Re: Scandis
Finland was a part of Sweden for more than 600 years and there are some 5000 words from Swedish in the Finnish language. If you look at the culture, then Finland is no doubt Scandinavian and the closest country to Finland in that respect is Sweden. Finnish law was written in Swedish first and then translated (as it is based on Swedish law) until I think about 1950.
Finns decided to go with Finnish design and not Scandinavian design. If you look at the word Scandinavia with is the name of the mountain range between Norway and Sweden then only those two should be called Scandinavian. To make everybody, especially the Swedes happy, we talk about the Nordic countries. If you see it written without the "the" then a Finn is to blame.
Also Iceland fits in as it should, of course. Also Sweden and Finland as part of Sweden plus Norway and Denmark where once ruled by the same Queen. And if you wonder why the Nobel Peace Prize is handed out in Norway the reason is that Norway was then a part of Sweden.
As for knowing their history the Swedes are more lousy than the rest. Perhaps because they don't want to remember how a big country ended. And one should not forget Estonia once a part of both Denmark and Sweden.
When Swedes fuck up abroad they tent to claim they are Finnish and when I do something silly I might suddenly become Swedish.
The nice passenger ships between Stockholm and Helsinki are called the Finland ships in Sweden while the Finns call them the Sweden ships.
When a member of the Nordic countries meet an other member far far away they feel like meeting a next door neighbour and that is not surprising.
Cheers to all of you.