When last investigated, dancing with friends at a party was not a criminal offense in Finland.
There are countries that are relaxed about their leaders having a little fun in their tense lives. In France, admitting a child from a woman who is not his wife is only satisfied with a flick of an eyebrow, while in Britain the fact that Boris Johnson was a little less restrained in sexual matters that the average Catholic priest was no obstacle to becoming Britain’s most popular politician, a distinction he still holds despite his somewhat free-wheeling ways. Such behavior has drawn the ire of Rishi Sunak, who, although a believer in Sanatan Dharma, seems to have as Calvinistic a view of these habits as his father-in-law, the famous Narayana Murthy. Unlike the Bobby Jindals, Rishi did not run away from the faith of his ancestors, nor show the lack of courage to admit such beliefs in public. Between him and Liz Truss, there’s no doubt in anyone other than those smitten with the admittedly attractive Liz that Rishi has superior intelligence and would run the country far more effectively than Johnson’s favored candidate. A suspicious mind may say that the reason Boris wants Liz elected rather than Rishi is that she would soon prove incompetent at work, thus opening the door to re-entry at the Johnsons’ 10 Downing Street. Next month will show if Boris succeeds and gets his foreign secretary elected by the Tory stalwarts. He could be, given the support he enjoys within the Conservative Party. When it comes to India, whether it’s Truss or Sunak, the UK’s relationship with India, the country with the largest English-speaking population in the world, will remain as strong as it was when Johnson was the controls. Conservatives have been pretty savvy when it comes to the management of Covid-19, especially now that the mild variant of Omicron is the dominant infection. Even unvaccinated Indian visitors can pass through immigration control in London without stopping, with almost no one asked to produce the RT-PCR test report carried out before the departure date. In India, a similar common sense has been put in place by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Like Britain, India has not had a lockdown since 2020 or ever had a vaccination mandate, much to the disapproval of the world’s top seller of two branded vaccines, Anthony Fauci. Even in the US, President Joe Biden, with his dwindling public support, has been unable to implement the tough measures he originally put in place to stamp out Covid-19, only to may the best-known product of the Wuhan Institute of Virology be raging in the United States unabated. , now associated with monkeypox, a condition that is usually as benign as it is unsightly. Although the WHO and in particular Dr Tedros have tried for some time to generate the same panic over monkeypox that he and the PRC authorities managed to cause globally with Covid-19, this time Few have taken Xi’s favorite international health expert seriously. Certainly, Finland could not be on the exhausted list of countries that continue to let fear of being infected with Covid-19 restrict their freedoms and affect their livelihoods, most visibly in the area of tourism. Apart from China, where Xi Jinping is engaged in a battle against the virus with his own scientists and gifted American collaborators for humanity, very few countries allow the fear that was once pervasive in the world to continue. Particularly in a world where the virus appears to be most active in countries resorting to desperate measures to eradicate it, Japan and China being the obvious examples.
Nearly two decades ago, Finland’s Ambassador to India, a very able and very charming woman, contacted this columnist to get his perspective on the politics of the day. Over elaborate multi-course lunches that are unfortunately the staple of diplomatic cuisine, views were exchanged with the Ambassador, who displayed an open, non-judgmental mind so different from that of too many unofficial Anglo-Saxon diplomats and preachers. These meetings, as well as the knowledge of the indomitable fight that the Finns of Marshal Mannerheim led against the Soviet army at the beginning of the war of 1939-45, aroused for this country a feeling which is not without admiration. This emotion was heightened after reading fulminating remarks against Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who they believe has committed a most disgusting and salacious act. It was to dance at a party with friends, and even worse, to have someone among them posting the images on social media for the world to see. Judging by some of the comments on this supposedly unforgivable act, Prime Minister Marin has shamed Finland and smeared the glorious civilization of Europe, a continent that in the past was involved with other continents of the same way the Führer Adolf Hitler treated people. in countries invaded by the Wehrmacht, starting with Czechoslovakia in 1938. Suffice it to say to these critics that those who have never danced in their lives should cast the first stone, and even that would be unjustified. Among those who attack him are those who do much more than dance in a private setting, while behaving publicly in the manner of a bachelor. Given the challenges of her job, Sanna Marin is allowed to have fun every once in a while in any way she chooses, as long as it’s not criminal. And when last investigated, dancing with friends at a party was not a criminal offense in Finland. Merely dancing would not generate enough interest even in the narrow sections of the reading public, so some spice was added by claims that she was dancing topless, which was far from true. Even if she did, it was a private party on a continent where nudity is not considered a crime against humanity like it is in other places, like North Africa. According to reports, Prime Minister Marin has apologized for his conduct. If that’s true, that would be a shame, because nothing she’s done warrants an apology. Celebrate, Sanna, and let those who oppose it wallow in their false sense of shock.
