Monday, March 17, 2008

Love vacations in Finland?

Finnish Parliament debates proposal for "love vacations"

A proposal by MP Tommy Tabermann (SDP) to grant all employees a paid 7-day "love vacation" once a year led to an exceptionally colourful debate in Parliament on Thursday evening.
Mostly those MPs who had signed the proposal took part in the debate, but also others regarded the idea as recommendable.

According to Tabermann, the purpose of such vacations would be to prevent relations from disintegrating and the spouses from drifting apart.
During the seven days, couples could devote themselves to each other ”both at an erotic and emotional level” and ”find their way back to the path of love in order to find the wellspring of love again”.
Some MPs suspected that the proposal might discriminate against single persons, but others said that a love vacation would be the privilege of all, even the singles and the single parents.

A slight hint of suspicion could be heard in the speech from MP Erkki Pulliainen (Greens) speech, even though he was also broadly in favour of the suggested love vacation. He reminded his colleagues of the fact that the annual 4-week holiday is typically the most dangerous time for relationships.
The proposal was sent to the the Employment and Equality Committee for perusal, with an accompanying note from MP Esa Lahtela (SDP), hoping that one of the powerful trade unions would announce itself as an advocate of the proposal.
Tommy Tabermann is a Finnish poet and author who was elected to Finnish Parliament in 2007.
Prior to his candidacy and election, he was one of the captains on Uutisvuoto, the weekly Finnish version of the popular news panel show "Have I Got News For You".

From Helsingin Sanomat

1 Comments:

At 9:02 PM, Blogger Melissa said...

Oh, wow! I love Finland with all of my heart and someday hope to come and live their when I am older...but I'm olny 13 and no one around my area knows anything about Finland. So I love to read these posts and someday, when I go to Finland, I will be prepared!

-Päivä

 

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