Finland is a Nordic country known for its unique culture and natural beauty. Finns have a very high standard of living, and they enjoy comprehensive protection in terms of education, health care, social welfare, etc.
What kind of country is Finland and why does the "happiest" Finland have to be reformed?
Finland in the Arctic is thousands of miles away, but it's no stranger – when it comes to Nokia and Santa Claus, almost everyone in the world knows it. Finland also has the highest corruption perception index in the world, with a highly developed economy, technology and living standards.
With an area of more than 330,000 square kilometers, Finland has a population of only about 5.5 million, which is roughly equivalent to the population of a small second-tier city in China. Although Finland is not a large country, it has more than 170,000 islands and 180,000 lakes, more than a third of which is located in the Arctic Circle. Due to the high latitude, Finland has a maximum temperature of around 20°C in summer, and winters are cold and long. Finns, especially the people of the north, survive in the long dark winters, flooding springs and capricious summers, which have developed a culture of resilience, patience and hard work.
Here is the confluence of the Scandinavian Mountains and the East European Plain, the terrain of the whole territory is high in the north and low in the south, the average altitude is 152 meters, the terrain is mainly hilly plains, the forests are dense, and nearly 1/4 of the surface of the inland is lakes, swamps, mud and rivers, which is called "the country of a thousand lakes".
Forests are Finland's most valuable resource, with a high cover of 68%. Minerals are more copper, as well as iron, nickel, vanadium, cobalt, etc., peat reserves are large, water resources are rich, and energy comes from nuclear energy and thermal power. Half of Finland's economy is built on resources such as forests and metals, as well as their spin-off industries. The country has a forest law in 1886, and now the annual forest stock is greater than the amount of felling, the forest industry includes timber, boards, furniture and pulp, paper, etc., the country's three major forestry companies occupy the top spot in the world's cartons/plates, magazines/label papers and high-quality paper, Finnish companies are also in the metal industry's scintillation copper smelting, nickel smelting, stainless steel, mining and processing and other technical fields in the world's leading position, in forestry, papermaking, lifting, icebreakers and other mechanical equipment and paper chemicals, water treatment and other chemical environmental protection fields also have strengths.
Finland is ethnically homogeneous, with Finns making up 93 per cent of the population, Swedes 5.4 per cent, and the indigenous Sámi and Karelians. Alien nationalities include Norwegians, Danes, Britons, Germans, Russians, and Muslims, mainly from Turkey, all of whom are numbering in the thousands.
Before the 19th century, it was considered a peasant language, and Swedish is now spoken by 6% of the population as opposed to the "aristocratic language", and the English penetration rate in the country is as high as 63%, and it is widely used in scientific research and business activities. Eighty-nine per cent of the population are Lutherans and 1 per cent Orthodox Christians, and religion has little influence on the social life of Finns.
The mainstream of archaeology and anthropology is that "the Finns and their ancestors were Europeans", or more precisely the Baltic peoples, who merged with the indigenous Sami people and spent 762 years (1155-1917) as part of Sweden and Tsarist Russia, so that the Finns were once seen as an enslaved people without their own culture and history, and the cultural awakening from the 19th century onwards established a Finnish ethnic identity based on the Finnish language and cultural traditions. The Swedes have historically been rulers (including during the Tsarist period), mainly landlords and burghers, and now integrated into Finnish society, where the use of Swedish is perhaps the only difference, and they live in harmony with the Finns as a family. The Sami (Lapp) are the indigenous people of Finland, and the Finns moved their homeland north from the south, and today they still maintain their traditions, and most have abandoned their nomadic life.
People in Finland
1. Finland should be the only country in the world where men are still fighting for equality with women, and it is a feminist society. In Finland, love is all about girls chasing boys. The employment rate of women is higher than that of men, and the daily work of men is to get together to drink and have children.
2. Working in Finland, 90% of the people around you are girls, and they are very good-looking, they are very good at drinking, and they usually have a few drinks at parties, so if a man can't drink, he can't marry a wife.
3. Have you ever seen pollen allergies, food allergies, or ever seen people with allergies? People in Finland are very "shy" and usually afraid to deal with people, and people attribute this phenomenon to social phobia. Finns don't like to socialize, they don't like to say hello, neighbors live together for several years without saying hello, and even in order to avoid each other, they will observe the neighbor's movement when they are ready to go out, and only dare to go out when they are sure that the neighbor is not moving.
4. Finland has been ranked first in the global happiness index for three consecutive years, and is the first country in the world to be happiest. There are a total of 800,000 dogs in the country, and there are dog-exclusive dog parks, swimming pools for dogs, trains and special seats for dogs in Finland.
5. Finns are really inefficient, and what can be solved by queuing in China in the morning can be done in Finland without queuing in three weeks.
Life in Finland
1. Finland has three treasures, which are Nokia, Sauna, and Angry Birds.
2. OnePlus phones are more popular in Finland than Nokia, ranking first in single model sales for 11 consecutive months. Finns who are "allergic" can be lined up side by side.
3. Finnish offenders live in very luxurious bachelor apartments, and they can also go out shopping and ask for family leave. At the highest level, there is also employment training in it, and the government will also fund entrepreneurship.
4. Maternity leave for Finns can be taken for a maximum of three years. I have a friend in Finland who gave birth to three children and then went on maternity leave for eight years, which is really jealous.
5. Finland is recognized as the hometown of Santa Claus, and you need a certificate to work, and a group photo costs 200 yuan. What's even more unexpected is that there is also a strange famous dish there, stir-fried reindeer meat. You can imagine Santa Claus stir-frying reindeer meat, it's really spicy for the eyes!
6. In Finland, every household has to pay a strange tax, that is, whether you have a TV at home or not, you have to pay a TV tax.
7. Finland's glass houses are definitely worth a visit, and lying in the middle of the night and admiring the majestic aurora borealis is sure to give you a wonderful experience.
8. If you can't stand the cold, don't come to Finland. Summer in Finland can reach a maximum of 32 degrees Celsius and a minimum of minus 30 degrees Celsius.
9. If you can't stand the darkness, don't come to Finland. Finland is famous for its polar nights, and in the north of Finland it is gray all winter, with no sun in sight.
10. One of the things that surprised me the most in Finland is that every egg in the supermarket has an "ID number". In the event of a food problem, the person responsible can be traced.
11. In 2019, the average monthly salary of Finns is 3,140 euros, about 25,000 yuan, in Finland, the average monthly salary of professional managers and doctors is about 56,000 yuan, and the average monthly salary of lawyers is about 48,000 yuan.
12. Although Finns have high incomes, but the price is not expensive, in Finland's Asian Super League, the most common one liter of milk, they only need eight yuan, beef 50 yuan a catty, chicken wings 22 yuan a catty, pork 35 yuan a catty, red Fuji apples 10 yuan a catty, bananas 6 yuan a catty, cucumbers 20 yuan a catty, tomatoes 18 yuan.
13. Finns love saunas, chatting, partying, and talking about business are all in saunas, according to statistics, Finland has more than 2 million saunas in total. Secretly, it is a tradition for Finnish handsome guys and beauties to take a sauna together.
14. Finland is the country with the shortest distance from China to Europe, and the flight time is only seven or eight hours.
15. When traveling to Finland, the hotels you stay in are generally elegantly decorated, and the hotel accommodations are generally equipped with unique decorations and TVs. Some apartments are equipped with a minibar, while others have a fully equipped kitchen. The hotel staff can also help with recommendations for tourist attractions and restaurants. The price of a single room is about 600 yuan, and the price of a double room is about 800 yuan, and you can book in advance on major booking websites.
16. Finland is one of the few countries where polar day and polar night coexist, and after July every year, up to 24 hours in northern Lapland is daytime, and you can see the beautiful aurora during the polar night phenomenon, which is even more wonderful, and a large number of tourists from all over the world come here.
17. The best time to visit Finland is from December to March if you want to see the Northern Lights, experience the polar night, and experience the world of ice and snow fairytales, and if you want to experience a short and warm summer, as well as the incredible polar day, pick all kinds of wild berries, and explore Finnish nature, you have to come in June, July, and August for three months.
Education in Finland
1. Finnish children go to school the latest, have the longest holidays, and have the least homework, but the level of education in Finland is recognized as the first in the world, and the social status of Finnish teachers is very high, and the teachers are all scholars, almost all of whom have a master's degree or above. Finnish children are very fond of reading, and 41% of Finnish secondary school students do reading as the most common leisure activity, because Finnish children will not be able to enter the third grade if they do not meet a certain standard of ability.
2. No homework, no grade ranking, 16 years old to meet the first exam in life. Many of the lessons are even completed by teachers and children in the forest near the school, and they learn Xi just to have a better life.
3。 Helsinki's Meiwan Primary School is one of the few primary schools in Finland that uses Finnish and Chinese as the basis for teaching, and children Xi in this school spend 70% of their time in Finnish and 30% in Chinese.
4. Finland has been free of tuition and lunch for 70 years.
5. There are no school districts in Finland, and the level and quality of education is equal whether you live in the city or the countryside.
6. Happy Finnish primary school students actually start leaving school at one or two o'clock in the afternoon every day.
Transportation in Finland
Public transport in Helsinki consists of trams, buses, metro and short ferries, and tickets are universal. Tickets can be purchased from bus drivers and ticket vending machines. Helsinki's trams have been in operation since 1891. You can still see trains of various colors running in the city, and I have to admit that this is a very rare thing.
Why does Finland, the "happiest" country, have to be reformed?
Finland, the Nordic country, has always been known as one of the "happiest" countries. It has world-leading healthcare, education, technological innovation and social welfare systems, which make the quality of life very high for the Finnish people. However, even in such favourable living conditions, the Finnish government still believes that reforms are needed to keep the country alive and competitive.
First of all, the Finnish government believes that reform is necessary because the world is constantly changing. With globalization and the development of science and technology, Finland is facing many new challenges and opportunities. In order to stay ahead of the curve and achieve sustainable development, Finland needs to constantly adapt to change and innovate. As a result, the government began to implement a series of reform measures aimed at improving the country's innovation capacity and competitiveness.
Secondly, the Finnish government is also aware of the importance of social equity and welfare. Although Finland already has a very well-developed social welfare system, the government believes that this is not enough. Through the reforms, the government hopes to further improve social equity and welfare in Finland, so that every citizen can enjoy a better life and a better future.
Finally, the Government of Finland also believes that reforms are necessary because the Finnish economy needs to be better developed. Although Finland's economy is already very developed, the government believes that there is still a lot of potential to be tapped. The government began to implement a series of economic reform measures aimed at boosting economic growth and increasing employment.
In conclusion, although Finland is already a very happy and successful country, the government still believes that reforms are needed. Through the reforms, the government hopes to further improve Finland's competitiveness, social equity and economic strength, and make Finland a more prosperous and happy country.