FINLAND Vs KERALA

Finland is located on North of Europe bordering with Russia on one side and Sweden on the other. Bay of Bothnia of the Baltic sea is located between Sweden and Finland. The land area is 338,000 km². Population is 5.5 million. While the average density of population is 18, it varies from 0.2 to 3,000. The highest population is in the capital city Helsinki, holding 27% of the total population. There are are nine cities with population exceeding one lakh. The language used in the country are Finnish and Swedish.

GDP per capita of Finland in 2020 is $49,041.34 (Rs 37,06,571.45) Religious composition of the country is 99% Christians and the remaining 1% consists of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.

Now we will make an overall comparison of this tiny Europian country with our Kerala. While the geographical area of both are more less same, the population of Kerala is about 7 times higher. The GDP per capita of Finland is about 13 times higher than that of Kerala. They are self sufficient in agricultural production. Industry is fairly active. Service sector with about 69% earning is the prime factor in the Finnish economy. In 2021 Finland rank 42nd in GDP nominal. However about 15% of the population are below poverty line which is heavily negative against that country. In 2018 the country could earn 19.2 billion euros (1.635 lakhs crores rupees) from tourist inflow. Prime tourist attractions in Finland are winter landscape, snow games and reindeer safari.

Finland is a republic headed by the President. The government is under parliamentary democracy. Multiparty system rules the county. Over and above all other factors Finland is the happiest country in the world in 2021. This is fourth year in a row among the list of 139 countries in the world.  What provide them this envious status is the low crime rate in that country. The prime reason for this is, people leave politics and go for their work after the election is over.

It may not be worth to compare our state of Kerala with this Scandinavian country. We give our first preference to politics round the year. What we eat, drink and talk is only politics. That seems to be our prime importance. And that is the curse of the state. God have bestowed beauty in abundance to our small peace of land. We cannot market this wonder and make money. Revenue from tourism in Finland is four times higher than ours. Despite having all the resources to raise our income from tourism over Rs two lakhs crores per annum, we prefer to take part in political procession, attend meetings, spoil all walls of the state with writings and pasting of posters. Above all, the most horrible is, killing one another on political feud. Should we not stop this dirty politics? Until we leave this current political ideology and system we can't have economic growth. It is sadful to see that despite having large resources and enough people to exploit those and reach the top of the world, our people are running behind political flags. May God bless this state.

K V George