Introduction

I’m a Finn who’s spent most of my life’s 25 years abroad.

Maybe most impressive were three years as a teenager in Latin America.

Recently I spent little more than five months in New York (State and City). Initially I was visiting my sister, who studies there, then I got romantically involved and decided to extend my visit. It was never intended to be a lifelong commitment, and now I’m back at school trying to get my acts together and write my final paper to graduate (in political science).

The last years I actually studied Arabic language and culture. It must be admitted that it’s been a particular challenge to do that right now, at a time when a lot of not only Arabs consider me and other westerners as members of a particularly arrogant aggressor.

As a Finn, the belonging to a Western tradition and the Western World is at the very core of my cultural and ideological identity. The Finns have, for at least a thousand years, lived at the very border to (what we consider as) The East — in other words to Russia.

So I easily identify myself as a Westerner, but many events of recent years have made me question what this actually represents for non-Westerners.

Maybe I’ll be able to use this spot to examine my thoughts on this point.


More introduction:

Personal interests

on me versus Arabs (and the invasion of Iraq)

Respect for Russia