Finland, the country I come from, has recently been an object of diversified international praise.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has repeatedly rated Finland among the top performers. In 2010, Newsweek estimated, after a daring attempt in the line of comparative statistics, that Finland is ”the best country in the world”. Bill Gates recently praised Finland's achievements in popular education but added that, on the other hand, succeeding with ease seems to characterise Finland in general. And according to a recent UN ”World Happiness Report”, Finns are the second ”happiest” people on earth -- only Danes are supposedly happier...