Onsdag 4 september

Oh what a day in Husis … . On page 11 the absolutely brilliant plans about Mellersta Böle: living space for 11 600 people, 25 000 jobs, a new railway station, a metro station, a terminal for public traffic, a shopping center twice the size of Kampen, plus hotel, arena for bigger shows, etc. etc. … for, as the article says, ”en miljard euro”. Wonderful plan (and perhaps Helsingfors DOES need plans for all those people who come to live here), and who is now supposed to be so stupid as to believe that that ”en miljard” will actually be enough to pay for all that magnificence? And the solution comes at the end of the article with the mentioning of the name Jussi Pajunen (the same gentleman who also introduced the idea of building a railway tunnel to Tallinn). Well, yes, it was a Pajunen Vision! Thus, no further questions …

On page 19 an ”I dag” kolumn by the very appreciable Antonia Wulff who is, justly, outraged about the fact that there as hardly any reaction to those facts which became public by Edward Snowden’s leaks. For explanation, she is using a very good formulation: ”De flesta utgår ifrån att uppgifterna om oss vanliga dödliga snarast samlas in av misstag; vi är liksom mörtarna och annan skitfisk som trålaren råkar få med sig i sin jakt på de stora, fula fiskarna.” Indeed very well said, but the microphones in EU offices do go a bit further than that, and once this data fishing has become a habit it will be (is perhaps already) a very fertile basis for a less-than-legal (but who cares?) trade in information which was picked up aside – all in the pursuit of American interests of course. And as to the reasons why there is so little reaction: it is also our opinion-leading media who do not react, nor do the politicians. The politicians have of course, during their careers, learned that one should NEVER EVER publicly disagree with a superior, and those who have survived this selection process may well, once there are no obvious superiors any more above them, go out looking for superiors to whom to submit (just to feel protected – however illusory this feeling may be?).  The pages 16 and 17 are then anyway about the meeting in Stockholm where the results of the described selection process are doing homage to the US president, helping him to demonstrate to Putin that the borders of the US empire are reaching right up to the borders of Russia. Not that the USA would in any foreseeable future risk a war with Russia (it might become expensive, even in American (!!!) lives), but our politicians just feel SO good being close to a real US president. And OF COURSE they will not criticize the USA for anything (whatever Snowden may reveal). And if the politicians do not say anything exciting, the media will OF COURSE not find anything to publish …