Independence Day
Cannot help thinking about a certain Hollywood production when typing that title. Though I have never seen the actual movie...Today is Finland's independence day and the country celebrates its 90th birthday. Cool, eh?
Last year we took a ride in Millennium Eye with Suvi and toasted with some cheap Mojitos but this year I'm celebrating my granma's bday (she's turning 70 on Saturday) and maybe even watch some Linnan juhlat (President's reception) from telly since I'm not invited, lol.
The reason I started to write this post in the first place was that I took a citizenship test made by the biggest Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (http://www.hs.fi/english/) and wasn't too surprised to find out I would not qualify as a citizen. At the moment you don't have to pass any kind of test to get a Finnish passport but it's a common practice in many European countries such as Great Britain, Netherlands and Denmark. Questions have something to do with the country's history, legislation and everyday things like an emergency number but it's very likely even the country's own citizens couldn't answer them properly. In Finland, some of the MPs took the test and there was several of them who couldn't get the nationality ;P
So, go on. Do the test, if you dare! The first one is the Finnish one (only in Finnish, sorry folks) and the second the British one from BBC's site...
http://www2.hs.fi/extrat/hsfi/omaelama/kansalaisuustesti/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4099770.stm
posted by Minkki @ Thursday, December 06, 2007
4 Comments:
I got one wrong in the Finnish test. Everybody remember, in the Finnish modern history the correct answer is usually 'Kekkonen'. This works in Trivial Pursuit as well.
The British one doesn't really tell, how much you have to score to pass, but I got 10 correct (and I had to answer the Father Christmas question wrong for obvious reasons...), so I believe I'm still more a Finn than a Brit.
Naturally, these kind of tests bring up the questions of what relevant knowledge and how does that relate to the citizenship of a nation? But at least in the case of the Finnish test, I really feel that the one who does not pass the test is not very interested in the society around him/her outside the very limited and familiar part surrounding the person. Still I do not think that the citizenship should be based on tests like these.
Well, I didn't pass (got 53 or something), although the questions seemed easy enough, but all these children's rights things...I suppose I'm not interested in them, then. And I would say that I am interested in my society, but still got too many answers wrong. Was surprised, actually.
Funny, I was thinking of writing about Finnish independence day as well. In Dar it was...hot and humid, with lots of drinks, less food except a pizza from a 24-hour place at 2am in the morning. Sounds quite like in Finland, eh? So who had the best dress at the ball?
Well, I did pass, though I made one mistake on purpose, and didn't know all the answers. It's funny how people talk about rights (human or animal) here and there, but they do not know the childrens' rights nor basic rights in their home countries.
I must agree with Teemu that many tend to be sooooo interested in things far-away that issues close by are ignored. Sad.
And yes, I am against that kind of tests to decide whether or not someone is eligible for the citizenship.
Happy holidays...
TARKAN NEW ALBUM:METAMORFOZ
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