no/one nowhere takes responsibility; there’s not one place in Helsinki that i can go to complain about my loneliness and separation from my loved ones.
No/one will listen to me because if i ask a question they’ll tell me ”u r in the wrong place…”
Hey universe,
Do u know why Finnish law sentences me to live in loneliness?
Why do Finnish laws hate me? I know that you know and you know what I think…You know everything about me.
Hey universe,
What’s the meaning of having laws?
What is law and what isn’t law?
I don’t want the law to decide for me but i want u to decide for me .
I do not want the law to forge my destiny but i want u to make my destiny.
Hey universe,
Show me an open door, a way out of this terrible place,
Exactly a year ago (2012) Anders Breivik carried out his mass killings, which ended up causing the death of 77 innocent victims. Have we learned anything from that tragic Saturday that shook the Nordic region and changed it permanently?
In order to answer that question, we’d have to travel back in time to see how things were prior to that day.
In Finland, the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) had just won a historic election victory that enabled the party to increase the number of its MPs to 39 from 5 in 2007. While party leader Timo Soini played down anti-immigration sentiment as one important factor behind the PS’ election victory, others disagreed.
Before Breivik erupted on the stage, anti-immigration parties like the PS were the new political force to contend with in Finland. It seemed that nothing could stop them from adding new election victories in the future. The louder and cruder their anti-immigration and anti-EU stances were, the more supporters they’d rally to their cause.
In Norway, Denmark and Sweden, far-right populist anti-immigration parties had grown as well and were openly challenging traditional parties.
Everything changed, however, after July 22.
The first blow came in Norway to the Progress Party (FrP), which saw its support in the September municipal election plummet by 6.1 percentage points to 11.5%. In the same month, another anti-immigration party, theDanish People’s Party (DPP), suffered an election setback.
Since 2001, the Islamophobic DPP had supported minority right-wing government in exchange for tighter immigration policy.
In many respect, Breivik was a wake-up call that woke up for Finland and the Nordic region to the threat of intolerance and hate speech.
A recent supreme court ruling against Jussi Hall-aho is a case in point. The PS MP was not only fined for defaming a religion but for inciting ethnic hatred as well. The ruling wasn’t only a big blow to the PS but to the far-right Suomen Sisu wing of the party. Halla-aho was forced to resign as chairman of the administration committee, which, among other matters, sets immigration policy.
The presidential election was another important example of how Finland is distancing itself after 22/7 from the anti-immigration and populist rhetoric of parties like the PS.
Two conservative anti-EU candidates, Timo Soini of the PS and Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party, lost to Green Party hopeful Pekka Haavisto in the first round of voting. Haavisto is openly gay and pro-EU.
The next test for the PS will come in the October municipal elections. If polls are anything to go by, the party will suffer another election setback.
In light of the above, can we claim that Breivik had had a direct impact on the popularity of the PS and other parties in the Nordic region that are anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam?
Your answer to that questions will probably reveal more than anything else your political views on immigration, Islam and cultural diversity.
But if we ask Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Norway had become after July 22 “more tolerant, [and] more careful not to judge people” by ethnic origin.
Even if Stoltenberg has shown leadership on how a wounded society should react to intolerance, it’s still unclear what impact Breivik will have on our societies. We are still healing from the wound and can matters return back to “normal” in Norway after Breivik?
If we set aside politics and try to understand the impact Breivik had on the region, one matter is certain: We are outraged by what happened but dread even more the possibility that it could happen again.
Competing for the anti-immigration thunder and rhetoric of parties like the PS, DPP, FrP and Sweden Democrats are far-right groups like the Finnish Defense League, which are copy-and-paste clones of the English Defense League.
Breivk scared the wits out of some of us and proved that anti-immigration and Counter-Jihad rhetoric can convert itself into a monster that has the ability to wreak terror and change our societies for good.
That I believe is the real message and threat of 22/7.
MT comment: This is Migrant Tales’ first story on Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari published on September 30, 2010. The extremist anti-immigration politician was spreading is views back then. Like today, his pet topics were rape and far right nationalism.
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There is a True Finns candidate in the April 2011 elections that spreads elk flies every time he opens his mouth to bash immigrants. His multicultural name, James Hirvisaari,* gets a lot of free publicity whenever blogs like mine comment on his extremist views.
Hirvisaari has a problem: He is another True Finn that has been charged for incitement of ethnic hatred.
His campaign catchphrase is: Finnish language, Finnish spirit, Finnish nature, Finnish flag. This phrase, in my opinion, shows how low xenophobic groups in Finland have stooped. They now use our sacred icons to drive home their racist views.
Hirvisaari’s first campaign promise, I support a Finnish Finland in a European Europe, is a phrase that looks sound at first glance but after closer study it raises disturbing questions. If he is so Finnish, why is his first name, James?
His second campaign promise, I support Western and Christian values, is another kick in the groin that leaves you with a question mark: What does he mean? Yes, true, James, spreading hatred, strife and insulting other European ethnic groups are part of our Western and Christian heritage.
If you go back to the Nazi Germany era, he may have a point.
Hirvisaari states in his third campaign promise that he is for local democracy and against European federalism. I am totally confused now: Why doesn’t he speak straight and state that he wants Finland to leave the EU?
I really “love” his fourth promise. He supports a selective immigration policy but would he, seriously, hand on heart, give a residence permit to a person person like himself from another country who shared the same extremist views?
In order to simplify things, why doesn’t Hirvisaari state in plain Finnish that he loathes a certain religious group? That his whole political ideology is based on this and nothing more.
* If you want to read some funny comments about Hirvisaari’s political ideas visit Facebook. His real names is Erkki Kalevi.
Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari is the best gift that anti-racists could have in this country. If there is a loose cannon in parliament, it’s Hirvisaari. The PS MP has a pretty one-track mind. When he opens his mouth, he usually talks about Muslim rapists, skid marks on toilet bowls and now his latest topic, masturbation.
Here’s a tweet on Saturday by the PS MP: “I sensed during the telephone interview that the boy journalist masturbated wildly.”
The journalist that Hirvissari refers to is Mikko Vesa of tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.
The Ilta-Sanomat journalist asked Hirvisaari about another tweet on July 14, where he suggesting that n-word kiss chocolates should be changed to baboon kisses.
Folks, this is not a prank. Hirvisaari is an adult, an MP elected by voters to represent them in the Finnish parliament.
MT Comment:Dana’s letter is humbling to say the least and proves that we have the strength as a community to change matters. The words and opinions we publish can move mountains, or at least those mountains that reside in us. Thank you Dana.
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By Dana
I’m standing up for me…for my spirit… for me in me and for me in air…my words will never die.
It is a stand for a human and humans that are standing for human rights and these words are a present to Enrique Tessieri who stands up with his heart for many people that he never saw.
These words are a tribute to Migrant Tales…Thank you so much for all you’ve done and are doing on MT…
A compliment as well to all the people who visit MT, even for a short while, to make their point. I love you all even if we don’t know each other personally and may live in faraway places.
I was searching and searching and searching
I was looking and looking and looking
I was trying and trying and trying
I wanted to find a human
even one was enough for me
And finally
one day
There was me and my computer
There was me and the net
There was me and GOD
and I found
Migrant Tales on the net
And I found Enrique Tessieri.
I opened up and told him my story of what happened and is happening to me in Finland…
He accepted me and that was good news
He could see me even i had never given him a picture of me and that was great in Finland
I could not believe that i had found a human in Finland
It happened after i finished my case in court with the judge and law in Finland… in that time i could not believe there were any humans living in Finland
BUT wow
I saw them:
Enrique Tessieri
Mark
And some other people… it was like a small garden in the middle of a desert.
A garden that has shadows under its trees, where you can find voices and where u can have a voice… my wings flapped and flapped and flapped and i saw myself with MT… My soul talked and talked and talked and i find myself in that garden with the help of words.
Now i have my own trees on MT and many of them have fruits; my trees won’t dry, won’t die… they will be alive over and over again in air, and everywhere.
When Finland celebrates its first centennial on December 6, 2017, what will we be commemorating? Independence? Our Nordic way of life? Social equality? Will there be two Finlands, one that is socially included and another one that is not, celebrating on that special day?
People who aren’t socially excluded will have good reason to celebrate in 2017.
But matters will be very different for those who belong to socially excluded Finland, which comprises of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, visible minorities and the unemployed. They have dreams of a better life but many of their hopes end up at the social security institution, Kela, unemployment office or as a worker at a menial job that pays too little and which forces you to live in debt.
The problem with these two Finlands is that those that have power, the included group, want to keep things as they are. As their greed and go-go-capitalist values and self-centered lifestyles grow, so do the ills of our society.
While nobody has given this form of exclusion a proper name, it should be called white Finnish privilege. It is the same social ill that has kept minorities like blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and others oppressed and excluded in the United States and elsewhere.
White privilege uses race and ethnic background as a social filter to exclude others in order to control important resources like jobs, political, social and economic power.
Excluding part of society in such a hostile manner is expensive and costs taxpayers an arm and a leg.
One example of how intolerance has raised its head in Finland was reported by YLE, which revealed the last time Finland was able to accommodate 750 refugees in its UN annual quota system was in 2003. Opposition by municipalities to receiving refugees is one reason why Finland hasn’t been able to bring 750 refugees yearly, according to the story.
We’re not talking about thousands never mind tens of thousands of refugees but a few hundred!
One of the culprits of the present situation is the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, which campaigned in the last elections that municipalities should not accept refugees.
Just like few will admit a white Finnish privilege problem in this country, even fewer will agree that our intolerance is homemade and spoonfed at home by our parents and reinforced at our schools.
Finland did everything in the last century to limit immigration and foreign investment to the country. Imagine what kinds of attitudes and prejudices you must teach new generation of Finns to have maintained such a Draconian system.
Only after 1995, when Finland became an independent country, matters started to change for the better.
We have made progress but in 2017 there will be two Finlands celebrating our first centennial.
Finland is a country that is graying at a rapid pace and needs to bring skilled labor. Some parties, like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), believe that immigration especially from outside the EU should be stopped at all costs. Others don’t mind as long as immigrants bring skills and contribute to society by paying taxes.
In the face of these two opposing views, Finland is on a collision course.
Whatever opinions you may have on immigration and cultural diversity, the fact is that our population is aging at a fast pace.
According to Statistics Finland, the number of pensioners will rise from the present 17% (905,000 persons who are older than 65 years) to 27% by 2040 and 29% (1.79 million) by 2060. Better medicare will fuel this trend. Persons over 85 years in Finland will rise from 2% (108,000) to 7% (463,000).
One of the interesting matters that few speak of these days is how wrong forecasts got it. They may have estimated correctly population growth and age structure, but never in their wildest days did they expect so much opposition to immigration. So much so, in fact, that we saw the rise of an anti-immigration and anti-EU party in 2011, the Perussuomalaiset (PS), which gained 39 seats in parliament versus 5 in 2007.
In the spring of 2008, a survey by the ministry of finance revealed that Finland would need almost two million immigrants by 2020 to plug the labor shortage caused by our aging population.
The Ministry of the Interior saw back then the economically active population would decline by 189,000 in 2009-20.
”In order for increasing immigration to compensate for [the] workforce leaving the market, Finland would require some 300,000 immigrants between 2009 and 2020,” said Tarja Rantala, chief inspector for the immigration department of the ministry of interior.
Even if Statistics Finland estimated in May 2007 that the immigrant population will almost double nationally by 2025 to 300,000, its clear that their forecast was too conservative. A new report by the official statistics agency published in February 2013 now sees the immigrant population of Helsinki and surroundings to rise to around 300,000 by 2030.
Certainly the latter two estimates by the ministry of finance and ministry of the interior were made when PS chairman Timo Soini led a party of five MPs.
It is unfortunate that Europe is being overtaken today by ever-growing populist anti-immigration and anti-EU sentiment. The present situation will prove costly for countries like Finland, which need to attract more skilled labor to the country and adapt to their ever-culturally diverse societies.
In many respects, the present situation is Finland’s doing. During most of its time as an independent country it had systematically restricted as much as possible foreign investment and immigration to the country. We are now paying a high price because of that policy.
As long as the PS continues to cast a strong populist anti-immigration and anti-EU shadow in Finnish politics, and as long as politicians lack the courage to challenge it in earnest, Finland’s immigration policy will never serve it the way it should.
White or yellow or one step until yellow …Finish the race???
The question mark means that it is a question for you, so this story wants your ideas; u can prove them, ur idea as u wish.
This is a colorful question so it isn’t an easy question to answer… but if I contrarily asked a colorless question every one would be answer it easily.
Actually i am trying to understand more about your race because i want to know where you came from, when, how and why did you come to Finland???
And there is nothing wrong to talk about race or ask this question… that’s my opinion.
Did you all came from the same place? Like the Ural Mountains… or from some different place?
Some Finns have tight eyes, flat noses and round faces; some of you aren’t white but yellow…again this is only my observation.
Well for sure you know who you are better than anyone else.
When you are a blond, there’s a faint, faint streak of yellow.
Yes your race… don’t be shocked because it was you who made me focus on race from the first day i set foot on Finland.
However i am proud of who i am… i love myself and my family and when i have a question i answer it easily… i am a Persian from Iran.
i always love everything and everything that I have belongs to me.
Race is not important for me but morals are more important. Talking about race isn’t forbidden by me since i’d like to know more about who you are.
I am myself a brunette and Persian, but in Iran we have white, blond, dark and darker… different kinds of people live in my country.
My grandfather was a white man with green eyes (they called him blond, but he was not like your blond). My grandmother was like me.
I’d like to test my DNA… it would be exciting for me to know even if I couldn’t change the result. I am who I am.
Finally we are both guests in this land, aren’t we not?? The Sami were here before you moved here, and when i came here you were both here.
You came earlier and i came later… you came with your family and and i came alone and it was not my will… it was the UN’s will.
Then why isn’t this land called Samiland instead of Finland???
Really?
I have never seen a Sami person in Finland and i would like to meet them…it is one of my wishes; i’d like see them face to face and close up. i’d like to know about their culture. Well i was living only in Vaasa and then in Helsinki, i know they live in such places but I never met one of them.
NOW
So how do you feel about my question?
Do you like it if a stranger asked you such a question?
Or do you think that it your the only one who has the right to ask such a question?
Does race play a big role in your life? Well this is a big question for your politicians and government… i don’t know if they’d even let you ask such a question.
This question gives the Finnish government such an allergic reaction that its body temperature can rise to 45C°.
Päivi Räsänen is in charge of the interior ministry that makes the following mission statement on its website: “Finland will be the safest country in Europe – a country built on equal treatment and equal opportunity.”
Fine, agreed.
How does Räsänen further the equal treatment of immigrants, gays and visible minorities when she speaks so lowly of them.
Her exclusive statements reveal her fondness for the 1950s or many decades before that. Back then, Christian values were in vogue: You were an outcast if you were gay; racism was part of Finnish life and never questioned; Romanies were all crooks; women served men; and the only real Finn was a white Finn.
The Christian Democrat politician is the cordial mask of intolerance that wears a suit and tie. It is a deception, however. Behind those cordial words is a lifetime of social exclusion without a drop of empathy for anyone who doesn’t fit the interior minister’s narrow Christian world.
Räsänen has come under fire for a number of reasons, from claiming that homosexuality is an illness to suggesting that people have the right to oppose laws that are against the Bible.
She is the antithesis of the modern Nordic democratic state. She has no empathy for immigrants, pregnant mothers who have been raped, gays and other minorities.
In my opinion, the interior ministry’s mission statement actually says the following: “Finland will be the safest country in Europe for white Finns – a country built on equal treatment and equal opportunity for white Christian Finns.”
