John D. Foster Over the weekend, much media buzz centered on the release by TMZ of a recorded conversation between Donald Sterling and V. Stiviano, his girlfriend. In the conversation, Sterling expresses his objection to her posting pictures on Instagram with Black people, including one with Magic Johnson. Response to the story has varied. Other…
Month: April 2014
Foreign Student editorial (February 1981): On immigrants living in Finland
The Foreign Student was a short-lived but courageous newsletter of the Foreign Student Club of Helsinki. The humble publication appeared from January 1981 to January 1982 and lasted 11 issues. Much of the things the newsletter wrote about 35 years ago are still valid today. Surprisingly those that opposed what we wrote weren’t officials or Finns, but…
The anti-immigration menace in Europe and Finland is real and we must do something to challenge it
Migrants were very active in the early 1980s and on October 19, 1982 we marched for the first time since a group of East Pakistanis, today Bangladesh, marched from Helsinki to Turku in the early 1970s demanding work. The march by the East Pakistanis may have been the first by foreigners in Finland. Migrants and…
Finland is not a land of opportunity but a land of poverty for most migrants
According to Statistics Finland’s Working Paper series, Finland is no land of opportunity for migrants, writes Pekka Myrskylä. The Statistics Finland’s development manager claims that the employment level of Estonians and Thai citizens matches that of ethnic Finns. The majority of migrants live in poverty in Finland, according to him. If what Myrskyä writes…
Miten maa joka on nähnyt niin paljon siirtolaisia ja pakolaisia voi suhtautua vihamielisesti heihin?
Timo Soini, tiesitkö, että Suomesta lähti yli 1,2 miljoona suomalaista siirtolaista 1860-1999 aikana? Tässä olivat myös pakolaiset. He jotka unohtavat tämän tärkeän faktaan unohtavat ketä me olemme. Miten maa joka on nähnyt niin paljon siirtolaisia ja on ottanut vastaan 420 000 karjalaista pakolaista voi suhtautuu torjuvasti ja jopa vihamielisesti siirtolaisiin ja pakolaisiin? Älä ratsasta maahanmuuttovastaisuudella….
How can you, Finland, loathe migrants and refugees if you were one?
How can a country like Finland, which saw over 1.2 million people emigrate during 1860-1999 and resettled 420,000 Karelian refugees after the Continuation War (1941-44) with the former Soviet Union, loathe migrants and speak contemptuously against refugees? How do you explain the rise of an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) that grew from a mere…
Institute of Race Relations: UKIP – legitimised by the media?
MT insight: UKIP’s Nigel Farage and Perussuomalaiset party’s Timo Soini are close ideological allies. The only difference between these two politicians in the cultural and national context. If Farage lived in Finland he’d speak like Soini and vice versa. Thus to understand the PS you would have to understand the UKIP. _________________ John Grayson examines…
Timo Soini’s latest comment about refugees leaves many speechless but exposes him to the raw
Sometimes politicians make incredible statements that leave you speechless. The latest one I heard was Thursday on a MEP election television debate on YLE Fem, the Swedish-language television channel. Said Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini: “Is it morally right to leave one’s homeland during ever-difficult times or should one stay put and fight for justice? Would it have been…
The high price of being too alike and not thinking outside the ethnic and national box
Some may correctly ask what is the price Finland pays today for its lack of cultural and ethnic diversity. Finding answers to this question would require some serious thinking outside our ethnic and national box. This question is an important one today for two reasons: Our population is seeing dramatic changes due to the graying of…
Why do we consider Timo Soini to be “a good cop” if he brought all these “bad cops” to power?
Doesn’t Perussuomalaiset (PS) leader Timo Soini bear responsibility for giving people like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Olli Immonen and a very long list of others a platform to spread their hatred and intolerance? Why does the media let Soini get off the hook so easily? Is Soini the culprit for anti-immigration sentiment and…