It’s been a long time since I started this blog and almost as long since my last post. Maybe I should stop – maybe not. Let’s see what happens.

school murders in Finland – Kauhajoki

Finland seems to be a country where people put too much trust in their own citizens. I believe that most people were assured after the murders at the Jokela School, that murders like that would not happen again in their country.

But as long as there is the possibility for school kids to own guns legally, there is always the chance that some deranged person will use his weapon to become “famous”. And I used the word famous because there is no other explanation for such stupid primitive acts after they have been forecast on the internet.

There can be many causes; and some of them, I am sure, can be nipped in the bud; measures can be taken on all levels to highly improve the civilization of a people.

  • prohibit ownership of weapons by private citizens,
  • parental responsibility should go much further than leaving one’s children to forge for their own while both parents are off to work,
  • computer games have age limits which don’t seem to awaken parents. Maybe they don’t read English, or don’t understand what 18+ means. I have seen 12 year old school kids getting the most horrible games from their parents who probably do not understand the brainwashing terms being spoken during the virtual killing spree’s of their children: a masculine voice encouraging the young player by exclaiming “rampage!” every few minutes. The parents whom I know of my children’s friends don’t seem to care at all. Fifteen year old school friends are a member of gun clubs and have their weapons at home. They shoot them in their back yards (which in Finland is usually the forest),
  • the Finnish government only cares about the control of liquor, which is only sold in state owned stores. Weapons can be bought in private shops. With alcohol one can not murder in cold blood.

I ask myself

  • whether it is safe to send my children to school as long as the government exchanges its discussion about the prices they charge for alcohol for a fundamental discussion about the abolishment of privately owned weapons,
  • whether, during this discussion, kids who own weapons should be banned from schools,
  • whether parents should start to realize that at least one of them should be home for the children, when they are brought home from school in the state-paid taxi,
  • whether parents should be instructed to pay attention to what their children are doing on the internet.

the modern middle ages

rowing in Lapland

When we are on our island in Lapland,  our rowboat is our means of transportation.

Finland, the land of the modern middle ages. We live in the midst of forests – surrounded by lakes – no neighbors to be seen or heard. Nor can they see or hear us. Isn’t that wonderful!

But still – yesterday we hear two muffled bangs coming from one of the old barns which are still standing, abandoned, in the surrounding woods. Today the school-taxi driver (they hear everything) told my wife, Marjo, that hunting neighbors were after a fox which had eaten their livestock (fowl actually – and to be more precise, their chickens). We did hear our Australian Cattle Dog barking; but he often barks away wild animals from “our” forest. Once he caught, or rather herded, a dear into our dog pen, which was open that day. But back to the old barn – it seems that the fox had fled into the barn. Our dog seemed to have been after it. The hunters saw that, since they were searching the fox, went into the barn where both men fired at the fox and terminated the unfortunate animal. But then – our two new kittens are a little safer again – until spring that is; then the bears will wake up.

the blog of the sculptor Lucien den Arend