An Fhionlainn i ndiaidh Nokia
Is fánach duine ar dhroim an domhain seo nach n-aithneodh ainm Nokia. Ar feadh na mblianta fada sheas Nokia don teicneolaíocht eolais agus do na pócaí gutháin a bhí ag dul i laghad in aghaidh an lae. San Fhionlainn féin ba é Nokia samhailchomhartha ár ndearscnaitheachta i gcúrsaí ardteicneolaíochta. Anois tá an chuma ag teacht ar an scéal go bhfuil ré na miorúiltí thart: cheannaigh Microsoft ó Nokia an chuid den ghnó a ghabhas do na gutháin phóca.
Cé gurb ionann Nokia, dar le cuid mhór de na daoine, agus na gutháin sin, ní mór dom mar Fhionlannach a phointeáil amach gur rud réasúnta nua é an comhcheangal smaointe seo. Nuair a bhí mé i mo bhuachaill bheag, ba leis an rubar ba mhó a shamhlaínn Nokia: le sálaí na mbróg, leis na buataisí rubair, le boinn na ngluaisteán agus le smachtíní na bpóilíní. Le fírinne is é an t-ainm a bhí ag lucht an ghrinn ar an gcineál sin smachtín ná ‘treoraí na n-óg ó Nokia’.
Fuair an gnólacht a ainm ó Nokia, baile mór atá suite i réigiún Pirkanmaa in iardheisceart na tire – sách fada ó na cóstaí, agus teist na tionsclaíochta air. Ar dtús bunaíodh muileann laín i Nokia, agus ba é seo tús an chomhlachta. Ón taobh eile de, bhí monarcha rubair ag obair san áit chomh maith, agus sa deireadh ba é an comhlachta rubair a cheannaigh an gnó páipéir agus an chuid eile de chomhlacht Nokia.
Ba é an rubar an táirge ba shuntasaí a bhí ag teacht ó Nokia i mblianta mo chéad óige, ach san am chéanna bhí mo leithéid tar éis iomrá éigin a chloisteáil ar ‘lárionad ríomhaireachta Nokia’. Meaisíní móra troma ab ea na ríomhairí san am sin, an cineál meaisíní ar a dtabharfá ‘ríomhaire mórfhráma’ inniu, agus is é an rud a rithfeadh leat leis na focail ‘lárionad ríomhaireachta’ ná foirgneamh ar aon mhéid le monarcha, agus é ag cur thar maoil le soilse beaga leictreacha, ionstraimí tomhaiste agus spóil téipe. Bhí pollchártaí ann i gcónaí, nó ar a laghad focal ab ea ‘pollchárta’ a bhí i mbéal an phobail más iad na ríomhairí a bhí á bplé.
Sna hochtóidí gheal lá na ríomhairí pearsanta. Ar dtús ní raibh iontu ach bréagáin nach raibh ach cuimhne aon chilibheart amháin iontu. San am sin bhí Nokia ar an t-aon mhór-ghnólacht amháin san Fhionlainn le ciall ar bith do theicneolaíocht an eolais, agus bhain siad triail as ríomhaire dá gcuid féin, mar atá, Mikro-Mikko, ach ba é deireadh an scéil gur dhíol siad an branda le Fujitsu.
Ansin tháinig ré na nguthán póca. Ar dtús ba nós linn ‘guthán bróige’ a thabhairt ar a leithéid, agus má chonacthas a leithéid ag aon duine ba é an tátal a bhainimis as go raibh sé ag síleadh an domhain de féin. San am sin bhí na gutháin iniompartha ar aon mhéid le bróg, muis, agus breis is cíleagram meáchain iontu. Bhí siad daor freisin, agus b’ionann ceann a bheith agat agus tú a bheith i d’fhear gnó saibhir. Ní raibh súil againn lena raibh le titim amach sna nóchaidí, nuair a rinneadh bréagán na sluaite síoraí den ghuthán póca.
Ba é an guthán póca a tháinig chun fortachta dúinn nuair a bhí eacnamaíocht na tíre in ísle brí i ndiaidh don Aontas Shóivéadach dul de dhroim an domhain. Go tobann bhí an tír saibhir, a bhuí leis na gutháin phóca. Bhí na polaiteoirí, na hiriseoirí agus na gnáthdhaoine araon ag adhradh is ag ardmholadh Nokia. Cultas a bhí ann i ndáiríre: theastaigh ó gach duine óg staidéar a dhéanamh ar theicneolaíocht agus innealtóireacht eolais le dul ag obair do Nokia. Thabhaigh na gutháin clú don Fhionlainn a bhí ar thús cadhnaíochta na teicneolaíochta. Tháinig iriseoirí ó na Stáit Aontaithe féin ag déanamh adhnua de chomh cleachtach is a bhí na páistí féin ar na gutháin phóca san Fhionlainn.
Anois tá an ré sin thart, agus níl a fhios ag aon duine cad é atá daite dúinn mar thír feasta.
Scríbhneoir Gaeilge ón bhFionlainn é Panu Höglund.
Finland after Nokia
The brand Nokia is instantly recognisable by most people in the world. For many years Nokia has been a household name suggesting information technology and mobile phones that become smaller and smaller every day. In Finland itself, Nokia was the symbol of our excellence in technology. Now it seems the era of wonders is over, as Nokia has sold its cell phone division to Microsoft.
Although Nokia, for most people, is synonymous with its phones, I must as a Finn point out that this association is a rather new thing. When I was a small boy, I mostly thought of rubber when hearing the name Nokia: shoe heels, rubber boots, car tyres and policemen’s truncheons. In fact a humorous name for such a truncheon used to be ‘the youth instructor from Nokia’.
The company got its name from Nokia, a town in the Pirkanmaa region in south-western Finland – rather far from the coastline, and known for its industry. The starting point of the company was a pulp mill in Nokia, but there was also a rubber factory operating in the town, and in the end it was the rubber company that bought the paper business and the rest of the Nokia company.
Although rubber was the most conspicuous product of the company in my youth, we already heard some mention of a ‘Nokia computing centre’ back then. That was when computers were big unwieldy things of the sort now called ‘mainframes’, and when you heard the words ‘computing centre’, that suggested something as big as a factory, a building full of small electric lights, measuring instruments and tape reels. Punch cards were still in use, or at least ‘punch card’ was a term everybody still associated with computers.
In the eighties, the first personal computers appeared. To start with, they were just toys without more than a kilobyte of memory. Back then, Nokia was the only major company in Finland with anything of an understanding of information technology, and they tried their hand at producing a computer of their own, called Mikro-Mikko, but ended up selling the brand to Fujitsu.
Then time was ripe for mobile phones. At first we called them ‘shoe phones’, and if we saw anyone using one of them we perceived them as people who thought a little too much of themselves. At that time portable phones were indeed as big as a shoe, and weighed more than a kilogram. They were expensive, too, and if you had one you were supposed to be a rich businessman. We could not expect what was to happen in the nineties, when mobile phones turned into mass-market geegaws.
Mobile phones came to our rescue when Finnish economy was experiencing a downturn after the demise of the Soviet Union. Unexpectedly the country was rich, thanks to these phones. Politicians, journalists and common people all adored and idealized Nokia. It was a real cult, with young people wanting to study information technology and engineering so as to be able to work for Nokia. Mobile phones made Finland famous as a technological vanguard country. Journalists came all the way from the United States to marvel at how naturally even children made everyday use of mobile phones in Finland.
Now it’s all gone, and nobody knows what is to come.
Panu Höglund is an Irish-language writer from Finland.
