Talk:Tarja Halonen

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Aside of being the only living nominee among the Top 10 of Suuret Suomalaiset, Halonen was the only female one. Should this be mentioned? — JIP | Talk 12:34, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Finns should be very proud for their president. Viihde 20:45, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm not really into discussing this - actually, I was just about to turn off the computer and get ready for a journey - but I think I've noticed a certain irritation among some Finns, who say that her sex is the least important aspect (or at least ought to be) of this popular (very popular, I would say) president. Given what I've perceived from Finnish friends, I would have supported a camp that doesn't make too much fuss about her sex - given that there evolves a dispute at all...
 :-)))
--Ruhrjung 13:57, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)


Halonen´s political attitudes are those of the extreme left. She is highly unpopular among the business sector and her presidency is generally considered as a pure joke by those carrying financial responsibility.

Yes, well that might (though I disagree) be but the people have elected her to office and in a democracy (such as Finland) the will of the people is supreme..

- Extreme left? She is a socialist yes, but extreme left is not the case. Well, maybe if you're looking at it from the right. Then I suppose it can seem that way. Overall I'd say she's quite a moderate left wing politician with many views on global issues. - Kike_B Nov 21, 2005

I almost fell from my chair laughing after reading the "extreme left" comment. I just imagined Tanja with a Che Guevara T-Shirt, smoking a cigar. Maybe pledging allegiance to Hugo Chavez. 209.124.118.111

Should we put the infomation about the speculation of her future plans? Many people believe that she is planning to work for the UN after her time as president.159753 17:08, 9 September 2005 (UTC)


The way to presidency If I remember correctly, Ahtisaari was still contemplating on weather or not to run for President, when Halonen announced her candidacy, SDP announced party elections to decide their candidate, and only then did Ahtisaari decide to not run. Supposedly partly because the party pulled the carpet from under his legs and would have forced the incumbent into a primary? That's speculation, but the part in the article, that "the Social Democrats began to look for a new candidate" is false. As she and her supporters engineered her into the running prior to this. Also, the tone of "the party concluded that a woman candidate would be the best" sounds as if it was the result of some brainstorming, whilst she had to still compete in and win the SDP primary. - newbie user, afraid to edit before figuring things out better


Updated the road to the Presidency, expanding on the SDP preliminary election, her opponents and Ahtisaari's withdrawal form the running. : Hj79

Contents

[edit] Extreme left?

I suggest changing those words as there still is Vasemmistoliitto holding seats in the Eduskunta. Besides them, there's two separate communist parties - though unrepresented in the parlament - in Finland. She might be on the left side of the pinko party, but when there's still a red party in existence, she can hardly be "extreme left".

"Despite these early flirtations with Stalinist dictatorships" is also heavily biased. Stalin died in -53, decades before Halonen would be politically active. I fail to see to connection, and would like to change the wording if there's no reasonable opposition. --Kargokultti 10:25, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Nice to see someone got there before I did, though being the little leftie I am, I'd still like to overhaul the entire "Political Views" -bit. I'd guess Tarja's opposition to closer ties with e.g. the US must've had something to do with the war in Vietnam, but here it seems like she was merely against trade agreements and that kind of shizzle. But I'll leave it as it is, as a leftist bias would be (nearly) as bad as a right wing one. --Kargokultti 08:04, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Late Night with Conan O’Brien

  • So does she really look like Conan O’Brien ? Hektor 04:50, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

In that her hair is reddish and she is fair-skinned. I saw that bit on the show. There is some resemblance, but I'm not sure if it's that close. It was amusing though to hear an American audience chant "Tarja, Tarja!" I think it's likely rare for Americans to even know the name of the Dutch or Italian leader let alone Finland's.--T. Anthony 04:18, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

I've heard that the audience chanted "Tar-dza, Tar-dza". If Conan O'Brien likes her so much he could have learned to pronounce her name right so he could have informed the audience. — JIP | Talk 15:57, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm pretty sure it's meant as a joke. Conan mispronounces Finnish names on purpose, like all the other "mistakes" on Finnish trivia. It's a comedy show after all. --Laisak 18:16, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
I normally don't see it, but the resemblance is uncanny here. --Kizor 20:33, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
You're right. If I stop looking at the jaw, and picture him with eyeglasses, he looks exactly like Tarja Halonen. JIP | Talk 22:48, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Can someone remove the second trivia note? I hardly see what it has to do with Tarja Halonen: "On January 28, 2006, O'Brien announced that Late Night with Conan O'Brien would visit Finland in about a month. He played a video invitation from the town of Turku in which Aleski Randell, Chairman of the Executive City Board, invited O'Brien to Turku." Wikipedia brown 01:28, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

how come the trivia section, which is in the edit page, does not appear on the article? thats the part ill bet 90 percent of american wikipediaers are looking for

Umm, it does appear in the article. JIP | Talk 22:49, 18 January 2006 (UTC)



Can an admin sprotect this page due to vandalism such as adding "doggy style" into the paragraph. --ChrisRy5 01:17, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Protects are usually done on articles that get a lot of vandalism. This one doesn't, so I don't see any reason to protect. Please don't add the {{sprotect}} template on articles that are not sprotected. - ulayiti (talk) 01:33, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Second Season

She won the election. --85.217.38.41 19:09, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

(Un)/fortunately!!!!!

[edit] "Common-law partner"?

I don't think this expression applies. Finland is not a common-law country and the notion of common-law marriage does not apply there. Why not "partner"? David.Monniaux 05:55, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Well it's called "avoliitto" literalilly open marriage. They live in the same house and are registered to be partners but have no legal rights (heritage) like in "avioliitto" marriage. My Finnish-English dictionary says it means cohabitation / common-law marriage. -Finn

[edit] Trivia is trivial

I have deleted this rubbish text about some stupid TV show. This is an encyclopaedia, not Hello! magazine. Adam 23:19, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I read this article before she was mentioned on Conan O'Brien. I'm not sure I edited before it became news, but I follow Finland some. I'm interested in world leaders and I am American. That said the stuff on Conan O'Brien is worth mentioning. It was discussed in national news in both the US and Finland. There are times a celebrity endorsement becomes enough of a story to be relevant, this is one of those times. I say this and I am, on the whole, pretty stuffy about what I consider encyclopedic. I'd delete a great deal of the minor pop-culture detritus that fills this place, if I had that power, but this is a case of being a bit more than simple pop-cultury nonsense. I hope it was returned.(as trivia of course.)--T. Anthony 06:44, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
I'm hardly passionate on this issue, but I have replaced the section that you labeled "rubbish." My reason for replacing it: for better or worse (okay, mostly for worse), the only reason most Americans know of this woman is because of the Conan O'Brien comparison. This is the only reason I know about her. This is, to my knowledge, primarily an American website. Please don't drag me into a debate about the fact that people from all over the English speaking world contribute to this site. I am aware of that. But if you look at numbers, you will probably find that the majority of readers of this English language site and the majority of contributors are American. I think that, in a way, it says something interesting about this society that our first point of reference of an important elected official is that she looks like a talk show host. Second, if this comparison can get others interested in this woman and in Finland, then all the better. Further, this comparison even made its way into Finland.
I don't think that it's fair for you to deem something unimportant simply because it doesn't bode well with your personal tastes. Go through just about all profiles on Wikipedia of celebrities, and you will find that there is much there that could be in Hello magazine as well. I think that deleting this entire section constitutes censorship. However, like I said, I am hardly passionate on this topic, and this is the one time I'm going to replace the deleted section. If it's deleted again, so be it. I've said my bit on this. -- Andrew Parodi 23:57, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Well I am passionate about this issue. Halonen is not a "celebrity" - she is head of state of a sovereign country. That some Americans are as ignorant about the rest of the world as you say may well be true, but is not relevant. This is an encyclopedia, not a repository of junk-culture trivia, American or otherwise. I will continue to delete irrelevant nonsense like this from articles on serious topics. Adam 00:02, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree she's not a celebrity, but as discussed above I think there are cases where celebrity linkage to a world leader or political figure is noticed enough to be worth a mention. For example Aung San Suu Kyi's article mentions U2. Junichiro Koizumi's mentions his liking of Elvis, etc.--T. Anthony 06:49, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
That said if you want to limit mention of Conan to the trivia section, or just generally scale it back, I'm good with that.--T. Anthony 07:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
"That some Americans are as ignorant about the rest of the world as you say may well be true, but is not relevant." Forgot to comment on this portion. American ignorance of the rest of the world is actually a VERY relevant topic. -- Andrew Parodi 21:05, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Why isn't it serious? For that matter, is it important that you consider it serious? I can understand you feel antipathy toward this phenomenon, but that doesn't justify wholesale deletion. It is factual, even though you consider it junk. I thought the goal an encyclopedia was to provide information. I hope this isn't really an attempt on your part to fight a campaign against "americacentrism." Might I suggest, if that's your concern, that you add a balanced opinion instead of deleting other's work? Coleca 01:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't mean to lecture, by the way. I'm open to being convinced I'm wrong. Coleca

The deletion seems a little dictatorial on his part. Conan O'brien is notable enough to have his own page here. And when I referred to "celebrity", I was referring to Conan -- not the Finnish head of state. Also, it is true that most in the US who know of this woman know of her merely because of the Conan comparison. But I would venture that most in other countries don't know of her at all either. And if someone doubts that Wikipedia is in some cases a repository of pop-culture trivia, then they forgot to read the listings for American Idol, Milli Vanilli, pac-man, etc. etc. Popular culture pertinence is enough to warrant a mention on Wikipedia. Certainly it would often not be enough to warrant mention in Encyclopedia Brittannica, but then this is not Encyclopedia Brittannica, is it? I don't care if the section stays or goes because I'm not very interested in either this head of state or Conan O'brien. The only think I find vaguely interesting is one person's decision to delete an entire section, deem it "rubbish" no less, without even talking to others about it. Seems to go against what Wikipedia is about. But then I don't even find this issue that interesting. -- Andrew Parodi 01:44, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

"But I would venture that most in other countries don't know of her at all either." Just a bit of a nitpic; as Conan isn't shown everywhere around the globe, in any given country where Conan's show isn't syndicated a person is much more likely to have heard of Tarja than of Conan... —Gabbe 16:36, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Then I suggest you leave this article to those of us who do find it interesting. Adam 01:59, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

While I don't find this particular article to be interesting, I do find the Wikipedia concept of community consensus to be interesting (though, admittedly, I did have trouble with it at first, and sometimes still do). -- Andrew Parodi 02:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)'

Adam, I must say I completely disagree with you. It's news, it's relevant, it may have swayed the election, several Associated Press articles have been written on it, etc. And if the majority of people on here disagree with you, and have reverted your edits several times, then maybe you should stop your one-person campaign to remove relevant information on a topic and reconsider your "rubbish" opinion. Addboy 08:42, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

'It may have swayed the election' is definitely exaggeration, but I don't see any reason why the bit of trivia shouldn't be there (as long as it's labelled trivia and doesn't imply that it's actually had any effect on the election). It's information, and that's what Wikipedia is about, isn't it? - ulayiti (talk) 16:29, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
I agree with Ulayiti. Wikipedia is information and because one person finds it "rubbish" does not constitute a delete. If you truely feel so high and mighty about it, go make your own online encyclopedia with /your/ rules. Wikipedia belongs to all of us and many of us who were fairly uninformed about Finland have learned a great deal more about it and gained some curiosity about the country because of Conan. And on the same note, don't come back and start talking about how Americans are ignorant and only learn from TV as if you truely are keeping up with every country in the world and its political arenas. For most Americans, Finland is not a country that is often discussed and one can hardly be expected to know about every single country out there, regardless of how small, obscure or even somewhat important it is.Hitokirishinji 21:54, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
To be fair, I think I was the one who introduced this issue of Americans not knowing much about the rest of the world. I am born in the San Francisco Bay Area, by the way, and living in Oregon right now. In other words, I'm "American." But what I say seems generally true to my experience. Americans are often very unaware of the rest of the world. However, I agree that expecting an American to know much about Finland is a bit of a stretch. It just is. I'm sure no Finnish person would argue that on the scale of international affairs, Finland does not really factor in as a very prominent country. A person just can't be expected to know everything about all countries. That's irrational. I would be very surprised if people in Finland know the name of the governor of Oregon, or know anything about Oregon for that matter. I'm fine with that. I'm well aware of the fact that Oregon is "the middle of nowhere." And, frankly, that's kind of the way most of the world probably thinks of Finland. -- Andrew Parodi 23:44, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Disambig link

"This article is about the 11th President of Finland. For the American sci-fi and fantasy author, see Ursula LeGuin." What is this? I don't get it. Is it common to misspell "Ursula LeGuin" as "Tarja Halonen"? --62.78.195.223 18:06, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "One of the most popular"?

Halonen has become one of the most popular Presidents that Finland has ever had, with approval ratings between 94% and 97% - Does this mean there were past Presidents with even higher approval ratings? Nik42 07:26, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The article is still biased / partisan in a way that in Wikipedia seems naive or worse.

Jukka Kemppinen Professor

[edit] Languages

Is it true that Tarja Halonen is able to speak all of those languages? Afrikaans and Spanish? ����'16:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

-- There is no citation, and I find it surprising that she would speak Afrikaans, because I don't know if she has any connections to South Africa. And why Afrikaans and not Dutch, for example? Although, it is quite likely that she understands Afrikaans if she speaks other Germanic languages. But that's a different thing from speaking it. Probably there is a same kind of thing regarding the Spanish. --Monstradamus 10 January 2008. —Preceding comment was added at 11:01, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A request ...

Hi everyone. I suppose several people here know both Finnish and English. Can someone please help translate this article: Tarja Kallio-Tamminen. It's about a Finnish philosopher. I am a new user, and I don't know if this is the best way to go about it; but if the article is not translated soon it will be deleted. Thanks a lot. Amit 06:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)