November 2018 - Page 3 of 3

Ever wondered what happened to those rape stories in the Finnish media? Below, you will find one with a provocative headline that strikes fear (and attracts potential advertisers): “A shocking figure from the beginning of the year: Rape crime grew by over 400% in Turku compared previously.”

Terrible, no? Certainly. Even one rape case is utterly unacceptable and should be condemned.

But wait a minute. The “over 400%” claim is based on a figure of 4 cases in 2016 compared with 21 in the first quarter of the year.

What we do not know:

Are these 21 suspected or convicted rape cases?
Do these 21 cases involve migrants, asylum seekers or tourists visiting Finland?

Be wary of rape stories that only use percentage figures to claim how much such cases have risen. Anti-immigration groups use this tactic constantly to drive home their point that migrants are over-represented in certain crime statistics. Look at volumes instead.

I called the editor of this community paper called Turkulainen last year and asked him if the headline and claim were ethical.

“Don’t you understand that we need to attract advertisers!” he said justifying the headline.

Continue reading “Sensationalist stories in Finland about migrants based on exaggeration and lies”

Video clips published by a program managed by the Diaconia University of Applied Sciences (DIAK) a privately owned university whose main shareholders are church foundations and institutions, launched a video with Finnish celebrities who were seeking jobs with Roma surnames.

The videos, in which Tuomas Enbuske and Jari Sarasvuo appear among two other women, tell us something that the Roma have known for hundreds of years: discrimination and social exclusion. Both persons in the video appear surprised, even disappointed when nobody called them back for a job interview.

While these types of campaigns are good, they fall short fall short in providing us with tools and steps on how o challenge and eradicate such a serious social ill.

Why didn’t Enbuske and Sarasvuo ask why our response as a society to discrimination is so weak? Why aren’t there enough resources and, most importantly, the will to tackle such social ills?

Moreover, I do not see Enbuske and Sarasvuo as champions of anti-discrimination who understand the role of cultural diversity in our society.

Enbuske, who has hosted television talk shows, has invited some of the most questionable racists on his show like James Hirvisaari, a former MP convicted for ethnic agitation, and people like Lenita Airisto, who scolded a Somali woman on his show that “you have come to my country, Finland is my country, and has taken you in with open arms…”

In one of his TV talk shows, Enbuske had to take down the headline and was reprimanded in 2015 by the Council for Mass Media (JSN). The questionable headline, which labelled all Somalis as “rapists,” posted by a subcontractor that MTV3 uses to advertise their programs.

Tuomas Enbuske

Continue reading “Roma anti-discrimination campaign by DIAK but offers nothing concrete”