Over 27,000 and growing!

Åsub have just produced a report which shows the population on Åland exceeding 27,000 for the first time. The increase is mostly due to immigration and Mariehamn, fast approaching 11,000 citizens, is responsible for over 2/3 (128 people) of the population growth on Åland in the first half of this year. And, nearly 40% of the net immigration was from countries outside Scandinavia.

Among the many attractive features of Åland which are contributing to this growth, one stands out clearly for me. It was certainly the strongest factor in our decision to set up home here. That is, there can’t be many better places on the planet for family life than Åland.

If Åland wants to continue the upward trend in its population statistics, it could do worse than to market itself on its family friendliness. To take but one example, our daughter’s nursery is truely awesome. Great staff, amazing facilities, lots of activities and, consequently no doubt, a great atmosphere. When we were still thinking about moving back to Hull, we went to check out the University’s nursery. I almost wept it was so poor in comparison. The bare concrete yard that served as an outside play-area would’ve shamed the U.S. penitentiary system, AND the nursery fees were more than twice as much.

Double Standards and Anonymity

Nyan has a report today on the case of a “leading politician” who has been reported for assualting one of his sons. The article is meant to provide the man in question with anonymity, but for anyone at all invovled in politics here, and probably for many who aren’t, it’s pretty obvious who it is from the description provided. In the report he’s called “Fredrik”, so at least you know it’s not anyone called Fredrik.

I notice there’s nothing about it in Ålandstidningen. They were quick to pounce on Barbro Sundback with very flimsy evidence (she was falsely accused of bullying a cleaner), so it’ll be interesting to see if they follow this case up with the same vigour. It also made me wonder about the way the press here provide people with anonymity. It’s such a small place that giving details about a case like this effectively “outs” the person in question before a decision has been made as to whether or not they’re guilty. Personally, I’d rather the press waited until all the facts are in, but if they can’t manage that, shouldn’t they at least be consistent, rather than pretending to give the accused person anonymity, and treat this leading politician just as they treated Barbro?

Multicultural Society’s Language Debate

I was at the multicultural society’s language debate yesterday evening. Given that the football was on at the same time, the turnout was quite respectable. The exception was among young men, I’d say myself, Martin Nilsson and Niklas Lampi (in the panel) were the only ones there that that could be described in that way. I think there were quite a lot of Finnish speakers among the audience too.

If I could offer one criticism it would be that there was nobody there to defend the kind of anti-Finnish Åland-nationalism that the Independents and Åland’s Future represent. The panelists, two of whom were Finnish speakers, were broadly in agreement. Peter Lindbäck (Finland’s top representative on Åland) expressed the opinion, with which I agree, that Ålanders had to adapt to the reality around them (a large Finnish-speaking mainland with which many of our companies want to do business), rather than expect that reality to adapt to them.

There was general agreement among Finnish speakers in the audience and on the panel that “hemspråksundervisning” (special classes in their own tongues for those who don’t have Swedish as a first language) is an important issue. This got me to thinking about how it will be for my daughters learning English here. Will they be expected to sit through classes where they learn how to say what there name is in English? Will they be able to get seperate tuition?

Some of the audience brought up the issue of reactions to them speaking Finnish in public places. One case was mentioned where a Finnish speaker had been warned not to use their own language when talking to a another Finnish speaker in their workplace: it would damage the reputation of the company!!! The editor of Ålandstidningen, Niklas Lampi, pointed out that with 450 unfilled jobs and a population of only 27,000, Åland can’t afford to have anything other than a tolerant attitude for those with different mother tongues.

All in all, it was an interesting and enjoyable evening! And, given that we lost the football, I’m glad I made the choice I did.

Reform of Further Education

At the moment there is rather controversial reform programme in the works for further education on Åland. The idea is that various further education institutions on Åland will be combined into a single organsiation. I would say that the main aim of the reform from my party’s perspective is to increase flexibility and choice for students at the different schools, allowing them to take a wider range of courses/broaden their qualifications. There is general acceptance that the reform is a good thing within the “technical schools”, but Åland’s Lyceum, which provides a traditional academic education, is strongly resistant to the reform and wants to remain outside it.

I was having dinner with my parents-in-law this evening (all five of their kids studied at Lyceum), and the subject of this reform came up. They are against it. I offered my opinion that objection to the refom was really based mostly on feeling. I believe this is particularly evident in the way that most of the criticism has been directed at the proccess rather than the actual content of the reform. When I say that objections really are based mainly on feeling, what I mean is that those who object to the reform think that academic education is more valuable than technical education. Lyceum’s students are therefore not seen to benefit from it because it’s not thought they would want to go and take technical courses. The assumption is that the traffic of students will all be one way: to Åland’s Lyceum. Of course, the other unspoken assumption is that this will in some way make the education at Åland’s Lyceum worse.

Spring Fair

This weekend sees the arrival of the spring fair in Eckerö. The Social Democrats will be there (my eldest daughter is a bit sick, so I’m not sure I will be), as will the Centre Party and the Independent Party Group. There will be the usual balloons and sweets on offer, but we are also doing a questionaire about what the most important questions are before the autumn elections, and we are going to be giving out copies of our language policy platform. Eckerö is a pretty strong region for the nationalistic parties on Åland, so it will be interesting to see how well we are received there.

Two papers on Åland? Not for much longer.

As I stumbled half-awake to my front door this morning in order to get the morning paper I noticed something strange: there were two papers. I wasn’t particularly pleased to find two papers on the door mat this morning, but I was disappointed not to have my evening paper anymore. I don’t know how many people subscribed to both papers before, but I can’t imagine very many are going to carry on doing so.

For my part, it’ll be Nyan that I continue to subscribe to, and I think it’s more likely that Ålandstidningen will go under. I’d say Nyan looks better and it’s got more of substance in it (I haven’t weighed them, but it felt heavier too). They do also seem to be a little bit more on the ball at Nyan. When Ålandstidningen annouced they were going to start coming out on Saturday, Nyan pipped them at the post and enjoyed a couple of weeks of free advertising. The advertising was intended to promote Ålandstidningen’s Saturday paper, but it actually just highlighted the fact Nyan beat them to it.

Why the hostility?

It was my daughter’s fourth birthday on Friday, and we had a little party for her in our flat. One of the guests mentioned that her husband had been teased for going to a “sosse” (social democrat) party. This got me thinking about the general attitude to social democrats here on Åland, and I think there’s quite a bit of low-level hostility towards us and, to some degree, there is a stigma attached to being a social democrat. It’s all very strange if you ask me, because, as has been observed elsewhere, the other parties do sign up to what is essentially a social democratic model. Most Åland people seem on the whole to be content with the social democratic system we have here. They accept the ideas, so why the hostility when they hear the name?

Familiarity to Solidarity?

I’ve written before about how Åland society is impressively active with its multitude of clubs and associations. Another of its very striking features, for an Englishman, is how little class/income differences mean here.

Of course, there are some rich people, some relatively poor people and everything in between. But we aren’t segregated by those differences. Sure there are more expensive parts of Mariehamn, but we don’t have the better-off all living in one area, while the worse-off live in another. I live in a block of largely owner-occupied flats, but we are opposite rented ones, and within thirty seconds walk of some beautiful houses with fair sized plots.

We also all send our kids to the same nurseries and schools. When you go shopping in the supermarket, the person standing in front of you at the till might equally be a millionaire or someone on a low income. The heir to a shipping or some other fortune may as easily drive a beaten-up car as a flash one. For the outsider, just looking at them, who is who isn’t blindingly obvious. Even for the Ålanders – who most certainly do know who is who – I don’t think these things are barriers between them in the way they often are in other societies.

It was said on this blog recently that knowledge is the path to Liberalism. I’d like to venture that when it concerns relations between different class/income groups, familiarity (and with it knowledge) is the path to solidarity. Not quite as snappy, but it’ll do.

Inheritance Tax and a Redistributive Tax System

I’ve just been glancing through the papers before putting them in the recycling and I came across a letter to the editor from Roger Eriksson (Åland’s Liberal candidate for the Finnish parliament), which I somehow managed to miss during the week. In the letter, he suggests abolishing inheritance tax. I’ve just read up about how inheritance tax works here in Finland, and I have to say, I think it kicks in at much too low a level (from 3,400 euros). I am therefore not against reform.

However, Roger Eriksson was calling for the complete abolition of inheritance tax, disingenuously claiming this would benefit ordinary people. Raising the amount you can inherit without paying inheritance tax certainly would benefit ordinary people, but abolishing it would, like having a flat income tax, most certainly not do that. The wider question posed by Roger Eriksson’s suggestion and Magnus Lunberg’s flat tax proposal is whether we should have a redistributive tax system. I would have thought the political parties on Åland would all sign up to such a tax system. If not, then say so. Don’t try and hide these proposals behind concern for ordinary people. I mean, for God’s sake, the British Conservative party considered both these ideas recently and rejected them for being too rightwing!

Congratulations Diana, Congratulations Åland!

When I arrived on Åland a little over 4 years ago, I received a warm welcome from Åland’s judo club, so I was pleased to see Diana Lindström, who has become the 8th Ålander to obtain a black belt in Judo, lighting up the front page of yesterday evening’s Ålandstidning with a smile. The first time I saw my wife Hanna was on the mat at Hull University’s judo club, so it’s at least partly thanks to Judo that I find myself living on Åland today.

Given how small Åland is, not yet 27,000 residents, I’ve always been impressed by how much activity there is, how involved Ålanders are in their community and how many talented and successful individuals Åland has produced. The place is overflowing with athletes, musicians and designers. Ålanders are active participants in music, the arts and sports at an every day level too. They clearly don’t sit around watching TV in their spare time, they get involved. There are a ton of associations and clubs, with many people giving freely (or almost freely) of their time to pass on their knowledge and skills to others.

The academic Robert Putnam has highlighted the phenomenon of disengagement from civil society in America. He vividly illustrates this with the example of Americans “bowling alone”, rather than taking part in leagues (there is of course an active bowling club on Åland). I don’t know how it compares with 25 or 50 years ago, but civil society on Åland today is clearly strong. Perhaps it’s because Åland is an island (stricktly speaking it’s a group of about 6500 islands). Perhaps because, having their own parliament, Ålanders have so much power to decide their own affairs. Whatever it is, it makes Åland a great place to live, and I want to do my part to keep it up.