Viikkosanomat, December 01, 1986

              Six monthsafter Chernobyl the
itemizing of damage goes on For
the native people of northern Swe-den
the toll from the world's worst
nuclear accident may be heavier
than most — the end of the rein-de- er
herding Ihat has been the
backbone of their culture for thou-san- ds
of years
If it vvere notfor a rainstorm over
the mountainsrDO kilometres north
of Stockholm in Jamtland province
the Samiid (pronounced "saw-mee- ")
might not have been af-fect-ed
Finland wasn't and ifsclos-c- r
to Chernobyl
But it rained for five hours on
When pioneerlamilies were
settling into theforest interior
of Finland overhvo centuries
ago the sauna was ahvays the
first building built providing
notonly washingFacilities but
shelter
It was often theonly physical
and psychological relaxant for
the hard-workingfar- mers and
throughout the dark cold
winters offereda source of
Security and vvarmth
Sitting in thevvarm dark
wooden sauna you take a
scoop full of water and fling
it onto the hot rccks of the
stove It hissesand sizzles
as the cloud of steam rises
into the air It approaches
slowly its scalding touch
causing a burnirig tingling
as it envelopesthe nakes skin
opening the pores biting
deeply
The temperature may be
90 degrees or more and sweat
runs freely evaporating
quickly from the wet skin as
you pour a scoop-fu- ll of water
over your owntaad Taking
short shallow breiths you feel
your heart beating quicker
and as the touch of steam
subsides you feel ali your
tensions physical and mental
subsiding with it It is a long
lasting feelingofrelaxation
Whether a casual sauna
enthusiast or a sauna fund-amenta- list
most ali Finns
would agree with the state-me- nt
made byformer long
serving President Urho
Kekkonen famous for his
sauna diplomacy He said
"Life without Sauna seems
impossible"
As the party burried on into
the small hoursaman some-wh- at
the worse for wear
staggered soggily up to his
hostess
"Teli me he mumbled
"do lemons whistle?"
"I've cctainly never heard
one why do you ask?"
"Weil" the imbiber replied
"it's just that if they don't
I reckon I just squeezed
your canary into my Gin and
Tonic"
April 26 Soon high radiatioa
Ievels vvere detected Attention first
turned to the Swedish nuclear povv-- er
plant at Porsmark 500 kilome-tres
south but it turned out that
Chernobyl was the source
Just how serious will be the dam-age
to the Samiid people is not yet
clear says Pai Doj a reindeer
herder who visited Toronto last
week
Already however the radiation
Ievels in reindeer meat are so high
so
and as
a
sauna
and
warm
a
same
says
has I
ihe are
to pay $!0 to $20 to
us
reindeer a in
Thi- - is the first
that
to as
that is a as a
term way Inuit
that the government has fought logging of in
it for consumption the live and
"So far we have had the mining of and iron
port from the Swedish ore
Few therapeutic methods
have badly malaigned
misused the ancient
perspiration bath In rccent
decades saunas have become
popular ali over the world but
knowledge of sauna
usage unfortunately has not
In Scandinavia the owrd
immediately conjures
up images of relaxing
stress thorough cleansing
of the in the steam
In land of under
five million people there are
over one million saunas
About the number of
cars
w
meni" he "They understand
whai happened But don't
think Swedish people ready
million million
let herd reindeer and bury the
in hole the ground"
not threat from
the onslatight of the outside world
has faced the Samiid (some-time- s
referred "Laplanders"
although regarded de-rogato- ry
much the
reeard "Eskimo") They have
Swedish the forests
banned human which reindeer herds
good sup- - copper gold
govern- -
been
proper
from
body
Finland
Ky M
L - LI A --T LiV ' I f I E
Always in sirctr"a'bloödy hurry
around here said the hired man
as he fe 11 from the sauna steps
Tässä talossa kun on aina se kiiru sano renki
kun saunan parvesta putos (h)
But that says Doj is minor com-pare- d
to the nuclear fallout from
Chernobyl which is expected to
remain in the environment for as
long as 30 years
Ironically the Swedish people
voted in a referendum in 1979 to
phase out ali nuclear reactors by
the year 2010 That has now be-co- me
government policy and the
first of the reactors is to be moth-balle- d
in 1992 The Nuclear
Awareness Project which spon-sore- d
Doj's Toronto visit hopes to
get a similar referendum held dur-in- g
the next provincial election
— GW
toe mm w&k
®MB IME PflCIP!
EQUIPMENT
Jorma Suvikas' ski school is special
in that he hopes pupils will stay
there for as short a time as possible
"Once you've learnt the basics the
best way to learn is to set out brave-l- y
on the track" says Suvikas
If you are prepared to learn
properly everything Suvikas has to
teach about ski waxing and skiing
equipment you'11 immediately bet-te- r
the Finnish Sunday skier one of
whose biggest sins is that he can't
be bothered to learn how to wax his
skis Skiing on badly waxed skis is
pure misery If you want to avoid
waxing it is worth getting waxless
skis but these don't work perfectly
below-10- °C
$
j mm ymmk
!"li ' t"
-- ' : -- '
v'J " 1 t
The basis of ali skiing is good
equipment Modern machine-mad- e
tracks are very narrow so ski bind-ing- s
should not be too wide Old-fashion- ed
cross-countr- y boots and
bindings drag along the sides of the
track The beginner does not need
expensive superlight competition
skis and can get hold of good
equipment relatively cheaply The
cheapest thing about cross-countr- y
skiing is of course the tracks which
are always free Clothing should be
chosen according to the tempera-tur- e
wind humidity the distance
to be skied now fast and how ef-fectiv-ely
you ski and if you intend
to rest
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Auto Satumaahan ajaa
Katsos kuutta matkustajaa
Valo paistaa Satumaasta
Ajetaanpas sisään A:sta
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