The majority of the European countries consider Christmas as the main holiday in a year and Finland not an exception, however is the native land of Santa Claus, therefore New year here – the whole event. From the workshop in Lapland annually well-known grandfather begins travel on magic sledge on all planet giving to obedient children unusual gifts. New year in Finland – time of miracles and winter entertainments, and as a season of New Year’s discounts and sales. After New year here it is accepted to bring down indecently the prices for the various goods in any shops. New year in Helsinki, capital of Finland, this unforgettable show, celebrates it all city: people leave on streets and congratulate all on a holiday. The good mood and holiday atmosphere reign here on everywhere. To you New Year’s fireworks in Helsinki will by all means be remembered, and your children all time will ask for aqua parks of Serena or Eden. At first sight Finland seems too silent and measured country for hyperproductive leisure, however for New year in Finland is always noisy and is cheerful. Everywhere there are huge, decorated with toys, fur-trees, and in cities light magnificent celebratory illumination.

Anyhow New Year’s holidays in Helsinki will not leave anybody indifferent, even the most exacting tourists without effort will find than to occupy themselves and the children. As they say: “it is better to see once…”

America Has Been Trapped! Yes, Sir, True It Is

brotee mukhopadhyay

It is not clear if the people of the United States of America are really interested to learn the possible reasons behind the economic massacre experienced in the recent years. It is possible that they will search them out and that they will not officially allow the people of the globe to learn them. There are persons and organizations which are responsible for making such a mess of everything in the American economics. Whether they will be identified and even be booked may be of course a million dollar question.

One can easily mark that courses of events have taken opposite directions. President Obama has promptly declared necessary measures to bail out some first-ranking banks and billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have been used up for this purpose. One can differ with the dominating criticism that America has been invaded by the wisdom of the socialists because of such unprecedented intervention by the state. Remember Deng of the Chinese Republic who has prescribed to welcome any cat irrespective of its color if it can catch the rats. Whether the rats have been caught in China of today is another question.

Today it is open to all that rats are plenty and that they are free in the country of plenty and pleasure which is America. You may hear from the agents of the authority that American recession is on the wane. You may read such reports in the national dailies that departmental stores are again attended by the customers. Such reports indicating return of good weather should be studied with definite reservation. The rate of unemployment in America is well above alarming ten percent.

President Obama has expressed his concern on some issues of national importance. He has appealed to the community of the American students to pay genuine attention to study Mathematics so that competitive advantages in the sphere of knowledge remain in favor of America. He has raised his firm voice against resourcing in the developing countries by the American companies. People have heard that tax-break may be slashed if the companies indulge in outsourcing. He is ready to consider concessions for the companies which will create jobs for the American market.

Some of the educational centers in the United States rank as the best ones in the world. They have become so when centers of excellence have shifted from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, that is, from England and other advanced European countries. But condition of the rest or of great number of schools is not at all healthy. Schools in America are not rare where hungry students go to attend classes and report of their graduation is not at all satisfactory. Moreover, it is in the air that Helsinki of northern Europe has been destined to be the glorious next station as the center of excellence.

President Obama may not probably touch a single hair of the outsourcing companies. Karl Marx may be accepted or discarded. His findings on surplus value cannot be refuted. Labor is the greatest factor behind profit-making. Companies will spend many times less towards wages and facilities for the workers and employees if they chance to outsource in the developing countries. They will thus find profit, that is, more and more profit, which is again guarantee of their formal survival.

America has probably been trapped, trapped by mistakes of the past. Slaves are no more available from any continent and America, not in wars, is hard to imagine. 

It’s always been an unquestioned necessity for me to have buses, metro’s, trams and trains running regularly and transporting me to wherever I’m wishing to go. That may be why I didn’t pay accessibility and transportation a second thought when I found out I was going to go to exchange in a little town in Western Pennsylvania called Indiana. Anyway, it was only 500 kilometres away from New York and the delights of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were even closer. And Chicago and Niagara Falls for sure were easy to reach by bus. The four months would be so filled with traveling that I didn’t even know where to start.

However, after arriving to the small snow-covered town, the reality started finally to take in. This place was designed to people who left the comfort of their houses only with their big cars and even though Indiana is considered to be a student town, it was screaming for the lack of transportation which a European student finds as an absolute necessity. The connections from campus to the malls did exist, employing men and women clearly in retirement age, and transporting even older people and the few students who didn’t have the luxury of owning a car. But what it comes to leaving the town, it had been made extremely difficult for non-car owners. The bus to Pittsburgh (and to the closest airport), run twice a day, but there was no point of going for day trip because three hour’s city pleasure isn’t worth of six hour’s sweaty and bumpy bus trip. And having experienced the old, sometimes too hot and sometimes too cold busses, the 18 hour’s trip to New York by road didn’t seem that tempting any more. Neither did any other options. And there we were with my fellow exchange students, lying on our dormitory beds on evenings, listening to the whistles of the carriage train and imagining how easy it would be if it just would take people.

By writing this I’m not meaning to complain over things that can’t be done better by moaning. I’m simply wishing to share my astonishment with others, and maybe even offer a warning to people who are considering exploring America beyond the big cities. It introduces a European student a completely different mentality which is difficult to understand if not experienced in person. The concepts individualism and freedom which are cherished in the American culture show their distorted edges in this travelling issue. The well-off can access everything they need easily from the comfort of their huge cars but the other side of the society is left in the mercy of miserable public transport and the strength of their own will. Because you really need a patience of a saint and a good amount of strong will to sit down in a bus for 18 hours to access a city only 500 km away.

But eventually getting around in Western Pennsylvania wasn’t as difficult as it first seemed. You just had to adapt to completely new conditions, take your time to get into the closest airport and fly! Thanks to the countless budget flight companies and the excellent exchange rate between dollar and euro, I and my fellow exchange students managed to see plenty of interest places after all during our one semester stay.