A Congolese man pleaded with a Belgian court on Friday to remove “Tintin in the Congo” from bookshelves, arguing that the comic book is littered with racist stereotypes about Africans. “It is a racist comic book that celebrates colonialism and the supremacy of the white race over the black race,” Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo said as he arrived for the opening of the civil trial in Brussels.
Month: September 2011
Iltalehti: Suuntautuminen kerrottava
Perussuomalaisten kansanedustaja Mika Niikko puolestaan sanoo, että hän haluaisi työnantajana tietää työntekijän seksuaalisen suuntautumisen.
The meaning of the veil and why some want to ban it
Switzerland’s lower house of parliament voted Wednesday 101-77 to outlaw veils like the burqa when using public transport or visiting authorities, reports AP. The measure, which is being spearheaded by the Swiss People’s Party, will go for a vote in the upper house before federal elections next month.
Immigrant’s life: Returning to where we were once from
If you can trace your recent roots to Europe, would it be a good idea to return back to where your parents, grandparents or great grandparents were once from? The same hope and longing for a better life peppered with adventure are some factors that could lure you back to where you were once from.
Spiegel Online International: Skulls of Colonial Victims Returned to Namibia
Germany revisits the dark chapter of its brief colonial history this week with the return of 20 skulls belonging to genocide victims in a former colony. A Namibian delegation is in Berlin to take home the remains of those killed more than a century ago. This could be just the beginning of such reconciliations.
Violence and racism are always in the eye of the victim
Are the Perussuomalaiset (PS) a violent party? Despite a story that was published widely by the media last week, there were no conclusions made by an ongoing study that a part of the PS approves violence, according to think tank Demos. The British-based think tank will publish the results of a wider study on online populism in Europe later this year.
Savon Sanomat: Persujen linja – onko sitä?
Savon SanomienTaloustutkimuksella teettämän kyselyn mukaan ylivoimainen enemmistö suomalaisista ei hyväksy perussuomalaistenJussi Halla-ahon Kreikka-puheita. Täystyrmäys tuli sukupuoleen, ikään, varallisuuteen tai puoluekantaan katsomatta.
Migrant Tales Literary: New World Finn – People in the Summer Night
Visiting Finland in the summer from Southern California was like diving directly into Frans Emil Silanpää’s People in the Summer Night (Ihmiset suviyössä). While Silanpää’s words carry us gently to those magic summer landscapes of Finland, which have a low-hum sonance to them, there is as well a lachrymose tune in the background that gets louder as summer begins to shut itself off.
What the far right in Finland really means when it says “multiculturalism sucks ass”
If one reads the anti-immigration rhetoric of the far-right wing of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party led by MP Jussi Halla-aho, you will eventually find the racism and the meaning behind their discourse. Almost everything they claim and object to boils down to one matter: Stop Muslims and non-Europeans from coming to Finland and Europe.
Finnish identity on one’s own terms
One of the matters that has turned me off about Finland for a long time is that I haven’t been allowed to embrace my Finnishness on my terms. By my terms I mean defining what Finnish identity means personally to me.