Strikes in season

Apart from the ginger bread and mulled wine this year's holiday season seems to have a new thing that is trendy and that is having a strike.

Not like going bowling but as in walk out from your job.

The financial industry is planning to begin their next week, as they want their fair share of the companies' profits. The union says that the cash machines will be running and that the wages and pension are to be paid to their due accounts despite their possible strike if the transfers are made before hand. Remains to see the result.

Last week the aviation baggage personnel walked out of their jobs at Helsinki airport in protest with it resulting in flights being cancelled and a luggage clog up with thousands of suitcases still to be sorted out .

The employees of one of the mobile phone operator walked out today and the IT sector have been negotiating for some time now about a pay rise.

Maybe this is a new way to get more time off before Christmas for them who have jobs as they are envious of the others who have been being laid off and made redundant?

To fund or refund?

The election campaign funds are currently the hot topic here in Finland.

The topic hit off with the last parliamentary elections but has stepped back in time even to the last presidential elections and "to dare to fund or have to refund is the question" so to say.

So far there seems to have been few rules and guidelines to apply to in Finland and since the last election the topic has hit the roof turning even ridiculous. The hot potato is the reform for the election fund raising on its' way, what to change and what to allow and which party, or who personally in so many cases, has to refund what money and to whom. Someone paying for you birthday bash or a vacation trip abroad for that matter seems an awkward bit too much like bribery to me.

I personally can not see why money donated years ago should be paid back now, unless there was something illegal about it back then. The persons in question having made the mistakes, giving donations wrongly should take the fall. Nor can I see the for reason it being mandatory to find out about the donor when receiving money. Until now you have been able to anonymously donate funds, at least up to a certain amount of money, if I have not got it wrong.

If a state owned corporation, or maybe a charity fund, donates money to some politician for their campaign, and the politician in question happens to be a member of the board of the corporation, or charity fund in question, it should be illegal. Which it seems is not, at least not yet, and money has been refunded to where it originated from at the same time resulting in some members of parliament resigning from their posts.

Logical would be for worker's unions to support their parties, which, at least presumably, should be some parties on the left wing of politics, and for employers to support the right wing of politics in correlation to their political interests. This might be illegal too soon, as well as banishing private donations...

So what way would there then be to support your party, if you're not personally involved in politics here in Finland?!?

One thing is for sure, all donations should be public for anyone to see, who paid what to whom and when.

Instant misery and poverty

Instant loans became big business a couple a years ago here in Finland.

You could, at the beginning when these cash loan firms established themselves on the market, apply for a cash loan, instantly paid to your account in the middle of the night sitting in a bar to settle your check.

This is no more the case, now there are some rules these instant cash loan firms have to apply to, but it seems to me these loans are more like tickets to instant bankruptcy, as the the interest rates are higher than they should be allowed to be, at least according to the law, as profiteering is not allowed here in Finland. You lend 100 Euros for a month, that is 30 days, and you pay back 144 Euros. And what is that in yearly interest rate?!?

At least according to me that makes very much a bigger yearly interest rate than I would even want to think about, just a waste of money...and lending once and not being able to pay it back, you have to lend more to pay and there it is, instant misery and poverty and you did have fun, once long, long time ago.

Being in the game

Statistics have for long been one of may favourite subjects, you can tell anything by just twisting the same facts around using different words and saying them in another order, giving them another meaning.

The Finns use 54 Euros per year and person gambling. This is a fact and published by the Finnish state owned gambling company, RAY. As gambling is only allowed on some machines generally displayed in cafes, bars, supermarkets and so on, and at special authorized betting agents, here comes what I have been wondering about.

Is this divides per citizens meaning all citizens including babies and children, this 54 Euros per year? Or is it per persons over 15 years old, who are allowed to gamble on these gambling machines? Or are they just counting adult persons over the age of 18 years?

Anyway, I have always been bad at gambling, the main reason for it being forgetting to get my my tickets registered in time to partake in the game, but now there is this wonderful new invention, on-line gambling, that you can use and I have actually managed to have a valid Lotto ticket for months, and as a matter of fact even have had some modest earnings deposited into my gambling account.

Not as big a win as the Italian 150 million Euros, just pennies, or maybe I should say Euros and cents, but it keeps me in the game for the time being.

Cheapest phone bills

Here's some good news for all them who complain about their mobile-phone bills being too high; Finland actually have the cheapest mobile-phone charges according to a comparison made of the OECD countries in august 2008.

Wonder what the situation is today? The cheapest phone operators still seem to have the same prices to offer as last year, just with new advertising campaigns. Anyway, the cheap phone bills will come in handy to the people in Finland that have volunteered to be involved in a big study about the safety and health risks of using mobile phones.

The same study is simultaneously carried out in Sweden, Denmark, the UK and the Netherlands for better correlation. The choosing of Finland as a participating country for this survey is excellent. No matter where you go there always is someone on the phone right beside you, and by the sound of it you might think that the volume is not adjustable.

Just the other day I was waiting at the bus-stop to get home and a lady was shouting Thai right into my ear. When turning around towards her she said she was on the phone...
When I commented "Yes, and you are shouting right into my ear" she excused herself and hang up looking quite embarrassed. Well, at least she had the good sense to quit, the shouting I mean, not the conversation.

Mobile phones are handy but maybe some more consideration to other people around you might be cautioned for.

Laying off

Best friend of mine, actually resident here in Finland for some time now, just had a rough day at the job.

Or maybe it was more a rough moment at the job, the rough comes, when finally realizing what really took place at work earlier today. Or if realizing it is taking longer, maybe, what yesterday took place at work...

She was a about 6 months ago promoted to head of office and got the appropriate pay rise to go with the amount of working hours required. At beginning of December she was told she would keep her salary but was demoted and got a new boss. Today an hour after having arrived on the local she was fired without notice.

She was told to just pack her things and leave as they wanted to become more cost efficient.

Having called her after her e-mail where she told me about her notice I told her it was better today, as she still has until end of January to get a new job and being a single she is easily relocated to any city in Europe. Her being a homesick girl I told not say the world but I meant it with all of my heart, and she now has two more weeks to play with compared to having had her notice before Xmas. So, something good with hearing the news. More time. So now she is leaving the city in order to get some forest cleared out of small bushes growing, one hell of a good way to let go of any aggressions, I must say with a thorough sauna to relax with afterwards.

So this is really the reality of the Finnish people, and according to recently done Gallups, most people are afraid of becoming unemployed or getting laid off for some time.

At the same time the prime minister is asking people to consume as much Finnish produce and products as possible.
And here finally comes my question, with what Euros are we to consume anything?

Best European minister of finances

According to the Financial Times, Finland is a rarity among the European economies with its’ stable economy among the global finance crisis.

In a comparison of European Finance ministers done for the third time made by the newspaper, the Finnish minister of finances was considered the best regarding the expected outcome of the expected Finnish national economical growth for next year, considering the stability of the Finnish market and his personal political abilites.

This is good news for Finland, regarding the series of measures the government has agreed upon to revive the Finnish economy despite that the unemployment rising and with a lower expected tax-income for the state budget.
Guess that must be one of the reasons the alcohol tax will rise with 10% by beginning of next year, together with the aspect its’ impact on the national health.

Updating benefits

A committee, called the 100-committee, was founded by the Government to scrutinize the updating the social benefits in Finland.

The social benefits, like unemployment benefits and old-age pensions, are suggested to be guaranteed to a fixed minimum level of income which would automatically be paid to you. This would facilitate the lives of people depending on social benefits quite a lot, as you currently have to first to find out about what benefit you eventually might be entitled to, how to and where apply for it. Then apply for it and maybe get it. Some social benefits that today are handled in the municipalities, would according to the suggestions be handled by KELA, The Finnish Social Insurance Institution as they are already in charge of so many of the existing ones.

Now, this is just a suggestion so far, these changes in benefits, some of them expected to take place by the beginning of next year, but still, the parties of the cabinet are still to agree upon it, as some parties at present are said to be very much opposed to any changes at all in social benefits, just out of their political doctrines, not out of reason, it seems to me.

Still, one of my old question remains, where to take the money from?

The Government has promised to ease the taxation by next year, in order to make the money go around, as the more we consume, the more money it generates and boosts up the economy, well, the state getting less tax money, and paying more in social benefits, also from next year on, that adds up to less than zero, at least in my maths.

Anyway, I am happy to not be into politics and having to worry about it.

Taxs list public

Yesterday last year’s tax results were made public and lists with people the biggest earners in each municipality were published on the Net.

I really wonder what use that is, more than make people envious and want more, or maybe it comes handy when blondes are looking for eligible bachelors. Must be every girl’s dream, having the official tax lists available, when hunting for a new husband.

This year the average tax return is about 600 Euros, and will be paid back on December 4^th directly into your bank account, depending on whether you have provided the authorities with your bank account number, or by a postal order by December the 10^th. Which will come good in handy for the Xmas shopping.

For those with back taxes, this year the average came to of 1600 Euros, and the sum will have to paid in two payments, one in December and the second on in February next year.

Cheaper air fares

The budget airlines are beginning to discover Finland for real!

Earlier there have been only the ordinary airlines to fly with but since Ryan air began their flights from Tampere a couple of years back with a brief additional visit by Sterling air in Helsinki for some months, now more low cost airlines are hungry for a piece of the action, which of course is good news for travellers. Berlin air has been flying from Helsinki and soon to come will be the low-cost airline Easy jet. Mind you, be well advised, what you get with budget airlines is not the same as with the “ordinary” airlines, that we have been well informed so well about with a couple of TV series, what can go wrong, can go wrong.

But you might just as well be lucky enough to get what you want, just a cheap seat to far away countries away from the normal routine. Just what I would need sometimes, just a one way ticket, never to return...

I guess I will have to suffice with just a good book in the meantime.

Alcohol too expensive

Apparently the price on alcohol is too high here in Finland.

After one week in office, the new director of Stakes, the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, stated his opinion about the price of alcohol in Finland being too high. He also said that he would allow mild wines to be sold in small grocery stores.

And last month the director general of the KTL, the National Public Health Institute, proposed that the alcohol content of medium strength beers should be lowered by about one percentage unit. The two national institutions will merge into one by beginning of next year. I wonder how they will cope, joined together?

I have no idea whether these officials are politically nominated or if they have to apply with credentials for their respective positions but these are once again just opinions. The National Public Health Institute is normally opinionated against the consumption of alcohol from the national health point of view and the opinions of the members of parliament also differ from person to person. Still, the majority of people in this country are in favour of drinking their accustomed alcoholic beverages and most likely would favour lowered prices and better availability, especially now with the beginning summer season with opened bar terraces and sidewalk cafes.

The discussion whether or not to, is endless.

So, is the glass half empty or half full?!?

Stop eating and breathing?

The Government ensured that there would be no rising prices at the time when Finland changed its’ old customary Marks into the European monetary systems Euros but despite this everything seems to be much more expensive now than it used to be. Then came the global warming and saving the planet earth from heating up and so began the campaigning for more environmentally friendly energy solutions with energy costs still soaring.

The EU in its’ great wisdom shared the pollution rates equally, that is in this case is not in equally big parts, instead it means each member countries ability, with its’ technology and economical resources taken into consideration counting the country’s ability to adjust into the required decreases of polluting carbon oxides and cuts backs are to be made in the emission. The poorer and the less developed the country, the less to take into concern about these matters it seems.

The more farmland that now has been converted into growing renewable energy sources across the world, the less area has been left to grow food for people. And now the "silent tsunami" as it's being called, with ever increasing food prices is beginning to have an impact on the poor, even here in this welfare state called Finland. With the rising prices of food the remaining farmlands have to be turned into corps as cost efficiently and time consuming as can, and this might result in even more pollution than earlier. Smaller farm area needs to produce more, it resulting in suddenly rising levels of fertilizers leaking into rivers and lakes, finally ending up into the Baltic Sea, at least according to some recently published speculations. So the poor Baltic Sea that has been suffering of pollution for so long and was in hope to be restored into a sea instead of the sewage pool it more or less has become. This seems to be a yo-yo bouncing up and down, with no real outcome.

So; avoiding pollution of the air decreases food availability and raises the pollution in the water.

Is there really anything more we can do except stop eating and breathing?

Maybe the EU could in their great wisdom decide who should stop eating and breathing, at least to equally measured parts like with the emissions? Maybe eat 20% less food and breathe 15% less air?

And as always this still is a win-win situation for the businesses concerned no matter they are selling their newest technology to cleanse the air or the sewage water, or develop new more efficient artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

The weather has also here has been extremely warm for this time of the year with several days’ summer heat of well above 20 degrees Celsius now, in beginning of the month of May and no rain to talk about for a long time.

The winter was unusually warm with hardly no big temperature drops to -20 degrees here in the south. As well as less snow than usual with the more rain but with the annual flooding this spring have gone missing to a minimum raise in water levels in the lakes and rivers. Mind, I am now talking about southern Finland where there already is a prevailing summery weather, the north still has to get out of the winter’s grip and there might be some flooding there as usual.

Anyway, finally the lot is out of my hair and the house is left silent and I enjoy the first serene silence and absolute tranquility from any reminiscence of soup cooking for the ill. A good shower of rain would do good right now decreasing the pollen levels in the air, as well as soaking up the ground for the growing plants. It might do well for the crops to grow this summer. If no rain comes there still is no use of the fertilizers they spread. And besides, a record crop would still not have any real outcome on the food prices in this age of globalization.

No April fool

Two issues seem to currently be the main news, the merger of the two online systems that still is not up and running smoothly as has been several times promised by the bank.

There still seems to be a major glitch somewhere in the dungeon labyrinths of the digital money world.
And the foreign minister still is hitting the headlines with his text messaging to the blonde model, or erotic dancer.

According to a non official Gallup done among the neighbourhoods old ladies most of them think the whole affair is a disgrace and would like to see him resign as his credibility as trustworthy politician has been lost. Well, I would like to know one politician that if not dishonest but at least does not make the truth up seeming mush better than it in reality and daylight is, or does not use any white lies at all. Politics it seems is like playing poker, do not show what you think of it, and keep your face plain. Say nothing and deny everything you might have said.

Well, at least some of us know, we're not all April fools you know.

Anyway, I must confess that I have not been as good as I should have with the exercise I should have been attending to advised by our dear family doctor, whom I know drops in occasionally to read up on my Blog. I have been quite good at making up various excuses for not pursuing my daily walks. Good reason have lately been the slippery surface I would have to be wary of walking upon, another has been the clod weather and winds blowing which is not good for my complexion. Not a s good excuse mostly are I have forgotten cone again the whole thing, I do not want to enter on long walks on my own, or I prefer to do them daytime when I do not have to have anyone tagging along, (read dear spouse of mine who likes to keep me company, nothing wrong with that, just sometimes love can be too much and you need to get some air, on your own as he is a caring, and loving husband)

Quite the opposite to what you would suspect I am very lazy, I prefer not to make more than I have to and I was quite energetic and outgoing in my younger days and probably did more than my fair share of exercise, but with age the metabolism gets sluggish, we put on some extra pounds, sometimes several stones and I had lost most of that, but…

Lately it has been creeping back on, slowly and almost without me noticing it at all, until our dear doctor told me I could use with loosing 10 kgs. Well, fortunately for me it was not the same 30kgs I had once already lost four years ago, but new additional weight I am carrying around that really has no use, unless there soon will be a great famine with lack of food for us here up in the Nordic countries, which I doubt will happen in the very near future. With the global warming heating up even more and climates changing you never know, so maybe I should stick to my extra weight, just in case if the worst would occur?

Money on the hold

Two Nordic banks have now joined ventures.

One of the bigger banks here in Finland has been bought up by a Danish mega-banking corporation, it is among the five largest in Europe if I remember it correctly, and lately they now two happily joined banks have been ventured in getting their online banking system into one single instead of the two separate they used to be. This was planned to take place during the Easter holidays and should have been up and running by Tuesday but their thousands of their customers are still not able to access their system with all in all 800.000 bank customers in both countries being affected by the switch over and I guess many must currently have their money frozen into their bank accounts. The bank assures that they will have it up and running in no time at all, but I guess they said it would not affect any banking after the closing down of the system in the first place either.

I am fortunately to not have an account with the bank in question, but mind you, our bank did some updating and alterations on their online banking system that slowed it down for several months and things were either charged to the account weeks later than their original date of debit and some things were even by accident or mistake charged twice, which in fact is what happened to the offspring, being out clubbing. Double charging on a Visa electron of a sum in a bar made the account go null and no more money to be withdrawn from the cash machine either. Fortunately there were some friends along on the tour that could pay for the rest and borrow the needed amount to keep on clubbing, for you can not end it before the clubs close in the morning and things got sorted out in the end between the bank the following week and the money was replaced.

I had trouble getting money transferred from abroad into the account in the time it should have been there, so there for we were a couple of family members that were in a way over debiting our bank accounts and had their money on the hold. The money should have been there, and actually was in the bank but not on our cards to be charged for.

It has become very popular with various kinds of online scams, such as swindling under the pretext of charity and shopping hoaxes or phishing for personal information such as bank account and credit card numbers. Now the Finnish Consumer Agency has launched a website to help consumers detect them with a site lists the most common types of hoaxes and also hoping that consumers can by the website report such attempts to authorities, in order to make them alert of the attempts and be able to take action.

Some of the online scams are “art” performed by professional scam artist, they are so well thought out and meticulously designed and thought out that it is really hard to say what is real and safe and what is not as it looks like. They say what you see is what you get but in this case you can never be sure if it your bank has been hacked into, or a similar homepage has been designed at an alike address as the banks’ in order to get access to you personal info in order to use it maliciously for monetary advantages of the criminally minded. How delicious is that not, plan something that genial and then in the end get caught by the devious law enforcement?

7th most expensive

Helsinki has once again been estimated to be one of the most expensive cities in the world.

This in a global comparison survey of purchasing power called "Prices and Earnings" performed by financial firm UBS and updated every three years. What I wonder about here is that the previous study was published in early 2006 and this ha already been published so are their numbers as flexible as their three years?

Anyway, the most expensive prices in the world in terms of prices and earnings you will find Oslo, Copenhagen and London with Helsinki to follow suite on seventh place.

The study considers prices of numerous products and services, but does not take into account renting expenses for flats in its rankings which probably would have skyrocketed Helsinki into first place as the most expensive city!
Apparently there also has been a considerable shake-up in the ranking order on the list much due to the drop of the US dollar since the previous survey.

Another thing the Finns are not best at, only 7th best in the world.

At last things will get back to normal, tomorrow finally Easter will be over and done with for this year as well. It is nice to have the family at home, but some holidays tend to be a bit too long for my taste as they interrupt so much of my daily routines, such as blogging to mention just one. Staying in bed reading a good book for a second to mention as there always is someone who desperately is seeking something and needs the assistance of dear mother.

Religion matters

Friday afternoon the Serbian ambassador presented the Finnish Foreign Ministry with a formal written protest against the recognition of Kosovo’s independence and at the same time calling its’ ambassador back home from Finland.

This is not one singular case as Serbia apparently has recalled all it’s ambassadors from all the countries so far having recognized Kosovo’s independence. So given time we will see whether the Eurovision song contest will take place in Serbia in May as planned or not.

As a strange coincidence sit seems to me that the First World War began in the same area that have for so long been unquiet and visited with war. I have often wondered abut how good an excuse religion can be when people disagree on no matter what subject. Like the European thirty-year war in the 1500’s, a religious war when Catholics fought against the religiously reformed Lutherans who were actually economically supported by the Pope.

Anyway, there is an Internet site where you can end your membership in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran church. Some 10.000 people have already taken advantage if this easy way to leave the state church. Whether it is done out of religious reasons, or rather the lack of religion, or only in order to ease the taxes you have to pay. In Finland you pay church taxes if you belong to the church, which almost every Finn have tended to do out of tradition and it is easier to do it over the Internet than having to go through the proper paperwork handing it in.

There have for some time now been talks about the secularization of the Western world, with a simultaneous growth in New-Age and pagan religions as well as Islam growing the most as a world religion.

The western world’s economy currently seems to in a downward trend and many of the more wealthy Islamic countries are buying their way into owning the economy of the western world, like for instance the acquiring of the Finnish OMX stocks trade.

Maybe we will soon all have to convert to Islam as it is the common way, even here in Finland and soon there might be an Internet site to convert to Islam.

Or is there already one?

Money on the loose

With the EU things are supposed to be better and easier with things between the member countries.

Mobile phone roaming prices are to be cut in February and money transfers to be quicker according to EU directives. The transfers between foreign banks are meant to take as long as national bank transfers which currently is three banking days, at least here in Finland. I have now been waiting for the money that was to be transferred to my account from abroad for almost a week and still no money in sight at this hour, just half an hour past midnight.

The account the money was transferred from has been debited the right amount money, the bank abroad have transferred the money in question but the receiving bank still claims they have not received the right amount in question, thus I have not been credited the money that rightfully is mine and I have been expecting.

Minor glitch maybe, but sometimes it can be ever so annoying to not have the money you are supposed to in the promised time causing my bank card to be debited more than I have on my account. Maybe this now has something to do with the stock markets currently having had some downslides in their indexes around the world? The banks trying to take more advantage of the interest they can get by stalling the money transfers just for one or two extra days?

At least there is an existing receipt of the money so in time they will arrive, but until then no more shopping for me.

Used lingerie

Second hand shops, vintage clothing shops and flea markets have been booming during the time I have been living here in Finland and more and more of them keep popping up, which I think is a good idea, make the your old discarded things available to use for someone else. There are even some recycling centres where you leave the stuff you want to get rid of and take others in return if you find something you like and recycling is an idea I am in favour of, but some of these flea markets really just are full of junk and no use items which I consider garbage but maybe someone still can find use to them.

The prices in some of the flea markets are pretty high for what they are offering so if you are looking for a particular bargain you will need to frequently spend time walking around in order to find it.

Most of the flea markets are in no comparison to their likes abroad with bargain antiques to find, that there are the antique shops and it seems there is a lack of them in comparison to the amount of flea markets and second hand shops. There is even a Saturday morning TV show called “Kirppari” which means flea market. In the program the host walks around this one particular flea market with some collector that has specialized in some item like stamps, hat or vintage clothing giving hints about what to look for to make a bargain. A celebrity is also interviewed just about anything showing one item of special importance to them and donating another to be auctioned in the end of the season for charity. It has been odd seeing people giving away fishing knives, dresses, boots, paintings and even lingerie to mention some. And people want to but someone’s stained, old bra or nightie.

I prefer my lingerie fresh from the shop, unused and for me to wear the first time after having washed it.

Money for the poor

After the recent water crisis in the town of Nokia where thousands became ill The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is requiring all municipalities in Finland to thoroughly check their water treatment systems’ plumbing by march in order to avoid such disasters in the future. The town’s sewage water got mixed into the cleaned tap water by a vault that was not even thought to exist between the clean drinking water pipes and the waste water.

The cleaning up of the Nokia’s water system is still going on and many citizens have now claimed compensation from the town. A couple of deaths occurring at the time of the water contamination are to be scrutinized just to be on the safe side to check whether the sewage water might have caused the deaths or not.

There is said to be 130.000 poor families in Finland and I have wondered what that really means, who is counting it and how it is done. Does that mean that you are living on social welfare as you are below the existential minimum of means for daily survival or how is it decided? Sounds like an awful lot, to me at least, in a country that is proud to call itself a welfare state.

Anyway, as there is a charity fund raising every Xmas and it ends on Xmas Eve I have been wondering how the money will get to the needing in time to celebrate the holidays as it is said, or is a part saved from the previous year to the next year? The money apparently goes to the needing families as gift vouchers which I think is good, at least then you know it goes to what is was designated for, food and not booze from the liquor store.

Which is the main reason I never give away money to beggars, I could buy a Big Mac or something similar instead but those offers have so far always been turned down, and quite in a rude way as well.

The amount of beggars, and here I mean foreign and not the usual winos and homeless, has increased in Finland and there are talks about abolishing begging in the capital region. Well, as I have already noticed, begging is not very successful in this country to the great disappointment of many foreign beggars standing around in corners but why only prohibit begging in the capital region, shy not in the whole country when you’re at it? Makes it easily comprehensive, one general rule for the whole country.

Happy New Year!

The New Year 2008 brings with it many changes in legislation and regulations here in Finland, as well as the normal prices annual increases.

Outdoor advertising of alcoholic drinks such like "happy hour" will be prohibited, and bulk discounts on alcoholic beverages is to disappear as well as TV commercials for alcohol are now banned between 7.00 am and 8.00 pm, and alcohol commercials won’t be allowed in cinemas when the film is allowed for under 18 olds.

There will also be a legislative reform in order to reduce the number of part time work contracts for employments longer than one month. The employees must now be informed of the basis for their part time contracts, receive annual vacation and a notice period that is consistent with the duration of their work contract.

Also a reform governing the protection of children will take place for better protection of the minor’s interests and to ensure that both children and their families have access to necessary support, to improve cooperation with officials and enable timely interventions if needed.

A raise is awaited in the price of petrol by 5 cents per litre, and diesel by 5,5 cents and Bus tickets will to rise by 5.2 percent and long-distance train tickets costing an average of 3% more. The postage is also going up and stamps will cost 7 percent unless for letters weighing less than 50 grams.

And to the joy of anyone with a mortgage, the interest rates are also set to go up.