Finland
EU member states are becoming increasingly inward-looking and eager to promote aid policies which prioritise foreign or domestic policy objectives. These are the main conclusions of the annual AidWatch report by CONCORD, released on May 19th in Brussels.
Despite being the world’s biggest aid donor, only nine countries met their EU aid targets in 2010, with the bloc as a whole falling...
With €53.8 billion (0.43% of its GDP), the European Union’s official development aid (ODA) reached a record level in 2010, up by €4.5 billion on 2009. “The EU remains incontestably the world’s leading donor,” declared Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, while admitting that it has failed to honour its pledge to jointly allocate 0.56% of its gross domestic...
The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) ended on 13 May in Istanbul with a new 10-year Programme of Action that sets the goal of halving the number of LDCs by 2020.
There are currently 48 countries – 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia, plus Haiti – that meet the conditions to be considered members of the group of least developed countries: an annual per...
Mid-winter: An ice sheet has blanked out the sea between the islands of Turku’s archipelago. As temperatures pick up and the water reappears, cottage culture swings into action and city dwellers and visitors from further afield flock to the 20,000 islands which spill into the Baltic Sea off Turku.
From June to September 2011, ‘Contemporary Art Archipelago’, will put the islands...
After completing a first and Masters’ degree in geography at Dar es Salam University in Tanzania, Zahor Khalifa is spending the first year of his doctoral studies at the University of Turku. Pluses are the very latest software and small class sizes; among the minuses - adapting to Finland’s freezing winter temperatures!
“When I first arrived in September 2010, I stayed in my...
Jan-Erik Andersson is busy designing a sauna for the Capital of Culture’s ‘Sauna Lab’ project which will place five saunas in public places to explore this Finnish ritual. His is in the shape of a garlic or pumpkin, or perhaps of the dome of St. Petersburg’s Orthodox cathedral. But it is his fairy-tale-like leaf shaped house that is drawing visitors from around the...
Cooking pots from refugees transformed into drums with cow and reindeer hide will be mounted on a trailer and played in schools and public places. Sandals ‑ mostly flip flops ‑ from the feet of refugees around the world will be laid around Turku in the form of paths. A tent woven together from pieces of cloth made by refugees will provide a venue for music, drama, poetry and debate. This ‘...
Staged in Turku’s parks, saunas, theatres and prisons, young and old alike are taking part in cultural events as diverse as operatic performances and a new potato festival. The aim is “inclusiveness” says Cay Sevón, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Turku 2011 Foundation, the organising body for the European Capital of Culture events 2011. A display of fireworks...
Once part of the Swedish and - subsequently - the Russian empire Turku, a city of 177,500 people in Southwest Finland (300,000 in the wider Turku area), has grown at the side of the River Aura and become a thriving trading and cultural hub. The recognition of its vibrancy in the arts was the announcement of its status as European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Estonia’s capital,...
Since 2007, Paavo Matti Väyrynen, a Centre Partypolitician, has been Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development in the government of Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi. He is both a former foreign minister (1977-1982, 1983-1987 and 1991-1993) and a Member of the European Parliament (1995-2007). At the time of going to press, parliamentary elections were scheduled in Finland for 17...
EU member states are becoming increasingly inward-looking and eager to promote aid policies which prioritise foreign or domestic policy objectives. These are the main conclusions of the annual AidWatch report by CONCORD, released on May 19th in Brussels.
Despite being the world’s biggest aid donor, only nine countries met their EU aid targets in 2010, with the bloc as a whole falling...
With €53.8 billion (0.43% of its GDP), the European Union’s official development aid (ODA) reached a record level in 2010, up by €4.5 billion on 2009. “The EU remains incontestably the world’s leading donor,” declared Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, while admitting that it has failed to honour its pledge to jointly allocate 0.56% of its gross domestic...
The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) ended on 13 May in Istanbul with a new 10-year Programme of Action that sets the goal of halving the number of LDCs by 2020.
There are currently 48 countries – 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia, plus Haiti – that meet the conditions to be considered members of the group of least developed countries: an annual per...
Mid-winter: An ice sheet has blanked out the sea between the islands of Turku’s archipelago. As temperatures pick up and the water reappears, cottage culture swings into action and city dwellers and visitors from further afield flock to the 20,000 islands which spill into the Baltic Sea off Turku.
From June to September 2011, ‘Contemporary Art Archipelago’, will put the islands...
After completing a first and Masters’ degree in geography at Dar es Salam University in Tanzania, Zahor Khalifa is spending the first year of his doctoral studies at the University of Turku. Pluses are the very latest software and small class sizes; among the minuses - adapting to Finland’s freezing winter temperatures!
“When I first arrived in September 2010, I stayed in my...
Jan-Erik Andersson is busy designing a sauna for the Capital of Culture’s ‘Sauna Lab’ project which will place five saunas in public places to explore this Finnish ritual. His is in the shape of a garlic or pumpkin, or perhaps of the dome of St. Petersburg’s Orthodox cathedral. But it is his fairy-tale-like leaf shaped house that is drawing visitors from around the...
Cooking pots from refugees transformed into drums with cow and reindeer hide will be mounted on a trailer and played in schools and public places. Sandals ‑ mostly flip flops ‑ from the feet of refugees around the world will be laid around Turku in the form of paths. A tent woven together from pieces of cloth made by refugees will provide a venue for music, drama, poetry and debate. This ‘...
Staged in Turku’s parks, saunas, theatres and prisons, young and old alike are taking part in cultural events as diverse as operatic performances and a new potato festival. The aim is “inclusiveness” says Cay Sevón, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Turku 2011 Foundation, the organising body for the European Capital of Culture events 2011. A display of fireworks...
Once part of the Swedish and - subsequently - the Russian empire Turku, a city of 177,500 people in Southwest Finland (300,000 in the wider Turku area), has grown at the side of the River Aura and become a thriving trading and cultural hub. The recognition of its vibrancy in the arts was the announcement of its status as European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Estonia’s capital,...
Since 2007, Paavo Matti Väyrynen, a Centre Partypolitician, has been Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development in the government of Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi. He is both a former foreign minister (1977-1982, 1983-1987 and 1991-1993) and a Member of the European Parliament (1995-2007). At the time of going to press, parliamentary elections were scheduled in Finland for 17...
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