Here’s a question that needs serious debating in Finland: If refugees account for a minority of all immigrants, why do they get so much attention in the media? Why do anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) constantly speak of them and give us the impression that all of Finland’s immigrants are mostly refugees and Muslims…
Month: August 2013
Supreme Court upholds PS city councilman’s conviction for ethnic agitation
The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will not grant Perussuomalaiset (PS) Kotka City Councilman Freddy van Wonterghem the right to appeal a conviction for ethnic agitation in February by the Kouvola appeals court, reports YLE. The ruling is similar to a lower court ruling on PS MP James Hirvisaari’s hate speech conviction in June 2012. …
Migrant Tales (May 26, 2011): Racist propaganda during Finland’s Winter War (1939-40)
Consequently, racial prejudice and discrimination are nonexistent (in Finland). …
ENAR condemns racism against blacks in Europe
MT comment: The statement by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) was published five days before the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech, and the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition. Millions of black Europeans are still victims of racism and discrimination…
Fifty years from Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech
Today marks the 50th anniversary when Martin Luther King Jr.(1929-68) gave his historic “I have a dream” speech. When he gave the speech in Washington on August 28,1963, I was eight years old. Even if I knew nothing about MLK at the time never mind anything about his famous speech, his words would have a…
Finnish Immigration Service terrorizes immigrants (Part II)
By Dana Why are we all so passive if we’re oppressed? What do you fear? What will you fear losing? Money? Benefits? What, then? Where’s your humanity? Who makes up your mind for you? Who controls your thoughts? How do you build and make your morals and values stronger each day? What is your religion?…
The Jews of Finland
The Jewish side of our family was never discussed openly when I was young. If it was, the matter appeared as a fleeting question: Is it true that part of our family is Jewish? Read full column here on page 14. Silence always followed that question. In retrospect, our silence and answer revealed a lot about…
Finnish Immigration Service terrorizes immigrants (Part I)
By Dana The Finnish Immigration Service (FIS) strikes terror in immigrants like me. I’ve lived for three years in uncertainty not knowing if I’d ever be reunited with my family. My mother died in May and my father in July. I hadn’t seen my beloved parents for seven years. I never thought that the last time…
Racism in Finland: The media is part of the problem
A party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), which has capitalized politically on xenophobia and racism, claims that the Finnish media picks on it unfairly. The fact is, however, that the PS could have never achieved what it did in the April 2011 election without the help of the media, which gave its racists inflated respectability and…
Old Finnish national social constructs still fuel intolerance and exclude visible minorities
The Association of Finnish Culture and Identity (Suomalaisuuden liitto) is an association founded in 1906 to “strengthen the sense of national identity, to promote Finnish education and culture.” While this statement may appear innocent at first, the association endorses the intolerance white Finnish speakers have today against Swedish speakers never mind immigrants and visible minorities. In…