so I just want to say hello to Finland and share some facts about Finland with those of you that aren't familiar with Finland. Finland's neighbors are Sweden in the West, Russia to the East, Norway to the North, and Estonia to the south.
Finish is one of the few official languages of the European Union that is not of Indo-European origin.
From 1249 A.D. to 1809 A.D. Finland was ruled by the Kingdom of Sweden and Swedish was the dominant language of administration and education while Finish was still spoken by the peasants, clergy, and local courts. Later Finland was annexed to Russia from 1809 A.D. to 1917 A.D. after being conquered by Russian Emporer Alexander I. Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire and the Finish language started to gain recognition by both the imperial court and governing bodies.
On December 6, 1917 Finland declared independence from Russia. The independence was approved by Bolshevist Russia but it let to a brief civil war from 1917 to 1918 which was fought by the German backed "white" and the Russian backed Bolshevist Russia. Which was basically a war between working class (reds) and middle and upper class (whites). The war was eventually won by the whites.
In World War II Finland fought the Soviet Union twice. Once in the winter of 1939 - 1940 and again in 1941 - 1944. In 1944 - 1945 Finland forced the Germans out of northern Finland. Finland was required to pay reparations to the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and this caused Finland to become an industrial nation from an agricultural one.
According to the World Audit study, Finland is the least corrupt and most democratic country in the world.
Read more about Finland at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland
4 comments:
I'm not sure how they figure out that its the least corrupt country in the world, but OK. Hail Finland!
One of the Chief Officers of my company and another co-worker are both from Finland and both really good and honest guys. I would say they're anything but corrupt.
Well I'm not saying that the majority of the country isn't corrupt. I'm sure they are good people. I'm just wondering how you dicern something like that?
They probably looked at court records and police investigations in all of the industrialized nations in the world. Finland seems, to me anyway, to be a very close knit society. I would think anything that would be prejudicial to your reputation would be greatly amplified in their society and a source of great shame. Having lived in the third world, I have seen extreme corruption and it makes the USA look like Mother Teresa and the third world look like Al Capone. Just my thoughts, I can't back it up, so please excuse me while I take another $20 out of the till. Ciao.
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