OVI-project

Who runs it?

The Finnish Association for Mental Health (FAMH).

What’s it about?

The OVI-project extends FAHM’s services to accommodate the growing immigrant community in Helsinki. The goal is to inform and educate immigrant organisations on mental health issues and where to go for help and support, says project planner Jouni Saarelainen.

Finland’s film classification laws have seen changes throughout the years, but a new law proposal would put the advance review board out of business.

CHANGES are afoot in the way in which television programmes and movies are to be classified in Finland. Like in other countries, members of the public are, nominally at least, restricted as to what they may watch by a system of age-restriction certificates. A somewhat overly-extensive range of certificates is currently in play, meaning that television broadcasts and films shown in cinemas are granted categories of 3, 7, 11, 13, 15 or 18.

Questions of nationality, citizenship and identity are sometimes complicated issues. But when it comes to sports things start to really get messy. Just ask handball champion Maria Hyppönen.

MARIA HYPPÖNEN admits she is a little excited. Tomorrow she has an appointment at the police station to submit her application to become a Finnish citizen. Despite her unmistakably Finnish-sounding name, Hyppönen, 32, only has one Finnish grandparent. She was born in Ukraine, at the time a part of the Soviet Union, and after almost two decades in Finland she has no Finnish citizenship, and only an alien’s passport, which is given to Finnish residents who can’t get a passport from any other country.

Immigration is rapidly changing the face of Finland’s cities, but it’s also transforming its countryside. For a “New Finn” fitting into the quaint rural lifestyle can be tricky but rewarding.

Beautiful scenery, carefree summers and proper, snowy winters, and a community that values you as an individual – these are the advantages of living in the Finnish countryside, according to Petri Rinne. Rinne is the Managing Director of Joutsenten Reitti, a development agency working with the rural municipalities of Sastamala, Huittinen, Punkalaidun and Hämeenkyrö, and he passionately believes in the power of immigration to transform the Finnish countryside.

While initially applauded for being more environmentally sound than its paper predecessor, the plastic bag now provides one of the biggest headaches for environmental groups.

A much-parodied scene in 1999’s Academy Award winning film American Beauty sees one of the main characters overwhelmed by the simple beauty of a plastic bag as it dances in the wind. But what of his reaction when the plastic bag is eventually washed down the drain and spat out to sea, wreaking havoc upon marine life? With baited breath we’ll have to wait for the sequel, American Beauty 2: Beauty Runs Ocean Deep.