Kuka levittää valeuutisia maahanmuuttajista ja turvapaikanhakijoista? Olennainen kysymys on miksi he levittävät valetietoa?
Jos katsotaan tietyt ryhmät kuten Perussuomalaiset, valetieto ja pelonlietsonta houkuttelevat äänestäjät.
Kaikki eduskuntavaaleissa jossa Perussuomalaiset ovat menestyneet on ollut valeuutisten, liioittelun ja/tai pelonliestonan avulla. “Jytkyvuosi” 2011 oli täynnä kirjoituksia joka leimasivat kokonaisia ihmisryhmiä; vuonna 2015 ja 2019 eduskuntavaaleissa tuli apu Perussuomalaisille Tapanilan ja Oulun seksuaali hyväksikäytön tapauksista.
Molemmissa tapauksissa Perussuomalaiset saivat ilmasta mainonta lehdistössä, joka ylireagoi ja leimaasi kokonaisia ryhmiä kuten Somalit tai Muslimit.
Here are some symptoms of the coronavirus: fever, dry cough, sore throat, tiredness, headaches, loss of taste, and smell. Here are some symptoms of the PS virus: racism, Islamophobia, bigotry, climate denial, conspiracy theories, mediocracy, pro-Putin, and incompetence.
Like Covid-19, which fools and infects healthy cells, the PS virus also enters and infects institutions like parliament. The PS got a foothold in the Finnish political system by pulling fast ones on voters, spreading hate, and giving overly simplistic answers to complex questions.
We need a vaccine for the Covid-19 and PS viruses.
For the latter, the antibodies to kill the PS virus are empathy, caring, and anti-racism education based on social equality for all.
Perussuomalaiset MPs (upper row lefrt to right): Jussi Halla-aho, Jani Mäkelä, Mauri Peltokangas, (lower row left to right) Riikka Purra, Ano Turtiainen, Ville Tavio and Veikko Vallin. Cartoon by Hamid H. Alsammarraee.
The PS virus cannot be compared with a temporary hiccup. It is more lethal than that. If we are not careful, it can mutate Finland into Hungary and Poland, or worse.
Below are some more examples of the PS virus and what it has infected our democracy from MAGA caps to adulations to Trump.
Two PS MPs, Vilhelm Junnila and Veikko Vallin giving the thumbs up to former President Urho Kekkonen (1956-82). With or without disinfectant and beams of light, the PS is Finland’s most pro-Trump party. Source: FacebookOn June 4, 2019, Halla-aho tweets: “I dig him. Trump is the best thing that has happened in a long time to the United States and to the Western world.”
The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 16 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights
Hiwa Haghi is an Iranian Kurd who has lived in Finland since 2004. In many respects, he’s the ideal migrant: speaks Finnish fluently, is employed, and does youth work for at least nine associations. One of his passions is football.
According to some people, Haghi is a respected member of the community for three reasons: he turned opportunity into success through hard work and perseverance.
As Haghi has placed his trust in his new home country, he hopes and expects that the feeling is mutual.
He got, however, a crude surprise from the Finnish foreign ministry in January when they turned down his sixty-five-year-old father’s and younger brother’s visa application. He applied for the visas the previous month.
Hiwa Hagh’s father and younger brother. Source: Hiwa Hagh’s family album.
“After spending over 3,200 euros in translations, legalizations of documents, trips to [the capital] Teheran [from northwest Iran], lots of energy, stress, time and dealing with red-tape,” he continued, “I was disappointed when the foreign ministry turned down my father’s and brother’s visa application.”
In the ordeal to bring his relatives to Finland, push eventually turned to shove when the Finnish Embassy in Teheran charged his brother 70 euros to cover for postage costs for the letter that officially denied them the visas.
The sum asked by the embassy is considerate, considering that the average salary is in Iran is about 100 euros a month.
“They justified the charge due to Covid-19.” he continued. “This was the reason why they did not allow my brother to retrieve the letter from the embassy and wanted to mail it.”
Haghi has filed a formal complaint and appeal to the foreign ministry for refusing his father and brother the visas.
Hiwa Hagi is a member of a number of associations. He likes to ref football matches as well. Source: Hagi’s family album.
The Iranian Kurd believes that matters have become more difficult for people from Muslim countries due to 2015, when a record number of asylum seekers came to Finland.
He suspects the reason why the foreign ministry turned down the visa applications was that it didn’t believe that his father and brother would return to Iran after their visit.
In 2010, when Haghi’s father and mother visited Finland, there were no problems in getting visas for them.
A number of questions arose during the visa application. Haghi’s father, who has no formal education and is a farmer, had to give a day-by-day program of his stay in Finland.
“When they asked him [at the embassy] about going to the swimming hall with his grandchildren, they even asked the name of the place,” he said, “naturally, my father did not know the answer.”
One matter that Haghi wanted to make clear to the foreign ministry is that his father and brother have no reason not to return to Iran.
Haghi said that their visit is especially important to his 7.5- and 2-year boy and girl, respectively. When his parents visited Finland in 2010, his children weren’t yet born.
Hiwa Haghi and his parents when the visited Finland in 2010. Source: Hagi’s family album.
“My children ask me a lot of times when their grandfather and uncle will come to Finland,” he said. “I cannot tell them the truth, so I blame it on the coronavirus pandemic.”
Haghi stated that his grandfather’s and brother’s visit would be important for him as well since they could see how he’s succeeded in Finland.
Like many families, Haghi’s children are multicultural. They speak Finnish as well as Kurdish fluently.
There was good news if you are against us-and-them rhetoric, Islamophobia, and support for US President Donald Trump’s policies and persona. A poll published Thursday by Yle showed that the southward direction of the Perussuomalaiaset (PS)* party continued to head south.
Compared with a similar poll on December 9, 2019-January 8, 2020, support for the PS dove by 6.4 percentage points from 24.3%, followed by the National Coalition Party (19.3%) and Social Democrats (14.9%).
One of the reasons why support for the Social Democrats has soared is Prime Minister Sanna Marin. Her government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has met with approval from the public.
Contrarily, the PS has not offered anything better except for its usual bickering and scapegoating of migrants, especially Muslims.
Two PS MPs, Vilhelm Junnila and Veikko Vallin giving the thumbs up to former President Urho Kekkonen (1956-82). With or without disinfectant and beams of light, the PS is Finland’s most pro-Trump party. Source: Facebook
What is interesting to note is that when a sexual assault case erupts as in the parliamentary elections, the media, police, and politicians help the PS to spread their message of hate.
Racism sells. Us and them sell. Spreading and reinforcing prejudices sells. Bigotry and racism sell. Biased journalism sells. These examples sum up pretty well how tabloids like Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat make money by reinforcing old hatreds and suspicions of Others.
One of their latest stories on the far-right vigilante group, the Soldiers of Odin, is an example of their toxic journalism. It would be something like publishing a story about the lighter side of a Ku Klux Klan member and how they laugh and enjoy life like other “normal” USAmericans.
One of the criticisms of the Iltalehti story is that it gives credibility to the Soldiers of Odin, in the same league as the Ku Klux Klan, and whose leader and founder, Mika Ranta, admits being a neo-Nazi.
The article about the Soldiers of Odin does not put the vigilante group’s bigotry and racism in context. If I were writing such an article, I’d point out how Finland has exported racism through the Soldiers of Odin to other parts of the world.
Why are some people and newspapers like Iltalehti fascinated by racism and the far-right? Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
Migrant Tales has not only pointed out in the past the shortfalls of Finnish journalism when writing about groups like Muslims, but it has also traced the roots of such stories to the 1990s and beyond.
Tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti should formally apologize for all the racism and hatred they have spread about migrants and minorities.
Three racist and misleading articles by the Finnish media in 2015, 1994, and 1940. The headline on the left claimsthat “10,000 illegal refugees” are coming to Finland. The second one, in the middle, claims that Somali refugeesgot asylum by deceiving the authorities. The magazine article on the far-right argues with the help of fiction that the Europeanwhite man was superior to blacks on the battlefield. Finland would have lost the Winter War because one group ofblacks in the East Indies run amuck when faced with danger. Sources: Ilta-Sanomat and Suomen Kuvalehti.
How would we tell the events that led to the death of an eighteen-year-old Somali Finn youth last Sunday at the Kannelmäki railway station?
According to one account, supposedly the victim’s witness that experienced the whole horrific event, which has shocked many, especially Somalis and other black people.
According to one account, the victim and his friend walked down the stairs when they encountered the two suspects. The witness says that they weren’t acquaintances.
The victim was an eighteen-year old Somali Finn. Why was his life cut so short?
Something was said to the two that walked down the stairs. The witness didn’t answer back, but the suspect did. The stabbing happened so rapidly that the witness though the victim was joking when he said he was stabbed.
The blood gave away the gravity of the situation and the witness called 112.
The witness believed that the two young men were drunk. Even so, being drunk or having a criminal record does not absolve you from committing a hate crime.
Was it a hate crime? Do the suspects belong to a hate group like the Skinheads? These are some of the questions debated on social media forums right after the death of the victim.
Apart from investigating the crime like seeking the testimony of other witnesses, the police have also at their disposal CCTV cameras.
One of the questions that some Somalis and other black people are asking is if what happened was a hate crime, or that the attack and death of the Somali Finn youth were due to his ethnic background.
While such questions need to be thoroughly investigated by the police, some white Finns may not consider them to be necessary even if the opposite is true of some visible minorities and migrants. Why? Because many of them face racist harassment and microaggressions daily.
Many feel that they live in a racist society and have the psychological, some even physical wounds, to prove it. Too many believe that the police and society aren’t serious about tackling a social ill like racism.
Disagree?
What about if the crime at Kannelmäki were committed by two blacks and the victim was a white Finn? We have seen a lot of social media lynch mobs during the years, especially when sexual assault cases come to public light, as was the case recently in Oulu.
If one remembers what happened in Oulu, the police, the media, and politicians – all-white – were fueling the fires of suspicion and labeling the whole Muslim community in the process.
Since we strive to live in a society that solves problems, one matter that the police should show now is leadership by contacting the Somali community and hold a meeting to calm down fears. Present at such a meeting should be representatives of Victim Support (Riku), the police hate crime unit, sociologists, NGOs, and others.
The usual answer, “this was not a hate crime” with no further explanation will not do. It is not enough and will only increase suspicion of the police’s credibility in resolving such crimes.
One Somali Finn put it in the following words: “Is the police going to sweep the issue of racism under the rug? Are they going to conclude that the suspects had mental issues? Were they [the suspects] under the influence of alcohol or drugs? Are they hardened criminals? Or did they grow up in broken homes?”
Distrust of the police shows that such a public service still has a way to go before winning the trust of Finland’s culturally diverse communities.
The death of the Somali youth could be a good place to start.
Coronavirus infections at the Luona-managed Nihtisilta reception center in Espoo now stand at 97, according to Luona’s Business Director Suvi Salonen.That compares with two cases at the beginning of April and up to 25 during the middle of the month.
This angry asylum seeker accused Luona of “negligence” for allowing the number of infected people to rise to “more than 100 people (sic).” Luona states that the situation is under control and the total number of infected asylum seekers is 97.
“We tested 207 people [of the Nihtisilta reception center] on Monday and Tuesday and 72 tested positively [compared with 25 previously],” said Salonen.
The Luona business director said that the asylum reception center is in quarantine.
“I would like to commend the workers at the [Nihtisilta] reception centers who are on the frontline [protecting the asylum seekers and themselves],” she concluded.
Salonen said that the Vantaa Robert Huberin tien asylum reception center has two coronavirus infections.
What is the worse matter about the coronavirus pandemic? Social distancing? Or US President Donald Trump?
In my opinion, President Trump and his shoddy leadership and outright lies are far worse than the coronavirus pandemic.
His latest lie was contradicting his country’s own intelligence on the origin of the coronavirus.
Trump’s suggestion that bleaches or beams of light could kill the coronavirus suggests that something isn’t right in his head.Source: Facebook. Thank you, Alberto Coronel, for the heads-up.
Mark my words: Trump is such a sociopath that he will not think twice by waging a new World War if it means that it will get him reelected.
The US president, his family, his political, and billionaire cronies are a much greater threat to the world than the coronavirus.
