By Bob Van Leer

  (HELSINKI, FINLAND, May 17, 1989) - Dinner this evening took more than three hours, not because we had a speaker, or even because of multiple courses for the meal. The problem was because we had a waiter who spoke a half dozen words of English and a menu in Finnish. Betty and I compromised on "house special - very good", and it was.

  Our ship docked in Helsinki at nine this morning after a pleasant cruise from Stockholm. We had a stateroom with private bath. As we were waiting to disembark we saw some of the other accommodations. There was a large barracks-type room with bunk beds. Across from it was the next level down of accommodations, airline type recliner seats. Customs inspection was the easiest we have seen anywhere. We didn't even have to show our passports.

  We were met at the dock by a tour bus and taken for a tour of Helsinki and outskirts. Structures are built almost to the water's edge. Our guide said there are not visible tides in the Baltic Sea. She said the sea water is more brackish than actually salt. The Baltic is a large sea with only narrow channels to the Atlantic. 

  Finland is a large country with only a small population. The population is about 5 million. Helsinki is the largest city with a population of about 500,000. Modern history begins with association with Sweden in 1154. Finland remained Swedish until 1809, when it was conquered by Russia and remained as an autonomous grand duchy of Russia until the collapse of the Czarist government in 1917. Finland then declared itself a republic. The language is not Indo-European but related to Estonian and Hungarian. Most speak Finnish but there is a 6 percent minority of Swedish speakers and signs are in both languages.

  The economy is based on wood and paper with 70 percent of the country forested. Shipbuilding is a big industry, specializing in passenger liners and icebreakers. We saw a huge new cruise ship nearing completion, the Fantasy, which will be the flagship of the Carnival Line.

  The Lutheran Church has 90 percent of the population as members. The church has the power to levy a tax of 1-2 percent on income of enrolled church members, but membership is voluntary.

  Schooling is compulsory from ages 7 - 16. Finland is a high tax, high social service country, but not as much so as Sweden. Still, middle income Finns are taxed 50 percent of their income. Wages are high, but a family-type home is in the $125,000 - $250,000 range.

  In the afternoon we were briefed at the U.S. Embassy. There is no Ambassador at the moment. The former one is gone and the new ambassador has not yet been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

  Finnish foreign policy is dominated by the need not to antagonize the Russian bear. The Finns have had six hundred years of conflict with the Russians and have to find a way to live with them. The Finns fought two times with Russia in World War II, first losing the Winter War of 1939-40 and losing some territory to go with it. The Finns fought against Russia in tandem with the Germans in 1941-44, concluding a separate peace in 1944. Part of the terms were reparations of $350,000,000 and a permanent limit on the number of Finnish troops and warplanes.

  The Finns are happy with their lot and have a saying, "To be born in Finland is to win a ticket in the lottery."

  This also is a newspaper reading country. Newspaper readership is 90 percent with 80 percent watching TV and 70 percent listening to radio. Single-copy newspapers cost 4 Finnish Marks, about $1.02. There are two government-owned TV channels supported by a tax on each TV set. Russian media are not an influence in Finland, but it is the other way around.

  Our stay in Finland is short. Tomorrow we have a briefing at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and then board a train for Russia.