If I ever move abroad, you can find me here.

Most people that know my full first and last name think that I'm Italian. I'm always quick (and proud) to inform people that I'm not Italian, and that I'm actually Finnish. I usually get a few strange looks from the geographically challanged, and then I have to explain where it is. Some of the people that do know where it is chuckle under their breath, and I can almost hear them thinking "what's so great about that?". Every once in a while I'll come across an article that helps explain why I'm proud of my heritage:

Finn facts Click here for the Yahoo article.

Land of Nokia. (You mean it's not Japanese?!?!) The world's No. 1 cellphone maker is based in Finland. It holds 32 percent of the global cellphone market. Nokia started in 1865 as a forest industry company on the banks of the Nokia River. Today, it employs more than 60,000 people (about 24,000 in Finland) with factories in 10 countries and research and development facilities in 15 countries.

Nokia's share of Finland's:
GDP 4% Business sector R&D 35% Exports 25% CEO Jeremy Ollila's yearly pay: $4.64 million

Upwardly mobile society. In 1998, when some Americans were still getting funny looks for using cellphones, mobile subscribers in Finland already outnumbered land-line subscribers. In fact, 20 percent of households relied solely on cellphone service.

No censorship here. Reporters Without Borders ranks Finland (and several other countries) No. 1 for freedom of the press. The US ranks 22nd.

Speeding is expensive. A 27-year-old Finnish heir to a sausage business, Jussi Salonoja, was famously fined 170,000 euros (about $217,000 at the time) for going 80 kilometers per hour in a 40 kph zone. Speeding fines are based on the offender's income. Mr. Salonoja's reported earnings for 2002 were 7 million euros.

Linux is from where? The open-source operating system was started in 1991 as a hobby by Finnish university student Linus Torvalds. But he wasn't the only entrepreneurial student: In 1992 (before Netscape came along), IT students at the Helsinki University of Technology developed the first graphic-based Internet browser.

Where Santa's sleigh garages. The residents Mt. Korvatunturi - in the northern part of Finland known as Lapland - claim this is the home of Santa Claus. Some 600,000 letters a year are sent there in the hope that it's true.

One fact that I know, that wasn't in the article, Finland is the only country from WWII to repay their war debt to the United States, and they paid it off early.

The article goes on to describe Finland's very high taxes. As my regular readers know, I'm pretty much a tax cut's kind of guy, but I wouldn't mind the government taking my money if I knew they were going to take care of me like the Finnish folks are.

Some interesting tax facts:

The government will pay a mother 60 percent of her salary to look after her baby for the first year.

When the mother does go back to work full time, the government will pay 4/5 of daycare expenses.

If you lose your job, you count on unemployment benefits that range up to 70 percent of their salaries for 18 months. And when they retire they can look forward to generous pensions that amount, for the average Finn, to 60 percent of their last salary.

Government pays your college tuition.