That was the most amazing thing I discovered when I visited Finland.  Here are these people who didn't really have enough to eat in the 1950s because of the damage of a war with USSR that they had NOT started and the resulting demands for war reparations, yet what this reality meant was that any random cab driver or doorman knew more about USSR than any "Russia Expert" at the State Department in USA (Yes Condi, I am talking about you.)

And what THIS meant was that USSR eventually would buy enough Finnish goods to help propel Finland to near the front of OECD in living standards.  

The Finns have created a very successful foreign policy based on the obvious model of attempting to turn the world into satisfied customers.  This is why the looney right had to make "Finlandization" into a swear word.  

Ghandi used to remind Christians that their doctrine was overwhelmingly a pacifist one.  He would wonder what went wrong.  And yet, probably since no one in Finland could be really called devout, they seemed to have employed those rarely-taught Christian virtues to create a successful society.

Finland could have used the post-war period to organize revenge.  Lots of folks on earth act that way.  Instead, they invented and organized and sold big-ticket items like turnkey hotels to a nation that had bombed their cities.  And now, the idea of Russia invading Finland is so unlikely, even the Finnish Army is more about male bonding than defense.

"Finlandization" simply HAD to become a swear word.  The last idea the warmongers want to see gain traction is that pacifism in an historically Christian country not only results is good relations with the rest of the world, it is a successful recipe for prosperity.


"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"