Unions representing racism and multiculturalism researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, expressed concern Wednesday over the threats they are receiving, reports YLE in English. In a joint statement, the unions said that such threats to its researchers should be a cause for concern, especially in a region where intolerance is on the rise. “Our…
Month: February 2013
How far has the PS beachhead spread in twenty-two months?
Migrant Tales wrote the following day after the historic April 17, 2011 election had sent shock waves throughout Finland and Europe: “Far-right populism is an illness inflicting Europe at present and it now has a beachhead in Finland.” Back then, our blog got got cited by Time Magazine. The above quote was a response to…
Oulu city councillor and transsexual attacked
Green Party Oulu city councillor, Janne Hakkarainen, was attacked and beaten over the weekend while accompanying a transexual, reports Oulu-based daily Kaleva. Hakkarainen said that three men attacked them in a park after he accompanied his friend home from a bar after 4:30am. Fortunately a person spotted what was happening and forced the…
Helsinki’s and Greater Helsinki’s immigrant population to rise by over 131% in 20 years
A forecast that will be published Monday by Statistics Finland sees the immigrant population of Helsinki and its surroundings rising by over 131% in two decades to around 300,000 from 130,000, reports YLE in English, citing Swedish-language daily Hufvustadsbladet. Writes Yle in English: “Most non-Finnish speakers come to Finland and the Helsinki region from Africa…
City of Joensuu: Challenging and beating intolerance one step at a time
Our reaction to intolerance in Finland has paid off. At least it did for me late-Friday night in downtown Joensuu when I was about to parallel park my car. Thanks to associations like JoMoni working in close cooperation with local authorities like ELY-keskus, Joensuu have challenged intolerance. In many respects, it’s like the success of…
Julian Abagond: What they do not teach you about anti-racism at American high school
The reason why I reposted this blog entry By Julian Abagond is to show how a country can down play the role of racism in its history. History erases history, right? Now consider a country like Finland, which doesn’t have such a terrible legacy. It must be pretty easy then to minimize the existence and…
PS MP Hirvisaari goes off the wall as Finnish appeals court upholds Van Wonterghem’s hate speech sentence
The Finnish appeals court announced Wednesday that it has upheld a district court decision to fine Perussuomalaiset (PS) Kotka city councillor Freddy van Wonterghem for inciting ethnic hatred. While Van Wonterghem is a small fry in the anti-immigration party, far-right PS MP James Hirvisaari blew his stack by slamming the appeals court decision…
On human dignity
Do all humans have the same value and are all humans deserving of dignity? These are the questions asked by Jussi Halla-aho (hereafter J-Ha) in an old but now infamous blog post from 2005. J-Ha contended that only instrumental value is measurable and truly meaningful and that it is common sense to see the value of…
PS MP James Hirvisaari and his Nazi-SS YouTube video
Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari has been caught once again with his hand in the extremist cookie jar. Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat reports that Hirvisaari had uploaded a Nazi video years ago that glorifies the SS. Hirvisaari uploaded the video as ”allamarcia” but it was originally published by kingtiger88 in March 2007. The video, which shows…
Sport is one of your best passports to acceptance in a new country
Since sports can be your passport to acceptance in a new country, its role should never be underetimated never mind undermined. It’s clear that we need to do more work in Finland to promote sports in order to include more immigrants and their children in this activity. In the United States I played basketball, track…