On national defence and nudity



Today was my first day at the university as a visiting scholar. It was pretty chill! I just worked in my assigned office and had afternoon coffee with some of the people working there. I picked their brains about Finland and they picked mine about Canada and Nova Scotia. It's kind of fun to have your brain picked about things you know like the back of your hand. They were curious about stuff like: do we have military conscription? 

Finland does have conscription, and if you want to know why, just look at a map. They share a border with Russia and that hasn't always gone well for them. But in addition to their exceptionally well-trained military, which is known to be one of the best in the world, they also have a robust 'civil defence' system with bunkers that could hold (almost?) the entire population, roads that are designed to make an East-West invasion difficult, and a food system that is capable of meeting 80% of their food needs (compare that to Canada's 70%). If you want to learn about Finland's total defence--and I suggest you do, because it's really interesting--watch this brand new documentary about it. 

Many of the bunkers are used for other purposes in peacetime. One of them in Mikkeli is a swimming pool. I planned to take the kids this evening to relieve Brian (aka their teacher/principal while I'm at work, even though he's also working remotely) but we opted for a different pool instead. It was another opportunity to be comfortable getting naked in front of strangers in the shower and sauna; I have to say, we're really killing it. 





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