Corruption in Finland

Mike-O

Mike-O

Active member


For years on end, many organizations studying the transparency of government and corporations around the world, Finland has been ranked in the top of the less corrupt countries. The thing is, we don't actually have any corruption here at all. Nothing. But instead, we have "Good Brother" scenarios.

No one knows where or when the whole phenomenon actually began, but it's basically good old corruption in the form of bribes, insider trading or secret deals favoring a small group of people in power. Everyone knows about it, but nothing has been done to solve the issue and fight the image of a non-corrupt country as we have a lot of fucked up things going on in our administration and government-owned companies and institutions and these fucks are always getting away with it.

Finnair, an airline which of the gov owns 66%, subjected their lower staff to a massive paycut and layoffs of in 2009, worth 23 million Euros, while promising their fifteen-headed Board of Executives a bonus of 300,000 a pop for staying along until February 2012. The day came, the money was paid, and eight of the members bolted, smiling on their way to the bank and positions in other high-profile companies.

VR, the railway company owned by the government and running a monopoly and barring entry from any competition, has layed off hundreds of people and subjected staff to massive paycuts over the last two years while purchasing new locomotives that don't withstand Finnish winter conditions, causing VR's operational stability and profitability to plummet. At the same time, the Top 50 leaders of VR devised a reward system that grants only them huge bonuses simply by selling property and shutting down operations around Finland, not to mention the purchase of property or housing to be used for VR leader's expensive vacations and retreats.

Patria, a military systems equipment developer and provider, which the gov owns 73%, bribed Slovenian and Croatian military representatives to buy 30 AMV vehicles for the amount of 280 and 112 million Euros, giving the officials in charge of the sale massive bonuses, stock options and extra weight in the company. This case was found out and is still in courts after four years with everyone in Patria denying any foul play. The outcome, with high probability, will be no prosecutions, just corporate fines.

Ilmarinen, a pension insurance company owned by the government, has been buying apartments, houses and properties for and from its board members or their close friends with tax payer money over the past few years, probably a lot longer as the case unfolds. Insider trading, closed "auctions" and properties being bought and sold either over or under the market prices to the members' benefit, giving them massive profits or ownership of high-end housing.

This year is the year when the walls come down. People have known the truth for so, so long, but overall Finnish apathy and numb-mindedness when it comes to government rule, thinking that "they know what they're doing" is starting to come to an end as the younger generations are filling up seats of the existing "Good Brother" clubs, realizing that this won't fly any longer. Good Brother deals, where any words of corruption or foul play are sweeped under the mat, instead embraced as friendly, "understanding" handshakes and nods in luxurious saunas all over Finland over a few shots of Finlandia Vodka.

Finland is as full of corruption on a high, government level and the transparency organizations refuse to accept these facts at play. Maybe they are Good Brothers as well...

 
haha yes, its a just joke from a slightly more controversial recent mike-o thread. . .

I thought it was all pretty interesting, something that, as a european, I had no idea about.
 
Corruption should be defined as Government and Politicians in the dictionary. But really no big surprise here.
 
I can't get 100% behind that, as our government does great things, and we have many amazing and dedicated politicians working for the peoples' causes.

The most disgusting thing about this backhand dealing and scheming is that it's almost completely brushed off by transparency organizations and even with all these cases popping up left and right during the last few years, Finland's rank has not dropped dramatically, or at all considering the extent of these cases.

The most common denominator between those GBs is a sudden case of amnesia that hits any and all accused of any corruption.

"I can't remember."

The sad thing is that usually it works and a lot of people get away scot-free.
 
Unfortunately.
Most people on NS are...
A: Not from Finland.B: Not from places that care about finland.C: only aware of Finland because their president up until like a week ago looks like Conan O'Brien.
...or they know the Finns don't care if you shred their urban.
 
tumblr_lz59xfimdh1qijl7g.png
 
not knowing much about Finland or your politics, but definitely interested. you said that this year the walls are coming down and that enough is enough, but you didn't say what was going to happen to put a stop to this. is there an actual movement in Finland right now to put an end to this?
 
Post something that shows the US in good light --> "Well duh we know we da greatest"

Post something that shows the US in bad light --> "Fucking loser bitch y u hate america gtfo"

Post something that shows Finland in good light ---> "uhh like we dont care what u think is good there"

Post something that shows Finland in bad light ---> "lol no one cares man, lakupiippu"

Uuhhhh....
 
The "battle" against SOPA, the whole Wikileaks project and its findings have increased leakers all over, and many suspect that as the high-ranked members of our society who have begun retiring and replaced with fresh blood, the new people are much more inclined to put a stop to shady business as they have less trust in the government.

It's definitely mostly thanks to Internet, as a whole Finns are very apathetic when it comes to demonstrations or civil protests, but social media has helped people gather up and share their beliefs more easily, washing away the stereotypical introversion that Finns are known for.
 
Right because it's so easy to appeal to logic and think objectively when you're trying to argue against "China would totally kick your ass in a war" or "American's are fat douchebags" or just simply "America sucks."

I also think it's funny that we never make a thread about how bad Canada or some other country is. We just react to the America haters. We never say "America is the greatest country ever" until someone says it sucks. Oh and you guys can hate on America all you want but the second a joke is made about another country in retaliation shit hits the fan.
 
haha yea dude that's what american's are going to do...

so basically, i think about three quarters of ns is american, give or take. if you say shit about our country, we'll take it to heart. if you bring up bad shit about our country to generalize all american's in that light, then you're fucked because our country and it's people are so diverse you're ignorant for trying to do so. when you try to cast a negative light on our country, we're going to call you out, especially since you're a foreigner, and you have no idea how great it really is here. and last of all, quit trolling, and posting news articles that you have little else to say about than ...now discuss.

america's not that bad, quit trying to make us look like that. we have our up's and down's, and sometimes fucked up shit happens to us or other countries, and we have to try and do something to fix it in a way that won't make us look like war criminals. we're not some little shit country that's not in the limelight that no one cares about, and we are expected to be the world police. fuck off with the america hate, without us, you'd probably be happier, but you could also probably be a big ass bomb crater floating around in the north atlantic because some radical african or middle eastern or asian country wanted to blow up for the sole reason that you were different from them, and you didn't think like them.

i dont see finland going into debt trying to establish stable democracies around the world in an attempt to end terror and chaos spreading to other stable countries because some chode dictator in power is hell bent on having it his way.

i apologize on behalf of america if we just keep trying to make the world a better place and we keep fucking up, but at least we're trying.
 
and guys, just so you know, finland is pretty much a nazi country. they were allies in WWII. yeah, another "argument" for you.

/seriousness

i literally have no problem when such stuff happens in private organisations because 50 uninformed stockholders didnt show up at the general assembly (manager bonuses).

but in a gov. organisation, yeah thats fucked and i am pretty sure it happens all over our civilized western world but as you said, the transparency organisations probably just count cases that were illegal/where someone got trialed for corruption. and thats not that common in europe.
 
Mike-O is one of the very few members that actually has some brains, or at least he uses them. He just wants to start a discussion and everybody is flaming him. Why? Maybe you start using and developing your brains, so you don't turn into your stereotype, typical dumb-ass American like your former Republican president and Republican delegate.
 
No, I guess you could translate it to "Friendly Fellows", "Old Boys", "Mutual Men" etc.

But the direct translation is Good Brothers. It's a very common term for stuff like this, with some Good Sister variations also thrown around in our lovely land of equality when women also step into powerful positions.

A fairly recent event of insider trading and forwarding huge development funds to Talvivaara Mining Company, with our former environmental minister and her family owning a large amount of stocks in the company and buying even more only a day before a large Uranium finding was discovered, skyrocketing the company's stocks. The ex-minister still denies any insider trading, although it's absolutely obvious what she did, and it has now been sweeped under the rug.

 
Well, the the more prominent lands of equality are just west of Finland.

The glass ceiling still reigns supreme here, although things are getting better all the time.
 
That was one of the stupidest posts I've ever read on this website, damn.

You're not expected to be world police, you try to be first of all. America just moved into Yemen, for what? We don't really hear about this shit either. I only know this because I'm currently doing my diving instructor course that works on an oil rig in Yemen and he tells me his colleagues are saying America is closing in on his work site area. They'll stone each other and sort out their own problems, just leave it.

To assume that some african, middle eastern or asian country would blow up finland is retarted. I don't give a shit how educated you are that is stupid. Sure America helped a huge amount in WWII and Japan didn't run over asia but past that.. wtf. Cambodia had a fucking genocide of their own people to prevent WESTERN influence. The rest of the world is muuuuuuuuuch more tame than north american media portrays it to be. I would say 99% of the time I feel safer in Asia than Vancouver. I've also met Americans that have said they find the Philippines to feel much safer than America, but I digress.

Yes America's in a lime light because of the money and fame, but that doesn't make it a great place. In fact 90% of the world doesn't give a single fuck about America besides the money. Listen to biggie, mo money mo problems.

America didn't give a shit about helping Iraq, or Afghanistan. Nevermind this Joseph Kony BS, sad front.
 
One other good example is the newly planned Guggenheim museum for Helsinki. Known internationally as a sort of pyramid scheme, and costing the City of Helsinki 3,5 Million Euros just to have Guggenheim experts "study" if they could use Helsinki as a place for a museum (!?), the museum is now being pushed forwards to be funded by the city (tax money), private funders but also greatly by the government via art and museum funding/grants.

The thing is, apart from the nearly uniform opposition to the idea from people all across Finland, the majority of representatives and citizens of Helsinki, the museum which would cost roughly 150 M Euros to build and 20 M Euros a year to upkeep without any kind of promise of actual profitability or created interest, the project moves on. Helming it is the head of Helsinki Art Museums, Janne Gallen-Kallela-Siren, a descendant of a famous Finnish artist. Here comes the trick.

The head has family connections and is a good friend to Carl-Gustaf Ernrooth, the only Finnish member in the Guggenheim Foundation's board. Not just that, but the head's wife works under the Guggenheim appointed member. After these points were raised up in many discussions, media and on the Internet with fury, hoping to stop the progress of building another useless money hole in Finland, the head was voted to still be qualified to keep on working on the project, with all participants denying any foul play or greasing of deals in any direction.

Figures.

 
I think it might have been deleted because of the lashback, no idea if someone nabbed it before that.

But yeah, she was an outlier when it comes to citizens protesting urban shoots.
 
The cases against Ilmarinen's and Finnair's leaders in-trading and house carfuffles have been thrown out of court today, no charges pressed. There was evidence of a 'good brother' network at work, but it wasn't enough to charge the people at hand. Once again, a great shining example of a corruption-free Finland.

In the past few days, the numbers have come up for the update of our health patient registry, an update that has taken 8 years to accomplish. Four consulting firms, countless drifting accounts and revamps between fellow firms and companies and we are now looking at 1,8 Billion Euros for a so-called simple revamping and uniting of five separate patient databases. There is already major evidence of foul play around, such as private companies affiliated with the accountable firms only involved in the assimilation and building of concrete for building operations paid millions over the years. Nice examples of cutting your bro in, bro.

This country is falling apart in it's own attempts of controlling bureaucracy and calling someone out for it, yet no one ever seems to end up getting the blame for it, and the next Big Brother outing sorts out the media loop long enough for the average people to forget. If there ever was a lethargic people, it's the modern Finn.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top