Is Finland the world's best kept secret?

On the Huffington Post's blog Professor Ira Kalb writes that in his opinion Finland is the world's best kept secret:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ira-kalb/its-time-to-discover-the-worlds-best-kept-secret_b_7280648.html

The point was that Finns do not know how to market their country. On the blog Mr. Kalb asks people to communicate Finland's benefits to those that don't know it. So here you are, a list of Finland's benefits:

-Clean, healthy environment with lots of available space. 5.5 million people living in 131,000 square miles -- 38 people per square mile.

- Top of the world education. Frequently tops the world in education. Finnish students are ranked amongst the top three in the world.

- Universities and research centers are great too. 21 Universities and 12 research Centers of Excellence.

- Leading in R&D. Among leading nations in R&D expenditures as a percentage of GDP.

- Not as cold as most think. Average temperatures vary between 25° F in Winter and 64° F in Summer.

- Easy to communicate. Official international business language is English.
Western-style government. Western parliamentary democracy led by a President.

- In all the right clubs. International affiliations include membership in the EU, UN, WTO, OECD, IMF, World Bank, EBRD, AsDB, AfDB, IDB, the Nordic Council, ESA, CERN, and EUREKA.

- Bridge between East and West. Expertise to bridge the gulf between businesses and countries in the East and West. Very close to the Baltics and St. Petersburg for visitors.

- Advanced technology infrastructure. Europe's leading information society second only to the USA in the use of information technology, and it has the world's highest number of mobile phones and Internet nodes per capita.

- Advanced financial infrastructure. World's most developed electronic banking system.

- High-performing stock market. Stock market that has frequently outperformed most of the world's capital markets.

- Uses the Euro. Monetary unit is currently the Euro - one of the world's four hard currencies.

- Industrial leader. World leader in forest products, pulp, paper, and board technology, and shipbuilding.

- Lower tax rates. The lowest corporate and capital tax rates of any EU country.

- Safe and secure. Safe and virtual risk-free environment.

- Most wired and wireless. Most wired nation in the world with sophisticated digital and fiber optic voice and data processing networks.

- Lowest corruption. Tied with Denmark for having the least corruption in the world.

- Competitive. Often recognized as one of the most competitive nations in Europe.

- Lot's of things to do indoors and out. Finland has 187,888 lakes (more than any country in the world) and 179000 islands. It has great restaurants, music festivals, and beautiful historic places to visit. And, believe it or not, the guy who won the "funniest "funniest person in the world" contest is a Finn.

- Fresh and healthy food. With the sea and all those lakes, the fish is so fresh it does not even smell.



We have worked hard all day - only two weeks left till the Leevi's graduation day and still so much to do! If I've been busy all spring the graduation party will be the culmination point.

I took Sami the dog to the forest, which was full of wood sorrels. I love their delicate beauty. 

+12°C semi-sunny