Author: Migrant Tales

Supo: Suomen Sisu is an extremist group

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Kari Harju, Finnish secret police Supo regional security chief, classified Suomen Sisu as an extremist organization. He made the statement Monday in Ylen A-studio. 

As Migrant Tales readers know, there has been some debate about what kind of organization Suomen Sisu is. Citing Supo, Finnish Criminal Police (KRP) and an academic, the Council for the Mass Media (JSN), has called the association “Nazi spirited.”

Harju said that while he did not consider Suomen Sisu “Nazi spirited” but he did see it as an extremist group.

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Juho Eerola, who is a member of Suomen Sisu, denied in Ylen A-studio that the association was extremist.

He played down on Uusi Suomi what Harju said about the association.  “Some consider the police an extremist organization,” he said.

What would you describe an association that believes in “racial hygiene” and recommends against Finns marrying foreigners? Migrant Tales would call that racist, extremist and Nazi-spirited due to its racial views.

Nazism is the antithesis of cultural diversity.

A-studio 7.11.2011 TV1 klo 21:00: Onko perussuomalaisilla yhteyksiä äärijärjestöihin?

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It would be interesting to have a debate on Migrant Tales after the A-studio report today at 9pm that asks if the PS has connections to far right groups.

If this question were asked of Migrant Tales the answer would be a definite yes. Some extremist organizations that come to mind are Suomen Sisu and blogs like The Gates of Vienna, where PS MP Jussi Halla-aho written.

Even though far right associations are bonded ideologically by anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim sentiment, they are the same beast that roamed the political landscape in the before and after 1930s. Some call these groups Counter-Jihadists whose ideas were used by mass killers like Anders Breivik in Norway.

guardian.co.uk: Far right on rise in Europe, says report

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Comment: A long-awaited study published today by Demos think tank asks if populism is the future face of Europe. 

The guardian.co.uk writes: “The study reveals a continent-wide spread of hardline nationalist sentiment among the young, mainly men. Deeply cynical about their own governments and the EU, their generalised fear about the future is focused on cultural identity, with immigration – particularly a perceived spread of Islamic influence – a concern.”

When asked to mention what factors they disliked most about the EU, the respondents stated: waste of money (59%), not enough control over external borders (58%), loss of our cultural identity’ (56%), more crime (46%) and bureaucracy (36%).

If we look at PS Facebook respondents, they scored higher than average than the rest. Seventy-four percent considered the EU a “waste of money,” 62% said there wasn’t “enough control over external borders,” and 69% stated “loss of cultural identity.” PS respondents scored the highest  together with Die Freiheit of Germany on “loss of cultural identity.”

Concerns over immigration and Islamic terrorism were the respondents two main concerns. The highest score was by France’s far right (Bloc Identitaire, 67% and National Front 57%) compared with an average of 37%;  PS scored 33%.  Fifteen percent (25% on average for the whole group) of the PS saw Islamic terrorism as a threat.

While the PS claimed in September that preliminary findings of the Demos study claimed that the party is violent, the think tank has denied such allegations.

Do you agree that the populist and far right parties that base their campaigns on anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiment will continue to grow in Europe?

You can download the full report here.

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Peter Walker and Mathew Taylor

The far right is on the rise across Europe as a new generation of young, web-based supporters embrace hardline nationalist and anti-immigrant groups, a study has revealed ahead of a meeting of politicians and academics in Brussels to examine the phenomenon.

Read whole story.

Multilingual Mania: Dehumanizing Immigrants-Lies and More Distorted Lies

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Comment: Here is an interesting column on Multilingual Mania that could be a good wakeup call to us how anti-immigration matters could turn nasty in Europe and Finland.

What would happen if we substituted some words in the blog entry below terms like Arizona  for Europe or Finland? Do these statements sound eerily familiar today in our part of the world, even if they were said in another continent? 

“We’ve seen it over and over–measurement of the skull incompatible cultural traits to prove that African Americans people from outside Europe were inferior and deserved to be enslaved  treated as third-class citizens, the depiction of indigenous Native Americans Muslims and Africans as wild savages living in the stone age who needed to be ripped away from their cultures and re-educated assimilated, and the idea that all Arabs are either radical terrorists or culturally inferior, and far too many other instances.”

And: “The lies paint a portrait of immigrants as drug dealers, child molesters rapists, leaches, thieves, murderers, and other big, bad, evil monsters. This video discusses and confronts some of the lies, mistruths, and distortions of information that are coming out of the mouth of authority figures regarding immigration.”

The spreading of lies and exaggerations by Finnish anti-immigration politicians have been handsomely rewarded by the way of votes. It has helped a party like the Perussuomalaiset to become the second largest in Finland. Alejandro Chávez, the son of the famous United Farm Workers activist César Chávez, said: “People will suffer not the politicians (spreading these lies).”

 Do you think that media and people in this country should be more outspoken against those politicians that are using the anti-immigration card to reap political benefits?

Are we too soft on them? 

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It’s a classic trick of the racists to paint a portrait of a people so horrible that it makes anything that is done to them to be justifiable. It’s quite a brilliant idea, really, to be able to paint such a nasty picture of someone in the mind of the public without many people hardly even catching on to the trick. This strategy serves to dehumanize people, stripping them of their humanity and making them into objects that deserve to be tamed, oppressed, and controlled.

Read whole story.

Kansan Uutiset: Ihmisoikeudet ohjaamaan maahanmuuttojournalismi

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Comment: Helsingin Sanomat editor Riikka Venäläinen was quoted this week on Etelä-Suomen Sanomat as saying that the Finland’s largest daily commits mistakes when covering immigration issues.  One got the impression that even if  Helsingin Sanomat is striving to report more fairly and comprehensively the issue, Venäläinen made it sound as if it was a difficult topic. She said that immigration was a new phenomenon in Finland. 

 A seminar organized by the Ombudsman for Minorities and Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN) gave a simple answer to Venäläinen’s query: The job of the media is to further the cause of human rights. 

Migrant Tales totally agrees and wrote this week in a blog entry: “Writing about immigration is like reporting on any social issue that takes place in our society. The benchmarks are the same: inclusion, social justice, equality, fairness and acceptance.”

Eva Biaudet, the ombudsman for minorities, said at the seminar that the atmosphere in Finland against immigrants had gotten so bad that “a (Finnish) border guard lives inside each of us.” 

If one wants to get a glimpse of racist and fear-mongering reporting in Finland was once like, one has only to read the stories that the tabloids published about the first Somalians that came to Finland and sought asylum in the early 1990s. 

It doesn’t give a pretty picture to Finnish journalism.

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Sirpa Koskinen 

Medialla näyttäisi olevan paljon korjattavaa maahanmuuttoaiheisessa journalismissaan.

Read whole story.

Is the PS to blame for racism?

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By Enrique Tessieri

Are the Perssuomalaiset (PS) party to blame for checkmating the status quo in Finland on April 17? Or is it a more general and worrying symptom of how Finnish society is changing and how some believe it is now ok  to be a racist and hostile to other groups?

There is no return to the old Finland we knew before the April election. Even so, one of the most worrying aspects of the change we are witnessing today is that some political parties and politicians believe that racism and exclusion of other groups are perfectly fine.

There is nothing normal about xenophobia and hate speech.

It would be a very sad day in Finland if the majority of the voting population, fuelled and incited by more xenophobic diatribe in the worst populist tradition, would accept to put our nobel values of social justice for all in cold storage and accept as normal the racism and hatred that is openly spreading within our society.

The battle is not against the PS but what it represents generally in our society and how some want to make normal social ills such as racism. Some politicians in the PS like Timo Soini and others are mere opportunists reaping the fruits that fear-mongering, racism and xenophobia awakens in too many of us.

The PS’ lame stance on neo-Nazism

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By Enrique Tessieri

The resignation of Perussuomalaiset (PS) party aide, Ulla Pyysalo, didn’t come as a surprise. One of the most incredible matters about the Pyysalo case is the silence of the party and how PS MP Juho Eerola played down the Nazigate affair. Has Eerola and the PS made it clear that they will not tolerate neo-Nazi organizations? One wonders. 

Let’s look at the sequence of events.

At first Eerola, who belongs to far-right associations like Suomen Sisu and who has praised Benito Mussolini’s economic system, plays down the whole affair by claiming that Pyysalo joined the neo-Nazi associaiton, Suomen Kansallinen Vastarinta (SKV), when she was a member of the Center Party.

The PS’ Nazigate scandal takes on a new twist on Thursday when Pyysalo decides to “sacrifice” herself by resigning as Eerola’s aide only if she finds a new job, according to YLE. Irrespective of her apparent neo-Nazi sympathies, she plans to remain a card-carrying PS member.

Does the Pyysalo case draw a clear line between neo-Nazi associations the the PS?

Sadly it does not, even Ossi Mäntylahti asks in his Uusi Suomi column if its ok to be a Nazi and a PS member.

The “big far-right fish” are still members of Timo Soini’s party and in parliament. Even though these PS MPs like Eerola may not directly belong to a neo-Nazi association, they do belong in Nazi-spirited ones.

The whole Pyysalo case reinforces as well that the PS is a wild card ideologically that can transform itself, self-destruct or inspire others to far-right causes.

Eerola’s aide is no stranger to the racist and homophobic world, when she published a “joke” in July on Facebook about Green MP Jani Toivola, who is black and gay.

Otavan Sanomat: Monikulttuurisia suomalaisia*

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Teksti Anna Kornienko 

Mitä tarkoita olla nuori ja niin sanottu maahanmuuttajataustainen Suomessa? Miten, jos olet asunut melkein koko elämäsi Suomessa ja yksi tai molemmat vanhemmistasi ovat siirtolaisia? Kuulutko silloin tähän maan?

Joillekin nuorille nämä kysymykset voivat tuoda ristiriitaisia tunteita. On kiusattu koulussa ja on koettu eriasteista syrjintää.

”Kun olet lapsi haluat ystäviä ja olla samanlainen kun muut,” sanoo tämä artikkelin kirjoittaja. ”Mitä teet jos sinut ei hyväksytäkään koulussa? Se on hyvin kipeä paikka. Tuntuu, että sinussa olisi joku vika, vaikka asiaa ei todellakaan ole niin.”

Bändilinjan opiskelija Ariela Patterson, jonka isä on yhdysvaltalainen ja äiti suomalainen, uskoo yhden syyn ala-asteella kiusaamiseen olleen se, etteivät opettajat eivät puuttuneet asiaan tarpeeksi vakavasti.

”Minun piti puolustaa itseäni, koska kukaan ei välittänyt,” sanoo Ariela. ”Ikävin on, että myös jotkut aikuiset ovat olleet yhtä tyhmiä kadulla. 1990-luvun alussa oli Suomessa hyvin vähään tumma-ihoisia suomalasia.”

Media-kymppi opiskelija Aune Rugojeva muutti Suomeen Venäjältä, kun hän oli vastaa viisi vuotta. Hänellä oli myös joskus vaikeaa koulussa.

”Liperi on pieni kyllä Pohjois-Karjalassa ja siellä ei asunut paljon venäläisiä kun muutimme sinne,” hän jatkaa. ”Yläasteella oli joskus hyvin vaikea olla koulussa, koska luokkakaverit haukkuivat ja eristivät minut porukasta. Se oli kipeä ja yksinäinen paikka.”

Aune sanoo, että Otavan Opistolla on mukavaa opiskella koska täällä saa olla oma itsensä ja erilainen.

”Täällä kunnioitetaan erilaisuutta, koska on paljon kaikenlaisia opiskelijoita,” Aune sanoo.

Aune, Ariela ja minä olemme samaa mieltä yhdestä asiasta: Erilaisuus on voimaanlähde.

*Tämä juttu julkaistiin Otavan Sanomissa (toukokuu 2011).

YLE Kymeenlakso: Juho Eerola ei tue Pyysalon erottamista

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Comment: Is it a surprise that Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Juho Eerola, who has far-right ties to associations like Suomen Sisu, does not want to fire his aide, Ulla Pyysalo, for belonging to a neo-Nazi organization? 

Eerola was quoted as saying on YLE Kymeenlakso that the whole Pyysalo affair has taken “comical proportions.”

The PS board will take up Pyysalo’s case on November 19. It will be interesting to see what the party will decide.

If Eerola’s aide isn’t banned from the PS, what kind of a message does it send to others? The obvious answer is that it is ok to belong to a neo-Nazi organization and be a PS member. 

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Kotkalaisen kansanedustajan Juho Eerolan lappeenrantalainen avustaja Ulla Pyysalo haki 2 vuotta sitten kansallissosialistisen Suomen vastarintaliike -järjestön jäsenyyttä. Juho Eerolan sanojen mukaan olisi mieletöntä erottaa Pyysalo puolueesta vain sen vuoksi, että hän on tullut järkiinsä ja jättänyt liittymättä natseihin.

Read whole story.

Helsingin Sanomat’s mea culpa on immigration issues

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By Enrique Tessieri

Is lack of knowledge about living in a society with a small foreign population an excuse for poor and deficient coverage of Finland’s ever-growing immigrant population? The editor of Finland’s leading daily, Helsingin Sanomat, told Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat that it has aimed to raise immigrant, racism and tolerance issues since society and the political atmosphere has changed in the country. 

Editor Riikka Venäläinen states that immigration is a relatively new phenomenon in Finland and therefore offered a sort of mea culpa. “…our job is to give background information, analysis and develop the story from a certain angle,” she said, “When that is done  on a tight schedule, it’s pretty certain that we are guilty of very short-sighted conclusions. I accept the criticism that has to do with reporting on immigration issues.”

I am surprised by Venäläinen’s comment. Don’t Helsingin Sanomat reporters ever travel abroad? Don’t they have foreign spouses? What about foreign correspondents?  Don’t they have any relatives who emigrated to countries like Sweden, Canada and the United States in the past 140-odd years? Haven’t they read our history?

Venäläinen’s admission sounds more like a poor excuse for doing a shoddy job. It reveals as well the lack of reporters with immigrant backgrounds covering such an important issue like cultural diversity in Finnish society. In a way it’s as if 99% men were reporters covering women’s rights issues.

But she does ask a good question at the end of the story whether the children of immigrants, who may speak perfect Finnish, should be called immigrants anymore.

Such a comment exposes, in my opinion, a bold statement by Helsingin Sanomat and how exclusive Finnish society is. How does Venäläinen think Finland could be a more inclusive society? Maybe that would be a good editorial that Helsingin Sanomat could write and show leadership.

Not all dailies in Finland appear to be as much in the dark about immigration and cultural diversity issues as Helsingin Sanomat. Some good examples are Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, Aamulehti, Kansan Uutiset  as well as others.

Writing about immigration is like reporting on any social issue that takes place in our society. The benchmarks are the same: inclusion, social justice, equality, fairness and acceptance.

These are values we should already know at elementary school.