THW not award the highest university entrance pts for the long curriculum in math

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Week 25

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Professional and social reality is more complex than the complexity of the long curriculum in math.

Date: 21 Jun 2021
Motion: THW award the highest university entrance pts for the long curriculum in math with all majors
Role: Deputy Leader (opp.)

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° (closest but not precise equivalent is A-levels in the UK or SAT in the US)
For some time ago, the domestic university entrance-exam policies were overhauled so that whoever got the highest grade in the long curriculum of (difficult) mathematics in senior high school final exams° would usually get the most points at universities’ entrance exams as base points before the actual exam. In other words, someone with good skills in calculus and beyond, but mediocre or poor skills in, say, self-expression in one’s mother tongue could possible prevail in entering a university as a student – over some other aspirant.

This is yet another misstep the admissions boards take. After the year 2000, there seems to have been a seesaw between placing an unreasonably solid stress on either the performance at the entrance examination as well as the books to be read for it or the aspirants’ previous academic excellence and record. Conversely, civic activity, extracurriculars, hobbies or people’s recommendation letters have never meant anything to admissions boards. Even though they do in some countries. For a reason.

Even this latest development is misguided. Maths is not the “gold standard” or “skeleton key” or whatever it’s projected to be, in terms of academic performance. I am the first to admit that it plays a big part in admitting people into empirical sciences, for they cannot do without mathematic presentations and tools. But even there, ENGINEERING is the main area where mathematics is needed. People often cite medicine as well, but even in medicine, a bedside manner, caring instinct, dexterity and skills in reading people (between their li/n/es) are more important than the ability to calculate some medical-physical properties or quantities.

Oversupply of Long Math
First of all, the partiality to mathematics is a bit of an elliptical result. The way I remember it is that the curriculum of long math was 11 courses long during senior high school. What this meant in practise was that there was math education every year, year round, for those who so chose, as the last year would have been truncated, cut short by February’s preparations for the grand finale. No other subject had as extensive a coverage. Long curriculum in English, for instance, had 8 courses, whereas short math was 6 courses long. For all that, when there is an oversupply of long math, there maybe overenrolling in long math and finally there is overappreciation of long math. In an “equal-opportunity” high school, a student should be able to choose 6–11 courses in any school subject. Then we could be seeing the “real popularity” of the long math curriculum.

Mathematics Becomes a Self-Fulfilling Agility Course
It is often argued in favour of mathematics that without it it becomes impossible to advance to one’s higher education. Understanding statistics is sometimes mentioned, in the context of social sciences. The ability to calculate is mentioned in terms of economics. Then, there are subjects that seem to provide no such justification, such as law studies, whose only connection to numbers is the paragraph and clause structure. Again, it’s elliptical. A work or workplace may not require any kind of long mathematics, but the long road to it can be configured so that it does, and so – as if by magic – long math becomes “necessary” to advance into a certain profession. It can only be done by the artificial separation of theory from practise, in preparation for the profession.

A Moral Alternative
In my mind, the moral alternative would be to award high points for long math only among majors that deal with mathematics DIRECTLY. These include the aforementioned several branches of engineering as well as medicine and several science majors at universities, such as astronomy, biochemistry, physics and so on. With other majors, it would be fairer to award the highest points for the best grade in the school subject that is closest in substance to the sought major. In other words, an L or a 10 in Swedish would give the highest base points for Scandinavian philology, an L or 10 in health education would give the highest base points for any type of nurse’s studies and an L or 10 in geography would give the highest base points for any major with the word “International” in its title.

Senior high school is not Senior Math School. A mindset that understands the foundation of natural sciences can only carry one so far. A lot of human activity revolves around other kinds of knowledge. Professions and vocations require all kinds of abilities that the general population cultivate. Basic arithmetic skills, as opposed to long math – like “I buy it for one dollar and sell it for two and pay –25 % in taxes” – can make one a legal millionaire many times over, if the conjectures are somehow favourable. Therefore, long mathematics is no indispensable requirement for success in society, and thus it shouldn’t be made a touchstone against which aspiration is scratched.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t): Sijoitun parhaimmillani 2. puhujaksi, sillä haluaisin, että minua edeltävä (parini) puhuisi siitä, mikä on ilmeistä ja pinnalla: että lukiolaiset ovat alkaneet lukemaan hampaat irvessä pitkää matematiikkaa laiminlyöden lukioiden muuta antia, varsinkin kieliä. Puhumalla yleisluontoisesti hieman samoista asioista, kuin joista avaajan pitäisi puhua, jätän korokkeen vielä avoimeksi edustajalle, jonka olisi hyvä mahdollisuus ja syytä puhua esim. siitä, miten reduktionismi olisi päivän sana (“kaikki pelkistetään pelkistämisen vuoksi”) ja miten myös aloitteen asia olisi yksi sen ilmentymistä.

THB Finland punches above her weight in pop music

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Week 24

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Some “bricks” in the wall of Finnish pop and rock exportation.

Date: 16 Jun 2021
Motion: THB Finland punches above her weight in popular music
Role: PM (gov.)

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Recently I stated somewhere online that Finland is a better country in terms of pop or rock music than some other countries in the world. I stopped to think: Exactly how good is Finland, if the country had to be put on a ranking list pitting it against countries of the world? We have to remember that it’s the GPA of the given country that matters. A country adept at pop music would not only have ARTISTS, but also record studios and stores, rehearsal spaces, several pop-music publications, summer festivals, a thriving grass-roots scene and a working distribution infrastructure. One milestone of a kind was passed in 2001, when a Finnish radio station was incorporated whose MO was to only play domestic, native popular music 18/7. Thus, they would never ever play “Angels” by Robbie Williams. Rather “Ollaanko enkeleitä toisillemme” by Jope Ruonansuu. They did survive their 5th year operating their business.

I decided that Finland would compete against countries that have a “track record” in pop and rock, countries the music of whose artists people listen to around the world. I narrowed the camps of rivals down to three categories: big countries with English as their official language, smaller countries with a Germanic language but not English as their official language and Romance-language countries. I figured that countries with more exotic languages or a stiff military or religious governance, usually resulting in a dictatorship running through the government and down to people, do not figure on the map of pop. Any country can have a World Music act to call its own, but I excluded them, because World Music is not pop music by the narrow definition of the word.

English-Language Countries
I would say that almost all countries that speak English officially are highly merited in pop. The US and the UK are world leaders in pop, and the UK in particular had an unsurpassed run between 1965 and 1990 and the US before that and after that. Australia, yes, by a wide margin. Think about AC/DC, Crowded House, INXS or Kylie. Ireland would surpass Finland by the merits and success of U2 alone, while there are others in its shadow as well. Canada has produced lately mainly successful female solo artists, who have found avenues and work in the US, but the fact that so many household rock albums were made in and around Vancouver, B.C. in the 80’s push it past Finland – surely. Perhaps only New Zealand is a country that could lose out in rivalry, even though it has produced the Chills. It’s a bit antipodean, hard to reach and happier providing filming locations. Even Lorde emigrated there from Croatia.

Germanic-Language Countries
I would say it’s a no-brainer that Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden are bigger countries than Finland in pop and rock music. They get their win without a fight, considering their long-running, major successes and ESC histories. I think I remember having read at one point that in some year, the value of the Swedish pop export was worth 0.8bn when Finland’s was 40 million. The difference was twentyfold. Finland does not hold a candle to such knowledgeable, smirking bands as Kent or Ghost. The Netherlands is the “weakest” of the bunch, but even its early success, Shocking Blue, is so covered that a winning status is safe. And how about Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Austria, Belgium (part of it), Switzerland and South Africa? I would give superiority to Denmark, Norway and Iceland, the last of which has had Björk, Sigur Rós and the Sugarcubes. Denmark’s Aqua, D-A-D, Laid Back, Lars Ulrich and ESC victories as well as Norway’s A-Ha, past black-metal scene, Donkeyboy and Röyksopp and ESC victories put them ahead of Finland. They also have a rich undergrowth of minor artists. This clearly shows how much a native language linguistically tightly related to English gives additional leverage and push in an international market.

Romance-Language Countries
France and Italy are bigger in pop than Finland; it goes without saying. France has not been good at producing bands, whereas it has the strange success template of a solo synth artist (Jean-Michel Jarre or David Guetta) or a synth band/duo that can be traced back to Space in the 70’s, whereafter they have had Air, Daft Punk, Justice and M83, not forgetting numerous merited chanteuses such as Edith Piaf, France Gall or Mylène Farmer. Italy’s record on italodisco alone, I think, pushes it past Finland, without forgetting Ennio Morricone, Giorgio Moroder or this year’s ESC-winning band. I thought of Spain first as a smaller pop-music powerhouse than Finland, but then came to my senses, what with the wider Spanish-speaking world’s Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Selena or Shakira. Greece is not strictly speaking a Romance-language country, but because it shares the Mediterranean coastline shoulder to shoulder with the above countries and has Vangelis to call its own, I let it pass past Finland. Smaller countries Portugal or Romania are clearly inferior to Finland as pop countries. Brazil may have had her 60’s heyday with bossa nova, but thereafter it has been quieter.

It seems that islands are adept at pop music, and it occurred to me that maybe an exotic island somewhere else in the world might surpass Finland despite its size but thanks to its human capital and international connections. Zanzibar would not be such an island, even though it produced Freddie Mercury. But, two came to mind. Jamaica is better than Finland thanks to the late 70’s – early 80’s reggae craze that swept across the world and left a lasting cultural impact. The other neighbouring islands of similar size, such as Cuba, Hispañola and the rest, have no such merit. Also Barbados because of Rihanna. So, at least two Caribbean islands are better at it than the northern country.

My overarching principle has been that if the contest between Finland and a rival is close to a tie, I let the tie be resolved in favour of the rival, as a gesture of goodwill (and realism). So, it seems that 5 + 6 + 4 + 2 countries surpass Finland in pop music, amounting to 17. According to my ballpark estimate, based on the above, Finland is the World’s 18th to 20th Best Country in producing pop music. But, in Top Twenty in any event among the world’s countries. That is no mean feat. Thus, in pop music, greatness comes in small/er sizes, as the example of island nations so eloquently proves.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t): Neuvotellessani parini kanssa sanoisin, että hänen tulisi keskittyä siihen, miten Suomi on pärjännyt todennäköisesti paremmin kulttuurielämässä kuin urheiluelämässä, jos jälkimmäisestäkin tehtäisiin mitalitaulukko huomioiden myös kaikki MM-kisat, pistesijat ja kesä- sekä talviolympialaisten suoritukset. En usko, että Suomi olisi silloin niin korkealla kuin sijoilla 18–20. Jätin tahallani järjestysluvuksi 18–20, koska uskon, että joku yrittää tunkea sen ohi vielä jotkut maat raivokkaasti argumentoiden, minkä todennäköisesti hyväksyisin, koska maa olisi siitä huolimatta lähes yhtä hyvä.

THB the abolition of the Death Penalty is not a high achievement of the penal code

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Week 23

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The capital punishment should not be handed out arbitrarily and at will – like here – but only with careful consideration and in crystal-clear cases.

Date: 11 Jun 2021
Motion: THB the abolition of the Death Penalty is the high achievement of the penal code
Role: Deputy Leader (opp.)

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Certain high-ranking academics, politicians and public thinkers certainly think that it has been an achievement that the death penalty has been abolished in many parts of the world. The people, or citizens may be more divided over the matter. The main thing seems to be that the “cruelty” linked to the death penalty has been overcome and done with. However, there is also a deeper undertone to it all. On one level, a “life sentence” – usually the actual, real-life alternative to a death penalty – is actually harsher to the convict than “a last meal” followed by “an eternal darkness”.

Points that support a life sentence are that, should the convict-to-be be innocent, (s)he stands to get remunerations for the unjust punishment, perhaps per diem, and can actually enjoy that money during his or her remaining lifetime. Another thing is that the convict may be interacted with and interviewed during the conviction. This may be of interest to the victims’ relatives, psychologists, psychiatrists and representatives of the media from any part of the world. Anyone may gain access to a notorious convict. And (s)he most probably will be tempted to grant access to him- or herself, for the sake of variety, if nothing else.

For all that, that I think that the death penalty is a more appropriate solution in many ways in some severe cases (think terrorism). In other words, the death penalty should be reconsidered as the pertinent punishment for a number of several felonies against a number of felons.

Closure for the Family of the Victims
In some crimes, usually of the homicidal/murderous kind, the family of the victim is especially anxious during the trial. While the general public may seem to “not care”, the victim’s family is preoccupied with having justice served to them. Often a life sentence is a “disappointment” or a “letdown”, considering and depending on what the perpetrator has done. There is a palpable feeling in the air that justice has not been served. Perhaps there would not be, had the justice system the optional alternative of handing out the death sentence, too. The final verdict would have the air that the convict “was spared of the death sentence” rather than that (s)he “got a life sentence”, for instance. The difference is semantic, between the words be spared (something negative) and get (something affirmative). And, of course, those relatives would be elated if the bad gal or guy was served the harshest punishment on the scale instead.

Elusion of “Social-Security Solutions”
Criminals are known to have used the justice system as their social-security institution. This means that they commit some crime in order to get a “winter” behind the bars, a decade behind the bars or maybe even the stretch between school graduation and retirement behind the bars, as a way of avoiding a life at work. Typically, the criminal knows what kind of a crime will give him or her the kind of sentence (s)he desires. It is well likely that some percentage of criminals will deliberately commit a heinous, murderous crime, knowing that they will get a life sentence for it, complete with respect among the other inmates inside, but not a death sentence. Among those looking for a “life-time solution”, it is economical to murder on a Manson scale to get what they want. Getting the death penalty would put paid to those plans.

Racial Bigotry Could Be Overcome
The notoriety of the death penalty boils perhaps down to the fact that it has been a racial tool of oppression for a long time. Countless people have been sent to their deaths by juries of a differing ethnicity. But, what if the juries were almost all-black on sentencing black defendants and almost all-white on sentencing white defendants? And, so on for most ethnicities….? Usually members of the same “race” know better when it comes to the crimes committed by one of their own. They read the evidence, expressions, testimonies, witnesses and all that much better than someone else. After hearing the testimony, they can probably reach the right verdict, even if it is the capital punishment. Also, there would not be a similar kind of a social upheaval every time a jury of one race and a defendant of another one reached a verdict – and a boiling point – when it would not be seen as racially biased and motivated.

My standpoint is that in places the death penalty is not perhaps a more lenient punishment for a heinous crime – but a more appropriate one, instead. A life-time sentence, in turn, is EITHER a more lenient OR a harsher punishment, depending on the circumstances. It might seem counterintuitive to think that a death sentence might be somehow somewhere in the middle as a punishment, but it seems to be so, to some extent. Other speakers on our side have spoken and will speak about that more at length. Thank you.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t): Ajan puoltani kovilla argumenteilla. Oletan, että jäljessäni tuleva puhuu siitä, miten elinkautinen voi olla kovempi rangaistus kuin mitä ikivanhalla ns. Hammurabin lain asteikolla saisi, ja parini siitä, kuinka pienelle ja tarkasti määritellylle joukolle kovin mahdollinen rangaistus rajattaisiin. Näin olen omalla annillani oman puoleni “ansioitunut” keskimmäinen. Summaaja on sitten erikseen.

THW not read any yellow-press magazines or newspapers, as they’re useless

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Week 22

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Tabloids and the yellow press sometimes even live up to their epithet.

Date: 1 Jun 2021
Motion: THW not read any yellow-press magazines or newspapers, as they’re useless
Role: Deputy PM (gov.)

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Gossip magazines and tabloids have a fairly constant presence in people’s lives. They are always hovering somewhere in the background, even if they do not command our prime time attention in the same way as 6, 7, 8 or 9 PM News do on TV. Also, people may spend more time listening to the radio than reading gossip, and at least public radio in Finland is famously free of both advertising and gossip.

One can, nonetheless, assume that they have fared better in the present print-media climate than quality or serious newspapers, who have seen a sharp decline in ad revenue and subscriptions base. Often the dilemma of quality or serious newspapers is consummated with their messing up their online presence in the form of a mediocre or substandard own domain. Gossip magazines, conversely, seem to do better, because they’re more about substance than form: people come to them to hear the juicy bits, not to “practise their citizenship”. For all that, I am giving three reasons, or areas of human interest, whereby gossip magazines fail.

Aristocracy and Celebrities
The yellow press usually does not have access to the secrets of the nobility, or royalties, as the former are notoriously adept at clamming up and following to the old principle: “Never complain, Never explain“. If journalists and paparazzis can get their hands on something juicy, there is often an outsider of an “informer”, “rat” or “whistleblower” involved, or an accident, sometimes even a real traffic accident. The staff and subordinates of the nobility often want to keep their jobs to the extent that they would never divulge any secrets about their employers. Consequently, the press seldom get to know any “real” information about aristocrats. The same applies to celebrities, such as actors. The most basic type of “news” today is that a “journalist” reports verbatim what a celebrity has published on his or her social-media account. But that is not a SCOOP as the information was expressly meant to be spread around and trumpeted, if possible.

2nd & 3rd World Countries
Recently a lot of power and wealth has concentrated outside Australia, Europe, the UK and the US; in countries that are established countries and members of the UN, but still somehow in the shadows. They often have their own frequent-flyer set of actors, actresses, authors, celebrities, musicians, provocateurs, singers and TV personalities, who do and are subject to a high degree of similar kinds of “stunts” as people in the West: betrayals, conversions, divorces, firings, hirings, infidelities, marriages, prenuptials, psychotherapies, rehabilitations, weight gains and weight losses. But, no matter how much they are known in their own country, the yellow press usually center on domestic personalities, for they cannot speak the languages foreigners do and therefore a mass of information about them goes right past them online, even if material is published on a daily basis around the world. The language barrier prevents gossip from around the world from being used.

What’s Under Non-Disclosure Agreements
More and more today, barristers, lawyers and solicitors take care that things that might otherwise be juicy and worth knowing about companies, individuals and nations are not heard of, ever, due to special contracts that stipulate so. It seems that the level of confidentiality creeps all the time lower and lower from having been quite high even two decades ago. One can understand that we are not supposed to know what colour the Queen’s underwear is – but is it still on the same level when we are talking about a reality show whose whole existence is based on frivolity and transience? Such as Big Brother, Master Chef or Temptation Island? Yet, makers of even shows of a barbarian nature craft contracts for their partakers that forbid them from telling other people what happens behind the façade. You’re… welcome to the Unbrave New World of non-disclosure agreements.

What was different in the past was that people were allowed to have some kind of a private life filled with indiscretions as long as they took their jobs seriously and care of them. To some extent, this is still true in France, where politicians are allowed to have mistresses and toy-boy lovers (or do some S&M). In other areas of life, the trend has unfortunately been that even in vocations where sinfulness was the norm in the past, the same kind of ethic is expected as is expected from elected politicians. That is NOT SANE. Politicians and priests are unique as yardsticks for hypocrisy, and it is by rights that they should be held accountable for their indiscretions, but THAT should NOT be extended to e.g. the performing arts.

After this rhapsody, what I am about to say is that reading the yellow press is bad for you, not because it contains “bad”, corrupting information – but because it does not contain enough “bad”, corrupting information. There is simply SO MUCH stuff that bypasses its eyes and is actively kept as a secret from it. People take tons of secrets to their grave. Jack the Ripper never confessed. His identity was dug up later. Usually, the yellow press is not privy to that kind of information and will never be. In other words, so little juiciness seeps down into gossip magazines that it is useless and worthless to spend time reading them. If you want juice in your life, please buy a juice press.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t): Koska olen oman puoleni 2. puhuja, minun pitää kompata pääministerin premisseissä pysyttelevää linjaa mutta samalla vetää hieman omaa, viistoa linjaani. “Vi[i]stouteni” on tässä tapauksessa ajatus siitä, että ko. lehdissä on varsin vähän luettavaa materiaalia. Jää puoleni 3:nnelle puhujalle kääntää koko asetelma jälleen ylösalaisin ja suunnata katse johonkin “aivan muuhun”.