Kenen?" Kalevan hylkäämiä tekstiviestejä!

Oikeuslaitos, poliisi, asianajajat, byrokraatit ja politiikot ylläpitävät veljeskuntasysteemiä!

Tämän tyyppinen korruptio on sisäänrakennettu suomalaiseen elämän tyyliin median suostumuksella, joka haluaa päästä heidän voimallisen veljeskunnan suosioon!

Tavallinen Suomen kansalainen ei nauti naistä etuoikeuksista!

tv.

Annikki 


Saturday 8 March 2014

Need a job?

I recently  had adverised here for a highly competent individual to join my team, with even a share in the business. Not a single application! :-)
job
Now I need something simpler. I need a driver cum secreatary wih some computer and human skills, for about about 20 hours a week. A student wanting to get some extra money to support himself or herself?
Ou
I have had about 60 applications, mainly from Finns in Oulu, retired people, students and a few really wanting to get into the job market.

Do apply quickly if you are interested. I will be interviewing this week.

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Dubai The International Indian

There is a very nice article about Jacob, quite wrongly stated as being the Oldest Malayali in Europe! He is not the oldest in Europe and also probably not even in Continental Europe, which was the original research topic by Prof. Prabhu Guptara, the author of this article. It is a chapter contained in a book on the Malayali Diaspora which was released in Cochin last January.

However, I do know that although he may be the oldest Malayali in Finland, he is also the youngest at heart! :-)

The International Indian
Reported as being the Oldest Malayali in Continental Europe

Friday 14 February 2014

Finnish TV interview about Me!





I am pleased to give you two links to a TV interview by Helena Lehtimäki of Laureus University of Applied Sciences, Espoo, about me. I really enjoyed myself! It was aired in a new TV station called CaringTV which is to motivate us older folk to do creative things.



Helena and her team have gone a great job. Thank you Helena.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

What is a great honour?

Yesterday I received in the post a copy of the Finn-Brits Magazine for Spring 2014 which is a special issue which celebrates 35 years of the existence of this Society to help the Finns understand the English Language and British Culture.



The magazine contains a feature about me and my work as an artist, author, but is mainly centred around the fact that I was Chairperson of the English Club of Oulu, plus being a teacher fort Finnish children to retain the English language when they returned back to Finland after they had spent some time in an English speaking country.

This is part of the History of the Finn-Brits Society. I am greatly honoured to be the subject of this article.

Hope you enjoy it.





If you are interested to interact with Finns and help them to improve their English Language skills, you will find a chapter of the Society near you. Join in - it is fun as they have some wonderful programmes around the year.

Saturday 11 January 2014

Not a single reply! Why

I advertised a couple of boog entries ago for a work-at-home assistant to help me. I am absolutely inundated with work.

It is surprising that not a single person replied or applied. No students, no housewives with time on their hands and computer skills,

Jacob has got many hundreds of requests from all sorts of people wanting senior desk jobs in IT, Web design, SAP,  Java, etc. All sorts off challenges and opportunies - including marketing, sales, etc.

Here was an opportunity, where the sky was the limit, for someone who could work independently, It was the start of a team as there is so much work required to be done.

But not one application.

Thursday 9 January 2014

Natural childbirth - Is it for you?

Take a look at the story today in Huffington Post "New Mom's Uncensored Photos Reveal The Beautiful, Messy Reality Of Home Birth"

You may have to register to read the story.

Natural births difficult unless you prepare for it correctly. 

In Finland it is not permitted. I have covered this in one of my tutorials.
Although Finland has the lowest mortality rate with regard to childbirth, something is missing in the mother/child relationship. 

That develops out of natural childbirth.

Please see the details in my book "Raising a Child the Montessori Way" where the importance of natural childbirth is discussed.

In my case, our first daughter was born in a hospital in an English village (Cross Houses), the second, our elder son was born in our home in a very small English village (Shawbury), while the next two, a daughter and then our youngest son were born in Willingdon Hospital, in Chennai. Each was difficult in its own way.

I have just uploaded Tutorial 5 A, 5 B and 5 C on Scribd.com


The next upload of the Tutorial series will be in a couple of days.

Correspondence Course Tutorials 4 A and 4 B

With this tutorial we are moving into areas which are important from the parents point of view of how they react to the development of the child.

You can find this tutorial at Scribd.com.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Anyone looking for an exciting work from home job?

We have a job opportunity for someone really interested to doing creative work. Anyone looking for an exciting work from home job?

Your location is not important if you have good communication skills - you may be in Timbuktu!

Jacob and I have several hundreds and hundreds of web pages on books created over the last 25 years. They were all very high revenue earners till we stopped updating them about 5 or 6 years ago.

It is our intention to revamp all of these web pages in an organised schedule, starting with items based on our current activities.

We need someone who is interested in creating web pages based on our old models, updating them by doing web searches and downloading the new data and the uploading it back on our web service provider.

To get an idea of this work, go to the page Books on Maria Montessori  which we had set up over a decade ago. You will find at that time there were about 150 books about her dating pre- and post- 2000. Each is linked with the title and a special link which meant that anyone who went to buy a book from Amazon in either US or UK would earn us a commission. Now there are over 700 books. This has to be updated.

Also we have to link in the 20 odd books published by Annikki on this subject and help generate online sales! These are currently all eBooks but we need to create then as paperbacks.

This was a very healthy business for us. We were always in the top ten on all the Search Engines! We have the secret on how to reach the top in the Search Engines!!!

Like this we have several hundreds of web pages about many tens of subjects,  and all of these need to be cleaned up and updated before uploading.

Your job would be to update each page based on searching within Amazon (and also making us Associates of Amazon in India), and then putting up each web page back on our server.

It is very steady work but you should have the feeling that you are interested in the work and you are web competent enough to work by yourself with the minimum of supervision.

That is only the first part of the job.

We also want to relaunch our very popular fortnightly web magazine which was called Findians Briefings which had a readership of around 80000 people. It started a paper version (see picture below) with a hundred readers in 1992! The last web issue was released in June 2008.

It is possible that we could make it a weekly.

First Issue of Findians Briefings 1992
First Issue of Findians Briefings 1992


In this we need to put all the old issues in a new and interesting format back on the internet and especially gear them for reading on mobiles, and launch the new version alongside.

At the same time we have several extremely interesting web sites which are linked to our original web entry page "Findians Index Site". This has literally hundreds of links and important information.

Your job would be to organise this whole experience and make the Findians Site popular again.

Our old domain name was stopped (and we believe is now being exploited by someone else, but he is a copycat so we do not have to worry about him). Copyright for the term Findians still remains with us!!

We can establish a new domain name or use the system we used as a parallel to the Findians Domain name.

Jacob's alma mater blog pages (Kooler Talk (Web Version) of St. Stephen's College, Delhi and Seventh Heaven of Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai) will also come under this work as also our many blogs, Google Groups and many new avenues which we keep creating.

You would also help us in writing our new books scheduled to come out during the next three years. We have some very interesting books that will expand our publication base which now has over 30 books and will reach 50 by year end.

You should be competent to use a Apple Mac platform, have good computer skills as using Pages, Numbers, iBooks, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, PageSpinner, Graphic Converter, GIMP, Business Card Composer, iPhoto, iTunes, Picasa, scanning, editing photographs, editing text, printing, and many tens of very useful products which run on the Mac.

You would also have to support the current marketing activities that we are undertaking such as publishing eBooks, etc.  You would also be working on selling ad space on all our web sites.

(If you use Microsoft Office you would have to be able to convert from Windows format to the Mac format!

The new content will be provided by me and Jacob in the form of articles and news items. We are both 70+ but we are active and expect you to keep up with us! :-)

It is regular work and we can pay by the hour on an "honesty" system or on a commission basis, whichever suits you. Or if you want to join us as a partner, that would also be considered..

If you are seriously interested, please contact us at jmatthan@icloud.com.

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Do you think there is anything we missed?

Jacob and I  tried our level best to cover  all important aspects of life in Finland.

Here is the Contents list of our latest eBook, "Handbook For Survival in Finland".

We have latest links to most of the relevant sites as Universities, Applied Science Universities, hsl.fi, vr.fi, Koskilinjat Oy, Finnair, Magistrates Office, Tax Office, KELA, etc., etc.

And we also have our own interprettions!! :-)

We have the guidelines of prices you should be paying for your foodstuffs!

Is there anything we missed as we can put it as Anexure! Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Criticism welcome as we want this to be the only independent reference book you need when coming to or living in Finland as a  student, out-sourced engineer or even a tourist.

Contents

PrefaceContentsGlossary for AcronymsDedicationA FrontpieceA Survival System?

Some FactsHistoryGeography


  • Flora and Fauna
  • Climate
  • Lake and Sea Temperatures
  • Wind Conditions
  • Snow and Ice
  • Midnight Sun
  • Winter Darkness
  • Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights
  • Nature's Markers

DemographyReligionPeopleGovernmentPressEconomy


  • Currency and Finance
  • Inflation
  • Taxation

Education

Universities

Language

Learning the Finnish Language

Culture

Guide for Foreigners (and Some Others)

EmbassiesDocumentsFinancial and Other RequirementsCustoms Regulations on First EntryRegistration in the Population RegisterUnemployment BenefitTerms of EmploymentTrade Union MembershipEmployment ContractSocial BenefitsChurch MembershipTaxesAccommodationMarriageMaternity, Paternity and Parents' AllowancesChildren's AllowancesChildren's Day CareMaintenance supportConcluding Remarks

Existing in Finland

Finnish Department Stores and ShopsFood and DrinkGardening for ProfitPet FoodDomestic AppliancesGlass and ChinaClothes, Textiles, Jewellery, FursToysSports goodsSouvenirsInternational Mail Order PurchasingFlea MarketsRestaurantsTransportHair DressersTippingPostal RatesTelephoneElectricity and WaterSmoking and DrinkingHealth CareCredit and Bank CardsConcluding Remarks

Third World Holidays

TicketsDuty Free PresentsClothesOther Travel RequisitesOpticiansDentistsExecutive Health Check-upMedical Supplies and ToiletriesMiscellaneous ItemsShipping PurchasesHoliday FilmsFinnish Customs RegulationsP. S. Moscow Airport

And Finally - Dying in Finland


Bibliography

Monday 6 January 2014

Finally completed and uploaded

An effort of almost 2+ years to update our 1994 best-seller has now been completed and uploaded as an eBook on Scribd.com (eBook Handbook for Survival in Finland).





The book is meant for foreign students coming or in Finland, out-source engineers, those foreigners living in Finland and also tourists coming to Finland.

The Survival System developed by us can help you live a comfortable life in Finland at a reasonable cost. 

It is not only the front and back cover that has been changed. The entire book has been re-written and the full advantage of an eBook with hundreds of useful links have been introduced which will take you to all the important pages about Finland which we used in doing our research. It covers almost every aspect of this wonderful and beautiful country! But it also thells you of the many hundreds of pitfalls that you will encounter when you live here.

Our original Guarantee goes with the new eBook that if you do not recover the cost of the book after using our system for 1 month, we will refund you the cost of the book.

Thank you for the patience, but it was a really hard task to do this!

Comments welcome so that we can quickly correct any errors.

Friday 3 January 2014

Manuscript unearthed!

I am in the middle of finishing the "Handbook for Survival in Finland", which is a complete re-write of our 1994 best seller with many hundreds of links so that it is really an interactive eBook. 

It is takeng longer than I expocted as it is a laborious task. Hopefully finished this weekend.

While searching for some documents I came across another 2007 manuscript of mine.

It is in Finnish and it is called "Sananvapaus - Kenen?" 

This translates to "Freedom of Speech - Whose?"

Original cover of "Sananvapaus - Kenen?" which is a barbed wire fence!
Original cover of "Sananvapaus - Kenen?"
which is a barbed wire fence!
This was written when I was frustrated by the attitude of our local newspaper, Kaleva. 

If I wrote that the sun was blue and shining as a text message, it would be published. However, if I pointed out something controversial, it would not see the light of day.

My opinion is that media is one of the main cornerstones of the corruption prevalent in Finnish Society - and this book is proof of my opinion!

I, therefore, decided to publish a book of the text messages of mine that Kaleva did not publish.

I have decided to update this publication (many new text messages to be added), and also make it a dual language (Finnish and English) eBook. However, as I do not have the original computer files, and the result of scanning are not good enough, the text has to be typed in, that is the entire text and the translation. Also,  a new cover has to be designed along with the interior to suit the mood.

Your good wishes will spur me on! :-)