To haunt of the wide world a spot

Puddles

Reeds

Bodom lake

Birch

Boat

Boat

Trees

Lights

We spent with the children today almost two hours at Bodom lake, returning back when it got dark. It was a clouded day, but at least it wasn't raining.

The Cold Within

Wet

Night

Twigs

Pier

Reflect

I have been experimenting with the titles of the blog postings for some days now, making Google searches to discover potential titles. Today I used the search words "reflect poem", and ended at the poem "The Cold Within" by James Patrick Kinney. It made an impression.

And I think this poem connects on some level with the posting "Let them eat Pizza" by Paul Maxim. A sad story of the world we live in.

In the unmapped forests of the future

Lamp

Tree

Steeet

Blur

Lake

Andreas made a posting worth reading, "Don’t Let Them Keep You Quiet", about what is happening in the United States, namely censorship attempts by the media industry: "[T]his is the illusion industry. Their business is to show you things that are not, and to make you believe they are. Technically this is not different from lying, it’s only a matter of intention. As a lobby, the entertainment industry is probably the most dangerous in the world."

I made a comment there, and feel the topic is worth writing about here also. Namely, some people in the States are blaming the school system for brainwashing the children from the one and only truth (as defined by the rich and powerful, such as the media industry).

I wonder why we don’t seem to have politicians who have courage and wisdom. Or maybe we never did, perhaps it was just an illusion.

But I do have a case example of there having existed wise politicians. Namely, here in Finland in the 1950s and 1960s the school system was developed in such a way as to afford every Finnish child equally good education. There was a group of policiticans who drove through this program, and it changed the whole country immensely for the good.

I’m myself a beneficiary of this wisdom. The Finnish school system made it possible for me to get an education – to move from a small farm in a small village, far up in the north, to high-school and to a good university.

And this large-scale development changed Finland from an economy based on forestry and agriculture all the way to the forefront of the current “information age”.

But today we have nationalistic and populistic politicians who blame schools for teaching things like multiculturality, gender equality, social fairness, and so on. And this same school system has been evaluated to be one of the best in the world…

But I still have faith in Finnish teachers. They are dedicated, hardworking, and justly proud of what they are doing. And maybe the Finnish people also are up to the challenge posed by populistic politicians and industry lobbying.