Feelings

Hello again dear reader. This week was fortunately a lot easier than few past ones. Only few days at school and SSM-presentations. On Wednesday we had to be at school for only a hour, and Friday was only rest. I red some articles from Helsingin Sanomat and they made me think about tolerance and even my own values. A question for you reader: Is law the absolute way to determine if something is right or wrong?



Not everything can be evaluated only by law. There is also another way to determine if something is fair. And that is ethics. Ethics doesn't care about the laws. Ethic is about big picture. And there is not always one right answer.  Is stealing okay? "No", says the law. "It depends", says ethics. Are the hungry and poor Brazilians bad people, when they stole goods from tourists? They're not bad people. if you ask me. What else could they do when their government destroys their houses because of a new sports arena and does nothing to help its citizens. When your life depends on stealing because you have no other possibility, it is not anymore choice. It is matter of life or death. The choice can be evaluated with different ways. Few ways to determine the choice are: Is the action okay? Is the result okay? Is this choice making our community a better place? I played this game where you have to decide who's life is more important when in a car accident. Children or elderly, fat or athletic man, robbery or hobos. Test your moral. Remember to click "show description" before choosing your opinion.

Photo from http://moralmachine.mit.edu/

Opinions are a topic that start wars and build walls. There is never one right opinion. All the opinions have its own perspective. Some opinions just have better and wider point of view. Our SSM-presentation was good, but I am not happy with myself. I find it discouraging when other teams come up with same ideas as my own team. I try to be creative and find the ideas nobody else would think about. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they are just too bad to execute. This time some other teams had few of the same ideas as we had, and it made me feel like I failed. Usually if other people find the same solution as you, that solution is not creative. Being creative means being different. To be different, one has to think outside of the box. But this time either all the other teams were creative or our team wasn't. Did I fail? This time it is not only about me. In group projects the team is the one that fails or succeeds. Our team was really good and I was sure about it even before we presented our ideas. Nothing to blame. Were all the other teams also good? Yes they were. Why should I blame myself, if somebody is evenly good or better than me, and also finds the same solutions as our team. There was nothing else that we could have done. One can't win always, not even every time ("Ei aina voi voittaa, ei edes joka kerta" -my mom told me this once and we joke about this frequently). Most of the times other teams have had brilliant ideas that have blown my mind. Does that mean that I am bad? No! Should I be happy that my class is full of students that help me to see things differently? Absolutely. That is why I am happy that I have had a possibility do group projects with different kind of people. However, some of the students have been in the same groups in almost every project and it is not easy to get to know them better. I am happy that some of the students think the way as I do and want to change the teams after certain time period. Just like we did in elementary school (because teachers wanted to have girls and boys in the same groups which was wise).

Another thing that actually wonders me a lot is politics. I don't follow politics as much as I should, since I am interested in it. But one thing I am sure about. Populism is a strange thing. All the Finnish political parties have populist representatives but some parties have them more than others. Here one of the populists is accused of ethnic agitation. Hakkarainen accused of braking the law. Why do I care? I care because I want to change the world. I want to live in a hate free world where everybody is accepted as themselves. "You are a white male from western country. you have everything!" That is true. But this is not about me. I want everybody else to feel themselves respected and loved. But why it is not possible then? There are certain groups of people who take advantage of others. Some people lie, and treat others badly just because they get money, power or attention with it. Some corporations make money when slaves are doing the job for them. This is one of the reasons I will never buy anything that has diamonds in it. If you want to read more about this click and learn from wikipedia. Hakkarainen gets publicity with his words and minorities are getting scared of others. Intolerant people take advantage of those who are innocent and blame them for everything. Hitler did the same. Trump does the same. It is only a small step from words to action and that is scary. There are always different point of views, and not anything is absolutely right or wrong.

I have done some changes in my life because of new values. I don't eat meat regularly, and I avoid products that contain milk. Diet is single most efficient way to decrease ones carbon dioxide emissions. It is the easiest way to do something about this problem. Walking/using bicycle instead of car or bus is also major way to reduce emissions.Walking to work is easy if you sleep at your desktop, but here in Finland the cleaning lady would confuse you with a hobo and call the police. And who would like to ride a bike when it is -20 Celsius degrees and the streets are as slippery as ski slope? I've done it few times and I almost broke my leg. Our living habits are killing our beautiful planet, and it hurts me a lot. This is a problem that I can't solve. Not alone. This is not a problem that can be solved. We can slow the process as much as possible but it is just a matter of time when the permafrost areas melt and climate wars start to happen. Only thing what we can do is to acknowledge the problem and do what we can to slow it down. I try to make decisions that keep me sane and capable to live with myself. It is not wise to get radical and stop doing everything fun. That will only poison ones mind.

Crazy people with their bicycles

Miia flew to Italy with her friends and it is only me and Svante at home for the rest of the week. We're going to stay up for all night and play video games. Svante seems to be missing her already, but luckily I have time and energy to play with him. He was thrilled to see snow for the first time. No food step wasn't passed without sniffing. Our walks take a lot longer now but luckily I have time. Being home alone is quite boring and I feel like I have nothing productive to do. Maybe I clean the whole house by myself. Or maybe just a kitchen. Or... Okay, I am going to start with the kitchen;) Have a nice weekend!