I'm a 44 year-old father of four. I work for the project Smartkultur at Luckan as pedagogic coordinator. I'm a musician as well and I've studied media culture.
My politic experience comes from over 20 years in the city council of Kauniainen. Right now I'm a member of the city board and also deputy council member in the Länsi-Uusimaa wellbeing service county.
My main points of interest in the parliament elections are sustainable and responsible politics, both economically and environmentally, the wellbeing of the young and culture. These are closely linked together in many ways.
Important political topics
Children and youth
The wellbeing of the young in Finland is our responsibility. Wellbeing is an equation where the expectations are subtracted from reality. This ends on a negative number for the young, these days.
We need to create belief in the future and assure that every young person feel they have a place in our society and meaningful content in their lives.
The young need to encounter less pressure and expectations and they need to have more possibilities to impact on the decisions being made. We will have to build structures that incorporates the young in the decision making at every level of the society. The quite bad high school reform needs to be corrected and the studies need to focus more on general education than on competition and pressure. The Finland-model needs to be developed and extended and we shall make child and youth impact assessments in the decisionmaking.
More grown ups in the schools, more resources to the anti-bullying work and resources for the inclusive education.
Culture
Culture is a requirement for a good life and it promotes wellbeing. Without culture we're not a civilized country, without art we're no nation. The adjustments we need to do for the climate also need culture. Nowhere else can we hear the tones and see the pictures that give us the hope, the ideas and the keys to a new world. We need more support for culture all the way from daycare to the aged care.
This is why we should increase the funding from the state to culture. Investments in culture repay themselves many times. We haven't seen the field of art and culture's full abilities yet. Culture is always a resource, not a cost. Culture also has a value in itself.
A very important thing is to secure the social security for freelancers. It has come to show that many of them are not secured by the systems we have now. At the same time the amount of self-employed is growing. This would be a very important thing for many artist, musician, technician, sports-coach, PT and so on.
Economy
The upcoming years won’t be easy. This raises the need for sustainable and responsible economic politics. Finland will continue to be the Nordic welfare society it is today and we need long term economic policies and we need to curb the indebtedness. However, tax reliefs should not be financed by billion loans.
Sustainability also means possibilities. The work for the climate and the diversity of nature is a presumption for us but we cannot just be a part of this, we have to be the forerunners in the green transition and seize the possibilities it implies. As we abandon fossil fuels we strengthen the self-sufficiency within energy production at the same time. Sustainability also means success, security, peace and health. Development and innovation walks hand in hand with the transition.
It is however important not to renounce the investments where resources are needed. As an example we can not afford to cut within schools and education. Inclusion and anti-bullying need funding but the long term costs are way smaller than the alternative. The health care system must be secured as well.
The welfare should not be torn down. We should develop it. A sustainable economy can even make a gain in welfare compared to blindly trying to increase the GDP.
We need to be responsible, but caring. We need to keep the heart in what we do and always think about the most exposed.
