Planning a trip to Finland this summer? Why not consider spending a couple of days in Punkaharju, Savonlinna?. That’s where (August 22/09) the 10th Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships (MPTWC) will be held this year, and you wouldn’t want to miss that good bit of zany Finnish family fun, now would you?

Finland, as probably the whole of ‘cyberville’ knows, is home to Nokia, one of the foremost cell phone manufacturers /suppliers on the planet, a company renowned for its regular introduction of new models to the market. Is it any wonder then, that many fashion conscious Finns make an annual habit of chucking out their old mobiles for new?

"Where Have all the Cell Phones Gone?
So where do all these hundreds of thousands of old mobiles – once, so ‘in’ – end up? Rumor has it that the bottoms of Finland’s myriad lakes are lined with the wrecks of these discarded cell phones, but I understand this is indeed, only rumor. Finland is, after all, an eco-conscious country, and its people appreciate the need to protect the beauty and pristine quality of their homeland’s lakes and forests.

The batteries of old cell phones are clearly toxic waste, but…before landing in the growing graveyard of yesterday’s high-tech ‘Top 10’ as do almost 99% in the USA, these hot little handhelds will have a final fling at fun & fame, thanks to the creative imagination of Christine Lund, managing director of Fennolingua, a small Finnish translation/interpretation company. Lund conceived the mobile phone throwing competition in 2000 as a public relations event for the opening of Fennolingua’s Savonlinna office; since that time, mobile phone throwing madness has spread to a number of other countries, including Norway, Estonia, UK, and the USA.

Does Competition Encourage Recycling? One Would Hope So!
Now, it is not entirely true that you can get rid of your old cell at the MPTWC, because in fact, competitors must use phones provided by competition organizers (why?); however, you are definitely encouraged, if you are fed up with your old cp, to chuck it in the appropriate, eco-friendly fashion – recycle it! Studies in the USA alone, suggest that over 65,000 tons of waste could be eliminated if all the people with cell phones today recycled their ‘old’ cells before purchasing new ones.

The whole notion of recycling is, I believe, becoming more acceptable to people the world over. In the USA at least, an obscenely bloated marketplace has, curiously, made consumers slaves of what should have been a really 'good thing' - choice! Well, have we taken it all too far? Perhaps in the 21st century, for our own good and the good of our planet, we need less, not more, choice!

Time to Bring on the Product that Endures?
Perhaps, the truly terrifying global recession will make wiser consumers of us all, and bring us back to an appreciation of the product that ‘lasts’, rather than the one that is ever more fashionable than the one we happen to have at the moment.

Nokia’s fourth-quarter sales in 2008 dropped 19 percent to $16.5 billion compared with the same period a year earlier with a drop in profits of 69 percent. That’s not good news for Nokia, its shareholders, or the ‘tech-shion-istas,’ but ultimately it may teach some that ‘holding on’ – though perhaps not as much fun – is healthier for us and our planet - than ‘hurling!’

Video Gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3MYC97M4uM
by s60online
(Markku at Finnish Mobile Phone Throwing Competition)

In August 2007, Finnish pop singer Gregorius (a.k.a Esko Nick), together with choreographer Jari Sumulin, and the Noel Lahti Orchestra, made a video parody (today's gem) of the Village People's (left) huge 1979 hit - YMCA!

"Finland", reported YLE News. "suddenly has 'humour', a strong export product."

The music video, posted on Youtube, MySpace and Google, quickly became the world's most popular netvideo.

Gregorius NMKY, as the video was called, is still in cyberspace today, but where is pop star Gregorius? Rumor has it that he is working as a librarian somewhere in Espoo!

"Sic transit gloria..."

Video Gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glxlfq1yzVU

Gregorius NMKY (Finnish YMCA cover)

I am ashamed to admit that I have NEVER attended a Finnfest event! I have Finnish friends who go every year and report that it's a fabulous affair - in short, a heck of a lot of 'Finn2Finn Fun!' that's been going on all around North America with crowds of up to 7,000 and more every year since 1983!

In fact, the location for Finnfest 2010 is going to be in my own Canadian province - Ontario! I say 'my own' because it's sort of where I grew up; I went to high school and university (where I met my husband) there, and I lived there until I was in my early 20s. Got married and moved to Hong Kong (where I gave birth to twins - a phoenix and a dragon - a girl and a boy!). So...God willing...see you in Sault Ste. Marie in 2010?

Hey, what about Finnfest 2009? Anyone out there reading this know where that is going to be held?

2010 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
2009 (To be announced)
2008 Duluth MN (University of Minnesota - Duluth)
2007 Ashtabula, OH (Kent State University)
2006 Astoria, OR & Naselle, WA (City of Astoria/Naselle High School)
2005 Marquette, MI (Northern Michigan University)
2004 Lake Worth, FL (Bryant Park)
2003
2002 Minneapolis, MN (University of Minnesota - Twin Cities)
2001 Philadelphia, PA (Villanova University)
2000 Toronto, Ontario (Mel Lastman Square)
1999 Seattle, WA (University of Washington)
1998 Gorham, ME (University of Southern Maine - Gorham)
1997 Minot, ND (Minot Fairgrounds & All Seasons Arena)
1996 Marquette, MI (Northern Michigan University)
1995 Portland, OR (Lewis and Clark College)
1994 DeKalb, IL (Northern Illinois University)
1993 Thousand Oaks, CA (California Lutheran University)
1992 Duluth, MN (University of Minnesota - Duluth)
1991 Lake Worth, FL (Bryant Park)
1990 Hancock, MI (Suomi College-Finlandia University)
1989 Seattle, WA (University of Washington)
1988 Newark, DE (University of Delaware)
1987 Livonia, MI (Schoolcroft Community College)
1986 Berkeley, CA (University of California - Berkeley)
1985 Hancock, MI (Suomi College-Finlandia University)
1984 Fitchburg, MA (Fitchburg State University)
1983 Minneapolis, MN (Leamington Hotel and Loring Park)

Video Gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmhwfxGetWA

A recent study co-authored by human bio-mechanics specialist Federico Formenti at the University of Oxford, provides evidence that Finns were the first people to use skates - 5000 years ago! - and they made them out of BONES? Anyone who has lived in the boonies of Finland through a winter can understand why Finns might well lay claim to what is today a wildly popular snow sport in many parts of the world. Five thousand years ago, however, it was not for 'fun' that resourceful Finns invented 'bone skates'. It was, according to Fomenti, to save travel time!

Finland is a land of lakes. Lakes freeze over. Snow is deep. Ice is sleek. Get stuck in snow walking, or glide swiftly over the ice? Glide - good idea! How to do that? Brainstorm! Bones! And from a pile of bones (horse? reindeer?), and dried leather (straps), the first skates were fashioned.

For more on the evolution of the "skate", click here.
Photo credit: Federico Formenti

Video Gem: Ever tried cross-country skating? Now this does look like fun!

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