German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, published the top ten most dangerous politicians in Europe concerning the euro crisis. One of these was Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini, who is in the ”good” company of Geert Wilders, Viktor Orban, Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage, Silvio Bertlusconi and four others.
Even if Soini is in the opposition, his shadow hangs heavy over the government of Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, according to Der Spiegel. “Not a penny more,” he is quoted as saying defiantly about the euro crisis. “We have paid enough.”
Even if Soini is considered as one of the most dangerous politicians of Europe, there’s nothing to be proud of. All of Der Spiegel’s ten-most dangerous politicians are euroskeptics as well as Islamophobists, populists and even quasi-dictators like Prime Minister Orban of Hungary.
Writes PS MP Reijo Tossavainen on his Uusi Suomi blog: “In my opinion Timo Soini is right. I am satisfied, and even somehow proud, that Soini as well as other Perussuomalaiset members have been against [euro bailouts]…I am pleased that the same trend is evident in other parts of Europe as well.”
I wonder what medicine Soini, Tossavainen and others of the PS will prescribe to Europe if the euro becomes history and we slip into a deep recession.
Will they step up their attack on the usual scapegoats like immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals and other minorities?
A new map published by Statistics Finland shows the percentage of marginalized youths (15-29 yrs) by regions. It not only shows a growing problem in this country, but an especially serious one among youths with immigrant backgrounds, who have a much higher chance of being marginalized than white Finns.
A marginalized youth is anyone who is unemployed and not attending school after finishing middle school.
The black boxes are white Finnish youths and the yellow ones youths with immigrant backgrounds. They show what percentage of youths (15-29 yrs) are marginalized from the whole age group.
The highest number of marginalized youths with immigrant backgrounds are n Kainuu (28.8% with immigrant backgrounds versus 3.4% white Finns), Kymenlaakso (26.1%/5.1%), Lappi (24.4%/3.8%), Etelä-Savo (21.7%/3.7%), Pohjois-Karjala (21.3%/3.0%), and Pirkanmaa (21.0%/3.5%).
The lowest percentages can be found in Etelä-Pohjanmaa (12.4%/2.6%), Etelä-Karjala (15.8%/4.1%), Keski-Pohjanmaa (16.0%/2.8%) and Satakunta (16.6%/3.9%)
What do these percentages tell us? In my opinion, they show that we have failed miserably to integrate and accept people with immigrant backgrounds as equal members of our society.
How many of these marginalized youths with immigrant backgrounds have lived the majority of their formative years in Finland? Why do some, after living most of their lives in this country, still feel like outsiders?
While being marginalized is a complex matter that is attributable to many factors, probably the first step in becoming part of this underclass is accepting that you do not belong here. You start to believe that Finland is a country made only for white Finns.
If there is a neglected underclass in Finland, they are the youths with immigrant backgrounds!
Holmes demonstrates the extraordinarily naïveté and role in systemic gendered racism of key white commentators, in this case the famous Bob Costas. Costas interviewed Douglas and asserted this:
“You know, it’s a happy measure of how far we’ve come that it doesn’t seem all that remarkable, but still it’s noteworthy, Gabby Douglas is, as it happens, the first African-American to win the women’s all-around in gymnastics. The barriers have long since been down, but sometimes there can be an imaginary barrier, based on how one might see oneself.”
As you might expect, this type of white racial framing, in its colorblind Pollyanna-ism, was Holmes’s
main target:
In a political and cultural environment in which the patriotism—the very Americanness—of people of color (including the current president…) is often called into question, Costas’s scripted deep thought .. . was at worst dishonest . . .. What leveled barriers … was Mr. Costas referring to? Who, excepting the most Pollyanna-ish or cloistered … would believe the assertion that Gabby Douglas’ challenges were primarily psychic, a statement that can be contradicted by … the undeniable whiteness of being that is high-level American gymnastics?
Holmes then picks up on the Costas point that our view of ourselves does makes a difference. But, she adds, structural situations often create that problem for people of color:
Douglas’ triumph seems extremely remarkable, both because of the commonality of her situation—the big dreams, the economic hardships, the one-parent household—and its unusualness: A minority in a historically “white” sport. . . . a 2007 diversity study commissioned by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S., said that just 6.61% of the participants in American gymnastics programs were black.
Numerous members of USA Gymnastics, the mostly white coaches and other leaders in the field, often had a negative reaction to this honest report. Many whites there and elsewhere have tended, as they often do, to blame everything but white agents and white decisionmakers for this systemic-racism condition.
Holmes concludes by accenting how powerful the Douglas achievement was, especially for girls and young women around the globe, most of whom are girls and women of color. It will be interesting to see how the mainstream media treat Douglas, and the general white (and other) public too, when this great gymnast and her fine team return to the United States. Holmes concludes with this fine sharp point:
The 16-year-old’s triumph—not to mention her poise, her maturity, her focus, her elegance—will help recalibrate what young females of color believe is within their reach, while also influencing Western ideas and concepts of black womanhood, strength, agency and femininity—which has been historically objectified, sexualized and, it should be noted, feared.
It is way past time for these negative images of black women in the common white racial frame to be attacked for the mythological and racist framing they have always been–and indeed attacked constantly in the mainstream media until they are eliminated in the heads of way too many white (and some other) Americans.
This week’s A-Studio report on the ”high” number of rape convictions of foreigners in Finland, and another one published by Tampere-based daily Aamulehti in April, not only shed light on “a problem” in Finland but expose the prejudice of the media and Finnish society concerning immigrants.
The exact arguments that the above-mentioned stories use to drive home their point are eerily similar to those spread by Finland’s anti-immigration groups.
A-Studio uses 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year to suggest that there is a ballooning rape problem in Finland by foreigners.
While rape, like any crime, must be strongly condemned by society, such statistics should not be used to reinforce our prejudices of certain groups. This I believe is the underlying problem of both reports by A-Studio and Aamulehti.
Migrant Tales found out in spring that the author of the Aamulehti story, Toni Viljanmaa, is a freelance journalist. Did he offer the story to the daily on sensationalist grounds in order to get it published? We don’t know.
Whenever journalists begin to editorialize their news stories in order to drive home their personal views, it’s the credibility of the story that is undermined. Taking into account that a lot of journalist at YLE are card-carrying members of different political parties, we do not know what sympathies the journalist of the A-Studio report, Tuomas Kerkkänen, may have for the Perussuomalaiset (the Finns Party).
After the A-Studio report was published on Wednesday, tabloids such as Iltalehti picked it up and asked if sex education shouldn’t form part of the immigrants’ integration program.
While new information is always essential for a newcomer in order to read more effectively the cultural codes of a group, these types of stories, which were even published by Joensuu-based daily Karjalainen, are just as offensive as the A-Studio and Aaamulehti stories. They imply that foreign men are prone to rape due to their ethnic background.
While most rapes are committed by white Finns in this country, why aren’t the backgrounds of these convicted rapists revealed with the same enthusiasm? Are men in Eastern Finland more inclined to rape than, say, in Western Finland?
Making such a claim would be preposterous especially when there are so few cases to begin with.
Lee Walton (@eclat521) retweeted this blog entry. He writes: “ridiculous- as an immigrant should I have been “taught” that rape is wrong? It’s against the law in UK, & ALL other countries!”
An A-Studio report on the “high” amount of rape convictions of foreigners in Finland is not only another unfortunate example of arbitrary reporting by the Finnish media, but reinforces the perception of how hate groups in this country use crime statistics against immigrants.
Migrant Tales encountered another similar story about foreign rape cases in April by Aamulehti. In both cases, it isn’t clear whether the rape cases are committed by tourists or immigrant residents.
What made the A-Studio report especially questionable were the very statistics it used to drive home its point.
In the very same style as hate groups in Finland, the A-Studio report claims that since a quarter of all rape convictions in this country were committed by foreigners, there is “a serious rape problem” in this country.
A while later, however, we learn that we’re talking about 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year. We are even shown a table by A-Studio of the convictions by nationality. Of the 25 convictions, the biggest group are the Iraqis (7 cases) followed by Afghans (2), Nigerians (2), Swedes (2) and Serbian & Montenegrins (2).
Nina Nurminen, a prison psychologist at the Criminal Sanctions Agency, does not state in any part of the A-Studio interview that we are speaking of a small minority and that it would be wrong to conclude and label foreigners and especially Iraqi men as potential rapists. She does suggest, however, that people who come from war zones may be more inclined to rape.
A medic of the Family Federation, Miila Halonen, adds more fuel to the claims by telling us how Finnish women are “raped” without them knowing it. In other words, an immigrant meets a Finnish white woman, has sex with her and then dumps her. A friend of the immigrant calls the same woman and does the same thing.
Is Halonen implying that this is a form of “rape?” What about one-night stands among white Finns? Is it ok for a white Finn to do this but not acceptable if the person is a foreigner? How many of these types of cases is Halonen speaking of?
Like Nurminen, she too wanders off into generalizations labeling foreign men as preying on innocent women.
On top of her claims, she says that sex education should form part of the immigrants’ integration program.
Do you think that the A-Studio report was fair and offered a well-rounded story on the matter, or was it a prejudiced storm in a tea cup?
Contrary to what James Hirvisaari commented on the Hommaforum website, the Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP gave a more “tolerant” view on Helsingin Sanomat concerning his statement that homosexuality is “a sexual developmental disability.”
Hirvisaari said that even a disabled people like homosexuals need to accept themselves for what they are, he emphasized that homosexuality or disability does not erase human dignity. He said that his comments were not intended to incite hatred against homosexuals.
Outi Hannula, the chairwoman of the Finnish gay rights organization SETA, didn’t buy everything that the PS MP said.
“In what day does seeing homosexuality as a developmental disability differ from labelling it as an illness?” she said. “It seems that this is an attempt to label a person as deviant and unnatural.”
One of the questions that the whole affair raises is why bring up the topic in the first place.
The only sensible answer to that question is that Hirvisaari is trying to raise support and public visibility for the PS, which has seen its poll standings take a hit.
In light of the municipal elections of October 28 and the Perussuomalaliset (PS) party’s poll standings, it’s no surprise that MPs of the right-wing populist party like James Hirvisaari are leading the charge against different minorities in Finland. In a comment on Hommaforum, the PS MP considered homosexuality to be “a disability in sexual development.”*
Hommaforum is an unofficial PS website used to spread intolerance of minorities in Finland.
Of the Counter Jihadists in parliament, Hirvisaari is in the same league with other Suomen Sisu association fellow members like Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen and others.
“In my opinion there is a good reason to ask if homosexuality is some sort of disability in sexual development if a person cannot develop in the natural order [being able to reproduce] of things,” he is quoted as saying on Hommaforum. “It’s not [homosexuality] a sickness but only a disability.”
Hirvisaari, who got fined for hate speech in December, is a good example of the negative passions and political forces that social media has unleashed in this country.
The decision by the Kouvola Court of Appeal to fine Hirvisaari for hate speech was upheld in June by the Finnish Supreme Court.
The PS MP’s near-constant rants against different minorities are a wake-up call for us on how some politicians like Hirvisaari are breathing life back into intolerance and polarizing our society.
There is a clear connection between xenophobic and homophobic behavior. In order to promote tolerance in a society, we must challenge both of these social ills.
Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen expressed such concern recently on YLE. He said that the actions and comments of parties like the PS have hurt Finland’s international image.
”What is clearly causing harm [to our society these days] is the racist, near-fascist, xenophobic old way of thinking that is propagated by certain sectors…” he said.
*Taking into context what James Hirvisaari said, and trying to understand it, probably “disability in sexual development” is a better translation of kehitysvamma in this context than sexual disorder.
Human zoos (1500s- ), also known as ethnological exhibits, peoples shows (Völkerschau) or Negro villages, showed native peoples at zoos and fairs. They have been common in the West since the time of Columbus, butreached their height from the 1870s to the 1930s – back in the days of Joseph Conrad, Gauguin, minstrel shows and the birth of National Geographic.
They showed people from:
the Middle East,
Africa,
Sri Lanka,
the Philippines,
Java,
New Guinea,
the Pacific,
the Americas and
the Arctic.
They were especially common in
Germany (huge),
France,
Britain and
America.
Tens of millions saw them.
Examples:
1896: the Cincinnati Zoo showed Sioux Indians.
1899: “Savage South Africa” in Britain showed Zulus, complete with spears, shields and staged battles.
1904: the St Louis world’s fair showed a “parade of evolutionary progress” with Filipinos and American Indians ranked below whites and with Pygmies just above apes.
1906: the Bronx Zoo showed a Pygmy, Ota Benga, in the same cage as an orangutan.
Iroquois at a 1905 exposition dressed as Plains Indians. Probably in Belgium.
Ever since Columbus natives brought back by sailors were shown to the public, especially at fairs. Few ever made it back home and many did not last long in disease-ridden Europe. A well-known example is Sarah Baartman of South Africa, who was shown in a cage in Britain and part of an animal show in Paris.
“Native villages” were built so white people could see how they lived. Montaigne reported one in Rouen, France in 1533 of Tupinamba Indians from Brazil. Such villages became especially common at zoos and world fairs starting in the 1870s.
To succeed as a native:
Play to stereotype;
Fit Western ideas of beauty – or go completely against them;
Be at ease with audiences;
Have a special skill, like ivory carving.
This favoured those who were artists or entertainers in their own land.
The whole thing was staged and played to Western stereotypes:
Arabs were like in “Thousand and One Nights” from the 1300s.
American Indians were like in the cowboy-and-Indian books of the time.
South Sea Islanders were bare breasted and carefree – even though, as Gauguin discovered, that world was long gone if it ever was (but painted it anyway).
Black Africans were shown as savage hunters, spears and all, just a step above wild animals – even though most Africans of the time were herders and farmers. One show was called “Gorilla Negroes”.
The Pygmies at the St Louis fair, on the other hand, liked to smoke cigars and wear top hats, which screwed up the show’s racist evolutionary ranking.
Some feared for the safety of white women. In both Victorian England and Nazi Germany, some opposed the shows out of fear of race mixing between black men and white women.
At least as late as 2005 you could still see “African tribesmen” in grass skirts at a Western zoo (in Augsberg, Germany). Butsince the 1930s such things have become uncommon: film, and later television and cheap air travel, were able to give Westerners a much richer-seeming (but not always truer) experience of native peoples.
…hate groups have used conflicts over immigration to advance their White Supremacy, their hate, their stereotypes…Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States was founded in 1913 to address anti-Semitism and ”to secure justice and fair treatment of all.” ADL’s Stacy Burdett reveals in an interview below the code words of hate used in the U.S. to dehumanize and victimize immigrants and visible minorities. The same speech is rampant today in Finland and Europe.
Below are four ways to recognize the code words of hate:
Immigrants are an army of invaders
Dehumanization
Immigrants bring crime and disease
Conspiracy theory
While Hispanics are singled out as a danger to the United States, anti-immigration groups in Europe point their finger at Muslims.
Let’s look at Burdett’s points and see if they apply to Europe and Finland.
Immigrants are an army of invaders. With this claim, anti-immigration groups drive home the point that immigrants, or Muslims in the case of Europe, are an ”army” or “horde” invading our values and way of life.
There are many examples of people and groups using this argument. One of them is Aalto University senior lecturer Kyösti Tarvainen, who claimed, using a pocket calculator, that Muslims would outnumber Finns this century due to their high birthrates.
Pet adjectives used by these groups to describe immigration are “uncontrolled” and/or “mass.”
Dehumanization. Immigrants are talked about as swarms, hordes or in worse terms. Burdett says: “…when you teach children at school to think a person is animal-like, less than human, you teach them that this group is less-deserving of their basic civil rights.”
Former Interior Minister Kari Rajamäki (Social Democrat) once labelled refugees as “welfare shoppers” that come in groups to this country to live off our generous social welfare system. The claim implies that since they come here as “welfare shoppers,” they should be treated as second-class members of our community.
The Nuiva Manifesto, an immigration policy endorsed by the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, points out what basic civil rights should be taken away from immigrants.
Immigrants bring crime and disease. This is a common argument used by anti-immigration groups with the help of inaccurate statistics.
PS MPs like James Hirvisaari have used rape statistics and social welfare payments to single out and attack certain immigrant groups and minorities in Finland. One of his most incredible claims was that Norwegian mass killer, Anders Breivik, carried out his massacre because of “uncontrolled immigration” and because 100% of all rapes committed in the country were by foreigners.
Conspiracy theory. In the United States, anti-immigration groups claim that Mexicans that come to the U.S. do so to reconquer the Southwest and take back land that once belonged to Mexico.
In the same way, these groups in Finland and Europe claim that ”multiculturalism” is a conspiracy to permit Muslims and blacks to take over Europe ethnically and culturally.
Concludes Burdett: “When people all over the country are trained to think of immigrants as invading our way of life, trying to rip apart our civilization and undermining our values, when we are trained to think that they are a little less than, less-deserving of rights, less human, animal-like, almost…good people will be inculcated to hate.”
…”words have consequences. There is a direct connection between the policies we have in our societies, the words of leaders, daily lives of minority communities and immigrants and unfortunately we have seen hate crimes against Latinos, Asians and other immigrants on the rise.”
Sounds eerily familiar, even if Burdett is speaking about the United States.
It was only in 2010 when Kansainvälinen Mikkeli (International Mikkeli) brought to the city’s attention racist graffiti. To the association’s surprise, the graffiti had been on the walls of the Kattilansilta School and an underpass for over six months. Nobody, never mind the city, appeared to care too much about them.
While this type of graffiti is the work of a small minority, it should not only be condemned by the city but painted over. What kind of image does racist graffiti give to a city like Mikkeli? How many new families and businesses will they scare away?
Does our silence suggest that we approve of this type of behavior or that we are ambivalent to it?
This picture was taken in July 2012, even if Nazi Germany was defeated in May 1945.
White Power and SS signs, a trademark of neo-Nazis, together with a familiar warning. This picture was taken in July 2012.
One of these associations that is spreading stickers promoting neo-Nazism is the Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta (SKV). The sticker was placed in spring 2012 in front of the author’s home. It reads: “Multiculturalism is hazardous to your children and grandchildren.”
