President Sauli Niinistö announced Sunday that Finland must help the Finnish children in the al-Hol camp in Syria but not the mothers. What does this mean in practice? It suggests that Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government will take the same line as Niinistö. One of the interesting matters to ask about the whole affair is…
Month: December 2019
How Finland’s National Coalition Party spreads wholesale racism of Muslims
The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) claims to champion liberal Western values and entrepreneurship, right? Is this true if the party succumbs to cheap anti-immigration populism? Kokoomus MP Wille Rydman likes spewing copy-and-paste soundbites of the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. Apart from his staunch Islamophobic views, he also takes up pseudo-scientific eugenicist views as in this…
How Finland’s leading daily spreads prejudices and disinformation about Muslims
One of the most significant political debates going on in Finland now is the fate of about 40 Finnish women and children at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. The debate has taken such shameful turns that even ministers have tuned to their followers on social media to ask whether these women and children should…
Finance Minister Katri Kulmuni’s grotesque Internet poll is a symptom of a wider social problem in Finland
The Center Party of Finland is a liability to the future of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government. We already saw how they forced former Prime Minister Antti Rinne to resign. And then, we witnessed Finance Minister Katri Kulmuni’s Instagram poll. Kulmuni’s post not only exposed her total disregard for human lives and the country’s international…
Twitter (Human Rights Watch): Finance Minister Katri Kulmuni – “Seriously, #Finland?”
It is pretty incredible how some Finnish politicians and even ministers like Katri Kulmini forget that this country abides by international agreements like the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the balance of power. Finance Minister Kari Kulmuni forgot all this and published on Instagram a poll where she asked if the wives of Isis…
When will Finland have a black or gay prime minister?
The hostility that Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government has faced is a good example of the misogyny that still exists in Finland. While Finland has made important strides in gender equality, women still make, on average, 20% less than men. Even if women in Finland became the first to have the right to vote in…
The PS’ hateful rhetoric is a copy-and-paste job from Trumps’ and Fox’s USAmerica
The rhetoric of the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*party looks like a direct copy-and-paste job from Donald Trump’s Republicans and Fox news. The PS’ leader Jussi Halla-aho labels maliciously Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government as “socialist” and even PS MP Ville Tavio claims it is “communist,” you know that this is all a copy-and-paste job from the…
Leadership in promoting social equality and challenging racism will strengthen Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government
I, if anyone, wishes Finland’s new prime minister, Sanna Marin, the best of luck and success. Someone asked me a while back what I thought about former Prime Minister Antti Rinne’s government and if it signalled major improvements and changes in immigration policy and in fighting racism. My answer was short: It all depends on…
Global Family Awards 2019
We had a great night at the Global Family Awards in Helsinki on Tuesday at the World Human Rights Day 2019. We heard wonderful music by Liikkukaa – Sports For All chair Mr. Ike Chime and a warm welcome speech by Rasmus Ry chair Dr. Faith Mkwesha, as well as inspiring spoken word performances by…
Stop bickering and repatriate the wives and children of ISIS fighters now
The reaction to what Finland should do about 10 Finnish women who are alleged wives of ISIS fighters and their 30 children at the al-Hola camp in northeast Syria has all the characteristics of social media lynch mob populism and Islamophobia. The biggest trolls are not anonymous persons but opposition politicians of parties like the…