Monday 31 August 2015

Ralph Lauren Autumn Collection photographed in beautiful Kakslauttanen

Finland’s ethereal Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort provides the perfect backdrop for the Fall 2015 Ralph Lauren Collection

The fantastic Ralph Lauren Autumn Collection photographed by Jimmy Nelson in Lapland, Kakslauttanen area http://www.kakslauttanen.fi/en/, http://www.ralphlauren.com/us/en/magazine/into-the-wild

'This season, my heroine lives in a winter wonderland, a place of strenght and dimension' themed by Ralph Lauren.

Ralph Laurenin muotikuvia otettiin Lapissa.

Ralph Laurenin syysmallisto kuvattiin Suomen Lapissa – paikka saa huikeaa hehkutusta

http://www.ralphlauren.com/us/en/magazine/into-the-wild

Yhdysvaltalainen luksusluokan muotitalo Ralph Lauren on kuvannut syksyn mallistonsa Suomen Lapissa, Kakslauttasen alueella. Upeiden muotikuvien lisäksi muotitalo käyttä mallistoa esitellessään näyttäviä maisemakuvia alueelta ja kertoo jopa paikan syntyhistorian. Kokonaisuuden voi nähdä täällä.

Matkakuvissa porotokan hengitys huuruaa, huskyvaljakot vetävät syksyn muotiin puettua mallia lumisessa maisemassa ja lasiset iglut hohtavat valoa sinisen taivaan alla.

This season, my heroine lives in a winter wonderland, a place of strenght and dimension– on itsensä Ralph Laurenin, muotitalon perustajan lausunto syksyn mallistosta. Siis vapaasti suomennettuna: "Tänä syksynä sankarini elää talven ihmemaassa, jossa on voimaa ja ulottuvuutta."

Syysmalliston kulmakiviä ovat turkisliivit, mokka ja kashmirvilla, joiden taustaksi rustiikki villi luonto sopii muotitalon mukaan hyvin. Sekä paikassa että asuissa yhdistyvät luksus ja paimentolaisromantiikka.

Ralph Lauren

http://www.kakslauttanen.fi/en/

Vaikuttavat kuvat on ottanut valokuvaaja Jimmy Nelson, joka tätä ennen omistautui usean vuoden ajan alkuperäiskansojen ja katoavien heimojen kuvaamiseen. Nelson kertoo muotitalon nettilehdessä, että kuvaukset Lapissa olivat hyvää jatkoa sille.

Saamelaisia nähdään myös kuvissa, mutta ei sellaisella tavalla, joka herättäisi ärtymystä tai kysymyksiä vääränlaisesta kulttuurisesta kontekstista.

Kakslauttanen saa Ralph Laurenilta hienon matkailumainoksen: nettisivuilla kerrotaan jopa, millä lentoyhtiöillä paikalle pääsee ja minkälaisia palveluita sieltä on saatavilla.

Odotettavissa on siis maailman supermuodikkaiden, rikkaiden ihmisten virta pohjoiseen.
Tosin heitä on siellä käynyt varmasti tähänkin asti. Paikka on kaukana tavallisen suomalaisen hiihtolomamökistä.

http://nyt.fi/a1305981597558?ref=tf_iHSisboksi-etusivu&utm_campaign=tf-hs&utm_source=iltasanomat.fi&utm_medium=tf-desktop&utm_content=frontpage

Summer is still here, autumn at the doorstep

Anna-Mari Kaskinen / Tänään tahdon kiittää

Punerrusta pihlajassa,

Syksy kolkuttaa.

Odotatko vielä hetken.

Portti sulkekaa.

Vielä kesän vehreydestä

en voi luopua,

vielä hetken heleydestä

tahdon juopua.

Kesäni on vielä kesken.

Ethän sitä vie !

Vielä hehkuu tuoksuvana

tuttu metsätie.

Vielä hyppii västäräkki

kotipolulla.

Vielä tahdon kesän elää

joka solulla.

Autumn Song

Katherine Mansfield

Now's the time when children's noses
All become as red as roses
And the colour of their faces
Makes me think of orchard places
Where the juicy apples grow,
And tomatoes in a row.

And to-day the hardened sinner
Never could be late for dinner,
But will jump up to the table
Just as soon as he is able,
Ask for three times hot roast mutton--
Oh! the shocking little glutton.

Come then, find your ball and racket,
Pop into your winter jacket,
With the lovely bear-skin lining.
While the sun is brightly shining,
Let us run and play together
And just love the autumn weather.

Saturday 29 August 2015

Finland's drafting of migration legislation is based on EU legislation

© MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR 2015/ Finland

Immigration policy / Finland /As a responsible member of the international community, Finland is committed to providing international protection to those who need it.

Migration policy

The drafting of migration legislation is based on EU legislation, the objectives established by the Finnish Government and international agreements binding on Finland. The most important of these are the European Convention on Human Rights, United Nations Convention against Torture, Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

Migration Strategy focuses on employment questions and non-discrimination

Released in 2013, Finland's Migration Strategy lays down guidelines for migration policy over the long term. The key message of the Strategy is that people who move to Finland and settle in the country must be included in the process of building our shared future. Migrant communities must be treated as active subjects and participants rather than objects of services and measures.

The Migration Strategy is based on the following three principles:

Finland is an open and safe country

The Strategy views migration as an opportunity: mobility creates international networks and brings with it new ways of doing things.

Migration will help to answer to Finland's dependency ratio problem, but at the same time, competition for workers between countries will increase. To succeed in this competition, Finland must be able to effectively attract skilled workers who will stay in the country for the longer term.

As a responsible member of the international community, Finland is committed to providing international protection to those who need it.

Besides opportunities, migration also presents challenges, such as illegal immigration and phenomena associated with human trafficking and social exclusion. In parallel with promoting openness, the Strategy draws attention to the importance of managing migration and ensuring safety. Well-managed migration takes society's capacity and safety into account.

Everyone can find a role to play

Migration policy aims to ensure that new arrivals in Finland are able to make use of their skills in various ways and to participate in the further development of Finnish society. Learning of Finnish and/or Swedish, together with personal networks of contacts, are of great importance for participation in society.

The Strategy highlights the fact that foreign-language speakers include a wide range of people in different life situations. Family is of great importance for successful integration.

With regard to the future, it is necessary to increase teaching of Finnish and/or Swedish as well as other education and training organised as part of labour policy. The opportunities to study Finnish and/or Swedish while in employment must also be developed further.

Diversity is part of everyday life

The Strategy states that the principles of the inviolability of human dignity, the freedom and rights of the individual and the promotion of justice in society, as set out in the Constitution of Finland, are at the heart of the Finnish legal system. These fundamental values serve as a foundation for the acceptance of diversity.

Discrimination occurring in different areas of life, such as employment, must be monitored systematically. Politicians, the media, public authorities and civil society organisations play a key part in influencing public debate about migration and people's impressions of migration.

http://www.intermin.fi/en/migration/immigration_policy#.VeAyU2Odmqc.email

http://www.intermin.fi/en/migration/immigration_policy

Fight against illegal immigration

Illegal residence usually means that a foreign national resides in the country without the required travel document and/or visa or residence permit. Foreign nationals may also evade the provisions on entry by misusing the legal methods of entering the country. In these cases, they have acquired visas or residence permits on false grounds, by withholding information or giving false information.

An effective fight against illegal immigration requires good cooperation, and exchange of information between public authorities both at national and international level. Cooperation between Finnish missions, border check authorities, the police and the Finnish Immigration Service is very important. This cooperation also involves several other administrative sectors.

Every year, Finnish authorities uncover a few thousand foreign nationals residing illegally in Finland. The majority of these people apply for international protection (asylum), as soon as they are found to be illegally residing in the country. They have the right to stay in Finland after they have lodged an asylum application, and while it is being examined.

Most foreign nationals residing illegally in Finland come to Finland through the Schengen area. Border controls are carried out only in exceptional cases between the Schengen States. The effective fight against illegal immigration requires adequate operations in the regions of origin, not only at the external borders of Schengen. The objective is to place an increasing number of liaison officers representing security and migration authorities at Finnish diplomatic missions abroad.

http://www.intermin.fi/en/migration/fight_against_illegal_immigration

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Finland's fantastic nature attracts tourists

Follow a trend - go into the wilderness.

Have you ever been to a forest? Many people have not even seen a proper forest. If I were to look after a foreign visitor I would organise a following nature weekend:

Day1 : we would take a nice longish walk in a true forest looking at fauna and flora. We would pass a lake or two, a stream and fill our lungs with fresh air. This leisurely walk would be an introductory one; just to get a feel of nature. Afterwards a nice dinner would be served with locally provided fresh ingredients. After this good start I can offer a lovely sauna experience in the evening which will guarantee a good sleep.

Day2 : today we will take our baskets and wonder off to a forest area to pick blueberries. As it can be a bit of hard work for a first-timer we take a light picnic with us. We do not rush; we let this berry picking activity go as slowly or fast according to the atmosphere! We sit down for a while and take a look around us. Listen to the forest. It will be very exciting for the guest who never has had such an experience. The guest may even be a little bit scared of the forest!

Once we are back at home we bake a blueberry pie and serve it with a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate. This would be rewarding after a time spent berry picking. Now just have a nice rest, today's hard work has been done. Of course another sauna and a swim in a lake can take place later.

Day3 : as yesterday was rather a physical day we take a boat and go fishing. Naturally this activity is also a new experience for my guest so demonstration of the basics is quite important. Before leaving we go worm searching to have juicy baits - that is something that needs to be done unless we decide to use dough. Once we are in a boat fishing and listening to the water and wind, we can feel all the elements around us. How relaxing! Just pull a cap over the eyes and have a nap - not too long as we need to be vigilant.

When we have caught the fish,we make a lovely dinner together with the guest or have an expert cook to do it. Just watching when fish being scaled and gutted is interesting and once they are sizzling in the pan we cannot wait to eat. There are so many different ways to prepare fish. Repeat the sauna and swim later for a good sleep.

Day4 : today is definitely mushroom picking day. Firstly I need to advise what to pick. We go for the simplest ones, not trying to learn too many different types of mushrooms. We have advisory drawings with us just in case. Take it easy, walk slowly, look for mushrooms. Once we have enough in the baskets we enjoy a picnic, lie down and look at the sky, listen to birds. Take the haul home and cook together again. Make a mushroom sauce, mushroom salad, mushroom burgers whatever we fancy. This special dinner will be thoroughly enjoyed, the feeling is so satisfying after a good walk and mushroom foray. Afterwards take a short walk taking photos. And then a sauna / a swim maybe?

Day5 : the previous 4 days have proved to be fun. Today we plan future activities and as most of us have already seen city wheels etc. we plan a proper trekking trip including canoeing and cycling in Finland's fantastic nature. More about it later.

https://enmaa.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/kuvia-metsasta/

Wednesday 19 August 2015

The Proms - Osmo Vänskä & the BBC Symphony Orchestra climax

Prom 43: Osmo Vänska, review: a tremendous experience

Jean (Julius Christian) Sibelius (1965-1957) looks over some Bach sheet music in a photograph from the Fifties Credit: AFP/Getty Ivan Hewett Classical Music Critic

The Proms’ tribute to Jan Sibelius in his 150^th year reached its climax last night, with the final three symphonies performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by his compatriot Osmo Vänskä.

There was a time when just one of these unfathomably deep pieces was as much as we could take, at a sitting. Now it’s becoming almost routine to do all three at once. That compromises something essential about the works, which is their utter solitude. Bundling them together makes us think of them of as a set, which they’re not.

That caveat aside, this concert was a tremendous experience. Vänskä knows these pieces like the back of his hand, but interestingly he still conducts from the score. It keeps things fresh; there’s no danger of repeating a performance he’s memorised. He made the narrative of the pieces seem provisional and risky, which is the opposite of the way many conductors make them sound, i.e. monumental and inevitable, as if Sibelius was utterly sure of himself from the beginning.

He did this partly by refusing the grand sonorous blend Simon Rattle brought to these pieces with the Berlin Philharmonic at the Barbican a few months ago. The sound from the BBC Symphony Orchestra was craggy and often downright unpleasant. Even the tinkly glockenspiel in the Sixth Symphony, which can sound disconcertingly pretty in some performances, had a malevolent ring to it. The essential idea of that piece, a clash between two adjacent notes, is remarkably tough on the ear, and Vänskä made sure we noticed it, even when it was the background to something else.
This isn’t to say these performances were masochistically dry; far from it. The moments of salon gracefulness were really graceful, and the opposing moments where Sibelius leads us unexpectedly into a new area, as in the Andante of the Fifth Symphony, had an urgency and heat that made one squirm. Doubt and conviction rubbed shoulders, in a very human way.
That wonderful ambiguity persisted until the very end. The closing bars of the Sixth symphony seemed almost shy, and Vänskä snatched the final chord of the Seventh away with startling abruptness. Even the hammer-blows that ended the Fifth seemed doubtful, right up to the last chord. It took courage to deny us the satisfaction of properly affirmative endings, but it revealed something profound about these great works, which in many performances stays hidden.
Hear this Prom on the iPlayer for thirty days via the BBC Proms website www.bbc.co.uk/proms or download for 30 days via the free iPlayer Radio app

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/prom-43-osmo-vaenska-review/