By Enrique Tessieri
I made a call to a Somali friend over the weekend who told me about a rumor that a young nineteen-year-old countryman had been killed in Helsinki over the weekend. While we could not confirm if the story was true and hope that it is only a rumor it does show the fear that some Somalis live under in this country.
The Somalis are no small community in Finland. In 2010-11 they were a 6,593-strong community, the fourth-largest in this country, after the Estonians, Russians and Swedes.
Since the Somalis came to Finland as refugees in the early 1990s, very little has been done never mind accomplished to further the acceptance of this community in Finland. The interest of some politicians in the Somalis has been purely for political purposes and the lack of interest of their plight by the media have led to the present unfortunate state of affairs.
Migrant Tales asked almost a year ago if Finland was a safe place to live for non-whites. If we take a group like the Somalis, there is a big question mark. Moreover, if we put into context the violent deaths that three Muslims faced in a span of about three weeks this year the question mark becomes an even bigger one.
Despite the fears expressed by Muslims and Somalis in Finland, it is unacceptable that the police service has not apparently done enough to assure some visible immigrants that it is safe to walk the streets of a big city like Helsinki and surroundings. A statement made by a policeman in charge of the death of a Somali youth in Espoo is a case in point in shoddy public relations. He blamed the Somalis for spreading racial hatred with their rumors.
Twenty-five years in the journalism business have taught me that rumors only arise when the message by a government institution or a company is poorly executed or unclear.
We should ask the policeman who blamed the Somalis for spreading rumors if his statement does anything to reassure the Somali community that they have nothing to fear and that the police serves them in the same way as white Finns?
The fear that some Somalis fear in Finland is real. This has been pointed out by a EU study.
“I have become very paranoid in Finland,” said a Somali native, who has lived most of his life in this country. “When the Perussuomalaiset won the election [last year] things got as bad as they did in the early 1990s, when we heard almost every two weeks of some attack against us…In the end of the 1990s things started to get better.”
“I don’t like to go out [these days] because I fear that a complete stranger could attack me,” he continued. “I am very paranoid.”
Enrique. ´´ rumors only arise when the message by a government institution or a company is poorly executed or unclear´´
Áctually this is true because if we could get and we should know that the justice in Finland is fair for everyone rumors wouldn’t happen, but government itself created the rumors by routinely executing unclear charges, false accusations towards Somalis and downgrading our compaints about our victims. for instance, Somali victim in Oulu police they didn’t bring yet any result of their investigation to public. So it is not rumors if we say why government is or will not be made public the results of these case. Why do they like to solve our matters undercover. That is what we ask ourselves and you too.
The police, and others too, make mistakes.
Mistakes were made reporting about last rape case…
This is true, there is unrest in the Somali community in Finland, after the incidents of immigrant killings, Somalis are scared to go to public, i myself know many Somalis who’re totally isolated in their houses, im one of them, this cant continue like this, we need a solution to make immigrants and native Finns to build a trust, right now politician are clueless
D4R
Ei kannata sulkea itseään kotiin. Yritä voittaa pelko ja muistutat itseäsi, että nämä olivat indivuallistin teko. Jos äärirasistit saavat meidät pelkäämään ulos menoa, he ovat voittaneet.
Sasu: D4R
Ei kannata sulkea itseään kotiin. Yritä voittaa pelko ja muistutat itseäsi, että nämä olivat indivuallistin teko. Jos äärirasistit saavat meidät pelkäämään ulos menoa, he ovat voittaneet.
Olet oikeassa siinä että ei pidä antaa pelon voittaa, mutta mua ahdistaa mennä yleisillä paikoilla ja saada Osa Suomalaisten kiero ja inho katse minua kohtaan se on ahistavaa ja kiusallista, pysyn paljon sisällä jotta ei tarvitsisi kohdata Suomalaisia, siten voin olla vapaa vihamielisyydestä, tiedän että rajoitan itseni mutta mitä pitää tehdä kun vihanilmapiiri vain lisääntyy meitä kohtaan ja näyttää siltä että sitä ruokitaan ja ollaan entistä hyväksyneempi vihata Somaleita.
Many people fear to go out (to some areas) because all the violence…
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RL 11:10
delphinak :
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RL 11:10
Why’re you being emotional? is this how you represent Finland? let me tell you something kid, iM NOT GOING NO WHERE, im staying here untill your kind of lowlife racists are cleaned out and believe me you’re going to cleaned out of this country, you woman seem to love those capuchin head you’re referring to, im one of them, according to biologist we’re all descendant of monkeys including you 🙂
The real face of racist is coming out, i was wondering when it will happen, so far they have been playing a double game, they’ve been trying to play neat with their racism, i like straight forward racist like delphinak, welcome delphinak we’re expecting to hear more from you in the future.
Hi D4R
Delphinak, Eleven Archer, Farang, Toni. Teh face ao racism in the different formats. The only task we have here is to demask their BLABLABLA monkey messages. Feeding them the right peanuts!! 🙂 🙂
“Teh face ao racism .”
What? Can’t read that. Teh ao??
Who got red card?
Hi Toni.
Clear your eyes. Delhi got a red card. Yoehoe. My text was a test of intelligence. Failed again Toni. 🙂
eyeopener : Hi D4R
Delphinak, Eleven Archer, Farang, Toni. Teh face ao racism in the different formats. The only task we have here is to demask their BLABLABLA monkey messages. Feeding them the right peanuts!!
Seen 🙂
This comment fell short of our community standards and was deleted by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted.
RL 11:10