Is New Zealand Better Than Finland?

Gerry Brownlee, the leader of New Zealand's House of Representatives and the centre-right administration's third-ranking minister, caused quite a stir recently when he appeared to insult Finland during a speech.

Such was the uproar, that New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key ended up having to apologise to the Finnish president over the remarks.

High Energy

Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, there was a wave of anti-nuclear sentiments in Finland. The old "Nuclear Power – No Thanks" stickers came out again, and everyone agreed that nuclear energy was a bad thing.

I stood as an observer, not knowing much about Finnish energy generation or consumption (actually, I don't know much at all about energy). But a couple of thoughts came to my mind....

Wot? No Government?

On 17 April 2011, Finland held parliamentary elections. Seven weeks later, the country is still without a new government!

Problem? What problem?

Immigrant or Expatriate?

My parents came to visit last weekend, for Easter. We had a lovely time, and, as we often do, we put the world to right on many subjects...

At one point though, my mother asked: “what would you say is the difference between an immigrant and an expatriate?”

This was not the opening line of some inappropriate joke, but a genuine question. And a good one, too. And I have to admit that I was somewhat flummoxed by it: I had never thought about the difference and I wasn't too sure what it was.