Month: June 2018

The more politicians and racists vilify migrants the stronger we get

Posted on by Migrant Tales

No matter how much politicians vilify migrants and continue to attack us, the more desperate their situation becomes. We, migrants, are a near-endless resource. As long as people can dream and hope, migration will remain. You cannot kill it. 

As a person born in Latin America, it is incredible how selective the media is in reporting racism. After so much tampering in our internal affairs while exploiting our wealth, the United States, specifically the likes of President Donald Trump, are “surprised” by the hundreds of thousands of migrants that are fleeing strife, war, chronic inequality, and poverty.

A simple question: I wonder why people are fleeing to the United State?

In the United States they separate children from their parents. In Europe and Finland we are more “civilized” since we don’t separate children but incarcerate them with their parents.

It is the same story in the Middle East after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The United States and its European partners invade, pillage, kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Middle Easterners and expect opportunistically people to stay, inhabitants of the misery, we created for them.

A simple question: I wonder why people are fleeing to Europe?

The environment is another problem of our making and it is hitting us hard but with a difference from the latter two examples: the disaster includes us, the perpetrators.

A simple question: I wonder who is to blame and what are we going to do?

No matter how much tin-pot populist like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kruz, Italy’s Lega Nord, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark’s Islamophobia on steroids, and chaotic Brexit, try, we will prevail in the end.

Their knee-jerk reaction, their Islamophobia, and xenophobia, are ample proof of that.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Trump, snow jobs, and fake leader of the so-called free world

Posted on by Migrant Tales

“President Donald Trump is the end of a process that capitalism and corporate greed have created. A driving force of US foreign policy is a free-for-all to continue pillaging other countries and peoples with war and exploitation. One of the reasons why Trump can bow to Kim Jong-un and not to Iran is because racism is a strong factor in US foreign policy.”

In Europe and in Finland, we have politicians from the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) and others who would not think twice about selling out to corporate capitalism and the USAmerican model, which is based on chronic and pathological social injustice.

No, this is not a North Korean propaganda film. It’s a propaganda film made by the United States. There is no care for the suffering of the North Koreans never mind the human rights violations in that country. Trump and the US would not care less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei-gGvLWOZI

The voice of suffering from North Korea.

Ali’s journey (June 13, 2018): The long journey back. Baghdad feels like a sauna

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Twenty-five days have passed since Ali,* 22, who speaks on condition of anonymity, “voluntarily” returned to Iraq from Finland. Sometimes the journey back to where you were once from is longer than the one that took you to foreign lands. The first journey fueled by hope and the other one back to your former homeland with question marks and doubts.  

Below is the first message I received from Ali when he landed in Baghdad on May 21:

Baghdad sometimes feels like a sauna, according to Ali.

He continues (the comment was lightly edited) in a message dated May 23:

“Well yeah it is so exhausting [the journey back], but that feeling when you see ur mom after long, long time it’s the best feeling in the world; [it’s the same feeling when you] also my brother and some friends, but still, for sure, there’s that feeling of not being safe etc.. it makes me think too much but I don’t wanna think of it, like it’s like that and [there is] nothing i can do so.. but i feel good and all good for now. And also i feel like it’s been 100 years when i was here last time and things are not the same…”

This evening when I spoke to Ali he repeated what he said in Finland and on his return to Baghdad: “Even if I’m here I still don’t believe that I’m back. It’s a weird feeling because I never saw myself returning.”

Continue reading “Ali’s journey (June 13, 2018): The long journey back. Baghdad feels like a sauna”

Sinister Ministers

Posted on by Reija Härkönen

Valtioneuvoston virallisilla nettisivuilla kerrotaan näin:

”Tasavallan presidentti nimitti 29. toukokuuta 2015 pääministeri Juha Sipilän hallituksen, joka on itsenäisen Suomen 74. hallitus. Hallituksen muodostavat Suomen Keskusta, Sininen tulevaisuus ja Kansallinen Kokoomus. Sipilän hallituksessa on 17 ministeriä.”

Koska valtioneuvoston tiedottajalle on tuossa sattunut pieni virhe, ajattelin palauttaa mieliin vain vuoden takaisia tapahtumia. Jotta kansa ei unohtaisi.

Toukokuussa 2015 hallitusta oli Keskustan ja Kokoomuksen kanssa muodostamassa Perussuomalaiset rp. Valitettavasti.

Juha Sipilä & kumpp. ajattelivat kai silloin, että rasistisimman eduskuntapuolueen johtoon ja joukkoon ovat ajautuneet kansakunnan parhaat kyvyt. Ehkäpä sellainenkin seikka käväisi mielessä, että viha ja muukalaispelko aatteina ovat niitä kaikkein nostavimpia, jos ajatellaan kansallista menestystä ja hyvinvointia. Voimapolitiikkaa!

Ministereiksi saatiin sitten taitajia, joiden mielessä naisten palauttaminen hellaruotuun, ruotsin kielen opiskelun vaikeuttaminen ja Karjalan palauttaminen ovat tehtävistä tärkeimpiä ja joitakuita, joilla asioiden hallitseminen ja julkinen esiintyminen ovat vieneet paljon energiaa, mutta koska hallituksella ei oikeastaan ole muuta tekemistä ollut, kuin soten rustaaminen, niin siihen on ollut varaa.

Olihan se selvää, että vihapuhe puolueen käyttövoimana johtaa myös puolueen sisällä vihapuheeseen, riitaisuuteen ja kyvyttömyyteen hoitaa yhteisiä asioita. Mutta se on myös miehekästä!

Keväällä 2017 Suomessa olikin sitten jännittävä tilanne, kun hallituspuolue Perussuomalaiset rp. hajosi vihaansa. Hallitukseen ei ollut demokraattisella tavalla löydettävissä osaavia ministereitä eduskuntapuolueista. Kaikeksi onneksi ministerit Sipilä ja Orpo keksivät uuden vaihtoehdon: ainahan on mahdollista pestata puolueiden ulkopuolelta henkilöitä, joilla on oman hallintoalansa suurin osaaminen, lahjakkuus ja edustavuus.

Googlaamalla löydettiin tuoreet ja raikkaat ministerit, joista naisellisinkin osaa sentään humaltua kunnolla tanssimatta pöydillä.

Sinister Ministers

Finnish identity: You define who you are, nobody else can or should do that for you

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.

Anaïs Niin (1907-77)

The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is a shrinking single-issue political party that wants, but cannot succeed, at turning Finland into a Denmark-style country where political parties try to outdo each other in their racism and bigotry. 

With parliamentary elections just ten months away in April 2019, it is clear that the PS is doing everything possible to attract attention with their political antics. Contrary to the 2011 parliamentary elections, when the number of their MPs rose to 39 from 5 in the previous election, those years are long gone.

According to some polls, the PS is going to be one of the biggest losers of the 2019 parliamentary elections.

While this may be the case, the PS will launch repeated attacks and spread lies about migrants and minorities.

One of these involves closing our borders to asylum seekers, especially to those who cannot read or write.

One PS city councilman from Mikkeli contended in a blog post, which was full of grammatical errors that 46% of all sexual crimes against under-18-year-old teenagers are by asylum seekers.

The claim, which the councilperson bases on a Police University College report, forgets to mention that 46% figure he uses is from a sample of 147 cases or a total of 68 cases. In 2015, 32,477 asylum seekers came to Finland. If we just look at that year, 147 cases out of 32,477 asylum seekers total 0.45%.

Getting one’s facts wrong and grossly exaggerating them is nothing new for the PS.

Another recent claim by the PS is that in 30 years Finland will have cities where white people will be minorities.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

The claim, that white Finns will become a minority in the face of migrants and minorities, is one of the oldest tricks in the books by anti-immigration parties.

Continue reading “Finnish identity: You define who you are, nobody else can or should do that for you”

Facebook Venla-Sofia Saariaho: Poliisi ja onnea

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Tälle tapauksella oli hyvä loppu: Sailön otettu 20.2.2018 ja vapautettu Joutsenon säilöönottoyksiköstä 17.5.2018 melkein neljä kuukauden jälkeen. Kaikki joka ovat olleet Joutsenon säilöönottoyksikkössä ovat samaa mieltä yhdestä asiasta: Se on kauhea paikka ja peilikuva siitä mitä meidän yhteiskunta ei pitäisi olla. 

Säilöönotto päättyi menestyksekkääseen Lex Gaudiuksen kanteluun Itä-Suomen hovioikeuteen.

____________________________________________

 

Lue alkuperänen Facebook juttu tästä.

Postaus julkaistu luvalla. 

How to fool customers by changing the expired sell-by dates of your products

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales has exposed how an Espoo-Helsinki-based food distributor allegedly pays asylum seekers under the table. The company’s name, which the authorities know, allegedly threatens asylum seekers to do their dirty work, like change the sell-by date of its products. 

The company in question allegedly told one of these asylum seekers that it had employed that it would report the person to the police if it did not change the expired sell-by date of its products.

The asylum seekers had two rejections for asylum and deportation proceedings were hanging over his head.

Let us show you how this company changes the sell-by dates of one of its many products.

  1. Remove the whole flour (chakki atta) from a pink bag;

  2. Use nail-polish remover to erase the old sell-by date with a fake date;

  3. Put the chakki atta flour back in the same bag you took them out of and sew the bag so nobody will suspect a thing.

1.  Take the expired chakki atta whole flour from the pink bag.

2. Changing the sell-by date is easy. In the extreme left picture, it reads that the whole flour (chakki atta) in the bag was packaged on 22 Jan. 17 and should be sold by 21 Oct 17. With some nail remover and a cloth (second picture) wipe the old dates off the package. Use a stamp with new dates and, presto, the product has a fake sell-by date. How much profit does this company make on these products?

3. A sewing machine and fake sell-by dates make the product look new.

 

 

How Finland’s media writes about migrants and minorities: Helsingin Sanomat does it again

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This story below by Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest daily, is a typical example of how the media portray migrants and minorities in this country: There must be a picture of a Somali woman because it is about migrants, and not one member of the non-white Finnish community is interviewed. 

While the story gives superficial reasons why white Finns are so strict about whom they accept as Finns, the reporter should have dug deeper and ask how we ended up becoming a racialized society.

You will not have to search far because the answer is in our recent history. Even at elementary schools in the 1970s, children were taught that n stood for the n-word. While eugenics was relegated into the dustbin of history after World War 2, history books in Finland fifty years ago claimed that we were made up of two races: the Nordic and Eastern Baltic.

Learn your ABCs at elementary school in the 1970s. N-word washes her face, but it doesn’t whiten. Why do Finns have difficulty in seeing non-whites as Finns? Part of the answer is in the racist upbringing that we had at school.

In 2015, Migrant Tales published a series of stories highlighting the Finnish media’s deficient and opinionated reporting about migrants and minorities.

We will begin to publish more of these types of stories from June.

Read the full story here.

Below are some of the things to watch for when looking at the Finnish media’s bias when reporting on migration and minorities:

  • White sources are almost always used as authorities when immigrants and minorities are the topic;
  • Editors too often ask white experts – rarely if ever migrant or minority experts –  their view of the “immigrant problem;”
  • Editors of Finland’s main dailies are white Finns;
  • We give inflated respectability and importance to racists because they mirror our attitudes;
  • In Finland, the stronger racism became, the more airtime it gets;
  • The rise of racism in our society and our coverage of it reveals how unbalanced and uncritical our media is;
  • When it comes to fighting racism, the media are part of the problem.

 

White Finnish privilege #53: Plan Finland’s unplanned pregnancy campaign #ProtectBlackGirlsToo #Whatofme

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Plan Finland’s failed campaign against unwanted pregnancies in Africa is an example of a broader, more serious problem: white exceptionalism. In looking at the campaign by Plan Finland, one can only wonder what these people thought when they launched it.

To grasp the full extent of the problem and how disrespectful the campaign is, what would white Finns think if blacks from Africa launched a campaign with white Finnish pregnant twelve-year-olds wearing suggestively African clothes?

Newspapers and blogs in Zambia and elsewhere have picked up the story.

Writes Mainstream Humanitarian:

“Later, they found a 12-year-old pregnant Zambian child, (Whose name we can not disclouse due to media ethics protecting children), made her wear the clothes and had a Finnish photographer; Meeri Koutaniemi take her pictures. Subsequently, they produced romanticized pictures of child pregnancy, which was stated by the designer herself in a video, and made her pose in a sexually suggestive way in the name of fashion photography. The girl and her family did not receive any form of compensation.”

Indeed, such a campaign would never happen in Europe and Finland because black Africans do not have such power and privilege over white Europeans, who still support their colonial privilege as white saviors.

Two pictures of Fridah, the 12-year-old Zambian girl used by Plan Finland’s campaign. Photo: Plan Finland.

Dr. Faith Mkwesha, who is the founder and executive director of Sahwira Africa International (SahWira Africa International), an anon-government organization that organizes cultural activities and consultancy on African culture and development issues, is one of Plan Finland campaign’s most outspoken critics.

“I think our campaign has exposed the racism in the campaign and the white savior complex,” she said. “The white savior is the idea that white people are better, progressive and exceptional and [that] black people and people of Africa or Asia etc are uncivilized and barbaric and need white people to save them from their ignorance.”

According to Dr. Mkwesha, it is precisely this type of white-savior mentality that gave European colonial powers the justification to enslave and pillage whole continents and regions.

“It [the white savior mentaility] is maintained because white people build their identity in relation to others,” she continued. “So now, when they do charity [work], they feel they are better and keep in place white superiority. That is why they use people in distress to appeal to their emotions.”

Continue reading “White Finnish privilege #53: Plan Finland’s unplanned pregnancy campaign #ProtectBlackGirlsToo #Whatofme”