Author: Jarmo Ahonen, DHF - IADMS 2018 Host Committee Member 

A little piece of history 

This blog is to give you some insight on Finland as a country and Helsinki as the capital. Historic events went on last year and this year. Finland became independent from Russian rule 1917 just about the same time as there was the big revolution in Russia that eventually changed that huge country in to something that was later known as Soviet Union. Thus, Finland has almost 1000 miles country to country border with Russia and it only takes 4 hours by car to travel from Helsinki to St. Petersburg. Year 2017 was a big celebration of 100 years of independence. There were enmities between the countries Soviet Union and Finland from 1939 to 1944 but the border has been peaceful ever since. Finland has gravitated towards western Europe all these years and is today considered the safest and most peaceful country in the world.

This year, 2018, is a memorial year of 1918 when there was a civil war fought by the poor factory workers as well as hard labored farm workers against the land owners and factory lords. That ended up very unhappy for the poor people. However, during the same year the two opposing sides were able to sit down around the same table and start to manifest the grounds and rules for one of the best democracies in the world where we live now. 

Finland is now home of 5,538,221 people, Finnish spoken as the main language and Swedish being the second official language mainly spoken on the west coast areas, across the bay from Sweden. The original cause of having two languages is based on the fact that before Russia started to rule over Finland, the country belonged to Sweden. 

Education has always been considered important and Finland has 100% literacy and free education from the elementary school all the way to the university. So – everybody no matter what your back ground or financial status is, has access to high quality education and may aim as high in life as possible. 

The capital city – Helsinki 

Helsinki was established in 1550 by the delta of river Vantaa. It was maintained as a small city during the Swedish rulership, and Turku was considered as the capital because it was closer to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Today there are 630,000 people living in this old city which has grown from the firm land to the islands surrounding the city. Helsinki is located on a peninsula and is surrounded by three other cities, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa making the whole metropolitan area larger and inhabiting 1.4 million people all together. 

The official languages of Helsinki are Finnish and Swedish, with the majority of the population (81.9%) speaking Finnish as their mother tongue. 5.9% of those living in the city speak Swedish and 12.2% speak a native language that's neither Finnish or Swedish. Today, Helsinki slang mainly combines influences from Finnish and English, but it traditionally had strong Russian and Swedish influences. It wasn't until 1890 that Finnish speakers overtook Swedish speakers as the majority of the city's population. 

Helsinki has the highest number of immigrants in Finland, with as many as 140 nationalities represented in the city. The largest group (as of 2013) is from Sweden, followed by Russia, Estonia, China, Somalia, Kurdistan, Germany, Spain, Vietnam, France and Turkey. Helsinki was already home to many different nationalities as far back as the 19th century, with many people from Sweden, Finland, Russia and Germany, even China. Today, foreign citizens account for 8% of the population. 

Weather in Helsinki in October 

Average temperature in October is 6 degrees (42 Fahrenheit), High 8deg (46) and Low 3deg (37). Rainfall is around 70 mm and rainy days add up to even 20 / October. So, bring your raincoat / umbrella and a warm jacket. It may still very nice autumn colors in forests and parks and on sunny days the view may be spectacular. Sea water is around 7 degrees (44) but who wants to swim in the sea when there are nice heated seawater pools right outside of the presidential castle in the heart of the city. 

So please, feel yourself welcome to join us in Helsinki for IADMS Annual Conference. REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Register at www.iadms.org/2018