Would launching a separate “little” literary blog (Migrant Tales “Little”?) be a good idea? It would publish poetry, short stories, short plays, drawings. anecdotes, and pictures of our lives in Finland and elsewhere. Depending on how this lifts off, we could even organize contests.
Month: June 2011
guardian.co.uk: North Carolina’s reparation for the dark past of American eugenics
North Carolina’s compensation to victims of forced sterilisation is a chance to illuminate a gruesome US tradition of racial ‘science.’
Twenty-seven American states joined a decades-long pseudo-scientific crusade to create a white, blond, blue-eyed, biologically superior “master race”. Their misguided utopian quest was called eugenics. But only one state, North Carolina, is now readying a massive plan of financial repatriations to its survivying victims. Just how much North Carolina should pay is now the subject of a historically wrenching debate.
Finland’s turning point and its national identity debate
Any student of society can see that Finland is at an important juncture concerning its national identity. At this turning point we are looking in two directions: To our past and to the future.
YLE: Immigration policy to focus on security
Immigration policy is to shift emphasis towards safeguarding security in society, says new Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen. She told YLE radio that immigration policy would now shift to officials in charge of policing.
Suomen Kuavalehti.fi: Mikko Heikka: Suomalaisia köyhiä ajetaan maahanmuuttajia vastaan
Köyhyys nousi huhtikuussa pidettyjen eduskuntavaalien tärkeäksi teemaksi. Myös hallitusneuvotteluissa asia on nähty keskeiseksi. Köyhyys ei kuitenkaan ole uusi ongelma. Jo vuosia kirkon tutkimukset ja piispojen puheenvuorot ovat tuoneet esille kasvavan köyhyyden seuraukset erityisesti pitkäaikaistyöttömien, lapsiperheiden ja yksinelävien arjessa. Näitä puheenvuoroja ei ole kuultu.
Spiegel Online International: A War of Stereotypes – German Tabloid Returns Fire with British Quiz
It all started with an innocent science story published in SPIEGEL, and then in English on SPIEGEL ONLINE. A genetic analysis revealed, of all things, that millions of Britons carry a Germanic gene. Britain, it would seem, is more German than many are comfortable with.
Migrant Tales update I: A PS councilman’s “justified” racism
Perussuomalaiset (PS) Rovaniemi city councilman Hemmo Koskimies’ blog entry, ”Justified racism – a ‘nigger’ lives alone in a 75m2 home,” still appears without any correction despite emails to Uusi Suomi’s editor-in-chief Markku Huusko and owner Niklas Herlin. A number of phone calls were made to Huusko but they were never returned by him.
euronews: Automatic deportation for foreign criminals in Denmark
In the future, foreign nationals who are convicted of a crime and sent to prison in Denmark will be automatically deported on their release. The controversial legislation sailed through parliament in Copenhagen by 97 votes to 7.
YLE: Finland deports dozens of torture victims each year
The director of the Centre for Torture Survivors in Finland has accused the Finnish Immigration Service of callous disregard for torture victims. He says that dozens of asylum seekers have their applications turned down and are deported back to their country of origin, in contravention of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Nearly 60 percent of all asylum seekers in Finland have some kind of torture trauma. Physical and sexual torture are the most commonly understood ways in which people experience torture, but the effects of psychological torture can be even more serious.
HS: Ihmisrotuja ei voi perustella biologialla
Mitä pidemmälle ihmiskunnan geneettisen muuntelun tutkimus on edennyt, sitä selvemmäksi on käynyt, että mitään selviä ihmisrotuja ei ole olemassa.Antropologian historian aikana ihmiskunnassa on erotettu kymmeniä eri rotuja. Ihmisbiologiassa ollaan kuitenkin nykyään luopumassa tai on jo luovuttu rodun käsitteestä.