ABOUT ME
Name: Allan Bain (often shortened to Al but preferably not Al Bain, and never written "Alain Bain", Aamulehti!)
Age: 29, turning 30 in November
Family: A wife and two children aged one and (almost) four
Nationality: UK citizen, Scottish
Neighbourhood: Veisu
Before moving to Finland six years ago I lived my whole life in Aberdeen, Scotland. I’m not entirely sure what my profession is, but I’m a Master of Social Sciences and straight after graduating in May 2010 started working at the English-language newspaper Helsinki Times and its sister magazine SixDegrees as a journalist and proofreader (and later on as a translator). Although I wrote on a wide range of domestic subjects, my speciality was Finnish politics and I was the organisation’s main political correspondent. I was made redundant in April and since then have done some translation work for The Greens of Finland as well as an internship at an environmental organisation while searching for a job.
Although I’ve only recently become involved in The Greens of Finland, I have experience of environmental, social justice and peace non-governmental organisation (NGO) work from Scotland. I also wrote my Bachelor’s dissertation on energy policy and my Master’s thesis on green politics.
I’m a person who abhors sexism, racism, homophobia and intolerance in general; a person who always tries to see things from the point of view of others. I also strive to limit my impact on the environment in the decisions I make – I travel by bike and public transport and have never taken a driving lesson (but without others having done the latter my life would be radically different); I try to follow a vegan diet, although the rest of my family is vegetarian, so I’m sometimes forced to compromise; I buy organic and fair trade products and enjoy growing vegetables and picking berries; I use electricity, water and heating sensibly, recycle and spend relatively little money – helped partly by not smoking or drinking alcohol. I’m also strangely fascinated by the 1960s space race despite its environmental destructiveness, links to militarism and diversion of billions of dollars and rubles away from more socially beneficial projects.
Other things I like to do in my free time include spending time with my family, reading (mostly non-fiction books but also novels), playing football, jogging (especially in our local forest and around Suolijärvi), and playing and listening to music.
Age: 29, turning 30 in November
Family: A wife and two children aged one and (almost) four
Nationality: UK citizen, Scottish
Neighbourhood: Veisu
Before moving to Finland six years ago I lived my whole life in Aberdeen, Scotland. I’m not entirely sure what my profession is, but I’m a Master of Social Sciences and straight after graduating in May 2010 started working at the English-language newspaper Helsinki Times and its sister magazine SixDegrees as a journalist and proofreader (and later on as a translator). Although I wrote on a wide range of domestic subjects, my speciality was Finnish politics and I was the organisation’s main political correspondent. I was made redundant in April and since then have done some translation work for The Greens of Finland as well as an internship at an environmental organisation while searching for a job.
Although I’ve only recently become involved in The Greens of Finland, I have experience of environmental, social justice and peace non-governmental organisation (NGO) work from Scotland. I also wrote my Bachelor’s dissertation on energy policy and my Master’s thesis on green politics.
I’m a person who abhors sexism, racism, homophobia and intolerance in general; a person who always tries to see things from the point of view of others. I also strive to limit my impact on the environment in the decisions I make – I travel by bike and public transport and have never taken a driving lesson (but without others having done the latter my life would be radically different); I try to follow a vegan diet, although the rest of my family is vegetarian, so I’m sometimes forced to compromise; I buy organic and fair trade products and enjoy growing vegetables and picking berries; I use electricity, water and heating sensibly, recycle and spend relatively little money – helped partly by not smoking or drinking alcohol. I’m also strangely fascinated by the 1960s space race despite its environmental destructiveness, links to militarism and diversion of billions of dollars and rubles away from more socially beneficial projects.
Other things I like to do in my free time include spending time with my family, reading (mostly non-fiction books but also novels), playing football, jogging (especially in our local forest and around Suolijärvi), and playing and listening to music.