findiary

[findiary]

May 4, 2009

Oh, now Sve published stamps for me. That´s... nice too. They even have pretty poems on them; "One kingdom became two lands living freely and in peace" and "Together we are a song for the new day and the sun has risen". And also "Two lands - one future."

(These are cute!)

And I guess this is an appropriate way to end this diary! Pages are already running out, so it´s time to buy a new one.

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- And I guess this is an appropriate way to end this diary – Yes, this is the last post, at least for now. The next years would be a little bit too recent events, even if nine years is a quite long time. But as I would need to jump over some years, it´s not that lot. I hope this didn´t come too suddenly, I have mentioned about this in some other posts already... but I´m not sure have anyone actually read these extra notes ^^’.

I actually think I jumped a little bit too much at some points, but I didn´t want to mention everything, as this would have continued forever.

The picture in this post is quite simple, I wanted it to be a little bit similar than the very first picture was.

And, by the way, those little poems are from the real stamps.

Edit: My mother... kinda broke my scanner. So... if I’m going to continue this one day... I’m not sure how I will do it. It can take some time.

[findiary]

January 16, 2009

Sve published a commemorative coin for me. That´s very thoughtful of him! I published a golden commemorative coin last year, too. Sve got the other side of the coin - well, there is a crown, but it symbolises him.

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[findiary]

January 1, 2009

It was 200 years ago when... I had to leave from Sve´s place. So, this is a memorial year, or something like that. Sve said we shouldn´t call this an anniversary year, because we are not celebrating anything, we are just remembering the past. That´s fine by me.

We are going to have some small events with Sve, and Russia too, but those two will not be here at the same time, it could end in disaster.

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- But those two will not be here at the same time, it could end in disaster – It was what Sweden wanted. They were ready to remember the past events with Finland, but asked that they wouldn´t need to do so with Russia in this case. The Swedish kingdom was cut in half back then, so I guess that was understandable.

And Finland wasn´t holding a memorial year because of that, but because Finland got autonomy back then.

[findiary]

January xx, 2008

I think I´m going towards recession again, I don´t feel very well.

I haven´t completely recovered from the last recession either, so this is not a good thing. I have no idea what I should do, I hoped I would have more time to be prepared for something like this...

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- The Great Recession (2007–2012) was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country. In terms of overall impact, the International Monetary Fund concluded that it was the worst global recession since the 1930s (the Great Depression). The causes of the recession largely originated in the United States, particularly related to the real-estate market, though choices made by other nations contributed as well.

Finland didn´t recover by 2012 (and the whole mobile phone business kind of crashed in 2008, too), in fact Finland fell in a deep, deep recession in 2014, and only in 2017 it started to look like the worst was behind, which isn´t even sure yet. There could be a new global recession behind the corner already.

This caused Finland to argue, probably for the first time ever, with the EU about loan packages, because people didn´t understand how Finland could loan money to other countries in recession if so many cuts are being made in their own country. This also caused a raise of a quite populist party in Finland.

Finland won gold in in the ice hockey world championship in 2011, and because the economy had started to recover after Finland won gold in 1995, people were kind of hopeful it would happen again... it did not. But I guess you need to be a little bit superstitious sometimes.

[findiary]

May xx, 2007

I´m not sure what I should do. Estonia is arguing with Russia about some statue. Estonia wants to move it someplace else, and Russia says it shouldn´t be moved anywhere, ever.

Huge dispute about something like that, I don´t even understand what´s the big deal. I hope the situation will calm down soon.

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- The Bronze Soldier is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia. The disputes surrounding the relocation peaked with two nights of riots in Tallinn (known as the Bronze Night), besieging of the Estonian embassy in Moscow for a week, and cyberattacks on Estonian organizations.

- Only about four (maybe five?) posts left before this will end, by the way.

[findiary]

January 12, 2007

Sve... bought a child from eBay. Or, at least he tried to buy him, it didn´t work. Nevertheless, the kid is now here and calls Sve his papa!

(I was worried at first, but apparently, he´s a micronation called Sealand. He said he sold himself because his brother England is a jerk, and because he´s going to be the most powerful nation someday)

I wonder why Sve did it? He said he promised to do his best about 369 years ago when we first met baby America, but I´m not sure what this have to do with it…

And he already has Ladonia… except, I guess Sve is more like his brother figure than a parent.

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- Sve... bought a child from eBay - Swedish file-sharing website was planning to buy its own nation in an attempt to circumvent international copyright laws. It failed.

[findiary]

May 20, 2006

My band won the Eurovision Song Contest! This was never supposed to happen... I mean, I have participated since 1961, but I have never been even close of winning!

(The band was a bit different than I usually send to the competition... Maybe threatening to eat the voters also helped!)

Oh, I did win in the Intervision Song Contest in 1980, but it was a bit different kind of competition. It was the Eastern bloc´s equivalent of this contest… I used to take part in both.

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- The Eurovision Song Contest is the longest-running annual international TV song competition, held, primarily, among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956.

- My band won the Eurovision Song Contest - Lordi performed "Hard Rock Hallelujah" in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest and won the contest with 292 points.

- This was never supposed to happen – There was a saying in Finland, that life outside of the Earth will be discovered before Finland wins in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Finnish songs have always been a bit outside of the common taste (and the competition has never been that popular in Finland, Sweden is crazy about it). and especially when there was a rule that you need to use your own language, Finland was a little bit lost because everyone else sang in a related language (Indo-European language group) and Finland was almost the only outsider” (Uralic language group). Finland is a bilingual country, so Finland sometimes used Swedish, too, but with no success.

The only Finnish song that ever got 12 points (from Ireland) and lead the statistics some time was "Lapponia" (1977. About a lonely witch woman who lives in the north. A man falls in love with her, but witches can´t love mortals).

The least successful song Finland has ever sent to the contest was called “Nuku pommiin” (Fell asleep because a bomb) in 1982. Fell asleep because of a bomb is an Finnish idiom meaning to oversleep, but the song actually dealt with the nuclear threat and idiotic leaders who should negotiate more with each other and wake up or else they won´t necessary ever wake up. But the song also mentions that sleeping to the bomb would probably be a easier choice than the current situation because you would most likely die immediately and that would be calming...

Finland was really, really fed up with the Cold War at that point. Luckily nobody understood what the song was about. It also sounds pretty horrible, so no wonder it got no votes.

- I did win in the Intervision Song Contest - The Intervision Song Contest is an international song contest consisting of both Post-Soviet states and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It was previously the Eastern Bloc equivalent to the Eurovision Song Contest.

“Hyvästi yö” (Goodbye night) won in 1980. For some reason, yö (night) isn´t very pretty sounding word at the song is full of it.

[findiary]

December 17, 2004

I met Russia a few days ago. He seemed tired and his boss is stressed out. And America was really curious to know what we talked about - like he always is. It wasn´t even anything important, just trying to clear some disputes.

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[findiary]

May 1, 2004

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined to the European Union today! And they weren’t the only ones!

It was the biggest group of new members ever, Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Malta and Slovenia joined. And also Czechia and Slovakia, who divorced moved to separate houses already 11 years ago.

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The 2004 enlargement of the European Union was the largest single expansion of the European Union (EU), in terms of territory, number of states, and population to date.

Part of the same wave of enlargement was the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, who were unable to join in 2004, but, according to the Commission, constitute part of the fifth enlargement.

- And also Czechia and Slovakia, who divorced moved to separate houses - Czechia and Slovakia decided to become independent together in 1918, and in 1993 they decided to become independent separately. The dissolution was completely peaceful.

I should have drawn Cyprus, too, but I´m so scatterbrained I forgot that they joined also in 2004.

[findiary]

February xx, 2004

My relations with Russia aren´t very good right now. He´s nervous (?) because the Baltics will join NATO this year.

He even tried to make me to talk to them because I´m a tiny country and they are tiny too, and tiny countries listen to each other. And because "They are your neighbors, too! You should do something!"

I don´t want to. They can do whatever they want, it doesn´t bother me. That answer didn´t make him happy.

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- the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined in 1999, and in 2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

[findiary]

January 1, 2002

The euro is now completely my new currency. I... I will miss my old markka, but I guess I will get used to this new currency, too… at least one day, it still feels weird right now.

This was one of the criterions for the European Union membership. I have to show everyone that I take this seriously, so they don´t need to regret accepting me into the club...

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- The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, although not all states have done so. The United Kingdom and Denmark negotiated exemptions, while Sweden turned down the euro in a 2003 referendum, and has circumvented the obligation to adopt the euro by not meeting the monetary and budgetary requirements. All nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course.

[findiary]

March 1, 2000

I have a new boss now. Nothing unusual about it, but I have never had a woman boss before!

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- Tarja Kaarina Halonen is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th, and first female President of Finland from 2000 to 2012.

[findiary]

March 20, 1997

America and Russia met at my place again. They "occupied" my living room and discussed about NATO and other security issues.

(Hosting meetings like these isn´t as glamorous as you would think it is… and America they are eating all of my cookies…!)

Just a couple days ago Russia told me that I shouldn´t join to NATO. He´s sure they are trying to encircle him or something weird like that. He even drew me a picture about it.

...I wasn´t even thinking about joining to NATO. I´m not sure what to think about it.

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- He even drew me a picture about it – Apparently, they did…

[findiary]

May 7, 1995

I can´t believe this!! My team won! My team won gold in the Ice Hockey World Championship! Finally!

I guess I´m going to celebrate this at least this whole week!

A month! A year!

The rest of my life!

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- The 1995 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships was played in Stockholm and Gävle Sweden, from 23 April to 7 May 1995. In the tournament finals, Finland won the gold medal by winning over Sweden 4–1 at the Globen arena in Stockholm.

The gold medal was the first in Finland's history (Sweden had won championships even before). Sweden had written a fight song, "Den glider in", which also was intended to be the official song of the championships. After the finals, the song became very popular in Finland.

- The Finnish economy also began to grow the same year, partially thanks to success in the new mobile phone business. It was the pride of Finland a long time, but nothing lasts forever… Except this hockey victory, they made a movie about it this year.

[findiary]

January 25, 1995

Norway told us that Russia called and told him, that he almost started a nuclear war because of Norway.

Russia thought that a Norwegian and American research rocket he saw on the radar was a nuclear missile, and he was already ready to respond to it.

Only Norway can look so stoic when he tells something like that...

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- The Norwegian rocket incident, also known as the Black Brant scare, occurred on January 25, 1995, when a team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII four-stage sounding rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwestern coast of Norway. The rocket, which carried scientific equipment to study the aurora borealis over Svalbard, flew on a high northbound trajectory, which included an air corridor that stretches from Minuteman III nuclear missile silos in North Dakota, all the way to the Russian capital city of Moscow.

During its flight, the rocket eventually reached an altitude of 1,453 kilometers (903 mi), resembling a U.S. Navy submarine-launched Trident missile. As a result, fearing a high-altitude nuclear attack that could blind Russian radar, Russian nuclear forces were put on high alert, and the nuclear weapons command suitcase was brought to Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who then had to decide whether to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against the United States.

[findiary]

January 1, 1995

From this day on, I´m a member of the European Union!

Sve and Austria are also new members. Norway decided that he doesn’t want to join, he said he can manage perfectly on his own. Iceland wasn´t interested either.

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- The 1995 enlargement of the European Union saw Austria, Finland and Sweden accede to the European Union (EU). This was the EU's fourth enlargement and came into effect on the 1 January of that year.

On 30 March 1994, accession negotiations concluded with Austria, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Their accession treaties were signed on 25 June of that year. Each country held referendums on entry resulting on entry for all except Norway (its second failed referendum).

- Norway decided that he doesn’t want to join - Norway had negotiated to join alongside the other three but following the signing of the treaty, membership was turned down by the Norwegian electorate in the 1994 national referendum. Switzerland also applied for membership on 26 May 1992, but withdrew it after a negative referendum result on 6 December 1992.

Thanks to a prosperous oil industry and shrewd investment of the returns, Norway has accumulated one of the largest pension funds in the world, second only to Japan’s, and its per capital GDP is the fourth highest in the world.

But they voted "no" already in 1972, when they didn't yet know how significant the oil wealth would be. Apparently because they used to belong to Denmark and then Sweden, they didn't want to give part of their independence away. Not that Finland would have wanted that either as it used to belong to Sweden and then Russia, so I'm not sure does this explain this. Or maybe Finland didn´t thought that it would make you less independent, as the Cold War period and times before that were quite distressing.

[findiary]

September 28, 1994

This is really horrible... and sad. A cruise ferry, Estonia´s namesake, sunk in the Baltic Sea. Hardly anyone survived.

Just as I thought it´s been quite calm lately... at this corner of the world, that is. Of course, there are wars, disasters, and fighting elsewhere, as usual...

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- MS Estonia, was a cruise ferry built in 1979/80 at the German shipyard Meyer Werft in Papenburg. The ship sank in 1994 in the Baltic Sea in one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.

- There are wars, disasters, and fighting elsewhere – I put this disaster here, even though it´s quite recent, because it was just an accident. I´m not going to put the breakup of Yugoslavia here, or any recent terrorist attacks, or the Georgian war even though I guess I will continue this until 2009.