A Visit to Helsinki

At last, we are visiting the largest city near to us. We've zoomed across the Gulf of Finland on the hydrofoil (express!) ferry for two hours to this city of over half a million, reminiscent of Stockholm as a northern city built on a series of islands. Buildings often lie along the waters, as in the photo to the left, and we are rarely more than a few blocks from a bay or canal.

We've come to town for a weekend workshop Barbara's leading (she may write more on that herself). But we have a day before it begins, so we're exploring a bit on foot--the old (1800's) waterside markets, both the Russian Orthodox and Lutheran Cathedrals, and the downtown streets lined with buildings noticeably taller (6+ stories) than "ours" in Tallinn (usually 3-4 stories high). Most of the city dates from the 19th century; at one point earlier, the Finns burned the city rather than turn it over to invading Russians, and the Russians leveled what remained in return--which means Helsinki has no "Old Town" (medieval section) dating back to the 1200's as does Tallinn.

But, like Estonia, Finland has its own myths of origin--stories of larger-than-life personalities who lived before the Christian conquest and conversation of this area, and whose stories were set down in both areas during the 1800's when each was seeking to define its culture and nationhood over against foreign occupation. In Finland the story is captured in the Kalevala, the "national epic," written down in 1835, an event memorialized in the statue below (the larger figure is the writer, the other two are key characters in the story). Paintings of the epic's themes are to be found in the national museum of art--one of the several places I enjoyed on my own while Barbara was doing her workshops.

Of course, while exploring Helsinki, I needed occasional re-fueling. The Esplanade Cafe, in the photo above, came recommended as one of the best places to get "pulla," the special Finnish rolls, in quite a variety of presentations beyond the plain round buns I was expecting.

The National Finnish Museum included quite a bit of social as well as political history, including the ways in which a modern urban middle class gradually evolved (the country was still mostly farming people until after World War I). The creation of a new sense of "home," domesticity, and a sense of male and female roles was illustrated by an exhibit of doll-houses: note the number of rooms, including rooms specialized both by task and sometimes by the gender of the person intended for, in the photo below. And, of course, the hours of "play" (possible for girls of privilege who were not limited to farmwork or domestic service) helped teach girls how a house is run, and what the tasks of women might be. (Interestingly, in spite of such lessons, Finland was the very first country in the world, in 1906, to grant women full political rights--not only the vote but the right to run for office!)

Barbara and I also visited the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral, the largest in western Europe (see photo below--taken during "visiting hours" when no religious services were being held). It has a lovely sanctuary, but I must admit (in spite of being a visitor myself) that it lacked the religious feeling of other Orthodox churches we've visited in which believers wander in and out to pray with an icon and to light candles at any time. But perhaps there is a much smaller Russian-heritage population in Helsinki than in the Baltic areas we've lived in or visited. (And it was interesting to see the tourists from India at one of "our" religious sites, when so many westerners visit "theirs.")

I was on my own Saturday and Sunday, coming in to the keskus (centre) by commuter train from where the workshop was being held. I wandered into the "design district," which has a number of Art Nouveau buildings, and St. John's Church. It was a cool and windy morning, good for walking and people-watching.

Among the destinations in the back of my mind (to add to sheer delightful discoveries, without which any city wandering would be over-planned) were several bookshops. There still are not a lot of English-language books available in Tallinn, and I enjoyed browsing some used bookstores with a bit of English stock, and then the very large bookstore in the photo below.

But I think one of the things I found in Helsinki that was most meaningful to me personally was the chance to be, for a bit, in a less homogenous city for a while than Tallinn. Tallinn has very few immigrants (other than from places in the former Soviet Union), and few visible immigrants. In Finland about 5% of the population is now immigrant (including political refugees), higher in Helsinki. Many are from various Middle Eastern, African, and southeast Asian countries; over 200 different languages are spoken in Helsinki. And, by sheer good luck, we were in Helsinki when there was a chance to experience this diversity in two main ways.

One was that the Museum of Contemporary Art had all five floors of its exhibits devoted to contemporary African art, including the work of a variety of artists (film, photography, painting, sculpture, and so forth), and with attention to the connections between Finland and Africa. The photo to the right is striking; we see young men in Ghana in a field where junked electronics from Western countries have been brought for "recycling"--which often means burning the equipment until the rubber and plastic and chemicals are separated from the metal parts which are most valued for further re-sale. But it's ghastly work, dangerous work, and viewers couldn't forget, I think, that Finland's current prosperity is partly dependent on Nokia (the cellphone folks), or Estonia's much smaller prosperity on Skype (which was developed here).

The photo below is from a series on gay culture in Maputo (Mozambique) (where my niece Amy and her family are currently doing mission work for at least the next five years--though not on issues of gay life and the problems of HIV).

The exhibition as a whole was remarkable (sometimes inspiring, sometimes challenging, often depressing, often just fine art), and I was impressed by the efforts of a contemporary art museum to ask viewers questions about how Europeans think about Africa, how Africans imagine Europe, questions about immigration,

questions about what art might be in different cultural contexts, about the historical connections between Africa and even European countries like Finland which have been marginal to a more direct colonial role.

I mentioned that I was lucky to encounter diversity in Helsinki in two ways. The second was the annual "World Cultures Festival" in the center of the city: hundreds of different booths, some educational, some sponsored by various immigrant groups (with food for sale, or crafts or cultural items to show), some sponsored by various Finnish groups working with local immigrants or assisting work being done in their home countries--a number of African countries, but also Middle Eastern (Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq), and Asia (Nepal, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia). Plus lots of music from around the world. (The photo to the right shows the food booth from folks from Gambia.)

There was a very nice feel to the occasion. Yet I also know this new immigration has been challenging to native Finns, especially during a time of economic down-turn. In the recent (April) elections the "True Finn" party got 19% of the vote, a very significant share in a parliamentary system, alarming many more liberal Finns with its themes of nationalism, Finnish identity, and rejection of the more open borders encouraged by the European Union. One sees parallel political reactions in places like France and Britain and elsewhere (the U.S.). Perhaps part of what seemed hopeful to me about the museum exhibit, and the world cultures celebration, was that they seemed to represent a "vote" that issues over immigration and the differences in culture, language, and religions immigration brings, are worth engaging with rather than turning one's back on.

And that's all for now. Bruce