Finland
Finland Report - BBC: LINK ¤ B B C
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- "Finland is a country in the far north of Europe, bordered by Norway, Sweden and Russia"
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- "unlike their fellow-Scandinavian neighbours to the west, the Finns are not a Germanic people but rather speak a language related to Estonian, some languages of Siberia and, more distantly, Hungarian"
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- "despite its substantial size, Finland is relatively thinly-populated. Around two-thirds of its territory is covered by forest and about a tenth by lakes"
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- "hundreds of years of Swedish rule were followed by a further century of Russian control before independence in 1917"
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- "Finland is a parliamentary republic, with main most executive power vested in the prime minister and cabinet"
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- "multi-party coalitions are the norm"
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- "the president has some powers relating to foreign policy"
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- "a eurozone member since 2002, Finland has an export-driven economy"
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- "but Finland's economy has struggled with a decline in the important electronic, ship-building and paper industries"
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- "in particular its main success story of recent decades, mobile phone giant Nokia, has suffered a steep decline in business"
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- "the country spends heavily on education, training and research"
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highly trained, respected and free: Finland's Teachers are different - the Guardian: LINK ¤ the GUARDIAN
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- "extensive training is the basis for giving teachers the autonomy to work the way they want"
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- "the result is a highly prized profession and an education system always near the top in international rankings"
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- "welcome to a country where teaching is a highly prized profession"
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- "high-level training is the basis for giving young teachers"
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- "a great deal of autonomy to choose what methods they use in the classroom"
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- "in contrast to England where teaching is somewhere between administration and giving tests to students"
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- "in Finland, teachers are largely free from external requirements such as inspection, standardised testing and government control"
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- "teachers need to have this high-quality education"
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- "so they really do know how to use the freedom they are given, and learn to solve problems in a research-based way"
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- "the most important thing we teach them is to take pedagogical decisions and judgments for themselves"
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- "for a small, agrarian and relatively poor nation, educating all of its youth equally well was seen as the best way to catch up with other countries"
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- "the Finnish dream was for all children, regardless of family background or personal conditions"
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- "to have a good school in their community"
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- "a focus that has remained unchanged for the past four decades"
- "in the early phase, during the 70s and 80s, there was strict central direction and control over schools, state-prescribed curriculums, external school inspections and detailed regulation"
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- "but a second phase, from the early 90s, consciously set out to create a new culture of education"
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- "characterised by trust between educational authorities and schools"
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- "local control, professionalism and autonomy"
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- "schools became responsible for their own curriculum planning and student assessment, while state inspections were abandoned"
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- "this required teachers to have high academic credentials and be treated like professionals"
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- "not only is teacher education in Finland strongly research-based"
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- "but all the students on the primary school master’s course are engaged in research themselves"
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- "we want to produce cognitive dissonance. The task of a good "didactician" is to disturb the thinking of someone who assumes they know everything about teaching"
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- "just because you’ve been doing something for 20 years and it works for you doesn’t mean it works for other teachers, or other students"
- "student teachers are running day-long multidisciplinary workshops for pupils aged 13 to 19"
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- "in one, Maria Hyväri, 24, is discussing Dewey, Steiner and Montessori"
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- "and asking pupils to think critically about teaching methods at the school. Classes are mixed and there is no streaming"
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- "there are all these new teaching tools and ideas, and it’s great because here we can try different things"
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- "it makes me feel inspired"
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- "Finland’s Pisa scores are a byproduct of the system rather than a central goal"
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- "when we got the results, we were thinking, if we are that good"
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- "how bad are the others ?"
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- "it showed that the country was doing some things right"
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- "e.g. the decision in the 1970s to make primary school teacher education a university degree"
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- "educationists point to Finland’s broad acceptance of values such as equality and collaboration"
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- "that are embedded in its version of the Nordic welfare model"
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- "teachers in Finland are autonomous professionals, respected for making a difference to young people’s lives"
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- "as a result, those who choose to train are devoted to teaching for life"
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Microsoft buys Nokia - the Guardian: LINK ¤ the GUARDIAN
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- "from humble beginnings as a paper mill set up 150 years ago in the small town of Nokia in southern Finland"
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- "the company became the country's global claim to fame before subsiding under a withering assault from Apple and others"
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- "finally, its mobile phone business was sold to Microsoft"
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- "in the late 1980s, the company began selling the first mass-market mobile phones, virtually introducing the world to the concept"
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- "almost single-handed, the company powered Finland out of a slump in the early 1990s"
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- "by the end of the century, Nokia was the world's No 1 mobile phone-maker"
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- "with a 40% share of the market"
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- "Finns - especially those within the company - began to believe Nokia was somehow magical"
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- "when its fortunes began to fall - soon after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007 - many still believed it would be able to stage a comeback"
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- "instead its shares slumped by more than 80% in the following years"
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- "its global market share in mobile phone sales has slumped to 14%. In the smartphone market - 3.1%"
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- "the jobs will eventually relocate from Finland, like the IT stuff was outsourced to the Indian companies Tata and HCL"
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- "now, perhaps, Finland can develop a broader array of more modest treasures rather than relying on a single Sampo"
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- Capital: Helsinki - [ GoF = Government of Finland ]
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Environment - US cable - 2006: LINK ¤ 06HELSINKI700
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- "at the EU Informal Environmental Ministerial hosted in Turku"
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- "Finnish Environmental Minister Jan-Erik Enestam and EU Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas"
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- "called for the establishment of a United Nations Environmental Organization (UNEO)"
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- "and a "Panel on Natural Resources" to operate similar to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change"
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- "for a "One Planet Environmental Policy""
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- "these international bodies would be instrumental in establishing common rules for all players"
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- "in light of Finland's expressed willingness to find common ground on climate issues"
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- "Finland's EU presidency may be a valuable opportunity to steer the EU climate discussion"
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- "in a direction more compatible with US priorities"
Climate Change - US cable - 2007: LINK ¤ 07HELSINKI256
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- "Finland and UK government officials continued to hold up Kyoto"
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- "and a binding post-2012 global emissions trading scheme"
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- "as a solution to reversing greenhouse gas emissions"
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- "Kate Hampton, Service and Policy Manager at London-based Climate Change Capital:"
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- "the EU courage in addressing climate change is causing the US, particularly at the state level"
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- "to modify its climate change policies"
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- "the US continues to be viewed as an easy target on climate change"
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US Pharmaceuticals - US cable - 2008: LINK ¤ 08HELSINKI311
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- "despite US embassy and industry efforts"
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- "the Finnish cabinet voted unanimously to approve a reference pricing scheme for pharmaceuticals"
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- "which undermines US pharmaceutical companies"
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- "US embassy began working closely with the US pharmaceutical company representatives"
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- "as well as with the "Pharma Industry Finland" and its director"
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- "our strategy is carefully coordinated with industry and Washington"
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- "the transformation from a tire and boot company"
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- "to a telecommunications powerhouse in just 20 short years"
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- "Nokia and the support industry accounted for nearly 20% of Finland's economy"
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- "and had a 40-percent market share of worldwide mobile phones"
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- "it is now seeking alternative sources of profit in emerging markets"
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- "it has struggled to expand its presence in the US due to tight control on mobile devices"
Climate Change - US cable - 2009: LINK ¤ 09HELSINKI450
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- "the Government of Finland presented its long-term climate and energy policy report"
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- "the report - adopted unanimously by the Parliament - examines four possible paths Finland could take"
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- "to achieve 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050"
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- "in the "Eco-Efficiency" model, emission reductions will be achieved by restructuring Finland's economy"
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- "to focus on service-based, internet-connected industries"
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- "communities will cluster around these "clean" industries, reducing commuting needs"
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- "the focus on a service economy will also reduce the need for goods transportation"
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- "Finland will cut its energy consumption by half"
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- "and use 100 percent renewable energy"
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- "economic growth will slow at first due to initial investments in clean technology"
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- "but would then increase, averaging 1.7 percent by 2050"
FINLAND - Wikipedia EN: LINK ¤ FINLAND
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- "officially the Republic of Finland, is a nordic country situated in the fennoscandian region of northern Europe"
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- "it is bordered by Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Russia to the east, and Estonia to the south across the Gulf of Finland"
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- "it developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity"
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- "Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics, including education, civil liberties, quality of life, and human development"
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- Population: 5.5 million
SUOMI - Wikipedia FI: LINK ¤ SUOMI

