Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Deputy mayor stopped train traffic while doing illegal graffiti – “I apologize”

Published 28 June 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Paavo Arhinmäki has been fascinated by graffiti since childhood.
2 minute read

Paavo Arhinmäki, the deputy mayor of Helsinki, was caught graffitiing a wall by the railroad tracks with a friend on Midsummer’s Eve.

The police also had to shut down train traffic because of the left-wing politician’s actions – as unauthorized people are not allowed to be on the tracks under any circumstances.

Paavo Arhinmäki, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Leisure in Helsinki, is a former leader of the Socialist Left Alliance and a former Member of Parliament.

At around 10 pm on Midsummer’s Eve, he and a friend were confronted by security guards while painting illegal graffiti on a concrete wall near a railway tunnel, and the police were called.

The left-wing politician admits that he is guilty of a crime and “will bear responsibility” for it, but he is also being investigated for disrupting traffic because the police had to shut down train traffic on the track as unauthorized people are not allowed on the track area, Yle, Finland’s national public broadcasting company, reports.

However, Arhinmäki does not believe he needs to resign from his post as deputy mayor and is also supported by the Left Alliance council group.

– Arhinmäki immediately told the group about what happened and apologized profoundly. He will bear criminal responsibility. We have full confidence in him and support him as deputy mayor even after this, says Mia Haglund, chair of the group.

On Facebook, the left-wing leader says that he has always been fascinated by graffiti, that he is aware that there are a lot of legal graffiti walls in Helsinki, but that he still decided to paint by the train track.

“It was stupid of us to think that no one would care about us painting in such a place… In hindsight, it was a stupid idea to think that there was no train to Vuosaari harbor. There is no midsummer on the world’s oceans. And it was stupid to paint there when there are licensed walls”, he writes, among other things.

“I am truly sorry for this idiotic stupidity. I apologize”, he concludes.

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Finns ate more meat last year

Published 21 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
1 minute read

Last year, people in Finland ate more meat and chicken than the year before. At the same time, oat consumption set a new record in the Finnish diet, according to a new study.

Last year, Finns ate 78.2 kilograms of meat per person, including game and offal. Most of the meat, 76.2 kilograms, was beef, pork, lamb and chicken.

The consumption of beef in particular has decreased for several years in a row, but last year it increased, according to a survey by the Finnish Natural Resources Institute. The amount of chicken on the plate also increased in Finnish homes. At the same time, less pork and mutton was eaten. The consumption of fish remained seemingly unchanged, with each Finn eating an average of 13.7 kilograms last year.

Cereal consumption increased last year, reaching 87.3 kg per person. The main increase was in the amount of oats consumed, which reached record levels last year. Wheat and barley consumption also increased, while rye decreased.

– Here we see something of a trend. This is because the food industry has created a lot of new oat products. Part of this trend is also that Finns are drinking more oat milk, says statistics expert Erja Mikkola, to Finnish state broadcaster Yle.

Regular milk drinking decreased by about two percent, but people ate about the same amount of butter and cheese as in the previous year. Furthermore, each Finn ate an average of 48 kilograms of fruit and 64 kilograms of vegetables last year.

Rapid increase in antidepressants and ADHD medicines in Finland

Published 10 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
One fifth of Finnish women under 30 are currently taking antidepressants.
1 minute read

The use of antidepressants has increased sharply in Finland over the past decade, compared to the other Nordic countries. Prescription of ADHD medication for children has also increased significantly.

One fifth of women aged 18-29 use antidepressants, according to a survey by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution (Kela). Among men of the same age, the figure is eight percent. The figures are double those of 2014.

According to studies, mood and anxiety disorders have become more common, especially among young girls and women. The diagnoses of depression, anxiety disorders and sleep disorders are also increasingly visible in the health care records of young women, says Miika Vuori, Senior Researcher at Kela, in a press release.

Furthermore, adhd medication for children has also increased in the country. Last year, 11% of boys and 4% of girls aged 7-12 were prescribed medication for ADHD. When comparing Swedish and Finnish boys aged 5-9, 6% of Finnish boys used ADHD medication last year, while the corresponding proportion in Sweden was just over 2%. The use of antidepressants among young people has also increased faster in Finland than in the other Nordic countries over the past ten years.

The increase in the use of these two drugs has been strong in Finland, not only in comparison with Sweden but also with Norway and Denmark, says Vuori.

Finnish youth evicted at record pace

Published 3 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The number of evictions due to unpaid housing costs has increased fivefold in just three years.
1 minute read

A growing number of young Finns are being evicted from their rental properties due to unpaid rent. Lack of personal finance skills is cited as one of the main reasons.

Debt problems have increased significantly among Finns, with the number of payment reminders increasing tenfold since 2021. During the same period, the number of collections related to unpaid housing costs has increased twentyfold.

At the same time, the number of evictions is increasing – in 2024, 10% of collections for unpaid housing costs have led to eviction, compared to only 2% three years ago.

The problem exists across all age groups, but is particularly pronounced among young adults. It is highest among people under 25, and so far this year, as many young people have run into problems with rent arrears as in the whole of 2023.

“Everything has gone digital”

At Finnish debt collection company Intrum, the impression is that young people do not learn to manage their finances as they grow up and that an unpaid bill is often a matter of forgetfulness.

– They don’t necessarily understand the consequences of not paying a bill, said Reetta Lehessaari, Head of Debt Collection Services, to the Finnish state broadcaster Yle, and continued:

– Apparently, people no longer learn to pay bills at home in the same way as before. Everything has gone digital. Young people no longer see bills being paid in concrete terms.

Fines increased for killing protected species in Finland

Biodiversity

Published 30 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The fine for killing an Arctic fox in Finland is €17,656.
1 minute read

The Finnish Ministry of the Environment has significantly increased the fines for killing protected animals. For example, killing a freshwater pearl mussel is now three times more expensive than before.

Recently, it was decided to update the list of protected animals and the penalty for killing one of them. In Finland, the list was last updated in 2002, when a total of 286 animal species were included.

The new updated list now includes 320 animal species as well as 158 plant species that are protected and therefore illegal to kill or harm. Among others, the viper has been added.

The fines for killing a protected species have also been increased. For example, the fine for killing a Arctic fox has increased from €7,400 to €17,656. For the species black tern, it has increased from €185 to €9,865. The freshwater pearl mussel has increased from €589 to €1,496.

Some species on the list have received smaller fines, such as the white-tailed eagle, which has gone from €7,400 to just €407.

The value of a species is assessed on a number of criteria. These include the size of the population, how threatened the species is and how fast it is reproducing.

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