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02.05.2018

ISYY’s speeches at Vappu Eve 2018

Happy first of may!

Goal of Finland is to become the most educated country of whole world. On the contrary, the amount of people who can’t get in the higher education is significant. The tuition fees for university students who come from outside the EU were introduced in 2017. The amount of students who pay the fees completely is low, for example the rumors tell that in the UEF there is only one student who pays complete fees. The fees came to help finance the universities, but at this moment they caused only more inefficency and red tape.

The government of Finland wants students to graduate faster and have longer careers. The student allowance is low. Financial struggle is familiar to almost all students. Depression and loneliness are big problems for students. In health reform the FSHS will be most likely opened for all students in higher education. I hope, that FSHS will have enough resources for the new situation and the politicians will remember the students. There has also been alarming news that FSHS won’t probably be open to all international students, or at least to those coming outside the EU. “However, ISYY will continue to supervise the interests of ALL of ISYY’s members.

The First of May is my favorite celebration of year. It feels like long waited reward after long dark and busy winter. The First of May begins my summer. I hope that you taste finnish sima and munkki. Try recognise few new overalls and talk to people that you have never met! Find out why the stone at the university is decorated with a huge white hat.  I hope that you have (the greatest?) First of may of your life! The exams can be retaken, but the First of may is only once in a year.

Juuso Sikiö
Chairperson of the Executive board
Joensuu, Ilosaari

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Finland is the safest, happiest and most stable country in the whole world. In one hundred years we have turned a snowy developing country at the edge of Europe into a world’s most successful nation. Well, the weather could be better. However, for thousands of us safe and happy everyday life appears only as grand words in speeches and headlines. In the end of March there were sixty-five thousand nine hundred and forty-one socially excluded people in Finland. Loneliness, lack of education, unemployment and even health issues accumulate all the time more and more on the same shoulders. Increasing amount of us face adversities already in the beginning of their lives and bright future is only a distant dream. Even though politicians on every level have spoken for years about cutting off the spiral of social exclusion, results are missing. We still cannot outsource the responsibility for the government and politicians. It is the responsibility of all of us. Helping out a relative, friend and even a co-worker, is a responsibility of all of us. And only with cooperation, we can make Finland the happiest country for us all.

Our Finland is based on trust. We trust that an ambulance will arrive when we need it, trains will be on time and we can get some sugar for coffee from a neighbour. Trust is our strength. However, at the same time we see from the news, how this trust is used as a weapon for serving someone’s self-interests. In the times like these, we have to trust our strengths, confidence and cooperation. If we start to take care only of our own interests and get stuck in deeply rooted positions, outside world will run over us. Only by working together, helping each other and building trust, we can continue as a trailblazer and show the way for others.

Traditions of celebrating May Day, Vappu, in Finland, are even older than our independence. Vappu is a celebration of the whole nation with all its marches and picnics.

Let’s make this vappu a celebration for all of us.

Jonni Nykänen
President of the Student Union
Kuopio, Market square