heimlaga
Established Member
Last night the Finnish parlament approved the new hospital districts law as proposed by the government.
To us Swedes in Österbotten this means that the biligual hospital Vasa Centralsjukhus will become nothing more than a health care center while all more demanding or complicated cases and all emergencies will be directed to the purely Finnish hospital in Seinäjoki in the inland. The law requires the Seinäjoki hospital to have some Swedish speaking personnel in the emergency room but as we all know from many times before large Finnish organisations always neglect such requirements.
The law has been written based on incorrect inquiries produced by biased civil servants. Some inquiries are outright ridiculous.
The law har been unanomously repelled by the cabinet of constitution which means that the law is unconstitutional.
The law is in confloct with the European Treaty of Minority Languages which Finland has signed.
Still the government presses on and will start implication it as soon as possible.
We Swedes lived here already when Finland was a part of Sweden (up to 1809). We were here already before the kingdom of Sweden was invented in early medieval times. Long before Willam and his men sailed from Normandy to conquer England. Likely long before William's ancestors left Scandinavia to colonize Normandy.
Swedes can be found in all classes in society and in all walks of life. We are just under 100000 Swedes in Österbotten theese days. In many municipalities in Österbotten over 80% of the population are registered Swedes and society functions entirely in Swedish. I would guess that only a quarter of us speak Finnish well enough to explain what is wrong to a Finnish doctor and make sence of the doctor's ordinations. I don't. I understand and can make myself understood in everyday's carpenter's Finnish but I can neither write nor read that language nor do I know the names of the mayor body parts.
My mother once ended up having emergency surgery in a Finnish hospital in the inland and that almost came to a bad end because nobody understood what she said.
Myself I have been once to a doctor who didn't speak Swedish and it wasn't productive. I managed to direct him to the correct body part but later on we found that he had understood everything wrong and I was sent there again now with an interpreter.
The Finnish constitution states that Finnish and Swedish are on equal terms the languages of the state and the nation and that both Finns and Swedes have the same rights each in his or her own language. Other laws specify that our rights to live in Swedish are valid in the regions where most of us live.
On those terms we joined the newly created state of Finland in 1917. Both my grandfathers and almost all other men in their generation fought for Finland in two wars against the Soviet Union. One of my grandfathers never recovered his health after the war.
Now this land of ours has broken it's own constitution to make us second class citizens. In order to collect more power to the parties in government and to share out more favours to their supporters and gain popularity among the racists.
I think all the world should know what is going on.
Though I have tried to write this text totally as party-neutral and un-biased I can in this situation.
I don't think any party politics belongs in this forum.
I just want to world to know!....... I hope the moderators will alloow this post to remain.
To us Swedes in Österbotten this means that the biligual hospital Vasa Centralsjukhus will become nothing more than a health care center while all more demanding or complicated cases and all emergencies will be directed to the purely Finnish hospital in Seinäjoki in the inland. The law requires the Seinäjoki hospital to have some Swedish speaking personnel in the emergency room but as we all know from many times before large Finnish organisations always neglect such requirements.
The law has been written based on incorrect inquiries produced by biased civil servants. Some inquiries are outright ridiculous.
The law har been unanomously repelled by the cabinet of constitution which means that the law is unconstitutional.
The law is in confloct with the European Treaty of Minority Languages which Finland has signed.
Still the government presses on and will start implication it as soon as possible.
We Swedes lived here already when Finland was a part of Sweden (up to 1809). We were here already before the kingdom of Sweden was invented in early medieval times. Long before Willam and his men sailed from Normandy to conquer England. Likely long before William's ancestors left Scandinavia to colonize Normandy.
Swedes can be found in all classes in society and in all walks of life. We are just under 100000 Swedes in Österbotten theese days. In many municipalities in Österbotten over 80% of the population are registered Swedes and society functions entirely in Swedish. I would guess that only a quarter of us speak Finnish well enough to explain what is wrong to a Finnish doctor and make sence of the doctor's ordinations. I don't. I understand and can make myself understood in everyday's carpenter's Finnish but I can neither write nor read that language nor do I know the names of the mayor body parts.
My mother once ended up having emergency surgery in a Finnish hospital in the inland and that almost came to a bad end because nobody understood what she said.
Myself I have been once to a doctor who didn't speak Swedish and it wasn't productive. I managed to direct him to the correct body part but later on we found that he had understood everything wrong and I was sent there again now with an interpreter.
The Finnish constitution states that Finnish and Swedish are on equal terms the languages of the state and the nation and that both Finns and Swedes have the same rights each in his or her own language. Other laws specify that our rights to live in Swedish are valid in the regions where most of us live.
On those terms we joined the newly created state of Finland in 1917. Both my grandfathers and almost all other men in their generation fought for Finland in two wars against the Soviet Union. One of my grandfathers never recovered his health after the war.
Now this land of ours has broken it's own constitution to make us second class citizens. In order to collect more power to the parties in government and to share out more favours to their supporters and gain popularity among the racists.
I think all the world should know what is going on.
Though I have tried to write this text totally as party-neutral and un-biased I can in this situation.
I don't think any party politics belongs in this forum.
I just want to world to know!....... I hope the moderators will alloow this post to remain.
