Finnish presidential candidate fails to recognize Russian, British leaders

2012-01-05 22:29:37 GMT+7 (ICT)

HELSINKI (BNO NEWS) -- A Finnish politician who is participating in this month's presidential election has failed to recognize the faces of several international figures, including the Russian president and the Prime Minister of Britain.

Several top presidential candidates were shown 20 photos by a local newspaper and asked to name the persons in them. Surprisingly, Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto was unable to recognize Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

To make matters worse, Haavisto and fellow presidential candidates Eva Biaudet (Swedish People's Party), Paavo Arhinmäki (Left Alliance) and Sari Essayah (Christian Democrats) all failed to recognize Andrus Ansip, who has served as prime minister of neighboring Estonia since 2005.

According to the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, the four were also unable to recognize Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. They did, however, recognize U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The presidential elections in Finland are scheduled to be held on January 22. Incumbent President Tarja Halonen is ineligible to run for re-election, having served the maximum two terms of six years each.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-01-05

Nice to know these people are everywhere.

Bet if I showed the same images to the exoerts here, no one would do any better.

I wouldn't recognize the PM of Estonia, let alone PM of Belgium. I don't even know who replaced President Bung Bunga of Italy or who the PM of France is. Can the US members on this site name 10 governors in the US, Australians name 5 federal cabinet members, Canadians name 5 provincial premiers, Europeans name their EU PM? We iz all stoopid, or maybe just disengaged and occupied with other things.

Bet if I showed the same images to the exoerts here, no one would do any better.

I wouldn't recognize the PM of Estonia, let alone PM of Belgium. I don't even know who replaced President Bung Bunga of Italy or who the PM of France is. Can the US members on this site name 10 governors in the US, Australians name 5 federal cabinet members, Canadians name 5 provincial premiers, Europeans name their EU PM? We iz all stoopid, or maybe just disengaged and occupied with other things.

But we aren't standing in our country's presidential election.

If I can recall correctly, he has previously claimed to be "an expert" in matters concerning Russia. The photo is very clear but perhaps he's just dumb, I mean, he married a Hispanic equivalent of a bar girl (except a man).

If I can recall correctly, he has previously claimed to be "an expert" in matters concerning Russia. The photo is very clear but perhaps he's just dumb, I mean, he married a Hispanic equivalent of a bar girl (except a man).

ouch. This is one political discussion I am not qualified to get involved in.

Bet if I showed the same images to the exoerts here, no one would do any better.

I wouldn't recognize the PM of Estonia, let alone PM of Belgium. I don't even know who replaced President Bung Bunga of Italy or who the PM of France is. Can the US members on this site name 10 governors in the US, Australians name 5 federal cabinet members, Canadians name 5 provincial premiers, Europeans name their EU PM? We iz all stoopid, or maybe just disengaged and occupied with other things.

Even worse, I can't name 10 of the 32 coaches in the NFL anymore.