Update from Finland on US-NATO expansion

 

 

By Kerstin Tuomala 

Finland

I live in the country side and it is different from living in the towns. Here is a tradition just to visit neighbors and friends unofficially - just to drop in. In these days it is very important to meet people, because the society is getting hard and impersonal. Finland has never had such an aggressive policy during my life - and most ministers are women - green and so called left (social democrats and left association, also center-party and some small party). You could expect a feminine policy - but NO! They are worse than men, especially our prime minister, Sanna Marin, social democrat.

The NATO process was quite undemocratic and no referendum was hold- opposite to what both the president and prime minister promised before they went to Washington and other places, from where they seemed to be instructed. The polls they refer to are made in ways to get the results they want - they have not taken big enough random samples for interviews, but they have take samples from a limited group in the internet and they are excluding the oldest people from the polls, which is not correct at all. We, who now are old, have experienced the cold war and have also seen the benefits of having reasonable and diplomatic relations with all our neighbors including Russia. When we tried to complain about this, we were ignored.

I am still with the Peace committee of Lapland, I am taking care of the economy. We had a meeting in the beginning of this month, in Kemi, 200 kms from here. We were learning about the new USA bases in Norway. In the area of the bases the law of the United States of America is valid and if a Norwegian break the USA law in his/her own country but on the area of the base she/he would be investigated and/or judged through the law of the US. But the US soldiers and personal will not have to obey Norwegian law. What is this other than occupation?

Very secretly but obviously, our leaders of the foreign policy are arranging something like these bases also here in Finland. Of course we are very worried about this all, together with the fact that almost every cooperation and diplomatic relations with our neighbor Russia are cut down. It has taken decades to create good relations and now they are destroyed by Finnish policy by people who are inexperienced and incompetent what comes to interaction and skillful diplomacy. Our medias are dependent on Stratcom in Riga and the Hybrid center in Helsinki. Some people still get their views printed in the papers but it is much more difficult than ever.

In this situation I realize that the peace people in Maine - You and Your friends write to Your government and the Congress to demand those responsible for destroying Nord Stream 1 and 2 to be investigated and punished. I agree. It was a terrorist deed and also a deed against us all who live in the region, it was a crime against the environment. Thank You for writing these letters!! 

It is really important. As it is important to free Julian Assange because journalism is not a crime. It is important that people like Julian and Seymour Hersh can do their jobs and seek for the truth. For the details - I read a detailed description about how some ships from the Swedish navy operated at the places near Bornholm just where the explosions took place just two days before. They used the transponders at times and at times not, but they did something at the places one day and then went to the harbor and returned the next day. That has also to do with the explosions - it cannot be other wise, since they operated exactly at the location of the explosions. I think there are details we will learn more about in time....Although USA is responsible, somehow also the Swedish [and Norway] navy were involved.

The peace movement in Finland is split. There are some associations who demonstrate 25th of February against the war in Ukraine but instead of demanding our government not to send arms to Ukraine and to work instead for peace, they go to the Russian embassy and demand the war to stop. We in Lapland will study what is going on, and I try to participate even though I have to drive 200 kms one way and then back. It seems that very few persons know about what has gone on in Ukraine since the [2014 US orchestrated] coup. The peace movement is split.

Fortunately there are competent people now gathering together to seek for what to do. So we are not without hope.

I really hope the people of Europe would start to care about the security here, look really about how to find the way to peace in Europe for all Europeans. I believe we should learn to live on our continent not using the soil of other peoples for our benefits. I believe USA could live quite well in USA and we should leave the soils of Africa, Asia and Latin-America to their peoples. That is how we could survive as mankind. Not to use more than we have, not to exploit others but to work together and help each others.