September 2015 - Page 4 of 5

The PS of Finland: Can you teach a bigot new tricks?

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Migrant Tales

When the national media gave the racist narrative of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* the benefit of the doubt, Migrant Tales never did and never will. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? If you are naive you probably think you can.

Time magazine quoted Migrant Tales a day after at the 2011 parliamentary elections because we were one of the few who wrote critically about the PS. Time writes in its global briefing page for April 18, 2011:

“We are not extremists so you can sleep safely,” says the head the country’s ascendant ‘True Finns’ party (yes, that’s their real name). Of course, not everybody agrees: Far-right populism is an illness inflicting Europe at present and it now has a beachhead in Finland, writes Enrique Tessieri.”

Nothing has changed since April 17, 2011 except that the PS has today more power than ever before since it forms part of the government with the Center Party and National Coalition Party.

I stand firmly by what I wrote in 2011: The PS is and will continue to be an illness inflicting Finland that has already impoverished the country economically, socially and politically.

Some naively believe that the PS can be transformed into a “normal” party by getting rid of its worst racists like PS MP Olli Immonen, MEP Jussi Halla-aho and many others.

Not a chance. The PS grew from near-obscurity to become the second-biggest party in parliament thanks to its xenophobic rhetoric and promises.

Becoming a “normal” party would be synonymous to committing political hara-kiri for the PS.

Read quotes of the day here.

Continue reading “The PS of Finland: Can you teach a bigot new tricks?”

Kotiutuminen tai kotoutuminen?

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Kuulin tänään 20.30 uutisissa sana kotiutuminen sijasta kotoutuminen. Ei ole ensimmäistä kertaa kun olen kuulut sanaa käytetty väärin toimittajan suusta.

Kotoutuminen on aika uusi sanaa suomen kielessä ja se tarkoitta prosessi jolloin maahanmuuttajia sopeutuu meidän yhteiskuntaan.

Kun olet armeijassa ja palaat siviiliin sitten kotiudut.

Katso 13.29 min. kohdasta uutislähetyksestä jossa toimittaja käyttää kotiutuminen sanaa.

Europe has been put in harm’s way by Europeans

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Can Europe honestly look at itself in the mirror today and say it is still a beacon of hope, cultural understanding and respect as we bar refugees, permit the children of these people fleeing war to die on our beaches while thousands die trying to reach our shores?

According to the UN Refugee Agency, an estimated 310,000 refugees have already crossed the Mediterranean compared with 219,000 refugees for the whole of 2014, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

How many more will have to cross and make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean and die before we wake up to the crisis and find effective solutions on a regional EU level?

The chances of finding such solutions and, importantly leadership in today’s Europe, is close to none.

We have lost our way and live in a bubble inflated by so much hubris that we don’t even grasp that it is our bellicose stand and support for wars like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that have led us to this crisis.

Things have gotten so bad in some EU countries that populist anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* quote Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s shameful rhetoric. He’s called Calais a “jungle” and refugees as “swarms of people coming across the Mediterranean.”

And to add more salt to injury and shame, European leaders like Cameron conveniently forget that their country’s wealth was built on the blood of millions of slaves, colonialism and global economic bullying and intimidation.
Continue reading “Europe has been put in harm’s way by Europeans”

Alan on Alan: A picture is worth a thousand words

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Alan Anstead

We had the same name, Alan. But apart from that our worlds were completely different. Alan Kurdi was a Syrian Kurd, escaping with his family from war and terrorism. I’m a working class Peckham (London) boy and 50 years older than my namesake was. What the photograph of Alan’s lifeless body washed up on the Turkish beach did was to change public opinion about the biggest movement of refugees since the second world war, in a way that no media article, opinion piece or political speech had been able to do.

Read full opinion piece here.

The situation in the UK before a photo of Alan’s body appeared on the front page of every UK newspaper was one in which the UK government and right-wing media were describing the refugee movement as Africans seeking a better life as “economic migrants”, and describing people in the Calais ‘jungle’ in the most inhumane way possible – “swarms of people” said the Prime Minister, “Migrants marauding around the area” said the Foreign Secretary. Statements designed to frame the issue to suit a government’s anti-migrant policies. In technical terms this communication amounts to propaganda – the intent was untruthful and it was designed to mislead the population.

Continue reading “Alan on Alan: A picture is worth a thousand words”

Reija Härkönen: Terveisiä ääripäästä!

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Reija Härkönen

Ministereiden määritelmän mukaan taidan kuulua ääripäähän. Kuulun siis siihen ääripäähän, joka suhtautuu maahanmuuttoon neutraalisti: toivoo, että rajavalvonta on kunnossa, tänne töihin ja asumaan tulevat ihmiset eivät kohtaa liian suurta byrokratiaa vaan pääsevät jouhevasti kiinni työhön ja elämiseen uudessa kotimaassa. Toivon myös, että maahamme saapuvat pakolaiset ja turvapaikanhakijat saavat ystävällisen, kunnioittavan kohtelun, heidän asiansa käsitellään mahdollisimman nopeasti ja heidät autetaan uuden elämän alkuun.

Rasismia en siedä, politiikassa ja kaikissa yhteiskunnan julkisissa toiminnoissa on oltava rasismia kohtaan nollatoleranssi. Sellainen ääriaktivisti minä olen.

Nyt, kun me ääripään ihmiset olemme innokkaasti tukeneet entisten pakolaisten vilkasta, hyväntuulista Facebook-kampanjaa, #ennenolinpakolainen, jossa he julkaisevat kuvansa ja kertovat lyhyesti tarinansa, olemme olleet todella iloisia. Tuntuu hyvältä nähdä, kuinka monilla entisillä pakolaisilla on hyvää kerrottavaa omasta sopeutumisestaan, edistymisestään opinnoissa, työuralla tai elämässä yleensä. Vieraaseen maahan muuttaminen on aina koko perheelle raskas prosessi. Pakolaisena, ilman mitään omaisuutta, joskus ilman perhettä tulleelle se on aina selviytymistarina.

Continue reading “Reija Härkönen: Terveisiä ääripäästä!”

A red herring called Timo Soini and the PS

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Do you think that Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman and foreign minister, Timo Soini, never mind his party, would care less about refugees if most of their energy goes into finding arguments on how to stop Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity?

Soini attempts in his latest blog to raise awareness of refugees of Christian and Yazidi origin by throwing mud at Syrian Muslims and why we shouldn’t open our arms and hearts to such people fleeing war.

Even if Soini wants Europe to give priority to Christian and Yzidi refugees isn’t that what we’re doing? Aren’t refugees being accepted in Europe irrespective of their religious, ethnic or national background?

Soini gets caught again with his hand in the red herring jar.

As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, Soini and the PS are trying their hardest to steer Finland in the direction of Eastern European countries like Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Baltic States.

Prime Minister Juho Sipilä’s pledge to offer his home to refugees Satursday was a clear snub at Soini and his view of how the refugee crisis should be handled, which would mean closing our borders and letting tens of thousands of people out in the cold.

Continue reading “A red herring called Timo Soini and the PS”

Finland’s PM offers his home to refugees – how long will it take for the PS to exit government?

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s announcement Saturday that he’d offer his home to refugees is not only a good attempt by the government to steer Finland back to the direction of other Western European nations in the refugee ongoing crisis but a clear show of leadership that has been lacking.

The decision to offer refugees temporary shelter in his home is a clear snub at its anti-immigration partner, the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* which would be more than happy lead Finland in the direction of the Baltic States, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in the ever-growing humanitarian crisis.

When asked Friday what Europe should do to resolve the refugee crisis, PS chairman and Foreign Minster Timo Soini gave the same answer as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He said that the EU should enforce its border controls and not permit people from entering the EU.

If it was difficult for the PS to approve the bailout package to Greece, how is the anti-immigration party, which has promised to resolve the “Somali and Muslim problem” in Finland, going to explain to its voters that it forms part of a government that let in a record number of refugees?

What excuse, as with the bailout package to Greece, will the PS tell their voters?

Read full story here.

What was the stick the broke the camel’s back or was it broken at all?

Did Sipilä get encouraged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said this week that “there sill be zero tolerance for those who put in question the dignity of other people?”

What exactly made the prime minister make such a pledge?

Was it a subtle way by Sipilä of telling the PS to either shape up or ship out?

Continue reading “Finland’s PM offers his home to refugees – how long will it take for the PS to exit government?”

Tuomas Enbuske says he doesn’t like the term Islamophobia because he considers himself to be one

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Did anyone watch Friday’s Pressiklubi with writer Jari Tervo, Left Alliance MP Silvia Modig and Tuomas Enbuske? Tervo shun with his comments against racism while Enbuske was a flop.

The host, Ruben Stiller, asked all three guests if the’ve ever felt fear or uncomfortable around foreigners.

See full program (in Finnish) here.

Enbuske has hosted twice extremist politicians like former MP James Hirvisaari, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, and advertised on his television show headlines like “Why do Somalis rape?” Continue reading “Tuomas Enbuske says he doesn’t like the term Islamophobia because he considers himself to be one”

Finland is slowly waking up to the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

You know that President Sauli Niinistö said something wrong about the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe if Perussuomalaiset (PS)* spokesperson Matti Putkonen quotes the head of state to reinforce his party’s xenophobic and anti-cultural diversity policies and stand.

Putkonen quoted Niinistö’s statement on the “Years of Danger,” a period in the late-1940s when Finland was close to having a Communist coup, to describe the ongoing humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe, according to YLE in English.

The PS spokesperson said that those “Years of Danger” that Niinistö mentioned where for him “Months of Danger” to describe the present crisis, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has given in the past ambivalent statements concerning the refugee crisis in Europe and about our ever-growing culturally diverse society.

Continue reading “Finland is slowly waking up to the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe”

Dear little boy washed ashore…

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Migrant Tales

All it takes is a picture or an unexpected spark to action that changes everything instantly. If it isn’t this picture below there will be other other ones that will at the end of the day expose these politicians for what they are.

In May we learned about a Dear little girl at sea who was kind enough to look the other way as she floated lifelessly in Mediterranean waters.

Now there has appeared a Dear little boy washed ashore, lifeless on the beach. He’s also considerate to our indifference. His face is half covered by his arm.

Contrary to the Dear little girl at sea we are going to put him in a warm bed and imagine for a moment that he’s ok.

We wrote back in May:

Mark my words, all it takes is a picture, an action, that will spark the demise of xenophobes and heartless politicians and force their lies to come down in flames.

Whose lies are we speaking of?

Those very politicians and people that German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked you not to follow those that put the dignity of other people in question.

She said explicitly: “Don’t follow their leaders or those who have prejudice, coldness, even hate in their hearts.”

Since I live in Finland I will name a few of them in this post. We have one party in government, the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* that bases its popularity on xenophobia and on getting rid of the Somali and Muslim “problem” in Finland. You can find such politicians in all of Finland’s parties.

Timo Soini, Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, Laura Hauhtasaari, Maria Lohela, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Päivi Räsänen, Tom Pakaclén, Maria Tolppanen, Mika Niikko, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, Kari Rajamäki, Pia Kauma, Wille Rydman, Simon Elo, Sampo Terho, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, Hanna Mäntylä and many, many others.

The post below may contain a disturbing image and text to some. Viewer discretion is advised.

Continue reading “Dear little boy washed ashore…”