Saturday, July 26, 2008

ON RECYCLING

Several examples of Finnish recyclable bottles.
Thanks to my Tuska companion for the picture.

Nature in Slovenia is not as clean as in Finland. That's a fact. Slovenian ecological awareness is not as high as Finnish one. That is also a fact. Despite it, the awareness, is getting better, it still seems somewhat behind. There are still washing machines in the forests, and there are plastic bottles. Especially these ones, plastic bottles.

When it comes to Finnish ecological awareness, they have figured out a very useful process considering recycling of plastic bottles. Their solution is not all about special wastebins into which people are kindly asked to throw empty plastic bottles; of course, in some cases, they don't do so, but they rather throw their empty plastic bottle on the ground, thus letting it to rot joyfully in the midst of Slovenian green fields, under whispering lime trees. It was just a worthless plastic bottle anyway. May it be. For some years, or so.


In Finland, on the other hand, the situation is different. Clever Northern nation has invented nice and, of course, partly digitalized machine that usually operates in grocery shops. This machine has only one mission to fulfill. Collecting plastic bottles. Oh, and cans, too. The plastic bottles, at least, are used again, the cycle goes properly around - and, most important, the one who has decided to recycle them gets back 20 cents for small bottles and 40 cents for big ones. The machine counts the bottles, for it is very smart and it knows exactly what it ate, and then, when the recycler has finnished feeding the machine, it prints out lovely paper telling the amount of money. So, if one is keen and her or his ecological awareness is high, such plastic bottle income can be nice. Finns drink a lot, and many pleasant boozes come in plastic. But, well, Slovenians drink a lot, too.

Collecting plastic bottles in Finland seems to be a way of business. While we were waiting to get through the gates of Tuska festival, there were several people hunting for the empty plastic bottles and cans those festive metalheads would generously throw away. Yes, in this case, bottles would meet Finnish soil as they would also be picked up very soon. So, people from the edge of society with low income would get some money. Here, by the way, it is quite sad to see elderly ones, not tramps or drunks, but decent old people collecting this trash to improve their pension. But all in all - recycling machines can offer some comfort. For both, people and nature.

Why is not such recycling system dealing with plastic bottles and cans in Slovenia as well? Please may it be.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

MOMENTS OF TRANSLATION


Uuno Kailas (1901 -1933)
Paljain jaloin
Bosih nog
translated by Kaneli

Niin mä kerran
Tako
nekoč
tieni aloin
začel sem pot
niin mä kuljen:
tako hodim:

paljain jaloin.

bosih nog.

Avohaavat
Žive rane
syvät näissä
njih globoke
ammottavat
odpirajo
kantapäissä:
se v pete:

rystysihin
not v členke
joka kiven
vsakter' kamen
jäänyt niist' on
od njih ostal
verta hiven.
je del krvi.

- Mutta niinkuin
-A
kot tako
matkan aloin,
začel sem pot,
päätän myös sen:
jo
končam še:
paljain jaloin.
bosih nog.

Silloinkin, kun
Tudi kadar
tuska syvin

bol globoko
viiltää, virkan:

reže, kriknem:
- Näin on hyvin.

- To je dobro.

Tapahtukoon
Naj zgodi se

tahtos sinun,

želja tvoja,
Kohtaloni,

Moja
usoda,
eikä minun

in ne moja.

Friday, July 11, 2008

SUMMER UPDATES

Moi! So, what has Kaneli been doing all this time while her Cinnamonbook was resting? She was traveling around Finland, not alone, and it was a lot of fun. May the photos tell the rest - and the story is still TBA! ;)

Summer walk in JKL

Crossing the Arctic Circle

Visiting the real Santa Claus; eh well... but finally, he proved to be charismatic, despite all commercial shit.

Admiring Midnight Sun - sky over Lapland at 1:00 in the morning

From Lapland to Helsinki - having great time at Tuska Metal Festival 2008

Exploring Helsinki again - this time, the best was Korkeasaari, Helsinki Zoo