Jolanta Burke, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
After Finland was recently named the happiest country in the world for the sixth year in a row, it was suggested that positivity among the Finnish is related to their expectations.
Finns have good schools, public transport, and the difference between the highest- and lowest-paid is quite small. These are factors in high levels of happiness.
Finnish military personnel raise their country’s flag at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Steven Lamy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Sandwiched between Russia and NATO ally Norway, both Sweden and Finland have maintained neutrality in global conflicts. That changed in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is against allowing two Nordic countries to join NATO over what he deems their support of ‘terrorists.’ His opposition will test the alliance’s unity.
Swedish army medics simulate the evacuation of a field hospital as part of military exercise called “cold response 2022”, gathering around 30,000 troops from Nato member countries plus Finland and Sweden, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the Arctic Circle on March 25 2022.
Reuters/Alamy
Finland was recently ranked, for the fifth year in a row, as the world’s happiest country. Trust in others in society plays a large role in what makes people there – and elsewhere – happy.
Eight countries with territory in the Arctic make up the Arctic Council.
Mike Swigunski/Unsplash
The Arctic Council was the world’s primary forum for cooperation among the eight Arctic nations and a channel for diplomacy – until Russia launched a war.
Most people who received some money experienced less hunger, sickness and depression, both before and after Kenya imposed restrictions in the pandemic.
Children need the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered by experts in ways they can understand. A briefing may reduce children’s anxiety and increase their understanding of the pandemic.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and German chancellor Angela Merkel have shown good leadership in the fight against COVID-19.
GCIS
It is no accident that those leaders who have responded worst to this crisis have also been the main sources of countless conspiracy theories and misinformation.