Leo Honka* Outside, near winter’s home I stand Leaning against the night All alone Listening to hallucinations Popping from silence and stance. It’s a cold night of thick gloves and clothes A night no one should stand outside too long For sidewalks and streets Solemn and silent Are asleep and lead nowhere. Only a winter’s…
Month: January 2022
Getting a job does not scare me, it is what happens after that raises concern
If we look at the many stories of job discrimination that we have published in Migrant Tales, one factor links them: despair and the police, which too often look the other way. Considering the underwhelming effort the police have made in challenging human trafficking, labor discrimination, hate speech, and other social ills, why would a victim trust the…
Do we want an openly Islamophobic prime minister that aims to exclude foreigners? I hope not!
After the disastrous showing of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in Sunday’s regional election, the far-right party aims to win next year’s parliamentary election and have its chairperson, Riikka Purra, as prime minister. Good luck with that, especially after the big election setback. Even if the regional election will turn out to be a watershed for the…
The National Coalition Party wins Finland’s first regional elections
The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) won Finland’s first regional elections after capturing 21.6% of the votes, according to Yle. Apart from the low 47.5% voter turnout, there were two big surprises: the good showing of the Center Party and the abysmal result by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. During the past decade, much of the PS’ success hinges on…
Migrant Tales Literary: Anti-Perussuomalaiset poetry – an eye for an eye
No room for words today! Said the Finns Party politician that racist fascist hypocrite angry as hell yelling at the top of its voice: Give me a light, scum! Lighting its cigarette soon thumbs, hands, arms and other body parts melt and splash to the ground. In my hidout after that affair the police,…
Mayday! Mayday! The Perussuomalaiset are sinking
The recent poll on the regional elections shows eveals and exposes the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, who suffered a 3.3 percentage point fall, as a one-issue party. The regional elections, which will be held on Sunday, will transfer power from municipalities to regional councils, which will manage health care and emergency services. Sunday’s election appears to…
Remember Jari Sillantie of the Kolari asylum reception center and coming out of the Islamophobic closet
I do, and very vividly. Jari Sillantie was the deputy manager of the northern Finland Kolari asylum reception center that sacked him after some 140 asylum seekers protested his management style. Even if his management style and Facebook “likes” did not reveal his attraction to the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, they did speak volumes about…
The party with the most criminal charges: Perussuomalaiset candidates, who else?
THE STORY WAS UPDATED Guess which party has the highest number of candidates charged with a crime? Correct, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. According to Helsingin Sanomat, 6.3% (8.2% in the 2021 municipal elections) of PS candidates in January’s regional election have been charged for crimes during 2017-2021. That was followed by the Left Alliance (3.0%/4.1%), Christian Democrats (2.2%/2.4%),…
A victory for free speech against the far-right and “racist clowns”
Due process takes a long time in Finland as the landmark Johanna Vehkoo against far-right agitator Junnes Lokka, whom she called in a Facebook “a Nazi clown” and “a racist.” Surprisingly, a Rovaniemi appeal court upheld a prior Oulu district court ruling that Vehkoo had defamed Lokka. Today’s ruling by the supreme court dismissed the…
Onko porvariston hillitty rasismi hyväksyttävää?
Reija Härkönen Timo Soini kirjoitti blogissaan 20.9.2015 otsikon ”Maahanmuuttolinja kiristyy huomattavasti” alle seuraavasti: ”Perussuomalaiset ovat jo vuosia varoittaneet sekä moraalittomasta europolitiikasta ja löperöstä maahanmuuttopolitiikasta Euroopassa, myös Suomessa. Minua, EU-politiikasta ja Jussi Halla-ahoa maahanmuuttopolitiikasta, on arvosteltu rajusti. Vääriksi väitteitämme ei ole todistettu”. Tuohon päivään mennessä perussuomalaisten rasistinen ja uusfasistinen henki oli jo moneen kertaan pulpahtanut pintaan,…