Finland Needs Sauna Diplomacy Not Hornets
After having been away from the big news centres recently I am now returning, bit by bit, to Kemi and the north. I begin to think about the news again. Is there anything much that I can say about the recent news and still make good sense? As a good citizen I must try anyway. Finland must attack with its sauna diplomacy in order to qualify for NATO membership. Yes that makes good sense.
Earlier I was planning to make a special project to defend Finland from those nasty enemies that lurk everywhere. I was going to volunteer to lead a kind of ”Dad's Army”, sitting upon our big guns, to blast those enemies. I was ready to find creative ways to stick with the low budgets and yet still be a force to be reckoned with. As an extra perk it is good to sit upon such massive guns. Gives a sense of power, it does.
I have, however, changed my mind. Recent news tells me a different story that must be considered.
We hear now that our wise government and Finnish defence forces, allied with the Ministry of Finance (paid for by you and by me as loyal freedom-fighting tax-payers) want to spend a billion or more on fancy aeroplanes that can attack as well as defend. It seems that Finland wants to satisfy the NATO demands. The old system of defence seems to have become too old fashioned today. Finland must attack too. The super-attacking supersonic Hornet jet-fighters are just what we need. Such is what we are told anyway. It's only a super-billion or two anyway so what can be the problem.
Well the problem is, in fact, just that. We cannot afford it and we are getting a bit fed up with certain government types trying to slowly lead us all into NATO.
Over the last few years we have seen various budget cuts from essential services. We have seen inequality rise up and create a society that becomes divisive. We have seen roads and railways crash under the pressure of cheap and nasty planning and cheap and nasty profits. We have seen damned good places of education get closed down. We have seen the beginnings of a break-up of social structures that were built to last and built to support Finnish folk.
To update the Hornet air fleet and turn it into a more attacking mode stinks of secret services not public services.
So it is better for Finland to return to its ”Sauna Politics”. Cheaper that way. We also win that way. Even the Russians know this. Sauna politics is the economical way. Just ask the Russians. Finns are a force to be reckoned with in the Sauna Politics stakes.
We need to send an open letter to our politicians and soon. The likes of a Kiviniemi, Stubb, Häkämies, Katainen and the everlasting Pekkarinen should be elected to be ”our sauna team” for the sauna-diplomacy. Whenever a conflict emerges we can then send these loyal and stubborn and steadfast Finns into the hot spots. We can have no doubts that this team will win through.
This way is a way that we can afford.
All we need is to see our leading politicians in action and to show their Sisu. (Kekkonen could manage it)
Steve Bowles
