Vandals of Tampere’s Mannerheim Statue Reveal Their Ignorance

In Tampere, Finland, a statue of Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim—who led the White forces in the Finnish Civil War of 1918 and served as Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army during World War II—was erected in 1956. The statue was created by Evert Porila before the Winter War and placed at a location from which Mannerheim himself observed the decisive battles of the Red uprising in 1918. The statue and its surroundings are impressive, and the historical insight behind its placement is excellent. I recommend visiting it to everyone traveling in Finland, as well as to our own citizens.

Iltalehti reported that this statue had—apparently two nights ago—been vandalized with red paint. Writings had been scrawled on the base and side of the statue, which shows poor judgment ability.

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For these vandals, it would be instructive to watch the film “The Eternal Road” (Ikitie), available on the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s Areena service. The film, directed by Antti-Jussi Annala and based on a novel by Antti Tuuri, might help them understand the kind of fate from which the victory of Mannerheim’s White Army spared their grandparents and their ancestors. A “Red Finland” would most likely have been annexed to the Soviet Union, much like Ukraine, which went on to suffer the horrors of the Holodomor.

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Still, every cloud has a silver lining. The Red uprising led to the development of a very strong executive branch within Finland’s democracy—something highly exceptional compared to other European states that gained independence after World War I.

Thanks to its strong executive power, Finland remained a democracy while many other post–World War I democracies—where parliamentary power was emphasized—drifted into right-wing dictatorships. Things were different here under the North Star: communists were banned, and the far-right Lapua Movement remained a historical curiosity.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Politics in Brigitte Bardot’s Obituary on Finland’s Public Broadcaster Yle
Demonstration Demonstrated the Selfishness of the Demonstrators
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war

Is Hamas Running Out of Intelligent Leaders?

In my piece – written in Finnish – last year I was right in guessing that Israel has decided to eliminate Hamas leaders whenever possible. This time it was the turn of the head responsible for weapons production in the organization’s military wing.

It remains to be seen whether the Jewish state will succeed in withering the organization through this strategy. One would nevertheless assume that even if it fails to do so quantitatively, it would achieve results at least qualitatively. It is obvious that if and when assuming leadership positions in Hamas has turned into a death trap—rather than a path to ordinary enrichment—only the most thick-headed fanatics would seek them.

If I am right, this means a rapid decline in Hamas and its terrorist capabilities. And as a consequence, in the longer term—perhaps—also a decline in the organization’s popularity among ordinary Palestinians.

Thus the question is whether the logic I am applying from a Western frame of reference is correct. Or is the Muslim worldview so different that what I have written above does not apply?

In the latter case, Hamas will continue to succeed in attracting intelligent people to its leadership. If so, it leaves us Westerners to ponder what this says about Palestinians and their intellectual capacities.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Finland’s Foreign Minister Explained Why the States That Have Recognized Palestine Are Well-Meaning Fools
Optimism and Reality of the Gaza Peace Proposal
An Unexpected Endorsement of Professor’s Views

Is the EU a Real Player in World Politics—or Just a Paper Tiger?

Based on the latest news, it now appears that the EU will have to decide whether it is a significant actor or merely a paper tiger in world politics. I mean that the United States has pressured Ukraine to accept a peace plan dictated by Russia—or at least one that appears to be so—circulating under the name of Donald Trump.

According to media reports, the pressure has taken the form of threatening Ukrainians with a reduction in American military aid and intelligence support if the plan is not accepted. This is a serious situation, because—as I understand it—it is perfectly clear that Ukraine cannot continue the war in its current circumstances without U.S. intelligence assistance, when survival against the enemy is already hanging by a thread.

If Donald Trump is serious, Ukraine is left with two options: either to accept a peace agreement highly similar to the one effectively forced upon Finland in 1944, or for Europeans to step in and fully replace American support.

That does not mean that Germany’s Merz, France’s Macron, and Britain’s Starmer can simply continue to offer verbal reassurances of their support. The major EU countries must now genuinely commit to large-scale assistance for Ukraine, because the shoulders of the Baltic states and the Nordic countries alone are in no way sufficient to stop Russia. Otherwise, Ukraine will be handed over to the Russians.

Based on current information, a decision will be made by next Thursday, as Trump is waiting until then for Zelensky’s answer. After that, he—possibly due to some form of blackmail related to his past trips to Moscow—will abandon the Ukrainians to their fate.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Peace in Ukraine Would Be a Risk to Putin
Will Trump Finally Stand Up to Vladimir Putin?
Questionable Achievements of Donald Trump's Foreign Policy

Trump's Indecision Benefits Putin – Deadly Consequences for Ukraine

U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to halt the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine has helped the Russians advance on the front lines. As a result, Putin's army has killed many Ukrainian soldiers in recent days and is close to encircling the Ukrainian army in Kursk.

For the same reason, Ukraine has also lost its ability to detect Russian bombers and other military aircraft when they take off from Russia. This has given Ukraine less time to warn civilians and military personnel about the danger of airstrikes or missile attacks, leading to an increase in civilian deaths.

Probably as a result of this, Donald Trump has become indecisive—at times threatening Russia with new sanctions, while at other times complaining that negotiations with Ukraine have become more difficult. In this situation, there is only one winner: Vladimir Putin, whose army has managed to turn its previously struggling war effort around.

One can only hope that Trump regains his balance and realizes that supporting Putin and undermining the Western alliance backing Ukraine is simply foolish. He should return to the previous U.S. policy of seeking ways to help Ukraine expel the illegal invaders from its land. Even the Ukrainians are not asking for more than that—let alone the Europeans.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Donald Trump’s Reliability as an Ally Has Proven to Be Questionable
Too Many Finns Share Trump’s Inability to Comprehend
Europe Needs Leadership and Urgent Defense Actions

Blame the Philanthropist Or Understand the Facts

Every person who follows current events even a little understands that the mass migration from developing countries to Europe has led to a new type of crime, with extreme manifestations seen this year in e.g. Magdeburg, Germany, or earlier in Paris, France.

More common forms of immigration-related crime, however, include sexual crimes directed at women—sometimes even mass rapes—as well as the formation of gangs among young immigrants and their battles, for example, over control of drug markets. And, of course, the humiliation crimes committed against the native children.

Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone has the understanding needed to acknowledge these facts. This was exemplified—once more—when a book was published in our country, Finland, claiming that the root of the immigrant problem lies with the native people.

The logic of the book's authors is that the arriving immigrants have supposedly been pushed to the margins of society, and their offspring made to believe that they can never belong to the community. This marginalization, the book argues, has been achieved by failing to provide these people with sufficient support upon their arrival.

In reality, however, these immigrants have received more support in Finland than any other group of migrants before them (an example and another). And yet they are the first group to cause widespread and shocking levels of crime. Not even the Ukrainians who arrived afterward have caused such issues.

Therefore, the true reasons behind the problems caused by immigrants from developing countries must be sought within the newcomers themselves. Do they have a culture that is incompatible with Western society? Or is there a pattern of mate selection among them that has led to inbreeding and, as a result, unstable behavior and reduced intelligence?

We all know the answers to these questions, of course. What I fail to understand is why someone has published a book blaming the philanthropist—for that is what taking in immigrants in need truly is—while completely ignoring the other factors leading to the phenomenon in question.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Immigrants, Gangs, Decisions, and Self-Interest
Is the UK's Democracy Facing an Existential Crisis?
Should the Dutch Do Something About the Fact That Immigrants Don't Tolerate Visiting Jews?

Russians are, Intellectually, Spiritually, and Morally, a Deficient People

In Finland, it has always been known that Russians are, intellectually, spiritually, and morally, a deficient people. A recent example of this was seen when Finland's embassy in Moscow was vandalized on Friday. The embassy wall had been marked in Swedish with the message "Åland is ours". It means that the Baltic Sea island belonging to Finland, Åland, "belongs" to those who wrote on the wall.

Following this, Duma representative Maria Butina commented mockingly on the matter on the messaging service Telegram: "some comrades, terrible and frightful scoundrels (whom we of course condemn, hehe), went and defaced the wall of Finland's embassy."

I believe that every civilized person, not just in Finland but elsewhere as well, can understand that this defacement — most likely done on Vladimir Putin’s orders — along with the Duma representative’s comment, displays low intelligence, childishness, and immorality. And every Finn, for their part, knows that the Swedes had nothing to do with the incident.

And therefore, I would like to pose a question to Mr. Putin and Maria Butina: what do they think they will gain by demonstrating their own idiocy in this way?

Previous thoughts on the same topic: 
Incapable of learning but capable of genocide
Tradition of low professional ability among Russian security agency and dictators
Demonstration of one´s own stupidity is a sign of western values

What Does the Failure of Hezbollah's Attack Tell Us?

The terrorist organization Hezbollah planned to send 6,000 long-range rockets and drones to Israel. Israeli intelligence apparently uncovered the organization's intentions, resulting in the Israeli Air Force conducting a preemptive strike.

As a result, Hezbollah was able to launch only 320 rockets and drones, most of which were destroyed by Israel's air defense. The outcome was therefore entirely expected.

Expected because there are no intelligent people in Hezbollah's ranks. Instead, there are hordes of fanatical Muslims who, at best, are only capable of making themselves a laughingstock. And that’s exactly what the outcome of the operation showed!

At the same time, they demonstrated that Iran also has no real capability to harm Israel in any significant way. And despite recent bluster, Iran is not going to carry out a major attack against the Jewish state.

Or if they do, it will only prove that they are some kind of monkeys, with no understanding of their own capabilities. But could anyone expect anything different from the leadership of a country whose ideology is fundamentalist Islam?

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
A Muslim Woman's Lack of Solidarity with Iranian Women
The End of the Holy Soldier of the Arabs
Religious authority and the Iran strike on Israel

How naive can the world's most intelligent people be?

The most prestigious - and the only one known to the general public - recognition for scientific work in the world is the Nobel Prize. These prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, with the exception of the Peace Prize, which is awarded in Oslo, Norway.

The award ceremony in Stockholm is a solemn event attended by the cream of Sweden's society. This year, the Nobel Foundation, which organizes the award ceremony, announced a few days ago that it would invite all the ambassadors from every country to the event.

Even politically neutral King Carl XVI Gustaf expressed his surprise at the invitation extended to the Russian ambassador. Consequently, the Nobel Foundation announced yesterday that it would not invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus, or Iran after all.

Of course, this incident is not inherently significant enough to warrant a blog post. However, I brought it up because it demonstrated how naive even the world's most intelligent people can be (assuming that the members of the Nobel Committee fall into that category).

The committee had justified inviting the Russian ambassador by stating that they wanted the values underlying the Nobel Prize to reach even those who do not share those values. As if Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, or Ali Khamenei were unaware of these Western values and ideas.

I can tell the esteemed Nobel Committee that they are indeed aware of them. Moreover, they deliberately disregard these values.

That's why I can only imagine how amusing it must have been in Moscow, Minsk, and Tehran as the aforementioned trio observed the incredible naivety and idealism of the Nobel Committee. In that sense, the farce we witnessed was not very surprising, given that it was the Swedes who, through equally naive and idealistic immigration policies, destroyed their own extremely prosperous and secure welfare state at the turn of the 21st century.

The original thought in Finnish:
Kuinka naiiveja voivat olla maailman älykkäimmät ihmiset?

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Hussein Al-Taee, an Islamic militant and a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland
Most useless organisations of our time
Pacifism - a respectable tool to support inhumane dictators and warlords

Should forbidden questions be answered or not?

In the past, it was common to characterize different groups of people bluntly. For example, about the appearance of the dark-skinned African population, it could be said even in school textbooks that "the negro is black or brown in color, the hair is black and curly like sheep´s wool. The lips are strong, the nose is low and the teeth are crooked."

The characterization did not only concern people´s appearance, but also all kinds of claims were made about the nature of different races. For example someone could have said that "a negro never works if he only has enough to eat". Or "they are never angry, that´s why they are too cheerful. Our rowers also sing and talk from morning to night."

Today such characterizations are not scientifically justified nor acceptable. However, forbidden topics are not limited to words that sound stupid or to inaccurate generalizations, but for example scientific inquiry of mental differences between different human groups or people´s cultures are considered politically incorrect. 

This is despite the fact that we know, for example, intelligence to be inherited quite similarly to height - and that there are hereditary differences in people´s heights between groups of people. Logically it would be concluded -  if that was not politically incorrect - that intelligence differences between different groups of people are highly probable.

These thoughts came to my mind, when I was reading one of the recent news from Haiti. According to it, serious violence is taking place in the country due to increasing prizes of food. The situation was described as "a real battlefield. It is impossible to estimate how many people have died."

As you may remember, when Haiti became independent, a massacre of nearly all the remaining white men, women, children was conducted. In just three months several thousand whites were killed, including those who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population. 

Thereafter, Haitians have had dominantly African ancestry. At the same time, the country is the poorest in the Western hemisphere, and - as now - suffers time after time from violence. Neither have we seen welfare states created by African people in Africa (although the Republic of South Africa has been able to keep and even increase its relatively high standard of living after whites stepped out from the power). The question not scientifically addressed is, that does the genetics or culture of Haitians as Afro-American have anything to do with their poverty?

Naturally I have no answer to that, but in my opinion it would be beneficial if such questions could be subjected to scientific inquiry. If it would be proven that people or culture of a country matters, that information could also be used in finding ways to minimize such an effect if negative. In contrast, refusing research on forbidden topics will only guarantee the continuation of people´s suffering in the future.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
American black population more vulnerable to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2
World Resources Institute had an arrogant demand
Seeing sex developed novel cultures

Russian army not comparable to western military services

Russians have lost half of its generals, who have participated in the war in Ukraine. The New Your Times reported that this was enabled by a help of the US intelligence service.

Americans also helped Ukrainians to destroy the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, cruiser Moskva, some time ago. Undoubtedly such a help has been highly valuable to Ukrainian efforts to stop its aggressive neighbor in the war. 

The news referred above must have hit hard president Putin´s thoughts. Before the war in Ukraine he most probably imagined his conventional army to match with the western military forces. But now even Ukrainians - with a help of American intelligence service - are able to stop it and even kill its highest officers. 

It has turned out, that even if the Russian army played a major role 80 years ago in stopping Hitler´s army, its strength has vanished since the fall of the Soviet Union - or perhaps even earlier. And right now rebuilding its capability will be unrealistic for decades due to the economic and technological disconnection from the western markets due to Putin´s own stupidity in attacking to Ukraine. 

Even worse for Putin: these facts are undoubtedly understood also by other Russians in high positions. Therefore it is only a matter of time, before Putin will follow the last Czar and be set aside from his position as the president of Russia. 

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Could China take advantage on the weakness of Putin´s Russia?
Is President Putin on his way to repeat the destiny of Czar Nicholas II?
Military specialist: Russian plan in Ukraine was incredibly poor

Military specialist: Russian plan in Ukraine was incredibly poor

Russia is losing the battle of Kiev in Ukraine. This can be deduced from recent news and videos of towns and villages liberated from Russian attackers, but also from the claims that Putin would have accepted most of the Ukrainian preconditions for the peace. 

After this failure it was more than interesting to note, that a Finnish military specialist, researcher and former colonel Martti J. Kari stated that Russian attack plan was useless. So poor, that if someone in a Finnish officer education would have suggested something similar in an exam, he would have been discarded. 

He also assumed, that the Russian intelligence service agency was lead by people, who are close to Vladimir Putin. And therefore they did not forward unpleasant information from their employees to the dictator, but instead lied something, that they know would be gratifying by him.

It remains to be seen, what will be the next steps in the war. It is, however, clear that as long as it continues, the Russians will continue a genocide of Ukrainians. Including brutal executions. And the western world will be following powerlessly - in fear of Russia’s nuclear weapons.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Finland and NATO - problems to be solved
Political rats and useful idiots