Solomon Island is a tropical island nation somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. That’s honestly the first thing that came into my mind before writing this. It’s a country of roughly 650 000 people east of Papua New Guinea. Despite its…
Author: Viljami Kaskiluoto
Viljami Kaskiluoto studies Scandinavian linguistics at Tampere University. He’s a member in Svensk Ungdom. Viljami’s interests include language policies and the relationship between societies and languages in general. Twitter: @kaskiluoto, Facebook: @ViljamiRKP
One Problem, Two Systems
Towards the end of last year, there were a few unrelated incidents that became talking points regarding the #MeToo movement. China watchers started following one of them with great interest not only because it’s a micro cosmos into the #MeToo…
New Caledonias’s New Start?
New Caledonia just held a referendum on independence. The results are in, and to say that the anti-independence camp dominated this referendum would be an understatement: over 90 % have said no to independence and seeing that this is the…
Taiwan’s Cause Is Ours
Taiwan has been on the news pretty much continuously since the start of October. The country celebrated its national day on the 10th, which angered China because what wouldn’t anger China these days. Every time Taiwan acts like a country…
Liberal September: How Did Liberals Do in this Month’s Elections?
September saw many interesting elections around the world. In many places our liberal brethren made substantial gains or at least managed to shield themselves from losing seats. I’ll go through some of the global elections and give a fairly overall…
Continue reading Liberal September: How Did Liberals Do in this Month’s Elections?
Have Faith in the midst of Corona – or Don’t
As there’s no end in sight regarding the pandemic, charities are playing a bigger role than before: having food, clothes and hygiene products is no guarantee, especially if you got laid off and have other people to look after. And…
Continue reading Have Faith in the midst of Corona – or Don’t
Independence of Bougainville
Oceania is a region of many cultures, nations, languages and not so much cover on this platform. This is partly because IFLRY doesn’t have any members organisations there but also because the region consists of only small countries, with the…
Finland: Same Old Municipal Election, New Conversation Culture
I might have babbled about the Finnish local election in some of my previous posts and lucky for everyone involved, it’s now over. So, what new conversation culture am I talking about? Some would argue that I should have had…
Continue reading Finland: Same Old Municipal Election, New Conversation Culture
What to Do with Belarus?
On Sunday evening the Belarusian KGB (yes, they didn’t change that after 1991) hijacked Ryanair flight 4978 en route from Athens to Vilnius. The flight was delayed for several hours and only after that time, we have started to learn…
Home is where… ?
Having trouble to secure life essentials or a roof over one’s head hasn’t disappeared just because of the pandemic. In fact, these things have become even harder. Massive lay-offs and outright terminations have plunged many people into poverty even if…