Please send toilet paper
For any doubters, I am in Finland. Yes Finland, member of the EU, first world country, and the second largest exporter of paper...
But please send toilet paper...
Because aside from being a good strong supportive state, Finland is also a country where trade unions have a virtual monopoly on the workforce - over 83% of the working population. So while the Finns don't strike as a national sport like the French, when the strike happens, it really takes a toll.
Hence the lack of toilet paper. Not kitchen towel, not so much tissues, but this time the strikers have hit a nerve, they've paralysed the nation. We are frozen mid squat, our hands poised between a pile of thick and thirsty kitchen towel and the last shreds of cheap and nasty loo roll usually stored on the top shelves of corner stores.
My three local stores are out. Rationining signs are on the shelves. And I have to travel to another town albeit only 20 minutes away, to buy toilet paper which has been imported from Germany. The public transport alone adds 3.40 Euro to my purchase.
It's enough to give anyone the sh1ts.
"Finnish loo roll crisis
A strike in the paper industry in Finland has left the country desperately short of toilet paper.
Shops have been selling out of loo roll up and down the country and people stock up.
One store manager in Helsinki said: "We have been sold out for days, and on the rare occasions when stores get a fresh delivery it is sold as fast as it can be put on the shelves."
The four week strike has meant that holidaymaking Finns have been returning home with suitcases full of toilet paper rather than souvenirs." From Ananova.com
What Sami has to say about the toilet paper issue.
Toilet Paper whores from Finland for Thought
posted by Rowena at 11:52 am
4 comments
4 Comments:
"Another town" sounds pretty dramatic - after all, Espoo is just a suburb of Helsinki :) (Although those living in Espoo do not seem to think so)
But you can find toilet paper inside Helsinki, too. Try the Citymarket in Ruoholahti, for example. Even our local S-Market still had that stuff yesterday.
Anyhow, you should be relieved soon as the strike is now over!
I'm a journalist by first trade. I never let a fact stand in the way of a good story. Bring on the drama. Next blog post: orphaned refugees left without toilet paper!
I didn't know orphaned refugees had toilet paper to begin with ;)
Not if they are refugees from Finland. Apparently it's a new ground for asylum. Not having toilet paper in a 5 mile radius and not being able to buy wine on Friday night after 8pm... !
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