Today, I learned that:

Some countries have suffered through centuries to finally be able to celebrate their independence as a state. One such example is Poland, squeezed between the super powers of their time, and another is Finland. The latter was reigned by Sweden and Russia during some 700 years, until finally, in the wake of the World War I and the bolshevik revolution in Russia, it declared its independence exactly 100 years ago today. It is inhabited by people who never give up, but always work hard to get their opinion through. So today, continuing their spirit of ‘sisu’ and ‘hakkaa päälle’, I raise my glass and cling it with my Finnish friends and shout ‘Kippis!’ And of course, we enjoy the music of M. A. Numminen, singing his Swedish version of ‘American patrol’, named ‘Uppå källarbacken’, a song which played 24/7 when we built our Cortege-car at Chalmers 1975. See also reference #1 below.

References # 2, 3, and 4 below show some different aspects of Finland and its achievements over the years. And the following photo depicts the Finnish national animal, the Bear. The photo was taken by Saajaja on 2012-03-08.

Finally, if you like the works of the Canadian multimedia artist Neil Young, here is a great hint for you: From now and until 2018-06-30, you can stream all of his songs and videos for free with an audio bit rate of at least 320 kbits/s. Click on the link in reference #5 and good listening!

That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: M. A. Numminen – Uppå källarbacken

2: Finland

3: Finland celebrates 100 years of independence: ten fast facts

4: Finland fyller 100 år – detta får du inte missa

5: Neil Young Archives

*: What did you learn in school today ?e