The Best Low Self-esteem Country in the World

Finland was recently voted (or rated, rather) best country in the world to live in by Newsweek. Countries were ranked according to a number of criteria, with the specific aim of establishing the best place to be born into at the present time. Finland emerged on top, the article citing factors such as stability, equality and education as the main causes. The national reaction to all this was bizarre, one which in all its  perplexing self-vilification  speaks more about our nations true character than any comparative study ever could.

You would expect the populace to rise up in red-faced rabble only when their national pride is insulted. Not us though. We as a nation react to news of success like a gothic teenager to a surprise party with pointy hats and a Pinata (ingratitude and outspoken annoyance, that is). Ours is not a culture of compliments or commendation, it is perhaps at best one of mild, introverted self-satisfaction over achieving something while not making much of a fuss about it. Those with money don't wave it around and those with something clever or intelligent to say usually keep it to themselves. If for no other reason, then because showing one's superiority over others is tantamount to social suicide.

This all leads up to the fact that we are genetically not programmed to receiving any kind of veneration, as is made evident from these examples out of the many similar responses to our biggest newspapers initial article about the whole issue:

"This is stupid idealism at its best. I know many who would gladly trade some political stability for just a bit more sunshine"

"When closely examining the article, it's easy to notice that it's mostly economic factors which shine through, meaning that capitalism is the only thing that is REALLY doing well in Finland." (Complete and utter bullshit, FYI)

"Finland is the best country in the world. All we are missing is love, happiness, warmth, soulfulness, originality, color, creativity, emotional intelligence and excitement. Newsweek is a shitty publication"


There might even be some truth in some of these statements, it's the outright rejection if the idea that we could amount to anything that surprises me. Now, its easy to use the anonymity of the internet to be retarded, but one did sense that the media itself was not all that ready to accept the verdict. The shit finally hit the fan when it became apparent that due to an initial calculation error, scores had to be slightly altered on the Newsweek web page. Due to this small correction, we gained a narrow win over Switzerland. (Interesting note: This clerical error, as far as I've read, went quite unreported in any other country except ours).

This probably explainable and harmless incident became a much bigger story than the original article, with allegations of cover-ups and incompetence on the part of Newsweek being thrown around in all the big newspapers. It finally seemed we got off the hook. No-one seemed to be keen to postulate why on earth Newsweek would alter the results to favor us, all that mattered was that we could once again commiserate.

All the complainers clearly have never had to deal with scumbag landlords of rat-infested apartments in Amsterdam, having your favorite shop closed by the Mafia in Milan or witness a 5 year old covered in filth scrounging for food in the middle of the street in New Delhi. It does kind of anger me to see people so unappreciative of what they have, but one must admit it is part of human nature. I know Finland is far from perfect and one must never become complacent with the status quo, but never being happy for what you have means never being satisfied with anything. Being "the best country in the world to live in" does NOT mean we should all automatically be happy and successful. It means anyone has the potential to become happy and successful, regardless of your social or economic background. And that, my fellow miserable fucks, is the best (and at times, admittedly, only) good thing about Finland.

Bulgaria WTF

Starting confusingly with a sidenote. I wonder if Finland is by average more racist than other countries?. I mean yeah, we have our old people ("Ryssä on ryssä vaikka voissa paistais", as my otherwise genuinely sweet grandma would put it) and our uneducated lower classes who are projecting their failures in life onto anyone who is vying the same opportunities they themselves have squandered.

It's more of a general consensus thing, it's weird how prevalent anti-immigrant sentiment is in our mainstream culture. But that's not really what I want to talk about, because blogging about racism in its dictionary definition is about as useful trying to argue  against the digitalization of movies to an inhabitant of Plato's cave. The jist of this painfully awkward metaphor is that no victories in the battle against xenophobia are won by pretentious columnists, narrow-minded journalists or know-it-all bloggers sitting on a pedestal as tall as the Dubai tower claiming moral superiority over "lesser beings".
 
Racism is conquered gradually and over time. Those of us smart enough not to cling onto our biological instincts of fearing that what is different are also burdened with the responsibility of showing others the way. Not by hostility , snubbiness and holier-than-thou attitudes, but by empathy and understanding towards the roots of where this ignorance comes from.


Anyway, to my real point of order. All of you have surely heard about the exodus of bulgarians recently flocking over our borders and requesting asylum. This particularly useful legal status entitles them to a roof over their heads, food and a small government handout to cover their basic needs. The bureaucratic idiocy of all this comes from the fact that they are allowed to seek asylum and entitled to all the benefits, but being E.U citizens are automatically denied permanent residence until their paperwork clears (approx. 2 months). They all know this of course, and are here pretty much exclusively for the benefits, this even being the second or third trip for some. Naturally, newspaper message boards are filled with angry, upright citizens voicing their disgust over these leeches, thieves and social bums coming to exploit the welfare state for which they fought tooth and nail for. Because I am trying to subscribe to the mentality put forward in the previous paragraph, I shall refrain from referring to these message board cretins as unevolved darwinian nightmares.
 
Let me put forward a hypothesis. Let's say you lived in a really shitty country where for one reason or another, you were pretty much hated by everyone around you except your own people. Now imagine someone coming up to you and going "Hey, hows this for an idea. You get a one way plane ticket to this great holiday spot. Its not very luxurious and the food is so-so but the great thing is, IT'S TOTALLY FREE! And thats not all! They also give you spending money on top of it, which you can save and bring back with you. Did I mention that after a couple of months these people also pay for you to get back to Bulgaria, rich and well-fed?".
I don't know about you, but the first thought that would cross my mind would not be the ethical dilemma of where this money is coming from. And even if it would, there is one facet of Bulgarian gypsy culture which collides quite sharply with the moral upbring you and I have received, and that is the concept of property. Their view is that if someone is stupid enough to let something be taken away from them, they can only blame themselves for it. As the adage goes, a fool and his money are soon to part ways.
So don't blame them. Theyre merely exploiting a loophole which a lot f us would be doing as well if our lives weren't so fucking cushy and free of toil. Blame the inefficient bureaucracy (one mans deportation papers took a good 2 weeks to get from the immigration bureau to our center) and our incompetent lawmakers who are basically saying "You can't stay here permanently, but let our government spend loads of money on you while we take a couple of months to fill out some forms".