Finland is catching up with the more westerly parts of Europe.
Translate this, if you dare risk eternal, fiery damnation
Finnish news agency YLE, reports that complaints are filing in against the popular atheist humanist thoughtful persons bus ads that are appearing over here. Filing in two by two, I hope. Well, no. They’ve only received one so far.
I love the unequivocal quote from YLE website
According to the complaint, the cheery ad campaign for atheism is slanderous and breaches UN human rights treaties.
Far from being slanderous, it’s downright cheery!
Next week, I hope to report on the Finnish response to the local release of the latest 7-inch popular music disc from upcoming beat quartet, The Beatles.
Now, if I’m quick enough, I might even get two blog posts in a row!
Ahhh, nuts. The last sentence doesn’t make any sense now, as this post shunted my first one out of the “Recent Posts” scene. For people interested in something actually approaching science and citation metrics, try here
There was an item on YLE news last week that some bus drivers had refused to drive busses with this add on them. I tried to find it, but was side-tracked by flying saunas over Jyväskylä.
Henry: before you ask, that sign says nothing about busses going past the station.
Thanks Bob, I was worried.
Libel, not Slander. Slander is for the spoken word only. Both together is called defamation.
Finnish is so weird. Which of these words means “god”? Olemassa? (“Old mass”…???) I assume “on” is “no”? “ja” is “and”? “siis” is “stop”? And this is all assuming it’s the same message as on the other countries’ buses, but it actually looks like it says “Lottery tickets on Sunday. Get them while available. Win a swimming pool.”
Don’t even try to relate Finnish words to other Indo-European based languages, Eva. Please. Just don’t.
Jumalaa = God (partitive, for some reason),
Tuskin = hardly (as in, very unlikely)
On = is (from olla – to be)
Olemassa = being (as in, the act of existing), also from the verb olla.
The rest of it is asking why you’d want to take a bus, when the train is cheaper in Finland. For long journeys at least, and the road to Damascus wasn’t that short.
All together now, “Excuse me, Madam. Does this religious crisis ever stop?”
Actually, you can guess what “Nauti” means, because it’s found on the side of cans of popular fizzy cola flavoured drinks, just above the brand name.
drink? registered trademark? diet? light? The choice of the next generation?
I don’t drink a lot of pop.
What worries me is that the Fins didn’t come up with their own campaign – they do everything else their own way after all?
Not necessary in this case, Steffi. After all, this campaign has raised awareness of the fact that atheism is a group behaviour. A way of living your life correctly, in accordance with strictly laid down tenets. </tongue firmly in cheek>