Month: July 2022

A fateful June: The future of the environment, millions of refugees and even world peace hung in the balance

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Ahti Tolvanen*

At last there has been a decision of the world’s nations to put an end to the burning of fossil fuels. It took the world at least 50 years to arrive at this point which happened in Stockholm June 3rd, 2022 in the closing statement of a conference to observe the 50th anniversary of the UN’s first Environmental Conference in 1972.

In 1972 the US was waging a cruel war in Vietnam against an enemy supplied with weapons from Soviet Russia. Critics were saying it was a farce to have talks about the environment and make no mention of the

US´s destructive military intervention. Olaf Palme was famously outspoken on the theme.

Now the shoe was on the other foot. Russia had invaded Ukraine in February and the US was shipping weapons to repel the attackers.

NGOs led by the Climate Action Network lobbied and demonstrated energetically to have an end to fossil fuels renounced in Glasgow at COP 26 but were stymied in the last hours, mainly by the fossil fuel lobby. It took another International conference to get there.

Scientists have been warning the world about fossil fuels as the main driver of the climate crises for years, but the way climate politics works, we needed to have fossil phase-out on the books or we will never get it done.

In 1972 when the first Stockholm conference convened acid rain and a loss of ozone were serious environmental concerns. Measures were put into place to alleviate these in the following years. But in 1972 the human biological footprint was at approximately the level of natural replacement. Since then we have lost about 60% of living creatures and are consuming renewable resources at nearly twice their rate of renewal.

Continue reading “A fateful June: The future of the environment, millions of refugees and even world peace hung in the balance”

Highland Park shooter raises far-right Suomen Sisu to international notoriety

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After Highland Park shooter Robert E. Crimo III, 22, murdered six people during the July 4th festivities and was apprehended by the police, social media is buzzing with his use of a symbol that is similar to the one used by Suomen Sisu, a far-right neo-Nazi association that used to recommend the works of Nazi war criminal Alfred Rosenberg.

Even if Suomen Sisu likes to call itself a “nationalist movement” that seeks the preservation of European states and white culture, it’s been called by the Finnish secret police Supo an “extremist organization.” Others like the Finnish Criminal Police (KRP), and the Council for Mass Media (JSN) called the association  “Nazi spirited.”

Above is the official description of Suomen Sisu in English. Others read it differently: “Suomen Sisu is a Finnish far-right movement which objects to Muslims and people of color and supports the preservation of national states and white European heritage with white supremacy. Through its activities, the organization seeks to protect white Finnish culture, and racist, ethnocentric views, by promoting white Finnish far-right views. Suomen Sisu builds a society in Finns where there are no non-white people and this fact makes us happy.”

Whether the symbol used by the Highland Park killer is a copy or not is like arguing if Suomen Sisu is a far-right white supremacist association or not.

What has happened is that Suomen Sisu’s real face has been exposed thanks to a murderer who is attracted to far-right ideology.

Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter

War in Ukraine forces Finland to lurch to a dark place where human rights must eventually take a backseat

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The polarized debate in parliament Monday on renewing the Border Guard Act and Emergency Powers Act is just another example of how Finland has lurched into a dark place where human rights are a nuisance and should not take presedence The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS), with the helping hand of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and other minor parties like the Christian Democrats and Liike Nyt, are picking on their favorite target: asylum seekers.

According to some, the new laws are not in conflict with the EU, which does not allow member states to stop people from seeking asylum. Others, like European Union Institute professor of international law and human rights Martin Scheinin, believe the new laws will send Finland back thirty years.

Scheinin tweets: “Today, Parliament will finalize the content of the amendments to the Emergency Powers Act and the Border Guard Act. The idea is to introduce a constitutional derogation found in Section 23 of the Constitution, which deals with exemptions in times of crisis. This [the exemptions] turns back the clocks at least 30 years.” Section 23 of the Constitution states that fundamental rights and liberties in situations of emergency cannot breach its human rights obligations.

Here’s the question: Are the draft Border Guard Act and Emergency Powers Act in conflict with EU laws? Looking at parties like the PS and Kokoomus, who speak of asylum seekers as a threat to Finland, would be the first parties to trash human rights or severely water them down.

Continue reading “War in Ukraine forces Finland to lurch to a dark place where human rights must eventually take a backseat”

Denmark shooter is allegedly white and has ties with the far-right

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It was about 11 years ago on 22/7 when Norwegian Anders Breivik shocked us by murdering 77 victims. His motive? Anti-Muslim racism. Yesterday, there was a hint of déjà-vu when a 22-year-old “ethnic Dane,” a term used to mean white Dane, went on the rampage in the Fields shopping center of Copenhagen killing at least three and wounding a number of victims.

The “ethnic Dane” suspect? Source: Facebook.

While the police have not ruled out terrorism, unverified reports allege that the shooter had ties to the far right. Some eyewitnesses even heard the man shout at the scene of the crime, “Get out of my country!”

Why does the evidence point toward a deranged white Dane committing these heinous acts? For one, no Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politician has posted anything about the attack. PS chair Riikka Purra hasn’t even sent condolences to the victims.

Contrary to how far-right groups react to such a shooting, one important matter to remember is that we cannot generalize. For example, if the suspect is a white Dane and was motivated by racism, we should not label all white Danes as terrorists. The act at the shopping center was by a sick person who is a danger to society irrespective of his background.

If these accounts are true, that the suspect has ties to the far right and whose motive was anti-Muslim racism, it should be another stark reminder of how words and racism have deadly consequences.

A country like Denmark, which has a reputation for being one of the most Islamophobic countries in the EU, has not toned down its anti-Muslim rhetoric. The hardline anti-immigration policy comes straight from the government.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the country had been hit by a “cruel attack,” according to CBS News. “It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Pointless,” she said. “Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second.”

This story will be updated.