Puhe Helsingin yliopiston maatalous-metsätieteellisen tiedekunnan miekanhiojaispäivällisillä 6.6.2002
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
In terms of competitiveness, Finland is one of the leading countries in the world. In all recent international assessments, we have been in the medals table. This is a situation that has not come about of its own accord and it is one that will not continue of its own accord. Of the numerous genuinely important factors that have brought this about, we ourselves have been able to have a crucial influence on two, namely level of competence and disciplined distribution of income.
The competitiveness that we have achieved clearly demonstrates that here in Finland the basic structure of our competence culture is sound. The education chain from comprehensive school to post-graduate doctoral training works well and helps to produce young adults who are well equipped with knowledge and skills. Free education and the system of financial aid for students that was overhauled in the 1990s together make up a supporting buttress of their own.
It is always an agreeable task to repeat good results in any and every suitable situation, but that is only one side of the coin. It is equally important to consider success from the perspective of the individual, the student preparing for life and the young adult.
The doctors who are sharpening their swords today in readiness for the conferment ceremony tomorrow have already been through a series of elimination rounds. They have had to get a place at an upper secondary school, pass their matriculation exams, and be accepted by a university faculty. They have had to pursue their studies for the maximum length. They have had to establish themselves in the community in such a way that they have had the time and the money to write their doctoral theses. They have had to have their theses approved and they have had to defend them successfully in public.
To most of those who have trod this path it has meant missing out on many of the joys of life, it has brought moments of hope and moments of despair, feelings of inadequacy, but also positive experiences, shrieks of inner delight brought on by sudden flashes of insight, the need to tell others about fresh results and the potential that they offer. Despite its toughness, this is perhaps life at its very best. It brings out the ability to stand up to pressure; it is a complete self-contained survival course.
There is more to life in one´s student years than just writing essays and passing exams, however. I hope that as many of you as possible who will be having your doctorates ceremonially conferred on you tomorrow will also have been able to learn something to equip you for life. You will have been involved in student activities. You will have acquired some of the social graces. As someone who has spent a long time in the life of the community outside his university career I can assure you that taking part in student union and subject association activities has been of major importance in equipping me for later life. It´s still not too late, even for you. Employers in many sectors will be asking potential employees, including doctors, "Have you played any part in society?" Working life demands an increasing degree of social accomplishment.
But that is still not the end of it. Quite a lot of you will have found your future partners during your student days. Keeping a relationship intact through your finals and while writing a thesis is an achievement which in itself is worthy of a diploma, when there is so much hard work involved in pushing forward the boundaries of knowledge in this age of enormous scientific progress.
Ladies and gentlemen, sword-sharpening doctors! It gives me great pleasure on behalf of the honorary doctors, to congratulate you all on surviving the vicissitudes I have described and reaching what is perhaps the most memorable moment of your lives so far.
With his behaviour and his efforts to increase population, Man as a species has made sure that all the disciplines in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry are going to be needed more and more. The challenge that history has set for the future is enormous, in that never before in the history of mankind have people understood the impact of procreation and consumption on their values and their attitudes, nor have they ever consciously caused human life such huge changes here on Earth. In Western civilization we are living through a testing time in this context. Thanks to scientific research, we recognize reasonably well how mankind´s earlier cultures on the Earth managed to destroy themselves and we have some understanding of the state the world is in now. Future studies are working hard to identify the paths that mankind might be travelling in the centuries that are to come. We are still seeking the path of sustainable development.
Earlier cultures were destroyed by the ritualization of customs that were intellectually bankrupt. It happaned gradually, not to say imperceptibly. Destructive habits started to seem natural as resources continually became more scarce. The symptoms of just such a chain of development can be perceived in our own cultural sphere, too. The pursuit of short-term gain more and more often confuses the concept of what is right and what is acceptable. Agriculture, forestry and food have not remained outside the development that is growing at the foundations of our society.
As it happens, there are plenty of watchdogs throughout the world among the stakeholders in agriculture, forestry and food. People are perhaps more concerned about food safety than anything else. In taking care of biodiversity, agriculture and forestry interests are in a position of unparalleled responsibility. More is expected in terms of basic ethics and morals from those who have taken their doctorates in this field than in any other. The most difficult thing here is not achieving a reputation, but keeping it in a morally acceptable way. What is at stake here is no more and no less than a sustainable future for the whole of Western civilization. I wish you good luck, and a happy life to you all!