Third episode - Going to court or not

So, as this drama with Kela goes on, the baby is born. Hurray, what a little thing. I have to admit that this little boy has immediately placed the Kela trouble to third or fourth priority only.

But then again, the fight goes on. We filed the official complain about the decision. And we know well that is only a symbolic gesture, twisting your toes in the sunshine kind of action. In legal terms, the Kela decision is as correct as it can be. So, if we decide to continue this fight, the only next step we have is to take Kela to court.

Friends have asked every now and then how has this Kela case developed. Every time they are surprised how such thing can be happening. But the ultimate question still is, what can we little people do against this titanic organisation? People keep saying that we should fight and fight. However, it seems the real answer from their guts is we'd better cut it short and move on in life.

In the past two months or so, we have talked to many friends and heard stories from people about their experience with Kela. Apart from a couple of exceptional bravery (or idiocy?) all people just felt stressed, sorry and sad about the experience and treatment. Maybe they filed a complain, maybe not. And then they just simply moved on in their life. It is as if, in this country Finland, unpleasant and unfair treatment by Kela is an inevitable stage of life. You learn to ride bike, you have sex for the first time, you get your driving license, you get drunk for the first time, you serve in the army, you get screwed by Kela once or twice ...

Finns all seem to just suck it up and do nothing about the system. To be exact and fair, these are not my own words but coming out from several Finnish friends in our recent discussion. You can't help just sigh and wonder what else can be more Finnish than such behaviour and mentality.

Of course, they might well ask, what else can you do? Fighting against the bureaucracy? Spending money and time to argue with the officials? Even the politicians do not seem to want to have anything to do with such trouble. We wrote a couple of mails to Kela and cc to many politicians of the major parties. None, not a single one of them, has replied. These are the politicians you all have voted for, those who promised you this and that before the election.

So there is the question still, what can we do about this case? Looking from example and experience, the choices are,

- stop fighting, move on in life, treat this as a nightmare and forget about it.
- vote with our feet and plane ticket, move the business and ourselves out of this country as soon as possible.
- keep fighting, make noises and take Kela to court.

You tell me, what we should do? :-)