Today, December 6th, we are celebrating Finland’s 101st Independence Day.
Did you know that Finland was the second country in the world, and first in Europe, to give women the right to vote? New Zealand was the first one. OK…Australia kind of was the second one, but they only gave the right to a certain group of women (the ones whose skin color was on the pale side), so… Finland was really a pioneer back in the old days.
Things are nowadays going comparatively well, despite of all the drama in world politics and the on-going wars. But the big picture is that things today are generally better than before. BUT. There still are some causes that need to be fought for. Equality is one of them. And we aren’t just talking about gender equality, but everything. Age, origin, opinions… (But, especially with opinions, we need to remember to use our wisdom, common sense and politeness.)
As we are working in science, let’s try our best to produce a healthy working atmosphere and scientific community that values all aspects of equality. Within the last year, we’ve seen some discussions on equality in science. The general outcome has been that there is still work to be done! So: everyone in science needs to make sure that their actions correspond to a greater equality (or at least not do the opposite..)!
We wish a happy, proud Independence Day to all Finns out there! ❤ Let us remember all the great values that our grandparents and other older folks fought for! 🙂
P.S. Tonight, the President’s Independence Day party at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki are serving local and ecological food, mainly consisting of vegetarian and fish dishes! The fish are largely Cyprinids, which many of them are considered as “not-that-good” fish – you know, the ones that are associated with lakes that suffer from eutrophication. And actually fishing these particular species can really enhance the ecological state of the waterbodies! Thumbs up for that. 🙂
-A-
