Re: [Futurework] No widgets here.

[Ed Weick]

Ray, when I visited Finland in the early 1970s, I found it to be a very humane place in which people genuinely cared for each other.  I felt we could all learn a lot from the way things were done there.  The following is an excerpt from notes I took in Finland's far north: At Inari, we were housed and fed at the communal children s home, another product (in part) of the money automat. This home was one of the high points of our trip because it gave us something of a deeper insight into the values of Northern Finland.   It was on a beautiful northern lake which, had it been in an accessible part of Canada, might have been pre-empted by summer cottages or a private resort. The cluster of buildings was large, low and modern looking (in actuality, it was quite old), and appeared from the outside as though it could house a hundred children. The maximum number accommodated was 21. They were divided up into families living in separate quarters, each headed by two adults. While the basic design of each family residence was similar, there were all kinds of little differences which suggested that each group of children could, as a family, choose its life style within certain limits.   Children were not compelled to leave at a certain age, and the oldest "child" living at the home during our visit was 21. The attitude of the staff towards the children was sympathetic, warm and supportive, and the children appeared alert, active and contented. We were told that when the children grow up, leave, and get married, they often come back to the residence on their holidays with their families. They look upon it as their home in much the same way as a child who was raised in a normal family.   The children we saw at the home were there for a variety of reasons — their homes had broken up; their parents had died; their families could not support them, etc. The Finns and Saams are said to be very good to their children, and youngsters in need are typically looked after by next of kin. Those at Inari were apparently children who did not have families or friends of families to help them out. Ed   Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax     (613)  728 9382     > Alternatives to a widget economy and quality environment.    How can they > resist making widgets the meaning of their lives and the sum total of their > value system?     Perhaps they could get Milton Friedman to save their > souls.    What kind of world class economists are they following to have > such things happen.   No key to a prison, money for an orchestra from taxes > gee whiz what is the world coming to?    Next thing you'll tell me they > don't speak English. > > REH >  > KERAVA, Finland - Going by the numbers, Antti Syvajarvi is a loser. He is a > prison inmate in Finland - the country that jails fewer of its citizens than > any other in the European Union. > > Still, he counts himself fortunate. > > "If I have to be a prisoner," he said, "I'm happy I'm one in Finland because > I trust the Finnish system." > > So, evidently, do law-abiding Finns, even though their system is Europe's > most lenient and would probably be the object of soft-on-criminals derision > in many societies outside of the Nordic countries. > > In polls measuring what national institutions they admire the most, Finns > put their criminal-coddling police in the No. 1 position. > > The force is the smallest in per capita terms in Europe, but it has a > corruption-free reputation and it solves 90 percent of its serious crimes. Etc.