Some time ago Nokia announced that they will be closing the cell-phone factory in Bochum, Germany, and moving the production to their plant in Romania. Lots and lots of Germans got angry (and who can blame them?). And now, the Finnish part of Attac has called for boycott against Nokia.
Now, while I understand the annoyance of Germans over the issue, I don't understand the issue Finnish Attac has over this issue. I mean, this is not a case os simply closing down a factory, this is about closing down a factory in one place, and moving the production (and lots of jobs) to some other place. Knowing that, and knowing that Attac opposes that move, it begs a question: Does Attac feel that Germans deserve these jobs, while Romanians do not? Why else would they oppose this move?
Debt
So I have been going through my budget for the year. And I have decided to take aggressive steps in cutting back on debt. I have very little credit-card debt, which is a good thing since that stuff has relatively high interest (somewhat over 10%). So I'm not worried about that. Then I have two large mortages (well, one is largish, the other is smaller) with 25-years repayment-plans. Aggressively tackling those now isn't really necessary, especially since they have the lowest interests in my debt-repertoire, (about 4.75%). But I still have some student-loan with relatively high interest (IIRC, about 5%) and a bit higher amount of loan that was used to buy our car. That has interest of 4.95%.
So I made an aggressive plan to repay both of those by the end of the year. And that's quite a bit of money. But replaying those loans helps quite a bit in my monthly expenses, and after that I can start making some extra payments towards repaying our mortages (repaying the mortages has less short-term benefits, but it helps in the long-term). Repaying those would be a multi-year tasks, but I have to start sometime. I didn't plan to wait 25 years for them to get repaid. And with no more student-loan and car-debt, I have a lot more flexibility in handling those larger debts.
I still hope to win in the lottery though....
So I made an aggressive plan to repay both of those by the end of the year. And that's quite a bit of money. But replaying those loans helps quite a bit in my monthly expenses, and after that I can start making some extra payments towards repaying our mortages (repaying the mortages has less short-term benefits, but it helps in the long-term). Repaying those would be a multi-year tasks, but I have to start sometime. I didn't plan to wait 25 years for them to get repaid. And with no more student-loan and car-debt, I have a lot more flexibility in handling those larger debts.
I still hope to win in the lottery though....
Doors
Why do doors in different countries open in different directions? At least in USA doors open towards the inside, whereas in Finland they open to the outside?
Common sense suggests that doors that open outside are a lot harder to kick open, since it would be the frame of the door that absorbs the hit, in addition to any locks and bolts that might be present. Whereas door that open to the inside would have to rely on the bolts alone. Now, that may or may not be relevant to everyday-situations but still.
Is there any reason, historical or otherwise why doors open the way they do?
Common sense suggests that doors that open outside are a lot harder to kick open, since it would be the frame of the door that absorbs the hit, in addition to any locks and bolts that might be present. Whereas door that open to the inside would have to rely on the bolts alone. Now, that may or may not be relevant to everyday-situations but still.
Is there any reason, historical or otherwise why doors open the way they do?
Sauna
Now, as you may remember, I spent quite some time "talking" about the renovation in our new home. But there were few places that did not need one bit on renovation. One of those places was the sauna. The previous tenants had completely redone the sauna few months earlier, and I must say that they did a good job at it.