Need I say more?

Newsweek just reported what we knew all along: Finland is no. 1! You can read about it on line here. The Newsweek website has some fun interactive graphics that you can manipulate as you read about Finland's 100% literacy rate as opposed to a literacy rate in the United States of 89%.

The Newsweek article has not gone unnoticed in Suomi. Hesari had the Newsweek article as a lead article both on line and in print. You can read the English language version of Helsingin Sanomat here. I always enjoy the tongue-in-cheek quality of the Hesari English language edition: "this doughty pine & lakes republic of 5.3 million souls came out on top of the heap, in spite of the long winter, high taxes, and widespread worries over public services."

I find that I miss Finland every day. Happily, my friend, Päivi, is bringing me some rye bread when she returns from Finland. Newsweek left out the food, but Andrei Codrescu touches on the food in his essay on the Newsweek web site. Codrescu's summation is that, "The world’s “best countries” seem to have this in common: they avoid war, they live in the dark, and they maintain a steady state of depressive and productive activity."