There goes the neighbourhood - invest in Lapland? (Guardian)

[otyikondo]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/no ... nvestments

Complete with ghastly puns - "Time for investors to Lapp up buy-to-let properties in Finland"; "now could be the right time to skate on Finn ice", The Grauniad urged readers on Saturday to invest in buy-to-let properties in Lapland, and presented one more of those delightful portraits of a land we aren't quite sure we recognise.

"And from the end of May to the middle of July the arctic sun doesn't set, which means this is a popular time for summer festivals." Yeah, right, the Kittilä Opera Festival and the Muonio Chamber Music Festival and the Kuusamo Mosquito Tattoo really pack 'em in.

I wonder if they know that the FIS World Cup events were cancelled in Levi this year for lack of snow, and that Levi still only has two lifts and two runs open and Ylläs has six out of 61. And that on the other hand it can be both dark AND -35C up there, with a huju blowing on the top that brings visibility down to around a metre if you're lucky. And at Ylläs at least, without the top of the fell, there isn't really much worth calling skiing.

Of course it doesn't matter much as the chances are people will also have read of our endemic habit of shooting one another in very Finnish ways and committing suicide all over the place, and of rudely publishing the tax details of everyone, so they'll invest somewhere else instead.

[Juha H.]

Interesting to notice that they have chosen to mention the Muonio, Kittilä and Kuusamo Festivals, but not the biggest one (?), the Sodankylä Midnight Sun Film Festival.

http://www.msfilmfestival.fi/fpage.php?lang=1

[stevoe]

Hi

I hope this isn't the beginning of the end

I kindof feel a little protective about Finland even though Im not Finnish....I think because we have a simple life and there is soo much untouched land here....I want to keep it this way and not to go the way the rest of the world is...I hope they dont start pushing investments over here...I don't think there really is the need for it anyway...

Im with you man

steve

[otyikondo]

Interesting to notice that they have chosen to mention the Muonio, Kittilä and Kuusamo Festivals, but not the biggest one (?), the Sodankylä Midnight Sun Film Festival.

http://www.msfilmfestival.fi/fpage.php?lang=1

Ummm.. in fairness to the paper, THEY didn't mention those events - I made them up. But it's a fair hike to Sodankylä all the same, and the festival might not be everyone's cup of tea. Last time I was there, a good few years ago I'll admit, it was fairly errrmmm.. "bohemian", and we went white(knuckle)-water rafting with the guys who made Mysteries of the Orga(ni)sm and Two Lane Blacktop, and the Cowboys (then trading as Sleepy Sleepers, probably) got so wasted one of them wasn't allowed on the plane home. No red carpets in sight.