If you are prudish, I suggest you don't watch the video. Otherwise, it's quite funny:
It's practically the first time that mainstream culture seems to acknowledge the fact that the main purpose of sexual encounter is procreation and encourages reproduction instead of hedonism. Europe could do with more indigenous folks, so wherever you are, do it for you country!:)
I admit to being a prude most of the time, but I took a risk here. This is hilarious and wonderful! Thanks for sharing. I'm rather sad, however, that this delightful video is even necessary. I'm guessing the falling birth rate is a fact? :(
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome! I hesitated whether to post it or not but finally decided to do it. Birthrates throughout Europe have been falling for quite some time, but some countries have it worse than others. I'm not sure how bad it is in Denmark:) For me, however, the significance of the video is in the fact that they connect sex with procreation, in such an open, I'd even say, blatant manner:)
ReplyDeleteA representative in Finland's Parliament suggested that married women who give birth to more than 1 child should be permitted to retire earlier. His idea was shot down immediately. I find his idea very creative and something we have never heard of...
ReplyDeleteHow very interesting, may be the tide is turning!
ReplyDelete@ Miriam: That's very interesting! Can you find an online citation of this? Even in Finnish would be fine if it can be translated by Google or Bing's software, though English would be better - I only ask because I have a blog about the culture war, and I like to publicize good news and good ideas, as well as bad things.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hs.fi/politiikka/Perussuomalaisten+ehdotus+Aviossa+synnytt%C3%A4v%C3%A4t+muita+aiemmin+el%C3%A4kkeelle/a1396407636810#kommentit
DeleteLink to the original article
http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/index.php
Link to English version of HS (The No 1 paper in Finnish). I did a quick search but found no info on this subject.
The idea was that if you get one child, you'll get 3 years off. The 2nd and 3rd child give you 2 years off each, total of 7 years shorter obligation to earn you retirement.
The comments varied from 'yeah, April Fool's Day was yesterday' to ' next you'll suggest that childless have no right to retire' and so on. I think this was a serious (well as serious as a politician can be) attempt to answer to the feminists' call considering the wrong-doing and unequality of family leave. We have a quite good (up to child's 3rd birthday) opportunity to take care of your children at home, but this is so wrong according to some... When mother is on her leave, her retirement pension doesn't accumulate. This suggestion would have been an adjustment to this 'problem', imho. According to his plan, the mother's pension would have been calculated as if she worked full years.
Thanks Miriam!
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ReplyDeleteMiriam, doesn't the wife have the right to her husband's pension in Finland? Here the husband saves for both and if he dies earlier, the wife will get his pension, the same is in Norway (I have friends over there). Here (some) folks think maternity leave should be as short as possible, so that the women will have to choose to quit their jobs as most wouldn't want to part with a tiny little baby!:) The results though are often mothers choosing to work part-time, so I'm not sure if this idea works.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of such thing. Maybe if you have a personal retirement savings plan? We do have some kind of pension for a widow, but I don't know for sure, and, is it for husbands too, or only if wife is the widow in question.
DeleteThis suggestion was meant for the pension that is calculated according to your salary throughout your working years. If you don't work, there's going to be only a 'basic' pension paid by government which is granted for every citizen after she/he is over XX years (it depends; what was your work, when were you born etc. )
If you don't have anything else to do and you are interested in pensions in Finland, there you go:
Delete:-)
http://www.kela.fi/web/en/pension
:-)
at least there's more accurate information than my 'I thinks' :-)
THanks for the link, I looked at it briefly:) Here everybody is entitled to a "basic" pension, which isn't paid by the government though (as far as I can understand), but everyone who works pays an amount into a special fund. I'm not sure if the government adds anything to it, because I was frankly never interested in the topic. This basic pension is rather small (in Germany even less).
ReplyDeleteFurther, everyone who is employed pays to a pension fund depending on where he/she works. In the case of fully employed husband/homemaker wife, the wife is entitled to the pension in the case of the husband's death, if they married a certain amount of years before his retirement. If she herself works, however, she will lose the rights to his pension.
Cont.: Additionally, the breadwinner husband can choose to buy an insurance which will add to his pension and also will be received by his wife in the case of his death.
ReplyDeleteIf the wife is unemployed, she has the right to a widow pension from the government in some cases, in all cases if she has children under 18, or if they choose to study, under 21 (I think). If she works, however, the government will pay her less.
Here it's better to be a widow than a divorced woman.
BTW, the "basic" pension will be paid since the age of 65 (67 in the near future), while the pension your husband paid + the insurance will pay right away if you lose your husband, despite the age, but it will depend on how much he had saved.
The widow pension from the government is paid per child, btw and amounts to a nice sum of money.
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