By Leo Honka
On ships,
On foot,
By bus,
By plane,
By car,
By bike,
With hope,
Everyone conspires to leave
where the floodlights comb
the state of siege.
Whoever writes about pain,
in my country,
is slain,
tortured on the street
left starving
fed to your racism.
Don’t sing me any lullabies!
Don’t hand me calf shit
that Finland is not accepting asylum seekers!
If they place me in front of a firing squad
I’ll die yelling Viva Finlandia!
After creating a big commotion in December about uncovering Finland’s first far-right terrorist cell, the Stakunta District Court ordered the release of four of the suspects on Wednesday, according to Yle News. One of the suspects was released last month.
Even if the police consider the arrest of the suspects as the “first” far-right cell, it all depends on how you define terrorism. Several arson attacks, even a sitting MP (Ano Turtiainen), were carried out even encouraged against asylum reception centers in 2015.
The four terrorist suspects were released on a technicality.
Continue reading “How we treat terrorism in our society depends on your ethnic and religious background”Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Veikko Vallin gives us a lesson in racism by definIslamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Veikko Vallin teaches us racism by defining “harmful” and beneficial migration. Vallin, who likes being called the Tampere’s Trump and boasts about how he places his money in Estonia from the Finnish tax person, bases his political program on hatred for asylum seekers, especially Muslims.
The PS is the only party in parliament that labels migrants as “harmful.”
Vallin is the last person you should listen to concerning ethnic relations.
He Tweets:
“The difference between harmful and beneficial migration? Harmful migration is a drain on the public sector, while beneficial migration generates tax revenues. Among others, beneficial migrants find employment as gardeners.”
What is wrong with this tweet?
It is racist because it generalizes and debates migration as a simple, 1 + 1 = 2 phenomenon.
Continue reading “Twitter (Veikko Vallin): A racist lesson on types of migrants”As we return to that horrible day of January 6, when former President Donald Trump supporters invaded the Capitol and whacked the foundations of US democracy, we should ask how much of a blow that infamous day was for our democracy in the EU and Finland.
The bad news is that matters in the US will get much worse before they improve. As everyone should know, racism, fear, and political greed by autocrats to the US’ growing diversity is at the heart of the January 6 violence.
Apart from racism, capitalism and the smell of money have enticed the country to flirt with a right-wing dictatorship.
Certainly, exceptionalism and the blindspot to enforce adequate checks and balances is one of the main culprits. It comes in the form of denial and burying your head deep in your colon.
Can the same happen in Europe, in Finland?
All we have to do is turn the clock back 89 years to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his vehemently anti-Semitic and racist government that led to a global war that killed tens of millions of people.
Like Hitler, Trump was also considered a joke. Few, during the 2016 presidential primaries, thought he could win the election.
Hitler’s fuel was the unfair Versaille Treaty, anti-Semitism, and racism. Scapegoating the blame on minorities paved the way to Nazi power.
Continue reading “The first anniversary of 1/6: A hammer blow to democracy, our democracy as well”I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.
James Baldwin
If some scholars sound the alarm bells that democracy in the United States could turn into a right-wing dictatorship that has the potential of sparking a civil war. How should Finland prepare for such an eventuality?
Writes Thomas Homer-Dixon, a Canadian political scientist, in an Op-Ed: “By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship.”
The European think tank, among others, label the United States as a “backsliding democracy” in a new report.
While former US President Donald Trump has spread the big lie about the 2020 election that has turned the Republican Party into a personality cult, it is a different story in Finland even if the threat is the same.
While it should be clear that a party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which is eager to strip minorities of their human rights and relegate them to second- or third-class citizens, the party is the best example of Trumpism in Finland.
The PS has not made its admiration for Trump a secret. Former PS leader Jussi Halla-aho – like other PS politicians – do not hold back their admiration for Trump and his racist and autocratic political message.
Like the United States, Finland has seen its society become ever-polarized thanks to the politics of the PS and its enablers, which undermine our Nordic political institutions. If Trump’s big lie is the “stolen” election, which Joe Biden won hands down, in Finland, it is immigration and other populist soundbites.