Interview with the Finlander in the Sauna.

I am working on a project in which some of it is about how many chile pepper growers we have in the different Nordic countries. One country that sticks out in a rather funny way, in comparison to the others Nordic countries, is Finland. Mind you, it is not the first time the rather odd people to the east have a weird feature of some kind. In this case, they have a extreme faschination of growing chile peppers.

Yesterday I was in the Sauna and not surprisingly I met a Finn by the name of Juha. I had to raise the question about the Finnish culture and started to sneak interview him about their
peculiar attraction to chile pepper fruits. I mean chile peppers are not exactly something used by tradition in the finnish cuisine for the last 200 years or so? It has to be viewed as something rather fashionable perhaps? After a small introduction I began the
interview.

Question to Juha: Why do you think the Finns grows chile pepper plants more then for
example us Swedes?

Juha: I have no idea, but the finnish man is definately someone who have a tendency to different macho culture variations. That is the only explanation I can find.

Question: But why do you think they would have this Macho tendency then? Is there a historical reason for it? Does it have to do something with the imminent threat from the big old Russia in the past so the men could never allow themself to relax. And as such they formed themselves to some kind of super macho men?

Juha laughed here, to what I thought was a really serious question. I myself forged a what I
hoped was a convincing laughter. My interview victim seemed relaxed in answering my questions despite the extreme heat in the sauna.

Juha said: I am not sure. But now when you say so. There must be a historical reason for it. I know that my dad did not express much feelings. And I think that for some reason many Finlander (men) dont either. So perhaps by expressing themselves through different macho cultures it is a way of protesting toward the non-expressing feeling culture and at the same time you proclaim your male dominance somehow by demonstrating how macho you really are. You simply use your hobby here as a form of ventilation of the culture.

I had no idea what Juha meant here. But the conversation ended here. He bid me goodbye and
had to leave. I myself was satisfied with both the answers and the fact that I endured the Sauna
session much longer then the finn Juha. Perhaps I too have some macho tendencies?

( the above pic is from the Sauna world championship, apparently the Finns have such a thing along with a competition called wife-carrying championship, odd people indeed.)