Prime Minister Sanna Marin fired back at a session of parliament Thursday at the far-right Perussuomaliset (PS)* party. Making Finland an open and safe country is crucial if it wants to attract newcomers to the country.
“Madam Speaker. Violence on streets, violence at homes, violence at schools are all severe matters, severe matters of which all of us are concerned.
I will now address the Perussuomalaiset point because it also gives a distorted picture of the type of people that live in Finland. It’s not so that every person who has come from elsewhere [to Finland] is a violent criminal, a person who does wrong. In this country, we have numerous groups of people who come from elsewhere and who work tirelessly, raise families, and are concerned about Finland’s future in the same way as people born here.
The phenomenon, violence on streets, violence at homes, violence at schools is a serious matter that we must address. Still, it is also wrong that we give here [in parliament], the very picture that the Perussuomalaiset spread, that every migrant is a person who does not fit in this society. It isn’t like that at all.”
Migrant Tales comment: Our longtime editor, Dana, has promised to update a diary of her life in Alppikulma, a shelter for the homeless. We publish this for others to know what a special woman Dana is but to get an insight into the lives of the homeless.
Today, 18. May. 2021 was a rainy day, and it was dark and cold for me because I have been homeless for 6 years. I trembled. And I have been living in an addicts’ shelter for a year now. The racist government and system of Finland oppressed me in the best possible way and put me in the depths of humiliation and insult to break me. Still, I have broken the recession, I have broken the enemy’s horn, the rotten horn of the racists has crumbled to ashes under my feet… I am alive, and I am still struggling, every day and even night, with the pen that God has given me. A magical and exceptional pen that God has made for me with His own hands.
Today, as usual, at 4 o’clock, I stood in line behind the closed door of Alppikulma, it opens at 5 o’clock, my legs hurt a lot, my back was dry, I was shivering from the cold, but I was comforting myself. It was just the foreign man and me. Later 3 other homeless Finnish men came … I feel very sorry for this foreigner. He is a heartbroken man…The Finnish wife took his children from him and sent him to the streets. In these 6 years, I have seen many foreign men, even from Europe and Scandinavia, who have been caught in this tragic fate after marrying a Finnish woman and living for many years. And in all cases, Finnish law gives oppressive women the right. In my opinion, a woman should irrigate her family with love. My mother always drowns me in love even though she does not live on Earth.
Fortunately, there were no bullies today, they try to hide in the corners of the city when it rains, but this is fifty-fifty, and maybe they will come and bombard me with vulgar obscenities, the stench of alcohol, and cigarette smoke. Thank God they were not here tonight.
I am in room 10, my room above is on the third floor, number 18. When men and women get drunk, this room becomes a war room, and noises come to my room, and I can’t sleep until morning, they swear until morning, and sometimes they beat each other. This is a gambling house. I do not know how to get into it, insecurity or under the bombardment of obscene prostitution. Rarely, yes, I seldom enter the building in peace. Tonight was a rare night. But it is not clear whether it will be a quiet night or a war night. But only God has kept me here so far.
The empty room bothers me a lot. I miss our Iranian carpets, family photos, and even my clothes. I have been going to the city every day for a year in the clothes I wore yesterday. During this year, several of my clothes were torn due to excessive wearing and washing, and I went to the warehouse and found some clothes for myself with difficulty. I do not even have the key to the warehouse. To remove something from the warehouse, I have to beg and beg several people in a few days for someone to come and open the warehouse for me. The warehouse is not here. It is somewhere else.
I’m just praying for a restful night now. I need to sleep. But my brain is full of poetry—full of words. But I’m tired. I write by force: original Iranian music and Rumi’s poetry. My friend, I listen to my cave, my love, my thorn liver. I do not want to hear the sound of traffic and screams. I want silence.
Good night universe. Sing aloud, O angels, lest I hear the sound of fighting and shouting.
God take my hand. My feet hurt, I had pain in my feet last night until morning, my toes hurt a lot. God, I miss the colors. I am tired of the shelter blankets that are white and colorless. I am tired of plastic spoons and forks and black plastic plates. I gave all my life and belongings to the people and the church … Now I need a spoon. I do not have a knife. I wish I had access to my belongings in the warehouse.
My brain is full of poetry, oh my God, how can I write, my eyelids…
19.5.2021
This morning again a female worker opened the door of my room.
They treated me like an animal most of the time here in Alppikulma. They open the doors and inform the homeless that it is morning and get ready to leave. But I have been here for a year, and everyone knows that Dana is never late, and Dena always leaves the building very soon. I have protested many times. I have strongly protested. But it did not work. Before, they used to open the door of my room every day, yes, every single day… Different workers. I was given racist insults. And even when I was in bed, I was treated violently. I was thrown out in the middle of the night in wet clothes and by the bullying of a guard because I did not want an addicted woman to enter my room. Because I protested. Because addicts attacked me in my sleep or many other things happened.
This is Alcatraz prison Alppikulma Prison yes Alppikulma prison Alcatraz prison, sigh. Today the worker wanted to make me angry for she hates me.
They want to make sure I am afraid of them. I have always assured everyone that I am not afraid of anyone, and I have been imprisoned precisely because of my courage and freedom. But in any case, they ruined my morning. I left the building quickly and, of course, went downstairs as usual and expressed my dissatisfaction, but I encountered disrespect and humiliation. These things have become normal for me in Finland and Alppikulma and Diakonialaitos.
Finland is a country of addiction, alcohol, and drugs, but there are no facts in its newspapers.
Finland is a land of garbage and cigarette butts and spit; the streets are full of cigarette butts and spit and feces and piss of dogs. But no one cares. There is no smoking only in front of the Parliament and the Presidential Palace.
Finland is anti-Muslim, anti-religious, anti-African, anti-Bulgarian, stateless, and anti-Roma within Finland, immigrants, and the poor.
In Finland, Romanians are called thieves, and Muslims are called terrorists and aggressors.
Finland is a holiday country, and Finland has thousands of holiday excuses, useful work is not done except by low-wage foreigners.
Finland is a country of lies, a clear example of the Asylum Office, which is that the Immigration Office deceives all foreigners, even Europeans, and survives by fraud.
Finland is a country of poverty, a country of homeless people, a country of drunken men and women who urinate and inject injections behind its walls and at car parks, parks, streets, and tram stations.
Finland is a country where teenagers and children smoke and use drugs.
Kristian Sheikki Laakso, or Sheikki Laakso, is a Finnish MP for the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party who is, as with his 38 PS MP colleagues, is filibustering the EU rescue package. One of the most “interesting” speeches before parliament was by Laakso, who read excerpts of Little Red Riding Hood.
Laakso begins his speech: “Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else. So she was always called Little Red Riding Hood…Oh, grandmother,” she said, “what big ears you have. The better to hear you with, my child,” was the reply.
The MP, who suffered bankruptcy and ended having 84 foreclosure orders and receivables to the tune of 219,000 euros, cuts short his speech by excusing himself to the madam speaker of the house. “I accidentally read the evening fairy tale to my grandchildren.”
He continues by stating that it is difficult to distinguish between “a fairy tale and reality” concerning the EU rescue package, which would be approved if voted on.
What would you say about a party that openly supports former US President Donald Trump, “loves” Poland and Hungary, supports far-right French politician Marine Le Pen among other iliberal and populist malarkey? What about if I told you that that party has one aim: destroy Finland’s Nordic welfare state and democracy?
The filibustering we are seeing in parliament today by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* on the EU stimulus packagecoupled with recent opinion polls that show the Islamophobic party leading, are indications of our grim future.
Exposed in our lack of leadership as well to confront such anti-democratic forces.
It all boils down to one fact: since Finland is mainly a white society, it trusts nothing will happen to it as our democracy is dismantled and undermined. Dead wrong. After the PS deal with the Muslims and other minorities they hate, the next group they will go after is you.
Chairperson of the PS parliamentary group Vill Tavio showing his “love” for the iliberal political systems of Poland and Hungary. Source: Twitter.
In short, you do not like the explanation. A few months ago, behind the closed doors of Alppikulma,[1] a wild and drunken Finnish man who had been bullying me for months and giving me ugly obscenities, punched me in the mouth. I was standing right under the camera. He first told me that a Moroccan prostitute ?Marokkolainen HUORA … blood flowed from my mouth and nose, I got out of there, my teeth got into the flesh of my lips, I wiped my mouth and nose, I called the police, then in the school toilet I washed my nose. the security guard said sorry I cannot help you; he was behind the desk…The police came, two policemen. He (one of them, longer and older) asked me? What do you do in Finland? When did you come to Finland? why? Do you have a husband why are you alone? where are you from? His questions made my blood boil, but his last question and my answer made him angry. I said I am Finnish. He repeated: Where are you from? Finland, I am a Finn! Where are you really from? I had to answer, my face hurt, I said Iran.
For some, Finland can be a very lonely place. Photo: Enrique Tessieri
He did not ask important questions but he asked questions that has nothing to do with matter! They took pictures of my lips and nose but did not say anything, NOTHING to the man who punched me and NOTHING to Alppikulma’s RACIST workers who did not open the door for me and did not help me…
They did not ask him (the suspect) a single question. They did not even want to meet him and who was in the building. They did not! Then they gave back my ID card and left. They said you should show the ID card, I said I know my ID number, they said we do not trust you, show the card! They also checked my Finnish passport…
No one knows the Finnish police like me. I also know their boss. Chief of the Finnish Police (Seppo Kolehminen). I spoke to him twice on the phone. He spoke violently to me, and the second time he said: “Wow, you are here, you do not understand, you are stupid, oh I cannot talk to you again voi ei…” and then he hung up. I got angry and called again. Since he knew my number and did not answer. I repeatedly emailed him and described the horrific cases of the police attack on me.
Do not trust him. His name is Kolehmainen
*Since we know Dana and since we have read many of her poems and stories, we publish this story even if we cannot verify its veracity. There are always two sides to a story. However, It would be a good idea to get in touch with the police and ask them if they investigating this case.
[1] Emergency accommodation for the homeless and crisis accommodation. Managed by the Helsinki Deaconess Institute.
Remember the young Muslim who was violently attacked by a gang of white Finns in June in the Western Finnish town of Teuva? According to Fares Al-Obaidi, the police plan to conclude their investigations into the crime in early June.
What happened to Al-Obaidi last year changed his life. He moved away to Espoo to receive professional help to overcome the trauma of what happened. He takes anti-depressants.
“I was a victim of a [violent] crime and it seems that nobody is interested,” he said complaining about the length of the police investigation.
His ordeal began on a Saturday. Fares was first insulted by a group of residents from the town of Teuva and then chased by two cars on the road. Two other cars blocked the road ahead of him and had no choice but to drive the car into a ditch.
Fares tried to run away from his attackers, but it was to no avail. He was beaten so badly by them that he ended up being taken by an ambulance to a hospital in Seinäjoki.
Canaries O canaries Sing to me because I am in the hands of Finland, I am trapped in a cage This cage is made of fire, has no door and windows but wild and barefoot cops and guards with ugly face
Finland is a country of black holes, a country of torture, famine, pain, disaster and death I was trapped in this country, my wings were broken, my legs were tied to iron bars, i have no rest !
Canaries O canaries, sing about the kingdom and passion for Dana which is dear to GOD king of kings I am the love of God and God is sad, angry and fearless because of his distance from me, Dana is in pains
Racist treatment and ethnic profiling are a stain on the police. Worse yet, denial and playing down such serious problems ensure a bigger stain on the police. If you want to know about racism in the Finnish police, why not ask Finland’s Romany minority and other visible minorities like blacks.
The headline by Yle News, “Police rarely punished after complaints over racism,” speaks volumes about the problem. If racism is a problem in the Finnish police, why has so little been done to address this issue?
Certainly, minorities pay taxes and those taxes go to funding the police, who work for such people.
It should not come as a surprise why the credibility of the police among some minorities is low. The more the police deny these problems and do little to nothing about them, the more they will eat away its credibility.
