“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
Malcolm X
Day in and day out I see nothing more these days than hostile and negative news about migrants, especially asylum seekers, who are wrongly called “illegal” migrants. These news stories appear a lot in Yle, the state-owned broadcaster.
Even positive news, like the call from church leaders of the Finnish evangelical Lthern Church, Catcholic Church, Orthodox Church and others called for a more humane migration policy.
The call was criticized by government representatives of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and National Coalition Party. One of these, Joakim Wigelius of the PS, accused the church leaders of “left-wing policies” and for being “naive.”
A question: When did Yle publish something positive about migrants and asylum seekers? In Finland, xenophobia has poisoned perceptions to the extent that we are ready to ditch our human rights and rule of law obligations to satisfy our racist and myopic world view.
Looking at how much xenophobia has overtaken Finland, it is easy to understand how this country went to bed with Nazi Germany in World War 2.
Today, at the Mikkelin Klubi of Mikkeli, you can still find a picture of Heinrich Himmler and Marshal Karl Mannerheim drinking a schnapps together.
While the picture may portray “history” for some, it does so without context and without reminding us of the crimes against humanity carried out by Himmler and the Nazi regime. Himmler is the very person that set up the death camps for the total annihilation of the Jews and other enemies.
Mannerheim and Himmler at the Mikkeli Klubi, which sees this picture as “history.”
The picture was one of the main reasons why I resigned my membership from the Mikkelin Klubi.
