Author: Migrant Tales

Shameless Europe does not care if you live or die

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We cannot just snuggle here and see who comes to the border. We must promote the values of the EU with greater determination because without these values we are worthless.

Minister for European Affairs Tytti Tuppurainen

We just read about the tragic death of 27 people when attempting to cross the English Channel. One of the victims was a pregnant woman with three children, according to The Guardian.

Even if Britain and France are pointing the finger, nothing will change, and refugees, people, will continue to die.

The cold-hearted treatment and hostility towards people attempting to apply for asylum in the EU show that Europe is addicted to lies.

The lie has had terrible consequences. For one, 44,746 people have drowned while crossing the Mediterranean between 1993 and 2021, according to United.

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After using the full n-word on television twice, Esko Valtaoja now calls that host he insulted “white”

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Every scar I have makes me who I am.

Anonymous

It is ok to utter the full n-word on Finnish television, as we saw on Friday on the Marja Sannikka show, which turned out to be a fiasco revealing how little homework the host had done and how polarized and ignorant Finnish society is of racism.

Apart from not telling the host Esko Valtaoja that he shouldn’t use the n-word because it is offensive and next to a racialized Finn, Valtaoja exposed his prejudices further when he was quoted in Iltalehti.

Trying to justify his use of the n-word, he stated that the other guest “was white.”

“I don’t understand why an apology is needed. If I had known what this other white person’s [Ebrahimi] reaction would be, I would have used a different way [of expressing myself]. But I couldn’t have known then. We must remember that Ebrahimi is as white as me (sic!). According to my understanding, she is of Iranian-Kurdish background, and her skin color is white.”

Source: Iltalehti
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Marja Sannikka’s talk show on racism is the worst I have ever watched

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Last Friday, on the Marja Sannikka show about racism, was a fiasco. It was the worst talk show on racism I have seen in Finland. It was such a flop that the host, Sannikka, allowed one of the guests to say the full n-word twice and did not even object.


Before I continue, I would like to say that Renaz Ebrahimi is a brave woman who brought up some crucial points about the discrimination and racism minorities face daily in Finland.

The Marja Sannikka show was the worst talk show I have ever seen in Finland. It was like putting Renaz Ebrahimi in a shark tank with Esko Valtaoja and the host, who made no qualms about showing off their ignorance and white privilege. Ebrahimi held one’s own. See the full show here.

Thanks to the show, the n-word and the full n-word were trending on Twitter. Moreover, when you watch these types of flops you know that nothing will improve on the anti-racism front in Finland.


But what can you expect when the host and gust, Esko Valtaoja, an astronomer and writer, faced off Ebrahimi by using the full n-word on the show.


After listening to some of Valtaoja’s points, I wondered why Sannikka invited him? Apart from his ethnocentric views dressed in white privilege, there was nothing constrictive coming from him.


Sannikka’s comments about how to deal with racism were a flop as well. Like Valtaoja, she is white and has no idea what racism is because it has never affected her in the same way as Ebrahimi.

At best, she showed her ignorance of the issue.


Shameful lazy journalism where we allow our prejudices to dictate solutions that are full of flaws.

The more proof that labor discrimination is king in Finland, the less is done to tackle the problem

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Racism is such a big issue in Finland that even white people are discriminated.

Another news story. Another example. You will lose out in the Finnish labor market if you don’t have a Finnish name. If there is overwhelming proof that this type of discrimination takes place, why does it continue? Why aren’t there any stories in the Finnish media that sued an employer for discrimination?

Why are we reading over and over again ad nauseam about labor market discrimination?

Instead of changing your name to a Finnish-sounding one, why isn’t enough being done?

The big issues isn’t exposing discrimination in the media and in studies, which is welcome, but not doing or doing very little about it is the problem. We don’t make a big fuss about discrimination because we don’t take it seriously enough.

See also:

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
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The police give you permission to pry into a person’s background even if these are inappropriate and offensive

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Remember Husein Hamiid when he asked in summer a real estate agent about renting a hotel and restaurant? The real estate agent, who was a Perussuomnalaiset (PS)* municipal candidate for the city of Espoo, started to pry into Hamiid’s life: “What kind of family and relatives do you have? What is your religion? Could you send me a picture of your family? What year did you come to Finland?”

Hamiid, a Finnish citizen who has lived many years in Finland, would not stand for this type of discriminatory behavior. He filed charges against the real estate agent.

To his surprise, the police absolved the real estate agent of any wrongdoing. It argued that there was no discrimination.

I’m surprised that [they did not bring any charges against the real estate agent] when everything is written clearly and in black and white and is a clear-cut case,” said Hamiid. “[The real estate agent] has over 20 years experience as a real estate agent even in Spain and should know better:”

Hamiid added that it was surprising that the police gave the real estate agent the benefit of the doubt and sided with him.

Certainly, a real estate agent has the right to ask about a potential client’s background and rental brokierage agreements. Still, they must abide by non-discrimination legislation, according to the Federation of Real Estate Agency. Does the police ruling of Hamiid’s case mean that we can ask people their religion, pictures of their family? Yes, the police are giving the nod to such inappropriate behavior.

So what are the police’s arguments concerning Hamiid’s charges?

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Finland’s pyramid of hate: Let’s do away with the Human Rights of asylum seekers

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Even if opposition politicians from parties like the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), it’s sobering that the government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin is holding the line against their onslaughts.

It is surprising that how naive the PS and Kokoomus are. No border, no law, will bring a sense of security unless you deal with the root of the problem. Walls do not keep a country safe and at the end of the day they come down like in Berlin 1989.

Walls do not keep people out. Ask the millions of Latin Americans who crossed the US border.

If we gave a free hand to these two parties, the inalienable rights of asylum seekers, like seeking asylum, would be shelved indefinitely. The hateful rhetoric that would emerge from such a move would make every non-white person a target. First asylum seekers, who’s the next group?

By dehumanizing people, we risk going up the pyramid of hate. We saw this in Nazi Germany as well as in many other countries.

Let’s hold the line against the irresponsible onslaught that undermines our Nordic welfare state values enshrined in Human Rights and social justice.

At times like this, I am ashamed of Finland and the EU

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The so-called migrant crisis with Belarus offers Lukashenko and Putin an opportunity and EU politicians tools to fearmonger and score brownie points with voters.

Isn’t it odd how one-sided the news is about the refugee crisis at the Belarus border? Most of the opposition politicians, especially from the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), believe that harsh words, threats against vulnerable people and children, suggestions of building a 1,340 km fence on the Russian border will help us continue burying our heads in the sands comfortably. 

The anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are in an extremist league of their own. Even so, Kokoomus MPs sound like bullies out for a fight against vulnerable women, men and children. 

Media coverage of the crisis is pitiful. I’m surprised that our media calls these desperate people “immigrants” when in fact, most, if not all, are fleeing war, political instability, poor economic prospects.

Thanks to Jussi Jalonen, an article in Al-Monitor gives us an in-depth view of the people trying to enter the EU via Poland and Lithuania.

Writes Al-Monitor: “Many of those at the border are from Iraqi’s Yazidi community, an ethnoreligious group long persecuted for its religious beliefs. ‘I haven’t eaten in three days,’ he said on Nov. 11 and claimed that two children died that day.'”

Read the full story here.
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Police University College: Suspected hate crime cases retreat in 2020 by 5.22% to 852 from the previous year

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Suspected hate crimes reported to the police in Finland during2020 totaled 852 cases, which is a 5.22% fall from 899 hate crimes in the previous year, according to the Police University College.

As in previous years, the lion’s share (88.5%) of all hate crimes were motivated by national-ethnic origin (649/75.8% of all cases) and religion (108/12.7%). That was followed by sexual orientation (68/5.4%) and disability (30/3.5%).

During the year under review, the Roma minority saw a rise of 34% to 79 suspected cases.

One explanation for the rise is that the Roma in Finland has started to report discrimination cases to the authorities. A good example is to the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman.

A depressing documentary on Denmark’s Islamophobia

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The scariest matter that Thursday’s documentary revealed about one of Europe’s most Islamophobic countrie was how far racist discourse promoted by politicians could lead a country. In a standard pyramid of hate (see below), where genocide is the final outcome, the apex of Denmark’s pyramid of hate is deportation, and physical elimination of whole groups like Muslims.

Watching the documentary and the comments by an Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP)* MP Marier Krarup and Matias Tesfaye, minister of immigration and integration, showed the source of the country’s “racism is both cultural and legal,” according to Jonas Eika.

Tesfaye went on to say that Denmark was right in taking a more uncompromising stand against Muslims or people from the Middle East and North Africa. This statement was made by the son of an Ethiopian refugee who supports cooperation with the Islamophobic DPP.

According to Politico, the Social Democrats of Denmark supported confiscating the jewelry of refugees to pay for their asylum, forcing the children of immigrants to attend compulsory child care, and banning the niqab.

Michelle Pace, professor in global studies at Roskilde University, expresses dismay at how the ruling Social Democrats are drafting laws and using harsher Islamophobic discourse than the DPP.

“I can’t believe that I am saying this,” she continued, “[but] it is a reality, and that is because they [Social Democrats] want to please their voters. They want to be reelected in the next election.”

See the full program (Danish and Finnish) here.

The message that come through loud and clear from Tesfaye and Krarup in the documentary is, apart from their Islamophobia, there is no room for diversity, especially Muslims, in Denmark.

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