United Nations, corruption and terrorism

In Finland, a new president will be elected tomorrow, Sunday. One of the candidates, Sari Essayah of the Christian Democrats, stated in the final election debate that UN organizations are corrupt.

This statement shouldn't have caused much attention, as the corruption within the UN is considered a public secret – known to anyone who follows international affairs even remotely. However, addressing it more forcefully would lead to a crisis for the entire organization, so it is allowed to persist.

The presidential candidate's perspective emerged in the context of discussing development cooperation through the UN and the influence it provides in the third world. Finland is reducing the financial flows it contributes to this, which has sparked opposition, especially among those whose income and lifestyle depend on this activity.

In this regard, it was unpleasant to discover that deep-seated corruption is not the UN's only significant problem. This realization comes as it has been revealed that some of the organization's employees have even participated in terrorist activities and subsequently been dismissed from their positions.

I am referring, of course, to the news that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is horrified by the accusations, and there is now an urgent and comprehensive independent audit of UNRWA to verify its credibility. Having followed the actions of the UN for decades, I am not surprised by this development, and I have no doubt about the validity of the accusations.

However, it is good that the issue has now come to light, as it provides hope for change within the organization. Such change, though, requires the major funding states – namely the USA and other Western countries – to act decisively in this matter. If this happens, there may be renewed hope that the UN will one day become a useful organization.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Christmas gift to the Holy Land
Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto aligned Indonesia on the wrong side of world history
Most useless organisations of our time

Violent demographic changes in Denmark

People are well aware that after Europeans discovered America, they displaced indigenous populations, especially in North America, within a few centuries. A similar development was seen in Australia and New Zealand.

These facts are sometimes referenced in discussions about the migration of people from developing countries to Europe, with claims that it will alter the entire demographic structure of the region.

On the other hand, this view is vehemently denied, especially within political leftist circles, and dismissed as a product of imagination. However, the fact remains that, for instance, in Sweden, the number of people arriving from developing countries has grown to such an extent that the government faces challenges in maintaining order in many residential areas.

In connection with this, it was interesting to read a study that investigated prehistoric changes in the population structure of Denmark. The study describes a genetic analysis conducted on ancient human remains spanning 7 300 years, including the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Early Bronze Age.

The researchers used shotgun-sequenced genomes from 100 skeletons and integrated the genetic data with information on diet, mobility, and vegetation cover. As a result, they showed that Mesolithic individuals in Denmark formed a distinct genetic cluster related to other Western European hunter-gatherers and exhibited genetic homogeneity from around 10 500 to 5 900 years ago.

The arrival of Neolithic farmers with Anatolian-derived ancestry occurred around 5 900 years ago, causing a significant population turnover. This transition was abrupt, with limited genetic contribution from local hunter-gatherers, and therefore probably violent.

The Neolithic population associated with the Funnel Beaker culture persisted for approximately 1 000 years until immigrants with eastern Steppe-derived ancestry arrived, causing another rapid population replacement. This gave rise to the Single Grave culture, whose ancestry profile was more similar to present-day Danes.

Therefore, it is clear that population replacements in North America, Australia, or New Zealand are not unique in history. Rather, it seems that the influx of people to a particular region easily leads to the destruction of entire population groups. Hence, this alternative should not be dismissed with a mere shrug but rather taken into account when planning and implementing European immigration policies.

Previous thoughts on the same topic: Finnish women have enjoyed a privileged position since medieval times Attitudes towards immigrants are not becoming more positive in Western countries People with Middle Eastern and North African inheritance identify themselves as non-Whites

The Rwanda Law of Britain paves the way for the future of Western Europe

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - as the island nation's official name goes - is undergoing a process aimed at mitigating the impact of economic migrants from developing countries. In its latest development, the lower house of Parliament approved a bill that would designate Rwanda as a safe country, allowing asylum seekers to be sent there to await the processing of their cases— and, following a positive decision, potentially resettling them in the same country.

The bill now moves to the next stage, awaiting approval from the House of Lords, known as the curious relic of Britain's innate social inequality, the monarch's favorites, and the conclave of priests and senior jurists. If it also approves the bill, left-leaning legal scholars would no longer be able to argue claims of Rwanda's insecurity.

The entire process has, of course, arisen because so-called humanitarian immigrants have caused various issues in their new homeland. Muslims, in particular, are well-represented in violent crimes, accounting for about 20 percent, despite worshippers of Allah making up less than seven percent of the country's population.

This trend is familiar in Finland and other Western countries as well. Therefore, the decision of the British upper house is crucial for all of Western Europe, as it would likely halt asylum applications based on false premises in the island nation.

In the short term, this could mean increased pressure on EU countries. As a result, the ongoing rapid political developments in these countries (examples being Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden) would likely accelerate, and the pressure to update international legislation related to asylum-seeking would strengthen.

This would not only be desirable but also vital for Western Europe to remain a prosperous home and haven for the continent's indigenous peoples and as a driving force for scientific and technological development serving the entire world.

Therefore, the outcome of Britain's Rwanda Law is by no means inconsequential, even for the Finns. On the contrary, its result is likely to shape our future and that of our descendants more profoundly than, for example, the ongoing presidential election.

The original thought in Finnish: 
Britannian Ruandalaki viitoittaa koko Länsi-Euroopan tulevaisuuden

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
A white family does not represent real Londoners
Finnish journalist called for British Prime Minister´s head to be placed on London bridge to dry
African female and Persian male ancestors

Is the Finnish left-wing radicalizing?

Finland is accustomed to being regarded as a stable democracy where politics does not generate the kind of polarization seen in some other countries. While there has been political violence here, including a bloody civil war initiated and lost by the Reds over a hundred years ago, politics has been relatively calm and respectful of different parties since World War II.

This trend is expected to continue this winter as a new president is elected in Finland. As a sign of this, various candidates' campaign advertisements have recently appeared along the streets, usually left undisturbed.

Among Finland's major cities, Tampere is an industrial city, and accordingly, its population tends to lean towards the left politically. Despite this, I was surprised this morning to read about how people in Tampere had immediately vandalized campaign posters of the third most popular candidate, Jussi Halla-aho (Finns Party), according to polls.

Does this mean that the deep respect Finns have held for democracy throughout my lifetime is changing, and the left is once again radicalizing and resorting to extra-parliamentary means? Hopefully not, as one of the key factors in Finland's rise from a developing country a hundred years ago to one of the world's wealthiest nations has been based on precisely respecting democracy and the ability to reconcile conflicts between different population and interest groups.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Will Finland have the first openly homosexual president?
Finnish horror gallery and reality
Putin´s Russia got mad about the Finnish chairman of the Parliament

Does Arctic sea ice melt as atmospheric greenhouse gases increase?

According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the past year in Finland has been somewhat warmer than usual. According to its measurements, "the average temperature for the entire country was about 3.2 degrees, which is 0.3 degrees above the long-term average of the years 1991‒2020. The annual average temperature ranged from a little over +7 degrees in the southwestern archipelago to about -1 degree in the northwestern part of Lapland."

In contrast, the past year in China was the hottest in its entire recorded history. Additionally, according to Helsingin Sanomat, it "experienced several extreme weather events and heatwave periods" last year.

Not surprisingly, December's news reported that the past year was the hottest in the world's recorded history. Therefore, it was intriguing to revisit my old hobby of studying the development of the Arctic ice cover. According to climate models, it should be warming faster than the rest of the world due to the increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The figure below shows the annual variation in the ice cover's average area throughout its measurement history.

It can be seen that despite the exceptionally warm year according to measurements taken at ground-level weather stations, the average size of the Northern polar ice cap has actually been trending more towards growth than shrinkage in recent years.

In the next figure, I drew an even more interesting graph. It represents the average size of the Northern sea ice in September - that is, the area during the month when the ice is at its minimum.

As my esteemed reader may notice, the area of the Northern sea ice was quite small last September. Not the smallest in recorded history, but the second smallest.

Therefore - or despite it - I delved with great enthusiasm into the task that I have been tackling year after year. That is, the statistical analysis of the relationship between the concentration of the most crucial greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and the average size of the Northern sea ice in September.

In this analysis, I have taken as a starting point the hypothesis of climate models suggesting an accelerating climate change over time, which, according to these models, should be most rapid in the Earth's Arctic zone. As we all know, the ice should indicate this change through both the direct impact of warming in the Northern polar region and the increasing heat energy brought by warmer water from southern currents.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed as the picture was very similar to the previous year's corresponding analysis, as shown in the illustration below.

In the figure, the blue columns represent the number of years for which statistically significant dependence between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and the September average size of the Northern sea ice is observed using data from each respective year. As my esteemed reader can observe, this analysis clearly supported the climate models' prediction of global warming from the beginning of the measurement history until the year 2001.

From the year 2002 onward, I have drawn only red columns. Red, because there is no statistically significant dependence between atmospheric carbon dioxide and the Northern sea ice after that year.

The height of the red columns indicates the number of years of data available for each column – for example, for the year 2002, the available data includes the years 2003-2023, totaling 21 years. This is a significant eleven years longer than the statistically significant data starting from 2001.

In simple terms, this means that the annual minimum size of the Northern sea ice did indeed decrease as atmospheric carbon dioxide increased until the year 2001. However, the subsequent increase in greenhouse gas levels has not had a significant impact on the size of this ice cover. Thus, this analysis falsifies or disproves the claim derived from climate models that the Northern polar ice is melting due to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration – or greenhouse gases in general.

The original thought in Finnish:
Sulaako arktinen merijää ilmakehän kasvihuonekaasujen lisääntyessä?

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
The increase in carbon dioxide concentration warms more than anticipated
The record-breaking warming of the oceans is not visible in the Arctic
Arctic sea ice contradicts with the climatic model predictions, but is that changing now?

Change of immigration policy and development cooperation

Finland is considered a prosperous Western country, and accordingly, it has been allocating approximately two percent of its annual state budget to development aid. However, in the program of the government that came into power this summer, this funding has been significantly reduced.

At the same time, Finland has decided to change the conditions of its development cooperation. The most notable changes include directing aid to Ukraine and, conversely, denying it to countries that support Russia in its illegal war against its neighboring country. This applies to countries such as Ethiopia, Mozambique, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan if they do not change their stance on the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Finnish government has decided that development aid will not be granted to countries that do not accept their own citizens without a residence permit in Finland. This is a significant change in Finnish asylum policy, which has led to an increasing number of undocumented migrants from developing countries staying in the country, along with a rise in certain types of crimes.

According to recent information, Finland's western neighbor Sweden has set an example. It announced excluding Mali from its development aid due to its support for Russia.

Hopefully, Finland will also make similar decisions to streamline its development aid policy and humanitarian immigration policy. At the same time, the Finnish government has decided to increase incentives for skilled labor immigration. 

Therefore, it is crucial for a country with high taxation and a Western-average salary level to maintain attractive features for quality labor — features such as a safe society and a balanced public economy that enables good services. Both of these goals can be achieved through the designed changes described above.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:

Could Kenyans serve as a model for Somalis and Iraqis?
Why doesn't immigration cause protests in Japan?
Strong statement or intellectual dishonesty in COP27?

Defiant children and Chinese palace dogs

A person equipped with common sense knows well that one should be cautious when dealing with someone larger and stronger than oneself. Finland operated with good success in this manner after the Second World War, as the Soviet Union and later Russia did not direct a military attack towards our country.

The same logic still applies, but with the difference that now Finland, as part of NATO, is stronger than Russia, which fails to understand its changed position. However, the matter is somewhat insignificant, as Russia's blustering holds no more significance than the tantrums of a defiant child to its father.

This, of course, does not mean that we should not approach our large eastern neighbor with goodwill and avoid unnecessary confrontation. Yet, we should not and must not yield any kind of authority over ourselves to the dictator whose behavior resembles that of a defiant child.

The analogy holds true in the sense that this individual seems as incapable of understanding his own position as a defiant child facing difficulties. In this regard, we received an excellent example from the news this morning, reporting how he lied about his army's actions in Ukraine as smoothly as a defiant child throwing stones at a window with a handful of rocks in hand amidst shattered glass.

Certainly, in world politics, there are figures even more ludicrous than the Russian dictator. One such person holds power in North Korea, resembling a mentally disturbed Chinese palace dog growling and baring its teeth at a wolfhound.

Or what should one think of his threats to thoroughly destroy the United States?

The original thought in Finnish:
Uhmaikäisiä ja kiinanpalatsikoiria

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Desperate cry of Russians
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
Incapable of learning but capable of genocide