Author: Migrant Tales
The Social Democrats should not form government with far-right parties like the PS
Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said in Yle said that just because a far-right party like the Sweden Democrats get 17.5% of the votes in an election, it does not mean an automatic ticket to government.
“I cannot accept a party [Sweden Democrats] that does not recognize human rights as inseparable,” he was quoted as saying in Yle, “and which sees the Saami and Jews as not Swedes. It’s impossible. Everyone has equal human dignity [and] we cannot give in an inch to that principle.”
I hope Finland’s new prime minister, Antti Rinne, was listening to Löfven’s interview.
The fact that an Islamophobic party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* came in second in Finland’s April 14 elections should not entitle them to form part of the government.
Why should we accept racism, misogyny, and parties that have disdain for human rights? We should show such parties like the PS the door or the cold dark place of the opposition.
The sooner we start to see the PS as an extremist far-right party, the better for our democracy.
Disagree?
Migrant Tales Literary: Words are overrated
By Suva
Words resonate distinctly affecting the dichotomous semblance
that we face in our assumptions, in our perceptions that we get
triggered most often by getting the signal that misleads
the essence of what is displayed hereon.
Someone said earlier that- in the beginning is the word –
possibly can be replaced with- in the beginning is the sound, that attempts codification, leaving the receiver to en/de-code,
close to the gestural norm by giving an audible form.
Words become a formal emblem to formulate communication,
specifically in the Geo-margin; patented in the capsule
of cultural uniform and then the play of segmentation
rotundifies in typographic pattern of Group Mechanism.
But; what if the sound succeeds amidst the honorary podium
of vocabularies; profoundly, sound renovates in its way
an emotive vocabulary loosely and scarcely accompanied
by gestures, tones, intonations!
We can then open up non-sectored planes
accommodating the unknowable.
Perhaps if we examine such an inclusion where words
are not sovereign to us and sound adjoins the discursive page
of our exclusive-communal crevices, we can excavate more;
devoid of ratings, scores and tabulations.
Sound expresses with frequency and the catalog
becomes variable, becomes accessible to identify
the notion of humming waves, that reach through
audible length of even the unlearned phenomena
of our very own signified beginning
in the space-length of our first inhalation at this sphere.
Case Hussein al-Taee: The Finnish media should end its double standards and hypocrisy
Indeed, the racist and homophobic writings of Social Democrat MP Hussein al-Taee, which came to light after the April 14 parliamentary election, are shameful. However, what is even more shocking are the media’s double standards.
The al-Taee affair exposes once again the dark side, a blind spot: our collective denial of racism as a society.
White Finns can write racist things, even get convicted for ethnic agitation, lie and plagiarize their thesis like Perussuomalaiset* MP Laura Huhtasaari did and continue with their political lives.
Rarely, if ever, will such people be called by the media racists, liers or asked to resign.
Tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti, which have themselves a long and shameful history of publishing racist stories, now present themselves as the moral guardians of this country. A columnist of Iltalehti slammed al-Taee as a racist, and an editorial of Ilta-Sanomat demanded that he resign from office.
As Sakari Timonen correctly pointed out in his latest blog post, accusing al-Taee of being a racist and asking him to resign is unprecedented in Finnish journalism.
If you are a white Finns, however, you can say racist things and even get convicted for ethnic agitation. How many politicians were branded by the media as racist? Has Jussi Halla-aho? Laura Huhtasaai? Teuvo Hakkarainen? Sebastian Tynkkynen?
Why is an openly Islamophobic and racist party like the PS the second-biggest party in parliament?
Racism in Finland is the new normal. Politicians who spew racist rhetoric and sometimes get convicted for ethnic agitation become famous and get voters to elect them.
Apart from Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat exposing their racism and double-standards, both tabloids have forgotten how they have insulted and treated migrants and refugees in a racist manner.
Below is one racist billboard.
If you want to see the worst journalism based on racism, read Ilta-Sanomat like this billboard from 1994. It reads: “Somalis got asylum by swindling [the authorities].”
Presidentti Sauli Niinistön sitaatit maahanmuutosta ja moninaisuudesta paljastavat jotain ikävää hänestä
Joka kerta kun Presidentti Sauli Niinistö kommentoi turvapaikanhakijoita, maahanmuutosta, kaksoiskansalaisuudesta, rasismista tai perussuomalaisista, hän useasti päästä samakoita suusta.
Jos olemme reiluja, Presidentti Niinistö on taitava ulkopolitiikassa ja osaa edusta Suomea.
Tasavallan Presidentti vaati, että ihmisten pitää noudattaa Suomen lakeja ja arvoja. Olemme samaa mieltä. Mutta…
Tässä ovat Presidentti Niinistön paljastavat sitaatit vuodelta 2015-2019:
Peussuomalaisista
Uudelle Suomelle 25.4.2019
”Silloin 2017 perussuomalaiset kävivät puheenjohtajakamppailua televisiossa ja kuulin lauseen, että maahanmuuttaja ei ole pelkästään esteettinen haitta. Jotenkin se minun korvaani särähti. Nyt en ole kuullut sen tyyppisiä kommentteja”, Niinistö vastasi.
Eikö? Muistako hän perussuomalaisten vaalivideo, joka kannustaa väkivalta turvapaikkahakijoita vastaan, ja kuinka perussuomalaiset käytti Oulun seksualirikoksia houkutella äänestäjiä?
Hirviö videossaan tarkoitus on poistaa väkivalloilla korruptoitunet päättäjät, jotka ovat vastuussa suomen pakolaispolitiikasta.
Kultturisesti moninainen Suomesta
Presidentti kanslia 1.9.2019
“Täällä oleville on annettava mahdollisuus osallisuuteen. Vastaavasti on oikeus edellyttää tahtoa sopeutua yhteiskuntaamme. Ja vastuun kantamista, myös omiaan ohjaamalla. Lakiemme ja arvojemme vastainen käytös lisää riskiä kokonaisten ihmisryhmien leimaamiselle ja luo syvää epäluuloa, jopa vihaa.”
Lue alkuperäinen juttu tästä.
Ylen aamu-tv 16.1.2018 (katso 10.00-15.30 min)
“Luin lehdestä irakilaisten miehestä, joka oli pidempään ollut Suomessa. Hän kertoi näin [ettei] tämä mitä ongelma ole, että kun minä lähden kotoa töihin, kauppaan, mihin tahansa, minä käytäytyyn niin kun suomalainen, niin tässä yhteisössä pelisäännöt ovat, mutta sitten kun minä tulen kotiin minulla on siellä irakilainen kulttuuri, oikea upea, ja varmasti tuttavien kanssa voi hyvin yhdessä sitä harjoittaa. Muta kyllä lähtökohta on se, että suomen arvomaailma noudatan, demokraattia, tasa-arvoa.”
Entä tasavertaisuus? Saako ihminen vain harjoittaa oma kulttuuria neljä seinän sisällä? Perustuslain 17§ sanoo: “Saamelaisilla alkuperäiskansana sekä romaneilla ja muilla ryhmillä on oikeus ylläpitää ja kehittää omaa kieltään ja kulttuuriaan.”
Tässä ei lukee missän, että kultturia on pakko harrastaa piilossa.
Hallitsematon maahanmuutto Continue reading “Presidentti Sauli Niinistön sitaatit maahanmuutosta ja moninaisuudesta paljastavat jotain ikävää hänestä”
When will we start seeing politicians giving white power signs at Finland’s parliament?
THE STORY WAS UPDATED
When will we start seeing politicians and, possibly government ministers, doing this in Finland? Hopefully never.
In the tweet below is the anti-immigration and anti-EU Conservative People’s Party ministers. On the left is Martin Helm, the new finance minister, and on the right his father, Martin Helm, the new interior minister.
Prime Minister Juri Ratas presented the 15-member coalition government on Monday at the 101-seat Riigikogu (parliament) assembly. In a direct snub at the Conservative People’s Party membership in the government, Estonia’s President Kersti Kaljulaid (see the picture on the right) appeared with a college shirt that read Sõna on vaba or the floor is yours.
The Conservative People’s Party became the country’s third-largest part in the March 3 parliamentary elections, which saw it win a total of 19 seats compared with 7 seats previously.
Original source: Helsingin Sanomat.
Is Oulu, Finland, a safe place for Muslims?
Maters have calmed down in the face of sexual harassment cases in Oulu after the April 14 parliamentary elections. Even so, many visible minorities and migrants don’t feel safe in public.
One Muslim resident of Oulu, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Muslims don’t feel safe in public even if matters have calmed down after the elections
“The [Perussuomalaiset*] politicians got what they wanted from the [sexual assault] cases [by coming in second and almost winning the election),” the Muslim said. “Some of us don’t go out alone for fear that something might happen. People yell at us in public calling us rapists, and they attacked a Muslim family in Oulu. Finland is not a democracy.”
The Muslim resident, who said that the latest parliamentary election result is proof that Finland is a racist country, stated that he commonly gets strange looks whenever he enters a store.
“I entered a shop recently, and everyone inside looked at me as if I were an alien in the wrong planet,” he said. “I want to leave this country.”
Dr Abdul Mannan is the imam of the Oulu mosque and chairperson of the Islamic Society of Northern Finland. He has lived in Finland for 27 years.
Dr Abdul Mannan.
“Muslims of Oulu don’t feel safe even to go to the city center in the afternoon,” said Dr Mannan. “I have five children who grew up here, and I never had to worry about their safety as some families do now.”
The mosque, which was vandalized nine times since September 2017, had decided after the Christchurch attacks [March 15] to place 10 voluntary members to guard the premises during Friday prayer.
The suspect used a bike rack on February 26 to smash the window at 5.10 am and threw a smoke grenade inside the premises. It was the ninth time that the mosque was vandalized since September 2017 Source: Dr Abdul Amman.
“We asked the police to patrol the area, but our calls were not heeded,” he said. “They didn’t take our request seriously [so we took matters in our hands]. We asked them to put a squad car near the mosque, but they did not do anything.”
Dr Mannan says that those that vandalized the mosque do so in the early hours or late at night when there is nobody at the mosque. One matter that surprises him as well as other members of his congregation is that after nine attacks nobody has been brought to custody.
The Imam said that the present situation does nothing more than erode trust in the police.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Part I: Racism causes trauma and mental suffering
Maailman Kuvalehti, a periodical which often takes up issues of xenophobia and racism in Finland more bravely than the mainstream media, cited the article Häpeää, itsesyytöksiä, masennusta – toistuvan rasismin vaikutukset mielenterveyteen voivat olla vakavat (Shame, self-blame, and depression – continuous racism encounter impact on mental wellbeing can be severe). Dated April 24th to a study by Robert T. Carter (University of Columbia), it stated that day-to-day exclusion encounters cause mental depression and symptoms similar to war trauma. Read the article here.
The article refers mainly to exclusion experiences of non-white Finns. It is obvious that ethnic (or naturalized!) non-white Finns or non-white immigrants/refugees are far more exposed to day-to-day racial assaults in public than a white immigrant. Xenophobic encounters are sadly on the rise (for example) when speaking another language in public or “looking different.”
Read the full report, Respond to Racism Guide, published by ENAR Ireland here.
Michaela Moua, as cited, specializes in mental problems of minorities and considers mutual trust as the most crucial part of therapy work with a patient. The reality, however, is this: “You report your experiences to a psychotherapist, but s/he responds “Was it so? Things like that don’t happen in Finland!”, the article says. How can trust be built when patients’ feelings, experiences, and inner struggles are belittled or denied?
Continue reading “Part I: Racism causes trauma and mental suffering”
Migrant Literary: Suva – Artist interview on “Public Anatomy”
Otherness and other layers…
By Hami Bahadori
The Finnish media should refer to the Perussuomalaiset as a far-right party
Helsingin Sanomat goes to some length in a story about the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* being referred to by the chairperson of the Social Democratic Party (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez, as a “far-right”[1] party. We could not agree more with Sánchez’ description of the PS as a far-right party.
Sánchez was quoted as saying in El País: “Look what happened in Finland [on April 14], where an opinion poll predicted as a given fact that the Social Democrats would win by a wide margin and the far right [PS] would come in fifth. They won by 6,000 votes the far right!”
Spain’s Social Democratic leader Pedro Sánchez called the PS a far-right party. Read the full story (in Spanish) here.
Spain holds snap parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Is only Sánchez and El País the only ones who call the PS a far-right party?
It is not the first time. Others that have referred the PS as a far-right party are: the Financial Times of London, The Guardian, Politico, Spiegel Online, EUObserver,The Local SE, and others.
If the PS is seen as a far-right party by the media in Europe, why isn’t it called that in Finland by Helsingin Sanomat and others?
For one, the national media rarely uses in Finland such a term of a party that has members in parliament. Considering that over a half a million Finns vote for the PS, newspapers like Helsingin Sanomat are dependent on subscribers and ads.
Continue reading “The Finnish media should refer to the Perussuomalaiset as a far-right party”