Images of the devastation caused by this weekend’s earthquake in Nepal make most of this morning’s front pages, as the death toll rises to an estimated 2,500, with many, many more still missing. Reports from the capital Kathmandu describe people huddling together in outside spaces, too terrified to return indoors for fear of the continuing aftershocks. Meanwhile hospitals and makeshift treatment areas are swamped with casualties, which number in the thousands.
Some papers also carry news of Finnish efforts to aid the relief operation. Turku’s Turun Sanomat has spoken to the head of a 29-strong team of Finnish fire and rescue workers who are heading to the region. “We won’t have heavy rescue equipment - our job will be to look for victims in the wreckage and see if we can do anything to help the heavier-equipped teams go in and do the actual searching,” Marko Rostedt tells the paper. The group's departure has been pushed back until this evening due to flight delays, the paper says.
The quake happened at the peak of Nepal’s tourist season, and most papers also carry news of the 170 Finnish citizens registered as being in the country. Two Finnish climbing groups are safe and well, having not yet reached Mount Everest’s worst-affected avalanche areas when Saturday’s earthquake hit, a report from news agency STT says. But the Foreign Ministry says 20 Finnish citizens are still unaccounted for.
New life down south
Helsingin Sanomat also leads with a report on Finns who’ve upped sticks across the Gulf of Finland and resettled in Estonia. The paper’s asked 300 émigrés how they find life there – and the vast majority say it’s more comfortable, easier, and considerably cheaper. Small business owners and self-employed Finns tell the paper that doing business is much more straightforward in their new home.
At the same time, 54% of Finns say that Estonian healthcare services are easily a match for those back home. Nearly a further 7 out of 10 Finns say they can now afford go out to eat more.
30-something publisher and author Ville Hytönen is one of the 60 percent of expats questioned who would recommend more of his countrymen and women make the move south. “I’d especially suggest it for freelancers and Helsinkians who can do their work from home,” he says. “And based on my parents’ experiences, I’d recommend this place for retirees too,” he tells the paper.
Fine times in Finland
Meanwhile a report on “regulation Finland” on the front page of this morning’s Iltalehti could perhaps spur some readers to consider moving to Estonia.
“Restaurateur fined because customer didn’t want a receipt,” the headline exclaims. Turku café owner Sakari Lemmetyinen tells the paper he’s paid the 300 euro fine slapped on him for not printing out a receipt for a bar-goer.
Inspectors from the Regional Administrative Agency, who issued the fine, insist that a paper receipt must be handed to customers whether or not they want it. “Those are indeed our rules,” the agency’s boss tells the paper – the measure being intended to ensure businesses pay the right amount of tax and other charges.
“It’s ridiculous. All payments are already meticulously recorded and time-stamped by our system, whether it’s a cash or card payment,” Lemmetyinen says.
The story, which appeared first in Turun Sanomat last week, has sparked a vigorous response from some readers, whose comments are printed in this morning’s edition. “If the people who come up with these laws actually spent a month out there in the real world trying to follow their own rules, they’d realise pretty quickly that it’s often completely impossible,” says one. “Isn’t being an entrepreneur in Finland horrendous enough already?” asks another.
But one commenter offers some perspective for Finnish restaurant owners who find themselves 300 euros out of pocket: “Here in Sweden you’d get a 1,000 euro fine for doing that,” they write.
That's little comfort for many readers though - a poll on the paper's website shows that out of 10,000 voters, 98 percent agree that "Finland has too much senseless bureaucracy".
