Jenny Häggblom

The Aland Islands is a small island, and it belongs to Finland. It’s located in the Baltic Sea. The coordinates for the city Mariehamn are 60 ° 07 ’N, 19° 07’ E. The Aland Islands are a demilitarized, Swedish speaking region and have a right of self-government secured through international guaranties.

1808-1809 war, Aland became a part of the Grand Duchy of Finland, and that was a part of the Russian empire. Russian empire started to fall apart at 1917 and declared independence in 1917. Aland seek reunification with their motherland Sweden, but Finland didn’t like it so they offered Aland an internal self-government 1920, Aland declined it. They wanted to belong to Sweden. This became something called the Aland Island Question, it referred to the newly reformed League of Nations. League’s Council presented 1921, a compromise decision, they offered something to all three parties of the conflict. Finland got granted sovereignty over Aland and the system Finland had offered Aland in 1920. Guarantee to the population of the Island is their Swedish culture, language and local customs. Sweden got the demilitarization and neutralization drawn up so that the Island would never become a military threat to Sweden. The Autonomy has since been completely revised on two occasions, in 1951 and in 1993. The Aland Parliament, the Landsting as it known, convened for its first session on June 9^th 1922.

regional Aland Government, Landskapsregeringen. Aland have their own power in to pass laws in areas relating to the internal affairs to the region and to exercise its own budget power. Aland got their own symbols; they have their own flag, their own weapon and their own stamps and police, post offices and a lot more. We’ve had the flag since 1954, the stamps since 1984. Aland is a member of the Nordic Council and a part of EU together with Finland.

The Aland Island is an island in the Baltic Sea. The whole island is an archipelago, with over 6000 small islands but not all of them are residence, there are just a few of them that actually are residents living, approximately 300 of them are reside. There are a lot of small bays on the island, that´s inevitable because of it being an island.

Scandinavia is a part of the temperature zone, and therefore are Aland Island as well a part of that. You can really see that there is temperature because there is a relatively short summer and a long winter. The spring and fall is quite beautiful and are also relatively short, they aren´t more than a few months or maximum 3 months totally. The summer and winter are warm respectively cold. In the summer the temperature are about 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) and in the winter there are about minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). So the weather depends a lot on the temperature. It is quite wet in November and March because of all rainfall in that part of the year. July is the month when there is not that much rainfall, that is the dry month of the year. The highest point is the only “mountain” on the island and that is located on 137 meter (150 yards) above the sea level. There is no volcanic actions there.

On such a small island, with just about 26,200 inhabitants. There are a majority speaking Swedish, which is the only official language of the island, and that is through law, something that will remain. That was decided in the 1920s that Swedish should be the only official language on the islands, so it’s a history element. There is small groups speaking other languages but the groups are small so they would not count, the languages that are spoken are Finnish, Estonian and English.

The culture is similar to Swedish culture but with influences from Finland and from other Nordic countries. The religion that we do is Christianity but we have other churches as well but the amount of people going there are few. Small free-church groups exist but they are even smaller. So normally the islanders go to church within the Christianity.

We have some sort of different food than other parts in Finland but not that much, the most is similar. We have one specialty and that is the Aland´s pancake with whipped cream, but we have another special dish and that is the Aland´s black bread. Tourists often buy these dishes when they come to Aland as a souvenir. They are that popular so when you come to a cafeteria or store they might not have it in store so you might have to wait or come back another day to buy it.

There is some migration to the island. People move to the island because of the beauty of the island and the archipelago. People often move from Finland to Aland but also a lot of Swedes moves over to the island. There is actually most Swedes coming over and owns summer cottages. I think it´s the harmony and the peacefulness on the island that makes the migration possible. So there are most pull effects, such as quality environmental aspects, because the air is nicer and cleaner than in other parts of the world.

The island is pretty small and we don’t have any factories that we can make a living on so we depend on the tourism. If there is much tourism, and there is much tourism, we can make a normal living with the fortune that the Island needs and can survive with. In fact the island is so small so normally we go to Sweden or mainland Finland to go shopping or grocery store. The island is small and the economy is small. When we got the Euro, the prices increased a lot, so since 2002 we normally go to Sweden because they are cheaper than anywhere else, since they are not in the European Union’s money found. But the tourism are camping, recreation (e.g. golf, fishing, walking), and there is a lot of bicycling at the island, the roads are perfect to ride a bike on.

Agriculture is a huge part of the Aland Island. Wherever you go you´ll see fields where they grow crops. The biggest crop they grow is potatoes that are, in fact, a part of our economy since we have the Scandinavia´s largest factory of chips. The company is called Taffel or Chips AB, and is a big company. Other crops that are grown are for example onions, leeks, cabbage.

The trip to the island is done easiest by ferry, so normally the ferry arrives at the Island 4 times a day, and that is only one ferry. You have a lot of opportunities to come to Aland by ferries. Totally there are a lot of ferries arriving in the harbor every day and the island get a small fortune from the companies driving the ferries. We have the tax-free on the ferries so we get a small amount of money from them. That’s affects our economy as well as the tourism, in fact, the ferries are a part of the tourism.

The normal use of electricity is coming from oil, but there are some efforts in using renewable resources but the majority use oil. The renewable resources that are used are e.g. pellet, hydropower, wind generators, wood and fire.

Something that brings tourists is the maritime, we have always had the maritime sprit in our lives through generations because of our location, and ships come and go all the time. There all always something going on, and we have a lot of history museums all around the island. The most famous boat we have got and still have is Pommern which is old four-masted barques build 1903 in London. It was sold to Aland´s greatest skipper throughout time, and his name is Algot Johansson. Pommern is the only ship in the world of its kind, still standing. So that is why it is such a public magnet.

So the Aland Island is a small autonomous region in the Baltic Sea, with a population of 26,200 inhabitants and the official language Swedish. We are a region within Finland´s borders but with our own government. We have our own flag and own stamps for instance, and we have our own culture with influences from both Sweden and Finland. But the most important thing is, we are islanders and we like it. We feel like we are ourselves and that we can make decisions that affects ourselves, even though we have Finland above us and the support us but we can pretty much live all by ourselves. It´s just a matter of time before we asks for real independence.

I love the island and I´m raised on the island. I have lived there for my whole life and so have my parents as well. I really love the peacefulness and the atmosphere; it is really something I miss.

Hoppas ni gillar den, det gör jag!